Fredrika Bremer

“ I confess to you that I went about in America with the thought of metamorphosing the whole of America in—a novel; and you, my friends, into its heroes and heroines: but that with such subtle delicacy, that none of you should be able to recognise either America or yourselves.
But the realities of your great country could not be compressed into a novel. The novel faded away like a rainbow in the clouds, and the reality stood only the stronger forward, in all its largeness, littleness, pleasantness, sorrow, beauty, completeness, manifold and simple, in one word, in all its truth ”

“ There is the tropical sky, as mild as an angel's glance, its sun as pure and clear as the purest tones of music; there is the wind, a spirit as gentle, as pure, as full of vitalising life, as if it came forth fresh from the fountain of life and love; there is the peculiar natural world of the tropics, full of marvellous plants and scenes; those palm-groves, where immortals might wander; those gardens, beautiful as that of Eden, where coffee-shrubs and bananas grow in beautiful plantations, one perpetual blossoming, one perpetual succession of fruit ”

“ The tree of freedom grows more vigorous amid its granite hills. And as it grows in the Northern States of America, grows it also in our Scandinavian North. But what this North possesses, and which America possesses not, is an antiquity full of song and saga, of glorious prophecy and symbolism, of gods and heroes who gave to Scandinavia so large, so peculiar, so romantic a life. It is this antiquity, its significance for the present time, its life in our scenery, and our every-day life which attracts me once more to my native land, as powerfully as my mother's voice. ”

“ It had become dark whilst we were standing in the cottage under the cocoa and papaya trees; and the stars came forth gleaming softly from the deep blue sky. We saw from the place where we stood, and which was considerably elevated ground, the red fires shining from the furnaces of Mr. C.'s sugar-mill, and heard the wild songs and shouts which proceeded thence. There was slave-labour; life without rest; the dominion of the whip; the glowing furnace of slavery; here freedom, peace, and rest beneath this beautiful, tropical heaven, in the bosom of its affluent fruit-garden. ”

“ I shall, as hitherto, study the world of private life, but shall allow the air and life of the New World, that great world's life, to flow into it, and give to it greater effect. Thus would I always have it to be. I must work it out better hereafter. I have long had a presentiment of the romance of life, in its infinite greatness and depth of feeling. When it dawned before my glance, that first view of a transfigured world, never shall I forget that heavenly Aurora, which was, which is, which will continue for ever to be a bright spot in my earthly life. For that I have to thank Sweden. ”

“ If one goes into the city—and I have rambled about a great deal by myself in the evening—one gets glimpses, on all hands, through arcades and half dusky passages, into homes and amid households, the figures of which are seen in a charming clair-obscur. They pass by and vanish into shade. On all sides you see new vistas open, new pictures in dusky arcades, and beneath porticoes, ornamented with fresco-painting of fruits and flowers; but all is seen in a half light. Publicity has here a mystery, a shadowy depth; and in front of the open windows of the houses is iron grating. ”

“ Many things which are flattering, and many things which are difficult, occur to me every day, which are not worth putting down on paper. My life is a daily warfare against kindness and politeness, and curiosity, during which I often am weary and worn out; often, also, I feel the wafting influence of an extraordinary youthfulness and enjoyment gush through my soul. I felt this one day during a conversation with the noble, enthusiastic W. H. Channing,—a character as ardent as it is pure, with a beaming eye, and a countenance as pure and regular as I could imagine that of a seraph to be. ”

“ I here return to your beautiful homes as a spirit, reminding you of the stranger whom you received as a guest, and who became a friend, to converse with you of former days spent on your hearths, to thank and to bless you, and not merely you, whose guest I was, but the many who benefited me in word or deed, the warm-hearted, noble-minded, all those who let me drink the morning dew of a new, a more beautiful creation, that elixir of life which gives new, youthful life to heart and mind. Words are poor, and can only feebly express the feelings of the soul. ”

