Volume I Part 2 (2/2)
It is true, that there is something most exceedingly exhilarating to the spirits in the mere external novelty and cheerfulness of the objects which surround a stranger on first entering Paris. That indescribable air of gaiety which makes every suns.h.i.+ny day look like a fete; the light hilarity of spirit that seems to pervade all ranks; the cheerful tone of voice, the sparkling glances of the numberless bright eyes; the gardens, the flowers, the statues of Paris,--all together produce an effect very like enchantment.
But ”use lessens marvel;” and when the first delightful excitement is over, and we begin to feel weary from its very intensity, the next step is backward into rationality, low spirits, and grumbling.
From that moment the English tourist talks of nothing but wide rivers, magnificent bridges, prodigious _trottoirs_, unrivalled drains, and genuine port. It is at this stage that the traveller, in order to continue his enjoyment and bring it to perfection, should remit his examination of the exterior of n.o.ble _hotels_, and endeavour to be admitted to the much more enduring enchantment which prevails within them.
So much has already been said and written on the grace and charm of the French language in conversation, that it is quite needless to dwell upon it. That _good things_ can be said in no other idiom with equal grace, is a fact that can neither be controverted nor more firmly established than it is already. Happily, the art of expressing a clever thought in the best possible words did not die with Madame de Sevigne; nor has it yet been destroyed by revolution of any kind.
It is not only for the amus.e.m.e.nt of an hour, however, that I would recommend the a.s.siduous cultivation of good French society to the English. Great and important improvements in our national manners have already arisen from the intercourse which long peace has permitted.
Our dinner-tables are no longer disgraced by inebriety; nor are our men and women, when they form a party expressly for the purpose of enjoying each other's society, separated by the law of the land during half the period for which the social meeting has been convened.
But we have much to learn still; and the general tone of our daily a.s.sociations might be yet farther improved, did the best specimens of Parisian habits and manners furnish the examples.
It is not from the large and brilliant parties which recur in every fas.h.i.+onable mansion, perhaps, three or four times in each season, that I think we could draw much improvement. A fine party at Lady A----'s in Grosvenor Square, is not more like a fine party at Lady B----'s in Berkeley Square, than a fine party in Paris is to one in London. There are abundance of pretty women, handsome men, satin, gauze, velvet, diamonds, chains, stars, moustaches, and imperials at both, with perhaps very little deserving the name of rational enjoyment in either.
I suspect, indeed, that we have rather the advantage on these crowded occasions, for we more frequently change the air by pa.s.sing from one room to another when we eat our ices; and as the tulip-tinctured throng enjoy this respite from suffocation by detachments, they have often not only opportunity to breathe, but occasionally to converse also, for several minutes together, without danger of being dislodged from their standing-ground.
It is not, therefore, at the crowded roll-calls of all their acquaintance that I would look for anything rational or peculiar in the _salons_ of Paris, but in the daily and constant intercourse of familiar companions.h.i.+p. This is enjoyed with a degree of pleasant ease--an absence of all pomp, pride, and circ.u.mstance, of which unhappily we have no idea. Alas! we must know by special printed announcement a month beforehand that our friend is ”at home,”--that liveried servants will be in attendance, and her mansion blazing with light,--before we can dare venture to pa.s.s an evening hour in her drawing-room. How would a London lady stare, if some half-dozen--though perhaps among the most chosen favourites of her visiting-list--were to walk unbidden into her presence, in bonnets and shawls, between the hours of eight and eleven!
And how strangely new would it seem, were the pleasantest and most coveted engagements of the week, formed without ceremony and kept without ostentation, to arise from a casual meeting at the beginning of it!
It is this ease, this habitual absence of ceremony and parade, this national enmity to constraint and tediousness of all kinds, which renders the tone of French manners so infinitely more agreeable than our own. And the degree in which this is the case can only be guessed at by those who, by some happy accident or other, possess a real and effective ”open sesame!” for the doors of Paris.
