One may fairly laugh at the ridiculous airs of some German women, who are continually exalting themselves even to a pitch of affectation, and who sacrifice to their pretty softnesses of expression, all that is marked and striking in mind and character; they are not open, even though they are not false; they only see and judge of nothing correctly, and real events. pass like a phantasmagoria before their eyes. Even when they take it into their heads to be light and capricious, they still retain a tincture of that sentimentality which is held in so high honor in their country. A German woman said one day, with a melancholy expression, "I know not wherefore, but those who are absent pass away from my soul." A French woman would have rendered this idea with more gayety, but it would have been fundamentally the same.

Notwithstanding these affectations, which form only the exception, there are among the women of Germany numbers whose sentiments are true and manners simple. Their careful education, and the purity of soul which is natural to them, render the dominion which they exercise gentle and abiding; they inspire you from day to day with a stronger interest for all that is great and generous, with more of confidence in all noble hopes, and they know how to repel that desolating irony which breathes a death-chill over all the enjoyments of the heart. Nevertheless, we seldom find among them that quickness of apprehension, which animates conversation, and sets every idea in motion; this sort of pleasure is scarcely to be met with anywhere out of the most lively and the most witty societies of Paris/ The chosen company of a French metropois can alone confer this rare delight; elsewhere, we generally find only eloquence in public, or tranquil pleasure in familiar life. Conversation, as a talent, exists in France alone; in all other countries it answers the purposes of politeness, of argument, or of friendly intercourse. In France, it is an art to which the imagination and the soul are no doubt very necessary, but which possesses, besides these, certain secrets, where, by the absence of both may be supplied.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF CHIVALRY ON LOVR AND HONOR,

CHIVALRY is to modern, what the heroic age was to ancient times; to it all the noble recollections of the nations of Europe are attached. At all the great epochs of history, men have embraced some sort of enthusiastic sentiment, as a universal principle of action. Those whom they called heroes, in the most distant ages, had for their object to civilize the earth; the confused traditions, which represent them to us as subduing the monsters of the forests, bear, no doubt, an allusion to the first dangers which menaced society at its birth, and from which it was preserved by the supports of its yet new organization. Then came the enthusiasm of patriotism, and inspired all that was great and brilliant in the actions of Greece and Rome: this enthusiasm became weaker when there was no longer a country to love; and, a few centuries later, chivalry succeeded to it. Chivalry consisted in the defence of the weak, in the loyalty of valor, in the contempt of deceit, in that Christian charity which endeavored to introduce humanity even in war; in short, in all those sentiments which substituted the reverence of honor for the ferocious spirit of arms. It is among the northern nations that chivalry had its birth;i

1 The origin of chivalry has often been traced to a custom of the Germans, described by Tacitus:

"The Germans transact no business, public or private, without being armed; but it is not customary for any person to assume arms till the State has approved his ability to use them. Then, in the midst of the assembly, either one of the chiefs, or the father, or a relation, equips the youth with a shield and javelin. These are to them the manly gown; this is the first honor conferred on youth: before this they are considered as part of a household; afterwards, of the State. The dignity of chieftain is

but in the south of France that it was embellished by the charın of poetry and love. The Germans had, in all times, treated women with respect, but the French were the first that tried to please them; the Germans also had their chanters of love (Minnesinger), but nothing that could be compared to our Trouvêres and Troubadours; and it is to this source, perhaps, that we must refer a species of literature strictly national. The spirit of northern mythology had much more resemblance' to Christianity than the Paganism of the ancient Gauls; yet is there no country where Christians have been better knights, or knights better Christians, than in France.

