Project Gutenberg Etext of Letters on Sweden, etc., by Wollstonecraft
#3 in our series by Mary Wollstonecraft

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Title: Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

Author: Mary Wollstonecraft

Release Date: November, 2002  [Etext #3529]
[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
[The actual date this file first posted = 05/24/01]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition.

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This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
from the 1889 Cassell & Company edition.





LETTERS ON SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND DENMARK

by Mary Wollstonecraft




INTRODUCTION.



Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April, 1759.  Her
father--a quick-tempered and unsettled man, capable of beating wife,
or child, or dog--was the son of a manufacturer who made money in
Spitalfields, when Spitalfields was prosperous.  Her mother was a
rigorous Irishwoman, of the Dixons of Ballyshannon.  Edward John
Wollstonecraft--of whose children, besides Mary, the second child,
three sons and two daughters lived to be men and women--in course of
the got rid of about ten thousand pounds, which had been left him by
his father.  He began to get rid of it by farming.  Mary
Wollstonecraft's first-remembered home was in a farm at Epping.
When she was five years old the family moved to another farm, by the
Chelmsford Road.  When she was between six and seven years old they
moved again, to the neighbourhood of Barking.  There they remained
three years before the next move, which was to a farm near Beverley,
in Yorkshire.  In Yorkshire they remained six years, and Mary
Wollstonecraft had there what education fell to her lot between the
ages of ten and sixteen.  Edward John Wollstonecraft then gave up
farming to venture upon a commercial speculation.  This caused him
to live for a year and a half at Queen's Row, Hoxton.  His daughter
Mary was then sixteen; and while at Hoxton she had her education
advanced by the friendly care of a deformed clergyman--a Mr. Clare--
who lived next door, and stayed so much at home that his one pair of
shoes had lasted him for fourteen years.

But Mary Wollstonecraft's chief friend at this time was an
accomplished girl only two years older than herself, who maintained
her father, mother, and family by skill in drawing.  Her name was
Frances Blood, and she especially, by her example and direct
instruction, drew out her young friend's powers.  In 1776, Mary
Wollstonecraft's father, a rolling stone, rolled into Wales.  Again
he was a farmer.  Next year again he was a Londoner; and Mary had
influence enough to persuade him to choose a house at Walworth,
where she would be near to her friend Fanny.  Then, however, the
conditions of her home life caused her to be often on the point of
going away to earn a living for herself.  In 1778, when she was
nineteen, Mary Wollstonecraft did leave home, to take a situation as
companion with a rich tradesman's widow at Bath, of whom it was said
that none of her companions could stay with her.  Mary
Wollstonecraft, nevertheless, stayed two years with the difficult
widow, and made herself respected.  Her mother's failing health then
caused Mary to return to her.  The father was then living at
Enfield, and trying to save the small remainder of his means by not
venturing upon any business at all.  The mother died after long
suffering, wholly dependent on her daughter Mary's constant care.
The mother's last words were often quoted by Mary Wollstonecraft in
her own last years of distress--"A little patience, and all will be
over."

After the mother's death, Mary Wollstonecraft left home again, to
live with her friend, Fanny Blood, who was at Walham Green.  In 1782
she went to nurse a married sister through a dangerous illness.  The
father's need of support next pressed upon her.  He had spent not
only his own money, but also the little that had been specially
reserved for his children.  It is said to be the privilege of a
passionate man that he always gets what he wants; he gets to be
avoided, and they never find a convenient corner of their own who
shut themselves out from the kindly fellowship of life.

In 1783 Mary Wollstonecraft--aged twenty-four--with two of her
sisters, joined Fanny Blood in setting up a day school at Islington,
which was removed in a few months to Newington Green.  Early in 1785
Fanny Blood, far gone in consumption, sailed for Lisbon to marry an
Irish surgeon who was settled there.  After her marriage it was
evident that she had but a few months to live; Mary Wollstonecraft,
deaf to all opposing counsel, then left her school, and, with help
of money from a friendly woman, she went out to nurse her, and was
by her when she died.  Mary Wollstonecraft remembered her loss ten
years afterwards in these "Letters from Sweden and Norway," when she
wrote:  "The grave has closed over a dear friend, the friend of my
youth; still she is present with me, and I hear her soft voice
warbling as I stray over the heath."

Mary Wollstonecraft left Lisbon for England late in December, 1785.
When she came back she found Fanny's poor parents anxious to go back
to Ireland; and as she had been often told that she could earn by
writing, she wrote a pamphlet of 162 small pages--"Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters"--and got ten pounds for it.  This she gave
to her friend's parents to enable them to go back to their kindred.
In all she did there is clear evidence of an ardent, generous,
impulsive nature.  One day her friend Fanny Blood had repined at the
unhappy surroundings in the home she was maintaining for her father
and mother, and longed for a little home of her own to do her work
in.  Her friend quietly found rooms, got furniture together, and
told her that her little home was ready; she had only to walk into
it.  Then it seemed strange to Mary Wollstonecraft that Fanny Blood
was withheld by thoughts that had not been uppermost in the mood of
complaint.  She thought her friend irresolute, where she had herself
been generously rash.  Her end would have been happier had she been
helped, as many are, by that calm influence of home in which some
knowledge of the world passes from father and mother to son and
daughter, without visible teaching and preaching, in easiest
companionship of young and old from day to day.

The little payment for her pamphlet on the "Education of Daughters"
caused Mary Wollstonecraft to think more seriously of earning by her
pen.  The pamphlet seems also to have advanced her credit as a
teacher.  After giving up her day school, she spent some weeks at
Eton with the Rev. Mr. Prior, one of the masters there, who
recommended her as governess to the daughters of Lord Kingsborough,
an Irish viscount, eldest son of the Earl of Kingston.  Her way of
teaching was by winning love, and she obtained the warm affection of
the eldest of her pupils, who became afterwards Countess Mount-
Cashel.  In the summer of 1787, Lord Kingsborough's family,
including Mary Wollstonecraft, was at Bristol Hot-wells, before
going to the Continent.  While there, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her
little tale published as "Mary, a Fiction," wherein there was much
based on the memory of her own friendship for Fanny Blood.

The publisher of Mary Wollstonecraft's "Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters" was the same Joseph Johnson who in 1785 was the publisher
of Cowper's "Task."  With her little story written and a little
money saved, the resolve to live by her pen could now be carried
out.  Mary Wollstonecraft, therefore, parted from her friends at
Bristol, went to London, saw her publisher, and frankly told him her
determination.  He met her with fatherly kindness, and received her
as a guest in his house while she was making her arrangements.  At
Michaelmas, 1787, she settled in a house in George Street, on the
Surrey side of Blackfriars Bridge.  There she produced a little book
for children, of "Original Stories from Real Life," and earned by
drudgery for Joseph Johnson.  She translated, she abridged, she made
a volume of Selections, and she wrote for an "Analytical Review,"
which Mr. Johnson founded in the middle of the year 1788.  Among the
books translated by her was Necker "On the Importance of Religious
Opinions."  Among the books abridged by her was Salzmann's "Elements
of Morality."  With all this hard work she lived as sparely as she
could, that she might help her family.  She supported her father.
That she might enable her sisters to earn their living as teachers,
she sent one of them to Paris, and maintained her there for two
years; the other she placed in a school near London as parlour-
boarder until she was admitted into it as a paid teacher.  She
placed one brother at Woolwich to qualify for the Navy, and he
obtained a lieutenant's commission.  For another brother, articled
to an attorney whom he did not like, she obtained a transfer of
indentures; and when it became clear that his quarrel was more with
law than with the lawyers, she placed him with a farmer before
fitting him out for emigration to America.  She then sent him, so
well prepared for his work there that he prospered well.  She tried
even to disentangle her father's affairs; but the confusion in them
was beyond her powers of arrangement.  Added to all this faithful
work, she took upon herself the charge of an orphan child, seven
years old, whose mother had been in the number of her friends.  That
was the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, thirty years old, in 1789, the
year of the Fall of the Bastille; the noble life now to be touched
in its enthusiasms by the spirit of the Revolution, to be caught in
the great storm, shattered, and lost among its wrecks.

To Burke's attack on the French Revolution Mary Wollstonecraft wrote
an Answer--one of many answers provoked by it--that attracted much
attention.  This was followed by her "Vindication of the Rights of
Woman while the air was full of declamation on the "Rights of Man."
The claims made in this little book were in advance of the opinion
of that day, but they are claims that have in our day been conceded.
They are certainly not revolutionary in the opinion of the world
that has become a hundred years older since the book was written.

At this the Mary Wollstonecraft had moved to rooms in Store Street,
Bedford Square.  She was fascinated by Fuseli the painter, and he
was a married man.  She felt herself to be too strongly drawn
towards him, and she went to Paris at the close of the year 1792, to
break the spell.  She felt lonely and sad, and was not the happier
for being in a mansion lent to her, from which the owner was away,
and in which she lived surrounded by his servants.  Strong womanly
instincts were astir within her, and they were not all wise folk who
had been drawn around her by her generous enthusiasm for the new
hopes of the world, that made it then, as Wordsworth felt, a very
heaven to the young.

Four months after she had gone to Paris, Mary Wollstonecraft met at
the house of a merchant, with whose wife she had become intimate, an
American named Gilbert Imlay.  He won her affections.  That was in
April, 1793.  He had no means, and she had home embarrassments, for
which she was unwilling that he should become in any way
responsible.  A part of the new dream in some minds then was of a
love too pure to need or bear the bondage of authority.  The mere
forced union of marriage ties implied, it was said, a distrust of
fidelity.  When Gilbert Imlay would have married Mary
Wollstonecraft, she herself refused to bind him; she would keep him
legally exempt from her responsibilities towards the father,
sisters, brothers, whom she was supporting.  She took his name and
called herself his wife, when the French Convention, indignant at
the conduct of the British Government, issue a decree from the
effects of which she would escape as the wife of a citizen of the
United States.  But she did not marry.  She witnessed many of the
horrors that came of the loosened passions of an untaught populace.
A child was born to her--a girl whom she named after the dead friend
of her own girlhood.  And then she found that she had leant upon a
reed.  She was neglected; and was at last forsaken.  Having sent her
to London, Imlay there visited her, to explain himself away.  She
resolved on suicide, and in dissuading her from that he gave her
hope again.  He needed somebody who had good judgment, and who cared
for his interests, to represent him in some business affairs in
Norway.  She undertook to act for him, and set out on the voyage
only a week after she had determined to destroy herself.

The interest of this book which describes her travel is quickened by
a knowledge of the heart-sorrow that underlies it all.  Gilbert
Imlay had promised to meet her upon her return, and go with her to
Switzerland.  But the letters she had from him in Sweden and Norway
were cold, and she came back to find that she was wholly forsaken
for an actress from a strolling company of players.  Then she went
up the river to drown herself.  She paced the road at Putney on an
October night, in 1795, in heavy rain, until her clothes were
drenched, that she might sink more surely, and then threw herself
from the top of Putney Bridge.

She was rescued, and lived on with deadened spirit.  In 1796 these
"Letters from Sweden and Norway" were published.  Early in 1797 she
was married to William Godwin.  On the 10th of September in the same
year, at the age of thirty-eight, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin died,
after the birth of the daughter who lived to become the wife of
Shelley.  The mother also would have lived, if a womanly feeling, in
itself to be respected, had not led her also to unwise departure
from the customs of the world.  Peace be to her memory.  None but
kind thoughts can dwell upon the life of this too faithful disciple
of Rousseau.

H. M.



LETTERS WRITTEN DURING A SHORT RESIDENCE IN SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND
DENMARK.



LETTER I.



Eleven days of weariness on board a vessel not intended for the
accommodation of passengers have so exhausted my spirits, to say
nothing of the other causes, with which you are already sufficiently
acquainted, that it is with some difficulty I adhere to my
determination of giving you my observations, as I travel through new
scenes, whilst warmed with the impression they have made on me.

The captain, as I mentioned to you, promised to put me on shore at
Arendall or Gothenburg in his way to Elsineur, but contrary winds
obliged us to pass both places during the night.  In the morning,
however, after we had lost sight of the entrance of the latter bay,
the vessel was becalmed; and the captain, to oblige me, hanging out
a signal for a pilot, bore down towards the shore.

My attention was particularly directed to the lighthouse, and you
can scarcely imagine with what anxiety I watched two long hours for
a boat to emancipate me; still no one appeared.  Every cloud that
flitted on the horizon was hailed as a liberator, till approaching
nearer, like most of the prospects sketched by hope, it dissolved
under the eye into disappointment.

Weary of expectation, I then began to converse with the captain on
the subject, and from the tenor of the information my questions drew
forth I soon concluded that if I waited for a boat I had little
chance of getting on shore at this place.  Despotism, as is usually
the case, I found had here cramped the industry of man.  The pilots
being paid by the king, and scantily, they will not run into any
danger, or even quit their hovels, if they can possibly avoid it,
only to fulfil what is termed their duty.  How different is it on
the English coast, where, in the most stormy weather, boats
immediately hail you, brought out by the expectation of
extraordinary profit.

Disliking to sail for Elsineur, and still more to lie at anchor or
cruise about the coast for several days, I exerted all my rhetoric
to prevail on the captain to let me have the ship's boat, and though
I added the most forcible of arguments, I for a long the addressed
him in vain.

It is a kind of rule at sea not to send out a boat.  The captain was
a good-natured man; but men with common minds seldom break through
general rules.  Prudence is ever the resort of weakness, and they
rarely go as far as they may in any undertaking who are determined
not to go beyond it on any account.  If, however, I had some trouble
with the captain, I did not lose much time with the sailors, for
they, all alacrity, hoisted out the boat the moment I obtained
permission, and promised to row me to the lighthouse.

I did not once allow myself to doubt of obtaining a conveyance from
thence round the rocks--and then away for Gothenburg--confinement is
so unpleasant.

The day was fine, and I enjoyed the water till, approaching the
little island, poor Marguerite, whose timidity always acts as a
feeler before her adventuring spirit, began to wonder at our not
seeing any inhabitants.  I did not listen to her.  But when, on
landing, the same silence prevailed, I caught the alarm, which was
not lessened by the sight of two old men whom we forced out of their
wretched hut.  Scarcely human in their appearance, we with
difficulty obtained an intelligible reply to our questions, the
result of which was that they had no boat, and were not allowed to
quit their post on any pretence.  But they informed us that there
was at the other side, eight or ten miles over, a pilot's dwelling.
Two guineas tempted the sailors to risk the captain's displeasure,
and once more embark to row me over.

The weather was pleasant, and the appearance of the shore so grand
that I should have enjoyed the two hours it took to reach it, but
for the fatigue which was too visible in the countenances of the
sailors, who, instead of uttering a complaint, were, with the
thoughtless hilarity peculiar to them, joking about the possibility
of the captain's taking advantage of a slight westerly breeze, which
was springing up, to sail without them.  Yet, in spite of their good
humour, I could not help growing uneasy when the shore, receding, as
it were, as we advanced, seemed to promise no end to their toil.
This anxiety increased when, turning into the most picturesque bay I
ever saw, my eyes sought in vain for the vestige of a human
habitation.  Before I could determine what step to take in such a
dilemma (for I could not bear to think of returning to the ship),
the sight of a barge relieved me, and we hastened towards it for
information.  We were immediately directed to pass some jutting
rocks, when we should see a pilot's hut.

There was a solemn silence in this scene which made itself be felt.
The sunbeams that played on the ocean, scarcely ruffled by the
lightest breeze, contrasted with the huge dark rocks, that looked
like the rude materials of creation forming the barrier of unwrought
space, forcibly struck me, but I should not have been sorry if the
cottage had not appeared equally tranquil.  Approaching a retreat
where strangers, especially women, so seldom appeared, I wondered
that curiosity did not bring the beings who inhabited it to the
windows or door.  I did not immediately recollect that men who
remain so near the brute creation, as only to exert themselves to
find the food necessary to sustain life, have little or no
imagination to call forth the curiosity necessary to fructify the
faint glimmerings of mind which entitle them to rank as lords of the
creation.  Had they either they could not contentedly remain rooted
in the clods they so indolently cultivate.

Whilst the sailors went to seek for the sluggish inhabitants, these
conclusions occurred to me; and, recollecting the extreme fondness
which the Parisians ever testify for novelty, their very curiosity
appeared to me a proof of the progress they had made in refinement.
Yes, in the art of living--in the art of escaping from the cares
which embarrass the first steps towards the attainment of the
pleasures of social life.

The pilots informed the sailors that they were under the direction
of a lieutenant retired from the service, who spoke English; adding
that they could do nothing without his orders, and even the offer of
money could hardly conquer their laziness and prevail on them to
accompany us to his dwelling.  They would not go with me alone,
which I wanted them to have done, because I wished to dismiss the
sailors as soon as possible.  Once more we rowed off, they following
tardily, till, turning round another bold protuberance of the rocks,
we saw a boat making towards us, and soon learnt that it was the
lieutenant himself, coming with some earnestness to see who we were.

To save the sailors any further toil, I had my baggage instantly
removed into his boat; for, as he could speak English, a previous
parley was not necessary, though Marguerite's respect for me could
hardly keep her from expressing the fear, strongly marked on her
countenance, which my putting ourselves into the power of a strange
man excited.  He pointed out his cottage; and, drawing near to it, I
was not sorry to see a female figure, though I had not, like
Marguerite, been thinking of robberies, murders, or the other evil
which instantly, as the sailors would have said, runs foul of a
woman's imagination.

On entering I was still better pleased to find a clean house, with
some degree of rural elegance.  The beds were of muslin, coarse it
is true, but dazzlingly white; and the floor was strewed over with
little sprigs of juniper (the custom, as I afterwards found, of the
country), which formed a contrast with the curtains, and produced an
agreeable sensation of freshness, to soften the ardour of noon.
Still nothing was so pleasing as the alacrity of hospitality--all
that the house afforded was quickly spread on the whitest linen.
Remember, I had just left the vessel, where, without being
fastidious, I had continually been disgusted.  Fish, milk, butter,
and cheese, and, I am sorry to add, brandy, the bane of this
country, were spread on the board.  After we had dined hospitality
made them, with some degree of mystery, bring us some excellent
coffee.  I did not then know that it was prohibited.

The good man of the house apologised for coming in continually, but
declared that he was so glad to speak English he could not stay out.
He need not have apologised; I was equally glad of his company.
With the wife I could only exchange smiles, and she was employed
observing the make of our clothes.  My hands, I found, had first led
her to discover that I was the lady.  I had, of course, my quantum
of reverences; for the politeness of the north seems to partake of
the coldness of the climate and the rigidity of its iron-sinewed
rocks.  Amongst the peasantry there is, however, so much of the
simplicity of the golden age in this land of flint--so much
overflowing of heart and fellow-feeling, that only benevolence and
the honest sympathy of nature diffused smiles over my countenance
when they kept me standing, regardless of my fatigue, whilst they
dropped courtesy after courtesy.

The situation of this house was beautiful, though chosen for
convenience.  The master being the officer who commanded all the
pilots on the coast, and the person appointed to guard wrecks, it
was necessary for him to fix on a spot that would overlook the whole
bay.  As he had seen some service, he wore, not without a pride I
thought becoming, a badge to prove that he had merited well of his
country.  It was happy, I thought, that he had been paid in honour,
for the stipend he received was little more than twelve pounds a
year.  I do not trouble myself or you with the calculation of
Swedish ducats.  Thus, my friend, you perceive the necessity of
perquisites.  This same narrow policy runs through everything.  I
shall have occasion further to animadvert on it.

Though my host amused me with an account of himself, which gave me
aim idea of the manners of the people I was about to visit, I was
eager to climb the rocks to view the country, and see whether the
honest tars had regained their ship.  With the help of the
lieutenant's telescope, I saw the vessel under way with a fair
though gentle gale.  The sea was calm, playful even as the most
shallow stream, and on the vast basin I did not see a dark speck to
indicate the boat.  My conductors were consequently arrived.

Straying further, my eye was attracted by the sight of some
heartsease that peeped through the rocks.  I caught at it as a good
omen, and going to preserve it in a letter that had not conveyed
balm to my heart, a cruel remembrance suffused my eyes; but it
passed away like an April shower.  If you are deep read in
Shakespeare, you will recollect that this was the little western
flower tinged by love's dart, which "maidens call love in idleness."
The gaiety of my babe was unmixed; regardless of omens or
sentiments, she found a few wild strawberries more grateful than
flowers or fancies.

The lieutenant informed me that this was a commodious bay.  Of that
I could not judge, though I felt its picturesque beauty.  Rocks were
piled on rocks, forming a suitable bulwark to the ocean.  "Come no
further," they emphatically said, turning their dark sides to the
waves to augment the idle roar.  The view was sterile; still little
patches of earth of the most exquisite verdure, enamelled with the
sweetest wild flowers, seemed to promise the goats and a few
straggling cows luxurious herbage.  How silent and peaceful was the
scene!  I gazed around with rapture, and felt more of that
spontaneous pleasure which gives credibility to our expectation of
happiness than I had for a long, long time before.  I forgot the
horrors I had witnessed in France, which had cast a gloom over all
nature, and suffering the enthusiasm of my character--too often,
gracious God! damped by the tears of disappointed affection--to be
lighted up afresh, care took wing while simple fellow-feeling
expanded my heart.

To prolong this enjoyment, I readily assented to the proposal of our
host to pay a visit to a family, the master of which spoke English,
who was the drollest dog in the country, he added, repeating some of
his stories with a hearty laugh.

I walked on, still delighted with the rude beauties of the scene;
for the sublime often gave place imperceptibly to the beautiful,
dilating the emotions which were painfully concentrated.

When we entered this abode, the largest I had yet seen, I was
introduced to a numerous family; but the father, from whom I was led
to expect so much entertainment, was absent.  The lieutenant
consequently was obliged to be the interpreter of our reciprocal
compliments.  The phrases were awkwardly transmitted, it is true;
but looks and gestures were sufficient to make them intelligible and
interesting.  The girls were all vivacity, and respect for me could
scarcely keep them from romping with my host, who, asking for a
pinch of snuff, was presented with a box, out of which an artificial
mouse, fastened to the bottom, sprang.  Though this trick had
doubtless been played the out of mind, yet the laughter it excited
was not less genuine.

They were overflowing with civility; but, to prevent their almost
killing my babe with kindness, I was obliged to shorten my visit;
and two or three of the girls accompanied us, bringing with them a
part of whatever the house afforded to contribute towards rendering
my supper more plentiful; and plentiful in fact it was, though I
with difficulty did honour to some of the dishes, not relishing the
quantity of sugar and spices put into everything.  At supper my host
told me bluntly that I was a woman of observation, for I asked him
MEN'S QUESTIONS.

The arrangements for my journey were quickly made.  I could only
have a car with post-horses, as I did not choose to wait till a
carriage could be sent for to Gothenburg.  The expense of my journey
(about one or two and twenty English miles) I found would not amount
to more than eleven or twelve shillings, paying, he assured me,
generously.  I gave him a guinea and a half.  But it was with the
greatest difficulty that I could make him take so much--indeed
anything--for my lodging and fare.  He declared that it was next to
robbing me, explaining how much I ought to pay on the road.
However, as I was positive, he took the guinea for himself; but, as
a condition, insisted on accompanying me, to prevent my meeting with
any trouble or imposition on the way.

I then retired to my apartment with regret.  The night was so fine
that I would gladly have rambled about much longer, yet,
recollecting that I must rise very early, I reluctantly went to bed;
but my senses had been so awake, and my imagination still continued
so busy, that I sought for rest in vain.  Rising before six, I
scented the sweet morning air; I had long before heard the birds
twittering to hail the dawning day, though it could scarcely have
been allowed to have departed.

Nothing, in fact, can equal the beauty of the northern summer's
evening and night, if night it may be called that only wants the
glare of day, the full light which frequently seems so impertinent,
for I could write at midnight very well without a candle.  I
contemplated all Nature at rest; the rocks, even grown darker in
their appearance, looked as if they partook of the general repose,
and reclined more heavily on their foundation.  "What," I exclaimed,
"is this active principle which keeps me still awake?  Why fly my
thoughts abroad, when everything around me appears at home?"  My
child was sleeping with equal calmness--innocent and sweet as the
closing flowers.  Some recollections, attached to the idea of home,
mingled with reflections respecting the state of society I had been
contemplating that evening, made a tear drop on the rosy cheek I had
just kissed, and emotions that trembled on the brink of ecstasy and
agony gave a poignancy to my sensations which made me feel more
alive than usual.

What are these imperious sympathies?  How frequently has melancholy
and even misanthropy taken possession of me, when the world has
disgusted me, and friends have proved unkind.  I have then
considered myself as a particle broken off from the grand mass of
mankind; I was alone, till some involuntary sympathetic emotion,
like the attraction of adhesion, made me feel that I was still a
part of a mighty whole, from which I could not sever myself--not,
perhaps, for the reflection has been carried very far, by snapping
the thread of an existence, which loses its charms in proportion as
the cruel experience of life stops or poisons the current of the
heart.  Futurity, what hast thou not to give to those who know that
there is such a thing as happiness!  I speak not of philosophical
contentment, though pain has afforded them the strongest conviction
of it.

After our coffee and milk--for the mistress of the house had been
roused long before us by her hospitality--my baggage was taken
forward in a boat by my host, because the car could not safely have
been brought to the house.

The road at first was very rocky and troublesome, but our driver was
careful, and the horses accustomed to the frequent and sudden
acclivities and descents; so that, not apprehending any danger, I
played with my girl, whom I would not leave to Marguerite's care, on
account of her timidity.

Stopping at a little inn to bait the horses, I saw the first
countenance in Sweden that displeased me, though the man was better
dressed than any one who had as yet fallen in my way.  An
altercation took place between him and my host, the purport of which
I could not guess, excepting that I was the occasion of it, be it
what it would.  The sequel was his leaving the house angrily; and I
was immediately informed that he was the custom-house officer.  The
professional had indeed effaced the national character, for, living
as he did within these frank hospitable people, still only the
exciseman appeared, the counterpart of some I had met with in
England and France.  I was unprovided with a passport, not having
entered any great town.  At Gothenburg I knew I could immediately
obtain one, and only the trouble made me object to the searching my
trunks.  He blustered for money; but the lieutenant was determined
to guard me, according to promise, from imposition.

To avoid being interrogated at the town-gate, and obliged to go in
the rain to give an account of myself (merely a form) before we
could get the refreshment we stood in need of, he requested us to
descend--I might have said step--from our car, and walk into town.

I expected to have found a tolerable inn, but was ushered into a
most comfortless one; and, because it was about five o'clock, three
or four hours after their dining hour, I could not prevail on them
to give me anything warm to eat.

The appearance of the accommodations obliged me to deliver one of my
recommendatory letters, and the gentleman to whom it was addressed
sent to look out for a lodging for me whilst I partook of his
supper.  As nothing passed at this supper to characterise the
country, I shall here close my letter.

Yours truly.



LETTER II.



Gothenburg is a clean airy town, and, having been built by the
Dutch, has canals running through each street; and in some of them
there are rows of trees that would render it very pleasant were it
not for the pavement, which is intolerably bad.

There are several rich commercial houses--Scotch, French, and
Swedish; but the Scotch, I believe, have been the most successful.
The commerce and commission business with France since the war has
been very lucrative, and enriched the merchants I am afraid at the
expense of the other inhabitants, by raising the price of the
necessaries of life.

As all the men of consequence--I mean men of the largest fortune--
are merchants, their principal enjoyment is a relaxation from
business at the table, which is spread at, I think, too early an
hour (between one and two) for men who have letters to write and
accounts to settle after paying due respect to the bottle.

However, when numerous circles are to be brought together, and when
neither literature nor public amusements furnish topics for
conversation, a good dinner appears to be the only centre to rally
round, especially as scandal, the zest of more select parties, can
only be whispered.  As for politics, I have seldom found it a
subject of continual discussion in a country town in any part of the
world.  The politics of the place, being on a smaller scale, suits
better with the size of their faculties; for, generally speaking,
the sphere of observation determines the extent of the mind.

The more I see of the world, the more I am convinced that
civilisation is a blessing not sufficiently estimated by those who
have not traced its progress; for it not only refines our
enjoyments, but produces a variety which enables us to retain the
primitive delicacy of our sensations.  Without the aid of the
imagination all the pleasures of the senses must sink into
grossness, unless continual novelty serve as a substitute for the
imagination, which, being impossible, it was to this weariness, I
suppose, that Solomon alluded when he declared that there was
nothing new under the sun!--nothing for the common sensations
excited by the senses.  Yet who will deny that the imagination and
understanding have made many, very many discoveries since those
days, which only seem harbingers of others still more noble and
beneficial?  I never met with much imagination amongst people who
had not acquired a habit of reflection; and in that state of society
in which the judgment and taste are not called forth, and formed by
the cultivation of the arts and sciences, little of that delicacy of
feeling and thinking is to be found characterised by the word
sentiment.  The want of scientific pursuits perhaps accounts for the
hospitality, as well as for the cordial reception which strangers
receive from the inhabitants of small towns.

