tranfcendantly great, that when the hillorical accounts o f then?
were loll in the dark ages, an opinion prevailed that they had
-been executed by fupernatural and invifible agents. T he kings o f
Sweden, carrying back their views through a long line o f anceftry
to a remote antiquity, and forward through proportionable fpaces
o f time, were naturally infpired with grand recollections and
grand defigns. Should an age o f darknefs again envelop Scandinavia,
and bring back the reign o f ignorance and fuperftition, the
Works o f Trolhatta, like thofe o f the Romans, would doubtlefs be
afcribed to giants, fairies, or gods.
A t Trolhatta a book is prefented to ftrangers when they .are
about to leave the place ; and they are requefted to infcribe their
names in it, with fome motto relative to the impreffion made on
their minds by the falls, or other local circumftances. This,book
is one o f the moll curious mifcellanies any yvhere to be feen, and
is in my mind o f more-value than many other books,, for the
light it throws on the fubjedt o f human nature. Throughoutithe
whole o f this collection there reigns a particular humour ; I meap
a particular turn or temperament o f mind, and what the French
call penchant; an affeélation. o f wit and Angularity, and above all,
an effort o f felf-love, or felf-confequence, which unveils, not ob-
fcurely, the true character and weak neis o f man. L ik e thofe epitaphs
which lofe fight o f the dead to fpeak o f the living, almofl
all the infcriptions in this, as well as in other memorials o f the
fame kind, are more charadlerifiic o f their authors, than o f the
fubjedts to which they refer. One takes an opportunity to fliew
that
that he can make verfes ; a fecond, gives fome account o f his travels
; a third, exalts his own opinion on the ruin o f that o f others ;
a fourth, fets down his name merely for the purpofe o f difplaying
his title;; while another, from a vanity o f an oppofite nature,
writes his name Amply and nothing more. There is one Enghfti-
man who tells you, that he went to fee the catarails by candlelight
: another traveller o f the fame nation fays, that neither the
cataract nor the labour by which the canal was accompliihed, is
good for any thing ; that the Swedes are all flaves, crouching
under the lafli o f their mailers ; and, in order to expreis his contempt,
fubfcribes thefe remarks by a very indecent name. A hird
Engliihman, more enlightened as well as candid, rejoices to fee
gunpowder applied to better purpofes than thofe o f war, though
at the fame time he is not o f opinion that the condition o f the
people is bettered by commerce.* T h e French emigrants recount
all their own misfortunes, and as well fuited to the fubjedl
o f Trolhatta, thofe alfo o f the King o f France. One emigrant
produces a long invedlive againit the patriots. An Engliihman
writes nothing more than “ W h a t will you have us fay f T he
following, “ Dieu beniffe cette bonne et brave nation ! f is Agned
Kofciufco. An immenfe number o f pedants make flouriihes o f
f>atin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic. In a word, the writers
* T h e words of this Engliihman are—“ It is pleafing to fee gunpowder ufed in
I favour o f fociety, although we do not think th a t commerce will improve the
•* happinefs o f the people.”
f God blefs this good and brave nation.
V o l . I. E o f