ich perhaps they wished for, of breaking with,
and injuring you; whereas the contrary behavior would lay them under, the
restraints of decency at least; and either shackle or expose their
malice. Besides, captiousness, sullenness, and pouting are most
exceedingly illiberal and vulgar. 'Un honnete homme ne les connoit
point'.

I am extremely glad to hear that you are soon to have Voltaire at
Manheim: immediately upon his arrival, pray make him a thousand
compliments from me. I admire him most exceedingly; and, whether as an
epic, dramatic, or lyric poet, or prose-writer, I think I justly apply to
him the 'Nil molitur inepte'. I long to read his own correct edition of
'Les Annales de l'Empire', of which the 'Abrege Chronologique de
l'Histoire Universelle', which I have read, is, I suppose, a stolen and
imperfect part; however, imperfect as it is, it has explained to me that
chaos of history, of seven hundred years more clearly than any other book
had done before. You judge very rightly that I love 'le style le r et
fleuri'. I do, and so does everybody who has any parts and taste. It
should, I confess, be more or less 'fleuri', according to the subject;
but at the same time I assert that there is no subject that may not
properly, and which ought not to be adorned, by a certain elegance and
beauty of style. What can be more adorned than Cicero's Philosophical
Works? What more than Plato's? It is their eloquence only that has
preserved and transmitted them down to us through so many centuries; for
the philosophy of them is wretched, and the reasoning part miserable. But
eloquence will always please, and has always pleased. Study it therefore;
make it the object of your thoughts and attention. Use yourself to relate
elegantly; that is a good step toward speaking well in parliament. Take
some political subject, turn it in your thoughts, consider what may be
said both for and against it, then put those arguments into writing, in
the most correct and elegant English you can. For instance, a standing
army, a place bill, etc.; as to the former, consider, on one side, the
dangers arising to a free country from a great standing military force;
on the other side, consider the necessity of a force to repel force with.
Examine whether a standing army, though in itself an evil, may not, from
circumstances, become a necessary evil, and preventive of greater
dangers. As to the latter, consider, how far places may bias and warp the
conduct