Ghap. III. 
jeds, or their Reign to Polierity t And it is plain, that 
the prefent Pope takes no great Care of this. His Life 
hath been certainly very innocent, and free from all 
publick Scandal ; and there is at prefent,^ a Regularity 
in Rome^ that deferves great Commendation ; for pub- 
lick Vices are not to be feen there. His perfonal So- 
briety is alfo fingular. One affured me, that the Ex- 
pence of his Table did not amount to a Crown a Day j 
though this is Ihort of Sip V. who gave Order to his 
Steward, never to ejtceed five and twenty Bajokes, that 
is, eighteen-pence a Day for his Diet. The Pope is 
very careful of his Health, and never expofes it 5 for, 
upon the lead Diforder, he fhuts himfelf up in his 
Chamber, and often keeps his Bed, for the lead Indif- 
pofition, many Days i But his Government is fevere, 
and his Subjeds are ruined. 
And here one Thing comes into my Mind, 
which perhaps is not ill grounded, that the Poverty 
of a Nation not only difpeoples it, by driving the 
People out of it, but by weakening the natural Fertility 
of the Subjeds *, for Men and Women well cloathed, and 
well fed, that are not exhauded with perpetual Labour, 
and with the Anxieties that Want^brings with it, mud be 
much more lively than thofe that are didrefs’d ; fo it is 
very likely that they mud be much more difpofed to 
propagate than the other. And this appeared evident 
to me, when I compared the Fruitfulnefs of Geneva and 
Switzerland with the Barren nefs over all Italy, I faw 
two extraordinary Indances of the copious Produdions 
Geneva. Mr. I’ronchin., Profedbr of Divinity, and 
Father to the judicious and worthy Profeflfor of the fame 
Name that is now there, died at the Age of feventy fix 
Years, and had an hundred and fifteen Perfons all alive, 
that either defcended from him, or by Marriage with 
thofe that defcended from him, called him Father. And 
Mr. Cakndrin, a pious and laborious Preacher of that 
Town, that is defcended from the Family of the Ca^ 
lendrini, who, receiving the Reformation about an hun- 
dred and fifty Years ago, left Lucca^ their native City, 
with the Hurretini^ the Biodati^ and the Bourlamachi^ 
And fome others, came and fettled at Geneva : He is 
now but feven and forty Years old, and yet he hath an 
hundred and five Perfons that are defcended of his Bro- 
thers and Sifters, or married to them ; fo that if he 
liveth but to eighty, and the Family multiplieth as it 
hath done, he may fee fome hundreds that will be in 
the fame Relation to him i but fuch Things as thefe are 
pot found in Italy, 
There is nothing that delights a Stranger more in 
Bom., than to fee the fine Fountains of Water, that are 
almoll in all the Corners of it. That old Aquedudl, 
which Paul V. reftored, comes from a Colledtion of 
Sources five and thirty Miles diftant, that runs all the 
Way upon an Aquedud in a Canal that is vaulted. It 
breaker h out in five feveral Fountains, of which fome 
yield a pifcharge of Water about a Foot fquare. That 
of Sixtus V. the great Fountain of Aqua Travi,^ that 
hath yet no Decoration, but difchargeth a prodigious 
Quantity of Water. The glorious Fountain in the Pi- 
azza Navona, that hath an Air of Greatnefs in it that 
furprizeth : The Fountain in the Piazza de Spagna, 
thofe before St. PetePs, and the Palazzo Farnefe, with 
many others, furnifh Rome fo plentifully, that almoft 
every private Houfe hath a Fountain. All thefe, I fay, 
are noble Decorations, that carry Ufefulnefs with them 
that cannot be enough commended, and give a much 
oreater Idea of thofe who have taken fuch Care to fup- 
ply this City with one of the chief Pleafures and Con- 
veniences of Life, than of others, who have laid out 
Millions merely to bring Quantities of Water to give 
the Eye a little Diverfion. 
