CHAPTER XXV 

 ON FEMININE TASTE IN RURAL AFFAIRS* 



WHAT a very little fact sometimes betrays the na- 

 tional character; and what an odd thing this 

 national character is! Look at a Frenchman. He 

 cats, talks, lives in public. He is only happy when he has 

 spectators. In town, on the boulevards, in the cafe, at 

 places of public amusement, he is all enjoyment. But in the 

 country - - ah, there he never goes willingly; or else, he only 

 goes to sentimentalize, or to entertain his town friends. 

 Even the natural born country people seem to find nature 

 and solitude ennuyani, and so collect in little villages to 

 keep each other in spirits! The Frenchman eats and sleeps 

 almost any where; but he is never "at home but when he 

 is abroad." 



Look, on the other hand, at John Bull. He only lives 

 what he feels to be a rational life, when he lives in the coun- 

 try. His country place is to him a little Juan Fernandez 

 island; it contains his own family, his own castle, every- 

 thing that belongs to him. He hates the smoke of town; 

 he takes root in the soil. His horses, his dogs, his trees, are 

 not separate existences; they are parts of himself. He is 

 social with a reservation. Nature is nearer akin to him 

 than strange men. His dogs are truly attached to him; he 

 doubts if his fellows are. People often play the hypocrite; 

 but the trees in his park never deceive him. Home is to 

 him the next best place to heaven. 



And only a little narrow strait of water divides these two 

 nations! 



Shall we ever have a distinct national character? Will a 



country, which is settled by every people of the old world, 



- a dozen nations, all as distinct as the French and the 



* Original date of April, 1849. 

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