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Rh man. Langlois, struck by his progress, begged an allowance from the town to enable Millet to go and study in Paris. 400 francs (₤20) were given him.

Millet left for Paris in January 1837. His family were very uneasy at beholding him go away to the city of perdition, to Babylon. He himself was full of remorse for leaving his mother and grandmother. The journey was a sad one. The country round Paris seemed to him "stage scenery." He arrived one January Saturday evening, when it was snowing, in "black, muddy, smoky Paris." He has narrated in an admirably written page, that depicts all the dark sadness and austere grandeur of his soul, the agonies that he, a humble peasant, healthy, religious and pure-minded, experienced on his first contact with the corrupt civilisation of a large town.

"The light of the street lamps, half quenched by the fog, the vast number of horses and carriages, jostling and crossing one another,