352 FRANCE. 



that tended equally to his greatness and his glory ; for his court and 

 nation thereby became the school of arts, sciences and politeness. 



As to the properties of the language, they are undoubtedly greatly 

 inferior to the English : but they are well adapted to subjects void of 

 elevation or passion ; and well accommodated to dalliance, compli- 

 ments, and common conversation. 



The Lord's Prayer in French is as follows :■ — Notre Pere, qui es 

 aux deux-, tori nom soit sa?ictifie ; ton regne vienne ; ta -uolonte soil 

 fait en la terre comme au del ; donne nous aujourd hui notre pain quoti- 

 dien ; fiardonne nous nos offenses, comme nous jiardonnons a. ceux qui 

 nous ont offenses ; et ne nous indui fioint en tentation, mais nous delivre 

 dumal; card toi est le regne-, la puissance, et la gloire, aux siecles des 

 siecles. Amen. 



Antiquities. ...Few countries, if we except Italy, can boast of more 

 valuable remains of antiquity than France. Some of the French an- 

 tiquities belong to the time of the Cells ; and consequently, compar- 

 ed to them, those of Rome are modern. Father Mabillon has given 

 us a most curious account of the sepulchres of their kings, which 

 have been discovered so far back as Pharamond ; and some of which, 

 when broken open, were found to contain ornaments and jewels of 

 value. At Rheims, and other parts of France, are to be seen trium- 

 phal arches : but the most entire is at Orange, erected on account of 

 the victory obtained over the Cimbri and the Teutones by Caius 

 Marius and Luctatius Catuius. After Gaul was reduced to a Roman 

 province, the Romans took delight in adorning it with magnificent 

 edifices, both civil and sacred ; some of which are more entire than 

 any to be met with in Italy itself. The ruins of an amphitheatre are 

 to be found in Chalons, and likewise at Vienna. Nismes, however, 

 exhibits the most valuable remains of ancient architecture of any 

 place in France. The famous Pont du Garde was raised in the 

 Augustan age, by the Roman colony of Nismes, to convey a stream 

 of water between two mountains for the use of that city ; it consists 

 of three bridges, or tiers of arches, one above another ; the height is 

 174 feet, and the length extends to 723. Many other ruins of anti- 

 quity are found at Nismes ; but the chief are the temple of Diana, 

 and the amphitheatre, which is thought to be the finest and most 

 entire of the kind of any in Europe ; but, above all, the house erected 

 by the emperor Adrian, called the Maison Carree. The architecture 

 and sculpture of this building are so exquisitely beautiful, that it 

 enchants even the most ignorant : and it is still entire, being very 

 little affected either by the ravages of time or the havoc of war. At 

 Paris, in la Rue de la Harpe, may be seen the remains of the Thermae, 

 supposed to have been built by the emperor Julian, surnamed the 

 Apostate, about the year 35 6, after the same model as the baths of 

 Dioclesian. The remains of this ancient edifice are many arches, 

 and within them a large saloon. It is fabricated of a kind of mastic, 

 the composition of which is not now known, intermixed with small 

 square pieces of free-stone and bricks. But the most extraordinary 

 of all artificial curiosities is the subterraneous cavern at Paris. For 

 the first building of that city, it was necessary to get the stone in the 

 environs. As Paris was enlarged, the streets and suburbs extended 

 to, and were built on, the ancient quarries from which the stone had 

 been taken ; and hence proceed the caverns or frightful cavities which 

 are found under the houses in several quarters of the city. Eight 

 persons some years since perished in one of them, a gulf of 1 50 feet 



