The laws of Greece determine the wise methods of labour; and the laws of France determine the wise restraints of passion.
For the sins of Greece are in Indolence, and its pleasures; and the sins of France are in Fury, and its pleasures.
196. You are now again surprised, probably, at hearing me oppose France typically to Greece.
More strictly, I might oppose only a part of France,—Normandy. But it is better to say, France,[1] as embracing the seat of the established Norman power in the Island of our Lady; and the province in which it was crowned,—Champagne.
France is everlastingly, by birth, name, and nature, the country of the Franks, or free persons; and the first source of European frankness, or franchise. The Latin for franchise is libertas. But the modern or Cockney-English word, liberty,—Mr. John Stuart Mill's,—is not the equivalent of libertas; and the modern or Cockney-French word liberté,—M. Victor Hugo's,—is not the equivalent of franchise.
197. The Latin for franchise, I have said, is
- ↑ "Normandie, la franche,"—"France, la solue;" (chanson de Roland.) One of my good pupils referred me to this ancient and glorious French song.
