be done, with propriety and without offense, are so narrow, and so easily
overstepped, that he has preferred to abstain altogether from that class
of topics. He offers his book to the public, with expectations which will
be satisfied by a very moderate success.

New York, _April_, 1850.




Contents.


To the Reader


Letter I.--First Impressions of an American in France.--Tokens of
Antiquity: churches, old towns, cottages, colleges, costumes, donkeys,
shepherds and their flocks, magpies, chateaux, formal gardens, vineyards,
fig-trees.--First Sight of Paris; its Gothic churches, statues, triumphal
arches, monumental columns.--Parisian gaiety, public cemeteries, burial
places of the poor

Letter II.--Journey from Paris to Florence.--Serenity of the Italian
Climate.--Dreary country between Paris and Chalons on the Saone.--Autun.
--Chalons.--Lyons.--Valley of the Rhine.--Avignon.--Marseilles; its growth
and prosperity.--Banking in France.--Journey along the Mediterranean.--
American and European Institutions

Letter III.--Tuscan Scenery and Climate.--Florence in Autumn.--