Indeed the longevity of this incomparable commonwealth is a certain proof of its temperance, exercise, and cheerfulness, the great preservatives in every body, politic as well natural.  Nor should the love of peace be left out of her eulogium, who has so often reconciled contending princes, that Thuanus gave her, some centuries ago, due praise for her pacific disposition, so necessary to the health of a commercial state, and called her city civilis prudentiae officina.

Another reason may be found for the long-continued prosperity of Venice, in her constant adherence to a precept, the neglect of which must at length shake, or rather loosen the foundations of every state; for it is a maxim here, handed down from generation to generation, that change breeds more mischief from its novelty, than advantage from its utility:—­quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus:  Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis magis perturbat novitate, quam adjuvat utilitate.  And when Henry the Fourth of France solicited the abrogation of one of the Senate’s decrees, her ambassador replied, That li decreti di Venezia rassomigli avano poca i Gridi di Parigi[Footnote:  The decrees of Venice little resemble the edicts of Paris.], meaning the declaratory publications of the Grand Monarque,—­proclaimed to-day perhaps, repealed to-morrow—­“for Sire,” added he, “our senate deliberates long before it decrees, but what is once decreed there is seldom or ever recalled.”

The patriotism inherent in the breads of individuals makes another strong cause of this state’s exemption from decay:  they say themselves, that the soul of old Rome has transmigrated to Venice, and that every galley which goes into action considers itself as charged with the fate of the commonwealth. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, seems a sentence grown obsolete in other Italian states, but is still in full force here; and I doubt not but the high-born and high-fouled ladies of this day, would willingly, as did their generous ancestors in 1600, part with their rings, bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for those ships which defend their dearer country.

The perpetual state of warfare maintained by this nation against the Turks, has never lessened nor cooled:  yet have their Mahometan neighbours and natural enemies no perfidy to charge them with in the time of peace or of hostility:  nor can Venice be charged with the mean vice of sheltering a desire of depredation, under the hypocritical cant of protecting that religion which teaches universal benevolence and charity to all mankind.  Their vicinity to Turkey has, however, made them contract some similarity of manners; for what, except being imbued with Turkish notions, can account for the people’s rage here, young and old, rich and poor, to pour down such quantities of coffee?  I have already had seven cups to-day, and feel frighted lest we should some of us be killed with so strange an abuse of it.  On the opposite shore, across the Adriatic, opium is taken to counteract its effects; but these dear Venetians have no notion of sleep being necessary to their existence I believe, as some or other of them seem constantly in motion; and there is really no hour of the four and twenty in which the town seems perfectly still and quiet; no moment in which it can be said, that