If we survey the institutions and the monuments with care, and
refer to their origin, associations and purposes, the historical and
economical national facts are revealed with the utmost clearness and
unity. The old Bastile represented, in its gloomy stolidity, the whole
tragedy of the Revolution; and St. Genevieve combines the holy memories
of the early church with that of the first French kings; the site of a
_fosse commune_ attests the valor of republican martyrs; the Champs
Elysees are the popular earthly fields of a French paradise. One _cafe_
is famed for the beauty of its mistress, another for the great
chess-players who make it a resort; one is the daily rendezvous of the
liberals, another of royalists, one of military men, another of artists;
they flourish and fade with dynasties, and are respectively the
favorites of provincials and citizens, gourmands and traders, men of
letters and men of state.[A] The _Monte de Piete_ acquaints us with the
vicissitudes and expedients of fortune; the _Hotel Dieu_ is a temple of
ancient charity; the _Hospice des Enfants Trouvees_ startles us with the
astounding fact that half the children born in Paris are illegitimate;
and the Morgue yields no less appalling statistics of suicide.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55