But the printer who does the most business—­or rather whose business lies in the lower department of the art, in bringing forth what are called chap books—­is LECRENE-LABBEY—­imprimeur-libraire et marchand de papiers.  The very title imports a sort of Dan Newberry’s repository.  I believe however that Lecrene-Labbey’s business is much diminished.  He once lived in the Rue de la Grosse-Horloge, No. 12:  but at present carries on trade in one of the out-skirting streets of the town.  I was told that the premises he now occupies were once an old church or monastery, and that a thousand fluttering sheets are now suspended, where formerly was seen the solemn procession of silken banners, with religious emblems, emblazoned in colours of all hues.  I called at the old shop, and supplied myself with a dingy copy of the Catalogue de la Bibliotheque Bleue—­from which catalogue however I could purchase but little; as the greater part of the old books, several of the Caxtonian stamp, had taken their departures.  It was from this Catalogue that I learnt the precise character of the works destined for common reading; and from hence inferred, what I stated to you a little time ago, that Romances, Rondelays, and chivalrous stories, are yet read with pleasure by the good people of France.  It is, in short, from this lower, or lowest species of literature—­if it must be so designated—­that we gather the real genius, or mental character of the ordinary classes of society.  I do assure you that some of these chap publications are singularly droll and curious.  Even the very rudiments of learning, or the mere alphabet-book, meets the eye in a very imposing manner—­as in the following facsimile.

[Illustration]

Love, Marriage, and Confession, are fertile themes in these little farthing chap books.  Yonder sits a fille de chambre, after her work is done.  She is intent upon some little manual, taken from the Bibliotheque Bleue.  Approach her, and ask her for a sight of it.  She smiles, and readily shews you Catechisme a l’usage des Grandes Filles pour etre Mariees; ensemble la maniere d’attirer les Amans.  At the first glance of it, you suppose that this is entirely, from beginning to end, a wild and probably somewhat indecorous manual of instruction.  By no means; for read the Litanies and Prayer with which it concludes, and which I here send; admitting that they exhibit a strange mixture of the simple and the serious.

    LITANIES.

    Pour toutes les Filles qui desirent entrer en menage.