I155 
XII. The travellers remained no longer in 
Paris than was necessary to inspect the principal 
works 
the 
of 
French 
Artists, 
and 
the 
royal 
col- 
-lections. 
West, 
however, 
continued 
long 
to be satislied that the true feeling for the 
enough 
Hue 
arts 
did 
not 
exist among the French to that 
degree which 
he 
had 
observed 
in 
Italy. 
the 
On 
contrary, 
it 
seemed 
to 
him 
that 
there 
W118 
an 
inherent 
affectation 
in 
the 
general 
style 
of 
art 
among them, which demonstrated, not only adefi- 
anxious endea- 
ciency of native sensibility, but an 
t0 
conceal 
that 
defect. 
The 
characteristics 
of the French school, 
have not yet been 
and they 
of 
by the introduction 
redeemed 
man- 
any better 
Inight: 
118 ra 
to a cursory 0bserver,_ 
appear to have 
arisen 
while, 
a corrupted taste, 
from 
in 
fact, 
the.Y 
BYE 
the 
consequences 
only 
of 
that 
inordinate 
national vanity which 
in so 
many different ways, 
has retarded the prosperity of 
the world. 
In the 
opinion of a Frenchman, there is a quality of excel- 
thing belonging to France, 
lence in every 
merely 
because 
it 
is 
French, 
which 
gives 
at 
all 
times 
3 
certain 
degree 
of 
superiority 
to 
the 
actions 
and 
productions of his countrymen ; 
and this delusive 
not only the literature and the 
notion has infested