death or imprisonment to censure the particular measures of government; love becomes a first, instead of being a secondary object; for ambition is, generally speaking, a more powerful paffion than love; and on this account women are the objects of greater attention and respect in defpotic than in free countries. That fpecies of addrefs to women which is now called gallantry, was, if I am not mistaken, unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans; nothing like it appears in any of Terence's comedies, where one would naturally expect to find it, if any fuch thing had exifted when they were written. It now prevails, in fome degree, in every country of Europe, but appears in different forms according to the different characters, cuftoms, and manners, of the various countries.

In the courts of Germany it is a formal piece of bufinefs; etiquette governs the arrows of Cupid, as well as the torch of Hymen.

Dd 3

Hymen. Miftreffes are chofen from the number of quarters on their family coats of arms, as well as from the number of their perfonal charms; and thofe ladies who are well provided in the firft, feldom are without lovers, however deficient they may be in the fecond. But though many avenues, which in England lead to power and diftinction, are fhut up in Germany, and the whole power of government is vested in the fovereign, yet the young nobility cannot beftow a great deal of their time in gallantry. The military profeffion, which in the time of peace is perfect idleness in France and England, is a very serious, unremitting employment in Germany. Men who are continually drilling foldiers, and whofe fortunes and reputations depend on the expertness of the troops under their command, cannot pay a great deal of attention to the ladies.

Every French gentleman must be a foldier; but fighting is the only part of the business

i

business they go through with fpirit; they cannot fubmit to the German precifion in difcipline, their fouls fink under the tediousness of a campaign, and they languish for a battle from the impetuofity of their difpofition, and impatience to have the matter decided one way or the other. This, with many particular exceptions, is the general ftyle of the French nobleffe; they all ferve an apprenticeship to war, but gallantry is the profeffion they follow for life. In England, the spirit of play and of party draws the minds of the young men of fortune from love or gallantry; those who spend their evenings at a gaming-house, or in parliament, feldom think of any kind of women but fuch as may be had without trouble; and, of courfe, women of character are lefs attended to than in fome other countries. When I was laft at Paris, the Marquis de F found an English newspaper on my table; it contained a long and particular account of a debate which had happened

Dd 4

happened in both houses of parliament; hẹ read it with great attention while I finished a letter, and then throwing down the paper, he said to me, "Mais, mon ami, pendent que vos meffieurs s'amufent à "jafer comme cela dans votre chambre "des pairs et votre parlement*, parbleu "un etranger auroit beau jeu avec leurs "femmes.'

99

Intrigues of gallantry, comparatively fpeaking, occur feldom in England; and when they do, they generally proceedfrom a violent paffion, to which every confideration of fortune and reputation is facrificed, and the business concludes in a flight to the continent, or a divorce.

They manage matters otherwise in France; you hardly ever hear of flights or divorces in that country; a hundred new arrangements are made, and as many old ones broken, in a week at Paris, with

*The French in general are apt to make the fame mistake with the Marquis; they often speak of the House of Peers and the Parliament as two diftinct affemblies.

out

H

out noife or fcandal; all is conducted quietly et felon les régles; the fair fex are the univerfal objects of respect and adoration, and yet there is no fuch thing as conftancy in the nation. Wit, beauty, and every accomplishment united in one woman, could not fix the volatility of a Frenchman; the love of variety, and the vanity of new conquefts, would make him abandon this phoenix for birds far lefs rare and eftimable. The women in France, who are full of spirit and fenfibility, could never endure fuch ufage, if they were not as fickle and as fond of new conquefts as their lovers.

In Italy, fuch levity is viewed with contempt, and conftancy is, by both fexes, ftill claffed among the virtues.

That high veneration for the fair fex which prevailed in the ages of chivalry, continued long after in the form of a fentimental platonic kind of gallantry. Every man of ingenuity chose unto himself a mistress, and directly proclaimed her beauty, and

ber