LETTER CXCVI

London, February 15, 1754

My dear friend:  I can now with great truth apply your own motto to you, ‘Nullum numen abest, si sit Prudentia’.  You are sure of being, as early as your age will permit, a member of that House; which is the only road to figure and fortune in this country.  Those, indeed, who are bred up to, and distinguish themselves in particular professions, as the army, the navy, and the law, may, by their own merit, raise themselves to a certain degree; but you may observe too, that they never get to the top, without the assistance of parliamentary talents and influence.  The means of distinguishing yourself in parliament are, as I told you in my last, much more easily attained than I believe you imagine.  Close attendance to the business of the House will soon give you the parliamentary routine; and strict attention to your style will soon make you, not only a speaker, but a good one.  The vulgar look upon a man, who is reckoned a fine speaker, as a phenomenon, a supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiar gift of heaven; they stare at him, if he walks in the Park, and cry, that is he.  You will, I am sure, view him in a juster light, and ‘nulla formidine’.  You will consider him only as a man of good sense, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution, and the elegance of style.  The miracle will then cease; and you will be convinced, that with the same application, and attention to the same objects, you may most certainly equal, and perhaps surpass, this prodigy.  Sir W----Y-------, with not a quarter of your parts, and not a thousandth part of your knowledge, has, by a glibness of tongue simply, raised him successively to the best employments of the kingdom; he has been Lord of the Admiralty, Lord of the Treasury, Secretary at War, and is now Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; and all this with a most sullied, not to say blasted character.  Represent the thing to yourself, as it really is, easily attainable, and you will find it so.  Have but ambition enough passionately to desire the object, and spirit enough to use the means, and I will be answerable for your success.  When I was younger than you are, I resolved within myself that I would in all events be a speaker in parliament, and a good one too, if I could.  I consequently never lost sight of that object, and never neglected any of the means that I thought led to it.  I succeeded to a certain degree; and, I assure you, with great ease, and without superior talents.  Young people are very apt to overrate both men and things, from not being enough acquainted with them.  In proportion as you come to know them better, you will value them less.  You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp its seat, and rule in its stead.  You will find that the ablest have their weak sides too, and