consider a _gonorrhoea_ as health to the reins; and except a tertian
ague, all disorders are called the _calentura_, and treated alike, and I
fear very injudiciously; for there is not, I am told, in the whole
kingdom, any public academy for the instruction of young men, in physic,
surgery, or anatomy, except at Madrid.

Notwithstanding the sobriety, temperance, and fine climate of Spain, the
Spaniards do not, in general, live to any great age; they put a
prodigious quantity of spice into every thing they eat; and though
sobriety and temperance are very commendable, there are countries where
eating and drinking are carried to a great excess, by men much more
virtuous than those, where temperance, perhaps, is their principal
virtue.




LETTER XXIX.


I forgot to tell you that, though I left the Convent, I had no desire to
leave the spot where I had met with so cordial a reception; nor a
mountain, every part of which afforded so many scenes of wonder and
delight. I therefore hired two rooms at a wretched _posada_, near the
two ancient towers below, and where I had left my horse, that I might
make my daily excursions on and about the mountain, as well as visit
those little solitary habitations above once more. My host, his wife,
and their son and daughter, looked rather cool upon us; they liked our
money better than our company; and though I made their young child some
little presents, it scarce afforded any return, but prevented rudeness,