learning, like your watch, in a private pocket ; and do not pull it out, and ftrike it, merely to fhow that you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.

Upon the whole, remember that learning (I mean Greek and Roman learning) is a most useful ani neceffary ornament; which it is fhameful not to be mafter of; but, at the fame time, most carefully avoid those errors and abuses which I have mentioned, and which too often attend it. Remember too, that great modern knowledge is ftill more neceflary than ancient; and that you had better know perfectly the prefent, than the old ftate of Europe; though I would have you well acquainted with both.

I have this moment received your letter of the 17th. Though, I confefs, there is no great variety in your prefent manner of life, yet materials can never be wanting for a letter; you fee, you hear, or you read, fomething new every day; a fhort account of which, with your own reflections thereupon, will make out a letter very well. But, fince you defire a fubject, pray fend me an account of the Lutheran establishment in Germany, their religious tenets, their church-government, the maintenance, authority, and titles of their clergy.

LETTER LII.

Graceful Manner and Behaviour....Inquiries concerning Ger

DEAR BOY,

many.

Bath, March the 9th.

I MUST, from time to time, remind you of what I

have often recommended to you, and of what you cannot attend to too much; be graceful in your manners. The different effects of the fame thing, faid or done, when accompanied or abandoned by them, is almoft inconceivable. They prepare the way to the heart; and the heart has fuch an influence over the under

fanding, that it is worth while to engage it in our intereft. From your own obfervation, reflect what a dif agreeable impreflion an awkward address, a flovenly figure, an ungraceful manner of fpeaking, whether fluttering, muttering, monotony, or drawling; an unattentive behaviour, &c. make upon you, at firft fight, in a firanger, and how they prejudice you against him, though, for ought you know, he may have great intrinfic fenfe and merit. And reflect, on the other hand, how much the oppofites of all these things prepoffefs you, at firft fight, in favor of those who enjoy them. You wish to find all good qualities in them, and are in fome degree difappointed if you do not.. Obferve carefully, then, what difpleases or pleafes you in others, and be perfuaded, that in general, the fame things will pleafe or difplease them in you. Having mentioned laughing, I muft particularly caution you against it. Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill-manners; it is the manner in which the mob exprefs their filly joy, at filly things; and they call it being merry. In my mind, there is nothing fo illiberal, and fo ill-bred, as audible laughter. True wit, or fenfe, never yet made any body laugh; they are above it: they pleafe the mind, and give a cheerfulnefs to the countenance. But it is low buffoonery, or filly accidents, that always excite laughter and that is what people of fense and breeding fhould fhow themselves above. A man's going to fit down, in the fuppofition that he has a chair behind him, and falling down upon his breech for want of one, fets a whole company a laughing, when all the wit in the world would not do it a plain proof, in my mind, how low and unbecoming a thing laughter is. Laughter is eafily restrained, by a very little reflection; but, as it is generally connected with the idea of gaiety, people do not enough attend to its abfurdity. Many people, at firft from awkwardness and mauvaise honte, have got a very difagreeable and filly trick of laughing whenever they speak: and I know a man of very good parts, Mr. Waller, who cannot fay the commoneft thing without laughing; which makes thofe, who do not know him,,

take him at firft for a natural fool. This, and many other very difagreeable habits, are owing to mauvaise bente at their first fetting out in the world. They are afhamed in company, and fo difconcerted, that they do not know what they do, and try a thousand tricks to keep themselves in countenance; which tricks afterwards grow habitual to them. Some put their fingers in their nofe, others scratch their head, others twirl their hats; in fhort, every awkward ill-bred body has his trick. But the frequency does not justify the thing; and all thefe vulgar habits and awkwardness, though not criminal indeed, are most carefully to be guarded against, as they are great bars in the way of the art of pleafing. Remember, that to please is almoft to prevail, or at least a neceffary previous ftep to it. You, who have your fortune to make, fhould more particularly ftudy this art. You had not, I must tell you, when you left England, les manieres prevénantes † ; and I must confefs they are not very common in England: but I hope that your good fenfe will make you acquire them abroad. If you defire to make yourself confiderable in the world (as, if you have any fpirit, you do) it must be entirely your own doing : for I may very poffibly be out of the world at the time you come into it. Your own rank and fortune will not affift you; your merit and your manners can, alone, raise you to figure and fortune. I have laid the foundations of them, by the education which I have given you; but you must build the fuperftructure yourself.

