SEDIMENT OF THE PO. 
261 
of the mountains is due to the destruction of the forests—that 
the flanks of every Alpine valley in Central Europe below the 
snow line were once covered with earth and green with woods, 
but there are not many particular cases, in which we can, with 
certainty, or even with strong probability, affirm the contrary. 
of the convent of El Arbain—not to speak of a similar use of this numeral 
in more important cases—have often been understood as expressions of a 
known number, when in fact they mean simply many. The number 
“ fifteen thousand” has found its way to Rome, and De Quincey seriously 
informs us, on the authority of a lady who had been at much pains to 
ascertain the exact truth, that, including closets large enough for a bed, the 
Vatican contains fifteen thousand rooms. Any one who has observed the 
vast dimensions of most of the apartments of that structure will admit that 
we make a very small allowance of space when we assign a square rod, 
sixteen and a half feet square, to each room upon the average. On an 
acre, there might be one hundred and sixty such rooms, including par¬ 
tition walls; and, to contain fifteen thousand of them, a building must 
cover more than nine acres, and be ten stories high, or possess other 
equivalent dimensions, which, as every traveller knows, many times ex¬ 
ceeds the truth. 
That most entertaining writer, About, reduces the number of rooms in 
the Vatican, but he compensates this reduction by increased dimensions, 
for he uses the word salle , which cannot be applied to closets barely large 
enough to contain a bed. According to him, there are in that “ presby- 
t£re,” as he irreverently calls it, twelve thousand large rooms [ salles ], 
thirty courts, and three hundred staircases.— Rome Contemporaire , p. 68. 
The pretended exactness of statistical tables is generally little better 
than an imposture ; and those founded not on direct estimation by compe¬ 
tent observers, but on the report of persons who have no particular inter¬ 
est in knowing, but often have a motive for distorting, the truth—such as 
census returns—are commonly to be regarded as but vague guesses at the 
actmil fact. 
Fuller, who, for the combination of wit, wisdom, fancy, and personal 
goodness, stands first in English literature, thus remarks on the preten¬ 
tious exactness of historical and statistical writers: “1 approve the plain, 
country By-word, as containing much Innocent Simplicity therein, 
‘ Almost and very nigh 
Have saved many a Lie' 
So have the Latines their prope, fere , juxta, circiter , plus minus , used 
in matters of fact by the most authentic Historians. Yea, we may observe 
that the Spirit of Truth itself, where Numbers and Measures are concerned, 
