FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  
d Vienna every winter, and each summer are the delight of Ems, of Berlin, and of Ischl. What tyrants these fellows are, too, over the men who have not got their gift of tongues! how they out-talk them and overbear them! with what an insolent confidence they fall back upon the petty superiority of their fluency, and lord it over those who are immeasurably their masters! Just as Blondin might run along the rigging of a three-decker, and pretend that his agility entitled him to command a squadron! Nothing, besides, is more imposing than the mock eloquence of good French. The language in itself is so adaptive, it is so felicitous, it abounds in such innumerable pleasant little analogies, such nice conceits and suggestive drolleries, that he who acquires these has at will a whole armoury of attack and defence. It actually requires years of habit to accustom us to a display that we come at last to discover implies no brilliancy whatever in him who exhibits, though it argues immense resources in the treasury from which he derives this wealth. I have known scores of delightful talkers--Frenchmen--who had no other charm than what their language lent them. They were neither profound, nor cultivated, nor witty--some were not even shrewd or acute; but all were pleasant--pleasant in the use of a conversational medium, of which the world has not the equal--a language that has its set form of expression for every social eventuality, and that hits to a nicety every contingency of the "salon;" for it is no more the language of natural people than the essence of the perfumer's shop is the odour of a field flower. It is pre-eminently the medium of people who talk with tall glasses before them, and an incense of truffles around them, and well-dressed women--clever and witty, and not over-scrupulous in their opinions--for their company. Then, French is unapproachable; English would be totally unsuited to the occasion, and German even more so. There is a flavour of sauer kraut about that unhappy tongue that would vulgarise a Queen if she talked it. To attain, therefore, the turns and tricks of this language--for it is a Chinese puzzle in its involvements--what a life must a man have led! What "terms" he must have "put in" at cafes and restaurants! What seasons at small theatres--tripots and worse! What nights at bals-masques, Chateaux des Fleurs, and Cadrans rouges et bleus! What doubtful company he must have often kept! What company a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  



Top keywords:
language
 

company

 

pleasant

 

French

 

medium

 
people
 
perfumer
 

flower

 
incense
 

rouges


glasses

 

essence

 
eminently
 

truffles

 
nicety
 

conversational

 
cultivated
 
shrewd
 

dressed

 

contingency


eventuality

 

social

 

expression

 

natural

 

opinions

 

tricks

 

Chinese

 

nights

 

attain

 

talked


puzzle

 
involvements
 

tripots

 

restaurants

 

theatres

 
seasons
 

vulgarise

 
tongue
 

Chateaux

 
unapproachable

English
 

totally

 
Cadrans
 
clever
 

scrupulous

 

Fleurs

 
doubtful
 

unsuited

 
unhappy
 

flavour