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338 TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM.
dear to the extent of its dominion; even at that time it loft all, beheld every thing
fink under its feet ; in lefs than two ages, the barbarians feized on all its weftern con-
quefts, arrived at its gates, overturned its empire, annihilated its power! And we dare
to hope that with all its vices, and without its refources, without fpirit of union and pa-
triotifm among the principal families of each nation, all debafed or corrupted by the
fervitude of courts; without any political link between the people, who, by turns ene-
mies and allies, know neither the interefts nor fentiments which fhould unite or divide
them; without attachment for a land, in which the foldiers who defend it poflefs no-
thing, where all the fundamental bands of fociety are relaxed by the licentioufnefs of
the manners, and by the fatal neceflity of a celibacy which luxury ordains, though pro-
fcribed by nature ; we hope that, in fuch a fituation, the nations will not dare nor be
able to attempt any thing! Slumber in indolence ye that are born to flavery : it is of
little confequence to you into what hands your chains may fall.
In the mean time let us confider the land, we idle contemplators who can only think
without acting ; we whom the fpectacle of the vices of the age and our native country
ftrongly repels toward regions dreary indeed to the fight, but confolatory to the mind.
Let us follow an enlightened traveller, who feeks in the ruins and the defarts of nature
the traces and hopes of focialnefs : he is an academician of Stockholm, who has vifited
regions where the liberty whick reigns in his country might give rife to culture and
correét the defe@ls of the climate. ‘This journey will not be found the leaft inftru€tive
of this volume, nor of the whole collection. Let us give the traveller leave to {peak for
himfelf ; permitting ourfelves to add and blend our reflections with thofe with which
he has embellifhed his work.
I acquit myfelf of a duty, by prefenting the obfervations I have been enabled to make
in my journey, to the academy * which had countenanced it: whatever good it will
meet with, will be the leaft of the happy fruits it has produced; what defects and errors
will be feen, only belong to the moft ufelefs of its members.
Before commencing the defcription of the province of Afehle, which is the principal
object of this journey, let me be permitted to fay a few words of the country which I
have traverfed with my faithful companion, the Baron of Cederhielm.
The road leading from Upfal to Fledfund is divided into three branches, towards the
fouth, the north-eaft, and the north-welft ; the latter, which conduéts to Old Upfal, ex-
tends in a line fo ftraight, that on departure the extremity may be perceived. This
road appears to me the image and emblem of the order which fhould reign in all our
ideas, whether of fpeculation or of conduét, and be directed towards the utility of man.
"Lhe ftudies of the learned, the enterprifes of the politician, conducting to the fame end,
ought equally to concur to the happinefs of fociety ; all which does not lead there, de-
viates from the paths of nature and of truth,
The country, extending for two miles and a half from Upfal, prefents a foil nearly all
argillaceous, or fertile, whether in the cultivated lands or the meadows, without any
other wood than juniper-trees, which are regarded by {kilful economifts as a fign of fer-
tility. This land, which has never been manured, and which is but indifferently culti-
vated, produces fufficiently good crops, with a certain abundance. The pafturages
furnifh a turf which might make ufeful fuel. If trees were planted along the hedges, the
flocks would find fhade to repofe in the night-time, during the long ftay of the fun in
fummer, and the peafants wood, in the winters {till longer. Great conquefts would colt
more to Sweden, and yield lefs, than the knowledge and cultivation of the good lands
* The Academy of Sciences of Sweden.
of
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