Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 59

In general, very few pupils are instructed here, and the greater part of those who begin the courses of lectures, do not follow them three months. This fact I gathered from the professors themselves. When FRANcOIS DE NEUFCHaTEAU was Minister, he had attached to this school an Armenian, named CIREIED, who gave lessons in his native language, which are now discontinued.

A course of archaeology is also delivered here by the learned MILLIN.

The object of this course is to explain antique monuments, and compare them with pa.s.sages of the cla.s.sics. The professor indicates respecting each monument the opinions of the different learned men who have spoken of it: he also discusses those opinions, and endeavours to establish that which deserves to be adopted. Every year he treats on different subjects. The courses which he has already delivered, related to the study of medals, and that of engraved stones; the explanation of the ancient monuments still existing in Spain, France, and England; the history of ancient and modern Egypt; sacred and heroic mythology, under which head he introduced an explanation of almost every monument of literature and art deserving to be known.

[Footnote 1: It is the intention of the government to remove the _Bibliotheque Nationale_ to the _Louvre_, or _Palais National des Sciences & des Arts_, as soon as apartments can be prepared for its reception.]

LETTER LXIV.

_Paris, February 8, 1803._

Having complied with your desire in regard to the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, I shall confine myself to a hasty sketch of the other princ.i.p.al public libraries, beginning with the

BIBLIOTHeQUE MAZARINE.

By his will, dated the 6th of March 1662, Cardinal MAZARIN bequeathed this library for the convenience of the literati. It was formed by GABRIEL NAUDe of every thing that could be found most rare and curious, as well in France as in foreign countries. It occupies one of the pavilions and other apartments of the _ci-devant College Mazarin ou des Quatre Nations_, at present called _Palais des Beaux Arts_.

No valuable additions have been made to this library since the revolution; but it is kept in excellent order. The Conservators, LE BLOND, COQUILLE, and PALISSOT, whose complaisance is never tired, are well known in the Republic of Letters. It is open to the public every day, from ten o'clock to two, Sundays, Thursdays, and the days of national fetes excepted.

BIBLIOTHeQUE DU PANTHeON.

Next to the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, this library is said to contain the most printed books and ma.n.u.scripts, which are valuable on account of their antiquity, scarceness, and preservation. It formerly bore the t.i.tle of _Bibliotheque de St. Genevieve_, and belonged to the Canons of that order, who had enriched it in a particular manner. The acquisitions it has made since the revolution are not sufficiently important to deserve to be mentioned. With the exception of the _Bibliotheque Nationale_, not one of the public libraries in Paris has enjoyed the advantage of making improvements and additions. The library of the _Pantheon_ is open to the public on the same days as the _Bibliotheque Mazarine_.

The present Conservators are DAUNOU, VENTENAT, and VIALLON. The first two are members of the National Inst.i.tute.

BIBLIOTHeQUE DE L'a.r.s.eNAL.

This library, one of the richest in Paris, formerly belonged to the

Count d'Artois. It is destined for the _Conservative Senate_, in whose palace a place is preparing for its reception. However, it is thought that this removal cannot take place in less than a year and a half or two years. It has acquired little since the revolution, and is frequented less than the other libraries, because it is rather remote from the fas.h.i.+onable quarters of the town. There are few inquisitive persons in the vicinity of the a.r.s.enal; and indeed, this library is open only on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays of every week from ten o'clock till two. AMEILHON, of the Inst.i.tute, is Administrator; and SAUGRAIN, Conservator.

Before I quit this library, you will, doubtless expect me to say something of the place from which it derives its appellation; namely,

THE a.r.s.eNAL.

It is a pile of building, forming several courts between the _Quai des Celestins_ and the _Place de la Liberte_, formerly the _Place de la Bastille_. Charles V had here erected some storehouses for artillery, which were lent very unwillingly by the Provost of Paris to Francis I, who wanted them for the purpose of casting cannon. As was foreseen, the king kept possession of them, and converted them into a royal residence. On the 28th of January 1562, lightning fell on one of the towers, then used as a magazine, and set fire to fifteen or twenty thousand barrels of powder. Several lives were lost, and another effect of this explosion was that it killed all the fishes in the river. Charles IX, Henry III, and Henry IV rebuilt the a.r.s.enal, and augmented it considerably. Before the revolution, the founderies served for casting bronze figures for the embellishment of the royal gardens. The a.r.s.enal then contained only a few rusty muskets and some mortars unfit for service, notwithstanding the energetic inscription which decorated the gate on the _Quai des Celestins_:

"aetnae haec Henrico Vulcania tela ministrat, Tela gigantaeos debellatura furores."

NICOLAS BOURBON was the author of these harmonious lines, which so much excited the jealousy of the famous poet, SANTEUIL, that he exclaimed in his enthusiasm, "I would have wished to have made them, and been hanged."

During the course of the revolution, the buildings of the a.r.s.enal have been appropriated to various purposes: at present even they seem to have no fixed destination. Here is a garden, advantageously situated, which affords to the inhabitants of this quarter an agreeable promenade.

The before-mentioned libraries are the most considerable in Paris; but the _National Inst.i.tute_, the _Conservative Senate_, the _Legislative Body_, and the _Tribunate_, have each their respective library, as well as the _Polytechnic School_, the _Council of the School of Mines_, the _Tribunal of Ca.s.sation_, the _Conservatory of Music_, the _Museum of Natural History_, &c.

