noon
The _ French _ have a _ gay _ way of treating everything that is Great ; and that is all can be said upon it . -LSB- Footnote 7.3 : Non orbis gentem , non urbem gens habet ullam -------- ulla parem . -RSB- In mentioning the word _ gay _ -LRB- as in the close of the last chapter -RRB- it puts one -LRB- _ i.e. _ an author -RRB- in mind of the word _ spleen _ -- especially if he has anything to say upon it : not that by any analysis -- or that from any table of interest or genealogy , there appears much more ground of alliance betwixt them , than betwixt light and darkness , or any two of the most unfriendly opposites in nature -- only ’t is an undercraft of authors to keep up a good understanding amongst words , as politicians do amongst men -- not knowing how near they may be under a necessity of placing them to each other -- which point being now gain 'd , and that I may place mine exactly to my mind , I write it down here -- SPLEEN This , upon leaving _ Chantilly _ , I declared to be the best principle in the world to travel speedily upon ; but I gave it only as matter of opinion . I still continue in the same sentiments -- only I had not then experience enough of its working to add this , that though you do get on at a tearing rate , yet you get on but uneasily to yourself at the same time ; for which reason I here quit it entirely , and for ever , and ’t is heartily at any one 's service -- it has spoiled me the digestion of a good supper , and brought on a bilious diarrhœa , which has brought me back again to my first principle on which I set out -- and with which I shall now scamper it away to the banks of the _ Garonne _ -- -- No ; -- I can not stop a moment to give you the character of the people -- their genius -- their manners -- their customs -- their laws -- their religion -- their government -- their manufactures -- their commerce -- their finances , with all the resources and hidden springs which sustain them : qualified as I may be , by spending three days and two nights amongst them , and during all that time making these things the entire subject of my enquiries and reflections -- Still -- still I must away -- the roads are paved -- the posts are short -- the days are long -- ’t is no more than noon -- I shall be at _ Fontainbleau _ before the king -- -- Was he going there ? not that I know -- Now I hate to hear a person , especially if he be a traveller , complain that we do not get on so fast in _ France _ as we do in _ England _ ; whereas we get on much faster , _ consideratis considerandis _ ; thereby always meaning , that if you weigh their vehicles with the mountains of baggage which you lay both before and behind upon them -- and then consider their puny horses , with the very little they give them -- ’t is a wonder they get on at all : their suffering is most unchristian , and ’t is evident thereupon to me , that a _ French _ post-horse would not know what in the world to do , was it not for the two words ****** and ****** in which there is as much sustenance , as if you gave him a peck of corn : now as these words cost nothing , I long from my soul to tell the reader what they are ; but here is the question -- they must be told him plainly , and with the most distinct articulation , or it will answer no end -- and yet to do it in that plain way -- though their reverences may laugh at it in the bed-chamber -- fell well I wot , they will abuse it in the parlour : for which cause , I have been volving and revolving in my fancy some time , but to no purpose , by what clean device or facette contrivance I might so modulate them , that whilst I satisfy _ that ear _ which the reader chuses to _ lend _ me -- I might not dissatisfy the other which he keeps to himself . -- My ink burns my finger to try -- and when I have -- ' twill have a worse consequence -- it will burn -LRB- I fear -RRB- my paper .