The French character seems to want that fixity of purpose, that
self-denial, and steady perseverance, which is so necessary to those
who would colonize and subdue a new and inhospitable country. The
elevated civilization of the French has long accustomed them to the
refinements and luxuries of life; it has entered into and become a part
of their natures, and they cannot do violence to this in a sufficient
degree to encounter the wilderness and all its privations, or to create
from this wilderness those luxuries, and be content in their enjoyment
for all the hardships endured in procuring them: they shrink away from
these, and prefer the inconveniences and privations of a crowded
community with its enjoyments, even in poverty, to the rough and trying
troubles which surround and distress the pioneer, who pierces the
forest and makes him a home, which, at least, promises all the comforts
of wealth and independence to his posterity. He rather prefers to take
care that he enjoys as he desires the present, and leaves posterity to
do as they prefer. Yet there are many instances of great daring and
high enterprise in the French Creole: these are the exceptions, not the
rule.
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