第40章 LETTER XIV(2)

As I have been most delighted with the country parts of Norway,Iwas sorry to leave Christiania without going farther to the north,though the advancing season admonished me to depart,as well as the calls of business and affection.

June and July are the months to make a tour through Norway;for then the evenings and nights are the finest I have ever seen;but towards the middle or latter end of August the clouds begin to gather,and summer disappears almost before it has ripened the fruit of autumn--even,as it were,slips from your embraces,whilst the satisfied senses seem to rest in enjoyment.

You will ask,perhaps,why I wished to go farther northward.Why?

not only because the country,from all I can gather,is most romantic,abounding in forests and lakes,and the air pure,but Ihave heard much of the intelligence of the inhabitants,substantial farmers,who have none of that cunning to contaminate their simplicity,which displeased me so much in the conduct of the people on the sea coast.A man who has been detected in any dishonest act can no longer live among them.He is universally shunned,and shame becomes the severest punishment.

Such a contempt have they,in fact,for every species of fraud,that they will not allow the people on the western coast to be their countrymen;so much do they despise the arts for which those traders who live on the rocks are notorious.

The description I received of them carried me back to the fables of the golden age:independence and virtue;affluence without vice;cultivation of mind,without depravity of heart;with "ever smiling Liberty;"the nymph of the mountain.I want faith!

My imagination hurries me forward to seek an asylum in such a retreat from all the disappointments I am threatened with;but reason drags me back,whispering that the world is still the world,and man the same compound of weakness and folly,who must occasionally excite love and disgust,admiration and contempt.But this description,though it seems to have been sketched by a fairy pencil,was given me by a man of sound understanding,whose fancy seldom appears to run away with him.

A law in Norway,termed the odels right,has lately been modified,and probably will be abolished as an impediment to commerce.The heir of an estate had the power of re-purchasing it at the original purchase money,making allowance for such improvements as were absolutely necessary,during the space of twenty years.At present ten is the term allowed for afterthought;and when the regulation was made,all the men of abilities were invited to give their opinion whether it were better to abrogate or modify it.It is certainly a convenient and safe way of mortgaging land;yet the most rational men whom I conversed with on the subject seemed convinced that the right was more injurious than beneficial to society;still if it contribute to keep the farms in the farmers'own hands,Ishould be sorry to hear that it were abolished.

The aristocracy in Norway,if we keep clear of Christiania,is far from being formidable;and it will require a long the to enable the merchants to attain a sufficient moneyed interest to induce them to reinforce the upper class at the expense of the yeomanry,with whom they are usually connected.

England and America owe their liberty to commerce,which created new species of power to undermine the feudal system.But let them beware of the consequence;the tyranny of wealth is still more galling and debasing than that of rank.

Farewell!I must prepare for my departure.