die; and therefore I with his majesty a long life anda merry Christmas. So much for foreign politics: but, à-propos of them, pray take care, while you are in those parts of Germany, to inform yourself correctly of all the details, difcuffions and agreements, which the feveral wars, confifcations, bans, and treaties, occafioned between the Bavarian and Palatine electorates; they are interefting and curious.

LETTER CLVII.

Parliament...Means of acquiring Diftinction there...Neceffity of not over-rating Mankind. London, February the 15

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I CAN now with great truth apply your own motto

to you, Nullum numen abeft fi fit prudentia. You are fure of being, as early as your age will permit, a member of that houfe, which is the only road to figure and fortune in this country. Thofe indeed who are bred up 10, and distinguish themselves in particular profeffions, as the army, the navy, and the law, may by their own merit raite themfelves to a certain degree; but you may obferve too, that they never get to the top, without the affiftance of parliamentary talents and influence. The means of diftinguishing yourself in parliament are much more easily attained than I believe you imagine. Clofe attendance to the bufinefs of the houfe will foon give you the parliamentary routine s and trict attention to your ftyle will foon make you, not only a fpeaker, but a good one. The vulgar look upon a man who is reckoned a fine fpeaker as a phænomenon, a fupernatural being, and endowed with fome peculiar gift of heaven: they ftare at him if he walks in the Park, and cry, That is be! You will, I am fure, view him in a jufter light, and nulla formidine.* will confider him only as a man of good fenfe, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution

With no fear.

You

and the elegancy of style. The miracle will then ceafe; and you will be convi: ced, that, with the fame application and attention to the fame objects, you may most certainly equal, and perhaps furpafs this prodigy. Sir WY, with not a quarter of your parts, and not a thousandth part of your knowledge, has, by a glibnefs of tongue fingly, raised himself fucceffively to the best employments of the kingdom: he has been lord of the Admiralty, lord of the Treafury, fecretary at war, and is now vice-treasurer of Ireland; and all this with a moft fullied, not to fay blafted character. Represent the thing to yourself, as it really is, eafily attainable, and you will find it fo. Have but ambition enough paffionately to defire the object, and fpirit enough to ufe the means, and I will be anfwerable for your fuccefs. When I was younger than you are, I refolved within myself that I would in all events be a fpeaker in parliament, and a good one too, if I could. I confequently never loft fight of that object, and never neglected any of the means that I thought led to

it.

I fucceeded to a certain degree; and, I aflure you. with great ease, and without fuperior talents. Young people are very apt to over-rate both men and things, from not being enough acquainted with them. In proportion as you come to know them better, you will value them lefs. You will find that reafon, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that paffions and weakneffes commonly ufurp its feat, and rule in its' ftead. You will find, that the ableft have their weak fides too, and are only comparatively able, with regard to the ftill weaker herd: having fewer weaknesses themselves, they are able to avail themselves of the innumerable ones of the generality of mankind: being more masters of themselves, they become more eafily mafters of others. They addrefs themfelves to their weakneffes, their fenfes, their paffions; never to their reafon; and confequently feldom fai! of fuccefs. But then, analyfe thofe great, thofe governing, and, as the vulgar imagine, thofe perfect characters; and you will find the great Brutus a thief in Macedonia; the

great cardinal de Richelieu a jealous poetafter; and the great duke of Marlborough a mifer.

Now, to bring all this home to my first point-AN thefe confiderations fhould not only invite you to attempt to make a figure in parliament, but encourage you to hope that you fhall fucceed. To govern mar kind, one must not over-rate them; and to please an audience as a fpeaker, one muft not over-value it. When I first came into the house of commons, I ref pected that affembly as a venerable one; and felt a cer tain awe upon me : but, upon better acquaintance, that awe foon vanished; and I discovered, that of the five hundred and fixty, not above thirty could understand reason, and that all the reft were peuple: that thofe thirty only required plain common fenfe,dreffed up in good language; and that all the others only required flowing and harmonious periods, whether they conveyed any meaning or not; having ears to hear, but not femie enough to judge. Thefe confiderations made me speak with little concern the firft time, with lefs the fecond, and with none at all the third. I gave myself no farther trouble about any thing, except my elocution and my ftyle; prefuming, without much vanity, that I had common fenfe fufficient not to talk nonfenfe. Fix these three truths ftrongly in your mind: First, That it is abfolutely neceffary for you to fpeak in parliament; fecondly, That it only requires a little human attention, and no fupernatural gifts; and, thirdly, That you have all the reafon in the world to think that you fhall fpeak well. When we meet, this fhall be the principal fubject of our converfation; and, if you will follow my advice, I will answer for your fuccefs.