Hospitality has, I think, been too much praised by travellers as a
proof of goodness of heart, when, in my opinion, indiscriminate
hospitality is rather a criterion by which you may form a tolerable
estimate of the indolence or vacancy of a head; or, in other words,
a fondness for social pleasures in which the mind not having its
proportion of exercise, the bottle must be pushed about.

These remarks are equally applicable to Dublin, the most hospitable
city I ever passed through.  But I will try to confine my
observations more particularly to Sweden.

It is true I have only had a glance over a small part of it; yet of
its present state of manners and acquirements I think I have formed
a distinct idea, without having visited the capital--where, in fact,
less of a national character is to be found than in the remote parts
of the country.

The Swedes pique themselves on their politeness; but far from being
the polish of a cultivated mind, it consists merely of tiresome
forms and ceremonies.  So far, indeed, from entering immediately
into your character, and making you feel instantly at your ease,
like the well-bred French, their over-acted civility is a continual
restraint on all your actions.  The sort of superiority which a
fortune gives when there is no superiority of education, excepting
what consists in the observance of senseless forms, has a contrary
effect than what is intended; so that I could not help reckoning the
peasantry the politest people of Sweden, who, only aiming at
pleasing you, never think of being admired for their behaviour.

Their tables, like their compliments, seem equally a caricature of
the French.  The dishes are composed, as well as theirs, of a
variety of mixtures to destroy the native taste of the food without
being as relishing.  Spices and sugar are put into everything, even
into the bread; and the only way I can account for their partiality
to high-seasoned dishes is the constant use of salted provisions.
Necessity obliges them to lay up a store of dried fish and salted
meat for the winter; and in summer, fresh meat and fish taste
insipid after them.  To which may be added the constant use of
spirits.  Every day, before dinner and supper, even whilst the
dishes are cooling on the table, men and women repair to a side-
table; and to obtain an appetite eat bread-and-butter, cheese, raw
salmon, or anchovies, drinking a glass of brandy.  Salt fish or meat
then immediately follows, to give a further whet to the stomach.  As
the dinner advances, pardon me for taking up a few minutes to
describe what, alas! has detained me two or three hours on the
stretch observing, dish after dish is changed, in endless rotation,
and handed round with solemn pace to each guest; but should you
happen not to like the first dishes, which was often my case, it is
a gross breach of politeness to ask for part of any other till its
turn comes.  But have patience, and there will be eating enough.
Allow me to run over the acts of a visiting day, not overlooking the
interludes.

Prelude a luncheon--then a succession of fish, flesh, and fowl for
two hours, during which time the dessert--I was sorry for the
strawberries and cream--rests on the table to be impregnated by the
fumes of the viands.  Coffee immediately follows in the drawing-
room, but does not preclude punch, ale, tea and cakes, raw salmon,
&c.  A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory
luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner.  A day of this
kind you would imagine sufficient; but a to-morrow and a to-morrow--
A never-ending, still-beginning feast may be bearable, perhaps, when
stern winter frowns, shaking with chilling aspect his hoary locks;
but during a summer, sweet as fleeting, let me, my kind strangers,
escape sometimes into your fir groves, wander on the margin of your
beautiful lakes, or climb your rocks, to view still others in
endless perspective, which, piled by more than giant's hand, scale
the heavens to intercept its rays, or to receive the parting tinge
of lingering day--day that, scarcely softened unto twilight, allows
the freshening breeze to wake, and the moon to burst forth in all
her glory to glide with solemn elegance through the azure expanse.

The cow's bell has ceased to tinkle the herd to rest; they have all
paced across the heath.  Is not this the witching time of night?
The waters murmur, and fall with more than mortal music, and spirits
of peace walk abroad to calm the agitated breast.  Eternity is in
these moments.  Worldly cares melt into the airy stuff that dreams
are made of, and reveries, mild and enchanting as the first hopes of
love or the recollection of lost enjoyment, carry the hapless wight
into futurity, who in bustling life has vainly strove to throw off
the grief which lies heavy at the heart.  Good night!  A crescent
hangs out in the vault before, which woos me to stray abroad.  It is
not a silvery reflection of the sun, but glows with all its golden
splendour.  Who fears the fallen dew?  It only makes the mown grass
smell more fragrant.  Adieu!



LETTER III.



The population of Sweden has been estimated from two millions and a
half to three millions; a small number for such an immense tract of
country, of which only so much is cultivated--and that in the
simplest manner--as is absolutely requisite to supply the
necessaries of life; and near the seashore, whence herrings are
easily procured, there scarcely appears a vestige of cultivation.
The scattered huts that stand shivering on the naked rocks, braving
the pitiless elements, are formed of logs of wood rudely hewn; and
so little pains are taken with the craggy foundation that nothing
hike a pathway points out the door.

Gathered into himself by the cold, lowering his visage to avoid the
cutting blast, is it surprising that the churlish pleasure of
drinking drams takes place of social enjoyments amongst the poor,
especially if we take into the account that they mostly live on
high-seasoned provision and rye bread?  Hard enough, you may
imagine, as it is baked only once a year.  The servants also, in
most families, eat this kind of bread, and have a different kind of
food from their masters, which, in spite of all the arguments I have
heard to vindicate the custom, appears to me a remnant of barbarism.

In fact, the situation of the servants in every respect,
particularly that of the women, shows how far the Swedes are from
having a just conception of rational equality.  They are not termed
slaves; yet a man may strike a man with impunity because he pays him
wages, though these wages are so low that necessity must teach them
to pilfer, whilst servility renders them false and boorish.  Still
the men stand up for the dignity of man by oppressing the women.
The most menial, and even laborious offices, are therefore left to
these poor drudges.  Much of this I have seen.  In the winter, I am
told, they take the linen down to the river to wash it in the cold
water, and though their hands, cut by the ice, are cracked and
bleeding, the men, their fellow-servants, will not disgrace their
manhood by carrying a tub to lighten their burden.

You will not be surprised to hear that they do not wear shoes or
stockings, when I inform you that their wages are seldom more than
twenty or thirty shillings per annum.  It is the custom, I know, to
give them a new year's gift and a present at some other period, but
can it all amount to a just indemnity for their labour?  The
treatment of servants in most countries, I grant, is very unjust,
and in England, that boasted land of freedom, it is often extremely
tyrannical.  I have frequently, with indignation, heard gentlemen
declare that they would never allow a servant to answer them; and
ladies of the most exquisite sensibility, who were continually
exclaiming against the cruelty of the vulgar to the brute creation,
have in my presence forgot that their attendants had human feelings
as well as forms.  I do not know a more agreeable sight than to see
servants part of a family.  By taking an interest, generally
speaking, in their concerns you inspire them with one for yours.  We
must love our servants, or we shall never be sufficiently attentive
to their happiness; and how can those masters be attentive to their
happiness who, living above their fortunes, are more anxious to
outshine their neighbours than to allow their household the innocent
enjoyments they earn?

It is, in fact, much more difficult for servants, who are tantalised
by seeing and preparing the dainties of which they are not to
partake, to remain honest, than the poor, whose thoughts are not led
from their homely fare; so that, though the servants here are
commonly thieves, you seldom hear of housebreaking, or robbery on
the highway.  The country is, perhaps, too thinly inhabited to
produce many of that description of thieves termed footpads, or
highwaymen.  They are usually the spawn of great cities--the effect
of the spurious desires generated by wealth, rather than the
desperate struggles of poverty to escape from misery.

The enjoyment of the peasantry was drinking brandy and coffee,
before the latter was prohibited, and the former not allowed to be
privately distilled, the wars carried on by the late king rendering
it necessary to increase the revenue, and retain the specie in the
country by every possible means.

The taxes before the reign of Charles XII. were inconsiderable.
Since then the burden has continually been growing heavier, and the
price of provisions has proportionately increased--nay, the
advantage accruing from the exportation of corn to France and rye to
Germany will probably produce a scarcity in both Sweden and Norway,
should not a peace put a stop to it this autumn, for speculations of
various kinds have already almost doubled the price.

Such are the effects of war, that it saps the vitals even of the
neutral countries, who, obtaining a sudden influx of wealth, appear
to be rendered flourishing by the destruction which ravages the
hapless nations who are sacrificed to the ambition of their
governors.  I shall not, however, dwell on the vices, though they be
of the most contemptible and embruting cast, to which a sudden
accession of fortune gives birth, because I believe it may be
delivered as an axiom, that it is only in proportion to the industry
necessary to acquire wealth that a nation is really benefited by it.

The prohibition of drinking coffee under a penalty, and the
encouragement given to public distilleries, tend to impoverish the
poor, who are not affected by the sumptuary laws; for the regent has
lately laid very severe restraints on the articles of dress, which
the middling class of people found grievous, because it obliged them
to throw aside finery that might have lasted them for their lives.

These may be termed vexatious; still the death of the king, by
saving them from the consequences his ambition would naturally have
entailed on them, may be reckoned a blessing.

Besides, the French Revolution has not only rendered all the crowned
heads more cautious, but has so decreased everywhere (excepting
amongst themselves) a respect for nobility, that the peasantry have
not only lost their blind reverence for their seigniors, but
complain in a manly style of oppressions which before they did not
think of denominating such, because they were taught to consider
themselves as a different order of beings.  And, perhaps, the
efforts which the aristocrats are making here, as well as in every
other part of Europe, to secure their sway, will be the most
effectual mode of undermining it, taking into the calculation that
the King of Sweden, like most of the potentates of Europe, has
continually been augmenting his power by encroaching on the
privileges of the nobles.

The well-bred Swedes of the capital are formed on the ancient French
model, and they in general speak that language; for they have a
knack at acquiring languages with tolerable fluency.  This may be
reckoned an advantage in some respects; but it prevents the
cultivation of their own, and any considerable advance in literary
pursuits.

A sensible writer has lately observed (I have not his work by me,
therefore cannot quote his exact words), "That the Americans very
wisely let the Europeans make their books and fashions for them."
But I cannot coincide with him in this opinion.  The reflection
necessary to produce a certain number even of tolerable productions
augments more than he is aware of the mass of knowledge in the
community.  Desultory reading is commonly a mere pastime.  But we
must have an object to refer our reflections to, or they will seldom
go below the surface.  As in travelling, the keeping of a journal
excites to many useful inquiries that would not have been thought of
had the traveller only determined to see all he could see, without
ever asking himself for what purpose.  Besides, the very dabbling in
literature furnishes harmless topics of conversation; for the not
having such subjects at hand, though they are often insupportably
fatiguing, renders the inhabitants of little towns prying and
censorious.  Idleness, rather than ill-nature, gives birth to
scandal, and to the observation of little incidents which narrows
the mind.  It is frequently only the fear of being talked of which
produces that puerile scrupulosity about trifles incompatible with
an enlarged plan of usefulness, and with the basis of all moral
principles--respect for the virtues which are not merely the virtues
of convention.

I am, my friend, more and more convinced that a metropolis, or an
abode absolutely solitary, is the best calculated for the
improvement of the heart, as well as the understanding; whether we
desire to become acquainted with man, nature, or ourselves.  Mixing
with mankind, we are obliged to examine our prejudices, and often
imperceptibly lose, as we analyse them.  And in the country, growing
intimate with nature, a thousand little circumstances, unseen by
vulgar eyes, give birth to sentiments dear to the imagination, and
inquiries which expand the soul, particularly when cultivation has
not smoothed into insipidity all its originality of character.

I love the country, yet whenever I see a picturesque situation
chosen on which to erect a dwelling I am always afraid of the
improvements.  It requires uncommon taste to form a whole, and to
introduce accommodations and ornaments analogous with the
surrounding-scene.

It visited, near Gothenburg, a house with improved land about it,
with which I was particularly delighted.  It was close to a lake
embosomed in pine-clad rocks.  In one part of the meadows your eye
was directed to the broad expanse, in another you were led into a
shade, to see a part of it, in the form of a river, rush amongst the
fragments of rocks and roots of trees; nothing seemed forced.  One
recess, particularly grand and solemn amongst the towering cliffs,
had a rude stone table and seat placed in it, that might have served
for a Druid's haunt, whilst a placid stream below enlivened the
flowers on its margin, where light-footed elves would gladly have
danced their airy rounds.

Here the hand of taste was conspicuous though not obtrusive, and
formed a contrast with another abode in the same neighbourhood, on
which much money had been lavished; where Italian colonnades were
placed to excite the wonder of the rude crags, and a stone
staircase, to threaten with destruction a wooden house.  Venuses and
Apollos condemned to lie hid in snow three parts of the year seemed
equally displaced, and called the attention off from the surrounding
sublimity, without inspiring any voluptuous sensations.  Yet even
these abortions of vanity have been useful.  Numberless workmen have
been employed, and the superintending artist has improved the
labourers, whose unskilfulness tormented him, by obliging them to
submit to the discipline of rules.  Adieu!

Yours affectionately.



LETTER IV.



The severity of the long Swedish winter tends to render the people
sluggish, for though this season has its peculiar pleasures, too
much time is employed to guard against its inclemency.  Still as
warm clothing is absolutely necessary, the women spin and the men
weave, and by these exertions get a fence to keep out the cold.  I
have rarely passed a knot of cottages without seeing cloth laid out
to bleach, and when I entered, always found the women spinning or
knitting.

A mistaken tenderness, however, for their children, makes them even
in summer load them with flannels, and having a sort of natural
antipathy to cold water, the squalid appearance of the poor babes,
not to speak of the noxious smell which flannel and rugs retain,
seems a reply to a question I had often asked--Why I did not see
more children in the villages I passed through?  Indeed the children
appear to be nipt in the bud, having neither the graces nor charms
of their age.  And this, I am persuaded, is much more owing to the
ignorance of the mothers than to the rudeness of the climate.
Rendered feeble by the continual perspiration they are kept in,
whilst every pore is absorbing unwholesome moisture, they give them,
even at the breast, brandy, salt fish, and every other crude
substance which air and exercise enables the parent to digest.

The women of fortune here, as well as everywhere else, have nurses
to suckle their children; and the total want of chastity in the
lower class of women frequently renders them very unfit for the
trust.

You have sometimes remarked to me the difference of the manners of
the country girls in England and in America; attributing the reserve
of the former to the climate--to the absence of genial suns.  But it
must be their stars, not the zephyrs, gently stealing on their
senses, which here lead frail women astray.  Who can look at these
rocks, and allow the voluptuousness of nature to be an excuse for
gratifying the desires it inspires?  We must therefore, find some
other cause beside voluptuousness, I believe, to account for the
conduct of the Swedish and American country girls; for I am led to
conclude, from all the observations I have made, that there is
always a mixture of sentiment and imagination in voluptuousness, to
which neither of them have much pretension.

The country girls of Ireland and Wales equally feel the first
impulse of nature, which, restrained in England by fear or delicacy,
proves that society is there in a more advanced state.  Besides, as
the mind is cultivated, and taste gains ground, the passions become
stronger, and rest on something more stable than the casual
sympathies of the moment.  Health and idleness will always account
for promiscuous amours; and in some degree I term every person idle,
the exercise of whose mind does not bear some proportion to that of
the body.

The Swedish ladies exercise neither sufficiently; of course, grow
very fat at an early age; and when they have not this downy
appearance, a comfortable idea, you will say, in a cold climate,
they are not remarkable for fine forms.  They have, however, mostly
fine complexions; but indolence makes the lily soon displace the
rose.  The quantity of coffee, spices, and other things of that
kind, with want of care, almost universally spoil their teeth, which
contrast but ill with their ruby lips.

The manners of Stockholm are refined, I hear, by the introduction of
gallantry; but in the country, romping and coarse freedoms, with
coarser allusions, keep the spirits awake.  In the article of
cleanliness, the women of all descriptions seem very deficient; and
their dress shows that vanity is more inherent in women than taste.

The men appear to have paid still less court to the graces.  They
are a robust, healthy race, distinguished for their common sense and
turn for humour, rather than for wit or sentiment.  I include not,
as you may suppose, in this general character, some of the nobility
and officers, who having travelled, are polite and well informed.

I must own to you that the lower class of people here amuse and
interest me much more than the middling, with their apish good
breeding and prejudices.  The sympathy and frankness of heart
conspicuous in the peasantry produces even a simple gracefulness of
deportment which has frequently struck me as very picturesque; I
have often also been touched by their extreme desire to oblige me,
when I could not explain my wants, and by their earnest manner of
expressing that desire.  There is such a charm in tenderness!  It is
so delightful to love our fellow-creatures, and meet the honest
affections as they break forth.  Still, my good friend, I begin to
think that I should not like to live continually in the country with
people whose minds have such a narrow range.  My heart would
frequently be interested; but my mind would languish for more
companionable society.

The beauties of nature appear to me now even more alluring than in
my youth, because my intercourse with the world has formed without
vitiating my taste.  But, with respect to the inhabitants of the
country, my fancy has probably, when disgusted with artificial
manners, solaced itself by joining the advantages of cultivation
with the interesting sincerity of innocence, forgetting the
lassitude that ignorance will naturally produce.  I like to see
animals sporting, and sympathise in their pains and pleasures.
Still I love sometimes to view the human face divine, and trace the
soul, as well as the heart, in its varying lineaments.

A journey to the country, which I must shortly make, will enable me
to extend my remarks.--Adieu!



LETTER V.



Had I determined to travel in Sweden merely for pleasure, I should
probably have chosen the road to Stockholm, though convinced, by
repeated observation, that the manners of a people are best
discriminated in the country.  The inhabitants of the capital are
all of the same genus; for the varieties in the species we must,
therefore, search where the habitations of men are so separated as
to allow the difference of climate to have its natural effect.  And
with this difference we are, perhaps, most forcibly struck at the
first view, just as we form an estimate of the leading traits of a
character at the first glance, of which intimacy afterwards makes us
almost lose sight.

As my affairs called me to Stromstad (the frontier town of Sweden)
in my way to Norway, I was to pass over, I heard, the most
uncultivated part of the country.  Still I believe that the grand
features of Sweden are the same everywhere, and it is only the grand
features that admit of description.  There is an individuality in
every prospect, which remains in the memory as forcibly depicted as
the particular features that have arrested our attention; yet we
cannot find words to discriminate that individuality so as to enable
a stranger to say, this is the face, that the view.  We may amuse by
setting the imagination to work; but we cannot store the memory with
a fact.

As I wish to give you a general idea of this country, I shall
continue in my desultory manner to make such observations and
reflections as the circumstances draw forth, without losing time, by
endeavouring to arrange them.

Travelling in Sweden is very cheap, and even commodious, if you make
but the proper arrangements.  Here, as in other parts of the
Continent, it is necessary to have your own carriage, and to have a
servant who can speak the language, if you are unacquainted with it.
Sometimes a servant who can drive would be found very useful, which
was our case, for I travelled in company with two gentlemen, one of
whom had a German servant who drove very well.  This was all the
party; for not intending to make a long stay, I left my little girl
behind me.

As the roads are not much frequented, to avoid waiting three or four
hours for horses, we sent, as is the constant custom, an avant
courier the night before, to order them at every post, and we
constantly found them ready.  Our first set I jokingly termed
requisition horses; but afterwards we had almost always little
spirited animals that went on at a round pace.

The roads, making allowance for the ups and downs, are uncommonly
good and pleasant.  The expense, including the postillions and other
incidental things, does not amount to more than a shilling the
Swedish mile.

The inns are tolerable; but not liking the rye bread, I found it
necessary to furnish myself with some wheaten before I set out.  The
beds, too, were particularly disagreeable to me.  It seemed to me
that I was sinking into a grave when I entered them; for, immersed
in down placed in a sort of box, I expected to be suffocated before
morning.  The sleeping between two down beds--they do so even in
summer--must be very unwholesome during any season; and I cannot
conceive how the people can bear it, especially as the summers are
very warm.  But warmth they seem not to feel; and, I should think,
were afraid of the air, by always keeping their windows shut.  In
the winter, I am persuaded, I could not exist in rooms thus closed
up, with stoves heated in their manner, for they only put wood into
them twice a day; and, when the stove is thoroughly heated, they
shut the flue, not admitting any air to renew its elasticity, even
when the rooms are crowded with company.  These stoves are made of
earthenware, and often in a form that ornaments an apartment, which
is never the case with the heavy iron ones I have seen elsewhere.
Stoves may be economical, but I like a fire, a wood one, in
preference; and I am convinced that the current of air which it
attracts renders this the best mode of warming rooms.

We arrived early the second evening at a little village called
Quistram, where we had determined to pass the night, having been
informed that we should not afterwards find a tolerable inn until we
reached Stromstad.

Advancing towards Quistram, as the sun was beginning to decline, I
was particularly impressed by the beauty of the situation.  The road
was on the declivity of a rocky mountain, slightly covered with a
mossy herbage and vagrant firs.  At the bottom, a river, straggling
amongst the recesses of stone, was hastening forward to the ocean
and its grey rocks, of which we had a prospect on the left; whilst
on the right it stole peacefully forward into the meadows, losing
itself in a thickly-wooded rising ground.  As we drew near, the
loveliest banks of wild flowers variegated the prospect, and
promised to exhale odours to add to the sweetness of the air, the
purity of which you could almost see, alas! not smell, for the
putrefying herrings, which they use as manure, after the oil has
been extracted, spread over the patches of earth, claimed by
cultivation, destroyed every other.

It was intolerable, and entered with us into the inn, which was in
other respects a charming retreat.

Whilst supper was preparing I crossed the bridge, and strolled by
the river, listening to its murmurs.  Approaching the bank, the
beauty of which had attracted my attention in the carriage, I
recognised many of my old acquaintance growing with great
luxuriance.

Seated on it, I could not avoid noting an obvious remark.  Sweden
appeared to me the country in the world most proper to form the
botanist and natural historian; every object seemed to remind me of
the creation of things, of the first efforts of sportive nature.
When a country arrives at a certain state of perfection, it looks as
if it were made so; and curiosity is not excited.  Besides, in
social life too many objects occur for any to be distinctly observed
by the generality of mankind; yet a contemplative man, or poet, in
the country--I do not mean the country adjacent to cities--feels and
sees what would escape vulgar eyes, and draws suitable inferences.
This train of reflections might have led me further, in every sense
of the word; but I could not escape from the detestable evaporation
of the herrings, which poisoned all my pleasure.

After making a tolerable supper--for it is not easy to get fresh
provisions on the road--I retired, to be lulled to sleep by the
murmuring of a stream, of which I with great difficulty obtained
sufficient to perform my daily ablutions.

The last battle between the Danes and Swedes, which gave new life to
their ancient enmity, was fought at this place 1788; only seventeen
or eighteen were killed, for the great superiority of the Danes and
Norwegians obliged the Swedes to submit; but sickness, and a
scarcity of provision, proved very fatal to their opponents on their
return.

It would be very easy to search for the particulars of this
engagement in the publications of the day; but as this manner of
filling my pages does not come within my plan, I probably should not
have remarked that the battle was fought here, were it not to relate
an anecdote which I had from good authority.

I noticed, when I first mentioned this place to you, that we
descended a steep before we came to the inn; an immense ridge of
rocks stretching out on one side.  The inn was sheltered under them;
and about a hundred yards from it was a bridge that crossed the
river, the murmurs of which I have celebrated; it was not fordable.
The Swedish general received orders to stop at the bridge and
dispute the passage--a most advantageous post for an army so much
inferior in force; but the influence of beauty is not confined to
courts.  The mistress of the inn was handsome; when I saw her there
were still some remains of beauty; and, to preserve her house, the
general gave up the only tenable station.  He was afterwards broke
for contempt of orders.

Approaching the frontiers, consequently the sea, nature resumed an
aspect ruder and ruder, or rather seemed the bones of the world
waiting to be clothed with everything necessary to give life and
beauty.  Still it was sublime.

The clouds caught their hue of the rocks that menaced them.  The sun
appeared afraid to shine, the birds ceased to sing, and the flowers
to bloom; but the eagle fixed his nest high amongst the rocks, and
the vulture hovered over this abode of desolation.  The farm houses,
in which only poverty resided, were formed of logs scarcely keeping
off the cold and drifting snow:  out of them the inhabitants seldom
peeped, and the sports or prattling of children was neither seen or
heard.  The current of life seemed congealed at the source:  all
were not frozen, for it was summer, you remember; but everything
appeared so dull that I waited to see ice, in order to reconcile me
to the absence of gaiety.

The day before, my attention had frequently been attracted by the
wild beauties of the country we passed through.

The rocks which tossed their fantastic heads so high were often
covered with pines and firs, varied in the most picturesque manner.
Little woods filled up the recesses when forests did not darken the
scene, and valleys and glens, cleared of the trees, displayed a
dazzling verdure which contrasted with the gloom of the shading
pines.  The eye stole into many a covert where tranquillity seemed
to have taken up her abode, and the number of little lakes that
continually presented themselves added to the peaceful composure of
the scenery.  The little cultivation which appeared did not break
the enchantment, nor did castles rear their turrets aloft to crush
the cottages, and prove that man is more savage than the natives of
the woods.  I heard of the bears but never saw them stalk forth,
which I was sorry for; I wished to have seen one in its wild state.
In the winter, I am told, they sometimes catch a stray cow, which is
a heavy loss to the owner.

The farms are small.  Indeed most of the houses we saw on the road
indicated poverty, or rather that the people could just live.
Towards the frontiers they grew worse and worse in their appearance,
as if not willing to put sterility itself out of countenance.  No
gardens smiled round the habitations, not a potato or cabbage to eat
with the fish drying on a stick near the door.  A little grain here
and there appeared, the long stalks of which you might almost
reckon.  The day was gloomy when we passed over this rejected spot,
the wind bleak, and winter seemed to be contending with nature,
faintly struggling to change the season.  Surely, thought I, if the
sun ever shines here it cannot warm these stones; moss only cleaves
to them, partaking of their hardness, and nothing like vegetable
life appears to cheer with hope the heart.

So far from thinking that the primitive inhabitants of the world
lived in a southern climate where Paradise spontaneously arose, I am
led to infer, from various circumstances, that the first dwelling of
man happened to be a spot like this which led him to adore a sun so
seldom seen; for this worship, which probably preceded that of
demons or demigods, certainly never began in a southern climate,
where the continual presence of the sun prevented its being
considered as a good; or rather the want of it never being felt,
this glorious luminary would carelessly have diffused its blessings
without being hailed as a benefactor.  Man must therefore have been
placed in the north, to tempt him to run after the sun, in order
that the different parts of the earth might be peopled.  Nor do I
wonder that hordes of barbarians always poured out of these regions
to seek for milder climes, when nothing like cultivation attached
them to the soil, especially when we take into the view that the
adventuring spirit, common to man, is naturally stronger and more
general during the infancy of society.  The conduct of the followers
of Mahomet, and the crusaders, will sufficiently corroborate my
assertion.

Approaching nearer to Stromstad, the appearance of the town proved
to be quite in character with the country we had just passed
through.  I hesitated to use the word country, yet could not find
another; still it would sound absurd to talk of fields of rocks.

The town was built on and under them.  Three or four weather-beaten
trees were shrinking from the wind, and the grass grew so sparingly
that I could not avoid thinking Dr. Johnson's hyperbolical assertion
"that the man merited well of his country who made a few blades of
grass grow where they never grew before," might here have been
uttered with strict propriety.  The steeple likewise towered aloft,
for what is a church, even amongst the Lutherans, without a steeple?
But to prevent mischief in such an exposed situation, it is wisely
placed on a rock at some distance not to endanger the roof of the
church.

Rambling about, I saw the door open, and entered, when to my great
surprise I found the clergyman reading prayers, with only the clerk
attending.  I instantly thought of Swift's "Dearly beloved Roger,"
but on inquiry I learnt that some one had died that morning, and in
Sweden it is customary to pray for the dead.

The sun, who I suspected never dared to shine, began now to convince
me that he came forth only to torment; for though the wind was still
cutting, the rocks became intolerably warm under my feet, whilst the
herring effluvia, which I before found so very offensive, once more
assailed me.  I hastened back to the house of a merchant, the little
sovereign of the place, because he was by far the richest, though
not the mayor.

Here we were most hospitably received, and introduced to a very fine
and numerous family.  I have before mentioned to you the lilies of
the north, I might have added, water lilies, for the complexion of
many, even of the young women, seem to be bleached on the bosom of
snow.  But in this youthful circle the roses bloomed with all their
wonted freshness, and I wondered from whence the fire was stolen
which sparkled in their fine blue eyes.

Here we slept; and I rose early in the morning to prepare for my
little voyage to Norway.  I had determined to go by water, and was
to leave my companions behind; but not getting a boat immediately,
and the wind being high and unfavourable, I was told that it was not
safe to go to sea during such boisterous weather; I was, therefore,
obliged to wait for the morrow, and had the present day on my hands,
which I feared would be irksome, because the family, who possessed
about a dozen French words amongst them and not an English phrase,
were anxious to amuse me, and would not let me remain alone in my
room.  The town we had already walked round and round, and if we
advanced farther on the coast, it was still to view the same
unvaried immensity of water surrounded by barrenness.

