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220 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
toms of thecountry. After waiting therefore fome time the pengtrale was opened, and
I beheld my hero, a fhort {quare figure, the Trulliber of fcience, enthroned amidft a
labyrinth of books, and encompaffed with clouds of fmoke which fearce allowed me to
view his vifage. In four or five minutes our converfation was at an end. I tried him
every way, but no tone I could take would bring a word out in return. At length,
after having obferved himfelf that fmoking rather fpoiled the converfation, he took his
fermon in hand, and read mea period or two by way of enlivening it. Of this I did not
hear a word, as the fmoke of the tobacco puffed under my nofe, took away my refpira-
tion, and obliged me to attend to felf-prefervation ; but he was determined I fhould not
get off thus, and fo propofed to open what he called his treafure. This was a cheft
which contained all the fermons he had ever written, making in all eight or ten thick fo-
lio volumes. When he took out the firft a cold {weat ran down my fhoulders, ~which
making him apprehenfive that he might kill his patient, he affured me he would read
only the texts of the fermons from the tables of contents. I bore it for one table with
great refignation; but as he was taking down the fecond folio, took my hat and ftick
and hurriedto the door. In no proteftant country which I have yet feen, Holland itfelf
not excepted, are the priefts held in {uch profound reverence by the people as they are
in Denmark. Pride and infolence in the minifters of a humble religion, is ever a fure
mark of little knowledge and a bad government in the places where it is found. ‘The
temporal and fpiritual powers are by nature fo jealous of each other, that there muft al-
ways be indolence in the governors when the priefthood comes to have a certain degree
of authority. Every body knows what an influence the Danifh priefts had in the fate of
Struenfee. You obferve indeed, in every part of Denmark, notwithftanding many fo-
reigners are fettled there, many marks of the overgrown power of the priefts. In fe-
veral places I found prejudices conceived again{t me, on account of my being a catholic,
by people from whom one fhould have expected better things. At Horfens, a young
lady of one of the beft houfes, could not be perfuaded that the catholics were chriftians,
They look upon us in the fame light as Jews and heathens. I do not believe that the
King of Denmark, as abfolute as his power is, in other things, could make as great ad-
vances to toleration, as has been done at Vienna.
‘The government of Denmark is the moft defpotic in the univerfe. This form of go-
yernment has its advantages and difadvantages; the fmallnefs of the country renders it
eafy to govern thus; and on the other hand, this very circumftance makes the people
feel more feverely the weaknefs and oppreflion of its governors. Denmark is in truth
the fmalleft of all the European powers. It contains hardly one million eight hundred
thoufand inhabitants, Lapland, Greenland, and Iceland included ; and the Holftein-
ers, who live ina part of Germany, hardly make the number two millions in all. The
King of Denmark’s income does not amount to above 9,000,000 of Rhenifh florins, or
20,000,000 of livres *, even with what arifes from the paflage of the Sound, which the
fea-faring nations willingly pay. He cannot cope with the Elector of Saxony, and the
EleGtor of Bavaria is upon a footing with him. Without fubfidies, the King of Den-
mark is unable to maintain an army of forty-thoufand men, and a fleet of twenty fhips
of the line only for a few years. The taxes are very high, and fome of them are of a
fort which are met with in very few countries. Here a man muft pay for a licenfe to
marry. Our government you know formerly raifed a tax on batchelors; but the Da-
nifh and French principles of government are very different.
* Aboat 83,333].
The
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