sons
adapted for the display of execution, or that style of poetry and of
painting which is something of the same nature, just fit to please the
fancy without touching the heart; no, you will find that she enters into
the very soul of those mental recreations, nor does that interfere with
her domestic virtues; she is equally capable of performing every social
duty, but she devotes not so considerable a portion of her time and
thoughts to dress, nor is she so totally absorbed in the anticipation
and retrospection of balls and soirees, to the exclusion of every other
feeling, as long as the season for parties continues, which is but too
much the case with females in Paris, except with those whose business or
occupations prevent them from participating otherwise than very
sparingly in the gaieties of that description; but the class I allude
to in France, is that which consists of persons of independent fortune,
who have never been connected with anything in the shape of trade or
even professions, except army or navy, yet whose property is too small
to estimate them as belonging to the higher classes, whilst they would
consider themselves as degraded by an association with even the richer
tradespeople, generally coming under the denomination of middle classes.
This grade, immediately below the highest classes and above the middle,
is very numerous in Paris, their incomes varying from four hundred to a
thousand a-year; with the females in this class there is an exact
resemblance to those of the class above, only the sphere is more
confined; their education finished, they retain but little of what they
have learned, except dancing, singing, and music, because they are
calculated for display, and tell in society; drawing is laid aside, even
after much proficiency had been acquired, reading confined to the
reviews of the popular works of the day, the inexhaustible subjects of
conversation are the toilet, which is pre-eminent, balls, soirees, and
public places; if literature be introduced, you will find their
knowledge of it sufficient to escape the charge of ignorance,
particularly in history, as great pains are now taken with their
education, and which certainly is of the best description, whilst there
is a grace and sweetness of manner which is highly captivating; yet when
you become well acquainted with these ladies, whose surface was
enchanting, you find at last a want of soul. As a proof how seldom I
have found French femal