Produced by David Widger
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
A few weeks after the date of the preceding chapter, a gay party of menwere assembled at supper in one of the private salons of the MaisonDoree. The supper was given by Frederic Lemercier, and the guests were,though in various ways, more or less distinguished. Rank and fashionwere not unworthily represented by Alain de Rochebriant and Enguerrand deVandemar, by whose supremacy as "lion" Frederic still felt ratherhumbled, though Alain had contrived to bring them familiarly together.Art, Literature, and the Bourse had also their representatives in HenriBernard, a rising young portrait-painter, whom the Emperor honoured withhis patronage, the Vicomte de Braze, and M. Savarin. Science was notaltogether forgotten, but contributed its agreeable delegate in theperson of the eminent physician to whom we have been before introduced,—Dr. Bacourt. Doctors in Paris are not so serious as they mostly are inLondon; and Bacourt, a pleasant philosopher of the school of Aristippus,was no unfrequent nor ungenial guest at any banquet in which the Gracesrelaxed their zones. Martial glory was also represented at that socialgathering by a warrior, bronzed and decorated, lately arrived fromAlgiers, on which arid soil he had achieved many laurels and the rank ofColonel. Finance contributed Duplessis. Well it might; for Duplessishad just assisted the host to a splendid coup at the Bourse.
"Ah, cher Monsieur Savarin," says Enguerrand de Vandemar, whosepatrician blood is so pure from revolutionary taint that he is alwaysinstinctively polite, "what a masterpiece in its way is that little paperof yours in the 'Sens Commun,' upon the connection between the nationalcharacter and the national diet! so genuinely witty!—for wit is buttruth made amusing."
"You flatter me," replied Savarin, modestly; "but I own I do think thereis a smattering of philosophy in that trifle. Perhaps, however, thecharacter of a people depends more on its drinks than its food. Thewines of Italy, heady, irritable, ruinous to the digestion, contribute tothe character which belongs to active brains and disordered livers. TheItalians conceive great plans, but they cannot digest them. The Englishcommon-people drink beer, and the beerish character is stolid, rude, butstubborn and enduring. The English middle-class imbibe port and sherry;and with these strong potations their ideas become obfuscated. Theircharacter has no liveliness; amusement is not one of their wants; theysit at home after dinner and doze away the fumes of their beverage in thedulness of domesticity. If the English aristocracy are more vivaciousand cosmopolitan, it is thanks to the wines of France, which it is themode with them to prefer; but still, like all plagiarists, they areimitators, not inventors; they borrow our wines and copy our manners.The Germans—"
"Insolent barbarians!" growled the French Colonel, twirling his mustache;"if the Emperor were not in his dotage, their Sadowa would ere this havecost them their Rhine."
"The Germans," resumed Savarin, unheeding the interruption, "drink acridwines, varied with beer, to which last their commonalty owes a quasiresemblance in stupidity and endurance to the English masses. Acridwines rot the teeth Germans are afflicted with toothache from infancy.All people subject to toothache are sentimental. Goethe was a martyrto toothache. 'Werther' was written in one of those paroxysms whichpredispose geniu