[40] Coffeehouses.—The number of coffeehouses (properly so called, as coffee and _liqueurs_ are the only articles which they supply) is very great at Paris, and they are constantly crowded. Swarms of idle persons spend their lives at these places, playing chess, talking politics, reading the journals, or sitting still. I have often counted more than one hundred individuals in a coffeeroom of a moderate size; and there is no hour of the day when the same scene does not present itself. Paris, under every government, and at all periods, will bear the same appearance as to amusements. Montesquieu, in his Persian Letters, gives the following description of the coffeehouses of his time, which applies exactly to those of the day: _“Le café est très en usage à Paris, il y a un grand nombre de maisons publiques, où on le distribue. Dans quelques unes de ces maisons on dit des nouvelles, dans d’autres on joue aux échecs. Il y en a une où l’on apprête le café, de telle manière qu’il donne de l’esprit à ceux qui en prennent; au moins, de tous ceux qui en sortent, il n’y a personne que ne croie qu’il en a quatre fois plus que lorsqu’il est entré.”_ “Coffee is much in use in Paris. There are a great many public houses where it is distributed. In some of these houses the news of the day is reported, and in others chess is played. There is one, in which coffee is prepared, in such an extraordinary manner, that it improves the intellects of those who take it: at least, of those who come from this house, there is not one who does not think himself four times as wise as when he went in.” [41] The establishment for the employment of the blind. [42] In spite of myself. [43] As our Saviour did of old. [44] It is the art of writing as quick as speech. Stenography moves like the deer or the horse, but common writing like the ox. [45] You speak of _Molière!_ Oh! his reign is past; our age is much more refined in its ideas; our stage, cleared of such trash, is at last adorned with the really beautiful, which was so long sought for in vain. [46] “Tom, my dear Tom.” [47] Every large house in France is approached by a court yard, the gate of which is called “la porte cochére.” [48] I speak only of the superiour orders. Among the common people, I have remarked some of that liveliness so vaunted, as forming a material ingredient in the french character. [49] Edward in Scotland. [50] Provision for the convent. [51] I am delighted to see here so many english. I hope our union may be of long continuance. We are the two most powerful and most civilized nations of Europe. We should unite to cultivate the arts, the sciences, and letters; in short, to improve the happiness of human nature.