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’ LETTERS. 199
“If I have done any good, give God the honor; what I
have failed in, from human weakness and error, overlook
and forgive it for Christ’s sake. Many have called me a
hard king; yet a time will come when Sweden’s children
would gladly pluck me out of the earth if they could!”
These words are in golden letters on blue ground engraved
under the painting. It is a fine idea to let this gallery of
paintings round the tomb upon which the marble image
of the great king is lying dumb, speak of his achievements
and remind us of his life, his toils, and his undaunted
energy. Do you remember Skytte’s tomb — that prayer in
marble ; that devout eye ; those clasped hands, which thus
have watched and prayed for centuries? Were I a great
man, I would then like to be so represented after death, or
not at all. Did you see Linné, where he is sitting ab-
sorbed in the study of Nature’s book, enraptured at the
wisdom and the deep meaning which he reads in a tiny
flower? But I must not leave the cathedral without mak-
ing my “reverence” to the splendid, lofty cupola. That
is also, as it were, a prayer, a bold, fervent approach to the
Most High; a gently rising heaven under heaven. Fahl-
crantz said to me, “ When I become peevish and irritable,
which happens occasionally during my toils of every-day
life, I know no feeling so elevating and cheering as that
which fills my soul when I wander under this dome.” And
so I say farewell to the old cathedral! Of all the remark-
able objects of interest, which I have seen in our little trip,
this is the only one which has made a grand and lasting
impression upon me.
Axsra, lth September, 1838.
I thank you most sincerely, my dearest Frances, for the
pleasure which your letter has given me. You say, “I am
happy.” No words have a more pleasant sound in my ear.
It does me so much good to hear this from your own lips,
and to fancy that I see your eye beaming with happiness.
I feel with regret that I have not been to you what I ought
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