closely copied the situation and formation of the edifice.

It is thus that a happy thought or striking description is successively transferred from one writer to another; each endeavouring to enlarge and amplify the original idea. Poets, indeed, seem to consider themselves privileged in thus borrowing from the works of their predecessors; a practice which must be allowed to be rather too bold an extension of their poetical licence. We may, in particular, trace the groundwork of many of Virgil's most celebrated passages in the pages of Homer..

"Before my view appear'd a structure fair,

Its site uncertain, if in earth or air; With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round;

With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound;

Not less in number were the spacious doors

Than leaves on trees, or sands upon the

Atria turba tenent; veniunt leve vulgus, euntque:

Mistaque cum veris passim commenta vagantur

Millia rumorem; confusaque verba volutant."

Famo Domus, 1-17.

These lines have been thus harmoniously translated by Dryden, of whose version Pope no doubt availed himself in drawing his picture of the Temple of Rumour.

"'Tis built of brass, the better to dif fuse

The spreading sounds, and multiply the news;

Where echos in repeated echos play, A mart for ever full, and open night and day.

Nor silence is within, nor voice express,

But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease,

Confus'd and chiding, like the hollow

roar

Of tides, receding from th' insulted

shore :

Or like the broken thunder, heard from far,*

When Jove to distance drives the rolling war."

In this passage of Dryden there are many beautiful instances of alliteration-a species of poetical embellishment with which he was particularly fond of adorning his poems; especially in that excellent version of the Tales of Chaucer and Boccace, so much admired as one of his latest performances, and so well known by the title of his “Fables.”

W.

22-24.

Paradise Lost, II. 476, 477.

SOCIETY.

I HAVE already noticed the dif ferent modes of receiving company in France and England, but the subject merits more attention than I at first imagined, as we may build upon the facts which it embraces very fair opinions of the national character. In England people ruin themselves by the dinners and suppers which they give to their friends; persons in high life hesitate not to provide the delicacies of the season coute qui coute; and unless they give green peas at five guineas per quart, and pine-apples at two or three guineas each, they are set down as stingy creatures. I know many good natured fools of good income so straightened by this ridiculous fashion, as to be compelled to emigrate to France where happily it is not in existence. The tradesman in England is, in his way, still more silly than the peer. He would dread the reproaches of his friends if he spared his port wine, or dismissed them without a substantial supper. We all know what jeers and ridicule the tea and turn-out system had to bear with when it was first attempted. There cannot be two opinions amongst sensible men as to the folly of the English in this respect, but it would be unjust not to give them the credit of erring on the side of hospitality; they consider that they cannot do better when they invite friends than to give them good fare. The French provide amusements and conversation, which cost them nothing, for their acquaintances, and pay no attention to the stomach; the extreme is a bad one, and it is much to be desired that the people of both countries would borrow a little from each other. I was invited to a soirée, as it is called, by a Frenchman of rank, and had the pleasure of meeting at his house about thirty persons, among whom were some of very pleasing and instructive conversation. The company met together at about six o'clock in the evening; the hour being so early I naturally expected that tea would be served up; nine o'clock however came and no refreshment was offered, nor

did the company generally seem to expect any. At about half-past

nine o'clock two servants entered with silver trays covered with bonbons, (sweetmeats of sugar) which were handed round to the company; among the bon-bons were a great many crackers, which the young ladies and their beaux amused tbemselves with by snapping; some raised a laugh by reading the printed questions and answers found in the papers which enveloped the bonbons; others admired their flavour, and one gentleman gravely asked me if the sugar refiners in England furnished sugar sufficiently fine for bon-bons. The gossip occasioned by the service of the sweetmeats took up an hour, during which I frequently watched the door in expec

tation of some more solid refreshment, for I had taken a very early dinner, and was really hungry. Nothing however entered; at eleven o'clock some negus and a few sponge cakes were handed round, and at twelve o'clock the society separated. I had no high opinion of course of the hospitality of the French from this soirée, but I have since been to several others, which have made me consider my first inviter comparatively hospitable.

