As for myself, I am very unwell, and very weary of being so; and with little hopes, at my age, of ever being otherwise.  I often wish for the end of the wretched remnant of my life; and that wish is a rational one; but then the innate principle of self-preservation, wisely implanted in our natures for obvious purposes, opposes that wish, and makes us endeavor to spin out our thread as long as we can, however decayed and rotten it may be; and, in defiance of common sense, we seek on for that chymic gold, which beggars us when old.

Whatever your amusements, or pleasures, may be at Hamburg, I dare say you taste them more sensibly than ever you did in your life, now that you have business enough to whet your appetite to them.  Business, one-half of the day, is the best preparation for the pleasures of the other half.  I hope, and believe, that it will be with you as it was with an apothecary whom I knew at Twickenham.  A considerable estate fell to him by an unexpected accident; upon which he thought it decent to leave off his business; accordingly he generously gave up his shop and his stock to his head man, set up his coach, and resolved to live like a gentleman; but, in less than a month, the man, used to business, found, that living like a gentleman was dying of ennui; upon which he bought his shop and stock, resumed his trade, and lived very happily, after he had something to do.  Adieu.

LETTER CCXVII

London, February 24, 1758

My dear friend:  I received yesterday your letter of the 2d instant, with the inclosed; which I return you, that there may be no chasm in your papers.  I had heard before of Burrish’s death, and had taken some steps thereupon; but I very soon dropped that affair, for ninety-nine good reasons; the first of which was, that nonody is to go in his room, and that, had he lived, he was to have been recalled from Munich.  But another reason, more flattering for you, was, that you could not be spared from Hamburg.  Upon the whole, I am not sorry for it, as the place where you are now is the great entrepot of business; and, when it ceases to be so, you will necessarily go to some of the courts in the neighborhood (Berlin, I hope and believe), which will be a much more desirable situation than to rush at Munich, where we can never have any business beyond a subsidy.  Do but go on, and exert yourself were you are, and better things will soon follow.

Surely the inaction of our army at Hanover continues too long.  We expected wonders from it some time ago, and yet nothing is attempted.  The French will soon receive reinforcements, and then be too strong for us; whereas they are now most certainly greatly weakened by desertion, sickness, and deaths.  Does the King of Prussia send a body of men to our army or not? or has the march of the Russians cut him out work for all his troops?  I am afraid it has.