44 a PALAIS ROYAL. 



either natural or artificial, no appetite, of the grofter 

 or more refined order, no wifh for the cultivation of 

 the mind or decoration of the body, no fenfual or fpi- 

 ritual humour, which would not here find food and 

 gratification and perpetual variety. No ftation, no 

 age, no fex, no temper could ever leave it, without an 

 ardent delire to return. The fight is firft caught, and 

 the other fenfes follow it in rapid fucceffion. 



Let us, in the fir ft place, haftily run through the 

 arcades, to take a general view of what they contain ; 

 and then we will examine more at leifure how thefe 

 various articles are difpofed, at what price they may 

 be had, and for whom they are provided. To do this 

 we fhall find a pretty tight day's work. 



The vaulted gallery, fupported on arcades, which 

 runs along under the three wings of the palace, is ap- 

 propriated to fhops of all kinds, and thefe are flowed 

 and hung about with every fpecies of the finefl, the 

 choicer! and moft fafhionable commodities. Should 

 you come at once into this place with nothing on except 

 your fhirt, but with both hands full of money, you 

 would be able, in the fpace of an hour, to equip your- 

 felf, from top to toe, in a drefs as rich, as elegant, and 

 as fafhionable as any in Paris. Were you fo lucky as 

 to get the capital prize in the London lottery, and 

 fhould come to the Palais Royal in the deflgn of laying- 

 it out in the wifeft or the un wife ft manner, in two hours 

 you might difburclen yourfelf of it to the laft liard. 

 Should you Come, as the moft finifhed man of tafre, 

 with the ftrongeft or the weakeft body, with the acuteft 

 or the dulleft fenfes., in the defire of finding charms, 

 recreation, or enjoyment for them, according to the 



, dictates 



