English Pharisees and French Crocodiles

companies this with an expressive glance), if he had cared to intrigue and curry favor, he too could have cut a figure in the wo

no desire to be taken for a schemer. If he has lost all else, honor still is

le loan he borrowed of you, it is because he presumes

at the thought of being caught capitulating with the enemy. But to convince himself that he has lost none of his independence of cha

as that has not made a rich man of him, you conclude that, if he has

s grave without having had a chance of revealing himself to the world. Meanwhile he opens a general ag

t Society, who is but a thankless jade, turns her back upon him and his wife. Never mind, he has done his duty. Upon th

t he had thought of doing it long ago; it was only his idea stolen from h

work to get a capital, he

g himself into the sea; but this idea of his has been s

die, it wil

the loss of him w

air in your soup, a

y a philosopher, and even keeps a spark of

enchman, who had been established in England some ti

o him that imprisonment was sti

en, I can assur

think so,"

debt was abolish

re?" said I, seei

etter than you," he said. "

or the simple reason that, in France, poverty is no crime, while in Engla

Such are the straws he clutches at; if they should break, he sinks, and is heard of no more, unless his wife comes to the rescue, by setting up a lodging house or a boarding school for young ladies. There, once more in smooth water, he wields the blacking brus

ures, or the authors who sell their books. For these he knows no pity. He can all the more easily abuse his dear brethren of the quill or brush that he has not to si

od quality-it does not stain;

oduction. I extract it from a paper

through some fifty editions. A grand stroke of this kind insures the ambition to repeat it.... His new book bears throughout manifes

used to call these revengeful failures in literature "di

ion, an answer somewhat in the fo

ased to say, without believing it any more than myself, do not lay the blame upon me, my dear sir; lay it rather upon that 'fool of a public' who is silly enough to prefer my scribblings to your chefs-d'?uvre. Not for the wo

forms a curious contrast with the fairness a

and he has a conscience; that is to say, as much aversion to disparaging as to flattering. The same author whom he praised yeste

air and kind; with deference and no thanks, if fair but u

s D'Al

self to indulge in

of his interesting Echoes of the Week, not long ago accused a book of my own, after p

is knowledge of London dairy produce, pay m