infenfibly get the better of the oppofite barbarous prejudice: but it is otherwife when the honour of others, with whom ours is connected, happens to be attacked; then there is no poffibility of making it up. If my father has had a box on the ear, if my fifter, my wife, or my miftrefs is infulted, fall I preferve my honour by making a cheap market of theirs? No marfhals, no accommodation will do: I muft either revenge the affront, or be dishonoured; and the edicts leave no other choice, but punifhment or infamy. To produce an example that makes for my purpose, is it not an odd fort of contraft between the fpirit of the theatre, and that of the laws, that people should applaud the very fame Cid on the ftage, who would be hanged at the Greve?

Therefore it is all in vain; neither reafon, nor virtue, nor laws, will prevail over the public opinion, fo long as there is no contrivance to change it. Once more I fay it, force will not do. The prefent method would be of no ufe, were it put in practice, but to punish brave fellows, and to encourage cowards; but fortunately it is too abfurd to be used, and has contributed only to change the name of duels.'

We are perfuaded every man of fenfe and fpirit will fubfcribe to our Author's fentiments on this head. The infufficiency of mere edicts and laws, to prevent duels, is well known. It is, indeed, notorious, that notwithstanding the feverity of the laws in France against this cuftom, duels are ftill very frequently fought there; as thofe numerous refugees, whom we find difperfed in feveral parts of Europe, abundantly teftify. If you afk many of thefe why they left France, they are as ready with their affaire d'honneur, as others of their countrymen are, with their attachments to religion.

It is true, we have fometimes been apt equally to fufpect both of infincerity; for however odd it may feem, that men should falfely accufe themselves of being murderers and out-laws, we cannot help thinking this the cafe of fome of the abovementioned gentlemen, whom we have occasionally met with. To fay the truth, almoft all of them speak of it rather in the way of boast than otherwife; and, indeed, they are fo numerous, that if we fhould not fuppofe many of them deceive us in this article, we muft conclude the French to be perpetually running a tilt at each other.

Our Author propofes a remedy against this barbarous custom; in which, without mentioning the famous Duke de Sully, he adopts feveral of his fentiments. The fcheme is plaufible: but as he himself is doubtful if it ever would fucceed, we fhall pass it He obferves, however, that by neglecting fome fuch

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means as he propofes, and attempting to intermix force and laws in a matter of prejudice, and to change the notion of honour by violence, the royal authority has been endangered, and laws which exceed its power have been expofed to contempt.

And yet, continues he, what was this prejudice which they wanted to deftroy? It was the moft wild and barbarous notion that ever entered into the human breaft, namely, that every duty of fociety is fupported by bravery; that a man is no longer a cheat, a rafcal, or a coundrel, when he can fight; that falfehood is changed into truth; that theft becomes lawful, treachery commendable, difloyalty honourable, when they can be defended fword in hand; that an affront or injury is always fufficiently repaired by the thrust of a sword, and that we are never in the wrong with regard to another man, provided we kill him. There is, I acknowlege, another kind of fighting, where politeness is mixed with cruelty, and where they kill people only by chance; this is, when they fight in the first heat of blood. In the first heat of blood! Good God! And what makes thee thirst fo after another man's blood, thou favage beast! Doft thou want to drink it? Is it poffible to think of these horrid cruelties without fhivering? Such are the prejudices, which the Kings of France, with the whole force of the ftate, have attacked in vain. Opinion, the fovereign of mankind, is not fubject to the power of Kings; but they themselves are her principal flaves.'

The laft fubject on which our Author difplays his ingenuity, is the effeminacy of modern manners. On this head he has a variety of fpirited remarks. We fhall quote what he fays on the article of education.

I am told, that the education of youth is generally a great deal better than heretofore at Geneva; which cannot be proved, however, any other way, than by fhewing that it makes them better citizens. Certain it is, that children know how to make a more graceful bow; that they know how to give out their hand more genteely to the ladies, and to fay a great many pretty things to them, for which, if it depended upon me, they fhould be foundly whipped; that they know how to be pofitive, to afk queftions, to interrupt people in their difcourfe, and to teize every body they fee, without either modefty or good breeding. I am told, that this is what forms them; I'grant it forms them. to be impertinent, and of all the improvements they learn, this is the only one they never forget. This is not all; in order to keep them near the women, as playthings defigned for the diverfion of the fex, care is taken to train them up in the most effeminate manner: they are kept out of the way of the 'un,

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the wind, the rain, and the duft, that they may never be able to endure any inclemency of weather. Since it is impoffible to fcreen them intirely from all preflure of external air, they fhalf not feel it, however, till their fibres have loft one half of their elafticity. They are deprived of excrcife, ftripped of their faculties, and rendered unfit for every other purpose, but that for which they are intended: in fhort, the only thing the women do not require of thofe mean flaves, is to devote themselves to their fervice after the manner of the Orientals. With this exception, all the diftinction between them is, that nature having refused them the graces of the fex, they fupply them with their follies. The last time I was at Geneva, I faw feveral of thofe young ladies in breeches, with fine white teeth, plump foft hands, a fqueaking voice, and a pretty green umbrello, mimicking very aukwardly the character of men.