With all the superabundance of vanity ascribed to the French, they certainly show infinitely less of it in their intercourse with their fellow-creatures than we do. I have seen a countess, whose t.i.tle was of a dozen fair descents, open the external door of her apartment, and welcome the guests who appeared at it with as much grace and elegance as if a triple relay of tall fellows who wore her colours had handed their names from hall to drawing-room. Yet in this case there was no want of wealth. Coachman, footman, abigail, and doubtless all fitting etceteras, owned her as their sovereign lady and mistress. But they happened to have been sent hither and thither, and it never entered her imagination that her dignity could be compromised by her appearing without them. In short, the vanity of the French does not show itself in little things; and it is exactly for this reason that their enjoyment of society is stripped of so much of the anxious, sensitive, ostentatious, self-seeking etiquette which so heavily enc.u.mbers our own.
There are some among us, my friend, who might say of this testimony to the charm of French society, that there was danger in praising, and pointing out as an example to be followed, the manners of a people whose morality is considered as so much less strict than our own.
Could I think that, by thus approving what is agreeable, I could lessen by a single hair's-breadth the interval which we believe exists between us in this respect, I would turn my approval to reproof, and my superficial praise to deep-dyed reprobation: but to any who should express such a fear, I would reply by a.s.suring them that it would require a very different species of intimacy from any to which I had the honour of being admitted, in order to authorise, from personal observation, any attack upon the morals of Parisian society. More scrupulous and delicate refinement in _the tone of manners_ can neither be found nor wished for anywhere; and I do very strongly suspect, that many of the pictures of French depravity which have been brought home to us by our travellers, have been made after sketches taken in scenes and circles to which the introductions I so strongly recommend to my countrywomen could by no possibility lead them. It is not of such that I can be supposed to speak.
Apropos of false impressions and false reports, I may repeat to you an anecdote which I heard yesterday evening. The little committee in which it was related consisted of at least a dozen persons, and it appeared that I was myself the only one to whom it was new.
”It is rather more than two years ago,” said the speaker, ”that we had amongst us an English gentleman, who avowed that it was his purpose to write on France, not as other men write--superficially, respecting truths that lie obvious to ordinary eyes--but with a research that should make him acquainted with all things above, about, and underneath. He professed this intention to more than one dear friend; and more than one dear friend took the trouble of tracing him in his chase after hidden truths. Not long after his arrival among us, this gentleman became intimately acquainted with a lady more celebrated for the variety of her friends.h.i.+ps with men of letters than for the endurance of them. This lady received the attentions of the stranger with distinguished kindness, and, among other proofs of regard, undertook to purvey for him all sorts of private anecdotes, great and little, that from the ma.s.s he might form an average estimate of the people; a.s.suring him at the same time, that no one in Paris was more _au fait_ of its secret histories than herself. This,” continued my informant, ”might be, and I believe was, very particularly true; and the English traveller might have been justified in giving to his countrymen and countrywomen as much insight into such mysteries as he thought good for them: but when he published the venomous slanders of this female respecting persons not only of the highest honour, but of the most unspotted reputation, he did what will blast his name as long as his charlatan book is remembered.” Such were the indignant words, and there was nothing in the tone with which they were uttered to weaken their expression.
I tell you the tale as I heard it; but I will not repeat much more that was said on the same subject, nor will I give any A..., B..., or C... hints as to the names so freely mentioned.
Some degree of respectability ought certainly to attach to those from whom important information is sought respecting the morals and manners of a country, when it is the intention of the inquirer that his observations and statements upon it should become authority to the whole civilized world.
The above conversation, however, was brought to a laughing conclusion by Madame C----, who, addressing her husband as he was seconding the angry eloquence I have repeated, said, ”Calmez-vous donc, mon ami: apres tout, le tableau fait par M. le Voyageur des dames Anglaises n'a rien a nous faire mourir de jalousie.”
I suspect that neither you nor any other lady of England will feel disposed to contradict her.
Adieu!
LETTER VII.
Alarm created by the Trial of the Lyons Prisoners.--Visits from a Republican and from a Doctrinaire: rea.s.sured by the promises of safety and protection received from the latter.
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