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.

LETTER LXVII

London, April 12, O. S. 1749.

Dear boy:  I received, by the last mail, a letter from Mr. Harte, dated Prague, April the 1st, N. S., for which I desire you will return him my thanks, and assure him that I extremely approve of what he has done, and proposes eventually to do, in your way to Turin.  Who would have thought you were old enough to have been so well acquainted with the heroes of the ‘Bellum Tricennale’, as to be looking out for their great-grandsons in Bohemia, with that affection with which, I am informed, you seek for the Wallsteins, the Kinskis, etc.  As I cannot ascribe it to your age, I must to your consummate knowledge of history, that makes every country, and every century, as it were, your own.  Seriously, I am told, that you are both very strong and very correct in history; of which I am extremely glad.  This is useful knowledge.

Comte du Perron and Comte Lascaris are arrived here:  the former gave me a letter from Sir Charles Williams, the latter brought me your orders.  They are very pretty men, and have both knowledge and manners; which, though they always ought, seldom go together.  I examined them, particularly Comte Lascaris, concerning you; their report is a very favorable one, especially on the side of knowledge; the quickness of conception which they allow you I can easily credit; but the attention which they add to it pleases me the more, as I own I expected it less.  Go on in the pursuit and the increase of knowledge; nay, I am sure you will, for you now know too much to stop; and, if Mr. Harte would let you be idle, I am convinced you would not.  But now that you have left Leipsig, and are entered into the great world, remember there is another object that must keep pace with, and accompany knowledge; I mean manners, politeness, and the Graces; in which Sir Charles Williams, though very much your friend, owns that you are very deficient.  The manners of Leipsig must be shook off; and in that respect you must put on the new man.  No scrambling at your meals, as at a German ordinary; no awkward overturns of glasses, plates, and salt-cellars; no horse play.  On the contrary, a gentleness of manners, a graceful carriage, and an insinuating address, must take their place.  I repeat, and shall never cease repeating to you, the graces, the graces.

I desire that as soon as ever you get to Turin you will apply yourself diligently to the Italian language; that before you leave that place, you may know it well enough to be able to speak tolerably when you get to Rome; where you will soon make yourself perfectly master of Italian, from the daily necessity you will be under of speaking it.  In the mean time, I insist upon your not neglecting, much less forgetting, the German you already know; which you may not only continue but improve, by speaking it constantly to your Saxon boy, and as often as you can to the several Germans you will meet in your travels.  You remember, no doubt, that you must never write to me from Turin, but in the German language and character.