CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE OF AUSTRIA IN GENERAL.
The south of Germany would be the most fortunate country in Europe, if
the government to which it is subject had not shown in many
circumstances a weakness that but ill accords with the wisdom of its
views. Temperate in its climate, fertile from the nature of its soil,
and happy in its institutions, it remains invariably in a monotonous
state of well-being, which is prejudicial to the activity of the mind
alone, not to the happiness of the citizens. The inhabitants of this
peaceful and fertile country have but one wish, that is, to live
to-morrow as they lived yesterday. This tranquillity which in Austria
pervades all classes of society is surely preferable to that agitation
and thirst of wealth which torment almost all ranks in other
countries. Thus industry, ease and domestic enjoyments are more highly
valued in Austria than elsewhere: there every thing is done rather out
of duty than for fame; and no man looks for the reward of his actions
in the empty popularity which merely flatters pride and vanity,
without ever gratifying the heart.
A nation which has no other motive than a love of its duties must be
essentially a generous and an upright nation. What nation displays, on
the whole, more integrity and generosity than the Austrians? They
carry the love of their sovereigns to the highest pitch, and that
because they regard this love as the most sacred of duties. Let their
rulers be ever so unfortunate, their attachment is but the stronger,
and the greatest sacrifices seem to cost them nothing.
The Germans in general, and the Austrians in particular, possess a
sincerity and a probity that are proof against every thing. These
valuable qualities originate as much in the excellence of their
institutions as of their hearts. Their tranquil and peaceful
disposition as well as their domestic habits, encourage in them a love
of order and union from which they never deviate.
In consequence of this love of order the Austrians are remarkably neat
in their dress, so that you seldom see among them, as in other
countries, wretches in rags by the side of elegance and luxury. There
is not an Austrian peasant but possesses a decent suit of clothes,
boots, and a furred great coat for winter. Enter their habitations and
you will find the same neatness and cleanliness which are conspicuous
in their habiliments. In these rustic dwellings nothing announces
affluence, but on the other hand there is nothing to denote poverty
and indigence. When the lower classes of a nation are well dressed,
who can doubt its wealth and its prosperity?
The Austrians have been generally considered as ceremonious, and as
attaching too much importance to the formalities of etiquette.
Foreigners have been apt to ridicule them on this account, without
reflecting that this adherence to forms and ceremonies is a result of
their love of order and decorum. It must nevertheless be confessed
that, if etiquette and the forms of politeness are more strictly
observed in Germany than in other countries, this is partly owing to
the prerogatives enjoyed there by the nobility. Though the line
between the classes is much more strongly marked than elsewhere, still
there is nothing offensive in that demarcation. The differences of
rank are confined to a few court privileges, and the right of
admittance to certain assemblies, which afford too little pleasure to
deserve much regret. In fact the grandees of Vienna, who are the most
magnificent and wealthy in Europe, are so far from abusing the
advantages they possess, that in the streets they suffer the meanest
vehicles to stop their brilliant equipages. The emperor himself, and
his brothers, when they go abroad drive quietly along in the file of
hackney-coaches, and take delight to appear in their amusements as
private individuals.
As to the national character, there is but little opportunity for its
development in Austria, since the different nations who inhabit the
various provinces of that empire do not form a compact whole, and are
not all actuated by the same spirit. Two great causes, however, might
give a certain stimulus to the public mind, and also excite patriotism
in Austria; these are, the love of the country and of the sovereign;
and the felicity which all the inhabitants enjoy under protecting
laws. Husbandmen rather than traders, the Austrians are for this very
reason more attached to their native soil. The interests of the
country are in fact more closely connected with those of the
cultivator of the soil, than of the merchant, whose almost only object
is the success of his speculations, on which his precarious existence
depends. Agriculture is honoured in Austria, and the most illustrious
of its princes, as well as the sovereign himself, are fully sensible
of its importance to an empire possessing so fertile a soil.
The Austrian nation is perhaps the most upright and the most moral of
any in Europe. There is not an Austrian, with the exception of the
higher class of society, but feels that morality is the genuine source
of domestic happiness and the guarantee of the peace of families. The
sacred ties of marriage are still respected; and how indeed could it
well be otherwise in a country where woman is devoted to her conjugal
duties and finds the reward of this devotedness in the scrupulous
fidelity of him who is its object! Conjugal love always leads to
maternal affection; and the Austrian women are all, or nearly all,
excellent mothers. They are not more ostentatious in their attachment
to their children than in their love for their husbands: so that the
name of her who sacrifices herself for the object of a pure and tender
affection remains for ever unknown to the world. Divorce, which
introduces a kind of anarchy into families, has never been sanctioned
by the laws of Austria, and this is not one of the least important
benefits that it owes to its legislation.
The fair sex in Austria have in general auburn hair, delicate
complexions and large blue eyes, the united effect of which there
would be no withstanding, did not their modesty and simplicity command
respect, and temper by the charm of virtue the too powerful impression
of their beauty. They delight by their sensibility, as they interest
by their imagination. Without being too much addicted to the
cultivation of literature and the fine arts, they are no strangers to
the best productions of either; and when you have once gained their
confidence you are astonished at their knowledge, which they never
display but in spite of themselves. The Austrian ladies speak with
equal fluency all the languages of Europe; and in company they possess
in general a marked superiority over the men.
These observations apply particularly to the women of the higher
classes: as to those of inferior rank, they can scarcely be surpassed
for goodness of disposition and purity of morals. The maternal love of
these rustics is too strong not to preserve them from those faults
which are unhappily too common among females of the same condition in
many other countries. Labour and the exercises of religion occupy them
entirely, and exempt them from those vices which are generated by
idleness. They are, however, charged, at least those of some
districts, with being too much addicted to spirituous liquors, and
with impairing by this indulgence their circumstances and their
health.
The men are in general tall, well proportioned, and of a ruddy
complexion: but though few ordinary persons are to be found among
them, it is rarely that you meet with forms distinguished by that
higher sort of manly beauty which is frequently seen in the south of
Europe, and which furnished models for the finest statues of
antiquity. The Germans still answer the description given by Tacitus
of their ancestors: they are almost all fair and light complexioned:
and their souls do not possess the energy which their stature and
strength would seem to denote.