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Friday, 13th October.-I staid at home all day, only went to find the prior, who was not at home-I read something in Canus-Nec admiror, nec multum laudo. Saturday, 14th October.-We went to the house of M. [D'] Argenson, which was almost wainscotted with looking-glasses, and covered with gold-The ladies' closet wainscotted with large squares of glass over painted paper-They always place mirrours to reflect their rooms.

"Then we went to Julien's 2, the treasurer of the clergy—30,000l. a year-The house has no very large room, but is set with mirrours, and covered with goldBooks of wood here, and in another library.

"At D********'s 3 I looked into the books in the lady's closet, and in contempt showed them to Mr. Thrale-Prince Titi; Bibl. des Fées,' and other booksShe was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her apartment.

"Then we went to Julien le Roy, the king's watch-maker, a man of character in his business, who showed a small clock made to find the longitude-A decent man.

"Afterwards we saw the Palais Marchand 5 and the courts of justice, civil and

1 Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at Toledo, in 1560. He wrote a treatise "De Locis Theologicis," in twelve books.-BOSWELL. [He was celebrated for the beauty of his Latinity: "Melchior Canus parlait Latin comme Ciceron."-Vigneul Marvilliana, v. i. p. 161.-ED.]

2 M. de St. Julien, Receveur général du clergé.-Mém. de Bachaumont, v. viii. p. 180. -ED.]

3 [D'Argenson's.-ED.]

4 [The history of Prince Titi was said to be the auto-biography of Frederick, Prince of Wales, but was probably written by Ralph, his secretary. See Park's Roy, and Nob. Auth. vol. i. p. 171.-ED.] [A ludicrous error of the Editor's, illustrative of the vice of annotators, whose optics are too apt to behold mysteries in very plain matters. The History of Prince Titi was a child's book with that title.-F.J.]

[Dr. Johnson is in error in applying, as he always does, the name of Palais-Marchand to the whole of that vast building called generally the Palais, which from being the old palace of the kings of France had (like our own palace of Westminster) become appropriated to the sittings of the parliament and the courts of justice; and

criminal-Queries on the Selette -This building has the old Gothic passages, and a great appearance of antiquity-Three hundred prisoners sometimes in the gaol.

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Much disturbed; hope no ill will be 7.

"In the afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the journalist-He spoke Latin very scantily, but seemed to understand me-His house not splendid, but of commodious size-His family, wife, son, and daughter, not elevated, but decent-I was pleased with my reception-He is to translate my books, which I am to send him with notes.

"Sunday, 15th October.-At Choisi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, about 7m. from Paris-The terrace noble along the river-The rooms numerous and grand, but not discriminated from other palaces-The chapel beautiful, but smallChina globes-Inlaid tables-Labyrinth— Sinking table s-Toilet tables.

"Monday, 16th October.-The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty-A very great collection of pictures-Three of Raphael-Two Holy Family-One small piece of M. Angelo One room of Rubens-I thought the pictures of Raphael fine.

"The Thuilleries-Statues-VenusEn. and Anchises in his arms-NilusMany more-The walks not open to mean persons Chairs at night hired for two sous a piece-Pont tournant 9.

"Austin Nuns 10-Grate-Mrs. Fermor, Abbess-She knew Pope, and thought him disagreeable-Mrs. has many books— has seen life-Their frontlet disagreeableTheir hood-Their life easy-Rise about five; hour and half in chapel-Dine at ten

Another hour and half in chapel; half an

the Conciergerie of that palace (like the Gatehouse of ours) became a prison. The Palais Marchand was only the stalls (like what are now called bazars) which were placed along some of the galleries and corridors of the Palais.-ED.]

6 [The selette was a stool on which the crimi nal sat while he was interrogated-questioned by the court. This is what Johnson means by "queries."-ED.]

แ

This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of " Archbishop Laud's Diary.”—BOSWELL. [It, perhaps, had no superstitious meaning. He felt, it would seem, his mind disturbed, and may naturally have been apprehensive of becoming worse.-ED.]

8 [A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor; so that supper might be served and removed without the presence of servants. It was invented by Louis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri.-ED.]

9 [Before the revolution, the passage from the garden of the Thuilleries into the Place Louis XV. was over a pont tournant, a kind of drawbridge.-ED.]

10 [The English convent of Notre Dame a Sion, of the order of St. Augustine, situated the Rue des Fossés St. Victor.-ED.]

[Livres] 63-21. 12s. 6d. ster. "We heard the lawyers plead-N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year-Chambre de question 2-Tournelle at the Palais Marchand 3-An old venerable building.

"The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé-Only one small wing shown-lofty-splendid-gold and glassThe battles of the great Cond are painted in one of the rooms-The present prince a grandsire at thirty-nine 4.

