THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



307 



important — the ethical viewpoint of the 

 nation? 



Frankly, here is where the French and 

 we have long misunderstood each other. 

 Just as, frankly, we Americans do not 

 considertfiese people as of a profoundly 

 religious temperament. 



Your Frenchman is willing to admit 

 that the church is a helpful institution, to 

 be respected always and utilized at inter- 

 vals"; but when its religion undertakes to 

 interfere with what he considers the nat- 

 ural activities of a normal life it is liable 

 to receive a cold shoulder. 



Mainly Catholic in their traditions and 

 sentiment, the common people still rever- 

 ence the vast institution governed from 

 Rome ; but the educated classes, because 

 of their belief in its opposition to certain 

 democratic movements, have, in recent 

 years, been rather alienated. 



Fortunately, the recent law separating 

 church from state and the patriotic atti- 

 tude of the clergy, whether Catholic, 

 Protestant, or Jewish, in the present war 

 has undoubtedly improved the standing 

 of organized religion in the nation. 



Morally the French are not an intro- 

 spective people as were our Puritan fore- 

 fathers. Your Frenchman does not al- 

 ways believe that his conscience decides 

 aright; he does not rely implicitly upon 

 it ; he has an unhesitating belief in a sane 

 following of natural instincts. Puritan- 

 ism meant restraint; Parisianism means 

 expression. 



In the words of one observer: "To 

 violate the heart's dictates, which are the 

 direct behests of nature, is, in his eyes, 

 either pedantry or folly. . . . It is not 

 a question at all of a higher law, but of 

 the natural instincts of man, which on the 

 one hand he is to preserve from . . . 

 depravity . . . and on the other to 

 organize in such a way as to benefit that 

 highly artificial institution known as so- 

 ciety, in the direction of natural develop- 

 ment, and not natural restraint." 



The suggestions of culture, the dictates 

 of science, the voice of society, must be 

 considered, and one must distinguish be- 

 tween the anti-legal and the anti-social. 

 Business immorality is a thing to be de- 

 tested, affecting as it may the whole of 

 economic society — a thing more danger- 



ous than personal immorality, which is 

 largely one's own business. 



FRANCE MISJUDGED BECAUSE FOREIGNERS 

 SEEKING SIN EOUND IT 



France no doubt has its weaknesses, 

 for which no excuses need be attempted. 

 The immorality of women, however, in 

 that great country has been shamefully 

 exaggerated. 



Because the foreigners seeking sin 

 found it on certain Paris boulevards they 

 concluded that this frank sexual advertis- 

 ing was characteristic of France, whereas 

 the average French girl is as zealously 

 shielded from temptation as was ever 

 the daughter of the Pilgrim father. But 

 to love intensely and passionately is the 

 French girl's hope and desire ; and why 

 should it not be ? 



On the subject of sobriety one may not 

 be so kindly a critic at present. A few 

 years before the war there began a rapid 

 increase in the use of alcohol, especially 

 among the city working class and lower 

 bourgeoisie — an increase indeed formida- 

 ble to public health. 



The use of light wines as a universal 

 beverage may have had only a slight de- 

 bilitating effect ; but as the increasing 

 excise duty on wines caused a greater 

 demand for cheaper and more violent 

 spirits, and as the use of absinthe and 

 aperitifs became more popular, the rate 

 of pure alcohol used per person in France 

 at length reached in 19 16 the entirely too 

 large amount of 1%. liters. 



Nor has the war discouraged the drink- 

 ing habit. Many a poor soul has found 

 solace in the bottle after the day's drudg- 

 ery of war work. 



The Frenchman makes no pretext of 

 hiding his love of the game of chance. 

 Generally he is too shrewd to place large 

 amounts at stake, but the sum total of the 

 national betting must be an enormous 

 amount. 



Theoretically gambling is illegal, but 

 under the name of casinos and clubs it 

 thrives, and the government, always lib- 

 eral and tolerant toward lotteries and 

 other forms of the vice, collects approxi- 

 mately 15 per cent of the incomes of such 

 places in the form of a license tax. 

 Horse-race betting, like the casinos, is 

 under strict government supervision, and 



