LONDON,March 5,O.S.1752
MY DEAR FRIEND:As I have received no letter from you by the usual post,I am uneasy upon account of your health;for,had you been well,I am sure you would have written,according to your engagement and my requisition.You have not the least notion of any care of your health;but though I would not have you be a valetudinarian,I must tell you that the best and most robust health requires some degree of attention to preserve.Young fellows,thinking they have so much health and time before them,are very apt to neglect or lavish both,and beggar themselves before they are aware:whereas a prudent economy in both would make them rich indeed;and so far from breaking in upon their pleasures,would improve,and almost perpetuate them.Be you wiser,and,before it is too late,manage both with care and frugality;and lay out neither,but upon good interest and security.
I will now confine myself to the employment of your time,which,though Ihave often touched upon formerly,is a subject that,from its importance,will bear repetition.You have it is true,a great deal of time before you;but,in this period of your life,one hour usefully employed may be worth more than four-and-twenty hereafter;a minute is precious to you now,whole days may possibly not be so forty years hence.Whatever time you allow,or can snatch for serious reading (I say snatch,because company and the knowledge of the world is now your chief object),employ it in the reading of some one book,and that a good one,till you have finished it:and do not distract your mind with various matters at the same time.In this light I would recommend to you to read 'tout de suite'Grotius 'de Jure Belli et Pacis',translated by Barbeyrac,and Puffendorff's 'Jus Gentium',translated by the same hand.For accidental quarters of hours,read works of invention,wit and humor,of the best,and not of trivial authors,either ancient or modern.
Whatever business you have,do it the first moment you can;never by halves,but finish it without interruption,if possible.Business must not be sauntered and trifled with;and you must not say to it,as Felix did to Paul,"At a more convenient season I will speak to thee."The most convenient season for business is the first;but study and business in some measure point out their own times to a man of sense;time is much oftener squandered away in the wrong choice and improper methods of amusement and pleasures.