"The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them-As I entered, my wife was in my mind 5: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased.

"N. In France there is no middle rank 6.

no

1 [Young ladies, who paid for their education. Before the revolution, there were boarding schools, and all young ladies were educated in the convents.-ÉD.]

2 [This was one of the rooms of the Conciergerie, where la question-torture-was applied.-ED.]

3 [Again he mistakes, by introducing the word Marchand. The word Tournelle designated that portion of the parliament of Paris which tried criminal causes, and that part of the Palais in which they sat.-ED.]

4 [The Prince de Condé was born in 1736, and died in 1818. The grandson was the celebrated and unfortunate Duke d'Enghein, born in 1755, murdered in 1804. The father, "restes infortunés du plus beau sang du monde," still lives under his former title of Duc de Bourbon.-ED.]

5 His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his "Prayers and Meditations," appears very feelingly in this passage.-BosWELL.

6 [This observation, which Johnson afterwards repeats, was unfounded in the sense in which he France was in appears to have understood it. theory divided (as England is) into the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, and so it might be said that there was no middle rank; but not only did the theoretical constitution of society thus resemble that of England, but so did its practical details. There were first the peers of France, who

"So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris. The palaces of Louvre and Thuilleries granted out in lodgings.

"In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes o metal at the fireplace.

"The French beds commended-Much of the marble only paste.

"The colosseum 7 a mere wooden build. ing, at least much of it.

"Wednesday, 18th October.—We went to Fontainbleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people-The forest thick with woods, very extensive-Manucci secured us lodgings-The appearance of the country pleasant-No hills, few streams, only one hedge-I remember no chapels no crosses on the road-Pavement still, and rows of trees.

“N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris.

"Thursday, 19th October.-At court we saw the apartments-The king's bed-champersons of all ranks in the external rooms ber and council-chamber extremely splendid through which the family passes-servants and masters-Brunets with us the second time.

"The introductor came to us-civil tc —Presenting—I had scruples —Not ne

me

had seats and voices in the parliament, but were of little weight as a political body, from the smallness of their numbers, and because their parliament had only continued to be, what we still call ours, a high court, and had lost its legis. lative functions;--next came the noblesse-the gentilhommes-answering to our gentry-then the middle classes of society, composed of the poorer gentry, lawyers, medical men, inferior clergy, literary men, merchants, artists, manufacturers, notaries, shopkeepers, in short, all those who in every country constitute the middle classes, and they undoubtedly existed in France in their due proportion to the gentry on the one hand, and the working classes on the other. Johnson's remark is the stranger, because it would seem that his intercourse while in Paris was almost exclusively with persons of this middle class; but it must be observed, that his intercourse and his consequent sources of information were not extensive. Mrs. Piozzi says to him, talking of the progress of refinement of manners in England, "I much wonder whether this refinement has spread all over the conti. nent, or whether it is confined to our own island: when we were in France we could form little judgment, as our time was chiefly passed among the English."-Lett.-ED.]

7 [This building, which stood in the Faubourg St. Honoré, was a kind of Ranelagh, and was destroyed a few years after. The " Memoires de Bachaumont" call it "monument monstreux de la folie Parisienne."-V. i. p. 311.--ED.]

8 [Perhaps M. J. L. Brunet, a celebrated ad vocate of the parliament of Paris, author of se veral distinguished professional works.-ED.] 9 [It was the custom previous to court present

ations, that an officer waited on the person to be introduced, to instruct them in the forms. Johnson's scruples probably arose from this-it was an etiquette generally insisted on to present at foreign courts those only who had been presented to their own sovereign at home. Johnson had never been publickly presented to the king, though he had had that honour in private, and may, therefore, have entertained scruples whether he was entitled to be presented to the king of France; but it would seem that those scruples were not necessary, the rule perhaps extending only to formal presentations at court, and not to admission to see the king dine.-ED.]

[This probably means that the queen was attended by only one lady, who also rode aside, and not that one female attendant rode so, while other ladies rode astride.-ED.]

2 [Meaning, no doubt, that they were not of cedar, ebony, or mahogany, but of some meaner wood coloured over, a fashion which had not yet reached England.-ED.]

3 [The marechaussée was posted at the gates of the courts of justice; but the interior discipline was maintained by huissiers, ushers, the servants of the court.--ED.]

