might as well have been placed at the bottom of the deepest draw-well in Paris; fo he civilly reach'd up his hand to the German's fleeve, and told him his diftrefs-The German turn'd his head back, look'd down upon him as Goliah did upon David-and unfeelingly resumed his posture. I was just then taking a pinch of snuff out of my monk's little horn box-And how would thy meek and courteous fpirit, my dear monk! so temper'd to bear and forbear!-how fweetly would it have lent an ear to this poor foul's complaint! The old French officer feeing me lift up my eyes with an emotion, as I made the apostrophe, took the liberty to ask me what was the matter- -I told him the story in three words, and added how inhumane it was. By this time the dwarf was driven to extremes, and in his first transports, which are generally unreasonable, had told the German he would cut off his long queue with his knife-The German look'd back coolly, and told him he was welcome if he could reach it. An injury sharpen'd by an insult, be it to whom it will, makes every man of fentiment a party : I could have leaped out of the box, to have redreffed it-The old French officer did it with much lefs confufion; for leaning a little over, and nodding to a centinel, and pointing at the fame time with his finger at the diftrefs-the centinel made his way to it.-There was no occafion to tell the grievance the thing told itfelf; fo thrufting back the German instantly with his musket he took the poor dwarf by the hand, and placed him before him-This is noble! faid, I, clapping my hands together--and yet you would not permit this, faid the old officer, in England. -In England, dear Sir, faid I, we fit all at our enfe. The old French officer would have fet me at unity with myself, in cafe I had been at variance,-by faying it was a bon mot-and as a bon mot is always worth fomething at Paris, he offered me a pinch of fnuff. THE ROSE. PARIS. T was now my turn to afk the old French officer, "What was the matter?" for a cry of Hauffez les "mains, Monfieur l'Abbe," re-echoed from a dozen different parts of the parterre, was as unintelligible to me as my apoftrophe to the monk had been to him. He told me, it was fome poor Abbe in one of the upper loges, who he fuppofed had got planted perdu behind a couple of griffets, in order to see the opera, and that the parterre espying him, were infifting upon his holding up both his hands during the reprefentation.—And can it be supposed, said I, that an ecclefiaftic would pick the griffets' pockets? The old French officer fmiled, and whispering in my ear, open'd a door of knowledge which I had no idea of Good God! faid I, turning pale with aftonish ment-is it poffible, that a people fo fmit with fentiment, fhould at the fame time be fo unclean, and fo unlike themselves-Quelle grossierte' added I. The French officer told me, it was an illiberal farcafm at the church, which had begun in the theatre about the time the Tartuffe was given in it, by Moliere- -but, like other remains of Gothic manners, was declining-Every nation, continued he, have their refinements and groffiertes, in which they take the lead, and lose it of one another by turns- -that he had been in moft countries, but never in one where he found not fome delicacies, which others feemed to want: Le POUR, et le CONTRE, fe trouvant en chaque nation; there is a balance, faid he, of good and bad every where; and nothing but the knowing it is fo, can emancipate one half of the world from the prepoffeffion which it holds against the other— that the advantage of travel, as it regarded the fçavoir vivre, was by feeing a great deal both of men and manners; it taught us mutual toleration; and mutual toleration, concluded he, making me a bow, taught us mutual love. I The old French officer delivered this with an air of fuch candour and good fenfe as coincided with my first favourable impreffions of his character thought I loved the man; but I fear I mistook the object'twas my own way of thinking-the difference was, I could not have expreffed it half for well. It is alike troublesome to both the rider and his beaft if the latter goes pricking up his ears, and ftarting all the way at every object which he never faw before I have as little torment of this kind as any creature alive; and yet I honestly confefs, that many a thing gave me pain, and that I blush'd at many a word the first month-which I found inconfequent and perfectly innocent the second. Madame de Rambouliet, after an acquaintance of about fix weeks with her, had done me the honour to take me in her coach about two leagues out of town-Of all women, Madame de Rambouliet is the moft correct; and I never wish to fee one of more virtues and purity of heart- In our return back, Madame de Rambouliet defired me to pull the cordI afk'd her if she wanted any thing, Rien que pour piller, faid Madame de Rambouliet Grieve not, gentle traveller, to let Madame de Rambouliet p-s on-And, ye fair mystic nymphs! go each one pluck your rofe, and scatter them in your pathfor Madame de Rambouliet did no more— I handed Madame de Rambouliet out of the coach; and had I been the priest of the chafte CASTALIA, I could not have ferved at her fountain with a more respectful decorum, END OF VOLUME 1. |