PARI S, 
473 
appearance. The whole is furmounted by a terrace, pro¬ 
tected by an iron balluftrade. The total height of the 
building is 282 feet. 
The bold and light ftyle of the architecture, in which 
it was originally built, had nearly hazarded the deftruc- 
tion of the whole edifice. The pillars which fupported 
the dome began to bend under its enormous weight; and 
it was only by facrificing fome what of its beauty, and 
introducing confufion into the ftyle of the whole, that 
jRondelet was enabled to preferve it from ruin. He 
placed twelve new columns under the dome ; and by the 
brightnefs of the gilding, and the beauty of the painting, 
very fkilfully endeavoured to conceal the injury he was 
doing to the coup-d’ceil of the edifice. The connoiffeur 
will, however, perceive a difagreeable contraft between 
the original lightne'fs of the naves and the maflivenefs of 
the centre of the building. 
At the beginning of the Revolution, this magnificent 
building changed its name to The Pantheon. A pedeftal 
was fixed on the dome, which was intended to receive a 
col'oflal ftatue of Fame, twenty-eight feet high; and the 
interior was deftined to receive the allies of thofe who had 
deferved well of their country. The infcription in front 
was fimple and fublime : 
AUX GRANDS HOMMES, LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE. 
Dedicated by a grateful Country to its illuftrious Men. 
The vaults are fkilfully contrived ; and are neither dark, 
damp, nor gloomy. They confift of galleries lined with 
cells. In thefe cells, all nearly of the fame fize, the bo¬ 
dies are depofited, each in a ftone farcophagus of exaClly 
the fame fize and form. An infcription relates merely 
the name, the dignity, and age, of the deceafed. Over 
the door of each cell is the cipher XP and the letters A 
and SI. 
Weunderftand that the church of St. Genevieve has 
lince recovered its original name, and is now in the courfe 
of being reftored to its primitive ufe: the infcriptions, 
bas reliefs, See. are to be taken down ; and it is faid the 
bodies of Voltaire, Rouffeau, &c. will not be permitted 
to remain. 
The Protestants have four churches in Paris; and 
the Jews have fix fynagogues. 
Religious Communities.— There are eighteen reli¬ 
gious communities or focieties of females at Paris, whole 
principal employment is attending the lick at the hof- 
pitals, and the poor at their habitations, and in gra- 
tuitoully inftrudling young feir-des. 
The convent of the Benediftines is in Ruedu Regard ; 
and that of the Englilh Benedictines in Rue des Fofles 
St. Vi&or. 
The Carmelites have three lioufes : Rue Maillet; Rue 
d'Enfer; and Rue de Vaugirard. The painted dome of 
the chapel of the laft of thefe has been much admired. 
It reprefents the Transfiguration of the Prophet Elijah, 
by Bertholet.Flamel. In this convent the cannibals of 
the 2d and 3d of September commenced their horrible 
maflacres. 
The Nuns of our Lady of Charity are in Rue St. 
Jacques. Their convent forms a fpecies of female peni¬ 
tentiary, and is appropriated for the reception of thofe 
whom parental wifdom or caprice configns to a temporary 
or Lifting confinement and punifhment. 
The Dominicans are in Rue d’Angouleme and Rue 
Moreau. Their principal employment is the education 
of young ladies. 
The interefting fociety of the Sifters of Charity, whofe 
lives are devoted to afi'uage the pains and heal the dil- 
eafes of the moft miferable of their fellow-creatures, have 
their principal convent in Rue du Vieux Colombier. 
