may represent a contest between two women, one good and one bad, but
if the bad woman is allowed to conquer in the story, the public will
growl. This English fashion has existed since the eighteenth century.
since the time of Richardson, and is likely to last for generations to
come.

Now this is not the rule at all which governs making of novels in France.
French novels generally treat of the relations of women to the world and
to lovers, after marriage; consequently there is a great deal in French
novels about adultery, about improper relations between the sexes, about
many things which the English public would not allow. This does not mean
that the English are morally a better people than the French or other
Southern races. But it does mean that there are great differences in the
social conditions. One such difference can be very briefly expressed. An
English girl, an American girl, a Norwegian, a Dane, a Swede, is allowed
all possible liberty before marriage. The girl is told, "You must be able
to take care of yourself, and not do wrong." After marriage there is no
more such liberty. After marriage in all Northern countries a woman's
conduct is strictly watched. But in France, and in Southern countries, the
young girl has no liberty before marriage. She is always under the guard
of her brother, her father, her mother, or some experienced relation. She
is accompanied wherever she walks. She is not allowed to see her betrothed
except in the presence of witnesses. But after marriage her liberty
begins. Then she is told for the first time that she must take care of
herself. Well, you will see that the conditions which inspire the novels,
in treating of the subjects of love and marriage, are very different in
Northern and in Southern Europe. For this reason alone the character of
the novel produced in England could not be the same.

You must remember, however, that there are many other reasons for this
difference--reasons of literary sentiment. The Southern or Latin races
have been civilized for a much longer time than the Northern races; they
have inherited the feelings of the ancient world, the old Greek and Roman
world, and they think still about the relation of the sexes in very much
the same way that the ancient poets and romance writers used to think. And
they can do things which English writers can not do, because their
language has power of more delicate expression.

We may say that the Latin writers still speak