Each seat is isolated; there is nothing in front but the woodwork of the desk, so that no one is annoyed by the presence of his neighbor.  The seats and the tables are covered with leather, and are very clean; there are two pens to each desk, the one being steel, the other a quill pen; there is also a small stand at the side, upon which a second volume, or the volume from which the extracts are being copied may be placed.  To procure a book, the title is written on a form, which is handed to the central office.  The attendant brings the book to you himself, and does so without delay.  I have made trial of this, even in the case of works seldom asked for.  The holder of the book is responsible till he has received back the form filled up when he applied for it.  For ladies a place is reserved, which is a delicate piece of attention.

What a contrast if we compare this with our great library at the Louvre, with its long room, with half of the readers dazzled by the light in their eyes, the readers being packed together at a common table, the titles of the books being called out in loud tones, the long time spent in waiting at the central office.  The French Library has been reformed according to the English model, yet without being rendered as convenient.  Nevertheless, ours is the more liberally conducted; its doors are opened to all comers.  Here one must be a “respecable” person; no one is admitted unless vouched for by two householders.  This is said to be enough; as it is, those gain admission who are worse than shabby—­men in working clothes, and some without shoes—­they have been introduced by clergymen.  The grant for buying new books is seven or eight times larger than ours.  When shall we learn to spend our money in a sensible way?

In other matters they are not so successful, such as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, for instance, which formed the building for the Great Exhibition, and which is now a sort of museum of curiosities.  It is gigantic, like London itself, and like so many things in London, but how can I portray the gigantic?  All the ordinary sensations produced by size are intensified several times here.  It is two miles in circumference and has three stories of prodigious height; it would easily hold five or six buildings like our Palace of Industry, and it is of glass; it consists, first, of an immense rectangular structure rising toward the center in a semicircle like a hothouse, and flanked by two Chinese towers; then, on either side, long buildings descend at right angles, enclosing the garden with its fountains, statues, summer houses, strips of turf, groups of large trees, exotic plants, and beds of flowers.  The acres of glass sparkle in the sunlight; at the horizon an undulating line of green eminences is bathed in the luminous vapor which softens all colors and spreads an expression of tender beauty over an entire landscape.