In my time they were not fo delicate. Children brought up in a rustic manner, were not afraid of spoiling their complexions, nor of the inclemency of the air, to which they had been accustomed from their infancy. Their fathers carried them out to their country fports, to their exercifes, and to all companies. Before aged people they behaved with a bashful timidity; but they were bold, daring, and quarrelsome among themselves; they had no curled locks to comb; they challenged each other to wreftic, to run, and at handy cuffs; they fought in good earneft, hurt one another fometimes, and then kiffed and shook hands. They came home fweating, and out of breath, with their cloaths all torn, like flovenly boys; but thefe flovenly boys made men, who have a fincere affection for their country, and are ready to fpill the laft drop of their blood in its defence. God grant we may be able to fay fo much one day of our pretty' fmugged up little gentlemen, and that these men at fifteen do not turn out children at thirty.'

There is both fpirit and fenfe in our Author's reproof of his countrymen's thus educating their children petits-maitres: but the partial old man may be feen throughout the whole. Alas! it was otherwife in MY time! His partiality to the people and manners of his own country, is alfo droll enough. As to the men, he fays, they meet in their circles, or clubs; they argue; and if they fall fometimes into difcourfes which may feem a little too free, you are not to be shocked at it: the leaft vulgar is not always the moft virtuous. It is true, they game, they fit up all night, they get drunk, &c.* But all these things are

Our Readers might be apt to suppose the Author here ironically fatirizing his countrymen, but we affure them he appears to be really ferious.

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mere trifles in the good citizens of Geneva: for our Author affures us, in their behalf, that the love of wine is no crime in itself, nor is it often the caufe of committing any; it befots a man, but does not make him wicked. For one fhort quarrel which it occafions, it gives birth to an hundred lafting friendfhips. Your bottle companions, generally fpeaking, are free and open-hearted; they are for the moft part affectionate, upright, faithful, and, in fhort, a very good fort of people, fetting afide their predominant failing.'-How requifite is it for those who are unable to reafon themfelves, to have one to reafon for them! What an able advocate thofe good fort of people, the drunkards, have in our Author!

As to the meetings of the female fex, Mr. Rouffeau is here alfo equally partial and obliging to his country.

They are,' fays he, charged with detraction; for you may eafily believe, that the anecdotes of a small town feldom escape thofe female committees: it is alfo thought, that abfent hufbands are not much fpared there, and that every pretty woman, courted by our fex, has not fair play at her neighbour's circle. But perhaps there is more good than harm in this inconveniency; and it is certainly a lefs evil than thofe it prevents: for which is worse, that a woman in company with her female acquain tance should speak ill of her husband; or that tete a tete with another man, she should cuckold him? that the fhould find fault with, or that fhe fhould imitate the loofe behaviour of her neighbour? Though the women at Geneva talk very freely of what they know, and fometimes of what they only conjecture; yet they have a real horror against calumny; for they are never known to charge another with crimes, which they believe to be falfe: but in other countries the women render themselves guilty alike by their filence and by their converfation, concealing, through fear of reprifals, the vices they know, and maliciously divulging thofe of their own invention.

What a multitude of public fcandals are prevented by these fevere obfervers? In our city they perform, in fome meafure, the office of cenfors.'

Therefore, continues our Author, we need not be fo much alarmed at the goflipping of female focieties; let them backbite as much as they pleafe, provided they do it only among themfelves.' In short, Mr. Rouleau declares the tiplers and goffips of Geneva, to be a much better fort of people than thole of other countries; and feems to conclude, on the whole, that vulgarity,. detraction, drunkennefs, and the like, provided the fexes are kept feparate, are by no means fo criminal, in fact, or dangerous in their confequences, as the mixed converfation of ladies and REV, Feb. 1759. gentle

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gentlemen in polite affemblies, and at the theatre. Ah! quelle bête! we conceive to hear a Parifian Lady exclaim, at our Author, for fo abfurd a conclufion; and yet, if the chastity of the female fex were the only object neceffary to public virtue, and the well-being of a state, we fhould be apt to fide with him here but this is only a fingle confideration, in a political fyftem of morals. We think, notwithstanding, the obfervation of Mr. Rouffeau is very juft, when he afferts that the manners of every nation depend, in a great degree, on the fair fex. If you would know the men, fays he, you must study the women. He proceeds:

In all countries, and in all conditions of life, there is fo ftrong and fo natural a connection between the two fexes, that the manners of the one ever determine those of the other. Not that these manners are always the fame, but they have always the fame degree of goodnefs, modified in each sex by their own peculiar inclinations. In England the women are gentle and timid: the men are rough and bold. Whence comes this feeming oppofition? It is because the character of each sex is thus heightened, and it is natural for this nation to carry every thing to extremes. This excepted, in other refpects they are alike. The two fexes chufe to live afunder; they are both fond of good eating; both retire after dinner, the men to the bottle, the women to tea; both fit down to play without any violent eagerness, and feem to make rather a trade of it than a paffion; both have a great refpect for decency; both do honour to the conjugal vow; and if ever they violate their fidelity, they do not boast of the violation; they are both fond of domeftic quiet; they are both remarkable for taciturnity; they are both difficult to move; they are both hurried by their paffions; in both love is terrible and tragical, it determines the fate of their days; the confequence is no lefs, fays Muralt, than to lofe either their reason or life; finally, they are both fond of the country, and the English ladies are as well delighted in wandering alone in their parks, as in fhewing themfelves at Vaux-hall. From this general tafte for folitude, arifeth that for meditation and romances, with which England is over-run. Thus both fexes, more recollected within themselves, are lefs influenced by foolish modes, have a greater relifh for the real pleafures of life, and ftudy lefs to appear, than. to be, happy.

I have quoted the English through preference, because of all nations in the world, there is none where the manners of the two fexes feem to differ more at first fight. From the relation between men and women in that country, we may conclude for every other.'

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