Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

deserve them; such as lying, cheating, making mischief, and meditated malice. In any of those cases, however young, let him be most severely whipped. But either to threaten or whip him, for falling down, be-pissing himself, or not standing still to have his head combed and his face washed, is a most unjust and absurd severity; and yet all these are the common causes of whipping. This hardens them to punishment, and confounds them as to the causes of it; for if a poor child is to be whipped equally for telling a lie, or for a dirty nose; he must of course think them equally criminal. Reason him, by fair means, out of all those things, for which he will not be the worse man; and flog him severely for those things only, for which the law would punish him as a man.

LETTER XXX.

LORD CHESTERFIELD TO DR. R. C.

Bath, Nov. 11, 1752.

MY DEAR LORD, THIS is only to ask yon how you do, and what you do, in both which I need not tell you how truly I interest myself. The former depends a great deal upon the latter; if you are, alternately, attentively employed and agreeably amused, you will probably, considering your sobriety and temperance, be in very good health. Your children are now old enough to answer both those ends. Their establishment should excite your attention; and their conversation and progressive improvement amuse

your leisure hours. Your son is of an age to enable you to guess a little at his turn and disposition, and to direct his education accordingly. If you would have him be a very learned man, you must certainly send him to some great school; but if you would have him be a better thing, a very honest man, you should have him à portée of your own inspection. At those great schools, the heart is wholly neglected by those who ought to form it, and is consequently left open to temptations and ill examples: paternal care and inspection, attended by proper firmness and authority, may prevent great part of that mischief.

I had a letter the other day from Mr. Simond; by which I find, with great pleasure, that both the collection and the objects of it, the refugees, increase daily. If the receiving and retrieving those poor people be, as it certainly is, both a moral and political duty, what must be the guilt and madness of those, who, by persecution for matters of mere speculation, force those poor people to carry their industry, their labour, their legs, their arms, to other people, and enrich other countries? I wonder the French government does not rather choose to burn them at home, than persecute them away into other countries; it would be full as just, and much more prudent.

These waters, which I have now used six weeks, in every way that it is possible to use them, drinking, bathing, and pumping, have done my hearing some good, but not enough to refit me for social life. I stay here a fortnight longer, in hopes of more benefit, which my physician promises me strongly as I do not expect it, if I receive it,

it will be the more welcome. If not, I have both philosophy and religion enough to submit to my fate, without either melancholy or murmur; for though I can by no means account why there is either moral or physical evil in the world, yet, conscious of the narrow bounds of human understanding, and convinced of the wisdom and justice of the eternal divine Being, who placed them here, I am persuaded, that it is fit and right that they should be here.

Adieu, my dear lord: believe me most truly and affectionately your faithful friend and servant,

&c.

LETTER XXXI.

LORD CHESTERFIELD TO DR. R. C

MY DEAR LORD,

London, Dec. 19, 1752. I AM extremely glad to find, by your last very friendly letter, that you enjoy the greatest blessing of this life, the health of body and mind: proper exercise is necessary for both; go as little in your coach and as much on foot as ever you can, and let your paternal and pastoral functions at once share and improve the health of your mind. The mind must have some worldly objects to excite its attention; otherwise it will stagnate in indolence, sink into melancholy, or rise into visions and enthusiasm. Your children cannot be in a better way than, by your account, they seem to be in at present: your son learns what a boy should learn ; and your daughters read what girls should read,

history: the former cannot know too much, and the latter ought not.

I am so weary of giving an account of my own wretched deafness, that I should not attempt it, did not I know that the kind interest which you take in whatever concerna me, makes you both desire and expect it. I am then neither better nor worse than when I wrote to you last; I have tried many things, and am going on to try many others, but without expecting any benefit from any medicine but patience. I am, my dear lord, sincerely yours, &c.

LETTER XXXII.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

MY DEAR LORD,

Bath, Nov. 14, 1754.

KNOWING, by long experience, the kind part you take in whatever concerns me, I delayed acknow ledging your last letter, in hopes of being able, in some time, to give you a better account of my health than I could then have done. I had, just at that time, had a very severe return of my old vertiginous complaint, which, as usual, left my whole animal system weak and languid. The best air in England, which I take that of Blackheath to be, a strict regimen, and a proper degree of exercise, did not restore, I might almost say, revive me. I sought therefore for refuge here, and, thank God, I have not only found it, but in some measure recovery too. The disorders of my head and

[blocks in formation]

stomach are entirely removed by these waters, which I have now drank three weeks; so that I may reasonably hope, that the three weeks more, which I purpose passing here, will set me up for part of the winter at least, for at my age, and with my shattered constitution, I am not sillily sanguine enough to expect a radical cure. I consider myself here as an old decayed vessel, of long wear and tear, brought into the wet dock to be careened and patched up, not for any long voyage, but only to serve as a coaster for some little time longer. How long that may be, I little know, and as little care; I am unrelative to this world, and this world to me. My only attention now is to live, while I do live in it, without pain; and when I leave it, to leave it without fear.

I hope that you, your young family, and tutti quanti, are all well. May you long continue so! I am, my dear lord, your most faithful friend and servant, &c.

LETTER XXXIII.

LORD CHESTERFIELD TO DR. R. C

MY DEAR LORD, Blackheath, June 26, 1755. COULD I take any thing ill of you, who I am sure never meaned any to me or any man living, it would be your suspecting that I did; which I believe is the first unjust suspicion that ever you entertained of any body; and I am the more concerned at it, because I know that it gave you uneasiness. I confess myself four letters in your debt; but, to

« ÎnapoiContinuă »