188—To R. C. Dallas
Newstead Abbey, Sept. 16, 1811.
Dear Sir
,—I send you a
motto
:
"L'univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont réconcilié avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, je n'en regretterais ni les frais, ni les fatigues."
"
Le
Cosmopolite."
If not too long, I think it will suit the book. The passage is from a little French volume, a great favourite with me, which I picked up in the Archipelago. I don't think it is well known in England; Monbron is the author; but it is a work sixty years old.
Good morning! I won't take up your time.
Yours ever,
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
Fougeret de Monbron, born at Péronne, served in the
Gardes du Corps
, but abandoned the sword for the pen, and published
Henriade Travestie
(1745);
Préservatif Centre l'Anglomanie
(1787); and
Le Cosmopolite
(1750). His novels,
Margot la Ravaudeuse, Thérlsé Philosophe
, and others, appeared under the name of Fougeret. He died in 1761. In that year was published in London an edition of
Le Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du Monde
, par Mr. de Monbron, with the motto, "Patria est ubicunque est bene" (Cic. 5, Tusc. 37).
Byron's quotation is the opening paragraph of the book. The author, who had travelled in England, returns to France a complete "Jacques Rôt-de-Bif." He then visits Holland, the Low Countries, Constantinople, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England a second time. He finds that the charm has vanished, and that the English are no better than their neighbours. It is a cynical little book, abounding in such sayings as. "Make acquaintances, not friends; intimacy breeds disgust;" "The best fruit of travelling is the justification of instinctive dislikes." Monbron, like Byron, ridicules the traveller's passion for collecting broken statues and antiques.