In many of the soirées which I have since attended, nothing in the way of refreshment was offered to the company, and I understand that it is by no means unusual for eighteen or twenty persons to be invited and to separate without eating or drinking any thing. It is impossible to admire such a mode of associating as this, but there are a great number of English in Paris who copy the French in their mode of con ducting their soirees.

THE EXPENSES OF LIVING IN
FRANCE.

This is a subject of some interest to the English at home and abroad, and it is one upon which a great deal has been said falsely; those who have treated it having given way too much to their prejudices. Some persons return from Paris after a visit of two or three days only, and declare that every thing is

dirt cheap in France, others declare that provisions are much dearer than in England. It is not by residing in Paris two or three months that a person can feel himself equal to a statement of pure fact; the Englishman who has lived extravagantly at home is surprised at the apparently low prices which he hears asked in Paris; and, on the other hand, he who has already economised at home,and comes to Paris for further economy, finds every article much beyond what he had expected; a whole volume might be written on this subject, and still something

would be omitted. I must content myself with a mere sketch which, from the length of time that I have resided in Paris, I can assure the reader will be a correct one. First, as to lodgings; apartments, generally speaking, are expensive; a good bed-room and sitting-room, furnished, on the first floor of a house well situated is charged 130 to 150 francs a month; on the second floor the charge is about 15 per cent. lower, and on the third floor about 25 per cent. lower than on the first. Many very respectable persons live on the second and third floors in Paris, and there are some men of title, and even of fortune, who live on the fourth or fifth floors; unfurnished apartments are proportionably less expensive. In the very best situations they are, however, high; a suite of rooms in a good house of the Chaussée d'Autin, on the first floor, sufficient to accommodate a family of ten or twelve persons, costs 3 to 4000 francs per year. some houses 5 and 6000 must be

In

paid. In situations less fashionable, but equally respectable, a similar apartment may be had for 2000; and in the Faubourg St. Germain a very good suite of rooms may be had, unfurnished, for about 1000 or 1200 francs a year. In addition to the rent a sou per franc is charged for the porter, as a compensation for his trouble in answering enquiries, &c. After the lodgings, the most expensive article in a domestic establishment is fuel; the wood for one fire will cost at least two francs a day, if the fire be at all a good one. There are good coals in Paris which come from Mons, in the Netherlands, but the French have an idea that a coal fire is very destructive to

The lamb in Paris is sold cheap when in season, but it is very tough and inferior; in purchasing butcher's meat, a quantity of rejouissance must be taken, or an extra price paid. This rejouissance is bone, and is called the enjoyment of the butcher, who of course throws as much into the scale as he can ; constant disputes are therefore the natural consequence-the addition of bone to the meat purchased, beyond the bone in the piece of meat chosen,may be fairly estimated to add two sous per pound to the price.

Salt butter, called Beurre de Bretagne, which is really

good

Eggs per quarter of a hundred

Cheese various prices, but as none of the cheese sold in Paris is equal to English cheese,the quoting the price would be almost useless; the only cheese which can be eaten by an Englishman is the Neufchatel, and the Fromage de Gruyere; the Neufchatel is sold at three and four sous each; the Gruyere cheese is sold per pound..... Good Dutch cheese per lb. Candles per pound, (moulds) very inferior to the English Lump sugar of the same quality as that sold in London at one shilling per pound, twenty-eight sous to Moist sugar per pound, good quality

....

Good green tea per pound Good black do...

fr.sous.

0 16 08

0 18 16

The wine in France is of course cheap, but unless the better sorts are used, by no means equal to that which is drank in England. The vin ordinaire sold in Paris is always adulterated, and agrees with few persons; this wine is sold at sixteen sous per litre, (an English quart). The genuine vin ordinaire when obtained direct from the places of its growth will, if of good quality, cost about sixteen sous per bottle in Paris; but the genuineness of the article can only be insured by pro

curing it direct. After the vin ordinaire, nothing fit to drink can be had under four francs per bottle, and good hermitage and Champagne are always charged in the retail trade at seven francs per bottle.

fr.sous.

60

Sherry, in bottles containing about two-thirds of the quantity in an English wine bottle, is ..... Madeira of good quality, do. 6 0 Port wine, if genuine, which happens very rarely, and in the same kind of bottle 70 The Cape wine which in England is to be had for 18. 6d. and 28. per bottle, is charged in Paris at 6, 7, 8, and 9 francs.

