people in Europe, if ever their minds should be freed from that absurd and debasing superstition, which chills: their energy, and tends to check every species of improvement-more than all the other circumstances to which their poverty and degeneracy have been imputed. This, however, is conjecture; but what you may rely on as fact is, that a Spanish bishop, and a Spanish smuggler, treated two English travellers as has been mentioned.

To-morrow, if you please, we shall proceed on our journey. In the meanwhile I remain, yours, &c.

J. MORDAUNT..

LETTER VIII.

The Same in Continuation.

Vevay.

THE second day after we left the house of the smuggler we arrived at Merida: it is a difficult matter to travel above six and thirty or forty miles a day in this country. Merida, formerly a Roman colony of great opulence, (as many fragments of triumphal arches, and other pieces of exquisite architecture, indicate), is now the residence of idleness, poverty, and filth.

We should not have staid. longer than was absolutely necessary in this wretched town, if I had not had a letter from the commandant of Elvas to an Irish officer in the Spanish service, who, having married a lady of some fortune in the neighbourhood of Merida, found it expedient to reside there at that time....

After the civilities we had received from the commandant, we thought it proper that we should wait on his correspondent, and deliver the letter into his own hands.

We found him a lively intelligent man he immediately invited us to sleep at his house. On my hinting our determination to proceed on our journey next morning,

I do not expect, gentlemen,' said he, that any thing I can offer will prevail on you to make a long abode in such a place as this; but I shall be mortified, indeed, if you

will not do me the pleasure of giving my house the preference to the inn while you do stay.'

He afterwards persuaded us to agree to remain all the following day, part of which we employed in viewing the Roman antiquities; "and found our new acquaintance not only to be an hospitable landlord, but also an instructive Cicerone. The fortune necessary for acting the first of these characters are not more rare, in this decayed town, than the knowledge requisite for the second.

After we had viewed what was thought most worthy of inspection, as we walked by the side of the river which separates part of the suburbs from the town, observing that the river was choked up at both banks, so as to confine the current within a few yards at the centre, I said, May not many remains of Roman sculpture, and fragments of architecture, lie buried beneath the rubbish on each side of this river ?'

It is highly probable,' replied the officer; and a countryman of mine, a Roman catholic clergyman, was so much of that opinion, that, as he passed this way, on his return to London from Madrid, some years ago, after as accurate an examination as he could conveniently make, he wrote to the minister of Spain, recommending it strongly that his excellency should take measures for having the rubbish cleared away, as there were many reasons for believing that the labour would be well repaid by the antiquities which would be dug up. The minister accordingly ordered an engineer to Merida for that very purpose, But no sooner was his design known, than certain monks began to murmur against it: they said, it was paying that respect to fragments of Pagan temples and statutes which was due to the relics of Christian saints only: that some men, particularly the whole childish race of virtuosos, were so depraved, as to admire specimens of ancient sculpture more than any portion of the real bones of a martyr that if this scheme was adopted, who could answer that some heathen deity would not be dug up, of more exquisite workmanship than any of those which excited so much profane adoration already: that by the

piety, as well as the wisdom of their ancestors, those idols were buried under ground, where, experience had now proved, they did no harm ; but there was no knowing what mischief they might do if they were raised again: that mention was made in the bible of no resurrection but that of the quick and the dead: that statues were neither the one nor the other, and therefore not entitled to the same privilege that it was safest, and most prudent, to leave things as they are; because change or innovation, on the pretext of reformation, was often productive of irreparable evil, as the church had already experienced.'

:

These considerations greatly alarmed the good citizens of Merida, and seemed so rational to the king's confessor, a Franciscan friar, that he prevailed on his majesty to recall the engineer, and the river was allowed to remain choked, as you see it, to the great consolation of the inhabitants.

We had an opportunity of observing another instance of the piety of these people, as we returned from the

river.

It was a holiday: the whole town seemed in motion. At the corner of almost every street there was a group of both sexes, dancing to the music of a guitar.

