fiderable revenue out of the devotion that is paid to it, and has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defence. It was fuch a curiofity as this I have mentioned, that Claudian has celebrated in about half a score epigrams: Solibus indomitum glacies Alpina rigorem Sumebat, nimio jam preciofa gelu. Nec potuit toto mentiri corpore gemmam, Sed medio manfit proditor orbe latex: Aulus honor; liquidi crefcunt miracula faxi, Et confervate plus meruiftis aquæ. Deep in the fnowy Alps, a lump of ice By frofts was harden'd to a mighty price; Proof to the fun, it now fecurely lies, And the warm dog-star's hottest rage defies: Yet ftill, unripen'd in the dewy mines, Within the ball a trembling water fhines, That through the cryftal darts its fpurious rays, And the proud ftone's original betrays: But common drops, when thus with crystal mixt, Are valu'd more, than if in rubies fixt. As I walked through one of the streets of Milan, I was furprised to read the following infcription, concerning a barber, that had confpired with the commiffary of health and others to poifon his fellow-citizens. There is a void fpace where his house stood, and in the midst of it a pillar, fuperfcribed Colonna Colonna Infame. The story is told in handsome Latin, which I fhall fet down, as having never seen it transcribed. Hic, ubi hæc area patens eft, Jo' Jacobi More: Qui falta cum Gulielmo Platea publ. fanit. commiffario Et cum aliis confpiratione, Dum peftis atrox fæviret, Lethiferis unguentis huc & illuc afperfis Candenti prius vellicatos forcipe Et dexterâ mulitatos manu Rotæque intextos poft horas fex jugulari, Ac, ne quid tam fceleftorum hominum reliqui fit, Publicatis bonis Cineres in flumen projici Cujus rei memoria æterna ut fit, Ac nunquam in pofterum refici, Ne Ne vos infelix, infame folum M. D. C. xxx. Cal. Augufti. In this void space ftood formerly the barber's fhop of John James Mora, who, having confpired with William Platea, the commiffary of health, and others, during the time of a raging plague, destroyed the lives of a great number of citizens by dif perfing poisonous drugs. The fenate therefore ordered them both, as enemies of their country, to be broke on the wheel, their flesh being first torn with red-hot pincers, and their right hands cut off; and after lying fix hours on the wheel, their throats to be cut, and their bodies burned; and, that there might be no remains of fuch wicked men, their goods to be plundered, and their ashes thrown into the river: And, to perpetuate the memory of this tranfaction, the house, in which the villany was contrived, was ordered to be pulled down to the ground, and never to be rebuilt; and a column to be raised on the fpot, call'd The Infamous. Fly from hence, good citizens, left the wretched and infamous foil infect you. Aug. 1, 1630. M. Anthony Monthius, the fenator, commiffary of health, &c. The citadel of Milan is thought a strong fort in Italy, and has held out formerly after after the conqueft of the rest of the dutchy. The Governor of it is independent on the Governor of Milan; as the Perfians used to make the rulers of provinces and fortreffes' of different conditions and interefts, to pre-' vent confpiracies. At two miles distance from Milan, there stands a building, that would have been a mafter-piece in its kind, had the architect defigned it for an artificial echo. We difcharged a pistol, and had the found returned upon us above fifty-fix times, though the air was very foggy. The firft repetitions follow one another very thick, but are heard more distinctly in proportion as they decay: There are two parallel walls, which beat the found back on each other, till the undulation is quite worn out, like the feveral reverberations of the fame image from two oppofite looking-glaffes. Father Kircher has taken notice of this particular echo, as father Bartolin has done fince in his ingenious difcourfe on founds. The ftate of Milan is like a vaft garden, furrounded by a noble moundwork of rocks and mountains. Indeed, if a man confiders the face of Italy in general, one would think that Nature had laid it out into fuch a variety of ftates and governments as one finds in it. For as the Alps, at one end, and the long range of Apennines, that paffes through the body of it, branch out on all fides into feveral different divifions; they serve as fo many natural boundaries and and fortifications to the little teritories that lie among them. Accordingly we find the whole county cut into a multitude of particular kingdoms and commonwealths in the oldest accounts we have of it, until the power of the Romans, like a torrent that overflows its banks, bore down all before it, and spread itself into the remoteft corners of the nation. But as this exorbitant power became unable to fuport itself, we find the government of Italy again broken into fuch a variety of fub-divisions, as naturally suits with its fituation. In the court of Milan, as in feveral others of Italy, there are many who fall in with the dress and carriage of the French. One may however obferve a kind of aukwardnefs in the Italians, which eafily discovers the airs they give themselves not to be natural. It is indeed very strange there should be fuch a diversity of manners, where there is fo fmall a difference in the air and climate. The French are always open, familiar, and talkative: The Italians, on the contrary, are ftiff, ceremonious, and referved. In France every one aims at a gaiety and fprightliness of behaviour, and thinks it an accomplishment to be brisk and lively: The Italians, notwithstanding their natural fieriness of temper, affect always to appear fober and fedate; infomuch that one fometimes meets young men walking the streets with fpectacles on their nofes, that they may |