After A Long Journey, With Our Eyes
Directed To Some Particular Spot, To Arrive And Find Nothing As It
Should Be Is Vexatious, And Sinks The Agitated Spirits.
But I, who
received the cruellest of disappointments last spring in returning
to my home, term such as these emphatically passing cares.
Know you
of what materials some hearts are made? I play the child, and weep
at the recollection - for the grief is still fresh that stunned as
well as wounded me - yet never did drops of anguish like these bedew
the cheeks of infantine innocence - and why should they mine, that
never was stained by a blush of guilt? Innocent and credulous as a
child, why have I not the same happy thoughtlessness? Adieu!
LETTER XXIII.
I might have spared myself the disagreeable feelings I experienced
the first night of my arrival at Hamburg, leaving the open air to be
shut up in noise and dirt, had I gone immediately to Altona, where a
lodging had been prepared for me by a gentleman from whom I received
many civilities during my journey. I wished to have travelled in
company with him from Copenhagen, because I found him intelligent
and friendly, but business obliged him to hurry forward, and I wrote
to him on the subject of accommodations as soon as I was informed of
the difficulties I might have to encounter to house myself and brat.
It is but a short and pleasant walk from Hamburg to Altona, under
the shade of several rows of trees, and this walk is the more
agreeable after quitting the rough pavement of either place.
Hamburg is an ill, close-built town, swarming with inhabitants, and,
from what I could learn, like all the other free towns, governed in
a manner which bears hard on the poor, whilst narrowing the minds of
the rich; the character of the man is lost in the Hamburger. Always
afraid of the encroachments of their Danish neighbours, that is,
anxiously apprehensive of their sharing the golden harvest of
commerce with them, or taking a little of the trade off their hands-
-though they have more than they know what to do with - they are ever
on the watch, till their very eyes lose all expression, excepting
the prying glance of suspicion.
The gates of Hamburg are shut at seven in the winter and nine in the
summer, lest some strangers, who come to traffic in Hamburg, should
prefer living, and consequently - so exactly do they calculate - spend
their money out of the walls of the Hamburger's world. Immense
fortunes have been acquired by the per-cents. arising from
commissions nominally only two and a half, but mounted to eight or
ten at least by the secret manoeuvres of trade, not to include the
advantage of purchasing goods wholesale in common with contractors,
and that of having so much money left in their hands, not to play
with, I can assure you. Mushroom fortunes have started up during
the war; the men, indeed, seem of the species of the fungus, and the
insolent vulgarity which a sudden influx of wealth usually produces
in common minds is here very conspicuous, which contrasts with the
distresses of many of the emigrants, "fallen, fallen from their high
estate," such are the ups and downs of fortune's wheel. Many
emigrants have met, with fortitude, such a total change of
circumstances as scarcely can be paralleled, retiring from a palace
to an obscure lodging with dignity; but the greater number glide
about, the ghosts of greatness, with the Croix de St. Louis
ostentatiously displayed, determined to hope, "though heaven and
earth their wishes crossed." Still good breeding points out the
gentleman, and sentiments of honour and delicacy appear the
offspring of greatness of soul when compared with the grovelling
views of the sordid accumulators of cent. per cent.
Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are
formed: so much so, inferring from what I have lately seen, that I
mean not to be severe when I add - previously asking why priests are
in general cunning and statesmen false? - that men entirely devoted
to commerce never acquire or lose all taste and greatness of mind.
An ostentatious display of wealth without elegance, and a greedy
enjoyment of pleasure without sentiment, embrutes them till they
term all virtue of an heroic cast, romantic attempts at something
above our nature, and anxiety about the welfare of others, a search
after misery in which we have no concern. But you will say that I
am growing bitter, perhaps personal. Ah! shall I whisper to you,
that you yourself are strangely altered since you have entered
deeply into commerce - more than you are aware of; never allowing
yourself to reflect, and keeping your mind, or rather passions, in a
continual state of agitation? Nature has given you talents which
lie dormant, or are wasted in ignoble pursuits. You will rouse
yourself and shake off the vile dust that obscures you, or my
understanding, as well as my heart, deceives me egregiously - only
tell me when. But to go farther afield.
Madame la Fayette left Altona the day I arrived, to endeavour, at
Vienna, to obtain the enlargement of her husband, or permission to
share his prison. She lived in a lodging up two pairs of stairs,
without a servant, her two daughters cheerfully assisting; choosing,
as well as herself, to descend to anything before unnecessary
obligations. During her prosperity, and consequent idleness, she
did not, I am told, enjoy a good state of health, having a train of
nervous complaints, which, though they have not a name, unless the
significant word ennui be borrowed, had an existence in the higher
French circles; but adversity and virtuous exertions put these ills
to flight, and dispossessed her of a devil who deserves the
appellation of legion.
Madame Genus also resided at Altona some time, under an assumed
name, with many other sufferers of less note though higher rank.
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