The Swiss Family Robinson

“ Marryat began a continuation of The Swiss Family Robinson for his children, at their request, but its geographical anachronisms were too much for him, and he decided to write this story instead. No one will find fault with the change of plan. ”

“ In ordinary life children quit the parental home by easy and almost imperceptible gradations. First, there is the school, then college; next, perhaps, the requirements of the profession they have adopted. Thus they readily abandon the domestic hearth; friends, intercourse, and society divide their affection, and the separation from home rarely, if ever, costs them a pang. Not so with Becker's two sons; their world was New Switzerland; therefore, like the rays of the sun absorbed by the mirror of Archimedes, all their affections were concentrated on one point. ”

“ After that, when she was being rocked to sleep, the little girl always said, "Man." Three months later, she had begun to talk in whole sentences. At three years she had been able to make all her letters and read several words, having been taught secretly by the biggest brother. At four, she knew the youngest brother's reading lessons by heart, and could spell every word in the First Reader. At this stage of her education, she put aside such baby things as the "Mother Goose Rhymes," and was deeply interested in the doings of the "Swiss Family Robinson." ”

“ The marriages which united the Zermatt and Wolston families have been blessed by Heaven. The grandparents will soon feel that they live again in their grandchildren. Only Jack is content with the nephews and nieces who clamber on his knees. He said he was a born uncle, and in that relation was certainly a great success.
Though the island now forms part of the colonial dominions of Great Britain, it has been allowed to retain its name of New Switzerland in honour of the Zermatt family. ”

“ THE COLONY—REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST—IDEAS OF WILLIS THE PILOT—SOPHIA WOLSTON.
The early adventures of the Swiss family, who were wrecked on an unknown coast in the Pacific Ocean, have already been given to the world. There are, however, many interesting details in their subsequent career which have not been made public. ”

“ Without a moment's hesitation, Franz made his way among the bushes with his gun, and closely followed by the dogs; until, through an opening in the thicket, he could see, at the distance of about forty paces, an enormous hyaena, in the most wonderful state of excitement; dancing round a lamb just killed, and uttering, from time to time, the ghastly hysterical laughter which had pealed through the forest.
The beast kept running backwards and forwards, rising on its hind legs, and then rapidly whirling round and round, nodding its head, and going through most frantic and ludicrous antics. ”

“ A perfect cloud of little swallows darted from the cavernous entrance on our approach, divided into flocks, soared, wheeled, flew right and left, and finally returned in a body as swiftly as they came, to the sides of the long dark tunnel, which were festooned with their nests. ”

“ From the height of the lofty vaulted roof hung innumerable crystals, which, uniting with those on the walls, formed colonnades, altars, and every sort of gothic ornament of dazzling lustre, creating a fairy palace, or an illuminated temple. ”

“ Robinson’s Family—His Elopement from His Parents I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; ”

“ It was a delightful walk—away up out of the town, with its suburbs of mimic pinewood "chalets" and rough log-huts, and the hills all round sloping back from the plateau so finely, patched and powdered with snow-drifts, fringed and crowned with pine-trees, here darkened with a forest of them, there dotted with single trees, and over all, the Swiss magic of sunlight and shadow; away up the hill-side, through a wilderness of broken bottles and battered meat cans, a very paradise of rag-pickers, among which are scattered the tiny homes of the miners. ”

“ They were recognized as being no more than "relatives" of the empire; in 1499 they were finally freed from the jurisdiction of the emperor, and Switzerland became a [Pg 423] practically independent country. Although the original union had been made up of German-speaking people, considerable districts had been annexed in which Italian or French was spoken. [292] The Swiss did not, therefore, form a compact, well-defined nation, and for some centuries their confederation was weak and ill-organized.
Zwingli (1484–1531) leads the revolt in Switzerland against the Church. ”

“ As quiet and stagnant as is the life of a Swiss family, don’t make the mistake of supposing them to be either unintelligent or stupid. They are well educated, and in every one of these ugly houses there are books, and books that are used. They keep themselves posted in everything that is going on in the world outside, their intelligence being a month or such a matter behind the rest of the world, but they get it, and they understand it when they do get it. ”

“ We spoke of this at the hotel office the day before, twice, but were each time assured that there was no one else going, and consequently our day’s trip was a costly one. At nine A.M. we bade our friends, who were going on to Geneva, adieu, and saw the last of Chamouni.{155}
The Swiss are considered an honest people, but they either show great carelessness or we have several times been cheated. At the Baths of St. Gervais, upon paying for our dinner, they did not return to us enough change ”

“ The Swiss Confederation
Switzerland becomes a separate country; mixed nationality of its people.
Various districts in the neighborhood successively joined the Swiss union, and even the region lying on the Italian slopes of the Alps was brought under its control. Gradually the bonds between the members of the union and the empire were broken. ”

“ On the old bell of the cathedral is an inscription, which translated means, ‘I call the living: I mourn the dead: I break the thunder;’ which it is said, prompted Schiller to write the exquisite verses of ‘The Song of the Bell.’
Saturday, July 21st.—Yes, the Schweizerhoff is a haven of rest, and had we time, we should like to tarry longer. We are close to Germany now, and must see something of it, but I fear the majestic scenery of Switzerland has spoiled us for any scenery of less beauty. The proprietors of these Swiss hotels have a custom of giving to each departing lady guest a bouquet. ”

“ Domestic life, the religious life, and nature, seem to be all suffering for the generality. The woman in Switzerland, who enjoys, at the present time, the largest mental horizon, and who, with the most ardent heart, embraces the highest interests of social life, and who regards the Swiss Confederation from its highest point of view, is not a woman of Switzerland at all, but a daughter our unenfranchised country, of the people of Roumelia, Countess Dora d'Istria. ”

