Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 77

SUe'S cabinet of Anatomy, _Rue du Luxembourg_.

TERSAN'S cabinet of Antiquities, _Cloitre St. Honore_.

VAILLANT'S cabinet of Birds, &c. _Rue du Sepulchre_, _F. S. G._

VAN-HORREN'S cabinet of Curiosities, _Rue St. Dominique_, _F. S. G._

I must observe that, to visit these men of science, without putting them to inconvenience, it is expedient either to procure an introduction, or to address them a note, requesting permission to view their cabinet. This observation holds good with respect to every thing that is not public.

If you are fond of inspecting curious fire-arms, you should examine the _depot d'armes_ of M. BOUTET in the _Rue de la Loi_, whose manufactory is at Versailles, and also pay a visit to M. REGNIER, at the _Depot Central de l'Artillerie_, _Rue de l'Universite_, who is a very ingenious mechanic, and will shew you several curious articles of his own invention, such as a _dynamometre_, by means of which you can ascertain and compare the relative strength of men, as well as that of horses and draught-cattle, and also judge of the resistance of machines, and estimate the moving power you wish to apply to them; a _potamometre_, by which you can tell the force of running streams, and measure the currents of rivers. M. REGNIER has also invented different kinds of locks and padlocks, which cannot be picked; as well as some curious pistols, &c.

I have, as you will perceive, strictly confined myself to the limits of the capital, because I expect that my absence from it will not be long; and, in my next trip to France, I intend, not only to point out such objects as I may now have neglected, but also to describe those most worthy of notice in the environs of Paris.

If I have not spoken to you of all the metamorphoses occasioned here by the revolution, it is because several of them bear not the stamp of novelty. If the exchange in Paris is now held in the _ci-devant Eglise des Pet.i.ts Peres_, did we not at Boston, in New England, convert the meeting-houses and churches into riding-schools and barracks?

As the _Charnier des Innocens_, which had subsisted in the centre of Paris for upwards of eight centuries, and received the remains of at least ten millions of human beings, was, before the revolution, turned into a market-place; so is the famous spot where the Jacobin convent stood in the _Rue St. Honore_, and whence issued laws more b.l.o.o.d.y than those of Draco, now on the point of being appropriated to a similar destination. The cemetery of St. Sulpice is transformed into a Ranelagh. Over the entrance is written, in large letters, encircled by roses, "BAL DES ZePHYRS," and, underneath, you read:

_"Has ultra metas requiesc.u.n.t Beatam spem expectantes."_

And on the door itself:

_"Expectances misericordiam Dei."_

I was just going to conclude with _Adieu, till we meet_, when I was most agreeably surprised by the receipt of your letter. I am happy to find that, through the kind attention of Mr. Mantell of Dover, whose good offices on this and other simllar occasions claim my most grateful acknowledgments, you have received all the packets and books which I have addressed to you during my present visit to Paris. It is likewise no small gratification to me to learn that my correspondence has afforded to you a few subjects of deep reflection.

As I told you at the time, the task which you imposed on me was more than I could accomplish; and you must now be but too well convinced that the apprehension of my inability was not unfounded. It may not, perhaps, be difficult for a man of sound judgment to seize and delineate the general progress of the human mind during a determined period; but to follow successively, through all their details, the ramifications of the arts and sciences, is a labour which requires much more knowledge and experience than I can pretend to: nor did self-love ever blind me so far as to lead me to presume, for a moment, that success would crown my efforts.

However, I think I have said enough to shew that one of the striking effects of the revolution has been to make the arts and sciences popular in France. It has rendered common those doctrines which had till then been reserved for first-rate _savans_ and genuises. The a.r.s.enals of the sciences (if I may use the expression) were filled; but soldiers were wanting. The revolution has produced them in considerable numbers; and, in spite of all the disasters and evils which it has occasioned, it cannot be denied that the minds of Frenchmen, susceptible of the least energy, have here received a powerful impulse which has urged them towards great and useful ideas.

This impulse has been kept alive and continued by the grand establishments of public instruction, founded during the course of that memorable period. Thus, in a few words, you are at once in possession both of the causes and the result of the progress of the human mind in this country.

You may, probably, be surprised that I could have written so much, in so short a s.p.a.ce of time, amid all the allurements of the French capital, and the variety of pursuits which must necessarily have diverted my attention. Perhaps too, you may think that I might have dwelt less on some of my least interesting details. I must confess that I have, in some measure, subjected myself to such an opinion; but, knowing your wish to acquire every sort of information, I have exerted myself to obtain it from all quarters. To collect this budget has been no easy task; to compress it would have been still more difficult, and, alas! to have transmitted it, in an epistolary form, would have been totally out of my power, but for the a.s.sistance of two very ingenious artists, who have not a little contributed to lighten my labour. Introducing themselves to me, very shortly after my arrival, the one furnished me with an everlasting pen; and the other, with an inexhaustible inkstand.

Farewell, my good friend. I have obtained a pa.s.sport for England. My baggage is already packed up. To-morrow I shall devote to the ceremony of making visits _p. p. c._ that is, _pour prendre conge_ of my Parisian friends; and, on the day after, (_Deo volente_) I shall bid adieu to the "paradise of women, the purgatory of men, and the h.e.l.l of horses."

[Footnote 1: Since the revolution, the Paris lottery is drawn three times in each month, in lieu of twice; and lotteries have also been established in the princ.i.p.al towns of the Republic, namely; Bordeaux, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles, Rouen, Strasburg, and Brussels. The offices in the capital present the facility of gambling in all these different lotteries as often every month as in that of Paris.]

THE END.