But who is Sir Galahad? In England only a poetical creation, in France unheard of and unknown. Were he known he would encounter a danger that even the bravest knight might dread. It might be decided, in France, that he was ridiculous. I have been represented as holding the opinion that France and England are exactly on the same level in morals; but that is not my view. Justice consists in giving everybody his due, it does not consist in believing that nations are exactly alike. I have no doubt that England is the more moral country of the two, even in practice, and much more in principle and feeling. The great difference (and it is most profound) is that the English are still capable of stern and austere feeling about these matters, which they have derived from Puritan ancestors; whereas the French, even when practically chaste in their own lives, regard adultery, in the male sex at least, with a sort of amusement not always unmingled with admiration for the address and audacity of the sinner. A witty word may save him. I knew a marble-cutter who was accused of some illicit passion, and who saved himself by the reply, “_Pour être marbrier, on n’est pas de marbre_.” A certain incident in the life of a former prime minister of Egypt may be taken as a test of the feeling of the two countries. In England he is looked upon with serious respect as an example of chastity in youth, and wisdom in maturity; but in France all the ability of his administration cannot efface the recollection of his “_niaiserie_” in the well-known interview with “Madame Putiphar,” and shamefaced youths are called after him to this day. CHAPTER IV TEMPERANCE [Sidenote: Moderate Drinking in France.] The French are supposed to be a much more temperate nation than the English, and, in fact, there used to be few drunkards in France. That country has, however, a peculiar characteristic as to drinking. It is a country where moderate drinking is itself immoderate. The reader understands what this contradictory statement means. [Sidenote: The Education of the Body.] [Sidenote: Artful Drinking.] [Sidenote: Peasant and Gentleman.] Men are called moderate drinkers so long as they do not show any outward sign of being “the worse for liquor.” But there is an education of the body by which it may be made to absorb great quantities of alcoholic stimulants without exhibiting anything in the nature of drunkenness. In France it is considered shameful and disgusting to be drunk; but no blame is attached to the utmost indulgence in drinking so long as it keeps on the safe side. This leads to that artful kind of drinking which is well known to all French physicians, and which produces, in the long run, that peculiar state of body which they call “_l’alcoolisme des gens du monde_.” A peasant may get perfectly drunk once a month and yet be a very small consumer of alcohol; a gentleman, without ever being even tipsy, may consume five times as much alcohol as the peasant.