et drunk one part of the day, and the rest they
spend in training, clumsily enough, a parcel of uncouth lads to be
clergymen.... In the fine places that have been built for public
amusements, you could hear a mouse run. A hundred stiff and silent women
walk round and round an orchestra that is set up in the middle. The
Baron compares these circuits to the seven processions of the Egyptians
round the tomb of Osiris. A charming _mot_ of my good friend Garrick, is
that London is good for the English, but Paris is good for all the
world.... There is a great mania for conversions and missionaries. Mr.
Hume told me a story which will let you know what to think of these
pretended conversions of cannibals and Hurons. A minister thought he had
done a great stroke in this line; he had the vanity to wish to show his
proselyte, and brought him to London. They question his little Huron,
and he answers to perfection. They take him to church, and administer
the sacrament, where, as you know, the communion is in both kinds.
Afterwards, the minister says to him, 'Well, my son, do you not feel
yourself more animated with the love of God? Does not the grace of the
sacrament work within you? Is not all your soul warmed?' 'Yes,' says the
Huron: 'the wine does one good, but I think it would have done still
better if it had been brandy.'"[213]

_Two Cases of Conscience_.--"The cure said that unhappy lovers always
talked about dying, but that it was very rare to find one who kept his
word; still he had seen one case. It was that of a young man of family,
called Soulpse. He fell in love with a young lady of beauty and of good
character, but without money, and belonging to a dishonoured family. Her
father was in the galleys for forgery. The young man, who foresaw all
the opposition, and all the good grounds for opposition, that he would
have to encounter among his family, did all that he could to cure
himself of his passion; but when he was assured of the uselessness of
his efforts, he plucked up courage to open the matter to his parents,
who wearied themselves with remonstrances. Our lover suddenly stopped
them short, saying, 'I know all that you have to say against me; I
cannot disapprove of your reasons, which I should be the first to urge
against my own son, if I had one. But consider whether you would rather
have me dead or badly married; for it is certain that if I do not marry
the woman that I love, I shall die of it.' They treated this sp