brothers. A more benign cosmopolite or meek disciple of learning it
would be difficult to find; unlike his restless countrymen, he had
acquired the art of living in the present;--the experience of a
looker-on in Paris was to him more satisfactory than that of a
participant in the executive zeal of home.

Such instances form a pleasing contrast to the outward gayety we
habitually associate with Paris. It boasts a world of patient labor.
Emile Souvestre has drawn some faithful and charming pictures of these
scenes, wherein philosophy and cheerfulness illumine the haunts of
modest toil. In England and America only artists of great merit enjoy
consideration; but in Paris the pursuit itself insures countenance and
sympathy, which in themselves yield vast encouragement. There are more
odd characters ensconced in the nooks of this capital than anywhere else
in Europe;--men who have become unconsciously metropolitan
friars--living in celibate dens, haunting libraries and gardens,
subsisting on a bare competence, and working out some darling theory or
speculative problem; lonely in the midst of a crowd, and content in
their self-imposed round of frugality and investigation.

I found the dissatisfied spirit of a young artist, whom I had known in
America, here completely soothed; instead of feeling himself overpowered
by the commercial spirit of his own country, one of a neglected
minority, striving in vain to excite interest in a vocation too
profitless for a community absorbed in trade, politics, and fashion, he
now experienced the advantage of a recognized class, and the excitement
of a fraternity in art; his life, studies, aims were those of hundreds
as limited in their circumstances and as ideal in their aspirations;
galleries, studios, lectures, models, criticism, illustrious men, noble
examples, friendly words and true companionship, made his daily life,