The gentlemen, wishing to peep into Norway, proposed going to
Fredericshall, the first town--the distance was only three Swedish
miles.  There and back again was but a day's journey, and would not,
I thought, interfere with my voyage.  I agreed, and invited the
eldest and prettiest of the girls to accompany us.  I invited her
because I like to see a beautiful face animated by pleasure, and to
have an opportunity of regarding the country, whilst the gentlemen
were amusing themselves with her.

I did not know, for I had not thought of it, that we were to scale
some of the most mountainous cliffs of Sweden in our way to the
ferry which separates the two countries.

Entering amongst the cliffs, we were sheltered from the wind, warm
sunbeams began to play, streams to flow, and groves of pines
diversified the rocks.  Sometimes they became suddenly bare and
sublime.  Once, in particular, after mounting the most terrific
precipice, we had to pass through a tremendous defile, where the
closing chasm seemed to threaten us with instant destruction, when,
turning quickly, verdant meadows and a beautiful lake relieved and
charmed my eyes.

I had never travelled through Switzerland, but one of my companions
assured me that I should not there find anything superior, if equal,
to the wild grandeur of these views.

As we had not taken this excursion into our plan, the horses had not
been previously ordered, which obliged us to wait two hours at the
first post.  The day was wearing away.  The road was so bad that
walking up the precipices consumed the time insensibly; but as we
desired horses at each post ready at a certain hour, we reckoned on
returning more speedily.

We stopped to dine at a tolerable farm; they brought us out ham,
butter, cheese, and milk, and the charge was so moderate that I
scattered a little money amongst the children who were peeping at
us, in order to pay them for their trouble.

Arrived at the ferry, we were still detained, for the people who
attend at the ferries have a stupid kind of sluggishness in their
manner, which is very provoking when you are in haste.  At present I
did not feel it, for, scrambling up the cliffs, my eye followed the
river as it rolled between the grand rocky banks; and, to complete
the scenery, they were covered with firs and pines, through which
the wind rustled as if it were lulling itself to sleep with the
declining sun.

Behold us now in Norway; and I could not avoid feeling surprise at
observing the difference in the manners of the inhabitants of the
two sides of the river, for everything shows that the Norwegians are
more industrious and more opulent.  The Swedes (for neighbours are
seldom the best friends) accuse the Norwegians of knavery, and they
retaliate by bringing a charge of hypocrisy against the Swedes.
Local circumstances probably render both unjust, speaking from their
feelings rather than reason; and is this astonishing when we
consider that most writers of travels have done the same, whose
works have served as materials for the compilers of universal
histories?  All are eager to give a national character, which is
rarely just, because they do not discriminate the natural from the
acquired difference.  The natural, I believe, on due consideration,
will be found to consist merely in the degree of vivacity, or
thoughtfulness, pleasures or pain, inspired by the climate, whilst
the varieties which the forms of government, including religion,
produce are much more numerous and unstable.

A people have been characterised as stupid by nature; what a
paradox! because they did not consider that slaves, having no object
to stimulate industry; have not their faculties sharpened by the
only thing that can exercise them, self-interest.  Others have been
brought forward as brutes, having no aptitude for the arts and
sciences, only because the progress of improvement had not reached
that stage which produces them.

Those writers who have considered the history of man, or of the
human mind, on a more enlarged scale have fallen into similar
errors, not reflecting that the passions are weak where the
necessaries of life are too hardly or too easily obtained.

Travellers who require that every nation should resemble their
native country, had better stay at home.  It is, for example, absurd
to blame a people for not having that degree of personal cleanliness
and elegance of manners which only refinement of taste produces, and
will produce everywhere in proportion as society attains a general
polish.  The most essential service, I presume, that authors could
render to society, would be to promote inquiry and discussion,
instead of making those dogmatical assertions which only appear
calculated to gird the human mind round with imaginary circles, like
the paper globe which represents the one he inhabits.

This spirit of inquiry is the characteristic of the present century,
from which the succeeding will, I am persuaded, receive a great
accumulation of knowledge; and doubtless its diffusion will in a
great measure destroy the factitious national characters which have
been supposed permanent, though only rendered so by the permanency
of ignorance.

Arriving at Fredericshall, at the siege of which Charles XII. lost
his life, we had only time to take a transient view of it whilst
they were preparing us some refreshment.

Poor Charles!  I thought of him with respect.  I have always felt
the same for Alexander, with whom he has been classed as a madman by
several writers, who have reasoned superficially, confounding the
morals of the day with the few grand principles on which
unchangeable morality rests.  Making no allowance for the ignorance
and prejudices of the period, they do not perceive how much they
themselves are indebted to general improvement for the acquirements,
and even the virtues, which they would not have had the force of
mind to attain by their individual exertions in a less advanced
state of society.

The evening was fine, as is usual at this season, and the refreshing
odour of the pine woods became more perceptible, for it was nine
o'clock when we left Fredericshall.  At the ferry we were detained
by a dispute relative to our Swedish passport, which we did not
think of getting countersigned in Norway.  Midnight was coming on,
yet it might with such propriety have been termed the noon of night
that, had Young ever travelled towards the north, I should not have
wondered at his becoming enamoured of the moon.  But it is not the
Queen of Night alone who reigns here in all her splendour, though
the sun, loitering just below the horizon, decks her within a golden
tinge from his car, illuminating the cliffs that hide him; the
heavens also, of a clear softened blue, throw her forward, and the
evening star appears a smaller moon to the naked eye.  The huge
shadows of the rocks, fringed with firs, concentrating the views
without darkening them, excited that tender melancholy which,
sublimating the imagination, exalts rather than depresses the mind.

My companions fell asleep--fortunately they did not snore; and I
contemplated, fearless of idle questions, a night such as I had
never before seen or felt, to charm the senses, and calm the heart.
The very air was balmy as it freshened into morn, producing the most
voluptuous sensations.  A vague pleasurable sentiment absorbed me,
as I opened my bosom to the embraces of nature; and my soul rose to
its Author, with the chirping of the solitary birds, which began to
feel, rather than see, advancing day.  I had leisure to mark its
progress.  The grey morn, streaked with silvery rays, ushered in the
orient beams (how beautifully varying into purple!), yet I was sorry
to lose the soft watery clouds which preceded them, exciting a kind
of expectation that made me almost afraid to breathe, lest I should
break the charm.  I saw the sun--and sighed.

One of my companions, now awake, perceiving that the postillion had
mistaken the road, began to swear at him, and roused the other two,
who reluctantly shook off sleep.

We had immediately to measure back our steps, and did not reach
Stromstad before five in the morning.

The wind had changed in the night, and my boat was ready.

A dish of coffee, and fresh linen, recruited my spirits, and I
directly set out again for Norway, purposing to land much higher up
the coast.

Wrapping my great-coat round me, I lay down on some sails at the
bottom of the boat, its motion rocking me to rest, till a
discourteous wave interrupted my slumbers, and obliged me to rise
and feel a solitariness which was not so soothing as that of the
past night.

Adieu!



LETTER VI.



The sea was boisterous, but, as I had an experienced pilot, I did
not apprehend any danger.  Sometimes, I was told, boats are driven
far out and lost.  However, I seldom calculate chances so nicely--
sufficient for the day is the obvious evil!

We had to steer amongst islands and huge rocks, rarely losing sight
of the shore, though it now and then appeared only a mist that
bordered the water's edge.  The pilot assured me that the numerous
harbours on the Norway coast were very safe, and the pilot-boats
were always on the watch.  The Swedish side is very dangerous, I am
also informed; and the help of experience is not often at hand to
enable strange vessels to steer clear of the rocks, which lurk below
the water close to the shore.

There are no tides here, nor in the Cattegate, and, what appeared to
me a consequence, no sandy beach.  Perhaps this observation has been
made before; but it did not occur to me till I saw the waves
continually beating against the bare rocks, without ever receding to
leave a sediment to harden.

The wind was fair, till we had to tack about in order to enter
Laurvig, where we arrived towards three o'clock in the afternoon.
It is a clean, pleasant town, with a considerable iron-work, which
gives life to it.

As the Norwegians do not frequently see travellers, they are very
curious to know their business, and who they are--so curious, that I
was half tempted to adopt Dr. Franklin's plan, when travelling in
America, where they are equally prying, which was to write on a
paper, for public inspection, my name, from whence I came, where I
was going, and what was my business.  But if I were importuned by
their curiosity, their friendly gestures gratified me.  A woman
coming alone interested them.  And I know not whether my weariness
gave me a look of peculiar delicacy, but they approached to assist
me, and inquire after my wants, as if they were afraid to hurt, and
wished to protect me.  The sympathy I inspired, thus dropping down
from the clouds in a strange land, affected me more than it would
have done had not my spirits been harassed by various causes--by
much thinking--musing almost to madness--and even by a sort of weak
melancholy that hung about my heart at parting with my daughter for
the first time.

You know that, as a female, I am particularly attached to her; I
feel more than a mother's fondness and anxiety when I reflect on the
dependent and oppressed state of her sex.  I dread lest she should
be forced to sacrifice her heart to her principles, or principles to
her heart.  With trembling hand I shall cultivate sensibility and
cherish delicacy of sentiment, lest, whilst I lend fresh blushes to
the rose, I sharpen the thorns that will wound the breast I would
fain guard; I dread to unfold her mind, lest it should render her
unfit for the world she is to inhabit.  Hapless woman! what a fate
is thine!

But whither am I wandering?  I only meant to tell you that the
impression the kindness of the simple people made visible on my
countenance increased my sensibility to a painful degree.  I wished
to have had a room to myself, for their attention, and rather
distressing observation, embarrassed me extremely.  Yet, as they
would bring me eggs, and make my coffee, I found I could not leave
them without hurting their feelings of hospitality.

It is customary here for the host and hostess to welcome their
guests as master and mistress of the house.

My clothes, in their turn, attracted the attention of the females,
and I could not help thinking of the foolish vanity which makes many
women so proud of the observation of strangers as to take wonder
very gratuitously for admiration.  This error they are very apt to
fall into when, arrived in a foreign country, the populace stare at
them as they pass.  Yet the make of a cap or the singularity of a
gown is often the cause of the flattering attention which afterwards
supports a fantastic superstructure of self-conceit.

Not having brought a carriage over with me, expecting to have met a
person where I landed, who was immediately to have procured me one,
I was detained whilst the good people of the inn sent round to all
their acquaintance to search for a vehicle.  A rude sort of cabriole
was at last found, and a driver half drunk, who was not less eager
to make a good bargain on that account.  I had a Danish captain of a
ship and his mate with me; the former was to ride on horseback, at
which he was not very expert, and the latter to partake of my seat.
The driver mounted behind to guide the horses and flourish the whip
over our shoulders; he would not suffer the reins out of his own
hands.  There was something so grotesque in our appearance that I
could not avoid shrinking into myself when I saw a gentleman-like
man in the group which crowded round the door to observe us.  I
could have broken the driver's whip for cracking to call the women
and children together, but seeing a significant smile on the face, I
had before remarked, I burst into a laugh to allow him to do so too,
and away we flew.  This is not a flourish of the pen, for we
actually went on full gallop a long time, the horses being very
good; indeed, I have never met with better, if so good, post-horses
as in Norway.  They are of a stouter make than the English horses,
appear to be well fed, and are not easily tired.

I had to pass over, I was informed, the most fertile and best
cultivated tract of country in Norway.  The distance was three
Norwegian miles, which are longer than the Swedish.  The roads were
very good; the farmers are obliged to repair them; and we scampered
through a great extent of country in a more improved state than any
I had viewed since I left England.  Still there was sufficient of
hills, dales, and rocks to prevent the idea of a plain from entering
the head, or even of such scenery as England and France afford.  The
prospects were also embellished by water, rivers, and lakes before
the sea proudly claimed my regard, and the road running frequently
through lofty groves rendered the landscapes beautiful, though they
were not so romantic as those I had lately seen with such delight.

It was late when I reached Tonsberg, and I was glad to go to bed at
a decent inn.  The next morning the 17th of July, conversing with
the gentleman with whom I had business to transact, I found that I
should be detained at Tonsberg three weeks, and I lamented that I
had not brought my child with me.

The inn was quiet, and my room so pleasant, commanding a view of the
sea, confined by an amphitheatre of hanging woods, that I wished to
remain there, though no one in the house could speak English or
French.  The mayor, my friend, however, sent a young woman to me who
spoke a little English, and she agreed to call on me twice a day to
receive my orders and translate them to my hostess.

My not understanding the language was an excellent pretext for
dining alone, which I prevailed on them to let me do at a late hour,
for the early dinners in Sweden had entirely deranged my day.  I
could not alter it there without disturbing the economy of a family
where I was as a visitor, necessity having forced me to accept of an
invitation from a private family, the lodgings were so incommodious.

Amongst the Norwegians I had the arrangement of my own time, and I
determined to regulate it in such a manner that I might enjoy as
much of their sweet summer as I possibly could; short, it is true,
but "passing sweet."

I never endured a winter in this rude clime, consequently it was not
the contrast, but the real beauty of the season which made the
present summer appear to me the finest I had ever seen.  Sheltered
from the north and eastern winds, nothing can exceed the salubrity,
the soft freshness of the western gales.  In the evening they also
die away; the aspen leaves tremble into stillness, and reposing
nature seems to be warmed by the moon, which here assumes a genial
aspect.  And if a light shower has chanced to fall with the sun, the
juniper, the underwood of the forest, exhales a wild perfume, mixed
with a thousand nameless sweets that, soothing the heart, leave
images in the memory which the imagination will ever hold dear.

Nature is the nurse of sentiment, the true source of taste; yet what
misery, as well as rapture, is produced by a quick perception of the
beautiful and sublime when it is exercised in observing animated
nature, when every beauteous feeling and emotion excites responsive
sympathy, and the harmonised soul sinks into melancholy or rises to
ecstasy, just as the chords are touched, like the AEolian harp
agitated by the changing wind.  But how dangerous is it to foster
these sentiments in such an imperfect state of existence, and how
difficult to eradicate them when an affection for mankind, a passion
for an individual, is but the unfolding of that love which embraces
all that is great and beautiful!

When a warm heart has received strong impressions, they are not to
be effaced.  Emotions become sentiments, and the imagination renders
even transient sensations permanent by fondly retracing them.  I
cannot, without a thrill of delight, recollect views I have seen,
which are not to be forgotten, nor looks I have felt in every nerve,
which I shall never more meet.  The grave has closed over a dear
friend, the friend of my youth.  Still she is present with me, and I
hear her soft voice warbling as I stray over the heath.  Fate has
separated me from another, the fire of whose eyes, tempered by
infantine tenderness, still warms my breast; even when gazing on
these tremendous cliffs sublime emotions absorb my soul.  And, smile
not, if I add that the rosy tint of morning reminds me of a
suffusion which will never more charm my senses, unless it reappears
on the cheeks of my child.  Her sweet blushes I may yet hide in my
bosom, and she is still too young to ask why starts the tear so near
akin to pleasure and pain.

I cannot write any more at present.  To-morrow we will talk of
Tonsberg.



LETTER VII.



Though the king of Denmark be an absolute monarch, yet the
Norwegians appear to enjoy all the blessings of freedom.  Norway may
be termed a sister kingdom; but the people have no viceroy to lord
it over them, and fatten his dependants with the fruit of their
labour.

There are only two counts in the whole country who have estates, and
exact some feudal observances from their tenantry.  All the rest of
the country is divided into small farms, which belong to the
cultivator.  It is true some few, appertaining to the Church, are
let, but always on a lease for life, generally renewed in favour of
the eldest son, who has this advantage as well as a right to a
double portion of the property.  But the value of the farm is
estimated, and after his portion is assigned to him he must be
answerable for the residue to the remaining part of the family.

Every farmer for ten years is obliged to attend annually about
twelve days to learn the military exercise, but it is always at a
small distance from his dwelling, and does not lead him into any new
habits of life.

There are about six thousand regulars also in garrison at
Christiania and Fredericshall, who are equally reserved, with the
militia, for the defence of their own country.  So that when the
Prince Royal passed into Sweden in 1788, he was obliged to request,
not command, them to accompany him on this expedition.

These corps are mostly composed of the sons of the cottagers, who
being labourers on the farms, are allowed a few acres to cultivate
for themselves.  These men voluntarily enlist, but it is only for a
limited period (six years), at the expiration of which they have the
liberty of retiring.  The pay is only twopence a day and bread;
still, considering the cheapness of the country, it is more than
sixpence in England.

The distribution of landed property into small farms produces a
degree of equality which I have seldom seen elsewhere; and the rich
being all merchants, who are obliged to divide their personal
fortune amongst their children, the boys always receiving twice as
much as the girls, property has met a chance of accumulating till
overgrowing wealth destroys the balance of liberty.

You will be surprised to hear me talk of liberty; yet the Norwegians
appear to me to be the most free community I have ever observed.

The mayor of each town or district, and the judges in the country,
exercise an authority almost patriarchal.  They can do much good,
but little harm,--as every individual can appeal from their
judgment; and as they may always be forced to give a reason for
their conduct, it is generally regulated by prudence.  "They have
not time to learn to be tyrants," said a gentleman to me, with whom
I discussed the subject.

The farmers not fearing to be turned out of their farms, should they
displease a man in power, and having no vote to be commanded at an
election for a mock representative, are a manly race; for not being
obliged to submit to any debasing tenure in order to live, or
advance themselves in the world, they act with an independent
spirit.  I never yet have heard of anything like domineering or
oppression, excepting such as has arisen from natural causes.  The
freedom the people enjoy may, perhaps, render them a little
litigious, and subject them to the impositions of cunning
practitioners of the law; but the authority of office is bounded,
and the emoluments of it do not destroy its utility.

Last year a man who had abused his power was cashiered, on the
representation of the people to the bailiff of the district.

There are four in Norway who might with propriety be termed
sheriffs; and from their sentence an appeal, by either party, may be
made to Copenhagen.

Near most of the towns are commons, on which the cows of all the
inhabitants, indiscriminately, are allowed to graze.  The poor, to
whom a cow is necessary, are almost supported by it.  Besides, to
render living more easy, they all go out to fish in their own boats,
and fish is their principal food.

The lower class of people in the towns are in general sailors; and
the industrious have usually little ventures of their own that serve
to render the winter comfortable.

With respect to the country at large, the importation is
considerably in favour of Norway.

They are forbidden, at present, to export corn or rye on account of
the advanced price.

The restriction which most resembles the painful subordination of
Ireland, is that vessels, trading to the West Indies, are obliged to
pass by their own ports, and unload their cargoes at Copenhagen,
which they afterwards reship.  The duty is indeed inconsiderable,
but the navigation being dangerous, they run a double risk.

There is an excise on all articles of consumption brought to the
towns; but the officers are not strict, and it would be reckoned
invidious to enter a house to search, as in England.

The Norwegians appear to me a sensible, shrewd people, with little
scientific knowledge, and still less taste for literature; but they
are arriving at the epoch which precedes the introduction of the
arts and sciences.

Most of the towns are seaports, and seaports are not favourable to
improvement.  The captains acquire a little superficial knowledge by
travelling, which their indefatigable attention to the making of
money prevents their digesting; and the fortune that they thus
laboriously acquire is spent, as it usually is in towns of this
description, in show and good living.  They love their country, but
have not much public spirit.  Their exertions are, generally
speaking, only for their families, which, I conceive, will always be
the case, till politics, becoming a subject of discussion, enlarges
the heart by opening the understanding.  The French Revolution will
have this effect.  They sing, at present, with great glee, many
Republican songs, and seem earnestly to wish that the republic may
stand; yet they appear very much attached to their Prince Royal,
and, as far as rumour can give an idea of a character, he appears to
merit their attachment.  When I am at Copenhagen, I shall be able to
ascertain on what foundation their good opinion is built; at present
I am only the echo of it.

In the year 1788 he travelled through Norway; and acts of mercy gave
dignity to the parade, and interest to the joy his presence
inspired.  At this town he pardoned a girl condemned to die for
murdering an illegitimate child, a crime seldom committed in this
country.  She is since married, and become the careful mother of a
family.  This might be given as an instance, that a desperate act is
not always a proof of an incorrigible depravity of character, the
only plausible excuse that has been brought forward to justify the
infliction of capital punishments.

I will relate two or three other anecdotes to you, for the truth of
which I will not vouch because the facts were not of sufficient
consequence for me to take much pains to ascertain them; and, true
or false, they evince that the people like to make a kind of
mistress of their prince.

An officer, mortally wounded at the ill-advised battle of Quistram,
desired to speak with the prince; and with his dying breath,
earnestly recommended to his care a young woman of Christiania, to
whom he was engaged.  When the prince returned there, a ball was
given by the chief inhabitants:  he inquired whether this
unfortunate girl was invited, and requested that she might, though
of the second class.  The girl came; she was pretty; and finding
herself among her superiors, bashfully sat down as near the door as
possible, nobody taking notice of her.  Shortly after, the prince
entering, immediately inquired for her, and asked her to dance, to
the mortification of the rich dames.  After it was over he handed
her to the top of the room, and placing himself by her, spoke of the
loss she had sustained, with tenderness, promising to provide for
anyone she should marry, as the story goes.  She is since married,
and he has not forgotten his promise.

A little girl, during the same expedition, in Sweden, who informed
him that the logs of a bridge were out underneath, was taken by his
orders to Christiania, and put to school at his expense.

Before I retail other beneficial effects of his journey, it is
necessary to inform you that the laws here are mild, and do not
punish capitally for any crime but murder, which seldom occurs.
Every other offence merely subjects the delinquent to imprisonment
and labour in the castle, or rather arsenal at Christiania, and the
fortress at Fredericshall.  The first and second conviction produces
a sentence for a limited number of years--two, three, five, or
seven, proportioned to the atrocity of the crime.  After the third
he is whipped, branded in the forehead, and condemned to perpetual
slavery.  This is the ordinary course of justice.  For some flagrant
breaches of trust, or acts of wanton cruelty, criminals have been
condemned to slavery for life time first the of conviction, but not
frequently.  The number of these slaves do not, I am informed,
amount to more than a hundred, which is not considerable, compared
with the population, upwards of eight hundred thousand.  Should I
pass through Christiania, on my return to Gothenburg, I shall
probably have an opportunity of learning other particulars.

There is also a House of Correction at Christiania for trifling
misdemeanours, where the women are confined to labour and
imprisonment even for life.  The state of the prisoners was
represented to the prince, in consequence of which he visited the
arsenal and House of Correction.  The slaves at the arsenal were
loaded with irons of a great weight; he ordered them to be lightened
as much as possible.

The people in the House of Correction were commanded not to speak to
him; but four women, condemned to remain there for life, got into
the passage, and fell at his feet.  He granted them a pardon; and
inquiring respecting the treatment of the prisoners, he was informed
that they were frequently whipped going in, and coming out, and for
any fault, at the discretion of the inspectors.  This custom he
humanely abolished, though some of the principal inhabitants, whose
situation in life had raised them above the temptation of stealing,
were of opinion that these chastisements were necessary and
wholesome.

In short, everything seems to announce that the prince really
cherishes the laudable ambition of fulfilling the duties of his
station.  This ambition is cherished and directed by the Count
Bernstorff, the Prime Minister of Denmark, who is universally
celebrated for his abilities and virtue.  The happiness of the
people is a substantial eulogium; and, from all I can gather, the
inhabitants of Denmark and Norway are the least oppressed people of
Europe.  The press is free.  They translate any of the French
publications of the day, deliver their opinion on the subject, and
discuss those it leads to with great freedom, and without fearing to
displease the Government.

On the subject of religion they are likewise becoming tolerant, at
least, and perhaps have advanced a step further in free-thinking.
One writer has ventured to deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, and to
question the necessity or utility of the Christian system, without
being considered universally as a monster, which would have been the
case a few years ago.  They have translated many German works on
education; and though they have not adopted any of their plans, it
has become a subject of discussion.  There are some grammar and free
schools; but, from what I hear, not very good ones.  All the
children learn to read, write, and cast accounts, for the purposes
of common life.  They have no university; and nothing that deserves
the name of science is taught; nor do individuals, by pursuing any
branch of knowledge, excite a degree of curiosity which is the
forerunner of improvement.  Knowledge is not absolutely necessary to
enable a considerable portion of the community to live; and, till it
is, I fear it never becomes general.

In this country, where minerals abound, there is not one collection;
and, in all probability, I venture a conjecture, the want of
mechanical and chemical knowledge renders the silver mines
unproductive, for the quantity of silver obtained every year is not
sufficient to defray the expenses.  It has been urged that the
employment of such a number of hands is very beneficial.  But a
positive loss is never to be done away; and the men, thus employed,
would naturally find some other means of living, instead of being
thus a dead weight on Government, or rather on the community from
whom its revenue is drawn.

About three English miles from Tonsberg there is a salt work,
belonging, like all their establishments, to Government, in which
they employ above a hundred and fifty men, and maintain nearly five
hundred people, who earn their living.  The clear profit, an
increasing one, amounts to two thousand pounds sterling.  And as the
eldest son of the inspector, an ingenious young man, has been sent
by the Government to travel, and acquire some mathematical and
chemical knowledge in Germany, it has a chance of being improved.
He is the only person I have met with here who appears to have a
scientific turn of mind.  I do not mean to assert that I have not
met with others who have a spirit of inquiry.

The salt-works at St. Ubes are basins in the sand, and the sun
produces the evaporation, but here there is no beach.  Besides, the
heat of summer is so short-lived that it would be idle to contrive
machines for such an inconsiderable portion of the year.  They
therefore always use fires; and the whole establishment appears to
be regulated with judgment.

The situation is well chosen and beautiful.  I do not find, from the
observation of a person who has resided here for forty years, that
the sea advances or recedes on this coast.

I have already remarked that little attention is paid to education,
excepting reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic; I ought
to have added that a catechism is carefully taught, and the children
obliged to read in the churches, before the congregation, to prove
that they are not neglected.

Degrees, to enable any one to practise any profession, must be taken
at Copenhagen; and the people of this country, having the good sense
to perceive that men who are to live in a community should at least
acquire the elements of their knowledge, and form their youthful
attachments there, are seriously endeavouring to establish a
university in Norway.  And Tonsberg, as a central place in the best
part of the country, had the most suffrages, for, experiencing the
bad effects of a metropolis, they have determined not to have it in
or near Christiania.  Should such an establishment take place, it
will promote inquiry throughout the country, and give a new face to
society.  Premiums have been offered, and prize questions written,
which I am told have merit.  The building college-halls, and other
appendages of the seat of science, might enable Tonsberg to recover
its pristine consequence, for it is one of the most ancient towns of
Norway, and once contained nine churches.  At present there are only
two.  One is a very old structure, and has a Gothic respectability
about it, which scarcely amounts to grandeur, because, to render a
Gothic pile grand, it must have a huge unwieldiness of appearance.
The chapel of Windsor may be an exception to this rule; I mean
before it was in its present nice, clean state.  When I first saw
it, the pillars within had acquired, by time, a sombre hue, which
accorded with the architecture; and the gloom increased its
dimensions to the eye by hiding its parts; but now it all bursts on
the view at once, and the sublimity has vanished before the brush
and broom; for it has been white-washed and scraped till it has
become as bright and neat as the pots and pans in a notable house-
wife's kitchen--yes; the very spurs on the recumbent knights were
deprived of their venerable rust, to give a striking proof that a
love of order in trifles, and taste for proportion and arrangement,
are very distinct.  The glare of light thus introduced entirely
destroys the sentiment these piles are calculated to inspire; so
that, when I heard something like a jig from the organ-loft, I
thought it an excellent hall for dancing or feasting.  The measured
pace of thought with which I had entered the cathedral changed into
a trip; and I bounded on the terrace, to see the royal family, with
a number of ridiculous images in my head that I shall not now
recall.

The Norwegians are fond of music, and every little church has an
organ.  In the church I have mentioned there is an inscription
importing that a king James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, who
came with more than princely gallantry to escort his bride home--
stood there, and heard divine service.

There is a little recess full of coffins, which contains bodies
embalmed long since--so long, that there is not even a tradition to
lead to a guess at their names.

A desire of preserving the body seems to have prevailed in most
countries of the world, futile as it is to term it a preservation,
when the noblest parts are immediately sacrificed merely to save the
muscles, skin, and bone from rottenness.  When I was shown these
human petrifactions, I shrank back with disgust and horror.  "Ashes
to ashes!" thought I--"Dust to dust!"  If this be not dissolution,
it is something worse than natural decay--it is treason against
humanity, thus to lift up the awful veil which would fain hide its
weakness.  The grandeur of the active principle is never more
strongly felt than at such a sight, for nothing is so ugly as the
human form when deprived of life, and thus dried into stone, merely
to preserve the most disgusting image of death.  The contemplation
of noble ruins produces a melancholy that exalts the mind.  We take
a retrospect of the exertions of man, the fate of empires and their
rulers, and marking the grand destruction of ages, it seems the
necessary change of the leading to improvement.  Our very soul
expands, and we forget our littleness--how painfully brought to our
recollection by such vain attempts to snatch from decay what is
destined so soon to perish.  Life, what art thou?  Where goes this
breath?--this _I_, so much alive?  In what element will it mix,
giving or receiving fresh energy?  What will break the enchantment
of animation?  For worlds I would not see a form I loved--embalmed
in my heart --thus sacrilegiously handled?  Pugh! my stomach turns.
Is this all the distinction of the rich in the grave?  They had
better quietly allow the scythe of equality to mow them down with
the common mass, than struggle to become a monument of the
instability of human greatness.

