‘A propos’ of pleasing, your pleasing Mrs. F-----d is expected here in
two or three days; I will do all that I can for you with her:  I think you
carried on the romance to the third or fourth volume; I will continue it
to the eleventh; but as for the twelfth and last, you must come and
conclude it yourself.  ‘Non sum qualis eram’.

Good-night to you, child; for I am going to bed, just at the hour at which I suppose you are going to live, at Berlin.

LETTER CLXXXI

Bath, November 11, O. S. 1752

My dear friend:  It is a very old and very true maxim, that those kings reign the most secure and the most absolute, who reign in the hearts of their people.  Their popularity is a better guard than their army, and the affections of their subjects a better pledge of their obedience than their fears.  This rule is, in proportion, full as true, though upon a different scale, with regard to private people.  A man who possesses that great art of pleasing universally, and of gaining the affections of those with whom he converses, possesses a strength which nothing else can give him:  a strength which facilitates and helps his rise; and which, in case of accidents, breaks his fall.  Few people of your age sufficiently consider this great point of popularity; and when they grow older and wiser, strive in vain to recover what they have lost by their negligence.  There are three principal causes that hinder them from acquiring this useful strength:  pride, inattention, and ‘mauvaise honte’.  The first I will not, I cannot suspect you of; it is too much below your understanding.  You cannot, and I am sure you do not think yourself superior by nature to the Savoyard who cleans your room, or the footman who cleans your shoes; but you may rejoice, and with reason, at the difference that fortune has made in your favor.  Enjoy all those advantages; but without insulting those who are unfortunate enough to want them, or even doing anything unnecessarily that may remind them of that want.  For my own part, I am more upon my guard as to my behavior to my servants, and others who are called my inferiors, than I am toward my equals:  for fear of being suspected of that mean and ungenerous sentiment of desiring to make others feel that difference which fortune has, and perhaps too, undeservedly, made between us.  Young people do not enough attend to this; and falsely imagine that the imperative mood, and a rough tone of authority and decision, are indications of spirit and courage.  Inattention is always looked upon, though sometimes unjustly, as the effect of pride and contempt; and where it is thought so, is never forgiven.  In this article, young people are generally exceedingly to blame, and offend extremely.  Their whole attention is engrossed by their particular set of acquaintance; and by some few glaring and exalted objects of rank, beauty, or parts; all the rest they