Gobineau part 2: of the Irish and other thoughts

Dancing in Halifax and interviewing fishermen on the Newfoundland shores, our good friend Arthur de Gobineau had the time to form a strong personal opinion on a variety of topics, including the Irish people and american women.

In his own words, which are those of a 19th century aristocrat, and therefore not quite politically correct:

 

The Irish

• The [Newfoundland] population is therefore remarkable for a uniform shade of honesty, and if there are a few exceptions to this, they are to be found among the Irish, who are infinitely less serious minded than the rest of their compatriots.
• If the Irish are not to be ranked as the country's most solemn inhabitants, they are perhaps the most likeable, and they are certainly the most lively.
• What the baleful Englishman, the serious Scot, the hard-working Acadian may desire but hesitate to seek, the Irish will do what is necessary to obtain and be the first to throw themselves into the fray. What they have to lose is very little, what they have to gain always problematical.

What do our Irish readers think?

North American women

• From a purely sentimental point of view, Frenchmen, Italians or Spaniards may say that the American girl is lacking in naivety and, if not in the most impregnable virtue, at least in innocence; that one of the principal delights promised to the man of taste is having to teach his partner a great many things and delicately relishing the extent of her ignorance; that there is no great pleasure in entering into intimacy with a young wife who is, on the eve of her wedding, as advanced as an old casuist.
• Young ladies enter life as a speculators enter the Stock Exchange. Their beauty, wit and charm are their available capital.They want to marry, and do all that they can to pledge themselves to one husband, one might almost say to ensnare him.
• They are not scrupulous about making obvious advances. It is common to see a charming young lady at a ball clinging to the arm of a dancer who half an hour before was a complete stranger. Man is very frail in these circumstances and quickly reveals the weak spots in his heart and mind. If he is vain, she flatters him. If he is tender, she allows him to glimpse inexhaustible treasures of affection and devotion. If she thinks him passionate she contrives to let him think that the spark and the flame are only pale imitations of the volcano that fills her heart.

And on and on, but I think it is time to leave the Count of Gobineau to his musings...