The teeth, nails, and skin were whole, without appearing black like
the Egyptian mummies; and some silk, in which they had been wrapped,
still preserved its colour--pink--with tolerable freshness.

I could not learn how long the bodies had been in this state, in
which they bid fair to remain till the Day of Judgment, if there is
to be such a day; and before that time, it will require some trouble
to make them fit to appear in company with angels without disgracing
humanity.  God bless you!  I feel a conviction that we have some
perfectible principle in our present vestment, which will not be
destroyed just as we begin to be sensible of improvement; and I care
not what habit it next puts on, sure that it will be wisely formed
to suit a higher state of existence.  Thinking of death makes us
tenderly cling to our affections; with more than usual tenderness I
therefore assure you that I am yours, wishing that the temporary
death of absence may not endure longer than is absolutely necessary.



LETTER VIII.



Tonsberg was formerly the residence of one of the little sovereigns
of Norway; and on an adjacent mountain the vestiges of a fort
remain, which was battered down by the Swedes, the entrance of the
bay lying close to it.

Here I have frequently strayed, sovereign of the waste; I seldom met
any human creature; and sometimes, reclining on the mossy down,
under the shelter of a rock, the prattling of the sea amongst the
pebbles has lulled me to sleep--no fear of any rude satyr's
approaching to interrupt my repose.  Balmy were the slumbers, and
soft the gales, that refreshed me, when I awoke to follow, with an
eye vaguely curious, the white sails, as they turned the cliffs, or
seemed to take shelter under the pines which covered the little
islands that so gracefully rose to render the terrific ocean
beautiful.  The fishermen were calmly casting their nets, whilst the
sea-gulls hovered over the unruffled deep.  Everything seemed to
harmonise into tranquillity; even the mournful call of the bittern
was in cadence with the tinkling bells on the necks of the cows,
that, pacing slowly one after the other, along an inviting path in
the vale below, were repairing to the cottages to be milked.  With
what ineffable pleasure have I not gazed--and gazed again, losing my
breath through my eyes--my very soul diffused itself in the scene;
and, seeming to become all senses, glided in the scarcely-agitated
waves, melted in the freshening breeze, or, taking its flight with
fairy wing, to the misty mountain which bounded the prospect, fancy
tripped over new lawns, more beautiful even than the lovely slopes
on the winding shore before me.  I pause, again breathless, to
trace, with renewed delight, sentiments which entranced me, when,
turning my humid eyes from the expanse below to the vault above, my
sight pierced the fleecy clouds that softened the azure brightness;
and imperceptibly recalling the reveries of childhood, I bowed
before the awful throne of my Creator, whilst I rested on its
footstool.

You have sometimes wondered, my dear friend, at the extreme
affection of my nature.  But such is the temperature of my soul.  It
is not the vivacity of youth, the heyday of existence.  For years
have I endeavoured to calm an impetuous tide, labouring to make my
feelings take an orderly course.  It was striving against the
stream.  I must love and admire with warmth, or I sink into sadness.
Tokens of love which I have received have wrapped me in Elysium,
purifying the heart they enchanted.  My bosom still glows.  Do not
saucily ask, repeating Sterne's question, "Maria, is it still so
warm?"  Sufficiently, O my God!  Has it been chilled by sorrow and
unkindness; still nature will prevail; and if I blush at
recollecting past enjoyment, it is the rosy hue of pleasure
heightened by modesty, for the blush of modesty and shame are as
distinct as the emotions by which they are produced.

I need scarcely inform you, after telling you of my walks, that my
constitution has been renovated here, and that I have recovered my
activity even whilst attaining a little embonpoint.  My imprudence
last winter, and some untoward accidents just at the time I was
weaning my child, had reduced me to a state of weakness which I
never before experienced.  A slow fever preyed on me every night
during my residence in Sweden, and after I arrived at Tonsberg.  By
chance I found a fine rivulet filtered through the rocks, and
confined in a basin for the cattle.  It tasted to me like a
chalybeate; at any rate, it was pure; and the good effect of the
various waters which invalids are sent to drink depends, I believe,
more on the air, exercise, and change of scene, than on their
medicinal qualities.  I therefore determined to turn my morning
walks towards it, and seek for health from the nymph of the
fountain, partaking of the beverage offered to the tenants of the
shade.

Chance likewise led me to discover a new pleasure equally beneficial
to my health.  I wished to avail myself of my vicinity to the sea
and bathe; but it was not possible near the town; there was no
convenience.  The young woman whom I mentioned to you proposed
rowing me across the water amongst the rocks; but as she was
pregnant, I insisted on taking one of the oars, and learning to row.
It was not difficult, and I do not know a pleasanter exercise.  I
soon became expert, and my train of thinking kept time, as it were,
with the oars, or I suffered the boat to be carried along by the
current, indulging a pleasing forgetfulness or fallacious hopes.
How fallacious! yet, without hope, what is to sustain life, but the
fear of annihilation--the only thing of which I have ever felt a
dread.  I cannot bear to think of being no more--of losing myself--
though existence is often but a painful consciousness of misery;
nay, it appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or
that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow,
should only be organised dust--ready to fly abroad the moment the
spring snaps, or the spark goes out which kept it together.  Surely
something resides in this heart that is not perishable, and life is
more than a dream.

Sometimes, to take up my oar once more, when the sea was calm, I was
amused by disturbing the innumerable young star fish which floated
just below the surface; I had never observed them before, for they
have not a hard shell like those which I have seen on the seashore.
They look like thickened water with a white edge, and four purple
circles, of different forms, were in the middle, over an incredible
number of fibres or white lines.  Touching them, the cloudy
substance would turn or close, first on one side, then on the other,
very gracefully, but when I took one of them up in the ladle, with
which I heaved the water out of the boat, it appeared only a
colourless jelly.

I did not see any of the seals, numbers of which followed our boat
when we landed in Sweden; but though I like to sport in the water I
should have had no desire to join in their gambols.

Enough, you will say, of inanimate nature and of brutes, to use the
lordly phrase of man; let me hear something of the inhabitants.

The gentleman with whom I had business is the Mayor of Tonsberg.  He
speaks English intelligibly, and, having a sound understanding, I
was sorry that his numerous occupations prevented my gaining as much
information from him as I could have drawn forth had we frequently
conversed.  The people of the town, as far as I had an opportunity
of knowing their sentiments, are extremely well satisfied with his
manner of discharging his office.  He has a degree of information
and good sense which excites respect, whilst a cheerfulness, almost
amounting to gaiety, enables him to reconcile differences and keep
his neighbours in good humour.  "I lost my horse," said a woman to
me, "but ever since, when I want to send to the mill, or go out, the
Mayor lends me one.  He scolds if I do not come for it."

A criminal was branded, during my stay here, for the third offence;
but the relief he received made him declare that the judge was one
of the best men in the world.

I sent this wretch a trifle, at different times, to take with him
into slavery.  As it was more than he expected, he wished very much
to see me, and this wish brought to my remembrance an anecdote I
heard when I was in Lisbon.

A wretch who had been imprisoned several years, during which period
lamps had been put up, was at last condemned to a cruel death, yet,
in his way to execution, he only wished for one night's respite to
see the city lighted.

Having dined in company at the mayor's I was invited with his family
to spend the day at one of the richest merchant's houses.  Though I
could not speak Danish I knew that I could see a great deal; yes, I
am persuaded that I have formed a very just opinion of the character
of the Norwegians, without being able to hold converse with them.

I had expected to meet some company, yet was a little disconcerted
at being ushered into an apartment full of well dressed people, and
glancing my eyes round they rested on several very pretty faces.
Rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, and light brown or golden locks; for I
never saw so much hair with a yellow cast, and, with their fine
complexions, it looked very becoming.

These women seem a mixture of indolence and vivacity; they scarcely
ever walk out, and were astonished that I should for pleasure, yet
they are immoderately fond of dancing.  Unaffected in their manners,
if they have no pretensions to elegance, simplicity often produces a
gracefulness of deportment, when they are animated by a particular
desire to please, which was the case at present.  The solitariness
of my situation, which they thought terrible, interested them very
much in my favour.  They gathered round me, sung to me, and one of
the prettiest, to whom I gave my hand with some degree of
cordiality, to meet the glance of her eyes, kissed me very
affectionately.

At dinner, which was conducted with great hospitality, though we
remained at table too long, they sung several songs, and, amongst
the rest, translations of some patriotic French ones.  As the
evening advanced they became playful, and we kept up a sort of
conversation of gestures.  As their minds were totally uncultivated
I did not lose much, perhaps gained, by not being able to understand
them; for fancy probably filled up, more to their advantage, the
void in the picture.  Be that as it may, they excited my sympathy,
and I was very much flattered when I was told the next day that they
said it was a pleasure to look at me, I appeared so good-natured.

The men were generally captains of ships.  Several spoke English
very tolerably, but they were merely matter-of-fact men, confined to
a very narrow circle of observation.  I found it difficult to obtain
from them any information respecting their own country, when the
fumes of tobacco did not keep me at a distance.

I was invited to partake of some other feasts, and always had to
complain of the quantity of provision and the length of time taken
to consume it; for it would not have been proper to have said
devour, all went on so fair and softly.  The servants wait as slowly
as their mistresses carve.

The young women here, as well as in Sweden, have commonly bad teeth,
which I attribute to the same causes.  They are fond of finery, but
do not pay the necessary attention to their persons, to render
beauty less transient than a flower, and that interesting expression
which sentiment and accomplishments give seldom supplies its place.

The servants have, likewise, an inferior sort of food here, but
their masters are not allowed to strike them with impunity.  I might
have added mistresses, for it was a complaint of this kind brought
before the mayor which led me to a knowledge of the fact.

The wages are low, which is particularly unjust, because the price
of clothes is much higher than that of provision.  A young woman,
who is wet nurse to the mistress of the inn where I lodge, receives
only twelve dollars a year, and pays ten for the nursing of her own
child.  The father had run away to get clear of the expense.  There
was something in this most painful state of widowhood which excited
my compassion and led me to reflections on the instability of the
most flattering plans of happiness, that were painful in the
extreme, till I was ready to ask whether this world was not created
to exhibit every possible combination of wretchedness.  I asked
these questions of a heart writhing with anguish, whilst I listened
to a melancholy ditty sung by this poor girl.  It was too early for
thee to be abandoned, thought I, and I hastened out of the house to
take my solitary evening's walk.  And here I am again to talk of
anything but the pangs arising from the discovery of estranged
affection and the lonely sadness of a deserted heart.

The father and mother, if the father can be ascertained, are obliged
to maintain an illegitimate child at their joint expense; but,
should the father disappear, go up the country or to sea, the mother
must maintain it herself.  However, accidents of this kind do not
prevent their marrying, and then it is not unusual to take the child
or children home, and they are brought up very amicably with the
marriage progeny.

I took some pains to learn what books were written originally in
their language; but for any certain information respecting the state
of Danish literature I must wait till I arrive at Copenhagen.

The sound of the language is soft, a great proportion of the words
ending in vowels; and there is a simplicity in the turn of some of
the phrases which have been translated to me that pleased and
interested me.  In the country the farmers use the THOU and THEE;
and they do not acquire the polite plurals of the towns by meeting
at market.  The not having markets established in the large towns
appears to me a great inconvenience.  When the farmers have anything
to sell they bring it to the neighbouring town and take it from
house to house.  I am surprised that the inhabitants do not feel how
very incommodious this usage is to both parties, and redress it;
they, indeed, perceive it, for when I have introduced the subject
they acknowledged that they were often in want of necessaries, there
being no butchers, and they were often obliged to buy what they did
not want; yet it was the custom, and the changing of customs of a
long standing requires more energy than they yet possess.  I
received a similar reply when I attempted to persuade the women that
they injured their children by keeping them too warm.  The only way
of parrying off my reasoning was that they must do as other people
did; in short, reason on any subject of change, and they stop you by
saying that "the town would talk."  A person of sense, with a large
fortune to ensure respect, might be very useful here, by inducing
them to treat their children and manage their sick properly, and eat
food dressed in a simpler manner--the example, for instance, of a
count's lady.

Reflecting on these prejudices made me revert to the wisdom of those
legislators who established institutions for the good of the body
under the pretext of serving heaven for the salvation of the soul.
These might with strict propriety be termed pious frauds; and I
admire the Peruvian pair for asserting that they came from the sun,
when their conduct proved that they meant to enlighten a benighted
country, whose obedience, or even attention, could only be secured
by awe.  Thus much for conquering the INERTIA of reason; but, when
it is once in motion, fables once held sacred may be ridiculed; and
sacred they were when useful to mankind.  Prometheus alone stole
fire to animate the first man; his posterity needs not supernatural
aid to preserve the species, though love is generally termed a
flame; and it may not be necessary much longer to suppose men
inspired by heaven to inculcate the duties which demand special
grace when reason convinces them that they are the happiest who are
the most nobly employed.

In a few days I am to set out for the western part of Norway, and
then shall return by land to Gothenburg.  I cannot think of leaving
this place without regret.  I speak of the place before the
inhabitants, though there is a tenderness in their artless kindness
which attaches me to them; but it is an attachment that inspires a
regret very different from that I felt at leaving Hull in my way to
Sweden.  The domestic happiness and good-humoured gaiety of the
amiable family where I and my Frances were so hospitably received
would have been sufficient to ensure the tenderest remembrance,
without the recollection of the social evening to stimulate it, when
good breeding gave dignity to sympathy and wit zest to reason.

Adieu!--I am just informed that my horse has been waiting this
quarter of an hour.  I now venture to ride out alone.  The steeple
serves as a landmark.  I once or twice lost my way, walking alone,
without being able to inquire after a path; I was therefore obliged
to make to the steeple, or windmill, over hedge and ditch.

Yours truly.



LETTER IX.



I have already informed you that there are only two noblemen who
have estates of any magnitude in Norway.  One of these has a house
near Tonsberg, at which he has not resided for some years, having
been at court, or on embassies.  He is now the Danish Ambassador in
London.  The house is pleasantly situated, and the grounds about it
fine; but their neglected appearance plainly tells that there is
nobody at home.

A stupid kind of sadness, to my eye, always reigns in a huge
habitation where only servants live to put cases on the furniture
and open the windows.  I enter as I would into the tomb of the
Capulets, to look at the family pictures that here frown in armour,
or smile in ermine.  The mildew respects not the lordly robe, and
the worm riots unchecked on the cheek of beauty.

There was nothing in the architecture of the building, or the form
of the furniture, to detain me from the avenue where the aged pines
stretched along majestically.  Time had given a greyish cast to
their ever-green foliage; and they stood, like sires of the forest,
sheltered on all sides by a rising progeny.  I had not ever seen so
many oaks together in Norway as in these woods, nor such large
aspens as here were agitated by the breeze, rendering the wind
audible--nay musical; for melody seemed on the wing around me.  How
different was the fresh odour that reanimated me in the avenue, from
the damp chillness of the apartments; and as little did the gloomy
thoughtfulness excited by the dusty hangings, and worm-eaten
pictures, resemble the reveries inspired by the soothing melancholy
of their shade.  In the winter, these august pines, towering above
the snow, must relieve the eye beyond measure and give life to the
white waste.

The continual recurrence of pine and fir groves in the day sometimes
wearies the sight, but in the evening, nothing can be more
picturesque, or, more properly speaking, better calculated to
produce poetical images.  Passing through them, I have been struck
with a mystic kind of reverence, and I did, as it were, homage to
their venerable shadows.  Not nymphs, but philosophers, seemed to
inhabit them--ever musing; I could scarcely conceive that they were
without some consciousness of existence--without a calm enjoyment of
the pleasure they diffused.

How often do my feelings produce ideas that remind me of the origin
of many poetical fictions.  In solitude, the imagination bodies
forth its conceptions unrestrained, and stops enraptured to adore
the beings of its own creation.  These are moments of bliss; and the
memory recalls them with delight.

But I have almost forgotten the matters of fact I meant to relate,
respecting the counts.  They have the presentation of the livings on
their estates, appoint the judges, and different civil officers, the
Crown reserving to itself the privilege of sanctioning them.  But
though they appoint, they cannot dismiss.  Their tenants also occupy
their farms for life, and are obliged to obey any summons to work on
the part he reserves for himself; but they are paid for their
labour.  In short, I have seldom heard of any noblemen so innoxious.

Observing that the gardens round the count's estate were better
cultivated than any I had before seen, I was led to reflect on the
advantages which naturally accrue from the feudal tenures.  The
tenants of the count are obliged to work at a stated price, in his
grounds and garden; and the instruction which they imperceptibly
receive from the head gardener tends to render them useful, and
makes them, in the common course of things, better husbandmen and
gardeners on their own little farms.  Thus the great, who alone
travel in this period of society, for the observation of manners and
customs made by sailors is very confined, bring home improvement to
promote their own comfort, which is gradually spread abroad amongst
the people, till they are stimulated to think for themselves.

The bishops have not large revenues, and the priests are appointed
by the king before they come to them to be ordained.  There is
commonly some little farm annexed to the parsonage, and the
inhabitants subscribe voluntarily, three times a year, in addition
to the church fees, for the support of the clergyman.  The church
lands were seized when Lutheranism was introduced, the desire of
obtaining them being probably the real stimulus of reformation.  The
tithes, which are never required in kind, are divided into three
parts--one to the king, another to the incumbent, and the third to
repair the dilapidations of the parsonage.  They do not amount to
much.  And the stipend allowed to the different civil officers is
also too small, scarcely deserving to be termed an independence;
that of the custom-house officers is not sufficient to procure the
necessaries of life--no wonder, then, if necessity leads them to
knavery.  Much public virtue cannot be expected till every
employment, putting perquisites out of the question, has a salary
sufficient to reward industry;--whilst none are so great as to
permit the possessor to remain idle.  It is this want of proportion
between profit and labour which debases men, producing the
sycophantic appellations of patron and client, and that pernicious
esprit du corps, proverbially vicious.

The farmers are hospitable as well as independent.  Offering once to
pay for some coffee I drank when taking shelter from the rain, I was
asked, rather angrily, if a little coffee was worth paying for.
They smoke, and drink drams, but not so much as formerly.
Drunkenness, often the attendant disgrace of hospitality, will here,
as well as everywhere else, give place to gallantry and refinement
of manners; but the change will not be suddenly produced.

The people of every class are constant in their attendance at
church; they are very fond of dancing, and the Sunday evenings in
Norway, as in Catholic countries, are spent in exercises which
exhilarate the spirits without vitiating the heart.  The rest of
labour ought to be gay; and the gladness I have felt in France on a
Sunday, or Decadi, which I caught from the faces around me, was a
sentiment more truly religious than all the stupid stillness which
the streets of London ever inspired where the Sabbath is so
decorously observed.  I recollect, in the country parts of England,
the churchwardens used to go out during the service to see if they
could catch any luckless wight playing at bowls or skittles; yet
what could be more harmless?  It would even, I think, be a great
advantage to the English, if feats of activity (I do not include
boxing matches) were encouraged on a Sunday, as it might stop the
progress of Methodism, and of that fanatical spirit which appears to
be gaining ground.  I was surprised when I visited Yorkshire, on my
way to Sweden, to find that sullen narrowness of thinking had made
such a progress since I was an inhabitant of the country.  I could
hardly have supposed that sixteen or seventeen years could have
produced such an alteration for the worse in the morals of a place--
yes, I say morals; for observance of forms, and avoiding of
practices, indifferent in themselves, often supply the place of that
regular attention to duties which are so natural, that they seldom
are vauntingly exercised, though they are worth all the precepts of
the law and the prophets.  Besides, many of these deluded people,
with the best meaning, actually lose their reason, and become
miserable, the dread of damnation throwing them into a state which
merits the term; and still more, in running after their preachers,
expecting to promote their salvation, they disregard their welfare
in this world, and neglect the interest and comfort of their
families; so that, in proportion as they attain a reputation for
piety, they become idle.

Aristocracy and fanaticism seem equally to be gaining ground in
England, particularly in the place I have mentioned; I saw very
little of either in Norway.  The people are regular in their
attendance on public worship, but religion does not interfere with
their employments.

As the farmers cut away the wood they clear the ground.  Every year,
therefore, the country is becoming fitter to support the
inhabitants.  Half a century ago the Dutch, I am told, only paid for
the cutting down of the wood, and the farmers were glad to get rid
of it without giving themselves any trouble.  At present they form a
just estimate of its value; nay, I was surprised to find even
firewood so dear when it appears to be in such plenty.  The
destruction, or gradual reduction, of their forests will probably
ameliorate the climate, and their manners will naturally improve in
the same ratio as industry requires ingenuity.  It is very fortunate
that men are a long time but just above the brute creation, or the
greater part of the earth would never have been rendered habitable,
because it is the patient labour of men, who are only seeking for a
subsistence, which produces whatever embellishes existence,
affording leisure for the cultivation of the arts and sciences that
lift man so far above his first state.  I never, my friend, thought
so deeply of the advantages obtained by human industry as since I
have been in Norway.  The world requires, I see, the hand of man to
perfect it, and as this task naturally unfolds the faculties he
exercises, it is physically impossible that he should have remained
in Rousseau's golden age of stupidity.  And, considering the
question of human happiness, where, oh where does it reside?  Has it
taken up its abode with unconscious ignorance or with the high-
wrought mind?  Is it the offspring of thoughtless animal spirits or
the dye of fancy continually flitting round the expected pleasure?

The increasing population of the earth must necessarily tend to its
improvement, as the means of existence are multiplied by invention.

You have probably made similar reflections in America, where the
face of the country, I suppose, resembles the wilds of Norway.  I am
delighted with the romantic views I daily contemplate, animated by
the purest air; and I am interested by the simplicity of manners
which reigns around me.  Still nothing so soon wearies out the
feelings as unmarked simplicity.  I am therefore half convinced that
I could not live very comfortably exiled from the countries where
mankind are so much further advanced in knowledge, imperfect as it
is, and unsatisfactory to the thinking mind.  Even now I begin to
long to hear what you are doing in England and France.  My thoughts
fly from this wilderness to the polished circles of the world, till
recollecting its vices and follies, I bury myself in the woods, but
find it necessary to emerge again, that I may not lose sight of the
wisdom and virtue which exalts my nature.

What a long time it requires to know ourselves; and yet almost every
one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own, even to
himself.  I cannot immediately determine whether I ought to rejoice
at having turned over in this solitude a new page in the history of
my own heart, though I may venture to assure you that a further
acquaintance with mankind only tends to increase my respect for your
judgment and esteem for your character.  Farewell!



LETTER X.



I have once more, my friend, taken flight, for I left Tonsberg
yesterday, but with an intention of returning in my way back to
Sweden.

The road to Laurvig is very fine, and the country the best
cultivated in Norway.  I never before admired the beech tree, and
when I met stragglers here they pleased me still less.  Long and
lank, they would have forced me to allow that the line of beauty
requires some curves, if the stately pine, standing near, erect,
throwing her vast arms around, had not looked beautiful in
opposition to such narrow rules.

In these respects my very reason obliges me to permit my feelings to
be my criterion.  Whatever excites emotion has charms for me, though
I insist that the cultivation of the mind by warming, nay, almost
creating the imagination, produces taste and an immense variety of
sensations and emotions, partaking of the exquisite pleasure
inspired by beauty and sublimity.  As I know of no end to them, the
word infinite, so often misapplied, might on this occasion be
introduced with something like propriety.

But I have rambled away again.  I intended to have remarked to you
the effect produced by a grove of towering beech, the airy lightness
of their foliage admitting a degree of sunshine, which, giving a
transparency to the leaves, exhibited an appearance of freshness and
elegance that I had never before remarked.  I thought of
descriptions of Italian scenery.  But these evanescent graces seemed
the effect of enchantment; and I imperceptibly breathed softly, lest
I should destroy what was real, yet looked so like the creation of
fancy.  Dryden's fable of the flower and the leaf was not a more
poetical reverie.

Adieu, however, to fancy, and to all the sentiments which ennoble
our nature.  I arrived at Laurvig, and found myself in the midst of
a group of lawyers of different descriptions.  My head turned round,
my heart grew sick, as I regarded visages deformed by vice, and
listened to accounts of chicanery that was continually embroiling
the ignorant.  These locusts will probably diminish as the people
become more enlightened.  In this period of social life the
commonalty are always cunningly attentive to their own interest; but
their faculties, confined to a few objects, are so narrowed, that
they cannot discover it in the general good.  The profession of the
law renders a set of men still shrewder and more selfish than the
rest; and it is these men, whose wits have been sharpened by
knavery, who here undermine morality, confounding right and wrong.

The Count of Bernstorff, who really appears to me, from all I can
gather, to have the good of the people at heart, aware of this, has
lately sent to the mayor of each district to name, according to the
size of the place, four or six of the best-informed inhabitants, not
men of the law, out of which the citizens were to elect two, who are
to be termed mediators.  Their office is to endeavour to prevent
litigious suits, and conciliate differences.  And no suit is to be
commenced before the parties have discussed the dispute at their
weekly meeting.  If a reconciliation should, in consequence, take
place, it is to be registered, and the parties are not allowed to
retract.

By these means ignorant people will be prevented from applying for
advice to men who may justly be termed stirrers-up of strife.  They
have for a long time, to use a significant vulgarism, set the people
by the ears, and live by the spoil they caught up in the scramble.
There is some reason to hope that this regulation will diminish
their number, and restrain their mischievous activity.  But till
trials by jury are established, little justice can be expected in
Norway.  Judges who cannot be bribed are often timid, and afraid of
offending bold knaves, lest they should raise a set of hornets about
themselves.  The fear of censure undermines all energy of character;
and, labouring to be prudent, they lose sight of rectitude.
Besides, nothing is left to their conscience, or sagacity; they must
be governed by evidence, though internally convinced that it is
false.

There is a considerable iron manufactory at Laurvig for coarse work,
and a lake near the town supplies the water necessary for working
several mills belonging to it.

This establishment belongs to the Count of Laurvig.  Without a
fortune and influence equal to his, such a work could not have been
set afloat; personal fortunes are not yet sufficient to support such
undertakings.  Nevertheless the inhabitants of the town speak of the
size of his estate as an evil, because it obstructs commerce.  The
occupiers of small farms are obliged to bring their wood to the
neighbouring seaports to be shipped; but he, wishing to increase the
value of his, will not allow it to be thus gradually cut down, which
turns the trade into another channel.  Added to this, nature is
against them, the bay being open and insecure.  I could not help
smiling when I was informed that in a hard gale a vessel had been
wrecked in the main street.  When there are such a number of
excellent harbours on the coast, it is a pity that accident has made
one of the largest towns grow up on a bad one.

The father of the present count was a distant relation of the
family; he resided constantly in Denmark, and his son follows his
example.  They have not been in possession of the estate many years;
and their predecessor lived near the town, introducing a degree of
profligacy of manners which has been ruinous to the inhabitants in
every respect, their fortunes not being equal to the prevailing
extravagance.

What little I have seen of the manners of the people does not please
me so well as those of Tonsberg.  I am forewarned that I shall find
them still more cunning and fraudulent as I advance towards the
westward, in proportion as traffic takes place of agriculture, for
their towns are built on naked rocks, the streets are narrow
bridges, and the inhabitants are all seafaring men, or owners of
ships, who keep shops.

The inn I was at in Laurvig this journey was not the same that I was
at before.  It is a good one--the people civil, and the
accommodations decent.  They seem to be better provided in Sweden;
but in justice I ought to add that they charge more extravagantly.
My bill at Tonsberg was also much higher than I had paid in Sweden,
and much higher than it ought to have been where provision is so
cheap.  Indeed, they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom
they shall never see again, and may fairly pluck.  And the
inhabitants of the western coast, isolated, as it were, regard those
of the east almost as strangers.  Each town in that quarter seems to
be a great family, suspicious of every other, allowing none to cheat
them but themselves; and, right or wrong, they support one another
in the face of justice.

On this journey I was fortunate enough to have one companion with
more enlarged views than the generality of his countrymen, who spoke
English tolerably.

I was informed that we might still advance a mile and a quarter in
our cabrioles; afterwards there was no choice, but of a single horse
and wretched path, or a boat, the usual mode of travelling.

We therefore sent our baggage forward in the boat, and followed
rather slowly, for the road was rocky and sandy.  We passed,
however, through several beech groves, which still delighted me by
the freshness of their light green foliage, and the elegance of
their assemblage, forming retreats to veil without obscuring the
sun.

