Garden of Alfort. 391 



ranks ; firmly convinced, that whatever these produce will be 

 right, and that they can only produce what shall be good for 

 the whole. 



The museum of natural history and the menagery con- 

 nected with this garden, and forming with it parts of one 

 grand scientific whole, ought not to pass unnoticed. The 

 museum is known to be the richest in the world in objects 

 of natural history, and to be open and free to all persons j 

 without exception, on certain days in every week. The 

 menagery, as well as the different departments of the garden, 

 is arranged in compartments, enclosed by light open fences, 

 and surrounded by elegant highly kept walks; and, as these 

 walks are open to the public every day in the year, they form 

 a perpetual source of interest and enjoyment to natives and 

 strangers" of all ranks. The taste and variety displayed in the 

 buildings containing the different animals, the beauty of the 

 scattered exotic trees and shrubs, the movements of some of 

 the animals, and the singularity of form, of colour, or of sound, 

 of the others, render this place to the citizen and his family a 

 paradise of wonder and delight. The influence which these 

 exhibitions must have on the minds and feelings of a people 

 to whom they are accessible, is, doubtless, very considerable. 

 The most indifferent cannot see so great a variety of natural 

 objects without having his views of nature enlarged and his 

 mind expanded. If this is the case with respect to the mu- 

 seum, it is still more so in the menagery, where to forms and 

 colours are added life, motion, and character. We have 

 little doubt that the Parisian populace owe a part of their 

 urbanity and politeness to their familiarity, in the public and' 

 royal institutions and gardens, with the rarest and finest pro- 

 ductions of nature and art. We think we can see something 

 of the same kind producing in the London populace, in con- 

 sequence of their greater familiarity, within the last fifteen 

 years, with the collection in the British Museum, and from their 

 comparatively frequent habit of viewing various exhibitions of 

 pictures, sculpture, and other objects. That there is a power- 

 ful taste for such exhibitions is proved by the immense num- 

 ber of persons who, during the last two years, have visited the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society* 



The Establishment of Alfort is a sort of agricultural college, 

 in which are a number of professors paid by government. 

 Since the return of the Bourbons it has been neglected, the 

 professors have not been paid, and the large agricultural gar- 

 den is in a deplorable state of neglect. This garden contains 

 the remains of what has been a tolerably complete arboretum ; 

 a more extensive collection of hedge plants and specimens of 



c c 4 



