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.