not be too much in a hurry to make his arrangements, and, while they are adjusting, indulge his heart in a few effufions of that good-humour I have been addreffing, he may be very comfortable to himself, and no less acceptable to others; but if he will be stubborn, and inflexibly attached to his own opinions, manners, and cuftoms, and not come into thofe of other people in other countries, he has nothing to do but to live by himself, according to his fancy, and-pay accordingly.

*

But I forget; that all this time while I have been discussing the subjects of the table, I have feated you in the Cleves Wood, and left you in a worse situation even than the Germans, without any dinner at all. Rife then, my friend, and, that you may no longer want an opportunity, I put an end to my letter, with the usual afsurances of being affectionately your's.

LETTER LXII.

TO THE SAME.

TAKING it for granted that you

will feel yourself refreshed before you fit down to the perufal of another letter, and that all

VOL. III,

H

those

I'

those who may become its readers will bring along with them good fpirits and goodnature, I will invite your attention to fome further Gleanings on the circle of Weftphalia.o

You are not now to learn that Pruffia is a Catholic country, where, however, Proteftantifm, (in the Presbyterian form) is largely interfperfed. The churches are every where the objects that first catch the eyes of travellers, for which reafon I fuppofe it is that you meet fo many fteeples and towers, monuments and efcutcheons, in almost every book of modern travels.

Catholic churches in particular, as being more ornamental, have been so often described by publishing travellers, that they are, perhaps, the only objects in the wide field of foreign obfervation, which have been measured with an accuracy that leaves nothing for the gleaner. Open the books of thefe authors at whatever page you may, and it is odds but you fee half a dozen fpires, followed by a long history of their founders, deftroyers, rebuilders, redeftroyers, revolutions, &c. Two churches and a caftle to a leaf is moderate reckoning, and it is well if you get off without a morfel of choice biography, on the quarrels and rogueries,virtues,

and

and vices of the prince, bishops, beggarly priefts, or defpotic lords of the caftle; for the Cacoethes De-fcribendi (if I may be allowed to sport with the Latinity) is as ftrong in fome wandering biographers, as in juvenile poets, when firft they fancy themfelves in love, and present you with that picture of their idols, which imagination has drawn for them. For myself, and I fuppofe others may feel like me on the occafion, I never, without trembling, obferve a travelled author fet in for a long ftory of churches, chapels, chateaus, and picture galleries, with a determination to give their "moving accidents" by flood and fire, during the wear and tear, and traditionary lying of half a score centuries. And what, after all, are you prefented with, but a meagre account, into which the mind and memory of the reader vainly look for fomething whereon to rest-something more worthy the human faculties, than annals of the intriguing abbots, mischievous priests, and grinding feigniors, buried under their ruins. I venerate antiquity, but must have fomething that comes closer to the foul, the understanding, or the affections, than this collection of literary brickwork, and travelling ftone mafonry. Peace to the afhes of the mouldering univerfe! Unless furviving virtues, or immortal actions, lie amongst the ruins

H 2

ruins, and, like the phoenix, only want an honest, helping hand to clear away the earthy obftructions, to spring above them, I would not rescue an altar, or the canonized bones of a Saint from oblivion. Unembalmed by fuch virtues, and fuch actions, the duft of a monarch, and the duft of the earth that covers him, is, to me, exactly the fame thing; and as to the relicks of a worthlefs being, to what good end could they be brought from the tomb, but as a maukin to fhew the villains of the prefent generation, that to fuch complexion must they come at laft. In that light only, have I fometimes, as in the inftance of a John of Leyden, burst the fearments of the grave, and gleaned the coffin of a fcoundrel.

Refpecting church matters, therefore, I shall certainly not fwell the lift of hiftorians; but, after I have made one general obfervation, fhall content myself with the relation of a fingle circumftance.

It is really a moft heart-affecting fatisfaction in a circuit of fome hundreds of leagues, fuch as I have taken, over different Catholic countries, to fee the decent impreffion that is made on the peafantry (which is ever the most numerous body of a flate) by religion. Of the higher

higher ranks, who lofe their principles and their education too often in the pride of philofophy, I fhall here fay nothing; but the in, fluence of the Catholic faith on the fubordinate ranks is, almoft without an exception, a fober and fincere attention to the duties it enjoins. The earnest, yet tempered zeal, with which the common labourer leaves his bufinefs or his pleasure, to commune with his Maker, is amongst the comfortable fights that every traveller muft furely have noticed, and noticing must have enjoyed. In the plebeian part of the community, at least, it must be genuine. The infidel philofophy of the great is, happily, above their reach: the hypocritical mummery or profounder chicane of the yet perhaps more infidel priesthood (I fpeak of the Catholic churchmen), is ftill more happily above the understanding of the peafant. He can have no views from intereft, from the world's ap plaufe, or from the world's disapprobation. His religion, after education has fettled it in his mind, becomes one of the strongest habitsit foon ripens into his moft powerful principles. It is prefently a voluntary offering, and one of perfect free will, to his God. He accepts its pains and penalties, and never refifts their infliction. He is told by his confeffor of a fin, and he suffers for it willingly. Neither does