第264章 LETTER CLXIX(2)

A foreign minister has not great business to transact every day;so that his knowledge and his skill in negotiating are not frequently put to the trial;but he has that to do every day,and every hour of the day,which is necessary to prepare and smooth the way for his business;that is,to insinuate himself by his manners,not only into the houses,but into the confidence of the most considerable people of that place;to contribute to their pleasures,and insensibly not to be looked upon as a stranger himself.A skillful minister may very possibly be doing his master's business full as well,in doing the honors gracefully and genteelly of a ball or a supper,as if he were laboriously writing a protocol in his closet.The Marechal d'Harcourt,by his magnificence,his manners,and his politeness,blunted the edge of the long aversion which the Spaniards had to the French.The court and the grandees were personally fond,of him,and frequented his house;and were at least insensibly brought to prefer a French to a German yoke;which I am convinced would never have happened,had Comte d'Harrach been Marechal d'Harcourt,or the Marechal d'Harcourt Comte d'Harrach.The Comte d'Estrades had,by 'ses manieres polies et liantes',formed such connections,and gained such an interest in the republic of the United Provinces,that Monsieur De Witt,the then Pensionary of Holland,often applied to him to use his interest with his friend,both in Holland and the other provinces,whenever he (De Witt)had a difficult point which he wanted to carry.This was certainly not brought about by his knowledge of books,but of men:dancing,fencing,and riding,with a little military architecture,were no doubt the top of his education;and if he knew that 'collegium'in Latin signified college in French,it must have been by accident.But he knew what was more useful:from thirteen years old he had been in the great world,and had read men and women so long,that he could then read them at sight.

Talking the other day,upon this and other subjects,all relative to you,with one who knows and loves you very well,and expressing my anxiety and wishes that your exterior accomplishments,as a man of fashion,might adorn,and at least equal your intrinsic merit as a man of sense and honor,the person interrupted me,and said:Set your heart at rest;that never will or can happen.It is not in character;that gentleness,that 'douceur',those attentions which you wish him to have,are not in his nature;and do what you will,nay,let him do what he will,he can never acquire them.Nature may be a little disguised and altered by care;but can by no means whatsoever be totally forced and changed.I denied this principle to a certain degree;but admitting,however,that in many respects our nature was not to be changed;and asserting,at the same time,that in others it might by care be very much altered and improved,so as in truth to be changed;that I took those exterior accomplishments,which we had been talking of,to be mere modes,and absolutely depending upon the will,and upon custom;and that,therefore,I was convinced that your good sense,which must show you the importance of them,would make you resolve at all events to acquire them,even in spite of nature,if nature be in the case.Our dispute,which lasted a great while,ended as Voltaire observes that disputes in England are apt to do,in a wager of fifty guineas;which I myself am to decide upon honor,and of which this is a faithful copy.If you think I shall win it,you may go my halves if you please;declare yourself in time.This I declare,that I would most cheerfully give a thousand guineas to win those fifty;you may secure them me if you please.

I grow very impatient for your future letters from the several courts of Manheim,Bonn,Hanover,etc.And I desire that your letters may be to me,what I do not desire they should be to anybody else,I mean full of yourself.Let the egotism,a figure which upon all other occasions Idetest,be your only one to me.Trifles that concern you are not trifles to me;and my knowledge of them may possibly be useful to you.Adieu.

'Les graces,les graces,les graces'.