d all the attractions of her
person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and complained.
If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered his vanity, and
piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and generosity of the
English; and if he proved deaf to all these insinuations she, as her
last stake, endeavoured to interest his humanity and compassion. She
expatiated, with tears in her eyes, on the cruelty and indifference of
her great relations; represented that her husband was no more than the
cadet of a noble family--, that his provision was by no means suitable.
either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his
disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence depending,
which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that they should be
both ruined, if they could not find some generous friend, who would
accommodate them with a sum of money to bring the cause to a
determination. Those who are not actuated by such scandalous motives,
become gamesters from meer habit, and, having nothing more solid to
engage their thoughts, or employ their time, consume the best part of
their lives, in this worst of all dissipation. I am not ignorant that
there are exceptions from this general rule: I know that France has
produced a Maintenon, a Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet;
but I would no more deduce the general character of the French ladies
from these examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden.
because there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted by the
hand of accident.

Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men are,
in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the women. They
certainly are more disagreeable to a rational enquirer, because they
are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs on the face of the earth, a
French petit maitre is the most impertinent: and they are all petit
maitres from the marquis who glitters in lace and embroidery, to the
garcon barbier covered with meal, who struts with his hair in a long
queue, and his hat under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity
is the great and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people
in this nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it,
they are hurried by it into the most ridiculous and indeed intolerable
extravagance.

When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great number of
individuals, from the general censure. Thoug