OP I'HE REPUBLIC W GENOA. 419 



again by nobility, that they have acquired a great re- 

 fpect by that means among all nations. 



The ladies of Genoa will not difpute the palm of 

 beauty with the fair of fome other parts of Italy. They 

 are deficient in a fine completion ; but then they know 

 how to fupply this defect, partly by art* partly by 

 their natural vivacity, and always by their engaging 

 manners : yet they do not in general fo ealily tranfgrefs 

 the bounds of propriety, as fome travellers, particu- 

 larly Mr. Sherlock, pretend. One cannot hear them 

 fpeak in their dialect without being difgufted. But 

 there are numbers of them who talk Italian and French 

 very well. For this they are indebted partly to a bet- 

 ter education, and partly to converfation with men of 

 letters. — With men of letters ! I think I hear you ex- 

 claim, in a place whofe fole welfare confifts in gain ! 

 Philofophy and lucre do not fuit well together. The 

 former would fcarcely get a rag to put on amidft ufu- 

 rers. — You are in the right, my dear friend, if you 

 fpeak of a pack of haughty blockheads ; who, not only 

 at Genoa, but in all other great trading towns, make 

 gold their idol, to which philofophy and the arts mull 

 bow the knee. Neither are you in the wrong, if you 

 mean fuch literary men, who, like ufelefs drones, fuck 

 the honey from the flowers, without contributing any 

 thing to the general good. But the learned, who 

 unite the arts and fciences with ufeful activity, and 

 thereby promote the public welfare, find at Genoa, as 

 in all poiifhed countries, many friends and patrons. The 

 inoft. famous among their learned men now living, is 

 the marquis di Lomellino, formerly ambaffador at Pa- 

 ris ; a great mathematician and a good poet. He has 



e e z tranflated 



