BATH, November 5, 1769.
MADAM: I remember very well the paragraph which you quote from a letter
of mine to Mrs. du Bouchet, and see no reason yet to retract that
opinion, in general, which at least nineteen widows in twenty had
authorized. I had not then the pleasure of your acquaintance: I had seen
you but twice or thrice; and I had no reason to think that you would
deviate, as you have done, from other widows, so much as to put perpetual
shackles upon yourself, for the sake of your children. But (if I may use
a vulgarism) one swallow makes no summer: five righteous were formerly
necessary to save a city, and they could not be found; so, till I find
four more such righteous widows as yourself, I shall entertain my former
notions of widowhood in general.
I can assure you that I drink here very soberly and cautiously, and at
the same time keep so cool a diet that I do not find the least symptom of
heat, much less of inflammation. By the way, I never had that complaint,
in consequence of having drank these waters; for I have had it but four
times, and always in the middle of summer. Mr. Hawkins is timorous, even
to minutia, and my sister delights in them.
Charles will be a scholar, if you please; but our little Philip, without
being one, will be something or other as good, though I do not yet guess
what. I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country, that
man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many
words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and
which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge
in my opinion consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some
Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for
closet amusement.
You are, by this time, certainly tired with this long letter, which I
could prove to you from Horace’s own words (for I am a scholar) to be a
bad one; he says, that water-drinkers can write nothing good: so I am,
with real truth and esteem, your most faithful, humble servant,
CHESTERFIELD.