owe the greatest part of my reading; for, from twenty to forty, I should certainly have read very little, if I had not been up while my acquaintances were in bed. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. That was the rule of the famous and unfortunate pensionary De Witt; who, by strictly following it, found time, not only to do the whole business of the republic, but to pass his evenings at assemblies and suppers, as if he had nothing else to do or think of. [Same date.]
Religion, why Silent on.—I have seldom or
never written to you upon the subject of religion and
morality: your own reason, I am persuaded, has
given you true notions of both; they speak best for
themselves; but, if they wanted assistance, you have
Mr. Harte at hand, both for precept and example: to
your own reason, therefore, and to Mr. Harte, shall
I refer you, for the reality of both; and confine
myself, in this letter, to the decency, the utility, and
the necessity of scrupulously preserving the appearances
of both. When I say the appearances of religion,
I do not mean that you should act or talk like
a missionary, or an enthusiast, nor that you should
take up a controversial cudgel against whoever
