Francis_, the Founder of
the _Franciscan_ Order, has found out a way to feed daily one hundred
Thousand Lubbards with nothing at all"; meaning the _Franciscans_, the
Followers of Saint _Francis_, who have no visible Revenues; yet in their
way of Living come up to, if they do not exceed any other Order.

Another Day talking of the Place, it naturally led us into a Discourse
of the Knight of _la Mancha, Don Quixot_. At which time he told me, that
in his Opinion, that Work was a perfect Paradox, being the best and the
worst Romance, that ever was wrote.

"For," says he, "tho' it must infallibly please every Man, that has any
taste of Wit; yet has it had such a fatal Effect upon the Spirits of my
Countrymen, that every Man of Wit must ever resent; for," continu'd he,
"before the Appearance in the World of that Labour of _Cerviantes_, it
was next to an Impossibility for a Man to walk the Streets with any
Delight, or without Danger. There were seen so many Cavaliero's prancing
and curvetting before the Windows of their Mistresses, that a Stranger
would have imagin'd the whole Nation to have been nothing less than a
Race of Knight Errants. But after the World became a little acquainted
with that notable History; the Man that was seen in that once celebrated
Drapery, was pointed at as a _Don Quixot_, and found himself the Jest of
High and Low. And I verily believe," added he, "that to this, and this
only we owe that dampness and poverty of Spirit, which has run thro' all
our Councils for a Century past, so little agreeable to those nobler
Actions of our famous Ancestors."

After many of these lesser sorts of Confidences, _Don Felix_ recommended
me to a Lodging next Door to his own. It was at a Widow's, who had one
only Daughter, her House just opposite to a _Francisan_ Nunnery. Here I
remain'd somewhat upwards of two Years; all which time, lying in my Bed,
I could hear the Nuns early in the Morning at their _Matins_, and late
in the Evening at their _Vespers_, with Delight enough to my self, and
without the least Indecency in the World in my Thoughts of them. Their
own Divine Employ too much employ'd every Faculty of mine to entertain
any Thing inconsentaneous or offensive.

This my Neighbourhood to the Nunnery gave me an opportunity of seeing
two Nuns invested; and in this I must do a Justice to the whole Country,
to acknowledge, that a Stranger who is curious (I would impute it rather
to their hopes of Conversion, than to