After The First Touches Of Enthusiastic
Sentiment, That Represent Real Freshness Of Enjoyment, There Is No
Reaction To Excess In Opposite Extreme.
The young foot traveller
settles down to simple truth, retains his faith in English
character, and reports ill-usage without a word of bitterness.
The great charm of this book is its unconscious expression of the
writer's character. His simple truthfulness presents to us of 1886
as much of the England of 1782 as he was able to see with eyes full
of intelligence and a heart full of kindness. He heard Burke speak
on the death of his friend and patron Lord Rockingham, with sudden
rebuke to an indolent and inattentive house. He heard young Pitt,
and saw how he could fix, boy as he looked, every man's attention.
"Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion."
And when the power is so friendly as that of the Pastor Moritz, we
may, if wise, know ourselves better than from a thousand satires,
but if foolish we may let all run into self-praise.
H. M.
CHAPTER I.
On the Thames, 31st May.
At length, my dearest Gedike, I find myself safely landed on the
happy shores of that country, a sight of which has, for many years,
been my most earnest wish; and whither I have so often in
imagination transported myself. A few hours ago the green hills of
England yet swam imperfectly before our eyes, scarcely perceptible
in the distant horizon:
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