pictures were taken away by the allies in
1815, yet it is still one of the largest collections in the world. To
stand in this room and gaze at leisure upon some of the finest paintings
in the world, was a delight I had never before felt. It is
indescribable, yet it was none the less real. I could not, as my friend
the artist did, point out the peculiar excellences of each, and the
faults, nor compare one with another critically, but I could feel the
same thrill of pleasure which he did, and I found that the picture which
he declared to be the finest, was that before which I delayed longest.
It certainly is no more necessary for a man to be an art-critic to love
pictures, than it is to be a botanist to love flowers. I admit that one
must be a critic, to a degree, to _thoroughly_ appreciate the art of
painting, but that is another thing. The common people in France are
universally fond of pictures, much more so than the English. The
Americans are next to the French in ideality, notwithstanding their
great practicality. The common people of England are far behind those of
America in their fondness for the beautiful--at least I judge so from a
pretty fair experience. America as yet, to be sure, can show few works
of art, but the vast number of enlightened Americans who continually
visit Europe, and many for the purpose of seeing the grand and beautiful
in art, tells the story. The English upper-classes are undoubtedly
well-educated in art, but not the other classes. But I must not digress.

The second room we visited was the _Salle des Bijoux_, and was entirely
occupied by vases, jewels, and rare and costly cups. I was much pleased
with an Arabian basin of splendid workmanship. There were also articles
of toilette given by the ancient republic of Venice to Marie de Medicis,
one casket alone being worth many thousands of dollars.

The next apartment we entered contains copies of Raphael's frescoes in
the Vatican at Rome; but the next room interested me more, for it
contains Grecian statuary and antiquities. The southern part of Italy
and Etruria, Herculaneum and Pompeii, are all represented in the
collection. One striking feature of this hall is, that the ceilings are
covered with paintings of the best artists. One represents Vesuvius
receiving fire from Jupiter to consume Herculaneum and Pompeii; another,
Cybele protecting the two cities from the fires of Vesuvius.

The _Hall du Trone_, which we next visited, contained a