LETTER CXCV

London, February 12, 1754.

My dear friend:  I take my aim, and let off this letter at you at Berlin; I should be sorry it missed you, because I believe you will read it with as much pleasure as I write it.  It is to inform you, that, after some difficulties and dangers, your seat in the new parliament is at last absolutely secured, and that without opposition, or the least necessity of your personal trouble or appearance.  This success, I must further inform you, is in a great degree owing to Mr. Eliot’s friendship to us both; for he brings you in with himself at his surest borough.  As it was impossible to act with more zeal and friendship than Mr. Eliot has acted in this whole affair, I desire that you will, by the very next post, write him a letter of thanks, warm and young thanks, not old and cold ones.  You may inclose it in yours to me, and, I will send it to him, for he is now in Cornwall.

Thus, sure of being a senator, I dare say you do not propose to be one of the ’pedarii senatores, et pedibus ire in sententiam; for, as the House of Commons is the theatre where you must make your fortune and figure in the world, you must resolve to be an actor, and not a ‘persona muta’, which is just equivalent to a candle snuffer upon other theatres.  Whoever does not shine there, is obscure, insignificant and contemptible; and you cannot conceive how easy it is for a man of half your sense and knowledge to shine there if he pleases.  The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy.—­Take of common sense ’quantum sufcit’, add a little application to the rules and orders of the House, throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness, and elegance of style.  Take it for granted, that by far the greatest part of mankind do neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface.  All have senses to be gratified, very few have reason to be applied to.  Graceful utterance and action please their eyes, elegant diction tickles their ears; but strong reason would be thrown away upon them.  I am not only persuaded by theory, but convinced by my experience, that (supposing a certain degree of common sense) what is called a good speaker is as much a mechanic as a good shoemaker; and that the two trades are equally to be learned by the same degree of application.  Therefore, for God’s sake, let this trade be the principal object of your thoughts; never lose sight of it.  Attend minutely to your style, whatever language you speak or write in; seek for the best words, and think of the best turns.  Whenever you doubt of the propriety or elegance of any word, search the dictionary or some good author for it, or inquire of somebody, who is master of that language; and, in a little time, propriety and elegance of diction will become so habitual