I was surprised, at approaching the water, to find a little cluster
of houses pleasantly situated, and an excellent inn.  I could have
wished to have remained there all night; but as the wind was fair,
and the evening fine, I was afraid to trust to the wind--the
uncertain wind of to-morrow.  We therefore left Helgeraac
immediately with the declining sun.

Though we were in the open sea, we sailed more amongst the rocks and
islands than in my passage from Stromstad; and they often forced
very picturesque combinations.  Few of the high ridges were entirely
bare; the seeds of some pines or firs had been wafted by the winds
or waves, and they stood to brave the elements.

Sitting, then, in a little boat on the ocean, amidst strangers, with
sorrow and care pressing hard on me--buffeting me about from clime
to clime--I felt


"Like the lone shrub at random cast,
That sighs and trembles at each blast!"


On some of the largest rocks there were actually groves, the retreat
of foxes and hares, which, I suppose, had tripped over the ice
during the winter, without thinking to regain the main land before
the thaw.

Several of the islands were inhabited by pilots; and the Norwegian
pilots are allowed to be the best in the world--perfectly acquainted
with their coast, and ever at hand to observe the first signal or
sail.  They pay a small tax to the king and to the regulating
officer, and enjoy the fruit of their indefatigable industry.

One of the islands, called Virgin Land, is a flat, with some depth
of earth, extending for half a Norwegian mile, with three farms on
it, tolerably well cultivated.

On some of the bare rocks I saw straggling houses; they rose above
the denomination of huts inhabited by fishermen.  My companions
assured me that they were very comfortable dwellings, and that they
have not only the necessaries, but even what might be reckoned the
superfluities of life.  It was too late for me to go on shore, if
you will allow me to give that name to shivering rocks, to ascertain
the fact.

But rain coming on, and the night growing dark, the pilot declared
that it would be dangerous for us to attempt to go to the place of
our destination--East Rusoer--a Norwegian mile and a half further;
and we determined to stop for the night at a little haven, some half
dozen houses scattered under the curve of a rock.  Though it became
darker and darker, our pilot avoided the blind rocks with great
dexterity.

It was about ten o'clock when we arrived, and the old hostess
quickly prepared me a comfortable bed--a little too soft or so, but
I was weary; and opening the window to admit the sweetest of breezes
to fan me to sleep, I sunk into the most luxurious rest:  it was
more than refreshing.  The hospitable sprites of the grots surely
hovered round my pillow; and, if I awoke, it was to listen to the
melodious whispering of the wind amongst them, or to feel the mild
breath of morn.  Light slumbers produced dreams, where Paradise was
before me.  My little cherub was again hiding her face in my bosom.
I heard her sweet cooing beat on my heart from the cliffs, and saw
her tiny footsteps on the sands.  New-born hopes seemed, like the
rainbow, to appear in the clouds of sorrow, faint, yet sufficient to
amuse away despair.

Some refreshing but heavy showers have detained us; and here I am
writing quite alone--something more than gay, for which I want a
name.

I could almost fancy myself in Nootka Sound, or on some of the
islands on the north-west coast of America.  We entered by a narrow
pass through the rocks, which from this abode appear more romantic
than you can well imagine; and seal-skins hanging at the door to dry
add to the illusion.

It is indeed a corner of the world, but you would be surprised to
see the cleanliness and comfort of the dwelling.  The shelves are
not only shining with pewter and queen's ware, but some articles in
silver, more ponderous, it is true, than elegant.  The linen is
good, as well as white.  All the females spin, and there is a loom
in the kitchen.  A sort of individual taste appeared in the
arrangement of the furniture (this is not the place for imitation)
and a kindness in their desire to oblige.  How superior to the apish
politeness of the towns! where the people, affecting to be well
bred, fatigue with their endless ceremony.

The mistress is a widow, her daughter is married to a pilot, and has
three cows.  They have a little patch of land at about the distance
of two English miles, where they make hay for the winter, which they
bring home in a boat.  They live here very cheap, getting money from
the vessels which stress of weather, or other causes, bring into
their harbour.  I suspect, by their furniture, that they smuggle a
little.  I can now credit the account of the other houses, which I
last night thought exaggerated.

I have been conversing with one of my companions respecting the laws
and regulations of Norway.  He is a man within great portion of
common sense and heart--yes, a warm heart.  This is not the first
time I have remarked heart without sentiment; they are distinct.
The former depends on the rectitude of the feelings, on truth of
sympathy; these characters have more tenderness than passion; the
latter has a higher source--call it imagination, genius, or what you
will, it is something very different.  I have been laughing with
these simple worthy folk--to give you one of my half-score Danish
words--and letting as much of my heart flow out in sympathy as they
can take.  Adieu!  I must trip up the rocks.  The rain is ever.  Let
me catch pleasure on the wing--I may be melancholy to-morrow.  Now
all my nerves keep time with the melody of nature.  Ah! let me be
happy whilst I can.  The tear starts as I think of it.  I must flee
from thought, and find refuge from sorrow in a strong imagination--
the only solace for a feeling heart.  Phantoms of bliss! ideal forms
of excellence! again enclose me in your magic circle, and wipe clear
from my remembrance the disappointments that reader the sympathy
painful, which experience rather increases than damps, by giving the
indulgence of feeling the sanction of reason.

Once more farewell!



LETTER XI.



I left Portoer, the little haven I mentioned, soon after I finished
my last letter.  The sea was rough, and I perceived that our pilot
was right not to venture farther during a hazy night.  We had agreed
to pay four dollars for a boat from Helgeraac.  I mention the sum,
because they would demand twice as much from a stranger.  I was
obliged to pay fifteen for the one I hired at Stromstad.  When we
were ready to set out, our boatman offered to return a dollar and
let us go in one of the boats of the place, the pilot who lived
there being better acquainted with the coast.  He only demanded a
dollar and a half, which was reasonable.  I found him a civil and
rather intelligent man; he was in the American service several
years, during the Revolution.

I soon perceived that an experienced mariner was necessary to guide
us, for we were continually obliged to tack about, to avoid the
rocks, which, scarcely reaching to the surface of the water, could
only be discovered by the breaking of the waves over them.

The view of this wild coast, as we sailed along it, afforded me a
continual subject for meditation.  I anticipated the future
improvement of the world, and observed how much man has still to do
to obtain of the earth all it could yield.  I even carried my
speculations so far as to advance a million or two of years to the
moment when the earth would perhaps be so perfectly cultivated, and
so completely peopled, as to render it necessary to inhabit every
spot--yes, these bleak shores.  Imagination went still farther, and
pictured the state of man when the earth could no longer support
him.  Whither was he to flee from universal famine?  Do not smile; I
really became distressed for these fellow creatures yet unborn.  The
images fastened on me, and the world appeared a vast prison.  I was
soon to be in a smaller one--for no other name can I give to Rusoer.
It would be difficult to form an idea of the place, if you have
never seen one of these rocky coasts.

We were a considerable time entering amongst the islands, before we
saw about two hundred houses crowded together under a very high
rock--still higher appearing above.  Talk not of Bastilles!  To be
born here was to be bastilled by nature--shut out from all that
opens the understanding, or enlarges the heart.  Huddled one behind
another, not more than a quarter of the dwellings even had a
prospect of the sea.  A few planks formed passages from house to
house, which you must often scale, mounting steps like a ladder to
enter.

The only road across the rocks leads to a habitation sterile enough,
you may suppose, when I tell you that the little earth on the
adjacent ones was carried there by the late inhabitant.  A path,
almost impracticable for a horse, goes on to Arendall, still further
to the westward.

I inquired for a walk, and, mounting near two hundred steps made
round a rock, walked up and down for about a hundred yards viewing
the sea, to which I quickly descended by steps that cheated the
declivity.  The ocean and these tremendous bulwarks enclosed me on
every side.  I felt the confinement, and wished for wings to reach
still loftier cliffs, whose slippery sides no foot was so hardy as
to tread.  Yet what was it to see?--only a boundless waste of water-
-not a glimpse of smiling nature--not a patch of lively green to
relieve the aching sight, or vary the objects of meditation.

I felt my breath oppressed, though nothing could be clearer than the
atmosphere.  Wandering there alone, I found the solitude desirable;
my mind was stored with ideas, which this new scene associated with
astonishing rapidity.  But I shuddered at the thought of receiving
existence, and remaining here, in the solitude of ignorance, till
forced to leave a world of which I had seen so little, for the
character of the inhabitants is as uncultivated, if not as
picturesquely wild, as their abode.

Having no employment but traffic, of which a contraband trade makes
the basis of their profit, the coarsest feelings of honesty are
quickly blunted.  You may suppose that I speak in general terms; and
that, with all the disadvantages of nature and circumstances, there
are still some respectable exceptions, the more praiseworthy, as
tricking is a very contagious mental disease, that dries up all the
generous juices of the heart.  Nothing genial, in fact, appears
around this place, or within the circle of its rocks.  And, now I
recollect, it seems to me that the most genial and humane characters
I have met with in life were most alive to the sentiments inspired
by tranquil country scenes.  What, indeed, is to humanise these
beings, who rest shut up (for they seldom even open their windows),
smoking, drinking brandy, and driving bargains?  I have been almost
stifled by these smokers.  They begin in the morning, and are rarely
without their pipe till they go to bed.  Nothing can be more
disgusting than the rooms and men towards the evening--breath,
teeth, clothes, and furniture, all are spoilt.  It is well that the
women are not very delicate, or they would only love their husbands
because they were their husbands.  Perhaps, you may add, that the
remark need not be confined to so small a part of the world; and,
entre nous, I am of the same opinion.  You must not term this
innuendo saucy, for it does not come home.

If I had not determined to write I should have found my confinement
here, even for three or four days, tedious.  I have no books; and to
pace up and down a small room, looking at tiles overhung by rocks,
soon becomes wearisome.  I cannot mount two hundred steps to walk a
hundred yards many times in the day.  Besides, the rocks, retaining
the heat of the sun, are intolerably warm.  I am, nevertheless, very
well; for though there is a shrewdness in the character of these
people, depraved by a sordid love of money which repels me, still
the comparisons they force me to make keep my heart calm by
exercising my understanding.

Everywhere wealth commands too much respect, but here almost
exclusively; and it is the only object pursued, not through brake
and briar, but over rocks and waves; yet of what use would riches be
to me, I have sometimes asked myself, were I confined to live in
such in a spot?  I could only relieve a few distressed objects,
perhaps render them idle, and all the rest of life would be a blank.

My present journey has given fresh force to my opinion that no place
is so disagreeable and unimproving as a country town.  I should like
to divide my time between the town and country; in a lone house,
with the business of farming and planting, where my mind would gain
strength by solitary musing, and in a metropolis to rub off the rust
of thought, and polish the taste which the contemplation of nature
had rendered just.  Thus do we wish as we float down the stream of
life, whilst chance does more to gratify a desire of knowledge than
our best laid plans.  A degree of exertion, produced by some want,
more or less painful, is probably the price we must all pay for
knowledge.  How few authors or artists have arrived at eminence who
have not lived by their employment?

I was interrupted yesterday by business, and was prevailed upon to
dine with the English vice-consul.  His house being open to the sea,
I was more at large; and the hospitality of the table pleased me,
though the bottle was rather too freely pushed about.  Their manner
of entertaining was such as I have frequently remarked when I have
been thrown in the way of people without education, who have more
money than wit--that is, than they know what to do with.  The women
were unaffected, but had not the natural grace which was often
conspicuous at Tonsberg.  There was even a striking difference in
their dress, these having loaded themselves with finery in the style
of the sailors' girls of Hull or Portsmouth.  Taste has not yet
taught them to make any but an ostentatious display of wealth.  Yet
I could perceive even here the first steps of the improvement which
I am persuaded will make a very obvious progress in the course of
half a century, and it ought not to be sooner, to keep pace with the
cultivation of the earth.  Improving manners will introduce finer
moral feelings.  They begin to read translations of some of the most
useful German productions lately published, and one of our party
sung a song ridiculing the powers coalesced against France, and the
company drank confusion to those who had dismembered Poland.

The evening was extremely calm and beautiful.  Not being able to
walk, I requested a boat as the only means of enjoying free air.

The view of the town was now extremely fine.  A huge rocky mountain
stood up behind it, and a vast cliff stretched on each side, forming
a semicircle.  In a recess of the rocks was a clump of pines,
amongst which a steeple rose picturesquely beautiful.

The churchyard is almost the only verdant spot in the place.  Here,
indeed, friendship extends beyond the grave, and to grant a sod of
earth is to accord a favour.  I should rather choose, did it admit
of a choice, to sleep in some of the caves of the rocks, for I am
become better reconciled to them since I climbed their craggy sides
last night, listening to the finest echoes I ever heard.  We had a
French horn with us, and there was an enchanting wildness in the
dying away of the reverberation that quickly transported me to
Shakespeare's magic island.  Spirits unseen seemed to walk abroad,
and flit from cliff to cliff to soothe my soul to peace.

I reluctantly returned to supper, to be shut up in a warm room, only
to view the vast shadows of the rocks extending on the slumbering
waves.  I stood at the window some time before a buzz filled the
drawing-room, and now and then the dashing of a solitary oar
rendered the scene still more solemn.

Before I came here I could scarcely have imagined that a simple
object (rocks) could have admitted of so many interesting
combinations, always grand and often sublime.  Good night!  God
bless you!



LETTER XII.



I left East Rusoer the day before yesterday.  The weather was very
fine; but so calm that we loitered on the water near fourteen hours,
only to make about six and twenty miles.

It seemed to me a sort of emancipation when we landed at Helgeraac.
The confinement which everywhere struck me whilst sojourning amongst
the rocks, made me hail the earth as a land of promise; and the
situation shone with fresh lustre from the contrast--from appearing
to be a free abode.  Here it was possible to travel by land--I never
thought this a comfort before--and my eyes, fatigued by the
sparkling of the sun on the water, now contentedly reposed on the
green expanse, half persuaded that such verdant meads had never till
then regaled them.

I rose early to pursue my journey to Tonsberg.  The country still
wore a face of joy--and my soul was alive to its charms.  Leaving
the most lofty and romantic of the cliffs behind us, we were almost
continually descending to Tonsberg, through Elysian scenes; for not
only the sea, but mountains, rivers, lakes, and groves, gave an
almost endless variety to the prospect.  The cottagers were still
carrying home the hay; and the cottages on this road looked very
comfortable.  Peace and plenty--I mean not abundance--seemed to
reign around--still I grew sad as I drew near my old abode.  I was
sorry to see the sun so high; it was broad noon.  Tonsberg was
something like a home--yet I was to enter without lighting up
pleasure in any eye.  I dreaded the solitariness of my apartment,
and wished for night to hide the starting tears, or to shed them on
my pillow, and close my eyes on a world where I was destined to
wander alone.  Why has nature so many charms for me--calling forth
and cherishing refined sentiments, only to wound the breast that
fosters them?  How illusive, perhaps the most so, are the plans of
happiness founded on virtue and principle; what inlets of misery do
they not open in a half-civilised society?  The satisfaction arising
from conscious rectitude, will not calm an injured heart, when
tenderness is ever finding excuses; and self-applause is a cold
solitary feeling, that cannot supply the place of disappointed
affection, without throwing a gloom over every prospect, which,
banishing pleasure, does not exclude pain.  I reasoned and reasoned;
but my heart was too full to allow me to remain in the house, and I
walked, till I was wearied out, to purchase rest--or rather
forgetfulness.

Employment has beguiled this day, and to-morrow I set out for Moss,
on my way to Stromstad.  At Gothenburg I shall embrace my Fannikin;
probably she will not know me again--and I shall be hurt if she do
not.  How childish is this! still it is a natural feeling.  I would
not permit myself to indulge the "thick coming fears" of fondness,
whilst I was detained by business.  Yet I never saw a calf bounding
in a meadow, that did not remind me of my little frolicker.  A calf,
you say.  Yes; but a capital one I own.

I cannot write composedly--I am every instant sinking into reveries-
-my heart flutters, I know not why.  Fool!  It is time thou wert at
rest.

Friendship and domestic happiness are continually praised; yet how
little is there of either in the world, because it requires more
cultivation of mind to keep awake affection, even in our own hearts,
than the common run of people suppose.  Besides, few like to be seen
as they really are; and a degree of simplicity, and of undisguised
confidence, which, to uninterested observers, would almost border on
weakness, is the charm, nay the essence of love or friendship, all
the bewitching graces of childhood again appearing.  As objects
merely to exercise my taste, I therefore like to see people together
who have an affection for each other; every turn of their features
touches me, and remains pictured on my imagination in indelible
characters.  The zest of novelty is, however, necessary to rouse the
languid sympathies which have been hackneyed in the world; as is the
factitious behaviour, falsely termed good-breeding, to amuse those,
who, defective in taste, continually rely for pleasure on their
animal spirits, which not being maintained by the imagination, are
unavoidably sooner exhausted than the sentiments of the heart.
Friendship is in general sincere at the commencement, and lasts
whilst there is anything to support it; but as a mixture of novelty
and vanity is the usual prop, no wonder if it fall with the slender
stay.  The fop in the play paid a greater compliment than he was
aware of when he said to a person, whom he meant to flatter, "I like
you almost as well as a NEW ACQUAINTANCE."  Why am I talking of
friendship, after which I have had such a wild-goose chase.  I
thought only of telling you that the crows, as well as wild-geese,
are here birds of passage.



LETTER XIII.



I left Tonsberg yesterday, the 22nd of August.  It is only twelve or
thirteen English miles to Moss, through a country less wild than any
tract I had hitherto passed over in Norway.  It was often beautiful,
but seldom afforded those grand views which fill rather than soothe
the mind.

We glided along the meadows and through the woods, with sunbeams
playing around us; and, though no castles adorned the prospects, a
greater number of comfortable farms met my eyes during this ride
than I have ever seen, in the same space, even in the most
cultivated part of England; and the very appearance of the cottages
of the labourers sprinkled amidst them excluded all those gloomy
ideas inspired by the contemplation of poverty.

The hay was still bringing in, for one harvest in Norway treads on
the heels of the other.  The woods were more variegated,
interspersed with shrubs.  We no longer passed through forests of
vast pines stretching along with savage magnificence.  Forests that
only exhibited the slow decay of time or the devastation produced by
warring elements.  No; oaks, ashes, beech, and all the light and
graceful tenants of our woods here sported luxuriantly.  I had not
observed many oaks before, for the greater part of the oak-planks, I
am informed, come from the westward.

In France the farmers generally live in villages, which is a great
disadvantage to the country; but the Norwegian farmers, always
owning their farms or being tenants for life, reside in the midst of
them, allowing some labourers a dwelling rent free, who have a
little land appertaining to the cottage, not only for a garden, but
for crops of different kinds, such as rye, oats, buck-wheat, hemp,
flax, beans, potatoes, and hay, which are sown in strips about it,
reminding a stranger of the first attempts at culture, when every
family was obliged to be an independent community.

These cottagers work at a certain price (tenpence per day) for the
farmers on whose ground they live, and they have spare time enough
to cultivate their own land and lay in a store of fish for the
winter.  The wives and daughters spin and the husbands and sons
weave, so that they may fairly be reckoned independent, having also
a little money in hand to buy coffee, brandy and some other
superfluities.

The only thing I disliked was the military service, which trammels
them more than I at first imagined.  It is true that the militia is
only called out once a year, yet in case of war they have no
alternative but must abandon their families.  Even the manufacturers
are not exempted, though the miners are, in order to encourage
undertakings which require a capital at the commencement.  And, what
appears more tyrannical, the inhabitants of certain districts are
appointed for the land, others for the sea service.  Consequently, a
peasant, born a soldier, is not permitted to follow his inclination
should it lead him to go to sea, a natural desire near so many
seaports.

In these regulations the arbitrary government--the King of Denmark
being the most absolute monarch in Europe--appears, which in other
respects seeks to hide itself in a lenity that almost renders the
laws nullities.  If any alteration of old customs is thought of, the
opinion of the old country is required and maturely considered.  I
have several times had occasion to observe that, fearing to appear
tyrannical, laws are allowed to become obsolete which ought to be
put in force or better substituted in their stead; for this mistaken
moderation, which borders on timidity, favours the least respectable
part of the people.

I saw on my way not only good parsonage houses, but comfortable
dwellings, with glebe land for the clerk, always a consequential man
in every country, a being proud of a little smattering of learning,
to use the appropriate epithet, and vain of the stiff good-breeding
reflected from the vicar, though the servility practised in his
company gives it a peculiar cast.

The widow of the clergyman is allowed to receive the benefit of the
living for a twelvemonth after the death of the incumbent.

Arriving at the ferry (the passage over to Moss is about six or
eight English miles) I saw the most level shore I had yet seen in
Norway.  The appearance of the circumjacent country had been
preparing me for the change of scene which was to greet me when I
reached the coast.  For the grand features of nature had been
dwindling into prettiness as I advanced; yet the rocks, on a smaller
scale, were finely wooded to the water's edge.  Little art appeared,
yet sublimity everywhere gave place to elegance.  The road had often
assumed the appearance of a gravelled one, made in pleasure-grounds;
whilst the trees excited only an idea of embellishment.  Meadows,
like lawns, in an endless variety, displayed the careless graces of
nature; and the ripening corn gave a richness to the landscape
analogous with the other objects.

Never was a southern sky more beautiful, nor more soft its gales.
Indeed, I am led to conclude that the sweetest summer in the world
is the northern one, the vegetation being quick and luxuriant the
moment the earth is loosened from its icy fetters and the bound
streams regain their wonted activity.  The balance of happiness with
respect to climate may be more equal than I at first imagined; for
the inhabitants describe with warmth the pleasures of a winter at
the thoughts of which I shudder.  Not only their parties of pleasure
but of business are reserved for this season, when they travel with
astonishing rapidity the most direct way, skimming over hedge and
ditch.

On entering Moss I was struck by the animation which seemed to
result from industry.  The richest of the inhabitants keep shops,
resembling in their manners and even the arrangement of their houses
the tradespeople of Yorkshire; with an air of more independence, or
rather consequence, from feeling themselves the first people in the
place.  I had not time to see the iron-works, belonging to Mr.
Anker, of Christiania, a man of fortune and enterprise; and I was
not very anxious to see them after having viewed those at Laurvig.

Here I met with an intelligent literary man, who was anxious to
gather information from me relative to the past and present
situation of France.  The newspapers printed at Copenhagen, as well
as those in England, give the most exaggerated accounts of their
atrocities and distresses, but the former without any apparent
comments or inferences.  Still the Norwegians, though more connected
with the English, speaking their language and copying their manners,
wish well to the Republican cause, and follow with the most lively
interest the successes of the French arms.  So determined were they,
in fact, to excuse everything, disgracing the struggle of freedom,
by admitting the tyrant's plea, necessity, that I could hardly
persuade them that Robespierre was a monster.

The discussion of this subject is not so general as in England,
being confined to the few, the clergy and physicians, with a small
portion of people who have a literary turn and leisure; the greater
part of the inhabitants having a variety of occupations, being
owners of ships, shopkeepers, and farmers, have employment enough at
home.  And their ambition to become rich may tend to cultivate the
common sense which characterises and narrows both their hearts and
views, confirming the former to their families, taking the handmaids
of it into the circle of pleasure, if not of interest, and the
latter to the inspection of their workmen, including the noble
science of bargain-making--that is, getting everything at the
cheapest, and selling it at the dearest rate.  I am now more than
ever convinced that it is an intercourse with men of science and
artists which not only diffuses taste, but gives that freedom to the
understanding without which I have seldom met with much benevolence
of character on a large scale.

Besides, though you do not hear of much pilfering and stealing in
Norway, yet they will, with a quiet conscience, buy things at a
price which must convince them they were stolen.  I had an
opportunity of knowing that two or three reputable people had
purchased some articles of vagrants, who were detected.  How much of
the virtue which appears in the world is put on for the world?  And
how little dictated by self-respect?--so little, that I am ready to
repeat the old question, and ask, Where is truth, or rather
principle, to be found?  These are, perhaps, the vapourings of a
heart ill at ease--the effusions of a sensibility wounded almost to
madness.  But enough of this; we will discuss the subject in another
state of existence, where truth and justice will reign.  How cruel
are the injuries which make us quarrel with human nature!  At
present black melancholy hovers round my footsteps; and sorrow sheds
a mildew over all the future prospects, which hope no longer gilds.

A rainy morning prevented my enjoying the pleasure the view of a
picturesque country would have afforded me; for though this road
passed through a country a greater extent of which was under
cultivation than I had usually seen here, it nevertheless retained
all the wild charms of Norway.  Rocks still enclosed the valleys,
the great sides of which enlivened their verdure.  Lakes appeared
like branches of the sea, and branches of the sea assumed the
appearance of tranquil lakes; whilst streamlets prattled amongst the
pebbles and the broken mass of stone which had rolled into them,
giving fantastic turns to the trees, the roots of which they bared.

It is not, in fact, surprising that the pine should be often
undermined; it shoots its fibres in such a horizontal direction,
merely on the surface of the earth, requiring only enough to cover
those that cling to the crags.  Nothing proves to me so clearly that
it is the air which principally nourishes trees and plants as the
flourishing appearance of these pines.  The firs, demanding a deeper
soil, are seldom seen in equal health, or so numerous on the barren
cliffs.  They take shelter in the crevices, or where, after some
revolving ages, the pines have prepared them a footing.

Approaching, or rather descending, to Christiania, though the
weather continued a little cloudy, my eyes were charmed with the
view of an extensive undulated valley, stretching out under the
shelter of a noble amphitheatre of pine-covered mountains.  Farm
houses scattered about animated, nay, graced a scene which still
retained so much of its native wildness, that the art which appeared
seemed so necessary, it was scarcely perceived.  Cattle were grazing
in the shaven meadows; and the lively green on their swelling sides
contrasted with the ripening corn and rye.  The corn that grew on
the slopes had not, indeed, the laughing luxuriance of plenty, which
I have seen in more genial climes.  A fresh breeze swept across the
grain, parting its slender stalks, but the wheat did not wave its
head with its wonted careless dignity, as if nature had crowned it
the king of plants.

The view, immediately on the left, as we drove down the mountain,
was almost spoilt by the depredations committed on the rocks to make
alum.  I do not know the process.  I only saw that the rocks looked
red after they had been burnt, and regretted that the operation
should leave a quantity of rubbish to introduce an image of human
industry in the shape of destruction.  The situation of Christiania
is certainly uncommonly fine, and I never saw a bay that so forcibly
gave me an idea of a place of safety from the storms of the ocean;
all the surrounding objects were beautiful and even grand.  But
neither the rocky mountains, nor the woods that graced them, could
be compared with the sublime prospects I had seen to the westward;
and as for the hills, "capped with ETERNAL snow," Mr. Coxe's
description led me to look for them, but they had flown, for I
looked vainly around for this noble background.

A few months ago the people of Christiania rose, exasperated by the
scarcity and consequent high price of grain.  The immediate cause
was the shipping of some, said to be for Moss, but which they
suspected was only a pretext to send it out of the country, and I am
not sure that they were wrong in their conjecture.  Such are the
tricks of trade.  They threw stones at Mr. Anker, the owner of it,
as he rode out of town to escape from their fury; they assembled
about his house, and the people demanded afterwards, with so much
impetuosity, the liberty of those who were taken up in consequence
of the tumult, that the Grand Bailiff thought it prudent to release
them without further altercation.

You may think me too severe on commerce, but from the manner it is
at present carried on little can be advanced in favour of a pursuit
that wears out the most sacred principles of humanity and rectitude.
What is speculation but a species of gambling, I might have said
fraud, in which address generally gains the prize?  I was led into
these reflections when I heard of some tricks practised by
merchants, miscalled reputable, and certainly men of property,
during the present war, in which common honesty was violated:
damaged goods and provision having been shipped for the express
purpose of falling into the hands of the English, who had pledged
themselves to reimburse neutral nations for the cargoes they seized;
cannon also, sent back as unfit for service, have been shipped as a
good speculation, the captain receiving orders to cruise about till
he fell in with an English frigate.  Many individuals I believe have
suffered by the seizures of their vessels; still I am persuaded that
the English Government has been very much imposed upon in the
charges made by merchants who contrived to get their ships taken.
This censure is not confined to the Danes.  Adieu, for the present,
I must take advantage of a moment of fine weather to walk out and
see the town.

At Christiania I met with that polite reception, which rather
characterises the progress of manners in the world, than of any
particular portion of it.  The first evening of my arrival I supped
with some of the most fashionable people of the place, and almost
imagined myself in a circle of English ladies, so much did they
resemble them in manners, dress, and even in beauty; for the fairest
of my countrywomen would not have been sorry to rank with the Grand
Bailiff's lady.  There were several pretty girls present, but she
outshone them all, and, what interested me still more, I could not
avoid observing that in acquiring the easy politeness which
distinguishes people of quality, she had preserved her Norwegian
simplicity.  There was, in fact, a graceful timidity in her address,
inexpressibly charming.  This surprised me a little, because her
husband was quite a Frenchman of the ancien regime, or rather a
courtier, the same kind of animal in every country.

