Whilst writing this chapter I have got a letter from a well-known Englishman who asks me if Zola’s picture of rustic morals in _La Terre_ is true. I have never read any of Zola’s novels, preferring the study of life in nature, but I am told that the book is disgusting. In that case it cannot be true as a general representation of nature. I have lived in the country in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and in the French department of Saône-et-Loire, and so far as my observation has extended I should say that rustic morals are very nearly on the same level in both places. Cases of adultery are rare in both though not unknown. Illegitimate births occur occasionally in both. Our servants have conducted themselves as well in France as in England, and as well in England as in France. There have been a very few mishaps. It is not uncommon in the north of England for a child to be born too soon after marriage, and the same thing occurs in Saône-et-Loire. The daughters of the better class of farmers are, so far as I know, a most respectable class both in England and France. Some of the best quiet manners I have met with have been in that class--modest and simple manners, without any pretension, but with dignity and self-respect. [Sidenote: Parallel Examples amongst Country Gentlefolks.] For the country gentlefolks here are parallel examples. I had a neighbour in England who lived quietly in the country, had certain rather refined tastes, and was respected by every one. I have a neighbour in France who lives quietly in the country, has precisely the same tastes as the Englishman, and lives with his family exactly in the same way, except, perhaps, that he has _déjeuner_ at eleven when the Englishman had luncheon at one. The Frenchman and his wife are also respected by everybody, and I have not the faintest reason for supposing that they do not deserve it. Yet I am asked to believe that they are intensely vicious, and if I inquire for proofs I am referred to novels written by some Parisian who has never seen my neighbours. [Sidenote: Unmarried Girls.] A large class, both in France and England, whose general good conduct is doubted by nobody who knows the countries, is that of unmarried girls in the middle and upper classes. Here a fall is so rare as to be practically unknown. The English girl is less retiring than the French _jeune fille_, and she knows more, but she is equally safe. It is something that the two civilisations should have produced at least one class that is so very nearly immaculate. [Sidenote: The French Clergy.] [Sidenote: The Anglican Clergy.]