o demonstrates, the little
power people have of judging what is really best for them, and that
what has the appearance of the severest disappointment, is
frequently the greatest good.

As to lose the memory of his disgrace, or at least all those gloomy
reflections it had occasioned, was the chief motive which had made
Natura resolve to travel a second time, it was a matter of
indifference to him which way he went. He first took care to make
himself master of all that was worth observation in Holland, where he
found little to admire, except the Stadthouse, and the magnificence
with which king William, after his accession to the crown of these
kingdoms, had ornamented his palace at Loo; but the rough, unpolite
behaviour of the people, disgusted him so much, that he stayed no
longer among them than was necessary to see what the place afforded,
and then passed on to Brussels, Antwerp, and, in fine, left no great
city, either in Dutch or French Flanders unvisited; thence went into
Germany, where his first route was to Hanover, having, it seems, a
curiosity of seeing a prince, whose brows were one day to be incircled
with the crown of England; but this country was, at that time, in so
low and wretched a condition, that whether he looked on the buildings,
the lands, or the appearance of the inhabitants, all equally presented
a scene of poverty to his eyes; he therefore made what haste he could
out of it, having found nothing, except the Elector himself, that gave
him the least satisfaction. He was also at several other petty courts,
all which served to inspire in him not the most favourable idea of
Germany.

At length he arrived at Vienna, a city pompous enough to those who had
never seen Rome and Paris; but however it may yield to them in
elegance of buildings, gardening, and other delicacies of life, it was
yet more inferior in the manners of the people;--he perceived among
the persons of quality, an affectation of grandeur, a state without
greatness, and in the lower rank of gentry, a certain stiffness, even
to the meanest, and an insufferable pride, which came pretty near
ferocity:--the costly, but ill-contrived parades frequently made,
discovered less their riches than their bad taste, and appeared the
more ridiculous to Natura, as they were extolled for their
magnificence and elegance; but, even here, as indeed all over Germany,
the courts of Berlin and Dresden excepted, you see rather an _aim_ of
attracting a