give any details, or even to enumerate its choicest articles.
It is rich in every branch and department, unique in some, scarcely
surpassed in any, and unrivalled in all taken together. Of books printed
on vellum it contains at once the finest and most extensive collection
in the world.

2. _Arsenal Library, Paris._--This library, founded by the Marquis de
Paulmy, formerly ambassador of France in Poland, was in 1781 acquired by
the Count d'Artois, who united to it nearly the whole of the library of
the Duke de la Valliere. It possesses the most complete collection
extant of romances, since their origin in modern literature; of
theatrical pieces or dramas, from the epoch of the Moralities and
Mysteries; and of French poetry since the commencement of the sixteenth
century. It is less rich in other branches, but it has all works of
importance, and in particular contains historical collections which are
not to be found elsewhere.

3. _Library of Ste Genevieve, Paris._--The foundation of this library
dates as early as the year 1624, when Cardinal de Rochefoucauld, having
reformed the Abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, made it a present of 600
volumes. At present it contains 160,000 printed volumes and 2000
manuscripts. In it may be found all the academical collections, and a
complete set of Aldines; it is particularly rich in historical works;
and its most remarkable manuscripts are Greek and Oriental. Its
typographical collections of the fifteenth century are not more valuable
for their number than the high state of preservation in which they are
found. This library is open of an evening, and is much resorted to by
students, and men of the operative classes.

4. _Mazarin Library, Paris._--This library, as its name denotes, was
instituted by Cardinal Mazarin. The formation of it was intrusted to the
learned Gabriel Naude, who, having first selected all that suited his
purpose in the booksellers' shops in Paris, travelled into Holland,
Italy, Germany, and England, where the letters of recommendation of
which he was the bearer enabled him to collect many very rare and
curious works. Cardinal Mazarin, by his will, bequeathed it to the
college which he founded, and in 1688 it was made public. It is
remarkable for a great number of collections containing detached pieces
and small treatises, which date as far back as the fifteenth century,
and exist nowhere else; nor has any other library so complete a body of
the ancient books of law,