Adhering, With Puerile Scrupulosity, To The Law
Which He Has Imposed On Himself, Of Acting Exactly Right, He Did
Wrong By Idly Lamenting Whilst He Marked The Progress Of A Mischief
That One Decided Step Would Have Stopped.
He was afterwards obliged
to resort to violent measures; but then, who could blame him?
And,
to avoid censure, what sacrifices are not made by weak minds?
A gentleman who was a witness of the scene assured me, likewise,
that if the people of property had taken half as much pains to
extinguish the fire as to preserve their valuables and furniture, it
would soon have been got under. But they who were not immediately
in danger did not exert themselves sufficiently, till fear, like an
electrical shock, roused all the inhabitants to a sense of the
general evil. Even the fire-engines were out of order, though the
burning of the palace ought to have admonished them of the necessity
of keeping them in constant repair. But this kind of indolence
respecting what does not immediately concern them seems to
characterise the Danes. A sluggish concentration in themselves
makes them so careful to preserve their property, that they will not
venture on any enterprise to increase it in which there is a shadow
of hazard.
Considering Copenhagen as the capital of Denmark and Norway, I was
surprised not to see so much industry or taste as in Christiania.
Indeed, from everything I have had an opportunity of observing, the
Danes are the people who have made the fewest sacrifices to the
graces.
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