International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1

"When one of them becomes ill, they say that his soul has been called to a better world by the loving beings he has lost; and that his soul is about to depart to yield to their prayers, and seek its final home with them. Then they send for a sorcerer, who casts himself on his face on the ground, and in mysterious words beseeches the wandering soul to return. If it yields to the supplications, if it returns to the tabernacle it has inhabited, the invalid recovers breath and strength; if not, he dies. Such, and a variety of other examples, we find in every direction, in the wonderful tales of the east, in the popular traditions of the north, and they prove clearly enough that there are flowers of poetry and spring-like perfumes full of inimitable grace in all primitive societies, even where gross ignorance and coarse usages distress us.

"Think you though that science also is without poetry? If you understand by poetry, what I think you do, every ennobling of thought, every exaltation of mind, do you think there is no lofty and grand poetry in that geology which searches into the bowels of the earth, and exhibits to you the different layers of which it is composed, and the revolutions it has undergone; in the researches of the naturalist, who exhibits the creations of an antediluvian world; in the observations of the astronomer, who explains the configuration and harmonious movements of those luminous orbs removed millions of miles from that on which we dwell? Do you think there is no poetry in the material development of civilized societies, in the industrious activity which digs canals, pierces mountains, subdues the elements, and moves all to man's will?"

"Ah, certainly I experience a very agreeable emotion, when in an old custom I find the traces of the religious spirit of our fathers, and listen to their legends and songs. This emotion, however, does not prevent me from thinking of that which should be created by the imposing spectacle of the progress of civilization, more than the pleasure I would enjoy if I reposed by the side of a fresh spring, mysteriously concealed amid a forest, would prevent me from loving to look on a majestic river, down which floated the canvas of some ship, or the boilers of a steamer. The perfection of matters would be to kindle our soul with the lights of science, and at the same time preserve the innocent candor of our hearts. Thus will we obey the Bible-text which says, 'You shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven, unless you be as little children.' To be a child in simple-heartedness, a man in toil and labor, is the end we should propose to ourselves."

"Yes," said M. de Vermondans, "that is a truly noble object. We cannot however expect to attain it. Pride unnoticed, is created by the very labor of our minds, and when that poison has inoculated our hearts, farewell to innocence. I will agree with you as to the indisputable benefits of science. Confess, however, that all the learning of your philosophers and mathematicians can I never confer on any people the precious customs of the days of old. When we look back on what has been done by the would-be wise men of antiquity to ennoble the moral state of man, I will not speak of the mad ceremonial of the burlesque festivals invented by the revolutionists of 1793. They were but scenes of disorder and frenzy. Imagine, however, the purest and most solemn of the discoveries of science, and compare it with the Christmas festival which the Swedish peasant will celebrate in a few days, and tell me which contributes to true emotion, to the moral good. Alete, give me my pipe."

The last words were the usual signal given by the good old man when he felt the length of the conversation fatiguing, or felt his favorite ideas paradoxical, though they sometimes were pressed on by arguments the tenor of which he found it difficult to resist.

Alete went to get the long pipe, with its stem of maple-root, and filled it with tobacco with her own pretty fingers. A sweet smile and a deferential look from Eric recompensed her. When he saw M. de Vermondans seated in his chair, and inhaling the aroma of tobacco through the amber mouthpiece, he said,

"Since you remember our Christmas festival, you will not forget that we expect you, Ebba, Alete, and Ireneus to keep it at our house."

"Yes, Eric," said M. de Vermondans, "I like your father, and shall be happy to pass a day with him."

"Yes, dear Eric," said Alete, "I love your father. Pay however some attention to old Marguerite's preparations. I wish to be received like a princess, and if all the plate is not produced to do me honor, if the table be not covered with the finest linen and loaded with delicacies, if the furniture does not glitter like glass, and the passage-hall and corridor are not bright as if for a wedding, I will turn all the house upside down."

"Well well," said Eric, "there you are a queen. My father will turn over all power to you, and you may make as many reforms as you please."

