18035-] 
thofe to whom fuch a fight is new, mak 
wo more imprefion on the inabitants of 
Reme, either-male or female, than figures 
covered with drapery : their eyes are ac- 
cuftomed to it from their youth. A fe- 
male with us would rather grant any fa- 
vour toa man than the view of her un- 
veil-d charms, and parents would confider 
their daughter difhonoured if the expofed 
her peifon to the fight of man. On the 
contrary, a young Roman female would 
be much more flattered than offended, if 
an artift were to defire a fight of her figur 
for his ftudy, and would, perhaps, comply 
ovt of mere complaifance. It is, there- 
fore, not rarely the cafe, that poor people, 
to whom fortune has granted a handiome 
daughter, make an innocent profit of her 
charms, and, for a trifling confideration, 
permit artifis to ftudy the naked from her 
figure. This practice ts fo little repug- 
nant to delicacy, and has forages been fo 
common in this feat of the imitative arts, 
that the reputation of a girl, whofe con- 
du& is not, in other refpects, reprehen- 
fible, does not fuffer by it. Lhe mother, 
in thefe cafes, commonly accompanies her 
daughter to the artift, ‘and watches over 
her innocence. 
The great freedom with regard to the 
relations between the fexes, which at firlk 
appeais fo ftriking to the ftranger, is, in 
faét, much lefs prejudicial to manners 
than might be fuppofed ; for the ideas of 
propriety differ in every country. A 
Roman lady is much more open in the ex- 
preflion of her ideas and fenfations, than 
our manners would permit ; but fhe thinks 
no more harm than our females with much 
greater referve. When, for inftance, a 
mother relates to her vifitor, that her 
daughter is in love, and is fick of love ; 
when a young female candidly acknow- 
ledges that fhe wifhes for a hufband ; 
when a woman replies to a queftion con- 
cerning her health, in a company of un- 
married people, that fhe fome time fince 
difcovered that fhe was pregnant, and de- 
{cribes the fymptoms of her fituation, or 
relates the circumftances that attended the 
birth of her laft child, &c. 5 this opennefs 
appears ftriking only to the ftranger, but 
by no means to the native, who every day 
hears the fame fubjects treated in the fame 
manner. No notice whatever is taken of 
the prefence of children, and {till lefs are 
they fent into another room, as with us, 
by which injudicious methéd their curio- 
fity is in general more powerfully excited. 
Hence children at Rome are early acquaint- 
ed with the fecrets of the fexes. This 
has no farther prejudicial influence on 
Prefent Staie of Society and Manners at Rome, 
k « 
439 
their moral character’; amd the folitary 
vices, which blight in the bud the moft 
promifing corporeal powers, are hese 
much more rare than among us, 
Young females are here. kept under 
rigid infpeGtion till they marty, wand the 
intercourfe between the fexes is much 
more reftra ined than among us. A girl 
is not fuffered to tir from home excepting 
in the company of her mother or fome 
married relative, nor dare fize fpeak to @ 
_ young man but in the prefence of her pa~ 
rents. “Thefe precautions may perhaps 
preferve the phytical innocence of their 
daughte VS, but they are no guarantee for the 
purity of their minds. Parents in gene- 
ral believe they do fufscrent if they exert 
their’ vigilance that their daughter may 
deliver the flower of her virg sinity unin- 
jured to her future hutband; but whether 
the imagination be pure and the heart un- 
corrupted, is not an object of much con- 
cern. People of fortune, who wilh to be 
relieved from this. troublefome tafk, fre. 
quently place their daughters, at the age 
of ten or eleven years, ina eek, where 
pil live fecluded from the world, wnder 
he difcipline of the convent, till Hymer 
aes them from their confinement.— 
For this reafon, a young female confiders 
the day on which Hy men binds her with 
indifloluble ties, as chet of her liberation, 
which promifes to repay her with ufury 
the joys of life, from which fhe has: been fo 
long withheld ; and the god of marriages 
fatisfied with having tied the knot fe 
firmly, that neither gods nor men can un- 
Joofe it, belfolds with indifference the im- 
croachments of Cupid en his dominions 5 
nay, he has even appointed him to a Ges 
cies of viceroyalty, in which, under the 
protection of cuitom, he rules uncontroul- 
ed, and of which Hymen himfelf is no 
lenigen able to difpoffefs him. 
Cicifbeifm, a cuftom peculiar to Italy, _ 
which allows a married woman to chufe 
another male confidant befides her huf- 
band, and who, inthis quality, is deno- 
minated the lady’s: cavalere fervente, is 
common not only among people of high 
rank, but even among thofe of the mid- 
dling clafs. Many condemn this cuftom, 
as the baneful confequence of corrupted 
manners, and as it!elf contributing to 
that corruption ; others maintain, that it 
is innocent, like many other cuftoms pe- 
culiar to different nations. Each grounds 
his opinion on his knowledge of the mat- 
ter, and on his fentiments concerning con. 
jugai duty and fidelity. It is poflible that 
this cuftom may affume a different cha- 
racter in the different large towns of 
Ktaly. 
