r know.

It is strange that, in spite of all you do, something like conviction
forces me to believe, that you are not what you appear to be.

I part with you in peace.

* * * * *

LETTER
ON THE
PRESENT CHARACTER
OF THE
FRENCH NATION.

LETTER

_Introductory to a Series of Letters on the Present Character of the
French Nation._

Paris, February 15, 1793.

My dear friend,

IT is necessary perhaps for an observer of mankind, to guard as carefully
the remembrance of the first impression made by a nation, as by a
countenance; because we imperceptibly lose sight of the national
character, when we become more intimate with individuals. It is not then
useless or presumptuous to note, that, when I first entered Paris, the
striking contrast of riches and poverty, elegance and slovenliness,
urbanity and deceit, every where caught my eye, and saddened my soul; and
these impressions are still the foundation of my remarks on the manners,
which flatter the senses, more than they interest the heart, and yet
excite more interest than esteem.

The whole mode of life here tends indeed to render the people frivolous,
and, to borrow their favourite epithet, amiable. Ever on the wing, they
are always sipping the sparkling joy on the brim of the cup, leaving
satiety in the bottom for those who venture to drink deep. On all sides
they trip along, buoyed up by animal spirits, and seemingly so void of
care, that often, when I am walking on the _Boulevards_, it occurs to me,
that they alone understand the full import of the term leisure; and they
trifle their time away with such an air of contentment, I know not how to
wish them wiser at the expence of their gaiety. They play before me like
motes in a sunbeam, enjoying the passing ray; whilst an English head,
searching for more solid happiness, loses, in the analysis of pleasure,
the volatile sweets of the moment. Their chief enjoyment, it is true,
rises from vanity: but it is not the vanity that engenders vexation of
spirit; on the contrary, it lightens the heavy burthen of life, which
reason too often weighs, merely to shift from one shoulder to the other.

Investigating the modification of the passion, as I would analyze the
elements that give a form to dead matter, I shall attempt to trace to
their source the causes which have combined to render this nation the
most polished, in a physical sense, and probably the most superficial in
th