The spirit of small economies may take a character of positive meanness. Servants may be, and sometimes are, so wretchedly fed that they will not stay in the place. Relations, as eating beings, may be so inhospitably received that they finally cease their visits. All hospitality may come to an end, invitations being declined in dread of the obligation of reciprocity, till at last the thrifty household realises its perfect ideal of spending nothing on anybody. French tradesmen are well acquainted with this class of customers, who are incessantly trying to get something out of them. The ingenuity of such customers goes beyond anything that would be believed in England. French novelists sometimes amuse themselves by depicting the petty craft of the meanest natures. The novelists cannot go beyond the truth, with all their inventiveness. [Sidenote: English Improvidence.] As a contrast to this you have English improvidence, especially in the genteel professional class, where the whole energy of the master of the house is devoted to earning fairy gold, the gold that immediately vanishes. He spends that he may succeed and succeeds that he may spend. He brings up a family with genteel habits and no capital. Apparently prosperous and enviable, he enjoys in reality nothing that prosperity ought to give, since he has neither leisure to think, nor liberty, nor peace of mind, nor any hope of rest except in the grave.[53] [Sidenote: Results of French Thrift.] The final results of French thrift, for the nation, are as follows:-- [Sidenote: The Poorer Class.] 1. The poorer classes are better fed and better clothed. This is a real good, because they needed it. They are probably stronger than they used to be. [Sidenote: Increase of Idlers.] 2. The idle class is constantly increasing in numbers, not because it is prolific, but by the accession of _nouveaux riches_. This is not perceptibly a benefit. [Sidenote: Effect of Thrift on Population.] 3. The _extreme_ spirit of thrift will not allow population to increase with riches. It operates as a powerful restraint on procreation even in wealthy families. This weakens France relatively to England and Germany. [Sidenote: Effects of Luxury.] 4. Thrift has produced wealth, wealth luxury, and luxury also acts as a restraint on population, because, in a luxurious age, children are too expensive. [Sidenote: Weakening of the Warlike Temper] 5. As for national defence, the wealth of France is of use for all material things, such as ships, fortresses, and guns, but by increasing the love of comfort and commerce it has enfeebled the warlike temper of the nation. [Sidenote: Temptation to Enemies.] 6. As the wealth of France continually increases, and her defenders do not increase with it, she becomes every year a more tempting prize for an enemy. CHAPTER VI CLEANLINESS [Sidenote: English Civilisation.]