“ Flowers and bees are pretty nearly alike all over the world, and are fed by the same heavenly honey-dew. I thought how our bees at Årsta murmur their songs in autumn around the mignonette, and how thou thyself seest them now as thou movest like a little queen among thy subjects in the flower-garden, among beds of flowers which thou hast had planted. Alas! but it is true that even now it is there the winter trance, and the bees have forgotten themselves in their hives! I forget here how the year goes on, because the Indian summer is a time of enchantment. ”

“ They made me feel as during a mild but dull September day in Sweden. The air is then pure, the fields still green, it is agreeable, and it is calm, but a certain air of melancholy rests upon the landscape; it is wanting in sun, flowers, and the song of the birds; nothing grows, all stands still, and it by chance a bird utters a little twittering song, it is soon at an end. That mild, calm, September atmosphere suits me very well nevertheless, and the Shaker sisters seemed to see with satisfaction the evident interest which we felt for them and their society. ”

“ The soft beauty of the air and the climate at this season, the luxuriance of the vegetation, the beautiful new flowers, the odours, the fruits, the magnificence of the primeval forest along the banks of the Red river; the glow of the fire-flies in the dusk, warm nights; my rambles beneath the gothic arcades of the live-oaks, hung with their long, swaying, masses of moss, a spectacle at once novel and enchanting to an European eye; a certain romantic picturesqueness of life, caused by the contact of the black and the white races on this beautiful, fragrant soil ”

“ In the good and affectionate home in which I am now a guest, I see nothing but the most beautiful relationship between white and black, and have occasion afresh to admire and marvel at the musical genius of the negro-people. A young negro, who is house-servant and waits at table, sings songs as naturally as he breathes, sings even in the stomach, as a ventriloquist, and when he, during meal-times, brushes away the flies, as is usual here, with a large besom of feathers, he does it unconsciously to the tune of some melody which silently sounds in his memory. ”

“ I greeted them, and crept into my hut. The light was blown out; but the stars peeped in through the opening of the window which faced the sea. The curtain of the bed fanned and fluttered about in the wind; but it was the wind of Cuba. I lay down in my bed with it whistling round me, and though I did not sleep much, yet still enjoyed an unspeakable pleasure, as if borne upwards by the wings of the wind and by the fresh gentle spirit of the sea. I did not seem to be conscious of my physical being ”

“ The young wife talked sensibly and calmly about their life and condition as settlers in the West. When we left the house, and I saw her standing in the doorway with her beautiful child in her arms, she presented a picture in the soft glow of the Western heaven, a lovely picture of the new life of the West.
That young, strong earnest mother with her child on her arm, that little dwelling, protected by the husband, who cherished in himself the noblest treasures of thought and of love—behold in these the germ which, by degrees, will occupy the wilderness, and cause it to blossom as the rose. ”

“ Both yesterday and to-day there has been unremitting sunshine, so that I have to-day been to the bishop's garden; and wandering under palms, bamboos, and many kinds of beautiful tropical trees, among splendid unusual flowers and butterflies, have celebrated alone the most glorious morning, a spirit of thanksgiving among the silent spirits of nature. Ah! when the Creator allows us here on earth to behold such beauty, allows us to experience such joy—what treasures of His kingdom has He not in store for His children, risen again and enfranchised from dust, on the other side the grave! ”

“ The day which succeeded that beautiful summer-day of which I have spoken was wretched weather, so cold, that it shook both soul and body, and made me so irritable and so out of humour, that I thanked my good fortune not to have slaves, and that I thus should not be excited to wreak my bad temper on them. Never, until I came into America, had I any experience of the power which the feelings of the body can have over the soul. God help the slave-owner and the slave in this variable climate, the penetrative atmosphere of which causes both body and soul to vibrate according to its temperature. ”

“ And the air is so pleasant, and the magnolias so full of flower, the river so full of life, alligators and fishes splashing about, large and beautiful water-fowl on all hands; everything is so luxuriant—so wonderfully rich, wild, and lovely—it is a never-ending fairy scene; especially in the evenings when the moon rises and throws her mystic half light and half shadow into the arches and pillared aisles of these marvellous natural temples. I sit in silence on the piazza, and gaze upon it with devotion and rapture, as, at every bend of the river, new and striking scenes present themselves ”

