LETTERS FROM PARIS* 44.J 



tremendous crowd, that had covered him with a cold 

 fweat* filled him with the terrors of death, and almoft 

 deprived him of all prefence of mind. Still more 

 wonderful is the whole, when one fees labourers or 

 beggars, or lick perfons, lying careleflly afleep in the 

 houfes or at the corners of the fireets, in fpite of all 

 the throng and tumult, with axles of the carriages 

 rattling along fcarcely a foot in height above them. 

 This, as in London, is furely the force of habit put 

 to its higher! trial ! 



If we raife our eyes a little from this giddy pool, the 

 fcene is no lefs motly. The loweft ftory of almoit all 

 the houfes of Paris, particularly in the buflefr. Greets, 

 is wrought into arches for all forts of wares and the 

 different kinds of trades. Here hangs a monflrous hair- 

 bag over your head, there a great jack -boot, here 

 itands a terrible huffar-fword, here a couple of hun- 

 dred woodden faufTages hang clattering in the wind, 

 there Hands a gigantic coffee-pot; here pafiries and 

 tarts of every kind allure your tafte, there fome dozens 

 of rich and gaudy watches and clocks, fmart buckles, 

 fplendid buttons, odoriferous pomatums, fine filk. 

 articles, great variety of copper plate piftures, elegant 

 muflins, delicate point laces, commodities in polifhed 

 fteel from England which rival the brilliancy of the 

 diamond, books in magnificent bindings ; and then 

 butter, eggs, and lard, quarters of beef and veal, 

 melons, fruit, greens, flowers ; all tempting you in the 

 moft particoloured and heterogeneous mixture ; from 

 which, if you lift your looks a little higher, you meet 

 perhaps a pair of fine fparkling black eyes flaring 

 figuificantly at you, a fmall white hand beckoning you, 

 a a, fine 



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