THE LEADING CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD - [To the
Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue 'of January 26th " Inquirer " is surely wrong, in• supposing iilOw status- of m'oinen- in -France. The very contrary is the case. There is no country in the world where women "are better respected; enjoy greater influence or take such an active part in household and business economy. It is also absurd to inito that the use of dogs as beasts of burden is cruel. 'Moreover, in my opinion, the attitude of French juries towards crimes of passion displays a very just and human distinction.
But all these things are really very much beside the point, taken singly. Civilization is made- up of innumerable in; gredients, some essential (such' as the reign of laW and order), others vastly important in varying degrees. Many are imponderable in themselves yet together count assuredly in the balance in estimating the degree of a country's civilization. But France's claim to being the leading civilized country in the world, apart from whether this claim should be conceded or not, is • the unquestionable fact that the French brain is the most brilliant, the most lucid and- the most cultured braid in the world, if one compares it class by" class wish that pro- duced by other countries.
In the realm of ideas, whether these ideas be considered good or evil, she hss, ,until„recently anyhow, ,led the "world for, several. centur,ies., This. is where France bases her claim, this coupled with the effects of the duration multiplied by tha,,intensity of her civilization, conditions which .only Italy
-ancl„-;perluips,. Spain, can rival in Europe, effects which are easy. to,,teet,but. difficult to analyse. An Englishman or a ,German, great ass, may be the civilization he -respectively represents, is felt to be, relatively speaking, and subject to individual exceptions, a parvenu when met in the company
of his same class of Frenchman, an Italian,. or a Spaniard.- ap, not assent to the writer's sweepiniaisertiiin that
" the French brain. is most brilliant, the' most lucid, and the most cultured brain in' the world."-En. Spectator.] .
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