situation, isolated by our manners, we found truth, but did
not impart it." (9) It may surely be asked, whether France
will subscribe to this assertion of superiority, in the whole
range of science! If she does, her character has undergone an
even greater change, than any she has yet experienced in the
course of all her revolutions.

lord Orford is believed by his critic to have "sneered" at
every body. sneering was not his way of showing dislike. He
had very strong prejudices, sometimes adopted on very
insufficient grounds, and he therefore often made great
mistakes in the appreciation of character; but when influenced
by such impressions, he always expressed his opinions
directly, and often too violently.

The affections of his heart were bestowed on few; for in early
life they had never been cultivated, but they were singularly
warm, pure, and constant; characterized not by the ardour of
passion, but by the constant preoccupation of real affection.
He had lost his mother, to whom he was fondly attached, early
in life; and with his father, a man of coarse feelings and
boisterous manners, he had few sentiments in common. Always
feeble in constitution, he was unequal to the sports of the
field, and to the drinking which then accompanied them, so
that during his father's retreat at Houghton, however much he
respected his abilities and was devoted to his fame, he had
little sympathy in his tastes, or pleasure in his society. To
the friends of his own selection his devotion was not confined
to professions or words: on all occasions of difficulty, of
whatever nature, his active affection came forward in defence