too rare for anybody to trust to; and even they would make a much greater figure if they had the advantage of education into the bargain. [April 1, 1748.]
See all Things.—At least, see everything that
you can see, and know everything that you can know
of it, by asking questions. See likewise everything
at the fair, from operas and plays down to the
Savoyards' rareeshows. Everything is worth seeing
once; and the more one sees, the less one either wonders
or admires. [April 15, 1748.]
Falsehood Universal.—Falsehood and dissimulation
are certainly to be found at courts; but where
are they not to be found? Cottages have them as
well as courts; only with worse manners. A couple
of neighboring farmers, in a village, will contrive
and practice as many tricks to overreach each other
at the next market, or to supplant each other in the
favor of the squire, as any two courtiers can do to
supplant each other in the favor of their prince.
Whatever poets may write, or fools believe, of rural
innocence and truth, and of the perfidy of courts,
this is most undoubtedly true—that shepherds and
ministers are both men; their nature and passions
the same, the modes of them only different. [May
10, 1748.]
