ABSTRACT
The nation which, next to the English, cultivated the portraiture of human traits is the French. It would take us too far afield to comment on the racial differences as revealed by the character writings of the two peoples, but one can hardly dispute the fact that there are such differences, one of the most striking being the seriousness with which the French characterologists approach their task, as compared with the levity of the English, except in the case of the exhortative writers who border on tedious sermonizing.
