The Desultory Man: Collection of Ancient and Modern British Novels and Romances. Vol. CXLVII.James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
The Desultory Man: Collection of Ancient and Modern British Novels and Romances. Vol. CXLVII.
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
An Englishman is proud, a Frenchman is vain. A Frenchman says more
than he thinks, an Englishman thinks more than he says. A Frenchman is
an excellent acquaintance, an Englishman is a good friend. A Frenchman
is enterprising, an Englishman is indefatigable. An Englishman has
more judgment, a Frenchman more wit. Both are brave, but an Englishman
fights coolly, a Frenchman hotly. The latter will attack anything, the
former will be repulsed by nothing. An Englishman in conversation
seems going a journey, a Frenchman is taking a walk. The one plods
hard on to the object in view, the other skips away from his path for
the slightest thing that catches his attention. There is more
advantage in conversing with the one, more pleasure with the other. An
Englishman generalizes, a Frenchman particularizes. An Englishman when
he tastes anything says that it is good, that it has an agreeable
flavour; a Frenchman describes every sensation it produces in his
mouth and throat, from the tip of the tongue down to the stomach, and
winds it up with a simile. An Englishman remarking an opera-dancer
sees that she dances well, with grace, with agility; a Frenchman notes
every _entrechat_, and can tell to a line where her foot ought to
fall. An Englishman must have a large stock of knives and forks to
change with every plate: a Frenchman uses but one for all, and it
sometimes serves him for a salt-spoon, too. An Englishman in his own
country must have two rooms; a Frenchman can do very well with one; he
dines there when he cannot go out, receives his company there, and can
do everything there. A married Englishman requires but one bed, a
married Frenchman must have two. In general an Englishman is willing
to submit to the power of the law, but inclined to resist military
force; the contrary proposition is the case with the French.
A Frenchman is constitutionally a happier animal than an Englishman.
He is born a philosopher. He enjoys to-day, he forgets the past, and
lets to-morrow take care of itself. No misfortunes can affect him,
he floats like a bit of cork on the top of the waves which seem
destined to overwhelm him. He makes his servant his confidant, the
coffee-house his library, the man next him his friend, the theatre his
fireside;--and his home--but he has nothing to do with that.
He is gay, witty, brave, and not unfeeling, but his character is like
the sand on the sea-shore, where you may write deeply, but a few waves
sweep it away for ever. That perverted word 'sentiment' in its true
sense he knows little of. But are there many men in all the world who
know much more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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