4 See ante, p. 12.-BOSWELL.

"Sunday, 22d October.-1o Versailles, a mean 5 town-Carriages of business passing-Mean shops against the wall-Our way lay through Sêve, where the China manufacture-Wooden bridge at Sêve, in the way to Versailles-The palace of great extent The front long; I saw it not perfectly-The Menagerie-Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the ground; tameHalcyons, or gulls-Stag and hind, young -Aviary, very large; the net, wire-Black stag of China, small-Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which, I suppose, will grow; the basis, I think, four inches across; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young; as big, perhaps, as four oxen-The young elephant, with his tusks just appearing-The brown bear put out his paws-all very tame-The lion--The tigers I did not well view-The camel, or dromedary, with two bunches called the Huguin, taller than any horse-Two camels with one bunch-Among the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam about to catch fish-His feet well webbed; he dipped his head, and turned his long bill sidewise-He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them.

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Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Versailles-It has an open portico; the pavement, and, I think, the pillars, of marble-There are many rooms, which I do not distinctly remember-A table of porphyry, about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Louis XIV. by the Venetian state-In the council-room almost all that was not door or window was, I think, looking-glass-Little Trianon is a small palace like a gentleman's house-The upper floor paved with brick-Little VienneThe court is ill paved-The rooms at the top are small, fit to soothe the imagination with privacy-In the front of Versailles are small basins of water on the terrace, and other basins, I think, below them-There are little courts-The great gallery is wainscotted with mirrours not very large, but joined by frames-I suppose the large plates were not yet made-The playhouse was very large s-The chapel I do not remember

5 [There must be some mistake. Versailles is a remarkably stately town.-ED.]

6 This epithet should be applied to the animal with one bunch.-Boswell.

7 [The upper floors of most houses in France are tiled.-ED.]

8 [That magnificent building, which was both a theatre and a bali-toean. It was rarely used; the lighting and other expenses for a single night being 100,000 francs. It is celebrated in the History of the Revolution as the scene of the entertainment given by the Gardes du Corps, on the 1st October, 1789; of which innocent and, indeed, laudable testimony of attachment between them

Monday, 23d October.-Last night I wrote to Levet 3-We went to see the looking-glasses wrought-They come from Normandy in cast plates, perhaps the third of an inch thick-At Paris they are ground upon a marble table, by rubbing one plate upon another with grit between them-The various sands, of which there are said to be five, I could not learn-The handle, by which the upper glass is moved, has the form of a wheel, which may be moved in all directions-The plates are sent up with their surfaces ground, but not polished, and so continue till they are bespoken, lest time should spoil the surface, as we were told— Those that are to be polished are laid on a table covered with several thick cloths, hard strained, that the resistance may be equal: they are then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand-The powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron dissolved in aquafortis; they called it, as Baretti said, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs-They mentioned vitriol and saltpetre-The cannon-ball swam in the quicksilver-To silver them, a leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quicksilver, to which it unites-Then more quicksilver is poured upon it, which, by its mutual [attraction] rises very high-Then a paper is laid at the nearest end of the plate, over which the glass is slided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quicksilver before it-It is then, I think, pressed upon cloth, and then set sloping to drop the superfluous mercury: the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular.

"In the way I saw the Grêve, the mayor's house 4, and the Bastile.

"We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer 5 -He brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrale, and sells his beer at the same price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beerBeer is sold retail at sixpence a bottle-He

supposed to brew more than he-Reckoning them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year |—They make their malt, for malting is here no trade.

"The moat of the Bastile is dry.

4.66

Tuesday, 24th October.-We visited the king's library-I saw the Speculum humana Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink, sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut in boards. The Bible, supposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 1462; it has no date; it is supposed to have been printed with wooden types-I am in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two folios-Another book was shown me, supposed to have been printed with wooden types-I think, Durandi Sanctuarium in 1458-This is inferred from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which might be struck with different puncheons-The regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal-I saw nothing but the Speculum, which I had not seen, I think, before.

"Thence to the Sorbonne-The library very large, not in lattices like the king'sMarbone and Durandi, q. collection 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many foliosHistoire Genealogique of France, 9 vol.Gallia Christiana, the first edition, 4to. the last, f. 12 vol.-The prior and librarian dined with us-I waited on them homeTheir garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many students-. The doctors of the Sorbonne are all equalchoose those who succeed to vacanciesProfit little.

"Wednesday, 25th October.-I went with the prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke 6-We walked round the palace, and

had some talk-I dined with our whole company at the monastery-In the library, Beroald-Cymon-Titus, from BoccaceOratio Proverbialis to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys-Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies 7.

"Thursday, 26th October.-We saw the china at Sêve, cut, glazed, painted-Bellevue 8, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect-Meudon, an old palace-Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks-Plato and Aristotle-Noble terrace overlooks the town. Cloud-Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing-In the rooms, Michael Ange

St.

6 [Second son of Hooke, the historian, a doctor of the Sorbonne.-ED.]

7 He means, I suppose, that he read these dif.. ferent pieces while he remained in the library.BOSWELL.

8 [At that period inhabited by the king's aunts. -ED 1