Here I saw the cloven foot of despotism.  I boasted to you that they
had no viceroy in Norway, but these Grand Bailiffs, particularly the
superior one, who resides at Christiania, are political monsters of
the same species.  Needy sycophants are provided for by their
relations and connections at Copenhagen as at other courts.  And
though the Norwegians are not in the abject state of the Irish, yet
this second-hand government is still felt by their being deprived of
several natural advantages to benefit the domineering state.

The Grand Bailiffs are mostly noblemen from Copenhagen, who act as
men of common minds will always act in such situations--aping a
degree of courtly parade which clashes with the independent
character of a magistrate.  Besides, they have a degree of power
over the country judges, which some of them, who exercise a
jurisdiction truly patriarchal most painfully feel.  I can scarcely
say why, my friend, but in this city thoughtfulness seemed to be
sliding into melancholy or rather dulness.  The fire of fancy, which
had been kept alive in the country, was almost extinguished by
reflections on the ills that harass such a large portion of mankind.
I felt like a bird fluttering on the ground unable to mount, yet
unwilling to crawl tranquilly like a reptile, whilst still conscious
it had wings.

1 walked out, for the open air is always my remedy when an aching
head proceeds from an oppressed heart.  Chance directed my steps
towards the fortress, and the sight of the slaves, working with
chains on their legs, only served to embitter me still more against
the regulations of society, which treated knaves in such a different
manner, especially as there was a degree of energy in some of their
countenances which unavoidably excited my attention, and almost
created respect.

I wished to have seen, through an iron grate, the face of a man who
has been confined six years for having induced the farmers to revolt
against some impositions of the Government.  I could not obtain a
clear account of the affair, yet, as the complaint was against some
farmers of taxes, I am inclined to believe that it was not totally
without foundation.  He must have possessed some eloquence, or have
had truth on his side; for the farmers rose by hundreds to support
him, and were very much exasperated at his imprisonment, which will
probably last for life, though he has sent several very spirited
remonstrances to the upper court, which makes the judges so averse
to giving a sentence which may be cavilled at, that they take
advantage of the glorious uncertainty of the law, to protract a
decision which is only to be regulated by reasons of state.

The greater number of the slaves I saw here were not confined for
life.  Their labour is not hard; and they work in the open air,
which prevents their constitutions from suffering by imprisonment.
Still, as they are allowed to associate together, and boast of their
dexterity, not only to each other but to the soldiers around them,
in the garrison; they commonly, it is natural to conclude, go out
more confirmed and more expert knaves than when they entered.

It is not necessary to trace the origin of the association of ideas
which led me to think that the stars and gold keys, which surrounded
me the evening before, disgraced the wearers as much as the fetters
I was viewing--perhaps more.  I even began to investigate the
reason, which led me to suspect that the former produced the latter.

The Norwegians are extravagantly fond of courtly distinction, and of
titles, though they have no immunities annexed to them, and are
easily purchased.  The proprietors of mines have many privileges:
they are almost exempt from taxes, and the peasantry born on their
estates, as well as those on the counts', are not born soldiers or
sailors.

One distinction, or rather trophy of nobility, which I might have
occurred to the Hottentots, amused me; it was a bunch of hog's
bristles placed on the horses' heads, surmounting that part of the
harness to which a round piece of brass often dangles, fatiguing the
eye with its idle motion.

From the fortress I returned to my lodging, and quickly was taken
out of town to be shown a pretty villa, and English garden.  To a
Norwegian both might have been objects of curiosity; and of use, by
exciting to the comparison which leads to improvement.  But whilst I
gazed, I was employed in restoring the place to nature, or taste, by
giving it the character of the surrounding scene.  Serpentine walks,
and flowering-shrubs, looked trifling in a grand recess of the
rooks, shaded by towering pines.  Groves of smaller trees might have
been sheltered under them, which would have melted into the
landscape, displaying only the art which ought to point out the
vicinity of a human abode, furnished with some elegance.  But few
people have sufficient taste to discern, that the art of
embellishing consists in interesting, not in astonishing.

Christiania is certainly very pleasantly situated, and the environs
I passed through, during this ride, afforded many fine and
cultivated prospects; but, excepting the first view approaching to
it, rarely present any combination of objects so strikingly new, or
picturesque, as to command remembrance.  Adieu!



LETTER XIV.



Christiania is a clean, neat city; but it has none of the graces of
architecture, which ought to keep pace with the refining manners of
a people--or the outside of the house will disgrace the inside,
giving the beholder an idea of overgrown wealth devoid of taste.
Large square wooden houses offend the eye, displaying more than
Gothic barbarism.  Huge Gothic piles, indeed, exhibit a
characteristic sublimity, and a wildness of fancy peculiar to the
period when they were erected; but size, without grandeur or
elegance, has an emphatical stamp of meanness, of poverty of
conception, which only a commercial spirit could give.

The same thought has struck me, when I have entered the meeting-
house of my respected friend, Dr. Price.  I am surprised that the
dissenters, who have not laid aside all the pomps and vanities of
life, should imagine a noble pillar, or arch, unhallowed.  Whilst
men have senses, whatever soothes them lends wings to devotion; else
why do the beauties of nature, where all that charm them are spread
around with a lavish hand, force even the sorrowing heart to
acknowledge that existence is a blessing? and this acknowledgment is
the most sublime homage we can pay to the Deity.

The argument of convenience is absurd.  Who would labour for wealth,
if it were to procure nothing but conveniences.  If we wish to
render mankind moral from principle, we must, I am persuaded, give a
greater scope to the enjoyments of the senses by blending taste with
them.  This has frequently occurred to me since I have been in the
north, and observed that there sanguine characters always take
refuge in drunkenness after the fire of youth is spent.

But I have flown from Norway.  To go back to the wooden houses;
farms constructed with logs, and even little villages, here erected
in the same simple manner, have appeared to me very picturesque.  In
the more remote parts I had been particularly pleased with many
cottages situated close to a brook, or bordering on a lake, with the
whole farm contiguous.  As the family increases, a little more land
is cultivated; thus the country is obviously enriched by population.
Formerly the farmers might more justly have been termed woodcutters.
But now they find it necessary to spare the woods a little, and this
change will be universally beneficial; for whilst they lived
entirely by selling the trees they felled, they did not pay
sufficient attention to husbandry; consequently, advanced very
slowly in agricultural knowledge.  Necessity will in future more and
more spur them on; for the ground, cleared of wood, must be
cultivated, or the farm loses its value; there is no waiting for
food till another generation of pines be grown to maturity.

The people of property are very careful of their timber; and,
rambling through a forest near Tonsberg, belonging to the Count, I
have stopped to admire the appearance of some of the cottages
inhabited by a woodman's family--a man employed to cut down the wood
necessary for the household and the estate.  A little lawn was
cleared, on which several lofty trees were left which nature had
grouped, whilst the encircling firs sported with wild grace.  The
dwelling was sheltered by the forest, noble pines spreading their
branches over the roof; and before the door a cow, goat, nag, and
children, seemed equally content with their lot; and if contentment
be all we can attain, it is, perhaps, best secured by ignorance.

As I have been most delighted with the country parts of Norway, I
was sorry to leave Christiania without going farther to the north,
though the advancing season admonished me to depart, as well as the
calls of business and affection.

June and July are the months to make a tour through Norway; for then
the evenings and nights are the finest I have ever seen; but towards
the middle or latter end of August the clouds begin to gather, and
summer disappears almost before it has ripened the fruit of autumn--
even, as it were, slips from your embraces, whilst the satisfied
senses seem to rest in enjoyment.

You will ask, perhaps, why I wished to go farther northward.  Why?
not only because the country, from all I can gather, is most
romantic, abounding in forests and lakes, and the air pure, but I
have heard much of the intelligence of the inhabitants, substantial
farmers, who have none of that cunning to contaminate their
simplicity, which displeased me so much in the conduct of the people
on the sea coast.  A man who has been detected in any dishonest act
can no longer live among them.  He is universally shunned, and shame
becomes the severest punishment.

Such a contempt have they, in fact, for every species of fraud, that
they will not allow the people on the western coast to be their
countrymen; so much do they despise the arts for which those traders
who live on the rocks are notorious.

The description I received of them carried me back to the fables of
the golden age:  independence and virtue; affluence without vice;
cultivation of mind, without depravity of heart; with "ever smiling
Liberty;" the nymph of the mountain.  I want faith!

My imagination hurries me forward to seek an asylum in such a
retreat from all the disappointments I am threatened with; but
reason drags me back, whispering that the world is still the world,
and man the same compound of weakness and folly, who must
occasionally excite love and disgust, admiration and contempt.  But
this description, though it seems to have been sketched by a fairy
pencil, was given me by a man of sound understanding, whose fancy
seldom appears to run away with him.

A law in Norway, termed the odels right, has lately been modified,
and probably will be abolished as an impediment to commerce.  The
heir of an estate had the power of re-purchasing it at the original
purchase money, making allowance for such improvements as were
absolutely necessary, during the space of twenty years.  At present
ten is the term allowed for afterthought; and when the regulation
was made, all the men of abilities were invited to give their
opinion whether it were better to abrogate or modify it.  It is
certainly a convenient and safe way of mortgaging land; yet the most
rational men whom I conversed with on the subject seemed convinced
that the right was more injurious than beneficial to society; still
if it contribute to keep the farms in the farmers' own hands, I
should be sorry to hear that it were abolished.

The aristocracy in Norway, if we keep clear of Christiania, is far
from being formidable; and it will require a long the to enable the
merchants to attain a sufficient moneyed interest to induce them to
reinforce the upper class at the expense of the yeomanry, with whom
they are usually connected.

England and America owe their liberty to commerce, which created new
species of power to undermine the feudal system.  But let them
beware of the consequence; the tyranny of wealth is still more
galling and debasing than that of rank.

Farewell!  I must prepare for my departure.



LETTER XV.



I left Christiania yesterday.  The weather was not very fine, and
having been a little delayed on the road, I found that it was too
late to go round, a couple of miles, to see the cascade near
Fredericstadt, which I had determined to visit.  Besides, as
Fredericstadt is a fortress, it was necessary to arrive there before
they shut the gate.

The road along the river is very romantic, though the views are not
grand; and the riches of Norway, its timber, floats silently down
the stream, often impeded in its course by islands and little
cataracts, the offspring, as it were, of the great one I had
frequently heard described.

I found an excellent inn at Fredericstadt, and was gratified by the
kind attention of the hostess, who, perceiving that my clothes were
wet, took great pains procure me, as a stranger, every comfort for
the night.

It had rained very hard, and we passed the ferry in the dark without
getting out of our carriage, which I think wrong, as the horses are
sometimes unruly.  Fatigue and melancholy, however, had made me
regardless whether I went down or across the stream, and I did not
know that I was wet before the hostess marked it.  My imagination
has never yet severed me from my griefs, and my mind has seldom been
so free as to allow my body to be delicate.

How I am altered by disappointment!  When going to Lisbon, the
elasticity of my mind was sufficient to ward off weariness, and my
imagination still could dip her brush in the rainbow of fancy, and
sketch futurity in glowing colours.  Now--but let me talk of
something else--will you go with me to the cascade?

The cross road to it was rugged and dreary; and though a
considerable extent of land was cultivated on all sides, yet the
rocks were entirely bare, which surprised me, as they were more on a
level with the surface than any I had yet seen.  On inquiry,
however, I learnt that some years since a forest had been burnt.
This appearance of desolation was beyond measure gloomy, inspiring
emotions that sterility had never produced.  Fires of this kind are
occasioned by the wind suddenly rising when the farmers are burning
roots of trees, stalks of beans, &c, with which they manure the
ground.  The devastation must, indeed, be terrible, when this,
literally speaking, wildfire, runs along the forest, flying from top
to top, and crackling amongst the branches.  The soil, as well as
the trees, is swept away by the destructive torrent; and the
country, despoiled of beauty and riches, is left to mourn for ages.

Admiring, as I do, these noble forests, which seem to bid defiance
to time, I looked with pain on the ridge of rocks that stretched far
beyond my eye, formerly crowned with the most beautiful verdure.

I have often mentioned the grandeur, but I feel myself unequal to
the task of conveying an idea of the beauty and elegance of the
scene when the spiry tops of the pines are loaded with ripening
seed, and the sun gives a glow to their light-green tinge, which is
changing into purple, one tree more or less advanced contrasted with
another.  The profusion with which Nature has decked them with
pendant honours, prevents all surprise at seeing in every crevice
some sapling struggling for existence.  Vast masses of stone are
thus encircled, and roots torn up by the storms become a shelter for
a young generation.  The pine and fir woods, left entirely to
Nature, display an endless variety; and the paths in the woods are
not entangled with fallen leaves, which are only interesting whilst
they are fluttering between life and death.  The grey cobweb-like
appearance of the aged pines is a much finer image of decay; the
fibres whitening as they lose their moisture, imprisoned life seems
to be stealing away.  I cannot tell why, but death, under every
form, appears to me like something getting free to expand in I know
not what element--nay, I feel that this conscious being must be as
unfettered, have the wings of thought, before it can be happy.

Reaching the cascade, or rather cataract, the roaring of which had a
long time announced its vicinity, my soul was hurried by the falls
into a new train of reflections.  The impetuous dashing of the
rebounding torrent from the dark cavities which mocked the exploring
eye produced an equal activity in my mind.  My thoughts darted from
earth to heaven, and I asked myself why I was chained to life and
its misery.  Still the tumultuous emotions this sublime object
excited were pleasurable; and, viewing it, my soul rose with renewed
dignity above its cares.  Grasping at immortality--it seemed as
impossible to stop the current of my thoughts, as of the always
varying, still the same, torrent before me; I stretched out my hand
to eternity, bounding over the dark speck of life to come.

We turned with regret from the cascade.  On a little hill, which
commands the best view of it, several obelisks are erected to
commemorate the visits of different kings.  The appearance of the
river above and below the falls is very picturesque, the ruggedness
of the scenery disappearing as the torrent subsides into a peaceful
stream.  But I did not like to see a number of saw-mills crowded
together close to the cataracts; they destroyed the harmony of the
prospect.

The sight of a bridge erected across a deep valley, at a little
distance, inspired very dissimilar sensations.  It was most
ingeniously supported by mast-like trunks, just stripped of their
branches; and logs, placed one across the other, produced an
appearance equally light and firm, seeming almost to be built in the
air when we were below it, the height taking from the magnitude of
the supporting trees give them a slender graceful look.

There are two noble estates in this neighbourhood, the proprietors
of which seem to have caught more than their portion of the
enterprising spirit that is gone abroad.  Many agricultural
experiments have been made, and the country appears better enclosed
and cultivated, yet the cottages had not the comfortable aspect of
those I had observed near Moss and to the westward.  Man is always
debased by servitude of any description, and here the peasantry are
not entirely free.  Adieu!

I almost forgot to tell you that I did not leave Norway without
making some inquiries after the monsters said to have been seen in
the northern sea; but though I conversed with several captains, I
could not meet with one who had ever heard any traditional
description of them, much less had any ocular demonstration of their
existence.  Till the fact is better ascertained, I should think the
account of them ought to be torn out of our geographical grammars.



LETTER XVI.



I set out from Fredericstadt about three o'clock in the afternoon,
and expected to reach Stromstad before the night closed in; but the
wind dying away, the weather became so calm that we scarcely made
any perceptible advances towards the opposite coast, though the men
were fatigued with rowing.

Getting amongst the rocks and islands as the moon rose, and the
stars darted forward out of the clear expanse, I forgot that the
night stole on whilst indulging affectionate reveries, the poetical
fictions of sensibility; I was not, therefore, aware of the length
of time we had been toiling to reach Stromstad.  And when I began to
look around, I did not perceive anything to indicate that we were in
its neighbourhood.  So far from it, that when I inquired of the
pilot, who spoke a little English, I found that he was only
accustomed to coast along the Norwegian shore; and had been only
once across to Stromstad.  But he had brought with him a fellow
better acquainted, he assured me, with the rocks by which they were
to steer our course, for we had not a compass on board; yet, as he
was half a fool, I had little confidence in his skill.  There was
then great reason to fear that we had lost our way, and were
straying amidst a labyrinth of rocks without a clue.

This was something like an adventure, but not of the most agreeable
cast; besides, I was impatient to arrive at Stromstad, to be able to
send forward that night a boy to order horses on the road to be
ready, for I was unwilling to remain there a day without having
anything to detain me from my little girl, and from the letters
which I was impatient to get from you.

I began to expostulate, and even to scold the pilot, for not having
informed me of his ignorance previous to my departure.  This made
him row with more force, and we turned round one rock only to see
another, equally destitute of the tokens we were in search of to
tell us where we were.  Entering also into creek after creek which
promised to be the entrance of the bay we were seeking, we advanced
merely to find ourselves running aground.

The solitariness of the scene, as we glided under the dark shadows
of the rocks, pleased me for a while; but the fear of passing the
whole night thus wandering to and fro, and losing the next day,
roused me.  I begged the pilot to return to one of the largest
islands, at the side of which we had seen a boat moored.  As we drew
nearer, a light through a window on the summit became our beacon;
but we were farther off than I supposed.

With some difficulty the pilot got on shore, not distinguishing the
landing-place; and I remained in the boat, knowing that all the
relief we could expect was a man to direct us.  After waiting some
time, for there is an insensibility in the very movements of these
people that would weary more than ordinary patience, he brought with
him a man who, assisting them to row, we landed at Stromstad a
little after one in the morning.

It was too late to send off a boy, but I did not go to bed before I
had made the arrangements necessary to enable me to set out as early
as possible.

The sun rose with splendour.  My mind was too active to allow me to
loiter long in bed, though the horses did not arrive till between
seven and eight.  However, as I wished to let the boy, who went
forward to order the horses, get considerably the start of me, I
bridled in my impatience.

This precaution was unavailing, for after the three first posts I
had to wait two hours, whilst the people at the post-house went,
fair and softly, to the farm, to bid them bring up the horses which
were carrying in the first-fruits of the harvest.  I discovered here
that these sluggish peasants had their share of cunning.  Though
they had made me pay for a horse, the boy had gone on foot, and only
arrived half an hour before me.  This disconcerted the whole
arrangement of the day; and being detained again three hours, I
reluctantly determined to sleep at Quistram, two posts short of
Uddervalla, where I had hoped to have arrived that night.

But when I reached Quistram I found I could not approach the door of
the inn for men, horses, and carts, cows, and pigs huddled together.
From the concourse of people I had met on the road I conjectured
that there was a fair in the neighbourhood; this crowd convinced me
that it was but too true.  The boisterous merriment that almost
every instant produced a quarrel, or made me dread one, with the
clouds of tobacco, and fumes of brandy, gave an infernal appearance
to the scene.  There was everything to drive me back, nothing to
excite sympathy in a rude tumult of the senses, which I foresaw
would end in a gross debauch.  What was to be done?  No bed was to
be had, or even a quiet corner to retire to for a moment; all was
lost in noise, riot, and confusion.

After some debating they promised me horses, which were to go on to
Uddervalla, two stages.  I requested something to eat first, not
having dined; and the hostess, whom I have mentioned to you before
as knowing how to take care of herself, brought me a plate of fish,
for which she charged a rix-dollar and a half.  This was making hay
whilst the sun shone.  I was glad to get out of the uproar, though
not disposed to travel in an incommodious open carriage all night,
had I thought that there was any chance of getting horses.

Quitting Quistram I met a number of joyous groups, and though the
evening was fresh many were stretched on the grass like weary
cattle; and drunken men had fallen by the road-side.  On a rock,
under the shade of lofty trees, a large party of men and women had
lighted a fire, cutting down fuel around to keep it alive all night.
They were drinking, smoking, and laughing with all their might and
main.  I felt for the trees whose torn branches strewed the ground.
Hapless nymphs! your haunts, I fear, were polluted by many an
unhallowed flame, the casual burst of the moment!

The horses went on very well; but when we drew near the post-house
the postillion stopped short and neither threats nor promises could
prevail on him to go forward.  He even began to howl and weep when I
insisted on his keeping his word.  Nothing, indeed, can equal the
stupid obstinacy of some of these half-alive beings, who seem to
have been made by Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was
so exhausted that he could only spare a spark to give life, not
animation, to the inert clay.

It was some time before we could rouse anybody; and, as I expected,
horses, we were told, could not be had in less than four or five
hours.  I again attempted to bribe the churlish brute who brought us
there, but I discovered that, in spite of the courteous hostess's
promises, he had received orders not to go any father.

As there was no remedy I entered, and was almost driven back by the
stench--a softer phrase would not have conveyed an idea of the hot
vapour that issued from an apartment in which some eight or ten
people were sleeping, not to reckon the cats and dogs stretched on
the floor.  Two or three of the men or women were on the benches,
others on old chests; and one figure started half out of a trunk to
look at me, whom might have taken for a ghost, had the chemise been
white, to contrast with the sallow visage.  But the costume of
apparitions not being preserved I passed, nothing dreading,
excepting the effluvia, warily amongst the pots, pans, milk-pails,
and washing-tubs.  After scaling a ruinous staircase I was shown a
bed-chamber.  The bed did not invite me to enter; opening,
therefore, the window, and taking some clean towels out of my night-
sack, I spread them over the coverlid, on which tired Nature found
repose, in spite of the previous disgust.

With the grey of the morn the birds awoke me; and descending to
inquire for the horses, I hastened through the apartment I have
already described, not wishing to associate the idea of a pigstye
with that of a human dwelling.

I do not now wonder that the girls lose their fine complexions at
such an early age, or that love here is merely an appetite to fulfil
the main design of Nature, never enlivened by either affection or
sentiment.

For a few posts we found the horses waiting; but afterwards I was
retarded, as before, by the peasants, who, taking advantage of my
ignorance of the language, made me pay for the fourth horse that
ought to have gone forward to have the others in readiness, though
it had never been sent.  I was particularly impatient at the last
post, as I longed to assure myself that my child was well.

My impatience, however, did not prevent my enjoying the journey.  I
had six weeks before passed over the same ground; still it had
sufficient novelty to attract my attention, and beguile, if not
banish, the sorrow that had taken up its abode in my heart.  How
interesting are the varied beauties of Nature, and what peculiar
charms characterise each season!  The purple hue which the heath now
assumed gave it a degree of richness that almost exceeded the lustre
of the young green of spring, and harmonised exquisitely with the
rays of the ripening corn.  The weather was uninterruptedly fine,
and the people busy in the fields cutting down the corn, or binding
up the sheaves, continually varied the prospect.  The rocks, it is
true, were unusually rugged and dreary; yet as the road runs for a
considerable way by the side of a fine river, with extended pastures
on the other side, the image of sterility was not the predominant
object, though the cottages looked still more miserable, after
having seen the Norwegian farms.  The trees likewise appeared of me
growth of yesterday, compared with those Nestors of the forest I
have frequently mentioned.  The women and children were cutting off
branches from the beech, birch, oak, &c, and leaving them to dry.
This way of helping out their fodder injures the trees.  But the
winters are so long that the poor cannot afford to lay in a
sufficient stock of hay.  By such means they just keep life in the
poor cows, for little milk can be expected when they are so
miserably fed.

It was Saturday, and the evening was uncommonly serene.  In the
villages I everywhere saw preparations for Sunday; and I passed by a
little car loaded with rye, that presented, for the pencil and
heart, the sweetest picture of a harvest home I had ever beheld.  A
little girl was mounted a-straddle on a shaggy horse, brandishing a
stick over its head; the father was walking at the side of the car
with a child in his arms, who must have come to meet him with
tottering steps; the little creature was stretching out its arms to
cling round his neck; and a boy, just above petticoats, was
labouring hard with a fork behind to keep the sheaves from falling.

My eyes followed them to the cottage, and an involuntary sigh
whispered to my heart that I envied the mother, much as I dislike
cooking, who was preparing their pottage.  I was returning to my
babe, who may never experience a father's care or tenderness.  The
bosom that nurtured her heaved with a pang at the thought which only
an unhappy mother could feel.

Adieu!



LETTER XVII.



I was unwilling to leave Gothenburg without visiting Trolhaettae.  I
wished not only to see the cascade, but to observe the progress of
the stupendous attempt to form a canal through the rocks, to the
extent of an English mile and a half.

This work is carried on by a company, who employ daily nine hundred
men; five years was the time mentioned in the proposals addressed to
the public as necessary for the completion.  A much more
considerable sum than the plan requires has been subscribed, for
which there is every reason to suppose the promoters will receive
ample interest.

The Danes survey the progress of this work with a jealous eye, as it
is principally undertaken to get clear of the Sound duty.

Arrived at Trolhaettae, I must own that the first view of the
cascade disappointed me; and the sight of the works, as they
advanced, though a grand proof of human industry, was not calculated
to warm the fancy.  I, however, wandered about; and at last coming
to the conflux of the various cataracts rushing from different
falls, struggling with the huge masses of rock, and rebounding from
the profound cavities, I immediately retracted, acknowledging that
it was indeed a grand object.  A little island stood in the midst,
covered with firs, which, by dividing the torrent, rendered it more
picturesque; one half appearing to issue from a dark cavern, that
fancy might easily imagine a vast fountain throwing up its waters
from the very centre of the earth.

I gazed I know not how long, stunned with the noise, and growing
giddy with only looking at the never-ceasing tumultuous motion, I
listened, scarcely conscious where I was, when I observed a boy,
half obscured by the sparkling foam, fishing under the impending
rock on the other side.  How he had descended I could not perceive;
nothing like human footsteps appeared, and the horrific crags seemed
to bid defiance even to the goat's activity.  It looked like an
abode only fit for the eagle, though in its crevices some pines
darted up their spiral heads; but they only grew near the cascade,
everywhere else sterility itself reigned with dreary grandeur; for
the huge grey massy rocks, which probably had been torn asunder by
some dreadful convulsion of nature, had not even their first
covering of a little cleaving moss.  There were so many appearances
to excite the idea of chaos, that, instead of admiring the canal and
the works, great as they are termed, and little as they appear, I
could not help regretting that such a noble scene had not been left
in all its solitary sublimity.  Amidst the awful roaring of the
impetuous torrents, the noise of human instruments and the bustle of
workmen, even the blowing up of the rocks when grand masses trembled
in the darkened air, only resembled the insignificant sport of
children.

One fall of water, partly made by art, when they were attempting to
construct sluices, had an uncommonly grand effect; the water
precipitated itself with immense velocity down a perpendicular, at
least fifty or sixty yards, into a gulf, so concealed by the foam as
to give full play to the fancy.  There was a continual uproar.  I
stood on a rock to observe it, a kind of bridge formed by nature,
nearly on a level with the commencement of the fall.  After musing
by it a long time I turned towards the other side, and saw a gentle
stream stray calmly out.  I should have concluded that it had no
communication with the torrent had I not seen a huge log that fell
headlong down the cascade steal peacefully into the purling stream.

I retired from these wild scenes with regret to a miserable inn, and
next morning returned to Gothenburg, to prepare for my journey to
Copenhagen.

I was sorry to leave Gothenburg without travelling farther into
Sweden, yet I imagine I should only have seen a romantic country
thinly inhabited, and these inhabitants struggling with poverty.
The Norwegian peasantry, mostly independent, have a rough kind of
frankness in their manner; but the Swedish, rendered more abject by
misery, have a degree of politeness in their address which, though
it may sometimes border on insincerity, is oftener the effect of a
broken spirit, rather softened than degraded by wretchedness.

In Norway there are no notes in circulation of less value than a
Swedish rix-dollar.  A small silver coin, commonly not worth more
than a penny, and never more than twopence, serves for change; but
in Sweden they have notes as low as sixpence.  I never saw any
silver pieces there, and could not without difficulty, and giving a
premium, obtain the value of a rix-dollar in a large copper coin to
give away on the road to the poor who open the gates.

As another proof of the poverty of Sweden, I ought to mention that
foreign merchants who have acquired a fortune there are obliged to
deposit the sixth part when they leave the kingdom.  This law, you
may suppose, is frequently evaded.

In fact, the laws here, as well as in Norway, are so relaxed that
they rather favour than restrain knavery.

Whilst I was at Gothenburg, a man who had been confined for breaking
open his master's desk and running away with five or six thousand
rix-dollars, was only sentenced to forty days' confinement on bread
and water; and this slight punishment his relations rendered
nugatory by supplying him with more savoury food.

The Swedes are in general attached to their families, yet a divorce
may be obtained by either party on proving the infidelity of the
other or acknowledging it themselves.  The women do not often recur
to this equal privilege, for they either retaliate on their husbands
by following their own devices or sink into the merest domestic
drudges, worn down by tyranny to servile submission.  Do not term me
severe if I add, that after youth is flown the husband becomes a
sot, and the wife amuses herself by scolding her servants.  In fact,
what is to be expected in any country where taste and cultivation of
mind do not supply the place of youthful beauty and animal spirits?
Affection requires a firmer foundation than sympathy, and few people
have a principle of action sufficiently stable to produce rectitude
of feeling; for in spite of all the arguments I have heard to
justify deviations from duty, I am persuaded that even the most
spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle
than weak people are willing to allow.

