for you, and the carnival months are the beft. Let me only know your decree when you have formed it. Your good or ill fuccefs at Hanover will have a very great influence upon your fubfequent character, figure,. and fortune in the world; therefore I confefs thatI am more anxious about it than ever a bride was on her wedding-night. It is your firft crifis: the character which you acquire there will, more or lefs, be that which will abide by you for the reft of your life. You will be tried and judged there, not as a boy, but as a man; and from that moment there is no appeal for character it is fixed. To form that character advantageoufly, you have three objects particularly to attend to your character as a man of morality, truth, Ironour; your knowledge in the objects of your defti nation, as a man of bufinefs; and your engaging and infinuating addrefs, air, and manners, as a courtier ; the fure and only fteps to favour. Merit at courts, without favour, will do little or nothing; favour, without merit, will do a good deal; but favour and merit together will do every thing. Favour at courts depends upon fo many, fuch trifling, fuch unexpected and unforeseen events, that a good courtier must attend to every circumftance, however little, that either does or can happen; he must have no abfences, no diftrac tions ; he muft not fay, "I did not mind it; whe would have thought it "He ought both to have minded, and to have thought it. A chamber-maid has fometimes caufed revolutions in courts, which have produced others in kingdoms. Were I to make my way to favour in a court, I would neither wilfully, noi by negligence, give a dog or a cat there reafon to dif like me. Two pies grieches, well inftructed, you know made the fortune of De Luines with Lewis XIII.Every step a man makes at court requires as much at tention and circumfpection as those which were mad formerly between hot plough-fhares in the ordeal o fiery trials; which, in thofe times of ignorance an fuperftition, were looked upon as demonftrations of in nocence or guilt. Direct your principal battery, a Hanover, at the d- of N's there are man

ery weak places in that citadel; where, with a very ittle kill, you cannot fail making a great impreffion. Ask for his orders, in every thing you do; talk Aufrian and Antigallican to him; and, as foon as you are pon a foot of talking eafily to him, tell him, en badiant, that his fkill and fuccefs in thirty or forty elecions in England leave you no reafon to doubt of his carrying his election for Frankfort; and that you look upon the archduke as his member for the empire. In is hours of feftivity and compotation, drop, that he uts you in mind of what Sir William Temple fays of he penfionary de Wit, who at that time governed half Europe, "that he appeared at balls, affemblies, and ublic places, as if he had nothing elfe to do or think f."-When he talks to you upon foreign affairs, which e will often do, fay, that you really cannot prefume o give any opinion of your own upon thofe matters, oking upon yourself, at prefent, only as a postscript the corps diplomatique; but, that, if his grace will be leafed to make you an additional volume to it, though ut in duodecimo, you will do your best, that he fhall either be ashamed nor repent of it. He loves to have favourite, and to open himself to that favourite : he as now no fuch perfon with him; the place is vacant, nd d if you have dexterity you may fill it. In one thing lone, do not humour him; I mean drinking; for as clieve you have never yet been drunk, you do not ourfelf know how you can bear wine, and what a little o much of it may make you do or fay: you might offibly kick down all you had done before.

You do not love gaming, and I thank God for it; it at Hanover I would have you fhow and profefs a articular diflike to play, fo as to decline it upon all ccafions, unlefs where one may be wanted to make a urth at whift or quadrille; and then take care to deare it the refult of your complaifance, not of your clinations. Without fuch precaution you may very offibly be fufpected, though unjúftly, of loving play, pon account of my former paffion for it; and fuch a ifpicion would do you a great deal of hurt, especially th the king, who detefts gaming. I muft end this btly. God bless you.

LETTER CXLVIII.

Hanover...Court of Brunswick...George the Second

MY DEAR FRIEND,

DURING your ftay at Hanover, I would have you

hake two or three excurfions to parts of that electoate to Hartz, where the filver mines are; Gottengen, or the univerfity; Stade, for what commerce there is. You fhould alfo go to Zell. In fhort, fee every thing That is to be feen there, and inform yourfelf well of all he details of that country. Go to Hamburgh for three r four days, know the conftitution of that little Haneatic republic, and inform yourself well of the nature of the king of Denmark's pretenfions to it.

