CHARACTERS. 
touching slightly on what is felt 
most sensibly, amuses with perpe- 
tual shadows of desired realities. 
To the honour of St. Marino, it 
must be observed, that neither the 
prior Bonelli, nor two counsellors 
who were present, took any con- 
siderable part in this too sportive 
conversation; and the gentlemen 
at the signora P——’s were chiefly 
Romans and Florentines ; men, we 
were told, whom sometimes mis- 
fortune, and sometimes inclination, 
but more frequently extravagance 
and necessity, drive from their re- 
spective countries, and who, having 
relations or friends in St. Marino, 
establish themselves in that cheap 
city, where they subsist on the 
wreck of their fortunes, and elude 
the pursuit of their creditors. 
Next morning, Bonelli having in- 
vited several of his fellow-citizens 
to drink chocolate, we learned, from 
them, that the morality and piety 
which had long distinguished Str. 
Marino, daily suffered decline 
through the contagious influence of 
those intruders, whom good policy 
ought never to have admitted within 
the territory, but whom the indul- 
gence of humanity could not be 
prevailed on to expel. 
- After breakfast, our good-natured 
landlord kindly proposed a walk, 
that his English guests might view 
the city and adjacent country. The 
main street is well paved, but nar. 
row and steep. The similarity of 
the houses indicates a happy me- 
diocrity of fortune. There is a 
fine cistern of pure water ; and we 
admired the coulness and dryness of 
the wine-cellars, ventilated by com- 
munications with caverns in the 
rock. To this circumstance, as 
much as tothe quality of the soil 
and careful culture of the grape, 
[*21 
the wine of St. Marino is indebted 
forits peculiar excellence. 
The whole territory of the re- 
public extends about thirty miles 
in Circumference. Itis of an ir. 
regular oval form, and its mean 
diameter may be estimated at six 
English miles. The soil naturally 
craggy and barren, and hardly fit. 
for goats, yet actually maintains 
(such are the attractions of liberty) 
upwards of seven thousand persons; 
and, being every where adorned by 
mulberry-trees, vines, and olives, 
supplies the materials of an advan- 
tageous trade, particularly in silk, 
with Rome, Florence, and other 
cities of Italy. 
In extent of territory, St. Marino, 
inconsiderable as it seems, equals 
many republics that have performed 
mighty achievements, and pur- 
chased immortal renown. The in- 
dependent states of Thespie and 
Platea were respectively less ex- 
tensive ; and the boundaries of the 
modern republic exceed those of 
fEgina and Megara ; the former of 
which was distinguished by its com- 
merce and its colonies, in Egypt and 
the East; and the latter, as Lysias 
and Xenophon inform us, could 
bring into the field, besides pro- 
portional bodies of Jight troops, 
3000 hardy pikemen, who, with 
the service of Mars, united that 
of Ceres and of Bacchus ; ex- 
tracting from bleak mills and rug 
ged mountains rich harvests and 
teeming vintages. 
‘The remembrance of our belov- 
ed republics of Greece, ennobled 
_by the inestimable gifts of unrivaled 
genius, endeared to us St. Marino 
even by its littleness. In this lite- 
rary enthusiesm, we could willingly 
have traversed every inch of its di- 
minutive territory ; but politeness 
{*B 3] 1equired 
