LETTER XVII.

Pay Office, Dec. 6, 1755.

Or all the various satisfac

tions of mind I have felt upon some late events, none has affected me with more sensibility and delight than the reading my dear nephew's letter. The matter of it is worthy of a better age than that we live in; worthy of your own noble, untainted mind; and the manner and expression of it is such, as, I trust, will

one day make you a powerful instrument towards mending the present degeneracy. Examples are unnécessary to happy natures; and it is well for your future glory and happiness that this is the case; for to copy any now existing might cramp genius and check the native spirit of the piece, rather than contribute to the perfection of it. I learn from Sir Richard Lyttelton that we may have the pleasure of meeting soon, as he has already, or intends to offer you a bed at his house. It is on this, as on all occasions, little nécessary to preach prudence, or to intimate a wish that your studies at Cambridge might not be broken by a long inter

ruption of them. I know the right

ness of your own mind, and leave

you

to all the generous and animating motives you find there, for pursuing improvements in literature and useful knowledge, as much better counsellors than

Your ever most affectionate uncle.

Lady Hester desires her best com

pliments.

The little cousin is well.

LETTER XVIII,

Horse Guards, Jan. 51, 1756.

MY DEAR NEPHEW,

LET me thank you a

thousand times for your remembering me, and giving me the pleasure of hearing that you was well, and had laid by the idéas of London and its dissipations, to resume the sober train of thoughts that gowns, square caps, quadrangles, and matin- bells,

naturally draw after them.

I hope

the air of Cambridge has brought no disorder upon you, and that you will compound with the muses so as to dedicate some hours, not less than

two, of the day to exercise.

The

earlier you rise, the better your nerves will bear study. When you next do me the pleasure to write to me, I beg a copy of your Elegy on your Mother's Picture; it is such admirable poetry, that I beg you to plunge deep into prose and severer studies, and not indulge your genius with verse, for the present, mus Oratori Poeta. Substitute Tully and Demosthenes in the place of Homer and Virgil; and arm yourself

Finiti