Is not the first thing that presents itself to observation in a
strange country, the general cast and turn of conversation? And is not
this the first observation I have made in Paris? I have written to you
only what is said, and not what is done in this city. If I remarked a
contrast between the discourse, the sentiments, and the actions of the
people, it is because the contrast is too striking to escape the most
superficial observer. When I see the same persons change their maxims
according to the company they frequent, Molinists in one and
Jansenists in another, court sycophants with the minister, and
factious grumblers with an anticourtier: when I see a man in lace and
embroidery rail at luxury, an officer of the revenue against imposts,
or a prelate against gluttony; when I hear a court-lady talk of
modesty, a noble lord of honesty, an author of candour, or an abbé of
religion, and see nobody surprized at these absurdities, is it not
natural enough to conclude that people here are as little anxious to
hear truth as to speak it? And that, so far from endeavouring to
persuade others into their own opinion, they care not whether they are
believed or not?
But, let this suffice, in the way of pleasantry, for an answer to our
cousin. I will lay aside an affectation to which we are all three
strangers, and I hope you will find in me for the future as little of
the satirist as the wit. And now, Eloisa, let me reply to you; for I
am at no loss to distinguish between critical raillery and serious
reproaches.
I cannot conceive how both you and your cousin could so egregiously
mistake the object of my description. It was not the French in
particular, on whom I intended to animadvert. For, if the characters
of nations can be determined only by their difference, how can I, who
have as yet no acquaintance with any other, pretend to draw the
character of this? I should not besides have been so indiscreet as to
fix on the metropolis for the place of observation. I am not ignorant
that capital cities differ less from each other, than the national
characters of the people, which are there in a great measure lost and
confounded, as well from the influence of courts, all which bear a
great resemblance to each other, as from the common consequence of
living in a close and numerous society; which is also every where
nearly the same, and prevails over the original and peculiar character
of the country.