It Was Too Early For
Thee To Be Abandoned, Thought I, And I Hastened Out Of The House To
Take My Solitary Evening's Walk.
And here I am again to talk of
anything but the pangs arising from the discovery of estranged
affection and the lonely sadness of a deserted heart.
The father and mother, if the father can be ascertained, are obliged
to maintain an illegitimate child at their joint expense; but,
should the father disappear, go up the country or to sea, the mother
must maintain it herself. However, accidents of this kind do not
prevent their marrying, and then it is not unusual to take the child
or children home, and they are brought up very amicably with the
marriage progeny.
I took some pains to learn what books were written originally in
their language; but for any certain information respecting the state
of Danish literature I must wait till I arrive at Copenhagen.
The sound of the language is soft, a great proportion of the words
ending in vowels; and there is a simplicity in the turn of some of
the phrases which have been translated to me that pleased and
interested me. In the country the farmers use the THOU and THEE;
and they do not acquire the polite plurals of the towns by meeting
at market. The not having markets established in the large towns
appears to me a great inconvenience. When the farmers have anything
to sell they bring it to the neighbouring town and take it from
house to house. I am surprised that the inhabitants do not feel how
very incommodious this usage is to both parties, and redress it;
they, indeed, perceive it, for when I have introduced the subject
they acknowledged that they were often in want of necessaries, there
being no butchers, and they were often obliged to buy what they did
not want; yet it was the custom, and the changing of customs of a
long standing requires more energy than they yet possess. I
received a similar reply when I attempted to persuade the women that
they injured their children by keeping them too warm. The only way
of parrying off my reasoning was that they must do as other people
did; in short, reason on any subject of change, and they stop you by
saying that "the town would talk." A person of sense, with a large
fortune to ensure respect, might be very useful here, by inducing
them to treat their children and manage their sick properly, and eat
food dressed in a simpler manner - the example, for instance, of a
count's lady.
Reflecting on these prejudices made me revert to the wisdom of those
legislators who established institutions for the good of the body
under the pretext of serving heaven for the salvation of the soul.
These might with strict propriety be termed pious frauds; and I
admire the Peruvian pair for asserting that they came from the sun,
when their conduct proved that they meant to enlighten a benighted
country, whose obedience, or even attention, could only be secured
by awe.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 42 of 98
Words from 21339 to 21857
of 50703
