Said A
French Gentleman To Me One Evening, "The Old Idea Of _L'homme
D'esprit_ Of Louis XIV.'s Time, The Man Of _Bon-Mots_, Bows,
And _Salons_, Is Almost Passed Away; There Is Only Now And Then A
Specimen Of It Left.
The French are becoming more earnest and more
religious." In the Roman Catholic churches which I attended, I saw
very full audiences, and great earnestness and solemnity.
I have
talked intimately, also, with Roman Catholics, in whom I felt that
religion was a real and vital thing. One of them, a most lovely lady,
presented me with the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, as a
ground on which we could both unite.
I have also been interested to see in these French Catholics, in its
most fervent form, the exhibition of that antislavery spirit which, in
other ages, was the boast of that church. One charming friend took me
to the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, pointing out with great
interest the statues and pictures of saints who had been distinguished
for their antislavery efforts in France. In a note expressing her warm
interest in the cause of the African slave, she says, "It is a
tradition of our church, that of the three kings which came to worship
Jesus in Bethlehem, one was black; and if Christians would kneel
oftener before the manger of Bethlehem they would think less of
distinctions of caste and color."
Madame Belloc received, a day or two since, a letter from a lady in
the old town of Orleans, which gave name to Joan of Arc, expressing
the most earnest enthusiasm in the antislavery cause.
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