sights of Paris, Smollett drew up that caustic delineation of the
French character which as a study in calculated depreciation has
rarely been surpassed. He conceives the Frenchman entirely as a
petit-maitre, and his view, though far removed from
Chesterfield's, is not incompatible with that of many of his
cleverest contemporaries, including Sterne. He conceives of the
typical Frenchman as regulating his life in accordance with the
claims of impertinent curiosity and foppery, gallantry and
gluttony. Thus:

"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly
be the most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man
of a true English character. You know, madam, we are naturally
taciturn, soon tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of
disgust. Your French friend intrudes upon you at all hours; he
stuns you with his loquacity; he teases you with impertinent
questions about your domestic and private affairs; he attempts to
meddle in all your concerns, and forces his advice upon you with
the most unwearied importunity; he asks the price of everything
you wear, and, so sure as you tell him, undervalues it without
hesitation; he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill contrived, ill
made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
fashion and the price; that the marquis of this, or the countess
of that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton,
and yet it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that
nobody would wear.

"If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished
by repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return
he makes for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she