Letters on Sweden, Norway and Denmark | Page 8

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