ch time, the
work of dissolution will be sufficiently complete with us all." So spake my
amiable and enlightened guide. The remainder of the day--during which we
took a stroll to Montmorenci, and saw the house and gardens where Rousseau
wrote his _Emile_--was spent in a mixed but not irrational manner: much
accordant with my own feelings, and most congenial with a languid state of
body which had endured the heats of Paris for a month, without feeling
scarcely a breath of air the whole time.

ANTOINE-AUGUSTIN RENOUARD, living in the _Rue St. Andre des Arts_, is the
next bibliopolist whom I shall introduce to your attention. He is among the
most lynx-eyed of his fraternity: has a great knowledge of books; a
delightful ALDINE LIBRARY;[128]--from which his Annals of the Aldine Press
were chiefly composed--and is withal a man in a great and successful line
of business. I should say he is a rich man; not because he has five hundred
bottles of Burgundy in his cellar, which some may think to be of a more
piquant quality than the like number of his _Alduses_--but because he has
published some very beautiful and expensive editions of the Latin and
French Classics, with equal credit to himself and advantage to his
finances.[129] He _debuted_ with a fine edition of _Lucan_ in 1795, folio;
and the first catalogue of his books was put forth the following year. From
that moment to the present, he has never slackened head, hand, or foot, in
the prosecution of his business; while the publication of his _Annals of
the Aldine Press_ places him among the most skilful and most instructive
booksellers in Europe. It is indeed a masterly performance: and as useful
as it is elegantly printed.[130] M. Renouard is now occupied in an improved
edition of _Voltaire_, which he means to adorn with engravings; and of
which he shewed me the original drawings by Moreau, with many of the
plates.[131] He seems in high spirits about the success of it, and leans
with confidence upon the strength of a host of subscribers. Nor does a
rival edition, just struggling into day, cause him to entertain less
sanguine expectations of final success. This enterprising bookseller is now
also busily occupied about a _Descriptive Catalogue of his own library_, in
which he means to indulge himself in sundry gossipping notes, critical
disquisitions, and piquant anecdotes. I look forward with pleasure to its
appearance; and turn a deaf ear to the whispers which have reached me