Many people think that they are in pleasures,provided they are neither in study nor in business.Nothing like it;they are doing nothing,and might just as well be asleep.They contract habitudes from laziness,and they)only frequent those places where they are free from all restraints and attentions.Be upon your guard against this idle profusion of time;and let every place you go to be either the scene of quick and lively pleasures,or the school of your own improvements;let every company you go into either gratify your senses,extend your knowledge,or refine your manners.Have some decent object of gallantry in view at some places;frequent others,where people of wit and taste assemble;get into others,where people of superior rank and dignity command respect and attention from the rest of the company;but pray frequent no neutral places,from mere idleness and indolence.Nothing forms a young man so much as being used to keep respectable and superior company,where a constant regard and attention is necessary.It is true,this is at first a disagreeable state of restraint;but it soon grows habitual,and consequently easy;and you are amply paid for it,by the improvement you make,and the credit it gives you.What you said some time ago was very true,concerning 'le Palais Royal';to one of your age the situation is disagreeable enough:you cannot expect to be much taken notice of;but all that time you can take notice of others;observe their manners,decipher their characters,and insensibly you will become one of the company.
All this I went through myself,when I was of your age.I have sat hours in company without being taken the least notice of;but then I took notice of them,and learned in their company how to behave myself better in the next,till by degrees I became part of the best companies myself.
But I took great care not to lavish away my time in those companies where there were neither quick pleasures nor useful improvements to be expected.
Sloth,indolence,and 'mollesse'are pernicious and unbecoming a young fellow;let them be your 'ressource'forty years hence at soonest.
Determine,at all events,and however disagreeable it may to you in some respects,and for some time,to keep the most distinguished and fashionable company of the place you are at,either for their rank,or for their learning,or 'le bel esprit et le gout'.This gives you credentials to the best companies,wherever you go afterward.Pray,therefore,no indolence,no laziness;but employ every minute in your life in active pleasures,or useful employments.Address yourself to some woman of fashion and beauty,wherever you are,and try how far that will go.If the place be not secured beforehand,and garrisoned,nine times in ten you will take it.By attentions and respect you may always get into the highest company:and by some admiration and applause,whether merited or not,you may be sure of being welcome among 'les savans et les beaux esprits'.There are but these three sorts of company for a young fellow;there being neither pleasure nor profit in any other.
My uneasiness with regard to your health is this moment removed by your letter of the 8th N.S.,which,by what accident I do not know,I did not receive before.
I long to read Voltaire's 'Rome Sauvee',which,by the very faults that your SEVERE critics find with it,I am sure I shall like;for I will at an any time give up a good deal of regularity for a great deal of brillant;and for the brillant surely nobody is equal to Voltaire.
Catiline's conspiracy is an unhappy subject for a tragedy;it is too single,and gives no opportunity to the poet to excite any of the tender passions;the whole is one intended act of horror,Crebillon was sensible of this defect,and to create another interest,most absurdly made Catiline in love with Cicero's daughter,and her with him.
I am very glad that you went to Versailles,and dined with Monsieur de St.Contest.That is company to learn 'les bonnes manieres'in;and it seems you had 'les bonnes morceaux'into the bargain.Though you were no part of the King of France's conversation with the foreign ministers,and probably not much entertained with it,do you think that it is not very useful to you to hear it,and to observe the turn and manners of people of that sort?It is extremely useful to know it well.The same in the next rank of people,such as ministers of state,etc.,in whose company,though you cannot yet,at your age,bear a part,and consequently be diverted,you will observe and learn,what hereafter it may be necessary for you to act.
Tell Sir John Lambert that I have this day fixed Mr.Spencer's having his credit upon him;Mr.Hoare had also recommended him.I believe Mr.
Spencer will set out next month for some place in France,but not Paris.
I am sure he wants a great deal of France,for at present he is most entirely English:and you know very well what I think of that.And so we bid you heartily good-night.