Museum of French Monuments, Rue des Petits 
Auguftins.—During the phrenzy of the revolution, many 
churches were reduced to ruins; moft of the monuments 
they contained were mutilated, and many of them de¬ 
stroyed. The tombs at St. Denis, in particular, were 
Vol. XVlIf. No. 1258. 
torn up by the unhallowed hands of ignorant barbarian 
defpoilers. When the body of Henry the Fourth was 
difeovered, it was found in Rich a ftate of prefervation, 
that the features of his face were not altered. It was a 
dry mummy; 'the Ikull had been fawed, and in the place 
of the brain, which had been taken out, contained fome 
tow, fteeped in an aromatic liquor, which fent forth a 
ftrong odour. A foldier, who was prefent, moved by a 
marthial enthufiafm, at the inftant of opening the coffin, 
threw himfelf on the body, and after a long filence of 
admiration, drew his fyvord, cut off a long lock from the 
beard, which was Hill frefti, and exclaimed at the fame 
time, in a very energetic manner, “ And I too am a French 
foldier! henceforth I will have no other muftachios.” 
As he placed it on his upper lip, “ Now,” faid he, “ I am 
fure to conquer the enemies of France; I march to 
victory!” This flourifli in favour of a beloved king was 
not, however, much reliflied by the enfavs de la patrie, 
the excellent republicans, there affembled f the body was - 
therefore prefently fet upright upon a ftone, for the 
rabble to divert themfelves with it; and a woman, re¬ 
proaching the dead Henry with the crime of having been 
a king, knocked him down by a blow in the face ; after 
which the corpfe was left for fome days to be the fport of 
thefe Yahoos, till it was thrown at laft into the common 
pit prepared for the remains upon which their fenfelefs 
vengeance had been exercifed. 
Louis XIV. was found in a ftate of perfeCt prefervation, 
but entirely black. The body of Louis XV. was frefh, 
but red, lying bathed in a liquorformed by the diffolution 
of the fait with which it had been covered. In the coffin 
of Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V. a gilt diftaff was 
found with the remains of a crown, bracelets, and em¬ 
broidered fhoes. The body of Louis VIII. was the only 
one which had been fewed up in leather: the leather was 
ftrong and thick, and retained all its elafticity ; the body 
was alifioft confumed, as was the winding-fheet, but frag¬ 
ments of its goid embroidery were ftiil exifting. Dagobert 
and his queen Nanthildes were in one coffin with a'par- 
tition between them. The workmen were long before 
they could difeoverthe vault of Francis I. and his family : 
it contained fix leaden coffins depofited upon bars of iron : 
in all thefe the remains were in a ftate of liquid pu¬ 
trefaction, which made its way through the lead as they 
were removed, and the odour was almoft infupportable. 
The bodies of many of the latter Bourbons were alfo in a 
ftate of decompofition ; and, when the coffins were opened, 
they are faid to have emitted a thick black vapour, which, 
though vinegar and gunpowder were burnt to prevent ill 
confequences, affeCted the wretches employed in this in¬ 
human work with fevers and diarrhoeas. Two large pits 
had been dug in front of the north entranceof the church, 
and quick-lime laid in them ; into thefe pits the bodies 
were call: promifeuoufiy, and the entrails, which had been 
depofited feparately in leaden vefiels; this lead and the 
leaden coffins were then carried to a furnace which had 
been ereCted in the cemetery, and caft into balls “deftined 
to punifti the enemies of the Republic ;” and it was more 
than once propofed in the,National Convention that the 
church itfelf iliould be totally deftroyed ! 
Tiie Convent of the Auguftins, the Weftmitifter Abbey 
of France, is the fanCtuary in which were depofited thofe 
curious relics of ancient art which accidentally efcaped, 
or were by artifice refeued, from the fatal effeCts of indif- 
criminate political fury; and it is to M. le Noir that we 
owe the collection, prefervation, and admirable arrange¬ 
ment, of thefe interefting monuments of fculpture, 
brought together from all the churches and cathedrals 
of France. He has publifhed an hiftorical and chrono¬ 
logical defeription of them, with, a curious diflertatiou 
on the coftume of each century. 
The building which contains thefe monuments refem- 
bles a cathedral-cloifter. It is encompaffed by four walls ; 
and has a garden, the funereal decorations of which are 
appropriate to the fituation. 
6 E The 