It may be safely asserted that good full-bodied wine is cheaper in England than in France; no wines are cheap in France except those of native growth, and what wine have the French for tonic and exhilarating properties that can be compared with the Sherry, Madeira, Port, and even Cape, which we get from a respectable wine merchant in London ?

Brandy and Hollands, although dearer in Paris than in any part of France, are still cheap; the former of good quality is retailed at fortyeight sous per litre, or eight shillings English per gallon. The wholesale price of good brandy at Cognac is only 4f. 10s. per velte of two English gallons. The beer in Paris is very bad, and very dear, when compared with that of England; a beer equal in strength,but not in flavour, to the two-penny ale in London, is sold at five sous per bottle. The French beer is put into bottles and the fixed air secured; it is therefore in summer rather an agreeable beverage. There are two English breweries in Paris, but at neither of them can we get any thing like English beer; persons who understand the matter attribute the failure to the quality of the water. The Seine water which is used, that from the wells being totally unfit, is strongly impregnated with gypsum, which no filtration will remove. One of the English brewers is a Mr. Douglas, a native of Scotland, who amassed a fortune as a manufacturer; the other is a ci-devant butler of Lord Courtney. Both establishments are in the Champs Elysées.

The expense of household furniture is as great or even greater in France than in England. There is a few articles, indeed, of an ornamental description cheaper in France, but the solid and indispensable articles of furniture are dear. Indeed, a stranger may collect this fact from the scanty mode in which the lodging-houses of Paris are furnished; except in very good houses there is scarcely sufficient for use. The fur

niture of three rooms, for which I pay 120 francs per month upon the third floor, (and I believe my apartment is a pretty fair sample of others at the same rent) is as follows. In the sitting-room a secretaire, a few common chairs, an old table, and a few chimney ornaments; in the bedroom, a bedstead and curtains, three mattresses, and other necessary bedding, a chest of drawers, a small table, and two chairs; in the antiroom, nothing; in the kitchen, a few utensils not worth five shillings. To furnish an apartment or house well in Paris the expense is, at least, 10 per cent. greater than it would be in London. House-rent in Paris, except in the unfashionable quarters, is as high or even higher than in London; and although I hear a great deal constantly about the low taxation in France, I have only to apply to the proprietor of the house in which I now am for information, and be convinces me that the taxation is not 15 per cent. lower than in England.

I shall next consider the expense of clothing in the various modes. First, as to fashionable tailors, I cannot do better here than copy a bill delivered to a friend of mine by a fashionable tailor, who was recommended to him at Meurice's.

All which prices are, I think, at least 10 per cent. higher than in London for the same description of articles.

Hats are much lower priced in Paris than in London; a best hat in the Rue de Richelieu, or the Rue St. Honoré, is twenty-four francs, but it is not saying a word more than the truth to declare that an English hat is worth two French hats in the wear, and fifty in the beauty. The French are behind the English in nothing more than in this article, and year after year passes on without improvement. Boots and shoes are cheaper in France, and it is only justice to state that very good may be had. Some years ago the English leather was very superior to the French, but since the plan of forcing leather by chemical means in England has been adopted, I prefer the French. A very good pair of Wellington boots may be had in Paris for twentyfour francs; the shop price is generally from eighteen to twenty; but when I speak of twenty-four francs I mean a good article. Shoes are eight and ten francs per pair, for good quality, and at this price they wear well. Linen and other articles of dress are at about the same price in both countries. Cotton stockings, however, are dearer, and silk a little cheaper. I do not know much about ladies' dresses, but my wife tells me that she can clothe herself much better for twenty-five pounds a year in London than for thirty-five pounds in Paris. This I can readily understand, when I find that the only article of a lady's dress which is cheaper here is silk, which, however, is much dearer than it used to be.

I shall conclude this account by a few observations on the mode of living in Paris which is usually adopted by single men, who are, indeed, the only persons who discover the great economy of living in France. The young men who come here are for the most part of a class accustomed to luxuries at home, and as luxuries and amusements are certainly to be had at a lower rate in Paris than in London, they are never tired of passing