letters from lord chestfield to his son

https://archive.org/details/letterswrittenby00chesuoft

DEAR BOY, November the 2oth, 1739.

As you are now reading the Roman History, I hope
you do it with that care and attention which it deserves.
The utility of History consists principally in the examples
it gives us of the virtues and vices of those who have gone
before us : upon which we ought to make the proper
observations. History animates and excites us to the love
and the practice of virtue ; by showing us the regard and
veneration that was always paid to great and virtuous
men, in the times in which they lived, and the praise
and glory with which their names are perpetuated, and
transmitted down to our times. The Roman History
furnishes more examples of virtue and magnanimity, or
greatness of mind, than any other. It was a common thing
to see their Consuls and Dictators (who, you know, were
their chief Magistrates) taken from the plough, to lead their


armies against their enemies; and, after victory, returning
to their plough again, and passing the rest of their lives
in modest retirement : a retirement more glorious, if pos-
sible, than the victories that preceded it ! Many of their
greatest men died so poor, that they were buried at the
expense of the public. Curius, who had no money of
his own, refused a great sum that the Samnites offered him,
saying, that he saw no glory in having money himself, but
in commanding those that had. Cicero relates it thus :
" Curio adfocum sedenti magnum auri pondus Samnites cum
attulissent, repudiati ab eo sunt. Non enim aurum habere
pradarum sibi videri, sed it's, qui habercnt aurum, imperare"
And Fabricms, who had often commanded the Roman
armies, and as often triumphed over their enemies, was
found by his fireside, eating those roots and herbs which he
had planted and cultivated himself in his own field. Seneca
tells it thus: Fabridus ad focum canat illas ipsas radices,
guas, in agro repurgando, triumphalis Senex vulsit. Scipio,
after a victory he had obtained in Spain, found among the
prisoners a young Princess of extreme beauty, who, he was
informed, was soon to have been married to a man of
quality of that country. He ordered her to be entertained
and attended with the same care and respect, as if she had
been in her father's house ; and, as soon as he could find
her lover, he gave her to him, and added to her portion
the money that her father had brought for her ransom.
Valerius Maximus says, Eximia forma virgincm accersitis
parentibus, et sponso inviolatam tradidit, et fuvenis, et Calebs,
et Victor. This was a most glorious example of modera-
tion, continence, and generosity, which gained him the
hearts of all the people of Spain; and made them say, as
Livy tells us, Venisse Diis simillimum juvenem, vincentem
omnia, cum armis, turn benignilate, ac benefidis.

Such are the rewards that always crown virtue; and
such the characters that you should imitate, if you would be
a great and a good man, which is the only way to be a
happy one! Adieu.