Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/178

 us French people, who correct our children as soon as they are capable of reasoning; being of opinion that to keep them in awe is the best way to put them in a good mould.”

Partly applicable to peculiarities of English education is the following note (p. 304):—

“Anything that looks like fighting is delicious to an Englishman. If two little boys quarrel in the street, the passers-by stop, make a ring round them in a moment, and set them against one another. They encourage the combatants, and never part them as long as they fight according to the rules. The father and mother of the boys let them fight on as well as the rest, and try to keep up the courage of the one who seems to be giving ground, or to have the worst of it.”

Mr. Misson, being deeply grateful for English hospitality, is always inclined to say a good word for the English, either categorically, or as a qualifier to a partly unfavourable criticism.

“A beau (he says at p. 16) is in England all the more remarkable, because Englishmen, as a general rule, dress in a plain, uniform manner. Fops or beaux are compounded of a periwig and a coat loaded with powder as white as a miller’s, a face besmeared with snuff, and a few affected airs; they are exactly like Moliere’s marquises, and want nothing but the title, which they would infallibly assume in any other country but England.”

Hear him doing honour to the fair sex (p. 364):—

“They pay great honour to the women in England, who enjoy very great and very commendable liberties; yet they receive neither as much favour nor as much honour as their beauty, their graceful mein, their gentility, and their very many charms deserve.”

As to the English character, he exclaims (p. 73):—

“I can’t imagine what could occasion the French notion that the English are treacherous. That the English, of all nations of the world, should lie under this scandal, is strange indeed — they, whose generosity cannot endure the sight of two men fighting without an equality of weapons. Any man who would venture to use either a cane or a sword against another who had nothing to defend himself with but his hands, would run a risk of being torn to pieces by the apprentices of the neighbourhood and by the mob. . . . I am willing to believe that the English are prone to some faults, as all nations are; but I am satisfied, by several years’ experience, that the more that foreigners are acquainted with the English, the more they will esteem and love them. What brave men do I know in England! what moderation! what generosity! what uprightness of heart! what piety and charity! Thoughtful men and devout! lovers of the liberal arts, and as capable of the sciences as any people in the world! Yes; there are in England persons that may truly be called accomplished, men who are wisdom and goodness itself, if we may say so much of any being besides God. Peace and prosperity be eternally upon England!”

I have not been able to find any reminiscences of the author’s mother and sister. The following remark may have been first addressed to them (p. 171):— “They make in England the best knives and the worst scissors in the world.”

In the list of Misson’s works at the beginning of the chapter, is one on the prophecies and miracles attributed to prophets among the Cevenols; and his friends justly regretted that these men imposed upon him, and took his faith captive. The Messieurs Haag say that he tarnished his reputation by his credulousness. I think that it was a malady or fever that soon subsided. And if he was credulous, he has almost atoned for it by telling the following story, which, even if read as a fiction, is beautiful and instructive (p. 179):—

“The 26th of November 1693 there happened a very extraordinary thing in London. A girl, named Mary Maillard, thirteen years and two months old (daughter of a French sword cutler of Coignac, in Xaintonge), was cured in a manner which many people of good sense believe to be miraculous. At the age of thirteen months she became lame, and her distemper never ceased to grow worse. The bone of her left thigh, whereof the end towards the hip is rounded, was slipped so far out of the hollow bone that serves as a case to the convexity of the first, and at the same time had got so far above its natural situation, that that leg was four inches shorter than the other; the knee turned inwards, and the foot did the same. The girl, instead of resting upon the sole of her foot, leaned inwards upon the ancle. It was a wearisome effort to walk, and she sometimes felt violent pain. When she walked, her body swayed from one side to the other so much, that her elbows, particularly her left one, almost touched the ground at every step she took. This made her so ridiculous to children in the street, that they threw dirt at her and insulted her. This lame condition of the girl is well proved, and of public notoriety. On Sunday, the 26th of November 1693, as she returned from church, she was so ill-used by a mob that followed her, that when she got home (to the house of 