h he treats with infinite contempt, not unjustly perhaps;
yet does it not deserve the ridicule handed down from his time by all
who have touched the subject. It is about the author, who before his
theatrical representation prefixes an odd declaration, that though he
names Pluto, and Neptune, and I know not who, upon the stage, yet he
believes none of those fables, but considers himself as a Christian, a
Catholick, &c. All this _does_ appear very absurdly superfluous to _us_;
but as I observed, _they_ live nearer the original feats of paganism;
many old customs are yet retained, and the names not lost among them, or
laid up merely for literary purposes as in England. They swear _per
Bacco_ perpetually in common discourse; and once I saw a gentleman in
the heat of conversation blush at the recollection that he had said
_barba Fove_, where he meant God Almighty.

It is likewise unkind enough in Mr. Addison, perhaps unjust too, to
speak with scorn of the libraries, or state of literature, at Milan. The
collection of books at Brera is prodigious, and has been lately much
increased by the Pertusanian and Firmian libraries falling into it: a
more magnificent repository for learning, a more comfortable situation
for students, so complete and perfect a disposition of the books, will
scarcely be found in any other city not professedly a university, I
believe; and here are professors worthy of the highest literary
stations, that do honour to learning herself. I will not indulge myself
by naming any one, where all deserve the highest praise; and it is so
difficult to restrain one's pen upon so favourite a subject, that I
shall only name some rarities which particularly struck me, and avoid
further temptations, where the sense of obligation, and the recollection
of partial kindness, inspire an inclination to praises which appear
tedious to those readers who could not enter into my feelings, and of
course would scarcely excuse them.

Thirteen volumes of MS. Psalms, written with wonderful elegance and
manual nicety, struck me as very curious: they were done by the
Certosini monks lately eradicated, and with beautiful illuminations to
almost every page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, fresh and perfect; and
a Pliny, of the Parma press, dated 1472; are extremely valuable. But the
pleasure I received from observing that the learned librarian had not
denied a place to Tillotson's works, was counteracted by finding
Bolingbroke's philosophy