Have I ever known any Frenchman of whom it could be fairly said that he was vowed to the worship of the great goddess Lubricity? Yes, I have known one absolutely given over to that vice. His life had been that of a Sultan entirely absorbed in the pleasures of the harem; he was rich, idle, “noble,” with no pursuits but that, and nature paid him with a terrible penalty. In his premature old age he would cynically boast of the exploits of that which, for his bestial nature, had been a sort of manhood. I have known a similar case in England, a man of some rank, whose whole mind centred itself on that one pleasure, till at length it led him to conduct of such a character as to involve utter social ruin. Applied to these men Mr. Arnold’s expression would be absolutely just. [Sidenote: Rarity of the Sexual Monomania.] [Sidenote: Strictness of French Provincial Opinion.] [Sidenote: Social Penalties.] [Sidenote: Kept Mistresses in Provincial England and France.] But this state of mind, which amounts to a species of insanity or monomania, is rare. Men have other interests and pursuits. Those of the middle class have business, those of the upper have field sports, horses, yachting, travelling. A few have special studies, in France generally archæology, natural history, music, or painting. Are they all strictly virtuous in France? No. Are they all strictly virtuous in England? No. It is often suspected that when a young Englishman goes to town he yields to certain temptations, and when a provincial Frenchman _va à Paris pour s’amuser_, his friends imagine very frequently that he is tired of the strict surveillance of public opinion in the country. That rural public opinion is almost as strict in France as in England. A rich lady near a provincial town that I know committed adultery many years ago, and has been living in forced retirement ever since. Another rich lady in another provincial town, very beautiful, very charming, had a romantic adventure, and she, too, has been left alone in her great house. A wealthy young man brought a mistress down from Paris; she had not been out three times in her little pony carriage before it became a public scandal. In a similar neighbourhood in England it was perfectly well known that some of the rich young men had mistresses at a distance, but they could not bring them near to their own homes for fear of the same scandal. I remember asking a French gentleman if he received a clever young man who had rendered services to his political party. “No,” he said, “he is immoral, and I have a fixed rule never to receive immoral men.” [Sidenote: Zola’s Picture of Rural Life.] [Sidenote: Lancashire and Yorkshire. Saône-et-Loire.] [Sidenote: A Comparison.]