young’s TRAVELS in FRANC".

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enquiry, or bufinefs that demands feven or eight hours attention, uninterrupted by anytails to the table or the toilette; calls which, after fatigue or exertion, are obeyed withrefrefhment and with pleafure. We drefs for dinner in England with propriety, as therelt of the day is dedicated to eafe, to converfc, and relaxation; but by doing u atnoon, too much time is loft. What is a man good for after his (ilk breeches anddockings are on, his hat under his arm, and his hea l bien poud'rc ? — Can he botanizein a watered meadow? —Can he clamber the rocks to mineralize?—Can he farm withthe peafant and the ploughman ?—He is in order for the converfation of the ladies, whichto be fure is in every country, but particularly in France , where the women are highlycultivated, an excellent employment; but it is an employment that never re'i/hes bet-ter than after a day fpent inactive toil or animated purfuit; in fomathing that has en-larged thefphere of our conceptions, or added to the (lores of our knowledge.—I aminduced to make this obfervation, becaufe the noon dinners are cuftomary all overFrance, except with perfons of confiderable faftiion at Paris . They cannot be treatedwith too much ridicule or feveritv, for they are ablolutely hoftile to every view offcience, to every fpirited exertion, and to every uleful purfuit in life.

Living in this way, however, with feveral perfons of the firft faftiion in the kingdom,is an object to a foreigner felicitous to remark the manners and character of the nation,

I have every reafon to be pieafed with the experiment, as it affords me a conftant op-portunity to enjoy the advantages of an unaffected and poliflred fociety, in which aninvariable fweetnefs of difpofition, mildnefs of character, and what in Englilh we em-phatically call good temper, eminently prevail: — feeming to arife-at lead I con-

jecture it, from a thoufand little namelefs and peculiar circumftances—not refultingentirely from the perfonal character of the individuals, but apparently holding of thenational one.—Befides the perfons I have named, there are among others at our af-femblies, the Marquis and Marchionefs de Hautfort; the Duke and Duchefs de Ville(this Duchefs is among the good order of beings) ; the Chevalier de Peyrac ; Monfieurl’Abbe Baftard ; Baron de Serres; Vifcountels Duhamel; the Bifhops of Croire andMontauban ; Monfieur de la Marche; the Baron de Montagu, a chefs player; theChevalier de Cheyron ; and Monfieur de Bellecomb, who commanded in Pondicherry ,and was taken by the Englilh. There are alfo about half a dozen young officers, andthree or four abbees.

If I may hazard a remark on the converfation of French affemblies, from what I haveknown here, I ftiould praife them for equanimity, but condemn them for infipidity.All vigour of thought feems fo excluded from expreflion, that chara&ers of ability andof inanity meet nearly on a par: tame and elegant, uninterefting and polite, themingled mafs of communicated ideas has powers neither to offend nor inftrudt; wherethere is much polifti of charadter, there is little argument; and if you neither arguenordifeufs, what is converfation ? — Good temper, and habitual eafe, are the firft ingre-dients in private fociety; but wit, knowledge, or originality, mull break their evenfurface into feme inequality of feeling, or converfation is like a journey on an endlefs flat.

Of the rural beauties we have to contemplate, the valley of Larbouffe, in a nook ofwhich the town of Luchon is fituated, is the principal, with its furrounding accompa-niment of mountain. The range that bounds it to the north is bare of wood, but co-vered with cultivation ; and a large village,' about three parts of its height, is perchedon a fteep, that almoft makes the unaccuftomed eye tremble with apprehenfton, thatthe village, church, and people will come tumbling into the valley. Villages thusperched, like eagles’ nefts on rocks, are a general circumftance in the Pyrenees , whichappear to be wonderfully peopled. The mountain that forms the vveftern wail of the

o 2 valley,