de. I know a person to whom it has been objected as a disqualification
for friendship, that he never shakes you cordially by the hand. I own
this is a damper to sanguine and florid temperaments, who abound in
these practical demonstrations and 'compliments extern.' The same person
who testifies the least pleasure at meeting you, is the last to quit
his seat in your company, grapples with a subject in conversation right
earnestly, and is, I take it, backward to give up a cause or a friend.
Cold and distant in appearance, he piques himself on being the king
of _good haters,_ and a no less zealous partisan. The most phlegmatic
constitutions often contain the most inflammable spirits--a fire is
struck from the hardest flints.

And this is another reason that makes it difficult to judge of
character. Extremes meet; and qualities display themselves by the most
contradictory appearances. Any inclination, in consequence of
being generally suppressed, vents itself the more violently when
an opportunity presents itself: the greatest grossness sometimes
accompanies the greatest refinement, as a natural relief, one to the
other; and we find the most reserved and indifferent tempers at the
beginning of an entertainment, or an acquaintance, turn out the most
communicative and cordial at the end of it. Some spirits exhaust
themselves at first: others gain strength by progression. Some minds
have a greater facility of throwing off impressions--are, as it were,
more transparent or porous than others. Thus the French present a marked
contrast to the English in this respect. A Frenchman addresses you at
once with a sort of lively indifference: an Englishman is more on his
guard, feels his way, and is either exceedingly reserved, or lets you
into his whole confidence, which he cannot so well impart to an entire
stranger. Again, a Frenchman is naturally humane: an Englishman is, I
should say, only friendly by habit. His virtues and his vices cost him
more than they do his more gay and volatile neighbours. An Englishman is
said to speak his mind more plainly than others,--yes, if it will give
you pain to hear it. He does not care whom he offends by his discourse:
a foreigner generally strives to oblige in what he says. The French are
accused of promising more than they perform. That may be, and yet they
may perform as many good-natured acts as the English, if the latter are
as averse to perform as they are to promise. Even the professions of