_Individual works of merit are distinguished by an asterisk_ (=*=); _those of very exceptional interest and merit have two asterisks_. =Nothing= _is noticed in this book which does not seem to the writer worthy of attention_. _See little at a time, and see it thoroughly._ =Never= _attempt to “do” any place or any monument. By following strictly the order in which objects are noticed in this book, you will gain a conception of the_ =historical evolution= _of the town which you cannot obtain if you go about looking at churches and palaces hap-hazard. The order is arranged, not quite chronologically, but on a definite_ =plan=, _which greatly facilitates comprehension of the subject_. ORIGINS OF PARIS PARIS is =not=, like Rome, London, Lyons, =an inevitable city=. It does not owe its distinctive place, like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Melbourne, to natural position alone. Rather does it resemble Madrid or Berlin in being in great part of artificial administrative origin. It stands, no doubt, upon an important navigable river, the Seine; but its position upon that river, though near the head of navigation, when judged by the standard of early times, is not exactly necessary or commanding. Rouen in mediæval days, Havre at the present moment, are the real ports of the Seine. The site of Paris is in itself nothing more than one among the many little groups of willow-clad alluvial islets which are frequent along the upper reaches of the river. The modern city owes its special development as a town, first to its Roman conquerors, then to its bridges, next to its mediæval counts, last of all to the series of special accidents by which those counts developed at last into kings of the nascent kingdom of France, and inheritors of the traditions of the Frankish sovereigns. It is thus in large part a royal residential town, depending mainly for prosperity upon its kings, its nobles, its courts of justice, its parliaments, its university, its clergy, and its official classes; comparatively little, till quite recent times, upon the energy and industry of its individual citizens. We say, as a rule, that Paris is the capital of France; it would be truer to say that France is the country which has grouped itself under the rulers of Paris.