“ Savannah is the most charming of cities, and reminds me of “the maiden in the greenwood.” It is, even more than Charleston, an assemblage of villas which have come together for company. In each quarter is a green market place surrounded with magnificent, lofty trees; and in the centre of each verdant market-place leaps up a living fountain, a spring of fresh water gushing forth, shining in the sun and keeping the green sward moist and cool. Savannah might be called the city of the gushing springs; there cannot be, in the whole world, a more beautiful city than Savannah! ”

“ I thought of hard, gray, domestic life, in the civilised world, a home without love, hedged in by conventional opinion, with social duties, the duty of seeking for the daughters of the family suitable husbands, otherwise they would never leave the family; and with every prospect of independence, liberty, activity, joy closed, more rigidly closed, by invisible barriers than these wigwams by their buffalo-hides; a northern domestic life—such a one as exists in a vast number of northern homes—and I thought that that Indian hut, and that Indian woman's life, was better, happier as earthly life. ”

“ The Creator of the world has no-where on the face of the earth diffused more affluent elements of human prosperity, nor more visibly made a beautiful and suitable provision for the requirements of humanity. Visit it not with the curse of a feeble government; do not throw impediments in the way of its improvement; keep not back the tide of emigration which is pouring into its bosom; let its broad arms receive the over-population which oppresses the fields of Europe, and the All-good Giver of every good gift will smile from his heaven upon a happy family of more than 275,000,000 of human beings. ”

“ We were speeding into the bosom of the south, and it received us with a warm heart. So I felt it, and my own heart expanded itself to every gentle power of life and of nature. I sate silently aft on the piazza the whole forenoon, in a sort of quiet intoxication of enjoyment, inhaling the delicious atmosphere and the southern landscape, thrilled with the enchanting aspect of heaven and earth, and the indescribable soft mild air which was diffused through infinite space between them. ”

“ Cuba has many rivers flowing from the mountains, but none large, and none navigable to any great extent.
After a sail of about half an hour on the sea, we reached the outlet of the Canima, a clear little river flowing with a sweep into the sea, from between lofty, precipitous, rocky walls, covered with tropical vegetation. Fan-palms waved on the heights in picturesque groups, and along the steep, rocky heights grew an infinite variety of trees and shrubs, amid which hung splendid orchids, with red, yellow, white, and purple flowers, around which hovered swarms of green humming-birds. ”

“ And when he does so, when he lives like old Pedro, or the man with only one arm and his wife, who can be happier than he? The sun gives him clothing, the earth yields him, with the least possible labour, abundant fare, the trees drop for him their beautiful fruits, and give him their leaves to roof his dwelling and to feed his creatures; each day, as it passes, is beautiful and free from care—each day, as it passes, affords him its enjoyment—sun, rest, fruits, existence in an atmosphere, which, merely to breathe, is happiness;—the negro desires nothing more. ”

“ Where oppression and despotism reign, all the nobler faculties of man are dwarfed, stunted, and shorn of their power. But oppression and despotism dwarf, and stunt, and despoil of their power all the evil passions of men, no less than their nobler impulses. In this country all that is base and depraved in the human heart has such full liberty and wide compass, and hot stimulus of action, as has never been known before. Wickedness no less than virtue: diabolism no less than utilitarianism, has its steam engines, and its power-presses and its lightning telegraphs. ”

“ I thank the land of the Pilgrims above all for its ideal, for its conception of a higher law in society, a law of God, which ought to be obeyed rather than human law; for its conception of a standard of morality higher than that which is current in the world, and which demands the highest purity of life in man as in woman, and which admits of no lax concession; for its noble feeling as regards the rights of woman and her development as fellow citizen; for its sense of the honour of labour, and its demanding for every good labourer honourable wages as such. ”

