The following extract from page 166, describes how the author views his native country, England, after some time in Paris, following his formative years on an island across the seas.
............ The feeling of utter ignorance as to my family and relatives had often haunted my mind, in the prospect of visiting England...........
..................Several days had now passed in exhibiting to me the wonders of London, and I was not long in discovering that, if it greatly exceeded Paris in size, it was as much inferior to it in beauty. The lack of statues and of trees was to me quite a privation at first; and the blackness of the building struck me forcibly, and seemed to give a funereal aspect to the whole city. Meanwhile in every street, in every public place, in every private company, my eye glanced restlessly on every human face that I saw, seeking for a kinsman. It was in vain. The features and bearing of the English people far surpass those of the French; but I met with none resembling the face I so well remembered. Some persons I saw, especially among the nobility and the army, whose noble port and venerable aspect gave me some hopes, at first sight: but on a nearer approach, the family likeness was wanting.
I had the opportunity of observing, at my leisure, the great difference between the English abroad and the English at home. The English in Paris are imitation apes; the English in London are grave and sensible men. There is a sedateness and reason in their looks, in their keen eyes, in steady gait, that delighted me. They are, besides, as different from the French as from their countrymen in France. To instance but one point in their dissimilarity - I have never seen yet real foppery in England; none, at least, that could stand a comparison with the ecstatic infallible self-complacence of the genuine French petit maitre.
All Paris looks as if it bent only on self display and pleasure. All London looks as if it had something to do, and was resolved upon doing it. My great admiration of my compatriots has somewhat diminished, on discovering that this something which must be accomplished, is, in general, merely the acquisition of money: but an Englishman, when not bent upon gain, is one of the finest creatures in the world. He is steady without stupidity, dignified without conceit, and reasonable without pedantry.
As to the ladies, no words of mine could do justice to the difference between the very elite of the one country and the inferior specimens of the other. The English women has, in her very nature, a charming dignity, a modest refinement, which place her far above the French woman, as the roses in her beauty and blushes surpass the gaiety of the gaudy tulip.
I do not speak of the peasantry of either country, for my experience has not been of them. I am speaking of the middle and higher classes of society in Paris and London. I know not how far others may be of my opinion. I give only the judgement by the semi barbarian of the island. Those who have known the world longer than I have done may be able to judge better upon these subjects. I speak only as I thought, when the features of civilised society first struck upon my view, previously accustomed only to the cold unsophisticated aspect of nature.