Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine
one doubtless, and called the _Strada del Popolo_, with infinite
propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough
God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics
to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined
as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where
females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to
complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South
American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island;
and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to
furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola,
another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living
separate: so they had sent _him_ the cows, and kept only the bulls at
home."
_Au reste_, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who
dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb;
many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience
and dislike of change.
I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but
the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea
of Livia and Agrippina well enough.
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