1802, ] 
its fingularity is worthy to be noticed. 
The day before yefterday, Madame Hentich 
paid us a vifitin the morning, and invit- 
ed us to tea in the evenings we accepted 
the invitation, and, learning that the cuf- 
tomary hours of vifiting here are very dit- 
ferent from thole at Paris, and at London, 
we were at her houle by about fix o’clock, 
and found the room already Alled. The 
firtt thing that furprifed me, I confefs, was 
the ferious and well-fupported attack that 
was mide upon the eatables: almoft im- 
mediately on our arrival we were put in 
poffeffion of a plate and knife, which were 
not long fuffered toremain without employ- 
ment. A large and well-piled dilh of pre- 
ferved fruit (p4rés) of no mean dimenfions, 
was firlt brought about, and infantly fuc- 
ceeded by a rival edifice of cakes and bif- 
cuits; both which, to our utter aftonifh- 
ment, were in a moment razed to their 
foundations! In the fimplicity of my heart 
and the fulnefs of my ftomach, I was about 
to divide one of thefe patés into two parts, 
each of which would of itfelf have made 
a very tolerable tea-meal, when the gen- 
tleman who fat next me hinted that I was 
performing a very unufual operation, and 
good-naturedly {lided a whole one on my 
plate, which alas! it was fome time before 
I could get a peep at again. . The next 
circumftance which excited our remark, 
and, to fay the truth, had well nigh pro- 
voked a wicked fimile from ‘us, was the 
ufe of chaffing-difhes by the ladies. Tell 
me honeltly, my good friend, would not it 
have difcompoied the gravity of thy coun- 
tenance, to havé&feen a fober-minded citi- 
zen preitrate himleif before an inconfcious 
female, and, gently elevating her garments, 
withdraw from between her feet this fa- 
voured ufenfil, begging the honour to fup- 
ply with fuel its expiring embers? ‘This 
morning the females of our party returned 
one of the vifits which they had received, 
and the dome/lique immediately brought, 
for their comfort, two of thefe fafhionable 
luxuries.—But the fingular cuftom to which 
I ju&t now alluded, is this: fo early in lite 
as {even years of age, the females begin to 
form themfelves into little focieties, which 
aflemble once a week, at the houies of their 
refpeCtive parents; the affociations, thus 
early inftituted, laft for life. IfI1 did not 
mifunderttand my communicator,they can- 
tinue exclufively female till one of the 
party marries ; the hufband of the lady is 
then admitted 2 member of the fociety, the 
reftraint,which it had hitherto been thought 
prudent to impole, is now become unne- 
eeflary, and the exclufion of gentlemen is 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 889 
now no longer a facrifice at the fhrine of 
decorum. ; 
Do you recolleé& the fociety which Mr. 
Gibbon relates to have exited in Switzer- 
land, * La Societé da Printems,,’ fo de- 
nominated from the vernal ages of the 
members who coinpofe it ?. If I remember 
rightly, this elegant aflembly confifted ex- 
clufively of unmarried ladies, who, without 
the reftraint of a matron or a fage, received 
vifits from foreign gentlemen, and difplay- 
ed their accomplifhments in dancing, mu- 
fic, and converfation, with fo conftant and 
acute a fenfe of propriety, that their cha- 
racters were never fullied by the breath of 
fufpicion. Ido not know that either of 
thefe is an off-fet from the other, but the 
fingularity of the one brought the other te 
ny recollection. eet 
Fiom the nature of thefe focicties in Ge- 
neva, it not unfrequently happens, that 
two, three, four, and, perhaps, five of them, 
where the female childien of the family 
amount to that number, are in the habit 
of affembling at the fame houfe: a clofe 
and valuable attachment is probably pro- 
duced between the juvenile members of 
each; but the focieties are fo diftin& and 
feparate, that one fifter may be ignorant 
even of the perfon of the bofom-friend of . 
another. I fhould apprehend a fecond evil 
confequence: the old and the young can 
mix but little together ; thefe focieties being 
originally compofed of children, whofe ages 
are nearly the fame, and they who are af- 
terwards admitted to the honours of elec- 
tion, being probably of about the fame 
ftanding in life, a fort of barrier-is thus 
formed which muft in a great meature 
prevent that frequent and familiar inter- 
courfe between perfons of unequal ages, 
which, by relaxing the ftrictnefs and foften- 
ing the feverity of one party, as well as by 
checking the vee te and fhaming the 
prefumption of the other, has an @bvicus 
tendency to improve the character of both. 
Betore the fraternization of the French, 
the little Republic of Genevahad its fump- 
tuary laws: I know very weil your opinion 
on the foolifhne!s and abfurdity of imped- 
ing the progrefs of refinement. I have 
heard you quote your favourite Mr. Hume 
on this fubjeét, who jultly obferves that 
refinement on the pleafures and conveni- 
ences of life has no natural tendency to 
beget venality and corruption: ** The value 
which all men put upon any particular 
pleafure depends on comparifon and expe- 
rience; nor is a porter lefs greedy of mo- 
ney, which he {pends on bacon and brandy, 
than a courtier who purchases champagne 
and 
