第47章 LETTER XXXVIII(1)

LONDON,May 10,O.S.1748.

DEAR BOY:I reckon that this letter will find you just returned from Dresden,where you have made your first court caravanne.What inclination for courts this taste of them may have given you,I cannot tell;but this I think myself sure of,from your good sense,that in leaving Dresden,you have left dissipation too;and have resumed at Leipsig that application which,if you like courts,can alone enable you to make a good figure at them.A mere courtier,without parts or knowledge,is the most frivolous and contemptible of all beings;as,on the other hand,a man of parts and knowledge,who acquires the easy and noble manners of a court,is the most perfect.It is a trite,commonplace observation,that courts are the seats of falsehood and dissimulation.That,like many,I might say most,commonplace observations,is false.Falsehood and dissimulation are certainly to be found at courts;but where are they not to be found?Cottages have them,as well as courts;only with worse manners.A couple of neighboring farmers in a village will contrive and practice as many tricks,to over-reach each other at the next market,or to supplant each other in the favor,of the squire,as any two courtiers can do to supplant each other in the favor of their prince.

Whatever poets may write,or fools believe,of rural innocence and truth,and of the perfidy of courts,this is most undoubtedly true that shepherds and ministers are both men;their nature and passions the same,the modes of them only different.

Having mentioned commonplace observations,I will particularly caution you against either using,believing,or approving them.They are the common topics of witlings and coxcombs;those,who really have wit,have the utmost contempt for them,and scorn even to laugh at the pert things that those would-be wits say upon such subjects.

Religion is one of their favorite topics;it is all priest-craft;and an invention contrived and carried on by priests of all religions,for their own power and profit;from this absurd and false principle flow the commonplace,insipid jokes,and insults upon the clergy.With these people,every priest,of every religion,is either a public or a concealed unbeliever,drunkard,and whoremaster;whereas,I conceive,that priests are extremely like other men,and neither the better nor the worse for wearing a gown or a surplice:but if they are different from other people,probably it is rather on the side of religion and morality,or,at least,decency,from their education and manner of life.

Another common topic for false wit,and cool raillery,is matrimony.

Every man and his wife hate each other cordially,whatever they may pretend,in public,to the contrary.The husband certainly wishes his wife at the devil,and the wife certainly cuckolds her husband.Whereas,I presume,that men and their wives neither love nor hate each other the more,upon account of the form of matrimony which has been said over them.The cohabitation,indeed,which is the consequence of matrimony,makes them either love or hate more,accordingly as they respectively deserve it;but that would be exactly the same between any man and woman who lived together without being married.