104 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



power of difturbing the peace of all families. Thefe 

 are the perfons who retail, for a dinner, that in- 

 exhauftible collection of anecdotes, favourable or 

 unfavourable, which are^ in every inftance, to re- 

 gulate public opinion. 



It is not in the power of a rich man to marry a 

 handfome wife, and enjoy himfelf at home in his 

 own way ; thofe perfons lay him under the necef- 

 lîty, unlefs he would be laughed at, that is, under 

 pain of the fevereft evil which can befal a Frencli- 

 man, of making his wife the central point of all 

 fafliionable fociety ; he muft exhibit her at all 

 public places ; and adopt the manners which his 

 plebeian dictators think proper to prefcribe, how- 

 ever contradiélory they may be to Nature, and 

 however inconfiftent with conjugal felicity. While, 

 as a regularly embodied army, they difpofe of the 

 reputation and the pleafures of the rich, two of 

 the columns attack their fortune in front, in two 

 different ways. The one employs the method of 

 intimidation, and the other that of feduâ:ion. 



I (hall not here confine my reflsélions to the 

 power and wealth gradually acquired by fevetal 

 religious orders, but extend them to their number 

 in general. Some politicians pretend, that France 

 would become too populous, were there no con- 

 vjnts in it. Are England and Holland over- 

 peopled, 