But adieu to moralising.  I have been writing these last sheets at
an inn in Elsineur, where I am waiting for horses; and as they are
not yet ready, I will give you a short account of my journey from
Gothenburg, for I set out the morning after I returned from
Trolhaettae.

The country during the first day's journey presented a most barren
appearance, as rocky, yet not so picturesque as Norway, because on a
diminutive scale.  We stopped to sleep at a tolerable inn in
Falckersberg, a decent little town.

The next day beeches and oaks began to grace the prospects, the sea
every now and then appearing to give them dignity.  I could not
avoid observing also, that even in this part of Sweden, one of the
most sterile, as I was informed, there was more ground under
cultivation than in Norway.  Plains of varied crops stretched out to
a considerable extent, and sloped down to the shore, no longer
terrific.  And, as far as I could judge, from glancing my eye over
the country as we drove along, agriculture was in a more advanced
state, though in the habitations a greater appearance of poverty
still remained.  The cottages, indeed, often looked most
uncomfortable, but never so miserable as those I had remarked on the
road to Stromstad, and the towns were equal, if not superior, to
many of the little towns in Wales, or some I have passed through in
my way from Calais to Paris.

The inns as we advanced were not to be complained of, unless I had
always thought of England.  The people were civil, and much more
moderate in their demands than the Norwegians, particularly to the
westward, where they boldly charge for what you never had, and seem
to consider you, as they do a wreck, if not as lawful prey, yet as a
lucky chance, which they ought not to neglect to seize.

The prospect of Elsineur, as we passed the Sound, was pleasant.  I
gave three rix-dollars for my boat, including something to drink.  I
mention the sum, because they impose on strangers.

Adieu! till I arrive at Copenhagen.



LETTER XVIII.--COPENHAGEN.



The distance from Elsineur to Copenhagen is twenty-two miles; the
road is very good, over a flat country diversified with wood, mostly
beech, and decent mansions.  There appeared to be a great quantity
of corn land, and the soil looked much more fertile than it is in
general so near the sea.  The rising grounds, indeed, were very few,
and around Copenhagen it is a perfect plain; of course has nothing
to recommend it but cultivation, not decorations.  If I say that the
houses did not disgust me, I tell you all I remember of them, for I
cannot recollect any pleasurable sensations they excited, or that
any object, produced by nature or art, took me out of myself.  The
view of the city, as we drew near, was rather grand, but without any
striking feature to interest the imagination, excepting the trees
which shade the footpaths.

Just before I reached Copenhagen I saw a number of tents on a wide
plain, and supposed that the rage for encampments had reached this
city; but I soon discovered that they were the asylum of many of the
poor families who had been driven out of their habitations by the
late fire.

Entering soon after, I passed amongst the dust and rubbish it had
left, affrighted by viewing the extent of the devastation, for at
least a quarter of the city had been destroyed.  There was little in
the appearance of fallen bricks and stacks of chimneys to allure the
imagination into soothing melancholy reveries; nothing to attract
the eye of taste, but much to afflict the benevolent heart.  The
depredations of time have always something in them to employ the
fancy, or lead to musing on subjects which, withdrawing the mind
from objects of sense, seem to give it new dignity; but here I was
treading on live ashes.  The sufferers were still under the pressure
of the misery occasioned by this dreadful conflagration.  I could
not take refuge in the thought:  they suffered, but they are no
more! a reflection I frequently summon to calm my mind when sympathy
rises to anguish.  I therefore desired the driver to hasten to the
hotel recommended to me, that I might avert my eyes and snap the
train of thinking which had sent me into all the corners of the city
in search of houseless heads.

This morning I have been walking round the town, till I am weary of
observing the ravages.  I had often heard the Danes, even those who
had seen Paris and London, speak of Copenhagen with rapture.
Certainly I have seen it in a very disadvantageous light, some of
the best streets having been burnt, and the whole place thrown into
confusion.  Still the utmost that can, or could ever, I believe,
have been said in its praise, might be comprised in a few words.
The streets are open, and many of the houses large; but I saw
nothing to rouse the idea of elegance or grandeur, if I except the
circus where the king and prince royal reside.

The palace, which was consumed about two years ago, must have been a
handsome, spacious building; the stone-work is still standing, and a
great number of the poor, during the late fire, took refuge in its
ruins till they could find some other abode.  Beds were thrown on
the landing-places of the grand staircase, where whole families
crept from the cold, and every little nook is boarded up as a
retreat for some poor creatures deprived of their home.  At present
a roof may be sufficient to shelter them from the night air; but as
the season advances, the extent of the calamity will be more
severely felt, I fear, though the exertions on the part of
Government are very considerable.  Private charity has also, no
doubt, done much to alleviate the misery which obtrudes itself at
every turn; still, public spirit appears to me to be hardly alive
here.  Had it existed, the conflagration might have been smothered
in the beginning, as it was at last, by tearing down several houses
before the flames had reached them.  To this the inhabitants would
not consent; and the prince royal not having sufficient energy of
character to know when he ought to be absolute, calmly let them
pursue their own course, till the whole city seemed to be threatened
with destruction.  Adhering, with puerile scrupulosity, to the law
which he has imposed on himself, of acting exactly right, he did
wrong by idly lamenting whilst he marked the progress of a mischief
that one decided step would have stopped.  He was afterwards obliged
to resort to violent measures; but then, who could blame him?  And,
to avoid censure, what sacrifices are not made by weak minds?

A gentleman who was a witness of the scene assured me, likewise,
that if the people of property had taken half as much pains to
extinguish the fire as to preserve their valuables and furniture, it
would soon have been got under.  But they who were not immediately
in danger did not exert themselves sufficiently, till fear, like an
electrical shock, roused all the inhabitants to a sense of the
general evil.  Even the fire-engines were out of order, though the
burning of the palace ought to have admonished them of the necessity
of keeping them in constant repair.  But this kind of indolence
respecting what does not immediately concern them seems to
characterise the Danes.  A sluggish concentration in themselves
makes them so careful to preserve their property, that they will not
venture on any enterprise to increase it in which there is a shadow
of hazard.

Considering Copenhagen as the capital of Denmark and Norway, I was
surprised not to see so much industry or taste as in Christiania.
Indeed, from everything I have had an opportunity of observing, the
Danes are the people who have made the fewest sacrifices to the
graces.

The men of business are domestic tyrants, coldly immersed in their
own affairs, and so ignorant of the state of other countries, that
they dogmatically assert that Denmark is the happiest country in the
world; the Prince Royal the best of all possible princes; and Count
Bernstorff the wisest of ministers.

As for the women, they are simply notable housewives; without
accomplishments or any of the charms that adorn more advanced social
life.  This total ignorance may enable them to save something in
their kitchens, but it is far from rendering them better parents.
On the contrary, the children are spoiled, as they usually are when
left to the care of weak, indulgent mothers, who having no principle
of action to regulate their feelings, become the slaves of infants,
enfeebling both body and mind by false tenderness.

I am, perhaps, a little prejudiced, as I write from the impression
of the moment; for I have been tormented to-day by the presence of
unruly children, and made angry by some invectives thrown out
against the maternal character of the unfortunate Matilda.  She was
censured, with the most cruel insinuation, for her management of her
son, though, from what I could gather, she gave proofs of good sense
as well as tenderness in her attention to him.  She used to bathe
him herself every morning; insisted on his being loosely clad; and
would not permit his attendants to injure his digestion by humouring
his appetite.  She was equally careful to prevent his acquiring
haughty airs, and playing the tyrant in leading-strings.  The Queen
Dowager would not permit her to suckle him; but the next child being
a daughter, and not the Heir-Apparent of the Crown, less opposition
was made to her discharging the duty of a mother.

Poor Matilda! thou hast haunted me ever since may arrival; and the
view I have had of the manners of the country, exciting my sympathy,
has increased my respect for thy memory.

I am now fully convinced that she was the victim of the party she
displaced, who would have overlooked or encouraged her attachment,
had not her lover, aiming at being useful, attempted to overturn
some established abuses before the people, ripe for the change, had
sufficient spirit to support him when struggling in their behalf.
Such indeed was the asperity sharpened against her that I have heard
her, even after so many years have elapsed, charged with
licentiousness, not only for endeavouring to render the public
amusements more elegant, but for her very charities, because she
erected, amongst other institutions, a hospital to receive
foundlings.  Disgusted with many customs which pass for virtues,
though they are nothing more than observances of forms, often at the
expense of truth, she probably ran into an error common to
innovators, in wishing to do immediately what can only be done by
time.

Many very cogent reasons have been urged by her friends to prove
that her affection for Struensee was never carried to the length
alleged against her by those who feared her influence.  Be that as
it may she certainly was no a woman of gallantry, and if she had an
attachment for him it did not disgrace her heart or understanding,
the king being a notorious debauchee and an idiot into the bargain.
As the king's conduct had always been directed by some favourite,
they also endeavoured to govern him, from a principle of self-
preservation as well as a laudable ambition; but, not aware of the
prejudices they had to encounter, the system they adopted displayed
more benevolence of heart than soundness of judgment.  As to the
charge, still believed, of their giving the King drugs to injure his
faculties, it is too absurd to be refuted.  Their oppressors had
better have accused them of dabbling in the black art, for the
potent spell still keeps his wits in bondage.

I cannot describe to you the effect it had on me to see this puppet
of a monarch moved by the strings which Count Bernstorff holds fast;
sit, with vacant eye, erect, receiving the homage of courtiers who
mock him with a show of respect.  He is, in fact, merely a machine
of state, to subscribe the name of a king to the acts of the
Government, which, to avoid danger, have no value unless
countersigned by the Prince Royal; for he is allowed to be
absolutely aim idiot, excepting that now and then an observation or
trick escapes him, which looks more like madness than imbecility.

What a farce is life.  This effigy of majesty is allowed to burn
down to the socket, whilst the hapless Matilda was hurried into an
untimely grave.

"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."

Adieu!



LETTER XIX.



Business having obliged me to go a few miles out of town this
morning I was surprised at meeting a crowd of people of every
description, and inquiring the cause of a servant, who spoke French,
I was informed that a man had been executed two hours before, and
the body afterwards burnt.  I could not help looking with horror
around--the fields lost their verdure--and I turned with disgust
from the well-dressed women who were returning with their children
from this sight.  What a spectacle for humanity!  The seeing such a
flock of idle gazers plunged me into a train of reflections on the
pernicious effects produced by false notions of justice.  And I am
persuaded that till capital punishments are entirely abolished
executions ought to have every appearance of horror given to them,
instead of being, as they are now, a scene of amusement for the
gaping crowd, where sympathy is quickly effaced by curiosity.

I have always been of opinion that the allowing actors to die in the
presence of the audience has an immoral tendency, but trifling when
compared with the ferocity acquired by viewing the reality as a
show; for it seems to me that in all countries the common people go
to executions to see how the poor wretch plays his part, rather than
to commiserate his fate, much less to think of the breach of
morality which has brought him to such a deplorable end.
Consequently executions, far from being useful examples to the
survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by
hardening the heart they ought to terrify.  Besides the fear of an
ignominious death, I believe, never deferred anyone from the
commission of a crime, because, in committing it, the mind is roused
to activity about present circumstances.  It is a game at hazard, at
which all expect the turn of the die in their own favour, never
reflecting on the chance of ruin till it comes.  In fact, from what
I saw in the fortresses of Norway, I am more and more convinced that
the same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain
would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been
well organised.  When a strong mind is not disciplined by
cultivation it is a sense of injustice that renders it unjust.

Executions, however, occur very rarely at Copenhagen; for timidity,
rather than clemency, palsies all the operations of the present
Government.  The malefactor who died this morning would not,
probably, have been punished with death at any other period; but an
incendiary excites universal execration; and as the greater part of
the inhabitants are still distressed by the late conflagration, an
example was thought absolutely necessary; though, from what I can
gather, the fire was accidental.

Not, but that I have very seriously been informed, that combustible
materials were placed at proper distance, by the emissaries of Mr.
Pitt; and, to corroborate the fact, many people insist that the
flames burst out at once in different parts of the city; not
allowing the wind to have any hand in it.  So much for the plot.
But the fabricators of plots in all countries build their
conjectures on the "baseless fabric of a vision;" and it seems even
a sort of poetical justice, that whilst this Minister is crushing at
home plots of his own conjuring up, on the Continent, and in the
north, he should, with as little foundation, be accused of wishing
to set the world on fire.

I forgot to mention to you, that I was informed, by a man of
veracity, that two persons came to the stake to drink a glass of the
criminal's blood, as an infallible remedy for the apoplexy.  And
when I animadverted in the company, where it was mentioned, on such
a horrible violation of nature, a Danish lady reproved me very
severely, asking how I knew that it was not a cure for the disease?
adding, that every attempt was justifiable in search of health.  I
did not, you may imagine, enter into an argument with a person the
slave of such a gross prejudice.  And I allude to it not only as a
trait of the ignorance of the people, but to censure the Government
for not preventing scenes that throw an odium on the human race.

Empiricism is not peculiar to Denmark; and I know no way of rooting
it out, though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft, till the
acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human
frame becomes a part of public education.

Since the fire, the inhabitants have been very assiduously employed
in searching for property secreted during the confusion; and it is
astonishing how many people, formerly termed reputable, had availed
themselves of the common calamity to purloin what the flames spared.
Others, expert at making a distinction without a difference,
concealed what they found, not troubling themselves to inquire for
the owners, though they scrupled to search for plunder anywhere, but
amongst the ruins.

To be honester than the laws require is by most people thought a
work of supererogation; and to slip through the grate of the law has
ever exercised the abilities of adventurers, who wish to get rich
the shortest way.  Knavery without personal danger is an art brought
to great perfection by the statesman and swindler; and meaner knaves
are not tardy in following their footsteps.

It moves my gall to discover some of the commercial frauds practised
during the present war.  In short, under whatever point of view I
consider society, it appears to me that an adoration of property is
the root of all evil.  Here it does not render the people
enterprising, as in America, but thrifty and cautious.  I never,
therefore, was in a capital where there was so little appearance of
active industry; and as for gaiety, I looked in vain for the
sprightly gait of the Norwegians, who in every respect appear to me
to have got the start of them.  This difference I attribute to their
having more liberty--a liberty which they think their right by
inheritance, whilst the Danes, when they boast of their negative
happiness, always mention it as the boon of the Prince Royal, under
the superintending wisdom of Count Bernstorff.  Vassalage is
nevertheless ceasing throughout the kingdom, and with it will pass
away that sordid avarice which every modification of slavery is
calculated to produce.

If the chief use of property be power, in the shape of the respect
it procures, is it not among the inconsistencies of human nature
most incomprehensible, that men should find a pleasure in hoarding
up property which they steal from their necessities, even when they
are convinced that it would be dangerous to display such an enviable
superiority?  Is not this the situation of serfs in every country.
Yet a rapacity to accumulate money seems to become stronger in
proportion as it is allowed to be useless.

Wealth does not appear to be sought for amongst the Danes, to obtain
the excellent luxuries of life, for a want of taste is very
conspicuous at Copenhagen; so much so that I am not surprised to
hear that poor Matilda offended the rigid Lutherans by aiming to
refine their pleasures.  The elegance which she wished to introduce
was termed lasciviousness; yet I do not find that the absence of
gallantry renders the wives more chaste, or the husbands more
constant.  Love here seems to corrupt the morals without polishing
the manners, by banishing confidence and truth, the charm as well as
cement of domestic life.  A gentleman, who has resided in this city
some time, assures me that he could not find language to give me an
idea of the gross debaucheries into which the lower order of people
fall; and the promiscuous amours of the men of the middling class
with their female servants debase both beyond measure, weakening
every species of family affection.

I have everywhere been struck by one characteristic difference in
the conduct of the two sexes; women, in general, are seduced by
their superiors, and men jilted by their inferiors:  rank and
manners awe the one, and cunning and wantonness subjugate the other;
ambition creeping into the woman's passion, and tyranny giving force
to the man's, for most men treat their mistresses as kings do their
favourites:  ergo is not man then the tyrant of the creation?

Still harping on the same subject, you will exclaim--How can I avoid
it, when most of the struggles of an eventful life have been
occasioned by the oppressed state of my sex?  We reason deeply when
we feel forcibly.

But to return to the straight road of observation.  The sensuality
so prevalent appears to me to arise rather from indolence of mind
and dull senses, than from an exuberance of life, which often
fructifies the whole character when the vivacity of youthful spirits
begins to subside into strength of mind.

I have before mentioned that the men are domestic tyrants,
considering them as fathers, brothers, or husbands; but there is a
kind of interregnum between the reign of the father and husband
which is the only period of freedom and pleasure that the women
enjoy.  Young people who are attached to each other, with the
consent of their friends, exchange rings, and are permitted to enjoy
a degree of liberty together which 1 have never noticed in any other
country.  The days of courtship are, therefore, prolonged till it be
perfectly convenient to marry:  the intimacy often becomes very
tender; and if the lover obtain the privilege of a husband, it can
only be termed half by stealth, because the family is wilfully
blind.  It happens very rarely that these honorary engagements are
dissolved or disregarded, a stigma being attached to a breach of
faith which is thought more disgraceful, if not so criminal, as the
violation of the marriage-vow.

Do not forget that, in my general observations, I do not pretend to
sketch a national character, but merely to note the present state of
morals and manners as I trace the progress of the world's
improvement.  Because, during my residence in different countries,
my principal object has been to take such a dispassionate view of
men as will lead me to form a just idea of the nature of man.  And,
to deal ingenuously with you, I believe I should have been less
severe in the remarks I have made on the vanity and depravity of the
French, had I travelled towards the north before I visited France.

The interesting picture frequently drawn of the virtues of a rising
people has, I fear, been fallacious, excepting the accounts of the
enthusiasm which various public struggles have produced.  We talk of
the depravity of the French, and lay a stress on the old age of the
nation; yet where has more virtuous enthusiasm been displayed than
during the two last years by the common people of France, and in
their armies?  I am obliged sometimes to recollect the numberless
instances which I have either witnessed, or heard well
authenticated, to balance the account of horrors, alas! but too
true.  I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the gross vices
which I have always seem allied with simplicity of manners, are the
concomitants of ignorance.

What, for example, has piety, under the heathen or Christian system,
been, but a blind faith in things contrary to the principles of
reason?  And could poor reason make considerable advances when it
was reckoned the highest degree of virtue to do violence to its
dictates?  Lutherans, preaching reformation, have built a reputation
for sanctity on the same foundation as the Catholics; yet I do not
perceive that a regular attendance on public worship, and their
other observances, make them a whit more true in their affections,
or honest in their private transactions.  It seems, indeed, quite as
easy to prevaricate with religious injunctions as human laws, when
the exercise of their reason does not lead people to acquire
principles for themselves to be the criterion of all those they
receive from others.

If travelling, as the completion of a liberal education, were to be
adopted on rational grounds, the northern states ought to be visited
before the more polished parts of Europe, to serve as the elements
even of the knowledge of manners, only to be acquired by tracing the
various shades in different countries.  But, when visiting distant
climes, a momentary social sympathy should not be allowed to
influence the conclusions of the understanding, for hospitality too
frequently leads travellers, especially those who travel in search
of pleasure, to make a false estimate of the virtues of a nation,
which, I am now convinced, bear an exact proportion to their
scientific improvements.

Adieu.



LETTER XX.



I have formerly censured the French for their extreme attachment to
theatrical exhibitions, because I thought that they tended to render
them vain and unnatural characters; but I must acknowledge,
especially as women of the town never appear in the Parisian as at
our theatres, that the little saving of the week is more usefully
expended there every Sunday than in porter or brandy, to intoxicate
or stupify the mind.  The common people of France have a great
superiority over that class in every other country on this very
score.  It is merely the sobriety of the Parisians which renders
their fetes more interesting, their gaiety never becoming disgusting
or dangerous, as is always the case when liquor circulates.
Intoxication is the pleasure of savages, and of all those whose
employments rather exhaust their animal spirits than exercise their
faculties.  Is not this, in fact, the vice, both in England and the
northern states of Europe, which appears to be the greatest
impediment to general improvement?  Drinking is here the principal
relaxation of the men, including smoking, but the women are very
abstemious, though they have no public amusements as a substitute.
I ought to except one theatre, which appears more than is necessary;
for when I was there it was not half full, and neither the ladies
nor actresses displayed much fancy in their dress.

The play was founded on the story of the "Mock Doctor;" and, from
the gestures of the servants, who were the best actors, I should
imagine contained some humour.  The farce, termed ballet, was a kind
of pantomime, the childish incidents of which were sufficient to
show the state of the dramatic art in Denmark, and the gross taste
of the audience.  A magician, in the disguise of a tinker, enters a
cottage where the women are all busy ironing, and rubs a dirty
frying-pan against the linen.  The women raise a hue-and-cry, and
dance after him, rousing their husbands, who join in the dance, but
get the start of them in the pursuit.  The tinker, with the frying-
pan for a shield, renders them immovable, and blacks their cheeks.
Each laughs at the other, unconscious of his own appearance;
meanwhile the women enter to enjoy the sport, "the rare fun," with
other incidents of the same species.

The singing was much on a par with the dancing, the one as destitute
of grace as the other of expression; but the orchestra was well
filled, the instrumental being far superior to the vocal music.

I have likewise visited the public library and museum, as well as
the palace of Rosembourg.  This palace, now deserted, displays a
gloomy kind of grandeur throughout, for the silence of spacious
apartments always makes itself to be felt; I at least feel it, and I
listen for the sound of my footsteps as I have done at midnight to
the ticking of the death-watch, encouraging a kind of fanciful
superstition.  Every object carried me back to past times, and
impressed the manners of the age forcibly on my mind.  In this point
of view the preservation of old palaces and their tarnished
furniture is useful, for they may be considered as historical
documents.

The vacuum left by departed greatness was everywhere observable,
whilst the battles and processions portrayed on the walls told you
who had here excited revelry after retiring from slaughter, or
dismissed pageantry in search of pleasure.  It seemed a vast tomb
full of the shadowy phantoms of those who had played or toiled their
hour out and sunk behind the tapestry which celebrated the conquests
of love or war.  Could they be no more--to whom my imagination thus
gave life?  Could the thoughts, of which there remained so many
vestiges, have vanished quite away?  And these beings, composed of
such noble materials of thinking and feeling, have they only melted
into the elements to keep in motion the grand mass of life?  It
cannot be!--as easily could I believe that the large silver lions at
the top of the banqueting room thought and reasoned.  But avaunt! ye
waking dreams! yet I cannot describe the curiosities to you.

There were cabinets full of baubles and gems, and swords which must
have been wielded by giant's hand.  The coronation ornaments wait
quietly here till wanted, and the wardrobe exhibits the vestments
which formerly graced these shows.  It is a pity they do not lend
them to the actors, instead of allowing them to perish ingloriously.

I have not visited any other palace, excepting Hirsholm, the gardens
of which are laid out with taste, and command the finest views the
country affords.  As they are in the modern and English style, I
thought I was following the footsteps of Matilda, who wished to
multiply around her the images of her beloved country.  I was also
gratified by the sight of a Norwegian landscape in miniature, which
with great propriety makes a part of the Danish King's garden.  The
cottage is well imitated, and the whole has a pleasing effect,
particularly so to me who love Norway--its peaceful farms and
spacious wilds.

The public library consists of a collection much larger than I
expected to see; and it is well arranged.  Of the value of the
Icelandic manuscripts I could not form a judgment, though the
alphabet of some of them amused me, by showing what immense labour
men will submit to, in order to transmit their ideas to posterity.
I have sometimes thought it a great misfortune for individuals to
acquire a certain delicacy of sentiment, which often makes them
weary of the common occurrences of life; yet it is this very
delicacy of feeling and thinking which probably has produced most of
the performances that have benefited mankind.  It might with
propriety, perhaps, be termed the malady of genius; the cause of
that characteristic melancholy which "grows with its growth, and
strengthens with its strength."

There are some good pictures in the royal museum.  Do not start, I
am not going to trouble you with a dull catalogue, or stupid
criticisms on masters to whom time has assigned their just niche in
the temple of fame; had there been any by living artists of this
country, I should have noticed them, as making a part of the
sketches I am drawing of the present state of the place.  The good
pictures were mixed indiscriminately with the bad ones, in order to
assort the frames.  The same fault is conspicuous in the new
splendid gallery forming at Paris; though it seems an obvious
thought that a school for artists ought to be arranged in such a
manner, as to show the progressive discoveries and improvements in
the art.

A collection of the dresses, arms, and implements of the Laplanders
attracted my attention, displaying that first species of ingenuity
which is rather a proof of patient perseverance, than comprehension
of mind.  The specimens of natural history, and curiosities of art,
were likewise huddled together without that scientific order which
alone renders them useful; but this may partly have been occasioned
by the hasty manner in which they were removed from the palace when
in flames.

There are some respectable men of science here, but few literary
characters, and fewer artists.  They want encouragement, and will
continue, I fear, from the present appearance of things, to languish
unnoticed a long time; for neither the vanity of wealth, nor the
enterprising spirit of commerce, has yet thrown a glance that way.

Besides, the Prince Royal, determined to be economical, almost
descends to parsimony; and perhaps depresses his subjects, by
labouring not to oppress them; for his intentions always seem to be
good--yet nothing can give a more forcible idea of the dulness which
eats away all activity of mind, than the insipid routine of a court,
without magnificence or elegance.

The Prince, from what I can now collect, has very moderate
abilities; yet is so well disposed, that Count Bernstorff finds him
as tractable as he could wish; for I consider the Count as the real
sovereign, scarcely behind the curtain; the Prince having none of
that obstinate self-sufficiency of youth, so often the forerunner of
decision of character.  He and the Princess his wife, dine every day
with the King, to save the expense of two tables.  What a mummery it
must be to treat as a king a being who has lost the majesty of man!
But even Count Bernstorff's morality submits to this standing
imposition; and he avails himself of it sometimes, to soften a
refusal of his own, by saying it is the WILL of the King, my master,
when everybody knows that he has neither will nor memory.  Much the
same use is made of him as, I have observed, some termagant wives
make of their husbands; they would dwell on the necessity of obeying
their husbands, poor passive souls, who never were allowed TO WILL,
when they wanted to conceal their own tyranny.

A story is told here of the King's formerly making a dog counsellor
of state, because when the dog, accustomed to eat at the royal
table, snatched a piece of meat off an old officer's plate, he
reproved him jocosely, saying that he, monsieur le chien, had not
the privilege of dining with his majesty, a privilege annexed to
this distinction.

The burning of the palace was, in fact, a fortunate circumstance, as
it afforded a pretext for reducing the establishment of the
household, which was far too great for the revenue of the Crown.
The Prince Royal, at present, runs into the opposite extreme; and
the formality, if not the parsimony, of the court, seems to extend
to all the other branches of society, which I had an opportunity of
observing; though hospitality still characterises their intercourse
with strangers.

But let me now stop; I may be a little partial, and view everything
with the jaundiced eye of melancholy--for I am sad--and have cause.

God bless you!



LETTER XXI.



I have seen Count Bernstorff; and his conversation confirms me in
the opinion I had previously formed of him; I mean, since my arrival
at Copenhagen.  He is a worthy man, a little vain of his virtue a la
Necker; and more anxious not to do wrong, that is to avoid blame,
than desirous of doing good; especially if any particular good
demands a change.  Prudence, in short, seems to be the basis of his
character; and, from the tenor of the Government, I should think
inclining to that cautious circumspection which treads on the heels
of timidity.  He has considerable information, and some finesse; or
he could not be a Minister.  Determined not to risk his popularity,
for he is tenderly careful of his reputation, he will never
gloriously fail like Struensee, or disturb, with the energy of
genius, the stagnant state of the public mind.

I suppose that Lavater, whom he invited to visit him two years ago--
some say to fix the principles of the Christian religion firmly in
the Prince Royal's mind, found lines in his face to prove him a
statesman of the first order; because he has a knack at seeing a
great character in the countenances of men in exalted stations, who
have noticed him or his works.  Besides, the Count's sentiments
relative to the French Revolution, agreeing with Lavater's, must
have ensured his applause.

The Danes, in general, seem extremely averse to innovation, and if
happiness only consist in opinion, they are the happiest people in
the world; for I never saw any so well satisfied with their own
situation.  Yet the climate appears to be very disagreeable, the
weather being dry and sultry, or moist and cold; the atmosphere
never having that sharp, bracing purity, which in Norway prepares
you to brave its rigours.  I do not hear the inhabitants of this
place talk with delight of the winter, which is the constant theme
of the Norwegians; on the contrary, they seem to dread its
comfortless inclemency.

