which I send you, in great doubt of their success, put me in mind of certain papers, which you have very lately, and I formerly, sent up to kites, along the string, which we called messengers; some of them the wind used to blow away, others were torn by the string, and but few of them got up and stuck to the kite. But I will content myself now, as I did then, if some of my present messages do but stick to you.
Employment of Time.—I hope you employ
your whole time, which few people do; and that you
put every moment to profit of some kind or other.
I call company, walking, riding, etc., employing
one's time, and, upon proper occasions, very usefully;
but what I cannot forgive in anybody is sauntering,
and doing nothing at all with a thing so
precious as time, and so irrecoverable when lost.
[Dec. 9, O. S., 1746.[1]]
Vulgar Pleasures.—Many young people adopt
pleasures for which they have not the least taste,
only because they are called by that name. They
often mistake so totally as to imagine that debauchery
is pleasure. You must allow that drunkenness,
which is equally destructive to body and mind, is a
fine pleasure. Gaming, that draws you into a thou-*
- ↑ His lordship had during this year been made one of his Majesty's Secretaries of State.
