was very estimable, but from his infancy, he had been
sensible himself that he could not hold the reins of government. The
Swedes fought in Finland with the greatest courage; but without a
warlike chief on the throne, a nation which is not numerous cannot
triumph over a powerful enemy. The Emperor Alexander became master
of Finland by conquest, and by treaties founded on force; but we
must do him the justice to say, that he treated this new province
very well, and respected the liberties she enjoyed. He allowed the
Finns all their privileges relative to the raising of taxes and men;
he sent very generous assistance to the towns which had been burnt,
and his favors compensated to a certain extent what the Finns
possessed as rights, if free men can ever accede voluntarily to that
sort of exchange. Finally, one of the prevailing ideas of the
nineteenth century, natural boundaries, rendered Finland as
necessary to Russia, as Norway to Sweden; and it must be admitted as
a truth, that wherever these natural limits have not existed, they
have been the source of perpetual wars.

I embarked at Abo, the capital of Finland. There is an university in
that city, and they make some attempts in it to cultivate the
intellect: but the vicinity of the bears and wolves during the
winter is so close, that all ideas are absorbed in the necessity of
ensuring a tolerable physical existence; and the difficulty which is
felt in obtaining that in the countries of the north, consumes at
great part of the time which' is elsewhere consecrated to the
enjoyment of the intellectual arts. As some compensation, however,
it may be said that the very difficulties with which nature
surrounds men give greater firmness to their character, and prevent
the admission into their mind of all the disorders occasioned by
idleness. I could not help, however every moment regretting those
rays of the South which had penetrated to my very soul.

The mythological ideas of the inhabitants of the North are
constantly representing to them ghosts and phantoms; day is there
equally favorable to apparitions as night; something pale and cloudy
seems to summon the dead to return to the earth, to breathe the cold
air, as the tomb with which the living are surrounded. In these
countries the two extremities are generally more conspicuous than
the intermediate ones; where men are entirely occupied with
conquering their existence from nature, mental labors very easily
become mys