this: you know my volubility, when I am full of new subjects; and I have
at least many hours of conversation for you at my return. One does not
learn a whole nation in four or five months; but, for the time, few, I
believe, have seen, studied, or got so much acquainted with the French
as I have.

By what I said of their religious or rather irreligious opinions, you
must not conclude their people of quality atheists--at least, not the
men. Happily for them, poor souls! they are not capable of going so far
into thinking. They assent to a great deal, because it is the fashion,
and because they don't know how to contradict. They are ashamed to
defend the Roman Catholic religion, because it is quite exploded; but I
am convinced they believe it in their hearts. They hate the Parliaments
and the philosophers, and are rejoiced that they may still idolise
royalty. At present, too, they are a little triumphant: the Court has
shown a little spirit, and the Parliaments much less: but as the Duc de
Choiseul, who is very fluttering, unsettled, and inclined to the
philosophers, has made a compromise with the Parliament of Bretagne, the
Parliaments might venture out again, if, as I fancy will be the case,
they are not glad to drop a cause, of which they began to be a little
weary of the inconveniences.

The generality of the men, and more than the generality are dull and
empty. They have taken up gravity, thinking it was philosophy and
English, and so have acquired nothing in the room of their natural
levity and cheerfulness. However, as their high opinion of their own
country remains, for which they can no longer assign any reason, they
are contemptuous and reserved, instead of being ridiculously,
consequently pardonably, impertinent. I have wondered, knowing my own
countrymen, that we had attained such a superiority. I wonder no longer,