There is an univerfal Civility reigns among all Sorts 
of People at Rome, which, in a great Meafure, flows 
from their Government ; for every Man being capable 
of all the Advancements of that State, fince a Ample 
Ecclcfiaftick may become one of the Monfignori, may 
thence come to be a Cardinal, and fo be chofen Pope ; 
this makes every Man behave himfelf towards all other 
Perfons with Exa6tnefs of Refpedl ; for no Man knows 
what any other may grow to. Rut this makes Profef- 
^27 
fions of Efteem and Kindnefs go fo proniifcuoufly to all 
Sorts of Perfons, that one ought not to build much on 
them. The Converfation of Rome is generally upon 
News ; for though there is no Newsprinted^ yet in the 
feveral Anti-chambers of the Cardinals, one is fure to 
hear all the News of Europe, together with many Spe- 
culations upon what pafles. At the Queen of SwedePs, 
all that relates to Germany, or the Norths is ever to be 
found 5 and that Princefs, that muft ever reign among 
all that have a true Tafte either of Wit or Learning, 
hath in her Drawing-Rooms the beft Court of the Stran- 
gers 5 and her Civility, together with the vaft Variety 
with which flie furnilhed her Converfation, makes her 
the Chief of all the living Rarities that one fees in Rome, 
I will not ufe her own Words to myfelf, which were, 
That Jhe now grew to be one of the Antiquities of Rome. 
The AmbaflTadors of Crowns, who live here in another 
Form than in any other Court, and the Cardinals and 
Prelates of the feveral Nations, that all meet and center 
here, make more News in Rome than any where ; for 
Priefts, and the Men of religious Orders, write larger 
and more particular Letters than any other Sort of Men. 
But fuch as apply themfelves to make their Court here, 
are condemned to a Lofs of Time that had Need be well 
recompenfed. As for one that ftudies Antiquities, 
Pictures, Statues, or Mufick, there is more Entertain- 
ment for him at Rome, than in all the reft of Europe 5 
but if he hath not a Tafte of thefe Things, he will foon 
be weary of a Place where the Converfation is always 
general, and where there is little Opennefs practifed ; 
and, by Confequence, where Friendfliip is little under- 
ftood. The Women here begin to be more conver- 
fable, though a Nation naturally jealous will hardly al- 
low a great Liberty in a great City that is compofed of 
Ecclefiafticks, who being denied the Privilege of Wives 
of their own, are fufpeded of being fometimes too bold 
with the Wives of others. The Liberties that were 
taken in the Conftable of Naples*s Palace, has difgufted 
the Romans much at that Freedom, which had no 
Bounds. But the Dutchefs of Bracciano, a Frenchwoman,, 
hath, by the Exaftnefs of her Deportment, amidft all 
the innocent Freedoms of a noble Converfation, reco- 
vered, in a great Meafure, the Credit of thofe Liber- 
ties that Ladies beyond the Mountains pracftife with 
all the Stri£tnefs of Virtue *, for file receives Vifits aC 
publick Hours, and in publick Rooms ; and by the 
Livelinels of her Converfation, makes her Court ths 
pleafanteli Aflembly of Strangers that is to be found in 
any of the Palaces of the Italians, 
I will not engage in a Defcription of Rome, either 
ancient or modern ; this hath been done with fuch Ex- 
adtnefs, that nothing can be added to what has been 
already publiflied. It is certain, that when one is in the 
Capitol, and fees thofe poor Remains of what once it 
was, he is furprized to fee a Building of fo great, Fame 
funk fo low, that one can fcarce imagine that it was 
once a Caftle upon a Hill, able to hold out againft a 
Siege of the Gauls, The larpeian Rock is now fo fmall, 
that a Man would think it no great Matter, for his Di- 
verfion, to leap over it ; and the Shape of the Ground 
hath not been fo much altered on one Side, as to make 
us think it is very much changed on the other : For Se^ 
verus*s Triumphal Arch, which is at the Foot of the 
Hill on the other Side, is not now buried above two 
Foot within the Ground, as the vaft Amphitheatre of 
Titus is not above three Foot fonk under the Level of 
the Ground. Within the Capitol one fees many noble 
Remnants of Antiquity ; but none is more glorious, as 
well as more ufeful, than the Tables of their Confols, 
which are upon the Walls ; and the Infcription on the 
Columna Rofirata, in the Time of the firft Punick War, 
is, without Doubt, the moft valuable Antiquity in 
Rome. 
From this all along the Sacred Way,ont finds fuch Rem- 
nants of old Rome \r\ the Ruins of the Temples, in the 
Triumphal Arches, in Portico’s, and other Remains of 
that glorious Body ; that as one cannot fee thefe too 
often, fo every Time one fees them, they kindje in him 
vaft Ideas of that Republick, and make him refled on 
what he learrf d in his Youth with great Pleafure. From 
through SWISSERLAND, 
