London, February 22, 1748.


Dear Boy:


I am extremely pleased with your improvement in your studies.

But this is not enough;

I would have you not only learn, but think.


Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us

in an advanced age;

and if we do not plant it while young,

it will give us no shade when we grow old.


I do not mean that you should be always serious and bookish;

far from it.

I would have you as cheerful and as gay as any of your contemporaries;

but to be a man of pleasure, you must be a man of sense.


A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly,

use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.


The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world,

and not in a closet.

Books alone will never teach it you;

but they will suggest many things to your observation,

which might otherwise escape you.


There is aSpanish proverb which says,

'He who does not know foreign languages,

does not know his own.'


Cicero justly observed that

'to know nothing of what passed before you were born,

is to remain always a child.'


Endeavor to be always the best in whatever you undertake,

for mediocrity is not allowed to a man of quality.


Adieu!

I love you more than I can express.