be treated with tolerable success; but when
you come to put lithographic engraving in opposition to that of _line_--the
_latter_ will always and necessarily be

... velut inter ignes
LUNA minores!

I cannot take leave of A CITY, in which I have tarried so long, and with so
much advantage to myself, without saying one word about the manners,
customs, and little peculiarities of character of those with whom I have
been recently associating. Yet the national character is pretty nearly the
same at Rouen and at Caen, as at Paris; except that you do not meet with
those insults from the _canaille_ which are but too frequent at these
first-mentioned places. Every body here is busy and active, yet very few.
have any thing _to do_--in the way of what an Englishman would call
_business_. The thoughtful brow, the abstracted, look, the hurried step..
which you see along Cheapside and Cornhill ... are here of comparatively
rare appearance. Yet every body is "sur le pave." Every body seems to live
out of doors. How the _menage_ goes on--and: how domestic education is
regulated--strikes the inexperienced eye of an Englishman as a thing quite
inconceivable. The temperature of Paris is no doubt very fine, although it
has been of late unprecedentedly hot; and a French workman, or labourer,
enjoys, out of doors--from morning till night those meals, which, with us,
are usually partaken of within. The public places of entertainment are
pretty sure to receive a prodigious proportion of the population of Paris
every evening. A mechanic, or artisan, will devote two thirds of his daily
gains to the participation of this pleasure. His dinner will consist of the
most meagre fare--at the lowest possible price--provided, in the evening,
he can hear _Talma_ declaim, _or Albert_ warble, or see _Pol_ leap, or
_Bigotini_ entrance a wondering audience by the grace of her movements, and
the pathos of her dumb shew, in _Nina._

The preceding strikes me as the general complexion of character of three
fourths of the Parisians: but then they are gay, and cheerful, and
apparently happy. If they have not the phlegm of the German, or the
thoughtfulness of ourselves, they are less cold, and less insensible to the
passing occurrences of life. A little pleases them, and they give in return
much more than they receive. One thing, however, cannot fail to strike and
surprise an attentive observer of national character. With all their
quickness, enthus