I used to think the theatre as dear to the French as music to the Germans. But what is a taste in France is, from the firmer fibre of the national character, a passion in Germany;--and it is easier to abandon a taste than to control a passion. Perhaps, however, in England and France too, if some new-born theatrical talent of the first class were to "flame in the forehead of the morning sky," both Paris and London would submit to the degradation of dining at five o'clock in order to enjoy it: but late hours and indifferent performances, together, have gone far towards placing the stage among the popular rather than the fashionable amusements of either. LETTER XXXIX. The Abbé de Lamennais.--Cobbett.--O'Connell.--Napoleon.-- Robespierre. I had last night the satisfaction of meeting the Abbé de Lamennais at a _soirée_. It was at the house of Madame Benjamin Constant; whose _salon_ is as celebrated for the talent of every kind to be met there, as for the delightful talents and amiable qualities of its mistress. In general appearance, this celebrated man recalls an original drawing that I remember to have seen of Rousseau. He is greatly below the ordinary height, and extremely small in his proportions. His countenance is very striking, and singularly indicative of habitual meditation; but the deep-set eye has something very nearly approaching to wildness in its rapid glance. His dress was black, but had certainly more of republican negligence than priestly dignity in it; and the little, tight, chequered cravat which encircled his slender throat, gave him decidedly the appearance of a person who heeded not either the fashion of the day, or the ordinary costume of the _salon_. He, in company with four or five other distinguished men, had dined with Madame Constant; and we found him deep sunk in a _bergère_ that almost concealed his diminutive person, surrounded by a knot of gentlemen, with whom he was conversing with great eagerness and animation. On one side of him was M. Jouy, the well-known "_Hermite_" of the Chaussée d'Antin; and on the other, a deputy well known on the benches of the _côté gauche_. I was placed immediately opposite to him, and have seldom watched the play of a more animated countenance. In the course of the evening, he was brought up and introduced to me. His manners are extremely gentlemanlike; no stiffness or reserve, either rustic or priestly, interfering with their easy vivacity. He immediately drew a chair _vis-à-vis_ to the sofa on which I was placed, and continued thus, with his back turned to the rest of the company, conversing very agreeably, till so many persons collected round him, many of whom were ladies, that not feeling pleased, I suppose, to sit while they stood, he bowed off, and retreated again to his _bergère_.