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.
