on her arm. Margaret found here some of her
own country women, conspicuous for their beauty. The uniforms and
decorations of the gentlemen contrasted favorably, in her view, with the
sombre, black-coated masses of men seen in circles at home.

"Among the crowd wandered Leverrier, in the costume of an Academician,
looking as if he had lost, not found, his planet. He seemed not to find
it easy to exchange the music of the spheres for the music of fiddles."

The Italian Opera in Paris fell far short of Margaret's anticipations.
So curtly does she judge it, that one wonders whether she expected to
find it a true Parnassus, dedicated to the ideal expression of the most
delicate and lofty sentiment. Grisi appeared to her coarse and shallow,
Persiani mechanical and meretricious, Mario devoid of power. Lablache
alone satisfied her.

These judgments show something of the weakness of off-hand criticism. In
the world of art, the critic who wishes to teach, must first be taught
of the artist. He must be very sure that he knows what a work of art is
before he carps at what it is not. Relying on her own great
intelligence, and on her love of beautiful things, Margaret expected,
perhaps, to understand too easily the merits and defects of what she saw
and heard.

In Paris Margaret met Alexandre Vattemare, intent upon his project of
the exchange of superfluous books and documents between the public
libraries of different countries. Busy as he was, he found time to be of
service to her, and it was through his efforts that she was enabled to
visit the Imprimerie Royale and the Mint. He also induced the Librarian
of the Chamber of Deputies to show her the manuscripts of Rousseau,
which she found "just as he has celebrated them, written on fine white
paper, tied with ribbon. Yellow and faded, age has made them," says
Margaret; "yet at their touch I seemed to feel the fire of youth,
immortally glowing, more and more expansive, with which his soul has
pervaded this century."

M. Vattemare introduced Margaret to one of the evening schools of the
Freres Chretiens, where she saw with pleasure how much can be
accomplished for the working classes by evening lessons.

"Visions arose in my mind of all that might be done in our country by
associations of men and women who have received the benefits of literary
culture, giving such evening lessons throughout our cities and
villages." Margaret wishes, however, that such disinterested effort in
o