LONDON,September 5,O.S.1748.
DEAR BOY:I have received yours,with the inclosed German letter to Mr.
Gravenkop,which he assures me is extremely well written,considering the little time that you have applied yourself to that language.As you have now got over the most difficult part,pray go on diligently,and make yourself absolutely master of the rest.Whoever does not entirely possess a language,will never appear to advantage,or even equal to himself,either in speaking or writing it.His ideas are fettered,and seem imperfect or confused,if he is not master of all the words and phrases necessary to express them.I therefore desire,that you will not fail writing a German letter once every fortnight to Mr.Gravenkop;which will make the writing of that language familiar to you;and moreover,when you shall have left Germany and be arrived at Turin,I shall require you to write even to me in German;that you may not forget with ease what you have with difficulty learned.I likewise desire,that while you are in Germany,you will take all opportunities of conversing in German,which is the only way of knowing that,or any other language,accurately.
You will also desire your German master to teach you the proper titles and superscriptions to be used to people of all ranks;which is a point so material,in Germany,that I have known many a letter returned unopened,because one title in twenty has been omitted in the direction.
St.Thomas's day now draws near,when you are to leave Saxony and go to Berlin;and I take it for granted,that if anything is yet wanting to complete your knowledge of the state of that electorate,you will not fail to procure it before you go away.I do not mean,as you will easily believe,the number of churches,parishes,or towns;but I mean the constitution,the revenues,the troops,and the trade of that electorate.
A few questions,sensibly asked,of sensible people,will produce you the necessary informations;which I desire you will enter in your little book,Berlin will be entirely a new scene to you,and I look upon it,in a manner,as your first step into the great world;take care that step be not a false one,and that you do not stumble at the threshold.You will there be in more company than you have yet been;manners and attentions will therefore be more necessary.Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in it yourself.Sense and knowledge are the first and necessary foundations for pleasing in company;but they will by no means do alone,and they will never be perfectly welcome if they are not accompanied with manners and attentions.You will best acquire these by frequenting the companies of people of fashion;but then you must resolve to acquire them,in those companies,by proper care and observation;for I have known people,who,though they have frequented good company all their lifetime,have done it in so inattentive and unobserving a manner,as to be never the better for it,and to remain as disagreeable,as awkward,and as vulgar,as if they had never seen any person of fashion.
When you go into good company (by good company is meant the people of the first fashion of the place observe carefully their turn,their manners,their address;and conform your own to them.But this is not all neither;go deeper still;observe their characters,and pray,as far as you can,into both their hearts and their heads.Seek for their particular merit,their predominant passion,or their prevailing weakness;and you will then know what to bait your hook with to catch them.Man is a composition of so many,and such various ingredients,that it requires both time and care to analyze him:for though we have all the same ingredients in our general composition,as reason,will,passions,and appetites;yet the different proportions and combinations of them in each individual,produce that infinite variety of characters,which,in some particular or other,distinguishes every individual from another.Reason ought to direct the whole,but seldom does.And he who addresses himself singly to another man's reason,without endeavoring to engage his heart in his interest also,is no more likely to succeed,than a man who should apply only to a king's nominal minister,and neglect his favorite.I will recommend to your attentive perusal,now that you are going into the world,two books,which will let you as much into the characters of men,as books can do.I mean,'Les Reflections Morales de Monsieur de la Rochefoucault,and Les Caracteres de la Bruyere':but remember,at the same time,that I only recommend them to you as the best general maps to assist you in your journey,and not as marking out every particular turning and winding that you will meet with.There your own sagacity and observation must come to their aid.La Rochefoucault,is,I know,blamed,but I think without reason,for deriving all our actions from the source of self-love.For my own part,I see a great deal of truth,and no harm at all,in that opinion.It is certain that we seek our own happiness in everything we do;and it is as certain,that we can only find it in doing well,and in conforming all our,actions to the rule of right reason,which is the great law of nature.It is only a mistaken self-love that is a blamable motive,when we take the immediate and indiscriminate gratification of a passion,or appetite,for real happiness.But am I blamable if I do a good action,upon account of the happiness which that honest consciousness will give me?Surely not.
On the contrary,that pleasing consciousness is a proof of my virtue.