There is no serious interest in that kind of existence, no
conversations worthy of being so called, except now and
then by the greatest of chances. The witty, clever French
society, the salons which had such a universal reputation
in olden times, have all disappeared with the snows of the
many winters that have elapsed since the days when they
ruled public opinion, and when their influence was felt every-
where, often in politics and always in literature, which had to
conform more or less to their rules, and which would not have
cared to offend their good taste. Parisian society has degen-
erated, it is impossible to deny it, degenerated on account of

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France from Behind the Veil

the many foreign elements that have invaded it, and also
on account of the importance which money has acquired,
an importance that has taken the place occupied formerly
by intelligence, beauty, virtue — all the things which ought
to be respected, but which we are apt, now, to forget when
we find them associated with that money which is the only
god whose supremacy is acknowledged in that Paris which
thinks itself the capital of the world, but which is only the
purveyor of most of its evil pleasures.
Not only in society as a whole is this laxity of demeanour
and conduct discernible, but there is a perceptible loosening
of the laws which used to govern legislators and officials.
What men would formerly consider as impinging upon their
honour is no longer looked at askance, and so things happen
which leave an unpleasant memory. This has been observed
in certain activities in the financial world.