PART III

A few days after the visit of Eric, the groom of M. de Vermondans took from the carriage-house two sleighs, trimmed with wolf and bear-skins, and harnessed to each of them a spirited horse, the activity of which seemed enhanced by the cold morning air. In the first sleigh sat M. de Vermondans and Alete; and Ireneus and Ebba entered the second.

"Are we ready?" said the old man, as he took the reins in one hand, and the whip in the other.

"Yes," said Ireneus, after he had wrapped up the delicate frame confided to him in a large Astracan-skin.

"Well, let us start." The horses, as soon as the reins were loosed, left the house at a gallop.

"I am glad," said Ebba to Ireneus, "that you are in Sweden at this season, which to us is so solemn."

"Do you then celebrate Christmas with so much pomp?"

"I do not think it is celebrated in any country of the world with so much joy and unanimity, from the northern extremity of the realm to the southern boundary, in town and country, in palace and peasant's hut."

"I am sure that in this festival there are touching usages, with which you are thoroughly acquainted. I shall be delighted if you will explain them to me. All you have told me of your popular legends and superstitions, opens to me, as it were, a new world, in which, I assure you, I am glad to wander."

"Were I not afraid that I would appear pedantic to you." said Ebba, "I would tell you what Eric has told me about our Christmas festival. It appears to date back to a remote day before the Christian era. At this season our pagan ancestors celebrated the winter solstice, just as on the 25th of June they did that of summer. The early name of this festival, which we yet preserve, indicates an astronomical idea. It was called Julfest. (the feast of the wheel,) certainly because the sun, the evolutions of which are on the 25th December marked by the shortest day, and June 25th by the longest. Whatever may have been, the primitive nature of this festival, Christianity gave it an august character. To us it is not a material symbol, but tho commemoration of the day on which the Savior of earth was born in a stable. That day seems to announce glad tidings to the Swedish peasant, as it did to the shepherds of Bethlehem, for each seem to rejoice. The courts and schools have recess, parents and friends visit each other, not to discharge the common duty of politeness, to leave a card with the porter, but to pass whole hours in gayety and frank intercourse."

On all the high and cross-roads, you see sleighs filled with travelers. One will contain a daughter married at a distance from home, who at this time of universal enjoyment wishes to visit the old hearth-side, The other contains a son, who comes from the University, or from the city where he is employed, to kiss his mother. The soldier who all the year has borne in patience the severity of garrison duty, is satisfied with his profession, if he can at that season obtain a leave of absence for a few weeks. The sailor returned from a distant voyage, looks anxiously at the sea and sky, and increases his zeal and activity, to be enabled to reach Sweden by Christmas. The houses everywhere are open, and the table is always spread. All is made scrupulously clean, for at this season, every housewife loves to display her order and carefulness. The rich display damask and rich hangings. The poor strew pine branches on the floor, and white curtains newly bleached, deck the windows. You reach the family-hearth. One of the servants takes your horse to the stable, another hangs your valise before the fire to dry it. The mistress of the house, while dinner is being prepared, offers you a glass of brandy, or of beer prepared expressly for Christmas, and called JULÆL. The young women bring you cakes prepared by themselves. Your hands are shaken cordially, presents are made, it matters not whether trifling or rich, they are Christmas remembrances and a pledge of love.

