harply contested point
whether the ice of this house be preferable to that of Tortoni: a point,
too intricate and momentous for my solution. "Non nostrum est ... tantas
componere lites."

Of the _Jardin des Plantes_, which I have once visited, but am not likely
to revisit--owing to the extreme heat of the weather, and the distance of
the spot from this place--scarcely too much can be said in commendation:
whether we consider it as a _depot_ for live or dead animals, or as a
school of study and instruction for the cultivators of natural history. The
wild animals are kept, in their respective cages, out of doors, which is
equally salutary for themselves and agreeable to their visitors. I was much
struck by the perpetual motion of a huge, restless, black bear, who has
left the marks of his footsteps by a concavity in the floor:--as well as by
the panting, and apparently painful, inaction of an equally huge white or
gray bear--who, nurtured upon beds of Greenland ice, seemed to be dying
beneath the oppressive heat of a Parisian atmosphere. The same misery
appeared to beset the bears who are confined, in an open space, below. They
searched every where for shade; while a scorching sun was darting its
vertical rays upon their heads. In the Museum of dead, or stuffed animals,
you have every thing that is minute or magnificent in nature, from the
creeping lizard to the towering giraffe, arranged systematically, and in a
manner the most obvious and intelligible: while Cuvier's collection of
fossil bones equally surprises and instructs you. It is worth all the
_catacombs_ of all the capitals in the world. If we turn to the softer and
more beauteous parts of creation, we are dazzled and bewildered by the
radiance and variety of the tribes of vegetables--whether as fruits or
flowers; and, upon the whole, this is an establishment which, in no age or
country, hath been surpassed.

It is not necessary to trouble you with much more of this strain. The
out-of-door enjoyments in Paris are so well known, and have been so
frequently described--and my objects of research being altogether of a very
different complexion--you will not, I conclude, scold me if I cease to
expatiate upon this topic, but direct your attention to others. Not however
but that I think you may wish to know my sentiments about the principal
ARCHITECTURAL BUILDINGS of Paris--as you are yourself not only a lover, but
a judge, of these matters--and therefore the better qua