s; so that I would advise
you to begin your journey in May, and continue your absence from the dear
object of your vows till after the dog-days, when love is said to be
unwholesome. We have been disappointed at Martinico; I wish we may not be
so at Guadaloupe, though we are landed there; for many difficulties must
be got over before we can be in possession of the whole island. A pro pos
de bottes; you make use of two Spanish words, very properly, in your
letter; were I you, I would learn the Spanish language, if there were a
Spaniard at Hamburg who could teach me; and then you would be master of
all the European languages that are useful; and, in my mind, it is very
convenient, if not necessary, for a public man to understand them all,
and not to be obliged to have recourse to an interpreter for those papers
that chance or business may throw in his way. I learned Spanish when I
was older than you; convinced by experience that, in everything possible,
it was better to trust to one's self than to any other body whatsoever.
Interpreters, as well as relaters, are often unfaithful, and still
oftener incorrect, puzzling, and blundering. In short, let it be your
maxim through life to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust
implicitly to the informations of others. This rule has been of infinite
service to me in the course of my life.

I am rather better than I was; which I owe not to my physicians, but to
an ass and a cow, who nourish me, between them, very plentifully and
wholesomely; in the morning the ass is my nurse, at night the cow; and I
have just now, bought a milch-goat, which is to graze, and nurse me at
Blackheath. I do not know what may come of this latter, and I am not
without apprehensions that it may make a satyr of me; but, should I find
that obscene disposition growing upon me, I will check it in time, for
fear of endangering my life and character by rapes. And so we heartily
bid you farewell.

LETTER CCXLI

LONDON, March 30, 1759

MY DEAR FRIEND: I do not like these frequent, however short, returns of
your illness; for I doubt they imply either want of skill in your
physician, or want of care in his patient. Rhubarb, soap, and chalybeate
medicines and waters, are almost always specifics for obstructions of the
liver; but then a very exact regimen is necessary, and that for a long
continuance. Acids are good for you, but you do not love them; and sweet
things are bad for you, and you do l