Books: Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
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Mary Wollstonecraft >> Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
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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.
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