38 riesbeck’s travels through Germany .

tries on the Rhine connected with it are, it would yield three or four millions of florinsmore. 1 have told you already, that it contains a fpace of feven hundred and twenty-nine fquare miles. The Palatinate and the dukedoms of Julich and Berg, all together,hardly contain two hundred and forty fquare miles ; but this fpace, which is not a thirdas large as Bavaria , has half as many inhabitants in it, and yields more than half asmuch revenue.

This difference arifes, in a great meafure, from the great attention paid to monks inthis country; an attention which mull: neceffarily prevent any increafe of population,any excefs of knowledge, any induftry, or a more improved cultivation to the country.There are two hundred cloifters in this country, and at leaft five thoufand monks.Many of thefe cloifters have incomes of 3000I. or 4000I. a' year; that of Niederal-teich has not lefs than io,oool. per annum. Without exaggerating, one may ratethe revenue of the cloifters, and other religious foundations of this country, at abouttwo millions of florins, or 200,000!., which is a third part of the whole income ofthe country. The damage which the monks do the country is moft notorious. Thisappears with regard to the farmers called hermits, whofe children they are very affidu-ous to make monks of, becaufe they receive with every one of them, one, two, three,or more thoufand florins. The confequence to the country is. that by this diminutionof the laborious part of the community, the property remains in too few hands, and thecountry is never above half cultivated. The country alfo lofes fomething by the fonsof the other farmers who are bred in convents ; for the education given them unfitsthem for every profeflion, but thofe of idle authors or comedians.—The propenfity toidle life, to feafting, and beggary, which reigns over all Bavaria , is countenanced "andfandioned by the example of the fat priefts. The people envy them ftrongly theirbleffed idlenefs. The jugglery, the brotherhoods, church feafts, and corner devotionsof thefe holy quacks, employ the attention of the multitude fo much, that they fpendthe third part of their time amongft them.—Intereft prompts them to keep the peoplein a ftate of ftupidity, and therefore they are conftantly in the field ready to oppofe, withalmoft inconceivable fury, every thing which tends to improve and enlighten the un-derftanding. They alone are to be thanked for the (hocking wildnefs of manners whichappears in Bavaria . Their cowls contain the effence of chriftianity and all morality.They preach nothing but maffes, which are very profitable to them, the rofary, the fca-pulaire and ridiculous mortification to the body, by which means many a blockheadhas got the name of a faint. The deceived countryman believes, that confeffion and amafs, which cofts fifteen pence, will wipe away the fouleft fins, and confiders the tellinghis beads as his moft effential duty. The fecular priefts are as few in number as themonks are many. Thefe ought naturally to form the manners of the country; butthey are held in much lefs veneration than the others, becaufe their drefs and appear-ance is not fo extraordinary. In Bavaria , however, they do not deferve more refpeftthan the monks ; for the greater part of them differ from the peafants only by wearingblack, having a more cxpenfive table, and a handfomer and better dreffed houfe-keeper.In other things they are equally lazy, untutored, and ignorant.—Their parifhes are fourmiles in compafs, and produce from four to 600I. per annum. What an advantage itwould be to the country, if thefe livings were to be divided into five or fix finailer ones,and filled with a better race of holy fhepherds! At the fame time, the monks ihouldbe prohibited from interpofing in the care of fouls, or what would be rather more ad-vantageous, though not to be expected under this government, they fhould be extirpatedaltogether.

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