140 LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN. 



this idea will immediately be contracted within proper 

 jbounds, with fuch as have already vilited other capitals. 

 Berlin is certainly not to be reckoned among the fore- 

 ~ inoft of them ; but it would be very extraordinary if 

 160,000 inhabitants, including the garrifon, did not 

 form a tolerably decent population. All quarters of 

 the town, indeed, are not alike; there are here, as 

 elfewhere, parts that are much more frequented than 

 the reft, and are conftantly full of people, whereas in 

 others you rarely meet a perfon ; there are fome again 

 that are only inhabited by foldiers, and thefe have the 

 appearance of a defert. And yet, with all this, Berlin 

 is not to be called dull. We do not indeed here fee 

 the hurry and buftle of commerce as at London and 

 Amfterdam ; nor the multitude of nobility, of foreigners, 

 and of loungers of every denomination, as at Paris ; 

 nor hear the yells and Jiowlings of the Lazzaroni of 

 Naples : but here is, neverthelefs, a great concourfe of 

 people always paffing to and fro, fometimes even a 

 throng of active men, who purfue their affairs in peace 

 :md quietnefs, and render the ftreets always gay and 

 lively. Were the nobility here as wealthy as at Vienna, 

 the population would foon be doubled : but every one 

 confines himfelf as much as poffible to his means, and 

 in this the court always fets a good example. Such as 

 fill public offices, and are forced to live upon their 

 pay, cannot give into great expences, as no monarch 

 rewards the fervices done him more moderately than the 

 king of Pruffia ; and the few families who have large 

 revenues of their own, readily fall in with the manners 

 of the reft, as it would be ridiculous for them to pre- 

 tend to any great fuperiority or diftinclion. All thefe 



circumftances 



