In the midst of either your studies or your pleasures, pray never lose view of the object of your destination:  I mean the political affairs of Europe.  Follow them politically, chronologically, and geographically, through the newspapers, and trace up the facts which you meet with there to their sources:  as, for example, consult the treaties Neustadt and Abo, with regard to the disputes, which you read of every day in the public papers, between Russia and Sweden.  For the affairs of Italy, which are reported to be the objects of present negotiations, recur to the quadruple alliance of the year 1718, and follow them down through their several variations to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748; in which (by the bye) you will find the very different tenures by which the Infant Don Philip, your namesake, holds Parma and Placentia.  Consult, also, the Emperor Charles the Sixth’s Act of Cession of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, being a point which, upon the death of the present King of Spain, is likely to occasion some disputes; do not lose the thread of these matters; which is carried on with great ease, but if once broken, is resumed with difficulty.

Pray tell Mr. Harte, that I have sent his packet to Baron Firmian by Count Einsiedlen, who is gone from hence this day for Germany, and passes through Vienna in his way to Italy; where he is in hopes of crossing upon you somewhere or other.  Adieu, my friend.

LETTER CIX

London, March 29, O. S. 1750

My dear friend:  You are now, I suppose, at Naples, in a new scene of ‘Virtu’, examining all the curiosities of Herculaneum, watching the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, and surveying the magnificent churches and public buildings, by which Naples is distinguished.

You have a court there into the bargain, which, I hope, you frequent and attend to.  Polite manners, a versatility of mind, a complaisance even to enemies, and the ‘volto sciolto’, with the ‘pensieri stretti’, are only to be learned at courts, and must be well learned by whoever would either shine or thrive in them.  Though they do not change the nature, they smooth and soften the manners of mankind.  Vigilance, dexterity, and flexibility supply the place of natural force; and it is the ablest mind, not the strongest body that prevails there.  Monsieur and Madame Fogliani will, I am sure, show you all the politeness of courts; for I know no better bred people than they are.  Domesticate yourself there while you stay at Naples, and lay aside the English coldness and formality.  You have also a letter to Comte Mahony, whose house I hope you frequent, as it is the resort of the best company.  His sister, Madame Bulkeley, is now here; and had I known of your going so soon to Naples, I would have got you, ‘ex abundanti’, a letter from her to her brother.  The conversation of the moderns in the evening is full as necessary for you, as that of the ancients in the morning.