190 



AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



was a gem of neatness and order, and the bed a mar- 

 vel of art, comfort, and ease, three feet deep at least. 



Then the uniform imperial grace and eclat of the 

 city was a new experience. Here was the city of cities, 

 the capital of taste and fashion, the pride and flower 

 of a great race and a great history, the city of kings 

 and emperors, and of a people which, after all, loves 

 kings and emperors, and will not long, I fear, be happy 

 without them — a gregarious, urbane people, a people 

 of genius and destiny, whose God is Art, and whose 

 devil is Communism. London has long ago outgrown 

 itself, has spread, and multiplied, and accumulated, 

 without a corresponding inward expansion and unifica- 

 tion ; but, in Paris, they have pulled down and built 

 larger, and the spirit of centralization has had full 

 play. Hence, the French capital is superb, but soon 

 grows monotonous. See one street and boulevard, and 

 you have seen it all. It has the unity and consecu- 

 tiveness of a thing deliberately planned and built to 

 order, from beginning to end. Its stone is all from 

 one quarry, and its designs all the work of one archi- 

 tect. London has infinite variety, and quaintness, and 

 picturesqueness, and is of all possible shades of dingi- 

 ness and weather-stains. It shows its age, shows the 

 work of innumerable generations, and is more an ag- 

 gregation, a conglomeration than Paris is. Paris 

 shows the citizen, and is modern and democratic in its 

 uniformity. On the whole, I liked London best, be- 

 cause I am so much of a countryman, I suppose, and 