In many of the peasants' houses, all the shoes of the family are, as a sign of this union, placed side by side of each other. In many also before and after meals, a hymn is sung. Then when dinner is over, old men, women and children dance together. Servants and masters mingle together, and even the mendicant is kindly received. On that day the God of mercy descended to save indiscriminately the rich and the poor, and to teach the proud and the humble the brotherhood of the Gospel. At this season of universal sympathy, even the animals are not forgotten, a larger ration of grain and hay is carried to the stable, and barley is strewn on the snow for the birds, who are then unable to glean in the fields, and who, delighted by this unexpected provender, in their cries seem to warble forth a Christmas hymn. In some villages the little tomtegubbar or invisible genii, protecting the household, are yet remembered, and vases of milk are placed on the floor for them. Other superstitions are also joined to this religious festival. Thus in many peasant houses, a straw-bed is made on the floor, and on it the children and servants sleep during the night. On the next day, this bed is taken to the court-yard, or barn, and it is thought to preserve the fowls from birds of prey, and the cattle from disease. This straw is also strewn on the fields around fruit trees, which it is thought to make healthy. At evening, two torches are lit to burn all night; if one of them becomes extinguished or is burned out before day, it is a sign of trouble, that during the course of the year there will be a death in the house. All fancy that in Christmas a revelation of the future is found. To read this prophecy however, it is necessary to rise before dawn, to go fasting and in silence into the wood, without speaking or looking around. If too at sunrise, the church is reached before the crowing of the cock, the coffins of those who will die during the year will be seen, and by turning the head around, it may be learned if the harvest will be good or bad, or whether there will be a conflagration in the village.

While Ebba was describing these usages and superstitions of Sweden, the sleighs passed rapidly along the snow plains, which had been previously leveled by other vehicles. The spire of the church in which the father of Eric for thirty years had officiated as PROST with honor and dignity was seen. About fifty houses were arranged in a circle around the ascent of a hill. There was one among them of comparatively large dimensions, of two stories, and built of stone, a rare thing in Sweden, whose country houses usually have but one story and an attic, and are built of wood. One side of this house adjoined a large and beautiful church, and the other on an inclosure. Two rows of windows in the principal façade looked out on the gulf, and before the principal door was a terrace commanding a most extensive view. At this moment the sun lit up the polished windows, and the plain, covered with an immense sheet of snow, shone brilliantly. The sea with a fringe of ice close to the shore, rolled in the distance its free and azure waves, and the forests which appeared here and there in their somber verdure and mute majesty, the vast and silent space, the little village, the motion of the population of which was already visible, presented to Ireneus a picture which differed so much from all he had seen, that it filled him with wonder and surprise.

"The house," said Ebba, "which I see has attracted your attention, is that of Eric's father, a good and venerable old man, the whole of the life of whom has been an example of prudence and usefulness. He does much good around him, by means of his religious exhortations and agricultural industry. In Sweden, many of the clergy act in this double capacity. The greater portion of the revenue of many livings consists entirely of the revenue of the lands with which they are endowed. If the priest does not take pleasure in rural occupations, he farms out the lands, and quietly receives the rent. They render important services to the districts amid which they live. They are teachers of labor, and often introduce systems of agricultural improvement revealed to them by science or a new machine.

"The father of Eric is one of those farmer priests; for more than twenty years without neglecting any of his sacerdotal duties, he has cultivated a large farm attached to the presbytery. He has given lessons in agriculture to the peasants, and enforced them by success, for no fields are more productive than his own, and no yard has seen fine cattle. How great is his activity!

"How often have his people seen him brave, with a vigor they could not but admire, the summer's heat and winter's ice. At present the infirmities of age render this rude toil impossible. He, however, does not cease to correspond with many agricultural societies, and encourage those who have recourse to his counsels. He is one of those rare men gifted with meditative faculties, and with great practical capacity."

"How pleasant is it." said Ireneus, "to suffer my mind to repose in the asylum you have opened for it. Since my coming hither I have met with none but pure hearts, and have beheld only the mild pictures of a pure and peaceable existence. How different is it from the agitation of all parties in my own land! Yet, however, even amid the calm and repose I here enjoy, how I regret it. I saw it so great and prosperous, and thought its destiny so certain!"

"Console yourself, cousin," said Ebba, "you will see that country again, which it is both a necessity and a duty for you to love. You will see it in that normal condition from which it has by a great crisis been thrown. Moral diseases, like physical ones, sometimes attack men, and God, to punish the errors of a people, to abase its pride, strikes it with one of these mental contagions, yields it up to the effervescence of its bad thoughts, until the people humiliates and corrects itself, bending before the arm of the Avenger in penitence, and returns to the path from which it has wandered."

