If I could. ALDA. MEDON. There are people, who when they travel, open their eyes and their ears, (ay, and their mouths to some purpose,) and shut up their hearts and souls. I have heard such persons make it their boast, that they have returned to Old England with all their old prejudices thick upon them; they have come back, to use their own phrase, "with no foreign ideas-just the same as they went:" they are much to be congratulated! I hope you are not one of these? ALDA. I hope not; it is this cold impervious pride which is the perdition of us English, and of England. I remember, that in one of my several excursions on the Rhine, we had on board the steam-boat an English family of high rank. There was the lordly papa, plain and shy, who never spoke to any one, except his own family, and then only in the lowest whisper. There was the lady mamma, so truly lady-like, with fine cut patrician features, and in her countenance a kind of passive hauteur, softened by an appearance of suffering, and ill health. There were two daughters, proud, pale, fine-looking girls, dressed à ravir, with that indescribable air of high pretension, so elegantly impassive-so self-possessed-which some people call l'air distingué, but which, as extremes meet, I would rather call the refinement of vulgarity— the polish we see bestowed on debased material— the plating over the steel-the stucco over the brickwork! MEDON. Good ; you can be severe then! ALDA. I spoke generally: bear witness to the general truth of the picture, for it will fit others as well as the personages I have brought before you, who are, indeed, but specimens of a species. This group then, had designedly or instinctively entrenched themselves in a corner to the right of the steersman, within a fortification of tables and benches, so arranged as to forbid all approach within two or three yards. The young ladies had each their sketch-book, and wielded pencil and Indian rubber, I know not with what effect,-but I know that I never saw either countenance once relax or brighten, in the midst of the divine scenery through which we glided. Two female attendants seated on the outer fortifications, formed a kind of piquet guard; and two footmen at the other end, kept watch over the well-appointed carriages, and came and went as their attendance was required. No one else ventured to approach this aristocratic Olympus; the celestials within its precincts, though not exactly seated "on golden stools, at golden tables," like the divinities in the song of the Parcæ,* showed as supreme, as godlike an indifference to the throng of mortals in the nether sphere: no word was exchanged during the whole day with any of the fifty or sixty human beings who were round them; nay, when the rain drove us down to the pavilion, even there, amid twelve or fourteen others, they contrived to keep themselves aloof from contact and conversation. In this fashion they probably pursued their tour, exchanging the interior of their travelling carriage for the interior of an hotel; and every where associating only with those of their own caste. all that is to be seen? what is to be known? what is to be endured? What do they see of What can they know of What do they endure of I can speak from expe * In Goethe's Iphigenia. rience-I have travelled in that same style. As they went, so they return; happily, or rather pitifully, unconscious of the narrow circle in which move their factitious enjoyments, their confined experience, their half-awakened sympathies! And I should tell you, that in the same steam-boat were two German girls, under the care of an elderly relative, I think an aunt, and a brother, who was a celebrated jurisconsulte and judge: their rank was equal to that of my countrywomen; their blood, perhaps, more purely noble, that is, older by some centuries; and their family more illustrious, by God knows how many quarterings; moreover, their father was a minister of state. Both these girls were beautiful;-fair, and fairhaired, with complexions on which "the rose stood ready with a blush ;" and one, the youngest sister, was exquisitely lovely-in truth, she might have sat for one of Guido's angels. They walked up and down the deck, neither seeking nor avoiding the proximity of others. They accepted the telescopes which the gentlemen, particularly some young Englishmen, pressed on them, when any distant or remarkable object came in view, and repaid the courtesy with a bright kindly smile ; they were natural and easy, and did not deem it necessary to mount guard over their own dignity. Do you think I did not observe and feel the contrast? MEDON. If nations begin at last to understand each other's true interests-morally and politically, it will be through the agency of gifted men; but if ever they learn to love and sympathize with each other, it will be through the medium of you women. You smile, and shake your head; but in spite of a late example, which might seem to controvert this idea, I still think so ;-our prejudices are stronger and bitterer than yours, because they are those which perverted reason builds up on a foundation of pride; but yours, which are generally those of fancy and association, soon melt away before your own kindly affections. More mobile, more impressible, more easily yielding to external circumstances, more easily lending yourselves to different manners and habits, more quick to perceive, more gentle to judge;—yes, it is to you we must look, to break down the outworks of prejudice—you the advanced guard of humanity and civilization! "The gentle race and dear, By whom alone the world is glorified!" |