Books: Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

M >> Mary Wollstonecraft >> Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

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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.

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