- Nothing For The Common Sensations
Excited By The Senses.
Yet who will deny that the imagination and
understanding have made many, very many discoveries since those
days, which only seem harbingers of others still more noble and
beneficial?
I never met with much imagination amongst people who
had not acquired a habit of reflection; and in that state of society
in which the judgment and taste are not called forth, and formed by
the cultivation of the arts and sciences, little of that delicacy of
feeling and thinking is to be found characterised by the word
sentiment. The want of scientific pursuits perhaps accounts for the
hospitality, as well as for the cordial reception which strangers
receive from the inhabitants of small towns.
Hospitality has, I think, been too much praised by travellers as a
proof of goodness of heart, when, in my opinion, indiscriminate
hospitality is rather a criterion by which you may form a tolerable
estimate of the indolence or vacancy of a head; or, in other words,
a fondness for social pleasures in which the mind not having its
proportion of exercise, the bottle must be pushed about.
These remarks are equally applicable to Dublin, the most hospitable
city I ever passed through. But I will try to confine my
observations more particularly to Sweden.
It is true I have only had a glance over a small part of it; yet of
its present state of manners and acquirements I think I have formed
a distinct idea, without having visited the capital - where, in fact,
less of a national character is to be found than in the remote parts
of the country.
The Swedes pique themselves on their politeness; but far from being
the polish of a cultivated mind, it consists merely of tiresome
forms and ceremonies. So far, indeed, from entering immediately
into your character, and making you feel instantly at your ease,
like the well-bred French, their over-acted civility is a continual
restraint on all your actions. The sort of superiority which a
fortune gives when there is no superiority of education, excepting
what consists in the observance of senseless forms, has a contrary
effect than what is intended; so that I could not help reckoning the
peasantry the politest people of Sweden, who, only aiming at
pleasing you, never think of being admired for their behaviour.
Their tables, like their compliments, seem equally a caricature of
the French. The dishes are composed, as well as theirs, of a
variety of mixtures to destroy the native taste of the food without
being as relishing. Spices and sugar are put into everything, even
into the bread; and the only way I can account for their partiality
to high-seasoned dishes is the constant use of salted provisions.
Necessity obliges them to lay up a store of dried fish and salted
meat for the winter; and in summer, fresh meat and fish taste
insipid after them. To which may be added the constant use of
spirits. Every day, before dinner and supper, even whilst the
dishes are cooling on the table, men and women repair to a side-
table; and to obtain an appetite eat bread-and-butter, cheese, raw
salmon, or anchovies, drinking a glass of brandy. Salt fish or meat
then immediately follows, to give a further whet to the stomach. As
the dinner advances, pardon me for taking up a few minutes to
describe what, alas! has detained me two or three hours on the
stretch observing, dish after dish is changed, in endless rotation,
and handed round with solemn pace to each guest; but should you
happen not to like the first dishes, which was often my case, it is
a gross breach of politeness to ask for part of any other till its
turn comes. But have patience, and there will be eating enough.
Allow me to run over the acts of a visiting day, not overlooking the
interludes.
Prelude a luncheon - then a succession of fish, flesh, and fowl for
two hours, during which time the dessert - I was sorry for the
strawberries and cream - rests on the table to be impregnated by the
fumes of the viands. Coffee immediately follows in the drawing-
room, but does not preclude punch, ale, tea and cakes, raw salmon,
&c. A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory
luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner. A day of this
kind you would imagine sufficient; but a to-morrow and a to-morrow -
A never-ending, still-beginning feast may be bearable, perhaps, when
stern winter frowns, shaking with chilling aspect his hoary locks;
but during a summer, sweet as fleeting, let me, my kind strangers,
escape sometimes into your fir groves, wander on the margin of your
beautiful lakes, or climb your rocks, to view still others in
endless perspective, which, piled by more than giant's hand, scale
the heavens to intercept its rays, or to receive the parting tinge
of lingering day - day that, scarcely softened unto twilight, allows
the freshening breeze to wake, and the moon to burst forth in all
her glory to glide with solemn elegance through the azure expanse.
The cow's bell has ceased to tinkle the herd to rest; they have all
paced across the heath. Is not this the witching time of night?
The waters murmur, and fall with more than mortal music, and spirits
of peace walk abroad to calm the agitated breast. Eternity is in
these moments. Worldly cares melt into the airy stuff that dreams
are made of, and reveries, mild and enchanting as the first hopes of
love or the recollection of lost enjoyment, carry the hapless wight
into futurity, who in bustling life has vainly strove to throw off
the grief which lies heavy at the heart. Good night! A crescent
hangs out in the vault before, which woos me to stray abroad. It is
not a silvery reflection of the sun, but glows with all its golden
splendour.
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