Betters from paris, %ij 



Such is my plan. For the execution whereof I fhall 

 need only two or three weeks; in which I intend no 

 more than to get a thorough knowledge of the exterior 

 of Paris, and at the fame time to inveftigate all the 

 difcernible features of the nation previous to my inter- 

 courfe with it. All diftance and referve are foon re- 

 moved between ftrangers, when once they know how 

 to treat each other. 



Not till after this period will I deliver my letters ; 

 and they will then be of twice as much fervice to me 

 as if I had delivered them immediately on my arrival. 



Therefore think of me, my dear friend, as I wander 

 about from ftreet to ftreet, with my map in my pocket ; 

 and, after a weariforne walk, fpread it forth upon a 

 table in a coffee-houfe, to fee all the places I have been 

 traverfmg, and in what corner of the enormous mafs 

 of houfes I am at that time. To travel in this manner 

 gives me great pleafure ; and I often forget to eat and 

 drink in the purfuit of it. It is amurmg to me, fre- 

 quently through dirt and all forts of fmells, to take a 

 furvey of the locale, as accurately as perhaps ever was 

 done by any native parifian. The firft two days I took 

 only two broad, long, and bufy Hreets 5 but to day 

 with the intrepidity of a hero, I forced, Hole, and 

 wound through the little, dark, dirty, narrow, and 

 crooked ones. What parts of Paris are antient are 

 narrow and difmal. 



The fmall iflaha in the Seine, called the cite, is the 

 oldeft fpot in Paris, or rather, this formerly was the 

 whole of Paris # ; and this is the narrower!, gloomieft, 



* Labienus Lutetiam proficifcitur, id eft oppidum PariOorurr, 

 pofitum in infula fiuminibus Sequanae. Jul. Capf, de Bell, Gall. lib. 

 vii. cap. 57. 



