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142 LETTERS ON SWEDEN.
solitary sublimity. Amidst the awful roaring of the
impetuous torrents, the noise of human instruments
and the bustle of workmen, even the blowing up of the
rocks, when grand masses trembled in the darkened
air, only resembled the insignificant sport of child-
ren.
One fall of water, partly made by art, when they
were attempting to construct sluices, had an un-
commonly grand effect : the water precipitated itself
with immense velocity down a perpendicular, at least
fifty or sixty yards, into a gulf, so concealed by the
foam as to give full play to the fancy. There was a
continual uproar. I stood on a rock to observe it, a
kind of bridge formed by nature, nearly on a level with
the commencement of the fall. After musing by it a
long time I turned towards the other side, and saw a
gentle stream stray calmly out. I should have con-
cluded that it had no communication with the torrent
had I not seen a huge log that fell headlong down the
cascade steal peacefully into the purling stream.
I retired from these wild scenes with regret to a
miserable inn, and next morning returned to Gothen-
burg, to prepare for my journey to Copenhagen.
I was sorry to leave Gothenburg without travelling
farther into Sweden, yet I imagine I should only have
seen a romantic country thinly inhabited, and these
inhabitants struggling with poverty. The Norwegian
peasantry, mostly independent, have a rough kind of
frankness in their manner ;
but the Swedish, rendered
more abject by misery, have a degree of politeness in
their address which, though it
may sometimes border
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