Paris--past And Present

Paris, Feb. lCth, 1805. Many and continued are tbo impreasions wliioli orowd npon the mind of the voyager i8 he hasteus from one city to another of the old world. Every foot oí earth seems historie. Now he luaves a place where originated some political reform ; an h.ur afterwatds Lo enters a town cejfbrated for some religious revo lution.s; anón, be is walking the streeta made illustrions by one of those names which bu.ru in hi.story liko stars in heaven. Bul in few places are. thesa impressions more profound than iu the capital of France - busy, infidel, revolutionary, pleasre-loving Paris. Did not Roman Emperors reside hore ? Did not Clovis aud Qharleinagne, here give laws ? IIave_not the long list of Frencli roynlty njade this their home ? Here Descartea and Pascal del ved ntoscienee; here Bossuet and Fenelon proachcd betore kings ; here Moliere and Racine poetized ; from here went fortb the armies of Conde and Napoleon ; here Voltajre and Rousseau inaugurated modern incordulity; here Robespierre and Marat established civil rovohition. Have there not gone fortb. frotn here influences to change the scientific, the literary, the reügious, and tho politieal world ? - Hiive there not walkod these streets giant reformers of old opinions or heroio defenderá of old principies ? I enter the Sorbonne, aud the literary revolutions of France press themselves upon my mind. I stand before the' tombs of the Pantheon, and her religious revolutions are reualled. I pass the old Tower, and ber civil revolutions aro prepent to the memory. It is not alone Lavoisier with his oxygen, nor Napoleon with his Empire, nor Robespierre with his republie, nor Voltaire with his I-don't-believo philosopby that have made Paris illustrious ; but it is this combioation of philosophy, of science, of art, of ereat events, hjol} has made its history grafld. Thus Park- Iirtving ever beon a sort of bnttle-ground, it is the oenter of souvenris both agreeahle and sorrowful. I often stand before the Tower of 8t. Jacques, and I ihink of the time when Pascal ascended it to establish his discovery of the decrease of atmospheric pressure. There is a Rouvenir íor the scientific glory of France. I visit occasionally the tomb of Napoleon, and I think of the man that governed Europe for a while. Thero is a souvenir for the military glory of France. I asosnd Mont-martre, and I seom to ace Xavier and bis comrades swearing before the stars to advance the kingdom of Christ. There is a souvenir for the religious glory of France. But nlso I pass ly almost each day tho Tower of St. Germaio l'Auxerrois, and my thoughts has ten back to that aad night when its belj tolled forth the massacre of St. Bajthelemy. I stand often upon the spot where once stood the Bastillo, and I think of the raen w}}ora tyranny heie confined. - I walk too over the Place de la Concorde, and I remember that maddened mob that thirsted for the blood of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. These are darker souvenirs. Paris can not effaco these marks of blood that deface her Itistory. Thus sha saems thu center ol all that is high and elevating in human thought and agtion, as wul! as all that is low and debasing. What Paris has boen in the past she ís to day- one of those great hearts, whose beatings are feit afur, aud whose life-curreots are driven cross a continent. It is Itere to day, that are clasbing those opinjons whidi will overturn or esiablish more firinly the habitual santiments of man. Here Napaleon sa)'s "the Empire is peace ; " while Jules Favre defends the immortnl principies of '89. Here llenan aims a blow at the foundation of the Ühristian religión, while Guizot displays its beauties. Hero Laboulaye vvould chango the cpieurt'an manners and supplant them by something more puritanic, whi'e Malibille oppoges hipn with liis nocturnol carniviila and his elysiom of sensual pleasures. - Thus i'ar tho f;tlse philosophy seeins tu have giuned the ascendency. J3aris it despotio, infidel, sensual. The liberty of speech is denied her citizens, tho liberty of sin is perfect, Uut ia her bad influence feit elc I where? "Wil! she bc the corrupied tret that vvill pread her branubüs afar, scat tering the seeds of a morality hating n:i terialism ? Aud, above all, will her in fluences penétrate aeróse tbe Atlmitu j and corrupt American society whioli f .oin here seems so pure ? Alas! I know that Europe is none the tetter for her to-day ; and aa for America I often wish that three oceans nstead of one rolled between her and the old world ! For I have soen a young American leavo home vvith moral character, with pure thoughts, with religioua faith; I have seen him drawn Imoab involuntarily into the temptations oí tbis modern Babylon ; 1 have Been hiin return with ruinod character, coirupted tLoughts, and unbelief. Is this a solitary example ? I fear not. That it might be ! That every American who comes bither might bring with him the .principies of bis fatberp, that ho might ciing to hls puritanical oducation, that ho might preserve intact his moral character, and then as far as he is concerned, America would be in the fu ture, aa it has been in the past, the hope of the world. F. W. B.