and drinking,
and for shooting with the cross-bow. I have always been struck by the
spirit of these out-of-door festivities. In drawing-room entertainments,
people are cold, grave, often listless, and most of those who go there
are brought together by habit or the obligations of society; in the
country assemblies, on the contrary, you only find those who are
attracted by the hope of enjoyment. There, it is a forced conscription;
here, they are volunteers for gayety! Then, how easily they are pleased!
How far this crowd of people is yet from knowing that to be pleased with
nothing, and to look down on everything, is the height of fashion and
good taste! Doubtless their amusements are often coarse; elegance and
refinement are wanting in them; but at least they have heartiness. Oh,
that the hearty enjoyments of these merry-makings could be retained
in union with less vulgar feeling! Formerly religion stamped its holy
character on the celebration of country festivals, and purified the
pleasures without depriving them of their simplicity.

The hour arrives at which the doors of the porcelain manufactory and the
museum of pottery are open to the public. I meet Frances and Madeleine
again in the first room. Frightened at finding themselves in the midst
of such regal magnificence, they hardly dare walk; they speak in a low
tone, as if they were in a church.

"We are in the king's house," said the eldest sister, forgetting that
there is no longer a king in France.

I encourage them to go on; I walk first, and they make up their minds to
follow me.

What wonders are brought together in this collection! Here we see clay
moulded into every shape, tinted with every color, and combined with
every sort of substance!

Earth and wood are the first substances worked upon by man, and seem
more particularly meant for his use. They, like the domestic animals,
are the essential accessories of his life; therefore there must be a
more intimate connection between them and us. Stone and metals require
long preparations; they resist our first efforts, and belong less to the
individual than to communities. Earth and wood are, on the contrary, the
principal instruments of the isolated being who must feed and shelter
himself.

This, doubtless, makes me feel so much interested in the collection I am
examining. These cups, so roughly modelled by the savage, admit me to
a knowledge of some of his habits; these elegant yet incorrectly formed
vas