Category: Humour
People very often speak ill of their neighbors, not out of wickedness, but merely out of laziness; it is so much easier to do so than to study their qualities and all the circumstances that might oblige you to change your opinion.
In France, every intelligent boy of the middle class goes through his classical studies; even though he may only be intended for a commercial career, his father makes him try to...
23. CHAPTER XXII.The Englishman revolts only against injustice, and that but figuratively. Brought up to respect the law, it is in the name of the law that he demands redress for his grievances,...
24. CHAPTER XXIII.The Englishman is the stanchest monarchist, and at the same time the freest man in the world, which proves that freedom is compatible with a monarchial government. There is no F...
26. CHAPTER XXV.France, ruined by the wars and extravagances of Louis XIV., exasperated by the turpitudes of Louis XV., encouraged by the weakness of Louis XVI., revolts. Thrones tremble, and t...
14. did. As a matter of fact, we are the most absurdly sensitive,thin-skinned people on the face of the earth. We do not know how to take a kick, much less, make use of it. I mean a kick in the figurative sense; the one that leaves no trace,...
5. CHAPTER V.Joseph Prudhomme, whom the Anglo-Saxon people are fond of representing as a fighting cock, sighing constantly after glory and conquest, is a modest proprietor, peaceful, home-lo...
18. CHAPTER XVII.The French, impressionable and fond of pompous pageants, adopted a mystical religion, which addresses itself to their senses; the English, cool and argumentative, preferred a re...
8. CHAPTER VIII.The French and the English have this very characteristic feature in common: they can stand any amount of incense; you may burn all the perfumes of Arabia under their noses, with...
12. CHAPTER XII.To think that those worthy French and English people, who only live twenty-one miles from each other, should not be able to exchange visits without first making acquaintance wit...
3. CHAPTER III.Jacques Bonhomme is a small landowner, fond of his country, his cottage, his fields, his cow, and his _gros sous_. His great aim is to be independent of the world, and to this e...
9. CHAPTER IX.The French social failure is generally a radical. If he had cared to do as plenty of others do (and seeing you prosperous, he accompanies this with an expressive glance), if he...
2. CHAPTER II.Well, an Englishman is a lusty fellow, fearless, hardy, and strong-knit, iron-muscled, and mule-headed, who, rather than let go a ball that he holds firmly in his arms, will per...
22. CHAPTER XXI.How is it that the French are such vandals with regard to their country and their institutions, seeing that the love for their family, respect for their parents, and veneration...
17. CHAPTER XVI.Since the days when Aspasia inspired Socrates and advised Pericles, in no other country has woman's sovereignty been so supreme as it has always been, and still is, in France.
11. CHAPTER XI.Humor has not the brilliancy, the vivacity of French wit, but it is more graceful, lighter, and above all more philosophic. A sarcastic element is nearly always present in it, a...
10. CHAPTER X.Languages have this in common with many mortals; when they borrow they do not return. This is perhaps a happy thing, for when borrowed words do get returned, good Heavens! what...
1. CHAPTER I.People very often speak ill of their neighbors, not out of wickedness, but merely out of laziness; it is so much easier to do so than to study their qualities and all the circum...
4. CHAPTER IV.Jacques Bonhomme's wife is the fortune of France. Hard-working, thrifty, sober, you will always see her busy, either working in the field, selling her wares in the market-place...
25. CHAPTER XXIV.Moreover, the eldest son of the aristocrat is the sole heir to his father's title and estates. He knows that the fortune cannot escape him. And so, at school, he does no work; h...
6. CHAPTER VI.To an impartial observer, who goes on his way philosophizing, and keeping his eyes open to what passes on either side of the English Channel, it is really a very amusing sight t...
21. CHAPTER XX."If," as M. Renan says,[6] "those nations which have an exceptional fact in their history expiate this fact by long sufferings and pay for it with their national existence--if t...
20. CHAPTER XIX.Everyone accounted for our disasters of 1870 after his own fashion. The most ingenious theories were brought forward, and we very well know why we believe it to be indispensable...
15. CHAPTER XIV.It would be imprudent, not to say impudent, to attack the subject of English snobs. There are themes which seem marked "Dangerous ground." If the French want to know all about E...
16. CHAPTER XV.The Anglophobist of the purest water that France ever produced, was the late Marquis de Boissy, senator of the second Empire. This witty, eloquent, spirited old Gaul, was the so...
7. CHAPTER VII.The other evening the opera "Les Huguenots" was played at the Grand Opera. The singer who took the part of _Marcel_ was out of sorts, and sang flat. An old gentleman, seated in...
13. CHAPTER XIII.The difference is enormous. If I were to publish a treatise on the English philosophers, Bacon, Locke, Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Frederic Harrison, etc., I should call my wo...