sed over large
unenclosed tracts, not graced with trees, or at least very sparingly
enlivened by them, and the half-formed roads seemed to demand the
landmarks, set up in the waste, to prevent the traveller from straying
far out of his way, and plodding through the wearisome sand.

The heaths were dreary, and had none of the wild charms of those of
Sweden and Norway to cheat time; neither the terrific rocks, nor smiling
herbage grateful to the sight and scented from afar, made us forget their
length. Still the country appeared much more populous, and the towns, if
not the farmhouses, were superior to those of Norway. I even thought
that the inhabitants of the former had more intelligence--at least, I am
sure they had more vivacity in their countenances than I had seen during
my northern tour: their senses seemed awake to business and pleasure. I
was therefore gratified by hearing once more the busy hum of industrious
men in the day, and the exhilarating sounds of joy in the evening; for,
as the weather was still fine, the women and children were amusing
themselves at their doors, or walking under the trees, which in many
places were planted in the streets; and as most of the towns of any note
were situated on little bays or branches of the Baltic, their appearance
as we approached was often very picturesque, and, when we entered,
displayed the comfort and cleanliness of easy, if not the elegance of
opulent, circumstances. But the cheerfulness of the people in the
streets was particularly grateful to me, after having been depressed by
the deathlike silence of those of Denmark, where every house made me
think of a tomb. The dress of the peasantry is suited to the climate; in
short, none of that poverty and dirt appeared, at the sight of which the
heart sickens.

As I only stopped to change horses, take refreshment, and sleep, I had
not an opportunity of knowing more of the country than conclusions which
the information gathered by my eyes enabled me to draw, and that was
sufficient to convince me that I should much rather have lived in some of
the towns I now pass through than in any I had seen in Sweden or Denmark.
The people struck me as having arrived at that period when the faculties
will unfold themselves; in short; they look alive to improvement, neither
congealed by indolence, nor bent down by wretchedness to servility.

From the previous impression--I scarcely can trace whence I received it--I
was agreeably