- But Permit Me To Conjecture, - If,
Par Hazard, They Fell Into Your Way, That The Prospect Would Not
Affect You.
I have something within me which cannot bear the shock of the least
indecent insinuation:
In the sportability of chit-chat I have
often endeavoured to conquer it, and with infinite pain have
hazarded a thousand things to a dozen of the sex together, - the
least of which I could not venture to a single one to gain heaven.
Excuse me, Monsieur le Count, said I; - as for the nakedness of your
land, if I saw it, I should cast my eyes over it with tears in
them; - and for that of your women (blushing at the idea he had
excited in me) I am so evangelical in this, and have such a fellow-
feeling for whatever is weak about them, that I would cover it with
a garment if I knew how to throw it on: - But I could wish,
continued I, to spy the nakedness of their hearts, and through the
different disguises of customs, climates, and religion, find out
what is good in them to fashion my own by: - and therefore am I
come.
It is for this reason, Monsieur le Count, continued I, that I have
not seen the Palais Royal, - nor the Luxembourg, - nor the Facade of
the Louvre, - nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of
pictures, statues, and churches. - I conceive every fair being as a
temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings
and loose sketches hung up in it, than the Transfiguration of
Raphael itself.
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