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and rational accomplishments. Nothing, however, can com pensate for a proper home education, where parental affection is the sunshine in which young minds and hearts are cherished and unfolded by the pleasant influence of a natural law, without that tyranny, misnamed discipline, which makes war upon the happy spontaneity of childhood and youth, and transforms the most innocent period of human life into a purgatory fit only for ripened criminals.

Books and Works of Art-The Bibliothèque Nationale - The Louvre.

ESIDES the Bibliothèque Nationale, the principal

libraries of Paris contain not less than twelve hundred thousand volumes. Many of these are accessible to the public. Among them may be named the Bibliothèque de Ste. Genevieve, containing two hundred thousand volumes, and the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, containing about the same number. There are, also, libraries of literary societies which

are numerous.

The great library--called, successively, the Bibliothèque du Roi, Nationale, Imperiale, then du Roi again, and now, once more, Nationale, and destined, perhaps, to become again Imperiale is a wonderful and magnificent collection. The department of printed books contains nearly a million and a

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half of volumes, including duplicates and pamphlets. The arrangement is admirable, so that any volume may be obtained without delay. Nothing is necessary but to hand one of the librarians a slip of paper with the title of the volume written upon it.

This great library is open to students of both sexes during the whole year-with the exception of the month of September, and a vacation of two weeks at Easter—and on every day of the week except Sundays and holidays. There are two days of the week appropriated to promiscuous. visitors.

I visited it, for the first time, on the first day it was opened after the September vacation. The long readinggallery was filled with the studious, who were seated at a table extending from end to end. No whispering is allowed. The same scene was repeated every day I visited it. Among those who were reading I observed a blouse, and a woman beside him, who appeared to be his wife.

There are four other departments of the Bibliothèque Nationale: The Cabinet of Medals and Antiques, which contains one hundred and fifty thousand specimens; the Collection of Manuscripts, which contains one hundred and twenty-five thousand volumes; the Collection of Engravings, which contains nine or ten thousand volumes and portfolios, comprising one million three hundred thousand plates, and fills six rooms; and the Gallery of Ancient Sculpture, or the Salle du Zodiaque, so called from the Egyptian Zodiac of Denderah, which is the most remarkable piece in the collection.

PALAIS DE L'INSTITUT.

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The building which contains these collections was once the princely palace of the Cardinal Mazarin. It is a huge structure, five hundred and forty feet long, and one hundred and thirty broad, and is built around a court three hundred feet long and ninety broad.

The Cardinal also has given his name to a noble library in the Palais de l'Institut, which originally was the library of the college which he founded. This library now contains one hundred and fifty thousand printed volumes, and nearly four thousand manuscripts. It is open to the public daily with the exception of a short vacation, and Sundays and holidays.

The library of the Institute in the same building, which contains one hundred thousand volumes, is designed particularly for the members, but others are introduced through courtesy. Indeed, a student in Paris really has access, in some way, to all the immense collections of learning which are found here, and that without incurring any expense.

Side by side stand the collections of books and the collections of art. When I look at Paris in this point of view, the city appears almost built for the sole purpose of accommodating and promoting learning and art. Paris is itself every where adorned with works of art; and the churches, the palaces, the gardens, and public institutions, such as the Palais et Ecole des Beaux Arts, contain innumerable pieces of various degrees of merit. But as the Bibliothèque Nationale is the great collection of books, so the Louvre is the great collection of paintings and statuary. The palace of the great cardinal is consecrated to books: the palace of kings is consecrated to art,

The Louvre is in itself a magnificent piece of architecture, forming a perfect square around an open court, the length of each side being four hundred and eight feet. The staircases, halls, rooms, ceilings, and walls of the interior, are finished in a style of great splendor and richness. But the building is forgotten in what it contains. The first time I entered it, I visited only the Musée des Tableaux des Ecoles Italiennes, Flamandes, et Française. I stood here several hours gazing at paintings without weariness, for I really became absorbed like a child looking at wonders.

There is first a large room filled with paintings of the old masters-paintings by Titian, Raphael, Corregio, Poussin, and others of the same stamp. This room opens into an immense gallery-the Grand Salon, thirteen hundred and thirty-two feet long, stretching between the Louvre and the Tuilleries. I doubt whether a more magnificent and better lighted gallery can be found in the world for the exhibition of pictures. Here are four hundred and eighty paintings of the Italian school; eight copies of ancient pictures; five hundred and forty paintings of the German and Flemish, among which are many of Rubens; and three hundred and eighty of the French. I might well stand several hours gazing here, for here were objects enough to hold the attention and form a study for an indefinite period. Now I had all the great masters under my eye in one of the finest collections of paintings in the world. There were many artists of both sexes in the gallery making copies. There were many visitors walking about, but there was perfect order and silence, and plenty of room for all.