On Conversation (1790) [ Practices ]
… the traveller can scarcely mark its ruggedness. Happy are a people, so fond of talking as the French, in possessing a language modelled to all the charming purposes of conversation. Then turn of expression is a dress that hangs so … may be familiar and common to a French ear; but how much ingenuity must we allow to a people who have formed a language, of which the common-place phrases give you the idea of wit! … "In every country it is social pleasure that … the traveller can scarcely mark its ruggedness. Happy are a people, so fond of talking as the French, in possessing a language modelled to all the charming purposes of conversation." … France … Conversation … Text: Helen Maria Williams …
France | Conversation
Anthology