of the Heaps of Stones around them.

There is no Place in all _Spain_ more famous for good Wine than _Sainte
Clemente de la Mancha_; nor is it any where sold cheaper: For as it is
only an inland Town, near no navigable River, and the People temperate
to a Proverb, great Plenty, and a small Vend must consequently make it
cheap. The Wine here is so famous, that, when I came to _Madrid_, I saw
wrote over the Doors of host Houses that sold Wine, _Vino Sainte
Clemente_. As to the Temperance of the People, I must say, that
notwithstanding those two excellent Qualities of good and cheap, I never
saw, all the three Years I was Prisoner there, any one Person overcome
with Drinking.

It is true, there may be a Reason, and a political one, assign'd for
that Abstemiousness of theirs, which is this, That if any Man, upon any
Occasion, should be brought in as an Evidence against you, if you can
prove that he was ever drunk, it will invalidate his whole Evidence. I
could not but think this a grand Improvement upon the _Spartans_. They
made their Slaves purposely drunk, to shew their Youth the Folly of the
Vice by the sottish Behaviour of their Servants under it: But they never
reach'd to that noble height of laying a Penalty upon the Aggressor, or
of discouraging a voluntary Impotence of Reason by a disreputable
Impotence of Interest. The _Spaniard_ therefore, in my Opinion, in this
exceeds the _Spartan_, as much as a natural Beauty exceeds one procured
by Art; for tho' Shame may somewhat influence some few, Terrour is of
force to deter all. A Man, we have seen it, may shake Hands with Shame;
but _Interest_, says another Proverb, _will never lye_. A wise
Institution therefore doubtless is this of the _Spaniard_; but such as I
fear will never take Place in _Germany, Holland, France_, or _Great
Britain_.

But though I commend their Temperance, I would not be thought by any
Means to approve of their Bigotry. If there may be such a Thing as
Intemperance in Religion, I much fear their Ebriety in that will be
found to be over-measure. Under the notion of Devotion, I have seen Men
among 'em, and of Sense too, guilty of the grossest Intemperancies. It
is too common to be a rarity to see their Dons of the prime Quality as
well as those of the lower Ranks, upon meeting a Priest in the open
Streets, condescend to take up the lower part of his Vestment, and
salute it with Eyes erected as if they look'd upon it as the Seal of
Salvation.

When