Experience proves that in these contests
no one is ever convinced, and that each goes away more than ever
persuaded of the truth of his own opinions.
The customs of the world now give me nothing but pain. From the bosom of
the retirement where I have been secluded for these 15 years, I can
judge, without prepossession, of the extraordinary revolution in manners
which has lately taken place. Old impressions are replaced, it is said,
by new ones; that is all. Are, then, the new ones superior? I cannot
believe it. Morality itself is rapidly undergoing dissolution--every
character is contaminated, and no one knows from whence the poison is
inhaled. Young men now lounge away their evenings in the box of a
theatre, or the Boulevards, or carry on elegant conversation with a fair
seller of gloves and perfumery, make compliments on her lily and
vermilion cheeks, and present her with a _cheap_ ring, accompanied with
a gross and indelicate compliment. Society is so disunited, that it is
daily becoming more vulgar, in the literal sense of the word. Whence any
improvement is to arise, God only knows.
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
* * * * *
CURRAN AND THE MASTIFF.
Curran told me, with infinite humour of an adventure between him and a
mastiff when he was a boy. He had heard somebody say that any person
throwing the skirts of his coat over his head, stooping low, holding out
his arms and creeping along backward, might frighten the fiercest dog
and put him to flight.
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