SIGHTS OF PARIS.
321'
other's business, that few have any acquaintance with their
neighbours above and below them.
The circumscribed limits of the city, and the density of
its population, enable the Parisians to make a glittering
display in the streets, in the brilliancy and taste of which
they no doubt outdo any other people in the world. The
close vicinity of its inhabitants, and the facility with which
they get into the streets, and the tens of thousands of induce-
ments that tempt them there, tend to the concentration of
fashion and gaiety in the principal avenues and arcades,
which, in the pleasant evenings of spring and summer,
seem converted into splendid and brilliant salons, with the
appearance of continuous and elegant soirées. To these
scenes all Parisians and all foreigners are alike admitted,
to see and enjoy the myriads of sights to be seen in the
shop-windows, as well as to most of the splendid collections
of works of literature and the arts, which, being under the
Government control, are free to the inspection of all who
wish to see them. Amidst most of these I have been, like
thousands of others, a visitor and admirer for two years,
seeking for information and amusement—for study and con-
templation—alone ; or enjoying them in company with my
little children, or travelling friends, for whose aid and amuse-
ment I have as often given my time.
The reader will here see that I have before me the ma-
terials for another book, but as the object of this work is
attained, and its limits approached, with my known aversion
to travel over frequented ground, I must refer him to
other pens than mine for what I might have written had I
the room for it, and had it not been written twenty times
before.
The little bit of my life thus spent in the capital of
France, though filled with anxieties and grief, has had its
pleasant parts, having seen much to instruct and amuse
me, and having also met with, as in London, many warm
friends, to whom I shall feel attached as long as I live. In
the English society in Paris I met a number of my London
VOL. II.                                                                                           Y