e Revolution to the upper class has been
attended with a salutary effect, it has been scarcely less advantageous
to the middle and lower; for it has taught them the dangers to be
apprehended from the state of anarchy that ever follows on the heels of
popular convulsions, exposing even those who participated in them to
infinitely worse evils than those from which they hoped to escape by a
subversion of the legitimate government.

These reflections have been suggested by a description given to me, by
one who mixed much in Parisian society previously to the Revolution, of
the habits, modes, and usages of the _haute noblesse_ of that period,
and who is deeply sensible of the present regeneration. This person,
than whom a more impartial recorder of the events of that epoch cannot
be found, assured me that the accounts given in the memoirs and
publications of the state of society at that epoch were by no means
exaggerated, and that the domestic habits and affections at present so
universally cultivated in France were, if not unknown, at least
neglected.

Married people looked not to each other for happiness, and sought the
aggrandizement, and not the felicity, of their children. The
acquisition of wealth and splendour and the enjoyment of pleasure
occupied their thoughts, and those parents who secured these advantages
for their offspring, however they might have neglected to instil
sentiments of morality and religion into their minds, believed that
they had fully discharged their duty towards them. It was the want of
natural affection between parents and children that led to the cynical
observation uttered by a French philosopher of that day, who explained
the partiality of grandfathers and grandmothers towards their
grandchildren, by saying these last were the enemies of their
enemies,--a reflection founded on the grossest selfishness.

The habit of judging persons and things superficially, is one of the
defects that most frequently strike me in the Parisians. This defect
arises not from a want of quickness of apprehension, but has its source
in the vivacity peculiar to them, which precludes their bestowing
sufficient time to form an accurate opinion on what they pronounce.
Prone to judge from the exterior, rather than to study the interior
qualifications of those with whom they come in contact, the person who
is perfectly well-dressed and well-mannered will be better received
than he who, however highly recommended for m