558 



DELILLE AT THE CADRAN-BLEU. 



THE remembrance of those persons with whom, or places with 

 whicn we have been delighted in the joyous days of our youth, can 

 seldom be entirely obliterated, from our minds: we cling there- 

 unto, as the perfume does around the vases from which it has been 

 poured. The more lively and vivid the imagination of the individual 

 the deeper is the impression, and the longer its effect. 



Thus Delille delighted in his old days to recapitulate all those feasts 

 of soul at which he had assisted in his younger years, when he made 

 Paris, from one end to the other, resound with the melodious strains of 

 his lyre. 



But of all the parties, which were formed for the purpose of hearing 

 the poet recite his verses, that which he always recalled to mind with 

 the greatest enthusiasm, was a breakfast given in the year 1780, by a 

 lady, whose lettering talents and high birth rendered her equally 

 celebrated. The assemblage was composed of the most distinguished 

 ladies, and the most talented wits of the age, and met at le Cadran- 

 Bleu, on le Boulevard du Temple. 



It mas in this place that Delille, for the first time, repeated passages 

 from his poem on the Imagination. It was there that he recited that 

 beautiful episode in which he paints an artist lost in the catacombs of 

 Rome, and first awoke that impression of profound and general 

 enthusiasm, which ever after followed his literary career. This 

 party was never re-called to the memory of Delille without awaken- 

 ing the most pleasurable sensations, and inspiring him with a predilec- 

 tion for le Cadran Bleu, which no after feeling could ever efface. Every 

 year as soon as spring returned, he repaired thither with his more 

 intimate friends, in order to take, what he called, a public dinner. 



He loved to mingle with the numerous convivial mortals, whom he 

 was sure to meet with there ; to follow up the different conversations, 

 which from time to time attracted his listening ear, and to analize the 

 many different remarks which he heard around him. He loved the 

 very opposite dispositions which he encountered ; the joy of some, the 

 impatience of others, the politeness of these, and the rudeness of 

 those. In a word, there ever was throughout the whole saloon, a 

 movement, a life, an abundance, that striking the imagination by its 

 amusing variety seemed, Delille was wont to say, "to restore the 

 health, repair the nerves, and dispose the heart to open itself for the 

 reception of all that can afford innocent delight." 



The political troubles, which soon afterwards arose in France, forced 

 Delille from his country, and deprived him of his favourite parties on 

 le Boulevard du Temple. Oftentimes while he sojourned in London he 

 would regret his dear Cadran Bleu. 



But at length tranquilly returned to the land of his birth, he imme- 

 diately repaired to Paris, and the first public visit which he payed was 

 to the spot which was associated in his memory with so many pleasing 

 recollections. 



But his fame had spread abroad, and it was now almost an impos- 

 sibility for him to make his public appearance without drawing 

 around him a set of admirers, whose just but flattering encomiums 



