r
literature, delights and fascinates; but even their common conversation
upon the most trivial matters is of a superior order, as far as
amusement goes. However shallowly they may think upon a subject, they
never fail to express themselves well. This is the case equally with
those of both sexes. It is true, certainly, that in their subjects for
conversation, they indulge in a wider range of selection; and in
consequence, far more frequently without evincing the slightest scruple,
overstep the bounds of decorum and delicacy. This is the inevitable
effect of the peculiarity above noticed, that they must constantly
converse; as their appetite for conversation is inordinate, their taste
is necessarily less nice; provided they continue in motion, they are
careless about the ground over which they travel. One unhappy
consequence of this certainly is, that such carelessness extends to the
women, even amongst the highest and best bred classes; and that these
ideas of delicacy and tenderness, with which we are always accustomed to
regard, in this country, the female mind, are shocked and grated against
by the occurrence of scenes, the employment of expressions, and the
mention of books which tend rather to disgust than to amuse, and which
destroy in a moment that female fascination, which can never exist
without that first and most material ingredient, modesty.

The science of conversation in France, is not, as with us, confined
principally to the higher classes, but extends to the whole body of the
people. The reason is, that the lower ranks in that country invariably
imitate the manners, style of society, and mode of conversation used by
the higher orders. The lower ranks in England converse, no doubt; but
then their conversation, and the subjects upon which it is employed, is
exactly fitted to the rank they hold in society.

In speaking of the literature of France, we shall have occasion to
remark, that there is nothing in that country like an ancient or
national poetry. This is perhaps not so much to be attributed to the
excessive ignorance of the peasantry, as to the circumstance, that from
the French peasantry invariably imitating the manners of the higher
orders, there is no adaption of the manners of the labouring orders to
the simple rank they fill in society. The innocence of rural life is
thus lost. The shepherd, the peasant girl, the rustic labourer, whom you
meet in France, are all in some measure artificial being