Shook off, or even beguiled, by any employment, except
that of preparing for my journey to London.
God bless you!
MARY.
APPENDIX.
Private business and cares have frequently so absorbed me as to
prevent my obtaining all the information during this journey which
the novelty of the scenes would have afforded, had my attention been
continually awake to inquiry. This insensibility to present objects
I have often had occasion to lament since I have been preparing
these letters for the press; but, as a person of any thought
naturally considers the history of a strange country to contrast the
former with the present state of its manners, a conviction of the
increasing knowledge and happiness of the kingdoms I passed through
was perpetually the result of my comparative reflections.
The poverty of the poor in Sweden renders the civilisation very
partial, and slavery has retarded the improvement of every class in
Denmark, yet both are advancing; and the gigantic evils of despotism
and anarchy have in a great measure vanished before the meliorating
manners of Europe. Innumerable evils still remain, it is true, to
afflict the humane investigator, and hurry the benevolent reformer
into a labyrinth of error, who aims at destroying prejudices quickly
which only time can root out, as the public opinion becomes subject
to reason.
An ardent affection for the human race makes enthusiastic characters
eager to produce alteration in laws and governments prematurely. To
render them useful and permanent, they must be the growth of each
particular soil, and the gradual fruit of the ripening understanding
of the nation, matured by time, not forced by an unnatural
fermentation. And, to convince me that such a change is gaining
ground with accelerating pace, the view I have had of society during
my northern journey would have been sufficient had I not previously
considered the grand causes which combine to carry mankind forward
and diminish the sum of human misery.
End of LETTERS ON SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND DENMARK by Wollstonecraft
