Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

ANCIENT FKENCH SOCIETY.95

At this news the fears that each party had more or less concealed betrayed themselves by a general explosion of rejoicing. Each confessed his thoughts and fears, all laughed at each other, and those who were the most candid in their confessions were the least laughed at. The evening that had commenced so ominously concluded with a dance and song.

Before separating for the night, Prince К

complimented me for my good manners in listening with apparent pleasure to his stories. One may recognise the well-bred man, he observed, by the manner he assumes in listening to another. I replied that the best way by which to seem to be listening, was to listen. This answer, repeated by the prince, was lauded beyond its merit. Nothing is lost, and every thought is done more than justice to by persons whose benevolence even is intellectual.

The great eharm of ancient French society lay in the art of making the best of others. If this amiable art is scarcely known among us in the present day, it is because it requires greater refinement of mind to praise than to depreciate. He who knows how to estimate all things, disdains nothing, and refuses to join in ridicule; but where envy reigns depreciation mixes with all that is said. Jealousy in the guise of wit, and under the mask of good sense, (for pretended good sense is always marked by a love of ridicule,) is the evil sentiment which in these days conspires against the pleasures of social life. In its endeavour to appear good and amiable, true politeness really becomes so ; its possession seems to me to embrace that of all other virtues.