A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium.

A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium.
the principles which they inculcated; if, indeed, they acted upon any principle, each fearing to acknowledge the superiority of the other.  To doubt was their criterion of wisdom (but although Hume said, that even when he doubted, he was in doubt whether he doubted or not, he does not appear to have once doubted that he was wrong in his attacks on religion,) and they only united in ridiculing that belief in a Supreme Being, which has been received, as it were instinctively, by all nations, however savage, and which has been the consolation of the best and wisest of mankind.

Any believer in religion, or any one who has not by perverted reasoning, brought his mind really to doubt its divine truths, (for men are but too apt to admit even the arguments of absurdity, when they tend to absolve them from duties, which they would avoid,) cannot but experience a sentiment of regret at this violation of the ancient consecrated burial places, (where the contemplation of these emblems of mortality was calculated to inspire a beneficial awe;) and of sorrow, that as religion is by law restored in France, these monuments, many of which have been taken from the royal burying place of St. Denis, should not be replaced in the churches from which they were taken in those calamitous times.

I here saw the tomb of Cardinal Richelieu, which was originally in the college of the Sorbonne.  It is the work of the celebrated Gerardin, and is a fine piece of sculpture.  Many of the other monuments are very elegant; but it would be tedious to enter into further details.

In walking through the Rue Colbert, a French gentleman of my acquaintance pointed out to me the house in which Louvois had resided, and declared his opinion, that that minister had proved one of the greatest causes of the ruin of France; he followed up his assertion by a declamation of such length, that I shall not attempt to collect his arguments, but leave my readers to come to their own conclusions on the subject.

I had intended visiting those vast catacombs which extend under a great part of Paris, and which now serve as burial places, but was induced to desist from the undertaking by the advice of a person who had made the experiment, and had suffered much more from the state of the air in those caverns, than he had been gratified by the curiosity of the scene.  I was in the evening induced to visit a scene of a very different nature, and accompanied a party to the Gardens of Tivoli, in the Rue Lazare.  This was, before the Revolution, the property of M. Boutin, formerly treasurer of the marine, who had spared no expense in it’s decoration.  The extent is about fourteen acres, and it much resembles Vauxhall.

The vast proportion which the military officers bear in all companies, and in all the public places here, cannot fail to be remarked by a stranger, and proves the success of the ex-Emperor, in his endeavours to render the French merely a military people.  Under the old regime, no military uniforms were permitted to be worn in public places; but at present such a regulation would be quite impracticable.  At present the military take a great lead in society, which has, perhaps, suffered more than is generally thought by the civil commotions of the state.

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A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.