to the FAIR
SEX: being, in fact, nothing less than a prodigious heap of publications
"FOR and AGAINST" the ladies. M. Chardin will not separate them--adding
that the "bane and antidote must always go together."

This singular character is also vehemently attached to antiquarian
_nick-knackery_. Old china, old drawings, old paintings, old carvings, and
old relics--of whatever kind--are surveyed by him with a curious eye, and
purchased with a well-laden purse. He never speaks of GOUJIN but in
raptures. We made an exchange the other day. M. Chardin hath no small
variety of walking canes. He visited me at the Hotel one morning, leaning
upon a fine dark bamboo-stick, which was _headed_ by an elaborately carved
piece of ivory--the performance of the said Goujon. It consisted of a
recumbent female, (with a large flapped hat on) of which the head was
supported by a shield of coat armour.[144] We struck a bargain in five
minutes. He presented me the _stick_, on condition of my presenting him
with a choice copy of the _AEdes Althorpianae_. We parted well satisfied with
each other; but I suspect that the purchase of about four-score pounds
worth of books, added much to the satisfaction on his part. Like all his
brethren of the same craft, M. Chardin disports himself on Saturdays and
Sundays at his little "ferme ornee," within some four miles of Paris--
having, as he gaily told me "nothing now to do but to make poesies for the
fair sex."[145]

With Chardin I close my bibliopolistic narrative; not meaning thereby to
throw other booksellers into the least degree of shade, but simply to
transmit to you an account of such as I have seen and have transacted
business with. And now, prepare for some account of PRINTERS ... or rather
of _three presses_ only,--certainly the most distinguished in Paris. I mean
those of the DIDOT and that of M. CRAPELET. The name of Didot will last as
long as learning and taste shall last in any quarter of the globe: nor am I
sure, after all, that what _Bodoni, Bensley_, and _Bulmer_ have done,
collectively, has redounded _more_ to the credit of their countries than
what Didot has achieved for France. In ancient classical literature,
however, Bodoni has a right to claim an exception and a superiority. The
elder, _Pierre Didot_, is Printer to his Majesty. But when Pierre Didot
l'aine chose to adopt his _own_ fount of letter--how exquisitely does his
skill appear in the folio _Virgil_ of 1798, and yet more, per