The ramparts are pleasant, and must have been much more so before
the fire, the walkers not being annoyed by the clouds of dust which,
at present, the slightest wind wafts from the ruins.  The windmills,
and the comfortable houses contiguous, belonging to the millers, as
well as the appearance of the spacious barracks for the soldiers and
sailors, tend to render this walk more agreeable.  The view of the
country has not much to recommend it to notice but its extent and
cultivation:  yet as the eye always delights to dwell on verdant
plains, especially when we are resident in a great city, these shady
walks should be reckoned amongst the advantages procured by the
Government for the inhabitants.  I like them better than the Royal
Gardens, also open to the public, because the latter seem sunk in
the heart of the city, to concentrate its fogs.

The canals which intersect the streets are equally convenient and
wholesome; but the view of the sea commanded by the town had little
to interest me whilst the remembrance of the various bold and
picturesque shores I had seen was fresh in my memory.  Still the
opulent inhabitants, who seldom go abroad, must find the spots were
they fix their country seats much pleasanter on account of the
vicinity of the ocean.

One of the best streets in Copenhagen is almost filled with
hospitals, erected by the Government, and, I am assured, as well
regulated as institutions of this kind are in any country; but
whether hospitals or workhouses are anywhere superintended with
sufficient humanity I have frequently had reason to doubt.

The autumn is so uncommonly fine that I am unwilling to put off my
journey to Hamburg much longer, lest the weather should alter
suddenly, and the chilly harbingers of winter catch me here, where I
have nothing now to detain me but the hospitality of the families to
whom I had recommendatory letters.  I lodged at an hotel situated in
a large open square, where the troops exercise and the market is
kept.  My apartments were very good; and on account of the fire I
was told that I should be charged very high; yet, paying my bill
just now, I find the demands much lower in proportion than in
Norway, though my dinners were in every respect better.

I have remained more at home since I arrived at Copenhagen than I
ought to have done in a strange place, but the mind is not always
equally active in search of information, and my oppressed heart too
often sighs out -


"How dull, flat, and unprofitable
Are to me all the usages of this world:
That it should come to this!"


Farewell!  Fare thee well, I say; if thou canst, repeat the adieu in
a different tone.



LETTER XXII.



I arrived at Corsoer the night after I quitted Copenhagen, purposing
to take my passage across the Great Belt the next morning, though
the weather was rather boisterous.  It is about four-and-twenty
miles but as both I and my little girl are never attacked by sea-
sickness--though who can avoid ennui?--I enter a boat with the same
indifference as I change horses; and as for danger, come when it
may, I dread it not sufficiently to have any anticipating fears.

The road from Copenhagen was very good, through an open, flat
country that had little to recommend it to notice excepting the
cultivation, which gratified my heart more than my eye.

I took a barge with a German baron who was hastening back from a
tour into Denmark, alarmed by the intelligence of the French having
passed the Rhine.  His conversation beguiled the time, and gave a
sort of stimulus to my spirits, which had been growing more and more
languid ever since my return to Gothenburg; you know why.  I had
often endeavoured to rouse myself to observation by reflecting that
I was passing through scenes which I should probably never see
again, and consequently ought not to omit observing.  Still I fell
into reveries, thinking, by way of excuse, that enlargement of mind
and refined feelings are of little use but to barb the arrows of
sorrow which waylay us everywhere, eluding the sagacity of wisdom
and rendering principles unavailing, if considered as a breastwork
to secure our own hearts.

Though we had not a direct wind, we were not detained more than
three hours and a half on the water, just long enough to give us an
appetite for our dinner.

We travelled the remainder of the day and the following night in
company with the same party, the German gentleman whom I have
mentioned, his friend, and servant.  The meetings at the post-houses
were pleasant to me, who usually heard nothing but strange tongues
around me.  Marguerite and the child often fell asleep, and when
they were awake I might still reckon myself alone, as our train of
thoughts had nothing in common.  Marguerite, it is true, was much
amused by the costume of the women, particularly by the pannier
which adorned both their heads and tails, and with great glee
recounted to me the stories she had treasured up for her family when
once more within the barriers of dear Paris, not forgetting, with
that arch, agreeable vanity peculiar to the French, which they
exhibit whilst half ridiculing it, to remind me of the importance
she should assume when she informed her friends of all her journeys
by sea and land, showing the pieces of money she had collected, and
stammering out a few foreign phrases, which she repeated in a true
Parisian accent.  Happy thoughtlessness! ay, and enviable harmless
vanity, which thus produced a gaite du coeur worth all my
philosophy!

The man I had hired at Copenhagen advised me to go round about
twenty miles to avoid passing the Little Belt excepting by a ferry,
as the wind was contrary.  But the gentlemen overruled his
arguments, which we were all very sorry for afterwards, when we
found ourselves becalmed on the Little Belt ten hours, tacking about
without ceasing, to gain the shore.

An oversight likewise made the passage appear much more tedious,
nay, almost insupportable.  When I went on board at the Great Belt,
I had provided refreshments in case of detention, which remaining
untouched I thought not then any such precaution necessary for the
second passage, misled by the epithet of "little," though I have
since been informed that it is frequently the longest.  This mistake
occasioned much vexation; for the child, at last, began to cry so
bitterly for bread, that fancy conjured up before me the wretched
Ugolino, with his famished children; and I, literally speaking,
enveloped myself in sympathetic horrors, augmented by every fear my
babe shed, from which I could not escape till we landed, and a
luncheon of bread and basin of milk routed the spectres of fancy.

I then supped with my companions, with whom I was soon after to part
for ever--always a most melancholy death-like idea--a sort of
separation of soul; for all the regret which follows those from whom
fate separates us seems to be something torn from ourselves.  These
were strangers I remember; yet when there is any originality in a
countenance, it takes its place in our memory, and we are sorry to
lose an acquaintance the moment he begins to interest us, through
picked up on the highway.  There was, in fact, a degree of
intelligence, and still more sensibility, in the features and
conversation of one of the gentlemen, that made me regret the loss
of his society during the rest of the journey; for he was compelled
to travel post, by his desire to reach his estate before the arrival
of the French.

This was a comfortable inn, as were several others I stopped at; but
the heavy sandy roads were very fatiguing, after the fine ones we
had lately skimmed over both in Sweden and Denmark.  The country
resembled the most open part of England--laid out for corn rather
than grazing.  It was pleasant, yet there was little in the
prospects to awaken curiosity, by displaying the peculiar
characteristics of a new country, which had so frequently stole me
from myself in Norway.  We often passed over large unenclosed
tracts, not graced with trees, or at least very sparingly enlivened
by them, and the half-formed roads seemed to demand the landmarks,
set up in the waste, to prevent the traveller from straying far out
of his way, and plodding through the wearisome sand.

The heaths were dreary, and had none of the wild charms of those of
Sweden and Norway to cheat time; neither the terrific rocks, nor
smiling herbage grateful to the sight and scented from afar, made us
forget their length.  Still the country appeared much more populous,
and the towns, if not the farmhouses, were superior to those of
Norway.  I even thought that the inhabitants of the former had more
intelligence--at least, I am sure they had more vivacity in their
countenances than I had seen during my northern tour:  their senses
seemed awake to business and pleasure.  I was therefore gratified by
hearing once more the busy hum of industrious men in the day, and
the exhilarating sounds of joy in the evening; for, as the weather
was still fine, the women and children were amusing themselves at
their doors, or walking under the trees, which in many places were
planted in the streets; and as most of the towns of any note were
situated on little bays or branches of the Baltic, their appearance
as we approached was often very picturesque, and, when we entered,
displayed the comfort and cleanliness of easy, if not the elegance
of opulent, circumstances.  But the cheerfulness of the people in
the streets was particularly grateful to me, after having been
depressed by the deathlike silence of those of Denmark, where every
house made me think of a tomb.  The dress of the peasantry is suited
to the climate; in short, none of that poverty and dirt appeared, at
the sight of which the heart sickens.

As I only stopped to change horses, take refreshment, and sleep, I
had not an opportunity of knowing more of the country than
conclusions which the information gathered by my eyes enabled me to
draw, and that was sufficient to convince me that I should much
rather have lived in some of the towns I now pass through than in
any I had seen in Sweden or Denmark.  The people struck me as having
arrived at that period when the faculties will unfold themselves; in
short; they look alive to improvement, neither congealed by
indolence, nor bent down by wretchedness to servility.

From the previous impression--I scarcely can trace whence I received
it--I was agreeably surprised to perceive such an appearance of
comfort in this part of Germany.  I had formed a conception of the
tyranny of the petty potentates that had thrown a gloomy veil over
the face of the whole country in my imagination, that cleared away
like the darkness of night before the sun as I saw the reality.  I
should probably have discovered much lurking misery, the consequence
of ignorant oppression, no doubt, had I had time to inquire into
particulars; but it did not stalk abroad and infect the surface over
which my eye glanced.  Yes, I am persuaded that a considerable
degree of general knowledge pervades this country, for it is only
from the exercise of the mind that the body acquires the activity
from which I drew these inferences.  Indeed, the King of Denmark's
German dominions--Holstein--appeared to me far superior to any other
part of his kingdom which had fallen under my view; and the robust
rustics to have their muscles braced, instead of the, as it were,
lounge of the Danish peasantry.

Arriving at Sleswick, the residence of Prince Charles of Hesse-
Cassel, the sight of the soldiers recalled all the unpleasing ideas
of German despotism, which imperceptibly vanished as I advanced into
the country.  I viewed, with a mixture of pity and horror, these
beings training to be sold to slaughter, or be slaughtered, and fell
into reflections on an old opinion of mine, that it is the
preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be
the design of the Deity throughout the whole of Nature.  Blossoms
come forth only to be blighted; fish lay their spawn where it will
be devoured; and what a large portion of the human race are born
merely to be swept prematurely away!  Does not this waste of budding
life emphatically assert that it is not men, but Man, whose
preservation is so necessary to the completion of the grand plan of
the universe?  Children peep into existence, suffer, and die; men
play like moths about a candle, and sink into the flame; war, and
"the thousand ills which flesh is heir to," mow them down in shoals;
whilst the more cruel prejudices of society palsy existence,
introducing not less sure though slower decay.

The castle was heavy and gloomy, yet the grounds about it were laid
out with some taste; a walk, winding under the shade of lofty trees,
led to a regularly built and animated town.

I crossed the drawbridge, and entered to see this shell of a court
in miniature, mounting ponderous stairs--it would be a solecism to
say a flight--up which a regiment of men might have marched,
shouldering their firelocks to exercise in vast galleries, where all
the generations of the Princes of Hesse-Cassel might have been
mustered rank and file, though not the phantoms of all the wretched
they had bartered to support their state, unless these airy
substances could shrink and expand, like Milton's devils, to suit
the occasion.

The sight of the presence-chamber, and of the canopy to shade the
fauteuil which aped a throne, made me smile.  All the world is a
stage, thought I; and few are there in it who do not play the part
they have learnt by rote; and those who do not, seem marks set up to
be pelted at by fortune, or rather as sign-posts which point out the
road to others, whilst forced to stand still themselves amidst the
mud and dust.

Waiting for our horses, we were amused by observing the dress of the
women, which was very grotesque and unwieldy.  The false notion of
beauty which prevails here as well as in Denmark, I should think
very inconvenient in summer, as it consists in giving a rotundity to
a certain part of the body, not the most slim, when Nature has done
her part.  This Dutch prejudice often leads them to toil under the
weight of some ten or a dozen petticoats, which, with an enormous
basket, literally speaking, as a bonnet, or a straw hat of
dimensions equally gigantic, almost completely conceal the human
form as well as face divine, often worth showing; still they looked
clean, and tripped along, as it were, before the wind, with a weight
of tackle that I could scarcely have lifted.  Many of the country
girls I met appeared to me pretty--that is, to have fine
complexions, sparkling eyes, and a kind of arch, hoyden playfulness
which distinguishes the village coquette.  The swains, in their
Sunday trim, attended some of these fair ones in a more slouching
pace, though their dress was not so cumbersome.  The women seem to
take the lead in polishing the manners everywhere, this being the
only way to better their condition.

From what I have seen throughout my journey, I do not think the
situation of the poor in England is much, if at all, superior to
that of the same class in different parts of the world; and in
Ireland I am sure it is much inferior.  I allude to the former state
of England; for at present the accumulation of national wealth only
increases the cares of the poor, and hardens the hearts of the rich,
in spite of the highly extolled rage for almsgiving.

You know that I have always been an enemy to what is termed charity,
because timid bigots, endeavouring thus to cover their sins, do
violence to justice, till, acting the demigod, they forget that they
are men.  And there are others who do not even think of laying up a
treasure in heaven, whose benevolence is merely tyranny in disguise;
they assist the most worthless, because the most servile, and term
them helpless only in proportion to their fawning.

After leaving Sleswick, we passed through several pretty towns;
Itzchol particularly pleased me; and the country, still wearing the
same aspect, was improved by the appearance of more trees and
enclosures.  But what gratified me most was the population.  I was
weary of travelling four or five hours, never meeting a carriage,
and scarcely a peasant; and then to stop at such wretched huts as I
had seen in Sweden was surely sufficient to chill any heart awake to
sympathy, and throw a gloom over my favourite subject of
contemplation, the future improvement of the world.

The farmhouses, likewise, with the huge stables, into which we drove
whilst the horses were putting to or baiting, were very clean and
commodious.  The rooms, with a door into this hall-like stable and
storehouse in one, were decent; and there was a compactness in the
appearance of the whole family lying thus snugly together under the
same roof that carried my fancy back to the primitive times, which
probably never existed with such a golden lustre as the animated
imagination lends when only able to seize the prominent features.

At one of them, a pretty young woman, with languishing eyes of
celestial blue, conducted us into a very neat parlour, and observing
how loosely and lightly my little girl was clad, began to pity her
in the sweetest accents, regardless of the rosy down of health on
her cheeks.  This same damsel was dressed--it was Sunday--with taste
and even coquetry, in a cotton jacket, ornamented with knots of blue
ribbon, fancifully disposed to give life to her fine complexion.  I
loitered a little to admire her, for every gesture was graceful;
and, amidst the other villagers, she looked like a garden lily
suddenly rearing its head amongst grain and corn-flowers.  As the
house was small, I gave her a piece of money rather larger than it
was my custom to give to the female waiters--for I could not prevail
on her to sit down--which she received with a smile; yet took care
to give it, in my presence, to a girl who had brought the child a
slice of bread; by which I perceived that she was the mistress or
daughter of the house, and without doubt the belle of the village.
There was, in short, an appearance of cheerful industry, and of that
degree of comfort which shut out misery, in all the little hamlets
as I approached Hamburg, which agreeably surprised me.

The short jackets which the women wear here, as well as in France,
are not only more becoming to the person, but much better calculated
for women who have rustic or household employments than the long
gowns worn in England, dangling in the dirt.

All the inns on the road were better than I expected, though the
softness of the beds still harassed me, and prevented my finding the
rest I was frequently in want of, to enable me to bear the fatigue
of the next day.  The charges were moderate, and the people very
civil, with a certain honest hilarity and independent spirit in
their manner, which almost made me forget that they were innkeepers,
a set of men--waiters, hostesses, chambermaids, &c., down to the
ostler, whose cunning servility in England I think particularly
disgusting.

The prospect of Hamburg at a distance, as well as the fine road
shaded with trees, led me to expect to see a much pleasanter city
than I found.

I was aware of the difficulty of obtaining lodgings, even at the
inns, on account of the concourse of strangers at present resorting
to such a centrical situation, and determined to go to Altona the
next day to seek for an abode, wanting now only rest.  But even for
a single night we were sent from house to house, and found at last a
vacant room to sleep in, which I should have turned from with
disgust had there been a choice.

I scarcely know anything that produces more disagreeable sensations,
I mean to speak of the passing cares, the recollection of which
afterwards enlivens our enjoyments, than those excited by little
disasters of this kind.  After a long journey, with our eyes
directed to some particular spot, to arrive and find nothing as it
should be is vexatious, and sinks the agitated spirits.  But I, who
received the cruellest of disappointments last spring in returning
to my home, term such as these emphatically passing cares.  Know you
of what materials some hearts are made?  I play the child, and weep
at the recollection--for the grief is still fresh that stunned as
well as wounded me--yet never did drops of anguish like these bedew
the cheeks of infantine innocence--and why should they mine, that
never was stained by a blush of guilt?  Innocent and credulous as a
child, why have I not the same happy thoughtlessness?  Adieu!



LETTER XXIII.



I might have spared myself the disagreeable feelings I experienced
the first night of my arrival at Hamburg, leaving the open air to be
shut up in noise and dirt, had I gone immediately to Altona, where a
lodging had been prepared for me by a gentleman from whom I received
many civilities during my journey.  I wished to have travelled in
company with him from Copenhagen, because I found him intelligent
and friendly, but business obliged him to hurry forward, and I wrote
to him on the subject of accommodations as soon as I was informed of
the difficulties I might have to encounter to house myself and brat.

It is but a short and pleasant walk from Hamburg to Altona, under
the shade of several rows of trees, and this walk is the more
agreeable after quitting the rough pavement of either place.

Hamburg is an ill, close-built town, swarming with inhabitants, and,
from what I could learn, like all the other free towns, governed in
a manner which bears hard on the poor, whilst narrowing the minds of
the rich; the character of the man is lost in the Hamburger.  Always
afraid of the encroachments of their Danish neighbours, that is,
anxiously apprehensive of their sharing the golden harvest of
commerce with them, or taking a little of the trade off their hands-
-though they have more than they know what to do with--they are ever
on the watch, till their very eyes lose all expression, excepting
the prying glance of suspicion.

The gates of Hamburg are shut at seven in the winter and nine in the
summer, lest some strangers, who come to traffic in Hamburg, should
prefer living, and consequently--so exactly do they calculate--spend
their money out of the walls of the Hamburger's world.  Immense
fortunes have been acquired by the per-cents. arising from
commissions nominally only two and a half, but mounted to eight or
ten at least by the secret manoeuvres of trade, not to include the
advantage of purchasing goods wholesale in common with contractors,
and that of having so much money left in their hands, not to play
with, I can assure you.  Mushroom fortunes have started up during
the war; the men, indeed, seem of the species of the fungus, and the
insolent vulgarity which a sudden influx of wealth usually produces
in common minds is here very conspicuous, which contrasts with the
distresses of many of the emigrants, "fallen, fallen from their high
estate," such are the ups and downs of fortune's wheel.  Many
emigrants have met, with fortitude, such a total change of
circumstances as scarcely can be paralleled, retiring from a palace
to an obscure lodging with dignity; but the greater number glide
about, the ghosts of greatness, with the Croix de St. Louis
ostentatiously displayed, determined to hope, "though heaven and
earth their wishes crossed."  Still good breeding points out the
gentleman, and sentiments of honour and delicacy appear the
offspring of greatness of soul when compared with the grovelling
views of the sordid accumulators of cent. per cent.

Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are
formed:  so much so, inferring from what I have lately seen, that I
mean not to be severe when I add--previously asking why priests are
in general cunning and statesmen false?--that men entirely devoted
to commerce never acquire or lose all taste and greatness of mind.
An ostentatious display of wealth without elegance, and a greedy
enjoyment of pleasure without sentiment, embrutes them till they
term all virtue of an heroic cast, romantic attempts at something
above our nature, and anxiety about the welfare of others, a search
after misery in which we have no concern.  But you will say that I
am growing bitter, perhaps personal.  Ah! shall I whisper to you,
that you yourself are strangely altered since you have entered
deeply into commerce--more than you are aware of; never allowing
yourself to reflect, and keeping your mind, or rather passions, in a
continual state of agitation?  Nature has given you talents which
lie dormant, or are wasted in ignoble pursuits.  You will rouse
yourself and shake off the vile dust that obscures you, or my
understanding, as well as my heart, deceives me egregiously--only
tell me when.  But to go farther afield.

Madame la Fayette left Altona the day I arrived, to endeavour, at
Vienna, to obtain the enlargement of her husband, or permission to
share his prison.  She lived in a lodging up two pairs of stairs,
without a servant, her two daughters cheerfully assisting; choosing,
as well as herself, to descend to anything before unnecessary
obligations.  During her prosperity, and consequent idleness, she
did not, I am told, enjoy a good state of health, having a train of
nervous complaints, which, though they have not a name, unless the
significant word ennui be borrowed, had an existence in the higher
French circles; but adversity and virtuous exertions put these ills
to flight, and dispossessed her of a devil who deserves the
appellation of legion.

Madame Genus also resided at Altona some time, under an assumed
name, with many other sufferers of less note though higher rank.  It
is, in fact, scarcely possible to stir out without meeting
interesting countenances, every lineament of which tells you that
they have seen better days.

At Hamburg, I was informed, a duke had entered into partnership with
his cook, who becoming a traiteur, they were both comfortably
supported by the profit arising from his industry.  Many noble
instances of the attachment of servants to their unfortunate masters
have come to my knowledge, both here and in France, and touched my
heart, the greatest delight of which is to discover human virtue.

At Altona, a president of one of the ci-devant parliaments keeps an
ordinary, in the French style; and his wife with cheerful dignity
submits to her fate, though she is arrived at an age when people
seldom relinquish their prejudices.  A girl who waits there brought
a dozen double louis d'or concealed in her clothes, at the risk of
her life, from France, which she preserves lest sickness or any
other distress should overtake her mistress, "who," she observed,
"was not accustomed to hardships."  This house was particularly
recommended to me by an acquaintance of yours, the author of the
"American Farmer's Letters."  I generally dine in company with him:
and the gentleman whom I have already mentioned is often diverted by
our declamations against commerce, when we compare notes respecting
the characteristics of the Hamburgers.  "Why, madam," said he to me
one day, "you will not meet with a man who has any calf to his leg;
body and soul, muscles and heart, are equally shrivelled up by a
thirst of gain.  There is nothing generous even in their youthful
passions; profit is their only stimulus, and calculations the sole
employment of their faculties, unless we except some gross animal
gratifications which, snatched at spare moments, tend still more to
debase the character, because, though touched by his tricking wand,
they have all the arts, without the wit, of the wing-footed god."

Perhaps you may also think us too severe; but I must add that the
more I saw of the manners of Hamburg, the more was I confirmed in my
opinion relative to the baleful effect of extensive speculations on
the moral character.  Men are strange machines; and their whole
system of morality is in general held together by one grand
principle which loses its force the moment they allow themselves to
break with impunity over the bounds which secured their self-
respect.  A man ceases to love humanity, and then individuals, as he
advances in the chase after wealth; as one clashes with his
interest, the other with his pleasures:  to business, as it is
termed, everything must give way; nay, is sacrificed, and all the
endearing charities of citizen, husband, father, brother, become
empty names.  But--but what?  Why, to snap the chain of thought, I
must say farewell.  Cassandra was not the only prophetess whose
warning voice has been disregarded.  How much easier it is to meet
with love in the world than affection!

Yours sincerely.



LETTER XXIV.



My lodgings at Altona are tolerably comfortable, though not in any
proportion to the price I pay; but, owing to the present
circumstances, all the necessaries of life are here extravagantly
dear.  Considering it as a temporary residence, the chief
inconvenience of which I am inclined to complain is the rough
streets that must be passed before Marguerite and the child can
reach a level road.

The views of the Elbe in the vicinity of the town are pleasant,
particularly as the prospects here afford so little variety.  I
attempted to descend, and walk close to the water's edge; but there
was no path; and the smell of glue, hanging to dry, an extensive
manufactory of which is carried on close to the beach, I found
extremely disagreeable.  But to commerce everything must give way;
profit and profit are the only speculations--"double--double, toil
and trouble."  I have seldom entered a shady walk without being soon
obliged to turn aside to make room for the rope-makers; and the only
tree I have seen, that appeared to be planted by the hand of taste,
is in the churchyard, to shade the tomb of the poet Klopstock's
wife.

Most of the merchants have country houses to retire to during the
summer; and many of them are situated on the banks of the Elbe,
where they have the pleasure of seeing the packet-boats arrive--the
periods of most consequence to divide their week.

The moving picture, consisting of large vessels and small craft,
which are continually changing their position with the tide, renders
this noble river, the vital stream of Hamburg, very interesting; and
the windings have sometimes a very fine effect, two or three turns
being visible at once, intersecting the flat meadows; a sudden bend
often increasing the magnitude of the river; and the silvery
expanse, scarcely gliding, though bearing on its bosom so much
treasure, looks for a moment like a tranquil lake.

Nothing can be stronger than the contrast which this flat country
and strand afford, compared with the mountains and rocky coast I
have lately dwelt so much among.  In fancy I return to a favourite
spot, where I seemed to have retired from man and wretchedness; but
the din of trade drags me back to all the care I left behind, when
lost in sublime emotions.  Rocks aspiring towards the heavens, and,
as it were, shutting out sorrow, surrounded me, whilst peace
appeared to steal along the lake to calm my bosom, modulating the
wind that agitated the neighbouring poplars.  Now I hear only an
account of the tricks of trade, or listen to the distressful tale of
some victim of ambition.

The hospitality of Hamburg is confined to Sunday invitations to the
country houses I have mentioned, when dish after dish smokes upon
the board, and the conversation ever flowing in the muddy channel of
business, it is not easy to obtain any appropriate information.  Had
I intended to remain here some time, or had my mind been more alive
to general inquiries, I should have endeavoured to have been
introduced to some characters not so entirely immersed in commercial
affairs, though in this whirlpool of gain it is not very easy to
find any but the wretched or supercilious emigrants, who are not
engaged in pursuits which, in my eyes, appear as dishonourable as
gambling.  The interests of nations are bartered by speculating
merchants.  My God! with what sang froid artful trains of corruption
bring lucrative commissions into particular hands, disregarding the
relative situation of different countries, and can much common
honesty be expected in the discharge of trusts obtained by fraud?
But this entre nous.

During my present journey, and whilst residing in France, I have had
an opportunity of peeping behind the scenes of what are vulgarly
termed great affairs, only to discover the mean machinery which has
directed many transactions of moment.  The sword has been merciful,
compared with the depredations made on human life by contractors and
by the swarm of locusts who have battened on the pestilence they
spread abroad.  These men, like the owners of negro ships, never
smell on their money the blood by which it has been gained, but
sleep quietly in their beds, terming such occupations lawful
callings; yet the lightning marks not their roofs to thunder
conviction on them "and to justify the ways of God to man."

Why should I weep for myself?  "Take, O world! thy much indebted
tear!"  Adieu!



LETTER XXV.



There is a pretty little French theatre at Altona, and the actors
are much superior to those I saw at Copenhagen.  The theatres at
Hamburg are not open yet, but will very shortly, when the shutting
of the gates at seven o'clock forces the citizens to quit their
country houses.  But, respecting Hamburg, I shall not be able to
obtain much more information, as I have determined to sail with the
first fair wind for England.

The presence of the French army would have rendered my intended tour
through Germany, in my way to Switzerland, almost impracticable, had
not the advancing season obliged me to alter my plan.  Besides,
though Switzerland is the country which for several years I have
been particularly desirous to visit, I do not feel inclined to
ramble any farther this year; nay, I am weary of changing the scene,
and quitting people and places the moment they begin to interest me.
This also is vanity!

DOVER.

I left this letter unfinished, as I was hurried on board, and now I
have only to tell you that, at the sight of Dover cliffs, I wondered
how anybody could term them grand; they appear so insignificant to
me, after those I had seen in Sweden and Norway.

Adieu!  My spirit of observation seems to be fled, and I have been
wandering round this dirty place, literally speaking, to kill time,
though the thoughts I would fain fly from lie too close to my heart
to be easily shook off, or even beguiled, by any employment, except
that of preparing for my journey to London.

God bless you!

MARY.



APPENDIX.



Private business and cares have frequently so absorbed me as to
prevent my obtaining all the information during this journey which
the novelty of the scenes would have afforded, had my attention been
continually awake to inquiry.  This insensibility to present objects
I have often had occasion to lament since I have been preparing
these letters for the press; but, as a person of any thought
naturally considers the history of a strange country to contrast the
former with the present state of its manners, a conviction of the
increasing knowledge and happiness of the kingdoms I passed through
was perpetually the result of my comparative reflections.

The poverty of the poor in Sweden renders the civilisation very
partial, and slavery has retarded the improvement of every class in
Denmark, yet both are advancing; and the gigantic evils of despotism
and anarchy have in a great measure vanished before the meliorating
manners of Europe.  Innumerable evils still remain, it is true, to
afflict the humane investigator, and hurry the benevolent reformer
into a labyrinth of error, who aims at destroying prejudices quickly
which only time can root out, as the public opinion becomes subject
to reason.

An ardent affection for the human race makes enthusiastic characters
eager to produce alteration in laws and governments prematurely.  To
render them useful and permanent, they must be the growth of each
particular soil, and the gradual fruit of the ripening understanding
of the nation, matured by time, not forced by an unnatural
fermentation.  And, to convince me that such a change is gaining
ground with accelerating pace, the view I have had of society during
my northern journey would have been sufficient had I not previously
considered the grand causes which combine to carry mankind forward
and diminish the sum of human misery.





End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Letters on Sweden, etc., by Wollstonecraft