Ireneus was amazed to hear her speak thus. The timid young girl seemed like a prophetess animated with a mighty inspiration. A flush was on her pale face, and in her glance was the light of enthusiasm.

"You are a noble creature," said Ireneus, taking her by the hand. The hand of Ebba lay motionless and pale in his, her blush passed away, and the dark shadows of her habitual melancholy returned.

Just then the sleigh of M. de Vermondans arrived at its destination. Eric was waiting for them at the threshold, clasped the hand of his father-in-law, and helped Alete out, as Ireneus did as much for Ebba. The servants took care of the foaming horses.

The little party, as soon as they entered the house, could see that the faithful Eric had sought to avoid the reproaches of his betrothed. The entrance of the corridor was so completely washed and dried that one might fancy the joiner had just finished the floor. Through the open kitchen door a large brazier was seen in a glow, and the ringing of plates and dishes was heard. The antechamber was covered with a woolen carpet, and the Christmas pine brought on the day before from the neighboring forest, decked with garland and moss, rose proudly from a large box, as if it knew how proud a part it played in the festival.

As she passed from the antechamber to the drawing-room, Alete paused to look at the arrangement of the table. Seeing a false plait in one of the napkins, she was probably about to give vent to her epigrams. The door of the other room however was opened, and a handsome old man dressed in a long frock appeared. His head was covered with a cap of black velvet, from beneath which his white hair escaped. This was Eric's father, and Alete paid much respect to him.

"Come, my daughter," said the pastor, as with much kind dignity he kissed her forehead. "You too, my friend, and my gentle Ebba (speaking to M. de Vermondans and his other daughter), are welcome. You too, Monsieur," said he, turning to Ireneus, "though I have not before had the honor to see you, I welcome as a friend. You are all welcome to the hearthside of the poor priest, and may the festival of to-day be to us a commemoration of the past, and a happier tie for the future."

The old man took his guests into his own room, in which there was an Inconsiderable library, a few models of utensils for agricultural purposes, testifying to both his taste and his occupation. He sat on a sofa, which debility in his limbs made necessary to him, and placed his guests beside him. Alete, who could not sit quiet long, soon arose and took Eric to the window. While, as was the custom with her, she tested the patient character of her husband that was to be, the old man conversed with Ireneus, who from the very first had been attracted by his venerable and pleasing face.

"From these instruments of labor collected around you, I see," said Ireneus, "that you have contrived a sure method of making your solitude active. Ebba has already told me how usefully you employ your time."

"Usefully," replied M. Guldberg, with sincere modesty. "Alas! let us act usefully as we may, how much weakness is there in our will, and forgetfulness in our best resolutions. If by the grace of God we accomplish any good, what is that in comparison with what we should do. I love toil, but I can make no merit of it. In my youth it was a necessity. The son of a laborer, who earned with his own hands the money which supported me at school, I was compelled, at every risk, to repay him for his paternal tenderness by my success. Gradually labor became a habit, and then a quasi dogma of religion. I thought it my duty, as soon as possible, to release him from the necessity of sacrifice. I feel myself attracted by a brotherly sympathy to all who toil. I look with respect on the sweaty brow and toil-stained hand. God himself prescribed labor to us as a law, and his infinite goodness unites with obedience to it the enjoyment of much happiness. Certainly no person with a heart can repress sympathy at the sight of the poor laborer, who is busy from morning to night to earn his moderate wages, who braves every weather to sow and harvest his crop. This laborer, however, is often happier than the majority of the rich, who, as they pass, look on him with pity. He has done his duty. When his task is done he sits contented at his humble hearth. The sparkling wood, the bread on his table, he has earned himself. He educates his child by his own exertions, and as he seeks his bed, may say he has done his duty. He is ignorant of the troubles which fill the hearts of the opulent. Ceaseless toil to him is a cuirass warding off stormy passions. The door of his soul is shut to dark chimeras, to the mad fancies which people the area of the palace, and on his rude pillow he enjoys a peaceful repose, which the lord of his village often asks for in vain. When I thus praise the efficaciousness of toil, I do not speak only of manual labor. The labor of thought is often most painful, and its fruits infinitely more valuable."