Independently of these libraries, here are also three literary _depots_ or repositories, which were destined to supply the public libraries already formed or to be formed, particularly those appropriated to public instruction. When the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly decreed the possessions of the clergy to be national property, the _Committee of Alienation_ fixed on the monasteries of the _Capucins_, _Grands Jesuites_, and _Cordeliers_, in Paris, as _depots_, for the books and ma.n.u.scripts, which they were desirous to save from revolutionary destruction.

LETTER LXV.

_Paris, February 9, 1802._

_Vive la danse!_ _Vive la danse!_ seems now to prevail here universally over _"Vive l'amour!_ _Vive la bagatelle!_" which was the rage in the time of LA FLEUR. I have already informed you that, in moments the most eventful, the inhabitants of this capital spent the greater part of their time in

DANCING.

However extraordinary the fact may appear, it is no less true. When the Prussians were at Chalons, the Austrians at Valenciennes, and Robespierre in the Convention, they danced. When the young conscripts were in momentary expectation of quitting their parents, their friends, and their mistresses to join the armies, they danced. Can we then wonder that, at the present hour, when the din of arms is no longer heard, and the toils of war are on the point of being succeeded by the mercantile speculations of peace, dancing should still be the favourite pursuit of the Parisians?

This is so much the case, that the walls of the metropolis are constantly covered by advertis.e.m.e.nts in various colours, blue, red, green, and yellow, announcing b.a.l.l.s of different descriptions. The silence of streets the least frequented is interrupted by the shrill sc.r.a.ping of the itinerant fiddler; while by-corners, which might vie with Erebus itself in darkness, are lighted by transparencies, exhibiting, in large characters, the words "_Bal de Societe_."

--"Happy people!" says Sterne, "who can lay down all your cares together, and dance and sing and sport away the weights of grievance, which bow down the spirit of other nations to the earth!"

In summer, people dance here in rural gardens, or delightful bowers, or under marquees, or in temporary buildings, representing picturesque cottages, constructed within the limits of the capital: these establishments, which are rather of recent date, are open only in that gay season.

In winter, the upper cla.s.ses a.s.semble in magnificent apartments, where subscription-b.a.l.l.s are given; and taste and luxury conspire to produce elegant entertainments.

However, it is not to the upper circles alone that this amus.e.m.e.nt is confined; it is here pursued, and with truer ardour too, by citizens of every cla.s.s and description. An Englishman might probably be at a loss to conceive this truth; I shall therefore enumerate the different gradations of the scale from the report of an impartial eye-witness, partly corroborated by my own observation.

Tradesmen dance with their neighbours, at the residence of those who have the best apartments: and the expense of catgut, rosin, &c. is paid by the profits of the card-table.

Young clerks in office and others, go to public b.a.l.l.s, where the _cavalier_ pays thirty _sous_ for admission; thither they escort milliners and mantua-makers of the elegant cla.s.s, and, in general, the first-rate order of those engaging belles, known here by the generic name of _grisettes_.

Jewellers' apprentices, ladies' hair-dressers, journeymen tailors and upholsterers dance, at twenty _sous_ a head, with sempstresses and ladies' maids.

Journeymen shoemakers, cabinet-makers, and workmen of other trades, not very laborious, a.s.semble in _guingettes_, where they dance French country-dances at three _sous_ a ticket, with _grisettes_ of an inferior order.

Locksmiths, carpenters, and joiners dance at two _sous_ a ticket, with women who constantly frequent the _guinguettes_, a species of dancing-girls, whom the tavern-keepers hire for the day, as they do the fiddlers.

Water-carriers, porters, and, in general, the Swiss and Auvergnats have their private b.a.l.l.s, where they execute the dances peculiar to their country, with fruit-girls, stocking-menders, &c.

The porters of the corn-market form a.s.semblies in their own neighbourhood; but the youngest only go thither, with a few _bons vivans_, whose profession it would be no easy matter to determine.

Bucksome damsels, proof against every thing, keep them in countenance, either in drinking brandy or in fighting, and not unfrequently at the same _bal de societe_, all this goes on at the same time, and, as it were, in unison.

Those among the porters of the corn-market and charcoal carriers, who have a little _manners_, a.s.semble on holidays, in public-houses of a more decent description, with good, plain-spoken market-women, and nosegay-girls. They drink unmixed liquor, and the conversation is somewhat more than _free_; but, in public, they get tipsy, and nothing farther!

Masons, paviours in wooden shoes, tipped with iron, and other hard-working men, in short, repair to _guingettes_, and make the very earth tremble with their heavy, but picturesque capers, forming groups worthy of the pencil of Teniers.

Lastly, one more link completes the chain of this nomenclature of caperers. Beggars, st.u.r.dy, or decrepit, dance, as well as their credulous betters: they not only dance, but drink to excess; and their orgies are more noisy, more prolonged, and even more expensive.

The mendicant, who was apparently lame in the day, at night lays aside his crutch, and resumes his natural activity; the idle vagabond, who concealed one arm, now produces both; while the wretch whose wound excited both horror and pity, covers for a tune the large blister by which he makes a very comfortable living.

LETTER LXVI.

_Paris, February 11, 1802._

In order to confer handsome pensions on the men of science who had benefited mankind by their labours, and who, under the old _regime_, were poorly rewarded, in 1795, LAKa.n.a.l solicited and obtained the establishment of the