Having thus mentioned to you the probable time of our meeting,I will prepare you a little for it.Hatred;jealousy,or envy,make,most people attentive to discover the least defects of those they do not love;they rejoice at every new discovery they make of that kind,and take care to publish it.I thank God,I do not know what those three ungenerous passions are,having never felt them in my own breast;but love has just the same effect upon me,except that I conceal,instead of publishing,the defeats which my attention makes me discover in those I love.Icuriously pry into them;I analyze them;and,wishing either to find them perfect,or to make them so,nothing escapes me,and I soon discover every the least gradation toward or from that perfection.You must therefore expect the most critical 'examen'that ever anybody underwent.
I shall discover your least,as well as your greatest defects,and Ishall very freely tell you of them,'Non quod odio habeam sed quod amem'.
But I shall tell them you 'tete-a-tete',and as MICIO not as DEMEA;and Iwill tell them to nobody else.I think it but fair to inform you beforehand,where I suspect that my criticisms are likely to fall;and that is more upon the outward,than upon the inward man;I neither suspect your heart nor your head;but to be plain with you,I have a strange distrust of your air,your address,your manners,your 'tournure',and particularly of your ENUNCIATION and elegance of style.
These will be all put to the trial;for while you are with me,you must do the honors of my house and table;the least inaccuracy or inelegance will not escape me;as you will find by a LOOK at the time,and by a remonstrance afterward when we are alone.You will see a great deal of company of all sorts at BABIOLE,and particularly foreigners.Make,therefore,in the meantime,all these exterior and ornamental qualifications your peculiar care,and disappoint all my imaginary schemes of criticism.Some authors have criticised their own works first,in hopes of hindering others from doing it afterward:but then they do it themselves with so much tenderness and partiality for their own production,that not only the production itself,but the preventive criticism is criticised.I am not one of those authors;but,on the contrary,my severity increases with my fondness for my work;and if you will but effectually correct all the faults I shall find,I will insure you from all subsequent criticisms from other quarters.
Are you got a little into the interior,into the constitution of things at Paris?Have you seen what you have seen thoroughly?For,by the way,few people see what they see,or hear what they hear.For example,if you go to les Invalides,do you content yourself with seeing the building,the hall where three or four hundred cripples dine,and the galleries where they lie?or do you inform yourself of the numbers,the conditions of their admission,their allowance,the value and nature of the fund by which the whole is supported?This latter I call seeing,the former is only starting.Many people take the opportunity of 'les vacances',to go and see the,empty rooms where the several chambers of the parliament did sit;which rooms are exceedingly like all other large rooms;when you go there,let it be when they are full;see and hear what is doing in them;learn their respective constitutions,jurisdictions,objects,and methods of proceeding;hear some causes tried in every one of the different chambers;'Approfondissez les choses'.
I am glad to hear that you are so well at Marquis de St.Germain's,--[At that time Ambassador from the King of Sardinia at the Court of France.]--of whom I hear a very good character.How are you with the other foreign ministers at Paris?Do you frequent the Dutch Ambassador or Ambassadress?Have you any footing at the Nuncio's,or at the Imperial and Spanish ambassadors?It is useful.Be more particular in your letters to me,as to your manner of passing your time,and the company you keep.Where do you dine and sup oftenest?whose house is most your home?Adieu.'Les Graces,les Graces'.