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SKETCHES. 341
of roses, lilies, and fruit, where some son of Adam is living
with his Eve, peacefully and — happy. We would gladly
believe the latter if there were not some peculiar circum-
Stances attached to these secluded paradises. Things did
not turn out quite well in the first one —we know that —
and they do not turn out much better in the later ones,
provided man remains there long. Life in solitary islands
is rarely beneficial. The sameness in the surrounding
objects, the want of diversion, of amusement, of something
new, of intercourse with the great, changing world, cramps
the soul, and feelings and thoughts beconie one-sided on
certain points and there stick fast, asit were. We see this
in Iceland ; we see how in Corsica, under the ceaseless and
repeated pressure of many years, and the beating of the
same bitter billows upon the heart, secret animosity grew
into hatred, hatred into revenge and sanguinary retribu-
tion. We see it even to this day in the Farroe Islands, in
the silent, half-witted forms wandering about amongst the
mist-enveloped hills, and who have become such, because
when misfortunes and adversity came, they had no place
to go to, nowhere to seek a refuge from these gloomy im-
pressions, these frowning rocks, and heavy, misty atmos-
phere. The mails from the outer. world are sometimes
from seven to eight months in reaching them.
But loving solitude, as I do, and the undisturbed com-
munion of the soul with itself, I cannot pursue the argu-
ment, to which these examples lead, any further than by
saying, that it is not good for man to be alone for any
length of time.
And so let us return to one young couple —.Axel and
Ellina. It was as if an eagle had carried a pigeon to his
eyrie. The strange and solemn surrounding scenery, the
solitude, the roar and turmoil of the breakers, the autumn
gales — all this filled Ellina’s bosom with fear and uame-
less anxiety. But she had her own home — and there is
no woman who does not feel this as a blessing — she had
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