“ Coarse and repulsive-looking as she was, she had a good bit of the poetic temperament in her nature, and knew every mountain peak and bit of scenery in sight and the traditions connected with them. The peasant women of Switzerland, owing to their toilsome lives, wear a look of anxiety and hardness in their faces that a woman’s face ought never to have. And yet there is no country in the world, excepting our own, where women have done so much for the progression, education, and good of their sex. In Protestant Switzerland there is but little begging ”

“ When these had been examined by the company, Ptolemy resumed his tale:—
'Uncle Eb, as I very soon learned to call him, was ever the victim of his own generous heart. Continually adopting people, both old and young, he was doomed to be taken advantage of by those to whom he was most kind. How well can I remember, amongst many another ungrateful adopted son, uncle, aunt or cousin, young Sigurd, the birthday-monger, who entered the family about the same time as myself. ”

“ Robinson tells me they’re advanced socialists—or at least the brother is. Perhaps you’ll say you don’t care for him—the sister, to your mind, being the remarkable one. She’s indeed a perfect little femme du monde—she talks so much better than most of the people in society. ”

“ The women are extremely domestic, delighting in their children; and all the Swiss are remarkable for their passionate love of home. In every village there is a school, established by the Government for the instruction of poor children. The Swiss are the most graceful of all peasants, and wear very smart costumes. The men wear large hats, and their dress is generally a brown cloth jacket without sleeves, and puffed breeches of ticking. ”

“ In the old days of Peace, Luzern was full of honeymoon couples, and, when Peace and honeymoons and all that sort of nonsense were put a stop to, it became full of German interned prisoners of war. It boasts many first-class hotels. One of them is patronised by the Greek ex-Royal Family. A little unfortunate; but still you cannot expect to come and enjoy yourself in Switzerland without the risk of running [pg 155] into an ex-Royal Family every corner you go round, and, what is more, a Royal Family that wouldn't be ex- if it wasn't for you. ”

“ I only wish you could see how quietly and cheerfully she cares for husband and child, and the whole household, and the guest of the house, just as if it were a pleasure to her! She and her husband belong to a class which is constantly met with in Switzerland, but seldom in any other country, except in the United States of America, which, by education and natural refinement, resemble the higher classes of society, whilst they live simply, and labor like peasants. ”

“ And I do not believe that any country can exhibit more beautiful relationships between parents and children, and especially between daughters and their fathers. I have already spoken on this subject. But it is scarcely possible to say too much on these beautiful, perfect relationships. In them lie noble seeds of the future. For good, well-educated daughters, become good mothers, and it is upon the mother that the future of the child, and of the nation, more essentially depends.
In a few days I shall leave Switzerland, probably forever. ”

“ Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ”

“ One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. ”

“ Some liken life to a book to be read in. To us it is rather an unwritten poem which each age repeats to the next,—melodious sometimes, as when the blind old mythic bard of Chios sang it under the olive-trees, by the blue Aegean, to the listening Greeks, thirsty for beauty, drinking it ever with their eyes, and with their lips lisping it,—or rough and more full of meaning, as when, with the men of Schwyz and Uri and Unterwalden, the great idea of freedom, majestic as their mountains, utters itself, composed and stern, in deeds which for all time make Switzerland honored and free. ”

“ Holding, then, the opinion that it is a nobler life to have sounded the deeps and measured the heights of human emotions than to have floated in shallows continually, I contend that polygamy is wrong in itself and a cardinal crime against the possibilities of a woman's heart. A plural wife can never know the utmost happiness possible for a woman. They confess this. And by this confession the practice stands damned.
Physically, Mormon plurality appears to me to promise much of the success which Plato dreamed of, and Utah about the best nursery for his soldiers that he could have found. ”

“ As, from time immemorial, she has done upon the Swiss in their mountains.
What more worthy people! Whose every Alpine gap yawns with tradition, and is stocked with noble story; yet, the perverse and scornful one will none of it, and the sons of patriots are left with the clock that turns the mill, and the sudden cuckoo, with difficulty restrained in its box!
For this was Tell a hero! For this did Gessler die! ”

“ I have seen for some time, in the depth of my soul's innermost, a light becoming clear, and have perceived a word—I perceived them even from my earliest youth, powerful but indistinct, and although the fogs of life and the anguishes of the heart may have dimmed them, yet have I seen them again and again, like heavenly stars gleaming through earthly clouds, and now I have come to Switzerland to endeavor to attain to a clearer comprehension. ”

“ He saw the cause of his unhappiness in the family—the family as a social institution, which does not permit the child to become an independent individual at the proper time. ”

“ And whenever it shall be proven to the satisfaction of the court that any member of the tribe fails, without proper cause, to support his wife and children, no rations shall be issued to him until such time as satisfactory assurance is given to the court, approved by the agent, that the offender will provide his family to the best of his ability. ”

“ To plant a family! This idea is at the bottom of most of the wrong and mischief which men do. The truth is, that, once in every half-century, at longest, a family should be merged into the great, obscure mass of humanity, and forget all about its ancestors. ”

“ But wherever the citizen becomes insensible to the interests of his fellow-citizen, the husband will contract feelings of cold indifference to the wife, and the father of a family towards the members of his household. ”

“ Switzerland is simply a large, humpy, solid rock, with a thin skin of grass stretched over it. ”

“ There are many, doubtless, who have not yet got farther in love than their own family; but there are others who have learned that for the true heart there is neither Frenchman nor Englishman, neither Jew nor Greek, neither white nor black—only the sons and daughters of God, only the brothers and sisters of the one elder brother. ”