第95章 LETTER LXVI(2)

One year is the most that I propose you should stay at Turin;and that year,if you employ it well,perfects you.One year more of your late application,with Mr.Harte,will complete your classical studies.You will be likewise master of your exercises in that time;and will have formed yourself so well at that court,as to be fit to appear advantageously at any other.These will be the happy effects of your year's stay at Turin,if you behave,and apply yourself there as you have done at Leipsig;but if either ill advice,or ill example,affect and seduce you,you are ruined forever.I look upon that year as your decisive year of probation;go through it well,and you will be all accomplished,and fixed in my tenderest affection forever;but should the contagion of vice of idleness lay hold of you there,your character,your fortune,my hopes,and consequently my favor are all blasted,and you are undone.The more I love you now,from the good opinion I have of you,the greater will be my indignation if I should have reason to change it.

Hitherto you have had every possible proof of my affection,because you have deserved it;but when you cease to deserve it,you may expect every possible mark of my resentment.To leave nothing doubtful upon this important point I will tell you fairly,beforehand,by what rule I shall judge of your conduct--by Mr.Harte's accounts.He will not I am sure,nay,I will say more,he cannot be in the wrong with regard to you.He can have no other view but your good;and you will,I am sure,allow that he must be a better judge of it than you can possibly be at your age.

While he is satisfied,I shall be so too;but whenever he is dissatisfied with you,I shall be much more so.If he complains,you must be guilty;and I shall not have the least regard for anything that you may allege in your own defense.

I will now tell you what I expect and insist upon from you at Turin:

First,that you pursue your classical and other studies every morning with Mr.Harte,as long and in whatever manner Mr.Harte shall be pleased to require;secondly,that you learn,uninterruptedly,your exercises of riding,dancing,and fencing;thirdly,that you make yourself master of the Italian language;and lastly,that you pass your evenings in the best company.I also require a strict conformity to the hours and rules of the Academy.If you will but finish your year in this manner at Turin,I have nothing further to ask of you;and I will give you everything that you can ask of me.You shall after that be entirely your own master;I shall think you safe;shall lay aside all authority over you,and friendship shall be our mutual and only tie.Weigh this,I beg of you,deliberately in your own mind;and consider whether the application and the degree of restraint which I require but for one year more,will not be amply repaid by all the advantages,and the perfect liberty,which you will receive at the end of it.Your own good sense will,I am sure,not allow you to hesitate one moment in your choice.God bless you!Adieu.

P.S.Sir James Grey's letters not being yet sent to me,as I thought they would,I shall inclose them in my next,which I believe will get to Venice as soon as you.