Having viewed the whole of the metairie which was upon a very extensive scale, they returned to the house, where they were regailed with fruits and cream.

SECTION II.

TRAVELLING IN FRANCE.

A LITTLE pig, which was the only one that a sow had not overlaid of a small litter, was shewn to Edward, by one of the farmer's sons as peculiarly beautiful. It was quite a pet, and so familiar that it followed every inmate of the farm like a dog.

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Pigs have the reputation of being very dirty," observed Dr. Walker, "that one is an exception, but I believe they are in some degree scandalized, for if they are shut up in a dirty place, they shew great uneasiness, and their addiction to rolling in the mud, which is by no means so peculiar to them, is rather a proof of their cleanliness, for it only betrays their eagerness to remove the itchy sensations produced by insects. The same uneasy feelings appear to be induced before rain, when, like poultry, these animals rub themselves in the dust.

"Neither are they so stupid as they are represented, and I hold myself bound in duty," continued the Doctor smiling, "to exonerate the character of an animal from the imputation of these disagreeable qualities, to which I am indebted for the luxuries of pork, bacon, and ham; and first of all let me speak of their courage. They evince the most determined courage, as well as the most marked sympathy with those of their own species; for the moment that one of them utters a signal of distress, all within hearing will run to its assistance. Of the numerous instances which have been quoted in proof of this assertion, the ensuing is not the least remarkable. The Sieur Brue having in vain, had recourse to every experiment for softening the ferocious disposition of a tyger, which he had reared at Fort Saint Louis, on the western coast of Africa, was curious to know how a hog would defend himself against so large and powerful a beast. He, consequently, caused one to be detached from

1

a herd, and the rest to be conveyed to some distance. As soon as the tyger was loosened, the hog retired into an angle in the wall of the fort, where, for a very considerable time, it kept the tyger at bay; at length, when closely pressed, it uttered a furious scream, and, in an instant, the whole drove advanced to its relief, and so resolutely assailed the tyger, that, in order to save himself, he was compelled to spring out of their reach, into the ditch of the fort. A herd of swine have been known to gather round a dog which teased them, and to kill him on the spot; and if a male and female of this species be put into a sty when young, the female will decline from the moment that her companion is removed, and will probably die of a broken heart. Neither can their stupidity be longer admitted, since the exhibition. of the learned Toby in England is an irrefragable poof that they belong rather to the literary world than the world of ignorance.'

"This little animal," said the farmer, "is no fool neither. N'et tu pas une comme un renard," continued he as he caressed the petted pig, which grunted applause.

Their driver having announced that all was put to rights, they took leave of the friendly farmer and his family, and resumed their journey. Late in the evening they arrived at Chalons, celebrated for its manufactures of shalloons and coarse woollen cloaths; and the next day they passed through a beautiful country, on the road to Epernay. Here they staid one day to ramble in the adjacent and extensive vineyards, and to inspect the woollen manufactory, and the large potteries which are of considerable celebrity.

The day being hot, Edward expressed a wish to be in the grotto in Hungary, of which we have spoken. "You need not go so far," replied the Doctor, "for to the east of Vesoul, which is in the department of La Haute Soane, there is a cave, which will produce in one hot day more ice than can be carried away in eight. It measures thirty feet in length, by sixty in width; and the large pendant masses of ice which hang from the roof, present a very pleasing effect. A grotto, near Douce, in the same neighbourhood, is perhaps more beautiful than than that at Vesoul; from the regularity of the colums which sustain the roof, and which appear to be carved with the figures of men and women, children and animals. There is a

cavern also near Besançon, in a little wood, the entrance to which is formed by two rocks, that is eighty feet high, and

sixty feet wide. The ground of this grotto is perfectly smooth, and is covered with ice, about eighteen inches thick, which is formed by the dropping of the water, through the imperceptible fissures of the rock, although the ground on the outside is a dry and stony soil, covered with trees, and on a level with the rest of the wood. The cold is so intense, that it is impossible to remain long within this cavern."

From Epernai they continued their journey without interruption, until they entered Paris, the capital of the French empire. The day after their arrival, they proceeded to take a survey of this great city, and the Jardins des Plantes, was among the first of its curiosities they visited. The pleasure they received from visiting the museum, the theatre of anatomy, the gardens allotted to botanical and agricultural studies, and the menagerie, amply repaid the toil of a four hours examination.

A young gentleman, with whom Dr. Walker had become acquainted at Rheims, met them at their entrance, and presented them with tickets of admission into the museum, &c. It was necessary to have these, as this superb place is not always open to the public, else the young men who attend the lectures which are given in the museum, and the theatre of anatomy, would not be able to reap the fruit of the instructions they receive.

