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.
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