I must now apply to you for fome information, which I dare fay you can, and which I defire you will give me.

Can the elector of Saxony put any of his fubjects to death for high treafon, without bringing them firft to their trial in fome public court of juftice?

Can he, by his own authority, confine any subject in prifon as long as he pleafes, without trial?

Can he banish any fubject out of his dominions by his own authority?

t Commanding manners.

Can he lay any tax whatsoever upon his fubjects, without the confent of the States of Saxony? And what are thofe ftates? How are they elected? What orders do they confift of? Do the clergy make part of them? And when and how often do they meet?

If two fubjects of the elector's are at law, for an eftate fituated in the electorate, in what court must this fuit be tried? And will the decifion of that court be final, or does there lie an appeal to the Imperial Chamber at Wetzlaer ?

What do you call the two chief courts, or two chief magiftrates, of civil and criminal juftice?

What is the common revenue of the electorate, one year with another?

What number of troops does the elector now maintain? And what is the greatest that the electorate is able to maintain ?

I do not expect to have all these questions answered at once; but you will anfwer them in proportion as you get the neceffary and authentic information..

You are, you fee, my German oracle; and I confult you with fo much faith, that you need not, like the oracles of old, return ambiguous answers; especially as you have this advantage over them, too, that I only confult you about paft and prefent, but not about what

is to come.

I wish you a good Eafter fair at Leipfig. See, with attention, all the fhops, drolls, tumblers, rope-dancers, and hoc genus omne but inform yourself more particularly of the feveral parts of trade there.-Adieu!

DEAR BOY,

LETTER LIII.

Inftructions for reading History.

London, March the 25th

I AM in great joy at the written and the verbal ac

counts which I have received lately of you. I am likewife particularly pleased to find, that you turn yourself to that fort of knowledge which is more peculiarly

neceffary for your destination; for Mr. Harte tells me you have read with attention, Caillieres, Pequet, and Richelieu's Letters. The Memoirs of the Cardinel de Retz will both entertain and inftruct you; they relate to a very interefting period of the French history, the miniftry of cardinal Mazarin, during the minority of Lewis XIV. The characters of all the confiderable people of that time are drawn in a fhort, ftrong, and mafterly manner; and the political reflections, which are most of them printed in italics, are the jufteft that ever I met with; they are not the labored reflections. of a fyftematical clofet politician, who without the least. experience of bufinefs, fits at home, and writes maxims; but they are the reflexions which a great and able man formed, from long experience, and practice, in great bufinefs. They are true conclufions, drawn from facts, not from fpeculations.

As modern hiftory is particularly your bufinefs, I will give you fome rules to direct your ftudy of it. It begins, properly, with Charlemagne, in the year 800. But, as, in thofe times of ignorance, the priests and monks were almoft the only people that could or did write, we have fcarcely any hiftories of thofe times but fuch as they have been pleased to give us; which are compounds of ignorance, fuperftition, and party zeal. So that a general notion of what is rather fuppofed, than really known to be, the hiftory of the five or fix following centuries, feems to be fufficient and much time would be but ill employed in a minute attention to thofe legends. But referve your utmost care, and moft diligent inquiries, for the fifteenth century, and downwards. Then learning began to revive, and credible hiftories to be writen; Europe began to take the form which, to fome degree it ftill retains; at leaft the foundations of the prefent great powers Europe were then laid. Lewis the Eleventh made France, in truth, a monarchy. Before his time, there were independent provinces in France, as the dutchy of Britanny, &c. whofe princes tore it to pieces, and kept it in conftant domeftic confufion. Lewis the Eleventh reduced all thefe petty ftates, by fraud, force, or max

of