"Take care," said Ireneus, "you touch a sensitive string of my uncle's breast."

"Yes," said the old man, "Eric has told me of your discussions on this subject. I however know my friend M. de Vermondans, and whatever disdain of science he may affect, I believe he would be distressed if he did not know all that he has turned to so good a purpose in life. In attacking in your conversations books and writers, he did not tell you how much he had borrowed from them, and how earnestly he had read them."

"What books?" asked M. de Vermondans; "a few incomplete histories, and some odd volumes of philosophy. One must examine closely the reveries of human pride to be able to judge of them."

"Traitor!" said M. Guldberg, shaking his finger affectionately at his friend, "you not only persist in hypocrisy, but you attack the character of my library. A few incomplete histories! a few odd volumes! Must I then recall to you the admiration with which you looked at my books, and studied all that I had collected? Some incomplete histories! a few odd volumes! Must I recall to you the delight with which you often have studied my collection? Must I defend it against you? Know, that to attack my books is to make war against myself. I passed forty years of my life in collecting them, and to each one is attached some pleasant remembrance. From some I date my student life, and my entry into the priesthood. From some I fix the epoch of my marriage, and the various phases of my existence; some I found in a country cabin, where they were forgotten; some I brought from Stockholm, where I had been to see my bishop and an old friend. All therefore recall to me kind teachers, skillful guides, and are the memorials of different events, which are the great items of my life. Gradually I have collected around me those books which interest me the most. When I am here in my woodland home they are company to me, and the most instructive friends man can meet with. Here I have the philosophers, who aid me in the examination of the mysteries of the soul; the historians, who record the revolutions of nations; the geologists and natural philosophers, who expound to me the organic laws of nature; the poets, who sing the joyous or sad emotions of the heart. Whatever may be my moral disposition, I need only to reach my hand toward one of them to seize on some brilliant intellect, to enlighten, strengthen, and console me."

"How that delights me!" said Ebba, in a low tone.

"Listen," said M. de Vermondans, with emphasis, and with an intonation of grief entirely contradicted by his face, "see, this woman has been bewitched: the poison of your pernicious doctrines has reached the very interior of my house. I fancied I would be able to educate my daughter in the love of good principles, but I have warmed a very serpent at my heart. Luckily, I see my faithful Alete attending only to the positive and who now says that dinner is ready or Christmas-day. Christmas comes but once a year."

The dinner was in truth solemn and splendid, the whole table being loaded with enormous dishes.

"What a luxuriance of richness!" said M. de Vermondans. "Thank God, a love of books does not make us forget material things."

Ireneus said, "This is in truth a banquet, with which, in France, a candidate for the Chamber might win over many electors."

"Luckily," said the old priest, "we have no electors here to lead astray. When, though, we leave the table, my farmer-boys will make merry over what we have not eaten, and with them many poor people who on Christmas are in the habit of coming to the parsonage. You do not to-day dine with me, but with my people. On Christmas, in Sweden, we make presents to each other as in France is done on New-Year's day. This game, these fish, have been brought to me by the huntsmen and fishermen of my people. A peasant gave me a quarter of veal, another gave me cream, a third the butter. Even one woman has brought me an egg or two, saying that they should be boiled only for myself. Before long the house will be filled with a crowd, and many strange stories will be told around the firesides. Whole pitchers of beer will be emptied to the health of the old pastor and his friends."

"They will dance?" asked Alete.

"No, mademoiselle, you will not have that profane amusement. But Nils the schoolmaster has a very fine voice. Olaf the fisherman, and his brother Christian, will be there also, and your cousin will be able to hear some of the popular songs. He never heard anything like them in Paris."

"So be it," said Alete; "one or two rounds with those merry figures would however have been amusing enough. Hark! it seems to me I hear hurras at Nils's arrival. If the two others are come, may I bring him?"