“ The negroes in my friend's family were, at one time, so ill of an infectious fever that every one fled from them. But Doctor Susan came and tended them, and restored them to health, and when she was rewarded for it she considered her reward too great. Known throughout the whole city, she goes everywhere in her poor, dark attire, like a messenger of consolation, but always rapidly, silently, and as if fearful of being seen. Like the fire-fly it is only in the dark that she sends forth her clear indwelling light; like it has she been trampled upon by mankind, and she yet gives forth light. ”

“ If the women of Africa, in America, and the West Indies sing less beautiful songs, it is no fault of theirs; if their improvisation is fettered like their bodies and souls, it is the fault of the white man.
It is his duty to emancipate them; to let them, by means of the sun of Christian love and education, shoot up like a palm-tree, like a bamboo-arcade from the sun-warmed earth; and then the people of the tropics with their songs and dances may one day correspond with the mild and beautiful scenery of the tropics. ”

“ It is however an important step forward in political life that the discussion of the question of slavery is perfectly open; a few years since it was forbidden on pain of death in Congress. Courageous men, friends of humanity and public feeling, have broken down this barrier; and the combat about freedom and slavery has at this time more forcibly concentrated itself upon the inner bearing of the question, during which the instincts of humanity and noble thoughts have been called forth, even as in a landscape alps shoot upward, upon whose lofty brows the ascending sun casts his earliest beams. ”

“ Here, as everywhere else in the world, people are never satisfied with the weather which God sends them. As people often in our country long for rain, so are they longing for it now in Cuba. And the hot air and the red dust causes the longing for rain here to be a something burning and tormenting. I have said a great deal about the deliciousness of the air and the beauty of the vegetation of Cuba, and I have enjoyed both extremely, yet even here, in the midst of all this magnificence I feel as if I had a sort of foreboding of what home-sickness must be. ”

“ The city itself is now in full bloom, for the city is like a great assemblage of villas standing in their gardens, which are now brilliant with roses of every kind. The fragrance of the orange blossom fills the air, and the mocking-bird, the nightingale of North America (called by the Indians, cenconttatolly, or the hundred-tongued, from its ability to imitate every kind of sound) , sings in cages in the open windows, or outside them. ”

“ Buchanan makes man the measure of the universe and its centre. He sees the centre of man in the human brain, and from that point strikes out an infinite, glorious future, in which all those infinite possibilities now slumbering within it, will develope themselves into life and harmony on earth and in the universe. Amid severe daily labour and many anxieties he reposes in this view, as in the sabbath-festival of his spirit. ”

“ And still at early peep of dawn, when the stars grew dim, and only the morning star stood bright above the bright mirror of the lake, was continued the duet between the birds and the alligators. When the sun rose they became silent, and other birds then began to sing, and fishes to leap about: and the monsters of the river swam and swim still around us, pondering, as it seem, on our vessel and its provisions. The cruel sportsman is no longer with us, and we, in the Sarah Spalding, live at peace with the whole world, and merely, like the crocodiles, ponder about our breakfast. ”

“ I will so trust that what is deep is holy that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me and my heart appoints. If you are noble I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. ”

“ I was present again at two more of Fanny Kemble's Readings, and was greatly delighted. My acquaintance with her has also afforded me great pleasure and interest. She is full of genius, and is, in every respect, a richly-gifted woman, with a warm heart and noble mind, and with life and with “spirit” enough to ride a horse to death every day, and to master every man or woman who might attempt to master her. Proud one moment, as the proudest queen, she can yet, towards an unpretending being, be the next as humble and as amiable as an amiable young girl. ”

“ For my life in America has been, and is a journey of familiar visits, to homes which have opened themselves to me in every State throughout America, and where I have lived, not as a stranger, but as a sister with brothers and sisters, conversing openly with them on all subjects, as people may converse in heaven. I there met with more than I have words to tell, of true Christian life, of the love of truth, of kindness, of minds earnest for and receptive of everything which is great and good in humanity. ”