An engaging address, and turn to gallantry, is often of very great service to foreign ministers.  Women have, directly or indirectly; a good deal to say in most courts.  The late Lord Strafford governed, for a considerable time, the Court of Berlin and made his own fortune, by being well with Madame de Wartenberg, the first King of Prussia’s mistress.  I could name many other instances of that kind.  That sort of agreeable ‘caquet de femmes’, the necessary fore-runners of closer conferences, is only to be got by frequenting women of the first fashion, ’et, qui donnent le ton’.  Let every other book then give way to this great and necessary book, the world, of which there are so many various readings, that it requires a great deal of time and attention to under stand it well:  contrary to all other books, you must not stay home, but go abroad to read it; and when you seek it abroad, you will not find it in booksellers’ shops and stalls, but in courts, in hotels, at entertainments, balls, assemblies, spectacles, etc.  Put yourself upon the footing of an easy, domestic, but polite familiarity and intimacy in the several French houses to which you have been introduced:  Cultivate them, frequent them, and show a desire of becoming ‘enfant de la maison’.  Get acquainted as much as you can with ‘les gens de cour’; and observe, carefully, how politely they can differ, and how civilly they can hate; how easy and idle they can seem in the multiplicity of their business; and how they can lay hold of the proper moments to carry it on, in the midst of their pleasures.  Courts, alone, teach versatility and politeness; for there is no living there without them.  Lord Albermarle has, I hear, and am very glad of it, put you into the hands of Messieurs de Bissy.  Profit of that, and beg of them to let you attend them in all the companies of Versailles and Paris.  One of them, at least, will naturally carry you to Madame de la Valiores, unless he is discarded by this time, and Gelliot—­[A famous opera-singer at Paris.]—­retaken.  Tell them frankly, ’que vous cherchez a vous former, que vous etes en mains de maitres, s’ils veulent bien s’en donner la peine’.  Your profession has this agreeable peculiarity in it, which is, that it is connected with, and promoted by pleasures; and it is the only one in which a thorough knowledge of the world, polite manners, and an engaging address, are absolutely necessary.  If a lawyer knows his law, a parson his divinity, and a financier his calculations, each may make a figure and a fortune in his profession, without great knowledge of the world, and without the manners of gentlemen.  But your profession throws you into all the intrigues and cabals, as well as pleasures, of courts:  in those windings and labyrinths, a knowledge of the world, a discernment of characters, a suppleness and versatility of mind, and an elegance of manners, must be your clue; you must know how to soothe and lull the monsters that guard, and how to address and gain