of some, but his engaging arts will make him beloved
by many more; he will be considerable; he will be
considered. Many different qualifications must
conspire to form such a man, and to make him at once
respectable and amiable; the least must be joined
to the greatest; the latter would be unavailing without
the former; and the former would be futile and frivolous,
without the latter. Learning is acquired by reading
books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge
of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men,
and studying all the various editions of them.
Many words in every language are generally thought
to be synonymous; but those who study the language
attentively will find, that there is no such thing;
they will discover some little difference, some distinction
between all those words that are vulgarly called synonymous;
one hath always more energy, extent, or delicacy, than
another. It is the same with men; all are in
general, and yet no two in particular, exactly alike.
Those who have not accurately studied, perpetually
mistake them; they do not discern the shades and gradations
that distinguish characters seemingly alike.
Company, various company, is the only school for this
knowledge. You ought to be, by this time, at least
in the third form of that school, from whence the
rise to the uppermost is easy and quick; but then
you must have application and vivacity; and you must
not only bear with, but even seek restraint in most
companies, instead of stagnating in one or two only,
where indolence and love of ease may be indulged.
In the plan which I gave you in my last,—[That
letter is missing.]—for your future motions,
I forgot to tell you; that, if a king of the Romans
should be chosen this year, you shall certainly be
at that election; and as, upon those occasions, all
strangers are excluded from the place of the election,
except such as belong to some ambassador, I have already
eventually secured you a place in the suite of the
King’s Electoral Ambassador, who will be sent
upon that account to Frankfort, or wherever else the
election may be. This will not only secure you
a sight of the show, but a knowledge of the whole
thing; which is likely to be a contested one, from
the opposition of some of the electors, and the protests
of some of the princes of the empire. That election,
if there is one, will, in my opinion, be a memorable
era in the history of the empire; pens at least, if
not swords, will be drawn; and ink, if not blood,
will be plentifully shed by the contending parties
in that dispute. During the fray, you may securely
plunder, and add to your present stock of knowledge
of the ‘jus publicum imperii’. The
court of France hath, I am told, appointed le President
Ogier, a man of great abilities, to go immediately
to Ratisbon, ‘pour y souffler la discorde’.
It must be owned that France hath always profited skillfully
of its having guaranteed the treaty of Munster; which
hath given it a constant pretense to thrust itself