quite peculiar to it, and exhibits a singular economy in words. There
are two articles in Swedish as well as ifi English, but the same word
according to its position answers for both; en or ett placed before a
word constitutes the indefinite article a; placed after a word, it constitutes
the definite article the. Thus en del signifies a part ; delen,
the part-, ett bam, a child ; barnet, thé child. In thé plural the definite
article is often ne added to the word. Thus dal, a valley, dalar,
valleys, dalarne, the valleys. The plural of substantive nouns is made,
by adding the syllables or, ar, er, n to the singular. Their degrees of
comparison are nearly the same as our own. Another singularity in
the Swedish language is the mode of forming the passive voice o f their
verbs. It is done by adding the letter s to every tense and person of
the active voice. So that except this additional letter there is no difference
between the active and passive voice.
Upon the whole, the Swedish language seems highly deserving of
cultivation and preservation, though from the small population of the
country, and the little encouragement which authors experience in
Sweden, the language can never expect to rival the English, German,
and French, which may be considered as the three general languages in
Europe: still it is probable that the merit o f the Swedish writers, and
the merit o f the language itself, will gradually give it a much greater
currency through Europe than it has hitherto attained.
The houses in Stockholm are usually three stories high, and large in
proportion. It is the custom, as it is in Paris and Edinburgh, for a single
floor to be inhabited by a family ; so that a number o f families usually
live in the same house. There is a common staircase by which each
family enters its own apartments. When the whole house is occupied
by one family, the entrance is often into a kind o f court, by a large
gate, similar to the entrance into the houses in Paris. In the. whole
city of Stockholm I observed only two houses covered with slate.. A
sufficient proof that this is a scarce article in the country. Tiles are
very common, and many houses are covered with wood cut into small
square pieces, and laid on in the same manner as slates. This when
painted looks almost as well as slates, and is no doubt warmer.
The houses are well finished within, and the rooms have an elegant
appearance, though the furniture is in general very different from ours.
However, in the hotel in which I lodged, when I was in Stockholm,
for the second time, a good deal- o f the furniture was mahogany, and
from the patterns they seem all to have been brought from England..
The rooms are all in suites, and their mode o f laying them out is sometimes
a little awkward. For example, in the hotel where I lodged I
had a couple of rooms, a bed room and a parlour. They were so contrived
that there was no access to the parlour but through the bed room.
So that all my visitors were obliged constantly to pass through the bed
room before they came to the sitting room. But it must be observed
that this is by no means so awkward in Sweden as it would be in Eng,
land.. For their beds are so small and so constructed that they may
very .well pass for settees, The most characteristic part o f the room is
the stove, which is always placed in a corner, and is so constructed as
to serve as a kind of ornament. The one in my parlour had the shape
o f the pedestal of a pillar. It was .3.9 inches high, 32 inches broad,
and 264.' inches deep. The chimney which proceeded from it was
continued to the top o f the room in the form of a fluted pillar without
any capital; being painted white and kept clean it looked very well,
and would have been a great ornament to the room, had it not been
for the want of a capital, which gave it an awkward appearance. The
Swedes are fond of this kind of pillars ; I saw several in the front of
their houses. The doors, of the stove were brass, and placed very near
the floor; they were folding doors, each 16 inches long and 6 ^ inches
broad. Within them were two similar folding doors of iron plate.
The fireplace is a rectangular parallelopiped, about the size of the
doors, without any ash pit below, or passage to admit air other than
the door: the vent is behind. A t first it occupies the whole roof of
the stove, but speedily becomes narrower; at the top there is always a
damper by means of which the vent may be' closed up at pleasure.
During winter a fire of wood is lighted in this stove twice a day; as
soon as it is burnt o.ut the damper is shut. By these fires, assisted by