The Crusades brought together the gentlemen of all countries, and created out of the spirit of chivalry a sort of European patriotism, which filled every soul with the same sentiment. The feudal government, that political institution so gloomy and severe, but which, in some respects, consolidated/ the spirit of chivalry, by investing it with the character of love; the feudal government, I say, has continued in Germany even to our own days. It was overthrown in France by Cardinal Richelieu; and, from that epoch to the Revolution, the French have been altogether destitute of any source of enthusiasm. I know it will be said that the love of their king was such; but, supposing it possible that this sentiment could

bestowed even on mere lads, whose descent is eminently illustrious, or whose fathers have performed signal services to the public; they are associated, however, with those of mature strength, who have already been declared capable of service; nor do they blush to be seen in the rank of companions. For the state of companionship itself has its several degrees, determined by the judgment of him whom they follow; and there is a great emulation among the companions, which shall possess the highest place in the favor of their chief; and among the chiefs, which shall excel in the number and valor of his companions. It is their dignity, their strength, to be always surrounded with a large body of select, youth-an ornament in peace, a bulwark in war. And not in his own country alone, but among the neighboring States, the fame and glory of each chief consists in being distinguished for the number and bravery of his companions. Such chiefs are courted by embassies, distinguished by presents, and often, by their reputation alone, decide a war."-(Tacitus, Germania, vii.)-Ed, 2 Or, rather, being less barbarous, it was less opposed to Christianity. -Ed.

extend to a whole nation, still it is confined so entirely to the mere person of the sovereign, that during the administrations of the Regent and of Louis XV, it would have been difficult, I imagine, for the French to have derived any thing great from its influence. The spirit of chivalry, which still emitted some sparkles in the reign of Louis XIV, was extinguished with him, and succeeded, according to a very lively and sensible historian,' by the spirit of Fatuity, which is entirely opposite to it. Instead of protecting women, Fatuity seeks to destroy them; instead of despising artifice, she employs it against those feeble beings whom she prides herself in deceiving; and she substitutes the profanation of love in the place of its worship.

Even courage itself, which formerly served as the pledge of loyalty, became nothing better than a brilliant mode of evading its chain; for it was no longer necessary to be true, but only to kill in a duel the man who accuses you of being other wise; and the empire of society in the great world made almost all the virtues of chivalry disappear. France then found herself without any sort of enthusiastic impulse whatever; and as such impulse is necessary to prevent the corruption and dissolution of nations, it is doubtless this natura! necessity which, in the middle of the last century, turned every nind towards the love of liberty.

It seems, then, that the philosophical progress of the human race should be divided into four different periods: the heroic times, which gave birth to civilization; patriotism, which constituted the glory of antiquity; chivalry, which was the military religion of Europe; and the love of liberty, the history of which dates its origin from the epoch of the Reformation.

Germany, with the exception of a few of its courts, which were inspired with the emulation of imitating France, had not been tainted by the fatuity, immorality, and incredulity, which

1 M. de Cretelle. Two of the name have been distinguished in lettersPierre-Louis and Charles-Joseph. The latter is here alluded to. H& published his Précis Historique de la Révolution Française in 1801-1806.-Ed

since the time of the Regency, had debased the natural character of Frenchmen. Feudality still retained among the Germans the maxims of chivalry: they fought duels, indeed, seldomer than in France, because the Germanic nation is not so lively as the French, and because all ranks of people do not, as in France, participate in the sentiment of bravery; but public opinion was generally much more severe with regard to every thing connected with probity. If a man had, in any manner, been wanting to the laws of morality, ten duels a day would never have set him up again in any person's esteem. Many men of good company have been seen in France, who, when accused of some blamable action, have answered, "It may be bad enough; but nobody at least will dare to say so before my face." Nothing can imply a more utter depravation of morals; for what would become of human society, if it was only necessary for men to kill each other, to acquire the right of doing one another, in other respects, all the mischief possible; to break their word, to lie, provided nobody dared to say, "You have lied;" in short, to separate loyalty from bravery, and transform courage into a mode of obtaining social impunity?

Since the extinction of the spirit of chivalry in France; since she possessed no longer a Godefroi, a Saint Louis, or a Bayard, to protect weakness, and hold themselves bound by a promise as by the most indissoluble chain, I will venture to say, contrary to the received opinion, that France has perhaps. been that country of the world in which women are the least happy at heart. France was called the Paradise of women, on account of the great share of liberty which the sex enjoyed there; but this very liberty arose from the facility with which men detached themselves from them. The Turk, who shuts up his wife, proves at least by that very conduct how necessary she is to his happiness; the man of gallantry, a character of which the last century furnished us with so many examples, selects women for the victims of his vanity; and this vanity consists not only in seducing, but in afterwards abandoning them. He must, in order to justify it, be able to declare, in

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