t il leur dira: Vous etes des scelerats et des fripons, vos femmes
sont toutes des femmes perdues, et je viens vivre parmi vous. Et il
ajoutera tous les hommes sont vertueux dans le pays ou je suis ne, et
je n'habiterai jamais le pays ou je suis ne.... Et il dira aussi qu'il
est impossible d'avoir des moeurs, et de lire des Romans, et il fera
un Roman; et dans son Roman le vice sera en action et la vertu en
paroles, et ses personages seront forcenes d'amour et de philosophie.
Et dans son Roman on apprendra l'art de suborner philosophiquement une
jeune fille. Et l'Ecoliere perdra toute honte et toute pudeur, et elle
fera avec son maitre des sottises et des maximes.... Et le bel Ami
etant dans un Bateau seul avec sa Maitresse voudra le jetter dans
l'eau et se precipiter avec elle. Et ils appelleront tout cela de la
Philosophie et de la Vertu," and so on, humorously enough in its way.

[48] See passages in Goncourt's _La Femme au 18ieme siecle_, p. 380.

[49] Musset-Pathay, II. 361. See Madame Roland's _Mem._, i. 207.

[50] _Corr._, March 3, and March 19, 1761. The criticisms of Ximenes,
a thoroughly mediocre person in all respects, were entirely literary,
and were directed against the too strained and highly coloured quality
of the phrases--"baisers acres"--among them.

[51] _Nouv. Hel._, V. v. 115.

[52] VI. vii.

[53] VI. vi.

[54] Michelet's _Louis XV. et Louis XVI._, p. 58.

[55] See Hettner's _Literaturgeschichte_, II. 486.

[56] IV. xi.

[57] IV. xvii. See vol. iii. 423.

[58] In 1816. Moore's _Life_, iii. 247; also 285. And the note to the
stanzas in the Third Canto,--a note curious for a slight admixture of
transcendentalism, so rare a thing with Byron, who, sentimental though
he was, usually rejoiced in a truly Voltairean common sense.

[59] "The present fashion in France, of passing some time in the
country, is new; at this time of the year, and for many weeks past,
Paris is, comparatively speaking, empty. Everybody who has a country
seat is at it, and such as have none visit others who have. This
remarkable revolution in the French manners is certainly one of the
best customs they have taken from England; and its introduction was
effected the easier, being assisted by the magic of Rousseau's
writings. Mankind are much indebted to that splendid genius, who, when
living, was hunted from country to country, to seek an asylum, with as
much venom as if he had been a mad dog; thanks to the vile spirit o