ensable accommodations.
Instead of all this, we behold Paris now one of the very central seats
of civilization; and although still deficient in many of the
accommodations which supply to the necessities of the many instead of
the luxuries of the few, in possession of the greater portion of the
most important provisions which ingenuity has found out, whether for
the comfort or the embellishment of existence. What a contrast between
the French capital of 1831, and that Lutetia of the ancient Parisii,
which Caesar found nearly nineteen hundred years ago occupying the
little island, around which has since extended itself so wide a circle
of wealth, industry, intelligence, and the works which these create!

[3] Felibien, Histoire de Paris, tome i.

_Bridges._

Paris, stands, like London, on both banks of a river, and is thus cut
into two great divisions, one to the north, and the other to the
south, of the water. The Seine, however, is not nearly so broad as the
Thames; and the northern and southern halves of Paris are not,
therefore, by any means so much separated from each other, either
locally, politically, or socially, as are the corresponding portions
of the English metropolis. They form, in all respects one city.

The Seine flows in a direction nearly opposite to that of the Thames,
namely, from south-east to north-west. It preserves almost a perfectly
straight course in passing through Paris, except that it bends
considerably to the south immediately before leaving the town. The
river, as it flows through the heart of the city, is interrupted by
three small islands lying in succession, the two most westerly of
which, the Ile de la Cite (otherwise called the Ile du Palais) and the
Ile St. Louis, or de Notre Dame, are covered with streets and houses.
The third, called the Ile Louvier, is used only as a depot for
fire-wood. The parts of the town on the opposite sides of the river
are connected with each other, and with these islands, by nineteen
bridges, thirteen of which are constructed of stone, and two of stone
and iron: of the others two are chain-bridges, one is built of wood,
and two of wood and iron. Several of these structures, especially the
Pont des Arts, the Pont Louis XVI., and the Pont de Jena, or de
l'Ecole Militaire, all of which are to the west of the Ile du Palais,
are distinguished by their majesty or elegance, and add much beauty
and picturesque effect to the vista of the river. Excepting at on