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BIOGRAPHY. 39
ture. I broke down at least three times, and long before I
had finished, I was ready to burst out crying.
Then came the comedy, which has since unfortunately
been lost; but the first verse of one of the airs, written
between the leaves of the music-book which I have still in
my possession, is as follows : —
“To woman, issuing from All-Father’s hand,
The fruits of glory were denied; this was her duty:
The soothing balm of comfort to dispense, to stand
By grief with sympathy, and grace life by her beauty.”
My father, as usual at these little entertainments, was
touched and delighted, and patted and thanked us chil-
dren. He was very fond of music, and since Fredrika and
I had now, for our age, become very good performers on
the piano, he liked us to play to him every day some of his
favorite pieces. This we always did with pleasure. But
he now also wished to let other people hear how clever his
daughters were, and this did them no good. I shone with
the overture to “The Caliph of Bagdad ;” Fredrika, with
“La Bataille de Fleurus,” and we both strove to paint
the booming of the cannon, the drums, and the trumpet-
clangor in “The Battle of Prague,” as powerfully as pos-
sible. My father enjoyed the praise which was showered
upon us; then we had to produce our landscape-drawings
and our flowers in crayon. This had no good influence
upon us, least of all upon Fredrika, whose innate desire to
be praised, to win renown and glory, was stimulated to such
a degree, that she often found herself really unhappy when
she thought she had no chance of distinguishing herself.
I had not the same desire, but began to be fond of admira-
tion, and to entertain a high opinion of myself, partly on
account of the praises which I received, partly on account
of the greater tenderness which my father always had
shown me, as compared with the other children. Fredrika
had an instinctive feeling of independence, which mani-
fested itself more and more as she advanced in years.
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