I received a letter yesterday from Madame Monconseil, who assures me you have gained ground ‘du cote des maniires’, and that she looks upon you to be ‘plus qu’a moitie chemin’.  I am very glad to hear this, because, if you are got above half way of your journey, surely you will finish it, and not faint in the course.  Why do you think I have this affair so extremely at heart, and why do I repeat it so often?  Is it for your sake, or for mine?  You can immediately answer yourself that question; you certainly have—­I cannot possibly have any interest in it.  If then you will allow me, as I believe you may, to be a judge of what is useful and necessary to you, you must, in consequence, be convinced of the infinite importance of a point which I take so much pains to inculcate.

I hear that the new Duke of Orleans ’a remercie Monsieur de Melfort, and I believe, ‘pas sans raison’, having had obligations to him; ’mais il ne l’a pas remercie en mari poli’, but rather roughly.  Il faut que ce soit un bourru’.  I am told, too, that people get bits of his father’s rags, by way of relies; I wish them joy, they will do them a great deal of good.  See from hence what weaknesses human nature is capable of, and make allowances for such in all your plans and reasonings.  Study the characters of the people you have to do with, and know what they are, instead of thinking them what they should be; address yourself generally to the senses, to the heart, and to the weaknesses of mankind, but very rarely to their reason.

Good-night or good-morrow to you, according to the time you shall receive this letter from, Yours.

LETTER CLIX

London, February 14, O. S. 1752.

My dear friend:  In a month’s time, I believe I shall have the pleasure of sending you, and you will have the pleasure of reading, a work of Lord Bolingbroke’s, in two volumes octavo, “Upon the Use of History,” in several letters to Lord Hyde, then Lord Cornbury.  It is now put into the press.  It is hard to determine whether this work will instruct or please most:  the most material historical facts, from the great era of the treaty of Munster, are touched upon, accompanied by the most solid reflections, and adorned by all that elegance of style which was peculiar to himself, and in which, if Cicero equals, he certainly does not exceed him; but every other writer falls short of him.  I would advise you almost to get this book by heart.  I think you have a turn to history, you love it, and have a memory to retain it:  this book will teach you the proper use of it.  Some people load their memories indiscriminately with historical facts, as others do their stomachs with food; and bring out the one, and bring up the other, entirely crude and undigested.  You will find in Lord Bolingbroke’s book an infallible specific against that epidemical complaint.—­[It is important to remember that at this time Lord Bolingbroke’s philosophical works had not appeared; which accounts for Lord Chesterfield’s recommending to his son, in this, as well as in some foregoing passages, the study of Lord Bolingbroke’s writings.]