Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 5.9.1

5.9.1

You need not quit Paris, however, to contemplate the finest, the most magnificent view in the world; for assuredly it may be found on the Pont-neuf. Place yourself on that bridge during the day, and what can be conceived more extraordinary than the throngs of people and carriages, the strange bustle, the various objects by which you are surrounded. Visit the same spot at night, and what, I fearlessly ask, can impress the mind like the scene you will witness? The innumerable windows of the lofty houses seen from the bridge exhibit their chastened and subdued lights, while the activity and bustle, observable in the day seem to suffer no diminution until midnight. There honest citizens and — what never happens in Asia — their handsome wives and daughters perambulate the streets, without apprehension of quagmires or of thieves; and to complete the picture, you see, in every direction, long lines of brilliant lamps, burning with equal constancy in foul and fair weather. Yes, my friend, when you are on the Pont-neuf at Paris, you may boldly aver, on my authority, that your eyes behold the grandest of all the artificial scenes in the world, excepting possibly some parts of China and Japan, which I have not visited. What will this view be, what will be its beauty, when the Louvre is completed! when the Louvre, which it was thought would never be seen but as a mere design and on paper, shall have actual existence in fact!