What a long time it requires to know ourselves; and yet almost every
one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own, even to
himself. I cannot immediately determine whether I ought to rejoice
at having turned over in this solitude a new page in the history of
my own heart, though I may venture to assure you that a further
acquaintance with mankind only tends to increase my respect for your
judgment and esteem for your character. Farewell!
LETTER X.
I have once more, my friend, taken flight, for I left Tonsberg
yesterday, but with an intention of returning in my way back to
Sweden.
The road to Laurvig is very fine, and the country the best
cultivated in Norway. I never before admired the beech tree, and
when I met stragglers here they pleased me still less. Long and
lank, they would have forced me to allow that the line of beauty
requires some curves, if the stately pine, standing near, erect,
throwing her vast arms around, had not looked beautiful in
opposition to such narrow rules.
In these respects my very reason obliges me to permit my feelings to
be my criterion. Whatever excites emotion has charms for me, though
I insist that the cultivation of the mind by warming, nay, almost
creating the imagination, produces taste and an immense variety of
sensations and emotions, partaking of the exquisite pleasure
inspired by beauty and sublimity. As I know of no end to them, the
word infinite, so often misapplied, might on this occasion be
introduced with something like propriety.
But I have rambled away again. I intended to have remarked to you
the effect produced by a grove of towering beech, the airy lightness
of their foliage admitting a degree of sunshine, which, giving a
transparency to the leaves, exhibited an appearance of freshness and
elegance that I had never before remarked. I thought of
descriptions of Italian scenery. But these evanescent graces seemed
the effect of enchantment; and I imperceptibly breathed softly, lest
I should destroy what was real, yet looked so like the creation of
fancy. Dryden's fable of the flower and the leaf was not a more
poetical reverie.
Adieu, however, to fancy, and to all the sentiments which ennoble
our nature. I arrived at Laurvig, and found myself in the midst of
a group of lawyers of different descriptions. My head turned round,
my heart grew sick, as I regarded visages deformed by vice, and
listened to accounts of chicanery that was continually embroiling
the ignorant. These locusts will probably diminish as the people
become more enlightened.
