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.