Two partition treaties,the death of the King of Spain,his unexpected will,and the acceptance of it by Lewis the Fourteenth,in violation of the second treaty of partition,just signed and ratified by him.Philip the Fifth quietly and cheerfully received in Spain,and acknowledged as King of it,by most of those powers,who afterward joined in an alliance to dethrone him.I cannot help making this observation upon that occasion:That character has often more to do in great transactions,than prudence and sound policy;for Lewis the Fourteenth gratified his personal pride,by giving a Bourbon King to Spain,at the expense of the true interest of France;which would have acquired much more solid and permanent strength by the addition of Naples,Sicily,and Lorraine,upon the footing of the second partition treaty;and I think it was fortunate for Europe that he preferred the will.It is true,he might hope to influence his Bourbon posterity in Spain;he knew too well how weak the ties of blood are among men,and how much weaker still they are among princes.The Memoirs of Count Harrach,and of Las Torres,give a good deal of light into the transactions of the Court of Spain,previous to the death of that weak King;and the Letters of the Marachal d'Harcourt,then the French Ambassador in Spain,of which I have authentic copies in manuscript,from the year 1698to 1701,have cleared up that whole affair to me.I keep that book for you.It appears by those letters,that the impudent conduct of the House of Austria,with regard to the King and Queen of Spain,and Madame Berlips,her favorite,together with the knowledge of the partition treaty,which incensed all Spain,were the true and only reasons of the will,in favor of the Duke of Anjou.
Cardinal Portocarrero,nor any of the Grandees,were bribed by France,as was generally reported and believed at that time;which confirms Voltaire's anecdote upon that subject.Then opens a new scene and a new century;Lewis the Fourteenth's good fortune forsakes him,till the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene make him amends for all the mischief they had done him,by making the allies refuse the terms of peace offered by him at Gertruydenberg.How the disadvantageous peace of Utrecht was afterward brought on,you have lately read;and you cannot inform yourself too minutely of all those circumstances,that treaty 'being the freshest source from whence the late transactions of Europe have flowed.
The alterations that have since happened,whether by wars or treaties,are so recent,that all the written accounts are to be helped out,proved,or contradicted,by the oral ones of almost every informed person,of a certain age or rank in life.For the facts,dates,and original pieces of this century,you will find them in Lamberti,till the year 1715,and after that time in Rousset's 'Recueil'.
I do not mean that you should plod hours together in researches of this kind:no,you may employ your time more usefully:but I mean,that you should make the most of the moments you do employ,by method,and the pursuit of one single object at a time;nor should I call it a digression from that object,if when you meet with clashing and jarring pretensions of different princes to the same thing,you had immediately recourse to other books,in which those several pretensions were clearly stated;on the contrary,that is the only way of remembering those contested rights and claims:for,were a man to read 'tout de suite',Schwederus's 'Theatrum Pretensionum',he would only be confounded by the variety,and remember none of them;whereas,by examining them occasionally,as they happen to occur,either in the course of your historical reading,or as they are agitated in your own times,you will retain them,by connecting them with those historical facts which occasioned your inquiry.For example,had you read,in the course of two or three folios of Pretensions,those,among others,of the two Kings of England and Prussia to Oost Frise,it is impossible,that you should have remembered them;but now,that they are become the debated object at the Diet at Ratisbon,and the topic of all political conversations,if you consult both books and persons concerning them,and inform yourself thoroughly,you will never forget them as long as you live.You will hear a great deal of them ow one side,at Hanover,and as much on the other side,afterward,at Berlin:hear both sides,and form your own opinion;but dispute with neither.
Letters from foreign ministers to their courts,and from their courts to them,are,if genuine,the best and most authentic records you can read,as far as they go.Cardinal d'Ossat's,President Jeanin's,D'Estrade's,Sir William Temple's,will not only inform your mind,but form your style;which,in letters of business,should be very plain and simple,but,at the same time,exceedingly clear,correct,and pure.
All that I have said may be reduced to these two or three plain principles:1st,That you should now read very little,but converse a great deal;2d,To read no useless,unprofitable books;and 3d,That those which you do read,may all tend to a certain object,and be relative to,and consequential of each other.In this method,half an hour's reading every day will carry you a great way.People seldom know how to employ their time to the best advantage till they have too little left to employ;but if,at your age,in the beginning of life,people would but consider the value of it,and put every moment to interest,it is incredible what an additional fund of knowledge and pleasure such an economy would bring in.I look back with regret upon that large sum of time,which,in my youth,I lavished away idly,without either improvement or pleasure.Take warning betimes,and enjoy every moment;pleasures do not commonly last so long as life,and therefore should not be neglected;and the longest life is too short for knowledge,consequently every moment is precious.
I am surprised at having received no letter from you since you left Paris.I still direct this to Strasburgh,as I did my two last.I shall direct my next to the post house at Mayence,unless I receive,in the meantime,contrary instructions from you.Adieu.Remember les attentions:they must be your passports into good company.
