I was yet more delighted by contemplating the excellence
displayed in the graceful figure of the Venus.

The gallery of paintings at the palace of the Luxemburg (which is now
called the palace of the Peers of France, as they sit at present in the
hall, formerly occupied by Buonaparte's Conservative Senate) although
vastly inferior to that at the Louvre, both as to the number, and value
of the collection it contains; yet it is well worthy the attention of
the stranger, and the circumstance of its not being too crowded is
favourable to the visitant, whose attention is not so much divided here
as by the attractions of the greater collection, where he is often at a
loss which way he shall turn. Here are statues of Bacchus and Ariadne.
The gallery of Rubens contains twenty-one pictures by that great master,
representing the history of Mary of Medicis; it also contains his
Judgment of Paris. The gallery of Vernet contains a series of views of
the principal sea-ports of France, by that painter, and also Poussin's
picture of the Adoration of the Magi. Here are also two celebrated
pictures by that great modern painter, David--Brutus after having
condemned his Son, and the Oath of the Horatii, which appeared to me
worthy of the favourable report I had before heard of them.

This palace has a spacious and handsome garden; the front of Queen's
College, Oxford, is an imitation on a reduced scale of its facade to the
street.

After the paintings, I next inquired after the Libraries which Paris
contains; these are very numerous, but as I had so much to see, I
contented myself with visiting the two principal ones, first, the royal
library, Rue Richelieu. This contains the library of Petrarch, which
alone would render it an object of curiosity. Here are also the globes
of the Jesuit _Coronelli_, which are upwards of thirty-four feet in
circumference. The Cabinet of Antiquities contains the collection of
Count Caylus. The number of printed volumes is stated to amount to
350,000. The manuscripts are not less than 72,000. Here is also a vast
and very valuable collection of medals, and about 5000 engravings. All
persons are permitted to read here from ten until two o'clock.

The second Library which I visited was one which formerly belonged to
that celebrated Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and is now in the Palais des
Beaux Arts, on the opposite side of the river from the Louvre. This
collection consists of 60,000 volumes, amongst which ar