Whence had lighted on this corner of the world that charming form of civilisation, which for two centuries was the happiness of the upper classes of society? Apparently from the Moors of Spain.
[1] Memoirs of the life of Chabanon, written by himself. The rapping of a cane on the ceiling.
[2] The ascetic principle of Jeremy Bentham.
[3] The reader should have heard charming General Laclos talk at Naples in 1802. If he has not had the luck he can open the Vie privée du maréchal de Richelieu, nine volumes very pleasantly put together.
[4] It originated at Narbonne—a mixture of Latin and Arabic.
[5] See The State of the Military Power of Russia, a truthful work by General Sir Robert Wilson.
CHAPTER LII[(39)]
PROVENCE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
I am going to translate an anecdote from the Provençal manuscripts. The facts, of which you are going to read, happened about the year 1180 and the history was written about 1250.[1] The anecdote, to be sure, is very well known: the style especially gives the colour of the society which produced it.