第252章 LETTER CLXIII(2)

But that is far from being enough;for,though he may be received,he will never be desired;though he does not offend,he will never be loved;but,like some little,insignificant,neutral power,surrounded by great ones,he will neither be feared nor courted by any;but,by turns,invaded by all,whenever it is their interest.A most contemptible situation!Whereas,a man who hath carefully attended to,and experienced,the various workings of the heart,and the artifices of the head;and who,by one shade,can trace the progression of the whole color;who can,at the proper times,employ all the several means of persuading the understanding,and engaging the heart,may and will have enemies;but will and must have friends:he may be opposed,but he will be supported too;his talents may excite the jealousy of some,but his engaging arts will make him beloved by many more;he will be considerable;he will be considered.Many different qualifications must conspire to form such a man,and to make him at once respectable and amiable;the least must be joined to the greatest;the latter would be unavailing without the former;and the former would be futile and frivolous,without the latter.Learning is acquired by reading books;but the much more necessary learning,the knowledge of the world,is only to be acquired by reading men,and studying all the various editions of them.Many words in every language are generally thought to be synonymous;but those who study the language attentively will find,that there is no such thing;they will discover some little difference,some distinction between all those words that are vulgarly called synonymous;one hath always more energy,extent,or delicacy,than another.It is the same with men;all are in general,and yet no two in particular,exactly alike.Those who have not accurately studied,perpetually mistake them;they do not discern the shades and gradations that distinguish characters seemingly alike.Company,various company,is the only school for this knowledge.You ought to be,by this time,at least in the third form of that school,from whence the rise to the uppermost is easy and quick;but then you must have application and vivacity;and you must not only bear with,but even seek restraint in most companies,instead of stagnating in one or two only,where indolence and love of ease may be indulged.

In the plan which I gave you in my last,--[That letter is missing.]--for your future motions,I forgot to tell you;that,if a king of the Romans should be chosen this year,you shall certainly be at that election;and as,upon those occasions,all strangers are excluded from the place of the election,except such as belong to some ambassador,I have already eventually secured you a place in the suite of the King's Electoral Ambassador,who will be sent upon that account to Frankfort,or wherever else the election may be.This will not only secure you a sight of the show,but a knowledge of the whole thing;which is likely to be a contested one,from the opposition of some of the electors,and the protests of some of the princes of the empire.That election,if there is one,will,in my opinion,be a memorable era in the history of the empire;pens at least,if not swords,will be drawn;and ink,if not blood,will be plentifully shed by the contending parties in that dispute.During the fray,you may securely plunder,and add to your present stock of knowledge of the 'jus publicum imperii'.The court of France hath,I am told,appointed le President Ogier,a man of great abilities,to go immediately to Ratisbon,'pour y souffler la discorde'.

It must be owned that France hath always profited skillfully of its having guaranteed the treaty of Munster;which hath given it a constant pretense to thrust itself into the affairs of the empire.When France got Alsace yielded by treaty,it was very willing to have held it as a fief of the empire;but the empire was then wiser.Every power should be very careful not to give the least pretense to a neighboring power to meddle with the affairs of its interior.Sweden hath already felt the effects of the Czarina's calling herself Guarantee of its present form of government,in consequence of the treaty of Neustadt,confirmed afterward by that of Abo;though,in truth,that guarantee was rather a provision against Russia's attempting to alter the then new established form of government in Sweden,than any right given to Russia to hinder the Swedes from establishing what form of government they pleased.Read them both,if you can get them.Adieu.