MY DEAR FRIEND: Yesterday I received your letter from Ratisbon, where I
am glad that you are arrived safe. You are, I find, over head and ears
engaged in ceremony and etiquette. You must not yield in anything
essential, where your public character may suffer; but I advise you, at
the same time, to distinguish carefully what may, and what may not affect
it, and to despise some German ‘minutiae’; such as one step lower or
higher upon the stairs, a bow more or less, and such sort of trifles.
By what I see in Cressener’s letter to you, the cheapness of wine
compensates the quantity, as the cheapness of servants compensates the
number that you must make use of.
Write to your mother often, if it be but three words, to prove your
existence; for, when she does not hear from you, she knows to a
demonstration that you are dead, if not buried.
The inclosed is a letter of the utmost consequence, which I was desired
to forward, with care and speed, to the most Serene LOUIS.
My head is not well to-day. So God bless you!