If all things turn out right for you at Hanover, I would have you make it your head-quarters till about a veek or ten days before the king leaves it; and then ;o to Brunswick, which, though a little, is a very polite retty court. You may ftay there a fortnight or three veeks, as you like it: and thence go to Caffel, and there tay till you go to Berlin, where I would have you be by Christmas. At Hanover you will very eafily get good letters of recommendation to Brunfwick and to Caffel. You do not want any to Berlin. A-tropos of Berlin; be very referved and cautious, while at Hanover, as to that king and that country; both which are detefted, because feared by every body there, from his majefty down to the meaneft peafant; but, however, hey both extremely deserve your utmost attention, and you will fee the arts and wifdom of government better in that country, now, than in any other in Europe. You may stay three months at Berlin, if you like it, as I believe you will; and after that I hope we fhall meet here again.

Of all the places in the world (I repeat it once more) establish a good reputation at Hanover. Indeed it is of the greatest importance to you, and will make any future application to the king in your behalf very easy. He is more taken by the manners, graces, and other little things, than any man, or even woman, that I

ever knew in my life; and I do not wonder at h In short, exert to the utmost all your means and ers to please; and remember, that he who pleaf moft will rife the fooneft, and the higheft. but once the pleasure and advantage of pleafing, will anfwer that you will never more neglec

means.

I fend you herewith two letters, the one to fieur Munchaufen, the other to Monfieur Schwieg an old friend of mine, and a very fenfible kno man. They will both, I am fure, be extremely ci you, and carry you into the best company; and it is your bufinefs to pleafe that company. I was more anxious about any period of your life, I am about this your Hanover expedition, it bei fo much more confequence to you than any other I hear that you are liked and loved there, for your your marmers, and addrefs, as well as efteemed your knowledge, I fhall be the happiest man world; judge then what I must be if it happens of wife. Adieu !:

11

LETTER CXLIX..

George the Second...Duke of Newcastle...Author's Accoun himself...Wit...Gentleness and Complaisance more powe

Recommendations.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

London, July the

By my calculation, this letter may probably arrive

Y Hanover three or four days before you. By what have already feen of the German courts, I am furey muft have obferved that they are much more nice a fcrupulous, in points of ceremony, refpect and att tion, than the greater courts of France and Engla You will therefore, I am perfuaded, attend to the n nuteft circumstances of addrefs and behaviour. N body in the world is more exact in all points of goo breeding than the king; and it is the part of eve

's character that he informs himfelf of firft: Th

leaft negligence, or the flighteft inattention, reported to him, may do you infinite prejudice; as their contraries would fervice.

If Lord Albermarle (as I believe he did) trufted you with the fecret affairs of his department, let the duke of Newcastle know that he did fo; which will be an inducement to him to trust you too, and poffibly to employ you in affairs of confequence. Tell him that, though you are young, you know the importance of fecrecy in bufinefs, and can keep a fecret; that I have always inculcated this doctrine into you, and have moreover ftrictly forbidden you ever to communicate, even to me, any matters of á fecret nature which you may happen to be trufted with in the courfe of bufinefs.

As for bufinefs, I think I can truft you to yourfelf; but I wish I could fay as much for you with regard to thofe exterior accomplishments, which are abfolutely neceffary to smooth and fhorten the way to it. I will let you into one fecret concerning myfclf; which is, that I owe much more of the fuccefs which I have had in the world, to my manners, than to any fuperior degree of merit or knowledge. I defired to please, and I neglected none of the means. This I can affure you, without any falfe modefty, is the truth. You have more knowledge than I had at your age, but then I had much more attention and good-breeding than you.-Call it vanity, if you pleafe, and poflibly it was fo; but my great object was to make every man I met with, refpect me, and every woman like me. I often fucceeded: but why? By taking great pains; for otherwise I never fhould; my figure by no means entitled me to it, and I had certainly an up-hill game: whereas your countenance would help you, if you made the most of it, and profcribed for ever the guilty, gloomy, and funereal part of it.

If you have time to read at Hanover, pray let the books you read be all relative to the history and conftitution of that country, which I would have you know as correctly as any Hanoverian in the whole electorate. Inform yourself of the powers of the ftates, and of the