[2] Of which degradation, let it never be forgotten that France but thirty
years ago presented as shocking cases as any country, even where slavery
is tolerated. An eye-witness to the fact, who has since published it in
print, told me, that in France, before the revolution, he had repeatedly
seen a woman yoked with an ass to the plough; and the brutal ploughman
applying his whip indifferently to either. English people, to whom I have
occasionally mentioned this as an exponent of the hollow refinement of
manners in France, have uniformly exclaimed--'_That_ is more than I
can believe;' and have taken it for granted that I had my information from
some prejudiced Englishman. But who was my informer? A Frenchman, reader,
--M. Simond; and though now by adoption an American citizen, yet still
French in his heart and in all his prejudices.
SUPERFICIAL KNOWLEDGE.
It is asserted that this is the age of Superficial Knowledge; and amongst
the proofs of this assertion we find Encyclopaedias and other popular
abstracts of knowledge particularly insisted on. But in this notion and
its alleged proofs there is equal error--wherever there is much diffusion
of knowledge, there must be a good deal of superficiality: prodigious
_extension_ implies a due proportion of weak _intension_; a sea-like
expansion of knowledge will cover large shallows as well as large
depths.
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