LONDON,August 30,O.S.1748
DEAR BOY:Your reflections upon the conduct of France,from the treaty of Munster to this time,are very just;and I am very glad to find,by them,that you not only read,but that you think and reflect upon what you read.Many great readers load their memories,without exercising their judgments;and make lumber-rooms of their heads instead of furnishing them usefully;facts are heaped upon facts without order or distinction,and may justly be said to compose that '-----Rudis indigestaque moles Quem dixere chaos'.
Go on,then,in the way of reading that you are in;take nothing for granted,upon the bare authority of the author;but weigh and consider,in your own mind,the probability of the facts and the justness of the reflections.Consult different authors upon the same facts,and form your opinion upon the greater or lesser degree of probability arising from the whole,which,in my mind,is the utmost stretch of historical faith;certainty (I fear)not being to be found.When a historian pretends to give you the causes and motives of events,compare those causes and motives with the characters and interests of the parties concerned,and judge for yourself whether they correspond or not.
Consider whether you cannot assign others more probable;and in that examination,do not despise some very mean and trifling causes of the actions of great men;for so various and inconsistent is human nature,so strong and changeable are our passions,so fluctuating are our wills,and so much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies that every man is more the man of the day,than a regular consequential character.The best have something bad,and something little;the worst have something good,and sometimes something great;for I do not believe what Velleius Paterculus (for the sake of saying a pretty thing)says of Scipio,'Qui nihil non laudandum aut fecit,aut dixit,aut sensit'.As for the reflections of historians,with which they think it necessary to interlard their histories,or at least to conclude their chapters (and which,in the French histories,are always introduced with a 'tant il est vrai',and in the English,SO TRUE IT IS,do not adopt them implicitly upon the credit of the author,but analyze them yourself,and judge whether they are true or not.
But to return to the politics of France,from which I have digressed.