Letters to His Son 1759-65 | Page 4

meal of them. D.W.]

LETTERS TO HIS SON 1759-65
By the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD
on the Fine Art of becoming a
MAN OF THE WORLD
and a

GENTLEMAN

LETTER CCXXXVII
LONDON, New-year's Day, 1759
MY DEAR FRIEND: 'Molti e felici', and I have done upon that subject,
one truth being fair, upon the most lying day in the whole year.
I have now before me your last letter of the 21st December, which I am
glad to find is a bill of health: but, however, do not presume too much
upon it, but obey and honor your physician, "that thy days may be long
in the land."
Since my last, I have heard nothing more concerning the ribband; but I
take it for granted it will be disposed of soon. By the way, upon
reflection, I am not sure that anybody but a knight can, according to
form, be employed to make a knight. I remember that Sir Clement
Cotterel was sent to Holland, to dub the late Prince of Orange, only
because he was a knight himself; and I know that the proxies of knights,
who cannot attend their own installations, must always be knights. This
did not occur to me before, and perhaps will not to the person who was
to recommend you: I am sure I will not stir it; and I only mention it
now, that you may be in all events prepared for the disappointment, if it
should happen.
G----- is exceedingly flattered with your account, that three thousand of
his countrymen; all as little as himself, should be thought a sufficient
guard upon three-and-twenty thousand of all the nations in Europe; not
that he thinks himself, by any means, a little man, for when he would
describe a tall handsome man, he raises himself up at least half an inch
to represent him.
The private news from Hamburg is, that his Majesty's Resident there is
woundily in love with Madame -------; if this be true, God send him,
rather than her, a good DELIVERY! She must be 'etrennee' at this
season, and therefore I think you should be so too: so draw upon me as
soon as you please, for one hundred pounds.
Here is nothing new, except the unanimity with which the parliament
gives away a dozen of millions sterling; and the unanimity of the public
is as great in approving of it, which has stifled the usual political and
polemical argumentations.
Cardinal Bernis's disgrace is as sudden, and hitherto as little understood,

as his elevation was. I have seen his poems, printed at Paris, not by a
friend, I dare say; and to judge by them, I humbly conceive his
Eminency is a p-----y. I will say nothing of that excellent headpiece that
made him and unmade him in the same month, except O KING, LIVE
FOREVER.
Good-night to you, whoever you pass it with.

LETTER CCXXXVIII
LONDON, February 2, 1759
MY DEAR FRIEND: I am now (what I have very seldom been) two
letters in your debt: the reason was, that my head, like many other
heads, has frequently taken a wrong turn; in which case, writing is
painful to me, and therefore cannot be very pleasant to my readers.
I wish you would (while you have so good an opportunity as you have
at Hamburg) make yourself perfectly master of that dull but very useful
knowledge, the course of exchange, and the causes of its almost
perpetual variations; the value and relation of different coins, the specie,
the banco, usances, agio, and a thousand other particulars. You may
with ease learn, and you will be very glad when you have learned them;
for, in your business, that sort of knowledge will often prove necessary.
I hear nothing more of Prince Ferdinand's garter: that he will have one
is very certain; but when, I believe, is very uncertain; all the other
postulants wanting to be dubbed at the same time, which cannot be, as
there is not ribband enough for them.
If the Russians move in time, and in earnest, there will be an end of our
hopes and of our armies in Germany: three such mill-stones as Russia,
France, and Austria, must, sooner or later, in the course of the year,
grind his Prussian Majesty down to a mere MARGRAVE of
Brandenburg. But I have always some hopes of a change under a
'Gunarchy'--[Derived from the Greek word 'Iuvn' a woman, and means
female government]--where whim and humor commonly prevail,
reason very seldom, and then only by a lucky mistake.
I expect the incomparable fair one of Hamburg, that prodigy of beauty,
and paragon of good sense, who has enslaved your mind, and inflamed
your heart. If she is as well 'etrennee' as you say she shall, you will