My dear friend:  Versatility as a courtier may be almost decisive to you hereafter; that is, it may conduce to, or retard your preferment in your own destination.  The first reputation goes a great way; and if you fix a good one at Hanover, it will operate also to your advantage in England.  The trade of a courtier is as much a trade as that of a shoemaker; and he who applies himself the most, will work the best:  the only difficulty is to distinguish (what I am sure you have sense enough to distinguish) between the right and proper qualifications and their kindred faults; for there is but a line between every perfection and its neighboring imperfection.  As, for example, you must be extremely well-bred and polite, but without the troublesome forms and stiffness of ceremony.  You must be respectful and assenting, but without being servile and abject.  You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, without being costive.  You must keep up dignity of character, without the least pride of birth or rank.  You must be gay within all the bounds of decency and respect; and grave without the affectation of wisdom, which does not become the age of twenty.  You must be essentially secret, without being dark and mysterious.  You must be firm, and even bold, but with great seeming modesty.

With these qualifications, which, by the way, are all in your own power, I will answer for your success, not only at Hanover, but at any court in Europe.  And I am not sorry that you begin your apprenticeship at a little one; because you must be more circumspect, and more upon your guard there, than at a great one, where every little thing is not known nor reported.

When you write to me, or to anybody else, from thence, take care that your letters contain commendations of all that you see and hear there; for they will most of them be opened and read; but, as frequent couriers will come from Hanover to England, you may sometimes write to me without reserve; and put your letters into a very little box, which you may send safely by some of them.

I must not omit mentioning to you, that at the Duke of Newcastle’s table, where you will frequently dine, there is a great deal of drinking; be upon your guard against it, both upon account of your health, which would not bear it, and of the consequences of your being flustered and heated with wine:  it might engage you in scrapes and frolics, which the King (who is a very sober man himself) detests.  On the other hand, you should not seem too grave and too wise to drink like the rest of the company; therefore use art:  mix water with your wine; do not drink all that is in the glass; and if detected, and pressed to drink more do not cry out sobriety; but say that you have lately been out of order, that you are subject to inflammatory complaints, and that you must beg to be excused for the present.  A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really’ be so or not.