urns are arranged like the Roman tombs in Pompeii." There are two
concentric passages in the center, where small sounds are repeated by
loud echoes. A hand holding a torch issues from one side of Rousseau's
tomb, meaning that he is a light to the world even after death.
La Madeleine
is the third and the last of the large churches of Paris to which I can
direct particular attention. It is 328 feet long by 138 feet wide,
covering over an acre of ground, and its erection cost over $2,500,000.
This structure was commenced in 1764, but the work was suspended during
the revolution of 1789. Napoleon had once directed Vignon to complete it
for a Temple of Glory, but Louis XVIII. restored it to its original
destination in 1815. It is approached at each end by a flight of 28 steps,
(the same number that constitute the Scala Sancta at Rome), extending
along the whole length of the facade; and a Corinthian colonnade of 52
columns, each 49 feet high and five feet in diameter, surrounds it on
every side.
There are scores of other churches in Paris that are interesting on
account of the various styles of architecture which they represent, but I
will only make mention of one more, and that on account of its terrible
historical associations. It is the church of St. Germain l'auxerrois
(pron. sang jer-mang lo-zher-wa). It was from the belfry of this church,
that the signal was given for the commencement of the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew, August 23rd, 1572. Its bells tolled during the whole of that
dreadful night. This church was the theater of another outbreak on the
13th of February, 1831, when everything within the church was destroyed.
The Louvre.
The reader may form an idea of the extent of these buildings, when he
reflects that the space covered and inclosed by the Old and New Louvre and
the Tuileries, is upwards of sixty acres. The court of the louvre is one
of the finest in Europe, and its art galleries are among the richest in
the world. The Long Gallery alone covers nearly an acre and a quarter,
being 42 feet wide and 1,322 feet long! A person can well spend weeks or
even months in the museum of the Louvre, but simply to walk through all of
its brilliant galleries will require about three hours! I cannot stop to
say more than that its collections of paintings and of sculpture is
probably much larger than any other in the world.
Besides what I have already described and enumerated, Paris has its Bois
de B
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