FRANCE. 3« 



great number of instances of generosity and disinterestedness may be 

 <»und amongst them. 



It is doing the French no more than justice to acknowledge, that, 

 as they are themselves polite, so they have given a polish to the 

 ferocious manners, and even virtues, of other nations. Before the 

 revolution, they were disposed to think very favourably of the Eng- 

 lish. They both imitate and admire our writers : the names of 

 Bacon, Locke, Newton, Milton, Pope, Addison, Hume, Robertson, 

 Richardson, and many others, are sacred among the French of any 

 education. 



With many defects, the French have some good qualities ; polite- 

 ness of manners, attention to strangers, and a general taste for litera- 

 ture among those in the better ranks of life. 



The French dress of both sexes is so well known, that it is needless 

 to expatiate upon it here ; but, indeed, their dress in cities and towns 

 is so variable, that it is next to impossible to describe it. They cer- 

 tainly have more invention in that particular than any of their neigh- 

 bours, and their constantly changing their fashions is of service to 

 their manufactures. 



Cities and chief towns. ...Paris, the capital of France, is divided 

 into three parts ; the city, the university, and that which was formerly 

 called the town. The city is old Paris ; the university and the town 

 are the new. Paris contains more works of public magnificence than 

 utility. Its palaces are showy, and some of its streets, squares, 

 hotels, hospitals, and churches, superbly decorated with a profusion 

 of paintings, tapestry, images, and statues ; but Paris, notwithstand- 

 ing its boasted police, is greatly inferior to London in many of the 

 conveniences of life, and the solid enjoyments of society. Without 

 entering into more minute disquisitions, Paris, it must be owned, is 

 the paradise of splendour and dissipation. The tapestry of the Gobe- 

 lins* is unequalled for beauty and richness. The Louvre is a build- 

 ing that does honour to architecture itself; it was adorned by many 

 excellent institutions for the arts and sciences, particularly the three 

 academies, and ennobled by the residence of the learned. The 

 Thuilleries, the palace of Luxemburg, where a valuable collection of 

 paintings are shown, the royal palace and library, the guild-hall, and 

 the hospital for invalids, are superb to the highest degree. The city 

 of Paris is said to be fifteen miles in circumference. The streets 

 are very narrow, and the houses very high, many of them seven 

 stories. The houses are built of stone, and often contain a different 

 family on every floor. The river Seine, which runs through the cen- 

 tre of the city, is not half so large as the Thames at London ; it is 

 too far distant from the sea for the purposes of navigation, and is not 

 furnished, as the Thames, with vessels or boats of any sort ; over it 

 are many stone and wooden bridges, which have nothing to recom- 

 mend them. The streets of Paris are generally crowded, particularly 

 with coaches, which gives that capital the appearance of wealth and 

 grandeur ; though, in reality, there is more show than substance. 

 The glittering carriages that dazzle the eyes of strangers are mostly 

 common hacks, hired by the day or week to the numerous foreigners 



* One Goblei, a noted dyer at Rheims, was the first who settled in this place, 

 in the reign of Francis J, and the house has retained his name ever since : and 

 here the great Colbert, about the year 1667, established that valuable manu- 

 factory. 