I have observed, indeed, that at all times and in every town and village of Spain through which I have passed, people of all ages and conditions assemble round the musician, at the first sound of this instrument.

The agility of some of the male-dancers seemed surprising, because they were often mere clowns, whose dress was ill adapted to that exercise: but what was more attractive was the wonderful flexibilty of movement, as well as intelligence of look, with which many of the women humoured the music.

In the streets of Merida we particularly remarked one group of both sexes, who were performing the fandango, and other dances, with more energy than the rest, and with a degree of vivacity and a wantonness of gesture that seemed more suitable to Bacchantes, or the worshipers of the heathen god of the gardens, than to Christians. In

the midst of these exertions, however, the great bell of the principal church tolled: it was the Ave-Maria, or Angelus hour; and in an instant all the dancers were on their knees. Those eyes, which the moment before flashed wantonness, were devoutly fixed on the ground; and, instead of the guitar, nothing was heard but an universal mutter of prayer.

'You see, gentlemen,' said the officer, that the enthusiasm of mirth is not at such a distance from devotion, in this warm climate, as it is supposed to be in your cold island, particularly by the inhabitants of the coldest part

of it.'

'I have a great notion, however,' said I, that those people were more earnest in the first than the second.' • I believe them to be in earnest in both,' rejoined the officer.

I dare swear,' said Travers, they prefer the music of the guitar to that of the bell; but they believe, that if they omitted their prayers at the sound of the bell, they would be struck with some disease, which would put it out of their power to dance to the sound of the guitar.' There is no knowing people's motives,' replied this candid Irishman: secret hopes and wishes, which we would not like to be known, are apt to intermingle with the devotion of the best of us.

Haud cuivis promptum est, murmurque humilesque susurros,
Tollere de templis, et aperto vivere voto.'*

• But the sudden transition which you have just beheld has, I am persuaded, taken place at the same hour all over Spain. I myself have seen the actors, on the same occasion, stop the performance, and kneel on the stage: the same occurs at court. Whoever is present at the sound of the Ave-Maria bell kneels immediately, the king himself giving the example.'

The Spanish monarchs have long been distinguished for piety,' said I.

The Spanish nation has long been distinguished for

VOL. VII.

H

Persius.

religious zeal," replied the officer.

• Whatever difference of character there may be in the inhabitants of the different provinces in other respects, they resemble each other in the article of devotion. You have observed, no doubt, that they kneel in the middle of the street, in all weathers, when the host passes. The late king, Charles III, never met it without coming out of his carriage, and putting the priest into it, he himself following on foot, with all his attendants, to the house of the sick person to whom it was carrying. He at the same time sent orders for his own physician to attend the sick person, from that time till his recovery or death. This accounts for what might otherwise surprise you, gentlemen, namely, that the courtiers in Spain have not only a greater show of devotion than the nobility in other countries, but even more than the lower ranks of their own country.'

As we approached the officer's house, after leaving the group of dancers, I remarked a Corinthian pillar of exquisite sculpture, which formed part of the wall of one of the parish-churches.

On my expressing surprise at this arrangement, the Irishman said, there is nothing done in this enlightened country without a valid reason, as you shall be convinced directly. On which, bowing to a priest who was passing, he said, Those gentlemen, who are strangers, have just asked a question, father, which I cannot resolve, but probably you can,-namely, how that column, which is not only of marble, but also seems to be of a different species of architecture from the rest of the building, came to make part of the church?"

• That column,' replied the priest,' is a piece of Moorish antiquity: it was raised by those infidels for the horrid purpose of tying the Christians to it, when they were put to death in torture; and, since the expulsion of the infidels, it was thought proper to build it into the wall of the church, and so secure it, as a proof and memorial of the cruelties exercised by the Moors on the Christians.'

The Irishman, with a very serious and obsequious air, thanked the priest for the information. He, on his part,