LETTER CLVIII.

Method in Bufinefs...Duke of Marlborough...Duke of Newcaftle...Sir Robert Walpole...Indolence a Kind of Suicide... Tranflating.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

London, February the 26th

I HAVE received your letter of the 4th from M

nich, and of the 11th from Ratisbon; but I have not

received that of the 31st of January, to which you refer in the former. It is to this negligence and uncertainty of the poft that you owe your accidents between Munich and Ratifbon; for, had you received my letters regularly, you would have received one from ne before you left Munich, in which I advised you to stay, fince you were fo well there. But, at all events, you were in the wrong to fet out from Munich in fuch weather and fuch roads, fince you could never imagine that I had fet my heart fo much upon your going to Berlin as to venture your being buried in the fnow for it. But upon the whole, confidering all, you are very well off.

Now that you are to be foon a man of bufinefs, I heartily wish you would immediately begin to be a man of method; nothing contributing more to facilitate and dispatch bufinefs than method and order. Have order and method in your accounts, in your reading, in the allotment of your time; in fhort, in every thing. You cannot conceive how much time you will fave by it, nor how much better every thing you do will be done. The duke of Marlborough did by no means fpend, but he flatterned himself into that immenfe debt, which is not yet near paid off. The hurry and confufion of the duke of Newcastle do not proceed from his bufiness, but from his want of method in it. Sir Robert Walpole, who had ten times the business to do, was never seen in a hurry, because he always did it with method. The head of a man who has business, and no method, nor order, is properly that rudis indigeftaque moles quam dexers chaos t. As you must be confcious that you are ex tremely negligent and flatternly, I hope you will refolve not to be fo for the future. Prevail with your felf only to obferve good method and order for one fortnight; and I will venture to affure you, that you will never neglect them afterwards, you will find fuch conveniency and advantage arifing from them. Method is the great advantage that lawyers have over other people in fpeaking in parliament; for, as they

The rude and indigefted mafs which is called chaos.

muft neceffarily obferve it in their pleadings in the courts of justice, it becomes habitual to them every where else. Without making you a compliment, can tell you with pleafure, that order, method, and more activity of mind, are all that you want, to make fome day or other, a confiderable figure in business. You have more ufeful knowledge, more difcernment of characters, and much more difcretion, than is common at your age; much more, I am fure, than I had at that age. Experience you cannot yet have, and therefore trust in the mean time to mine. I am an old traveller; am well acquainted with all the bye as well as the great roads I cannot mifguide you from ignorance, and you are very fure I fhall not from defign.

I can affure you, that you will have no opportunity of fubferibing yourself My Excellency's, &c. Retire ment and quiet were my choice fome years ago, while I had all my fenies, and health and fpirits enough to carry on bufinefs; but now I have loft my hearing, and find my conftitution declining daily, they are become my neceflary and only refuge. I know myfelf, (no common piece of knowledge, let me tell you) I know what I can, what I cannot, and confequently what I ought to do. I ought not, and therefore will not, return to business, when I am much less fit for it than I was when I quitted it. Still lefs will I go to Ireland, where, from my deafnefs, and infirmities, I muft neceffarily make a different figure from that which I once made there. My pride would be too much mortified by that difference. The two important fenfes of feeing and hearing fhould not only be good, but quick in bufinefs ; and the bufinefs of a lord lieutenant of Ire land (if he will do it himself) requires both thofe fenfes in the highest perfection. It was the duke of Dorfet's not doing the bufinefs himself, but giving it up to favourites, that has occafioned all this confufion in Ireland; and it was my doing the whole myself, without either favourite, minifter, or miftrefs, that made my adminiftration fo fmooth and quiet. I remember, when I named the late Mr. Liddel for my fecretary, every body was much furprised at it; and fome of my