--Before I knew how offensive this question was to a Frenchman,
I have had many equivocal answers,--such as, _O! mon dieu_, as old as
the town, or, I thank God, I am in good health, &c.
XXVII.
A modern French author says, that the French language is not capable of
the _jeux de mots_. _Les jeux de mots_, are not, says he, in the genius
_de notre langue, qui est grave, de serieuse_. Perhaps it maybe so; but
the language, and the men, are then so different, that I thought quite
otherwise,--though the following beautiful specimen of the seriousness
of the language ought, in some measure; to justify his remark:
Un seul est frappe, & tous sont delivres,
Dieu frappe sons fils innocent, pour l'amour
Des hommes coupables, & pardonne aux hommes
Coupables, pour l'amour de son fils innocent.
XXVIII.
All English women, as well as women of other nations, prefer France to
their own country; because in France there is much less restraint on
their actions, than there is, (should I not say, than there _was_?) in
England.
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