es express any delight in beholding all the
phenomena of an extensive and beautiful country, and if the mind be dead
to that charm, how must it be lost to the enjoyments of descriptive
poetry and painting, as if the reality afford not pleasure how little
can be derived from the representation; I have found in France many
exceptions to this rule, women, in fact, whose society afforded a highly
intellectual treat. But they are rare, and when one speaks of a people
generally, the mass must be stated and not the exceptions. In England,
even amongst the classes of the highest fashion, many women are to be
met with, who, notwithstanding that they are whirled about in London for
months together to parties every night, sometimes to three or four in an
evening, to hear and say the nothings that pass current in assemblages
of that description, both deteriorating to health and mind, yet on
returning to their seats in the country, whilst the husband is following
the sports of the field, the females will have recourse to intellectual
occupations, and cultivate those seeds of knowledge which had been
instilled into their minds during their early youth, thus conferring
upon them those companionable powers, which are the great charm of life;
the rural scenes around them call their pencils into practice, whilst
the true spirit of poetry constantly appears to their feelings in the
forms of those beauties of nature which in fact are its life and soul.
Embosomed in the calm retirement found in such retreats, the various
objects in view engender the love of reading; hence the Englishwoman
recruits her mental powers after the frivolizing effects of a season in
town. The Frenchwoman goes into the country for the purpose of enjoying
the fresh air, she reads a little to kill time, and occupies much of it
with her embroidery and other fancy works, and after a short period
passed amongst the vine-clad hills, sighs once more to return to her
dear Paris, complains of ennui, wonders what the fashions will be at the
next Longchamp, and whether they will be such as become her or not, but
feeling herself bound to wear whatever may be pronounced the modes, and
trusts to her taste to arrange it in such a manner as to set her off to
the best advantage.

My countrywomen are not so much slaves to fashion and do not care to put
on every thing that comes out, if they think it does not suit them, but
it must be admitted that they have not the same taste as the