THE TOURIST AND THE TUTOR
the company, and has refused all invitations to dinner ever since. He generally finds some of our countrymen who dine and pass the evening with him at the Parc Royal." On one occasion Moore dined with his friend B "at the public ordinary of the Hôtel de Bourbon. … Our entertainment turned out different, however, from my expectations and his wishes. A marked attention was paid us from the moment we entered; every body seemed inclined to accommodate us with the best places. They helped us first, and all the company seemed ready to sacrifice every little conveniency and distinction to the strangers: For next to that of a lady, the most respected character at Paris is that of a stranger. All this, however, was thrown away on B. 'There was nothing real in all the fuss those people made about us,' says he. 'Curse their courtesies,' said he, — 'they are the greatest bore in nature. — I hate the French. — They are the enemies of England, and a false, deceitful, perfidious —' 'But as we did not come over,' interrupted I, 'to fight them at present, we shall suspend hostilities till a more convenient season.'"[1]
How absurd was this dislike of other nations many Englishmen clearly perceived: "The English aversion to foreigners is in opposition to reason, judgment, and politeness. Because we are islanders, the happiest circumstances in some respects belonging to us; are our manners more refined, or are our customs nearer perfection, than the customs and manners of other people? I fear the contrary. Our separation from the Continent gives us peculiarities which other nations have not. It gives us that shyness, `that obstinate, silent, rude reserve, which we practise towards ourselves and all the rest of the world. The sneer, that proud, vain, cowardly sneer, which supplies the want of wit, and discovers the abundance of ill-nature, is entirely and shamefully our own; so that, if we find faults in others, how many faults may others find in us?"[2]
In the endeavor to remedy in some measure this state of things and to fit their countrymen for social life abroad, enlightened Englishmen offered such advice as appears in
132
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 39–41.
- ↑ Earl of Cork and Orrery, Letters from Italy, pp. 142–43.
