not, I am told, enjoy a
good state of health, having a train of nervous complaints, which, though
they have not a name, unless the significant word _ennui_ be borrowed,
had an existence in the higher French circles; but adversity and virtuous
exertions put these ills to flight, and dispossessed her of a devil who
deserves the appellation of legion.

Madame Genus also resided at Altona some time, under an assumed name,
with many other sufferers of less note though higher rank. It is, in
fact, scarcely possible to stir out without meeting interesting
countenances, every lineament of which tells you that they have seen
better days.

At Hamburg, I was informed, a duke had entered into partnership with his
cook, who becoming a _traiteur_, they were both comfortably supported by
the profit arising from his industry. Many noble instances of the
attachment of servants to their unfortunate masters have come to my
knowledge, both here and in France, and touched my heart, the greatest
delight of which is to discover human virtue.

At Altona, a president of one of the _ci-devant_ parliaments keeps an
ordinary, in the French style; and his wife with cheerful dignity submits
to her fate, though she is arrived at an age when people seldom
relinquish their prejudices. A girl who waits there brought a dozen
_double louis d'or_ concealed in her clothes, at the risk of her life,
from France, which she preserves lest sickness or any other distress
should overtake her mistress, "who," she observed, "was not accustomed to
hardships." This house was particularly recommended to me by an
acquaintance of yours, the author of the "American Farmer's Letters." I
generally dine in company with him: and the gentleman whom I have already
mentioned is often diverted by our declamations against commerce, when we
compare notes respecting the characteristics of the Hamburgers. "Why,
madam," said he to me one day, "you will not meet with a man who has any
calf to his leg; body and soul, muscles and heart, are equally shrivelled
up by a thirst of gain. There is nothing generous even in their youthful
passions; profit is their only stimulus, and calculations the sole
employment of their faculties, unless we except some gross animal
gratifications which, snatched at spare moments, tend still more to
debase the character, because, though touched by his tricking wand, they
have all the arts, without the wit, of the wing-footed god."

Perhaps you may