[37] The French are not the only People who boast of the Grandeur and other Advantages of Lyons, as appears from this Epigram by Scaliger.
Flumineis Rhodanus qua se fugat incitus undis,
Quaque pigro dubitat flumine mitis Arar,
Lugdunum jacet, antiquo novus orbis in orbe,
Lugdunumque vetus orbis in orbe novo.
Quod nolis, alibi quaras; hic quare quod optas:
Aut hic, aut nusquam, vincre vota potes.
Lugduni quodcunque potest dare mundus habebis:
Plura petas, hac urbs & tibi plura dabit.
i. e.
Where Rhone impetuous rolls, and where the slow
And gentle Sâon with milder Streams does flow,
There Lyons stands; where we united find,
What scatter’d thro’ the World delights the Mind;
And if you still seek more with greedy eye,
Lyons can ev’n more Wonders still supply.
[38] Her Amours with M. de Lauzun have made a great Noise.
[39] This Misfortune came upon the Duke and Duchess of Maine, merely from a Suspicion which the Regent entertain’d, that the Duke had a Hand in the pretended Conspiracy of the Prince of Cellamare, the Ambassador of Spain; which, they said, was to remove the Duke of Orleans from the Regency, and to vest it in the King of Spain, who wou’d have put the Duke of Maine in his Place, according to Lewis XIVth’s last Will. The bare Suspicion however amounted to fix the Guilt upon this Prince, and all that belong’d to him. It were to be wish’d, that some Eye-witness of what was then transacted at Court, and in Bretagne, wou’d give the Public an exact Account of it.
[40] The Friar, who in the other Orders is a Prior, is call’d a Minister in this Order, which it better known in France by the Name of the Mathurias.
[41] In all Appearance, the Latin Name Lutetia comes from Leucothecia, which signifies white Town, a Name that Strabo gives to this City, the Houses of which were plaister’d. By Abbreviation it was call’d Lutetia. As to the Name Paris, ’tis certain, that it comes from Para-Isis, near Isis, a well-known Goddess, who had several Temples in this Canton; where she was so particularly worshipp’d, that from her Name the Inhabitants were call’d Para-Isians, the Neighbours of Isis. They, who have carefully examin’d the Gate of the Carmelites Church, and the Building of its Chapel, will own, that it was formerly the Temple of this Goddess; whose Statue, in Iron, holding a Handful of Ears of Corn, is still on the Front of the Building.
[42] The Author does not say whither nor from whence those Sheep are stray’d. All those Sheep feed in the same Pasture, or at least, there are but few of ’em that feed in the Pastures to which M. de Vintimille could wish to bring the others. Some Slanderers don’t scruple to say, that this good Prelate gives himself more Uneasiness about the Excellency of the Dishes at his Table, than the Goodness of the Pasture for his Sheep: For he has been seen to give the same Welcome to the Jesuits, and the Fathers of the Oratory, to the Capuchins and the Benedictins, &c. For the Sake of such of our Readers as have a Taste for French Poetry, we insert the following Epigram; which was made upon this Prelate’s Mandate in Favour of the Constitution:
Le Public est un Sot, d’être scandalisé
Du Mandement que Vintimille
Vient de repandre dans la Ville,
Me disoit ce Matin un Docteur avisé!
Il est, dit il, d’Usage indispensable,
Pour qu’un Saint soit canonisé,
D’entendre l’Avocat du Diable.