"City of Light"

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

Here's an 1876 citation from Appleton's (MOA/umich version):

THE writer of an article in a recent Saturday Review on Victor Hugo's " Pendant l'Exil" amuses himself with "taking off" M. Hugo's style. Here is a paragraph: " There are some wonderful pages about Paris toward the close of the introductory chapter. Paris, he says, is the frontier of the future, the visible frontier of the unknown, all the quantity of To-morrow which may be visible in To-day. Whoso seeks for progress with his eyes shall behold Paris. There are black cities; Paris is the City of Light. It is impossible to get out of Paris; for every living man, though he knoweth it not, hath Paris in the depths of his being.

Also, there's one in an 1871 play by Robert Williams Buchanan, _The Drama of Kings_, spoken by Napoleon:
"But what of Paris?  What of the city of light?"

Did Edison's lights come in around 1879 or so? There are many earlier references to a City of Light (not Paris) where the reference is religious.  Is it biblical? 
My guess would be that it went from an original religious reference (i.e., heaven as the city of light) to something in line with the citation from 1847 where light = learning, enlightenment, etc. and maybe later to a more literal sense of light(s). But it seems the sobriquet for Paris predated the lightbulb sense (if I've got my dates right).

-----Original Message-----
From:   Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent:   Fri 1/10/2003 9:40 AM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Cc:	
Subject:             Re: "City of Light"

At 7:35 AM -0500 1/10/03, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>The Making of America database (Cornell's version) shows a citation
>>from 1847.
>
>It reads "Paris is emphatically the city of light, intelligence, society,
>and refined life ..." I do believe myself that this reflects "Paris" = "the
>City of Light" but in isolation it's not entirely decisive IMHO.
>
>Here is a passage from Jules Verne's "Robur-le-Conquérant" (1886) (Ch. 11):
>

I agree that the passage below is much more clearly decisive than the
one above; "Ville Lumière" in quotes is a clear sobriquet.  Even
though this gives the lie to the 1900 Paris Fair as the source of the
label, it does support the claim in the Times piece that it's the new
Edison electric lights that provide the name, as Doug points out, and
not the play of sunlight on the Seine or whatever.

larry

>
>   Sa vitesse n'avait point été modérée. Il passait comme une bombe
>au-dessus des villes, des bourgs, des villages, si nombreux en ces riches
>provinces de la France septentrionale. C'étaient, sur ce méridien de Paris,
>après Dunkerque, Doullens, Amiens, Creil, Saint-Denis. Rien ne le fit
>dévier de la ligne droite. C'est ainsi que, vers minuit, il arriva
>au-dessus de la « Ville Lumière », qui mérite ce nom même quand ses
>habitants sont couchés — ou devraient l'être.
>    Par quelle étrange fantaisie l'ingénieur fut-il porté à faire halte
>au-dessus de la cité parisienne? on ne sait. Ce qui est certain, c'est que
>l'Albatros s'abaissa de manière à ne la dominer que de quelques centaines
>de pieds seulement. Robur sortit alors de sa cabine, et tout son personnel
>vint respirer un peu de l'air ambiant sur la plate-forme.
>    Uncle Prudent et Phil Evans n'eurent garde de manquer l'excellente
>occasion qui leur était offerte. Tous deux, après avoir quitté leur roufle,
>cherchèrent à s'isoler, afin de pouvoir choisir l'instant le plus propice.
>Il fallait surtout éviter d'être vu.
>    L'Albatros, semblable à un gigantesque scarabée, allait doucement
>au-dessus de la grande ville. Il parcourut la ligne des boulevards, si
>brillamment éclairés alors par les appareils Edison. ....
>