These lectures are conducted on the most liberal principles. They are open to all who choose to attend them; to Frenchmen, to Americans, to Englishmen, to foreigners of all nations, and to both sexes! without a single sol being demanded for instruction. This was the testimony of the young gentleman who provided them with their tickets of admission, and who had attended from five to seven different lectures daily, during these fifteen months, without paying a franc to any professor for his instruction, and he was a foreigner, but spoke the French language fluently.

Thus may young men study law, medicine, history, geometry, the belles lettres, in short, any or every part of necessary or polite literature, without putting their relations to any expences, except for the first necessaries of life, and one or two suits of clothes in the year, just as their finances may allow. Thus may young men, of any opinion or sect, of any country or clime, receive all the advantages they can derive from the abilities of the most learned instructors, without dressing like speculative Charlatans, to excite the pleasantry

of the nation by whose liberality they enjoy the advantages, without the expense of the English universities. Who is there that does not admire and extol this munificence? If such there be, they must be lost to all those feelings we entertain against the men, who, under the sanction of their power, compelled the illustrious Galileo to expiate

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-par dix ans de prisons

L'inexcusable tort d'avoir trop tôt raison.”

And every one must agree in thinking that, in this point of view, France is indeed a great nation.

The French seem to have peculiarly studied nature; and the assiduity they have employed in collecting her productions, is only equalled by the skill they have displayed in arranging the finest specimens she could present to a people, who sought to preserve her works.

Whatever she has produced in the four quarters of the globe; whatever the earth or the ocean can call its inhabitant, may be found in the finest state of preservation in this mu seum, or alive in the menageries, or growing in the gardens.

How well then is the theory of instruction combined with its practice? What treasures the inquisitive and the curious here enjoy without the labour of travelling and the expense of purchase? "Do we wonder then that the French are an intelligent and a polite people," said Dr. Walker, as they traversed the several apartments, "and that strangers of all nations flock to their capital? When we know that upwards of fifty ladies, Parisians and foreigners, this last year attended regularly the different courses of lectures at the Jardins des Plantes; that females may be found sitting in the Louvre, and the saloons of sculpture, painting and modelling from the finest specimens of the painter and the sculptor's art that France boasts of. Although this was was not one of the days on which the public are admitted to the museum of the Jardins du Roi, or Des Plantes; for the reason already mentioned, yet there were several parties beside our travellers, who paraded the different rooms, on both floors of this long building, and gazed at the works or productions of nature. The Doctor and his pupil were much amused with some parties of their countrymen, who took a particular pride in looking with indifference on the splendid collections before them, while their haste to be gone, and the taciturnity they observed, proved how much interest they took in what they

were permitted to behold; and how much better pleased they would be to have discovered that Great Russel Street could have rivalled what their jealousy bade them pass without examination, and their contempt taught them to look on without the smile of satisfaction, which, one would think, all human beings must wear on their countenance, when they enter this grand repository of all that is deemed curious and valuable, useful and ornamental, whether as necessaries or luxuries, to the animal called man.

The botanical gardens, however, were not shut to the public, who ranged them in great numbers, and entered in many instances, superficially into the names and uses of the vegetables, plants, flowers, shrubs and trees before them. But then these beings were all French, criticising the arrangements of their countrymen, or heaping upon Nature the praises her choicest beauties drew from their delighted feelings. Yet among this group the order that was preserved was truly admirable. Nor was it here only our travellers had occasion to observe this trait in the character of the lower orders of the Parisians. In the Jardins du Roi, in the Luxembourgh, at St. Cloud, at Versailles, in the Louvre, the same decency is preserved, the same studied politeness is attended to, the same inclination to look at every thing, but to touch or meddle with nothing, was manifest. In the silence of admiration they will pass along; or if they stop to criticise, some morsel of wit doubles the pleasure they have already received.

A chimney sweeper, a waterman, the porter of an hôtel is admitted without scruple into the Louvre, or the Jardins des Plantes; and it is impossible for any nation to offer a picture of good breeding above what these poor men and their wives and children will preserve, in perambulating with their superiors, the halls and floors which seem waxed and brushed for the feet of princes alone.

It is not in those places a stranger will meet with an insult; it is not in any of them he will behold the petulance of ig. norance, or the rudeness of dissatisfied poverty. The poorest Frenchman walks by the side of his superior with the satisfaction of the man who entertains a guest. The lowest ar tizan in Paris behaves in these places with all the national character of a philosopher; and it is very sure that he would think himself degraded below his nature, if any foreigners,