This Swiss journey was one of the happiest portions of my mother's life; my grandmother was one of the most distinguished and amiable women of her time; and my uncle, the Count Elzéar de Sabran, though younger than his sister, possessed superior and precocious powers of mind.
Lavater was a friend of Madame de Sabran's, who took her daughter to Zurich purposely to present her to this oracle of the philosophy of that day. The great physiognomist, on perceiving her, turned towards Madame de Sabran, observing ,"Ah, madame, what a fortunate mother you are ! your daughter is transparent! Never have I seen so much sincerity; I can read tln`ough her face ! "
After her return to France, she devoted herself to two objects, namely, the re-establishment of my fortune, and the direction of my education. I owe to her all that I am, and all that I have. She became also the eentre of a eirele of distinguished persons, among whom were some of the first men of our country. M. de Chateaubriand continued her friend to the last.
For painting she had almost the talent of an artist, and never passed a day without shutting her-
DEATH IN 1826.
47
self up in her studio for several hours. The world she loved not — it frightened, wearied, and disgusted her; she had seen it, in its depths, too early; nevertheless, she was born with, and had ever preserved, that generosity which is the virtue of more prosperous lives.
Her timidity in society was proverbial among her family ; her brother used to observe that she had more fear of a salon than of the scaffold.
During the whole period of the empire, she and her friends sided with the opposition. After the death of the Due d'Enghien, she never visited Malinaîson, nor did she ever again see Madame Bonaparte.
In 1811 she made, with me, the tour of Switzerland and Italy. On this occasion she accompanied me every where, and, either on horseback or on foot, crossed the most dangerous passages of the Alps.
We passed the winter at Rome, in a most agreeable society. My mother was no longer young; yet the classic grace of her features made a strong impression on Canova, whose ingenuous character she much admired. One day I said to her, ¢¢ With your romantic mind, I should not wonder at your marrying Canova."
<¢ Do not be afraid," she replied. <¢ If he were not Marquis d' Ischia, I might be tempted."
I had the happiness of having her life preserved to me until the 13th of July, 1826. She died of the same disease that proved fatal to Bonaparte. This malady, of which the germ had long existed, was accelerated by grief, caused by the death of my wife and only child.
It was in honour of my mother that Madame de
48MADAME DE STAEL.
Stael, who knoAv her well and loved her warmly, gave the name of Delphine to the heroine of her first romance.
At the age of fifty-six years she still retained a beauty that struck even those who had not known her in her youth, and were not, therefore, seduced by the charms of memory.
PECULIARITIES IN ТПЕ RUSSIAN CHARACTER. 49
CONVERSATION AT LUBECK ON PECULIARITIES IN THE RUSSIAN
CHARACTER.JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO LUBECK.IMAGINARY
EVILS. TRAVEMUNDE. CHARACTER OP NORTHERN LAND
SCAPES.HOLSTEIN FISHERMENSUBLIMITY OF FLAT SCENERY.
NIGHTS OF THE NORTH. IT IS CIVILISATION WHICH
HEIGHTENS ADMIRATION OF THE SCENES OF NATURE. THE
STEPPES OF RUSSIA.BURNING OF THE STEAMER NICHOLAS I.
ROAD FROM SCH`\VERIN TO LUBECK. A GERMAN STATESMAN.
THE FAIR BATH-`\VOMAN OF TRAVEMUNDE. REFLECTIONS.
This morning, at Lubeck, the landlord of the hotel, hearing that I was going to embark for Russia, entered my room with an air of compassion which made me laugh. This man is more clever and humorous than the sound of his voice, and his manner of pronouncing the French language, would at first lead one to suppose.
On hearing that I was travelling only for my pleasure, he began exhorting me, with the good-humoured simplicity of a German, to give up my project.
"You are acquainted with Russia ? " said I to him.
" No, sir ; but I am with Russians ; there are many who pass through Lubeck, and I judge of the country by the physiognomy of its people."
" What do you find, then, in the expression of their countenance that should prevent my visiting them ? "
" Sir, they have two faces. I do not speak of the valets, who have only one; but of the nobles. "When tliev arrive in Europe they have a gay, easy, contented
VOL. I.D
50 JOURNEY FROM BERLIN TO LUBECK,
air, like horses set free, or birds let loose from their cages: men, women, the young and the old, are all as happy as schoolboys on a holiday. The same persons when they return have long faces and gloomy looks; their words are few and abrupt; their countenances full of care. I conclude from this, that a country which they quitted with so much joy, and to which they return with so much regret, is a bad country."
Cí Perhaps you are right," I replied ; " but your remarks, at least, prove to me that Eussians are not such dissemblers as they have been represented."
íf They are so among themselves ; but they do not mistrust us honest Germans," said the landlord, retiring, and smiling knowingly.
Here is a man who is afraid of being taken for a good-natured simpleton, thought I: he must travel himself in order to know how greatly the description, which travellers (often superficial and careless in their observations) give of different nations, tends to influence these nations' character. Each separate individual endeavours to protest against the opinion generally established with respect to the people of his country.
Do not the women of Paris aspire to be simple and unaffected ? It may be here observed, that nothing can be more opposite than the Russian and the German character.
My journey from Berlin to Lubeck was very melancholy. An imaginary trouble (at least I still hope that there is no foundation for it) lias produced in me one of those nervous agitations, that are more disquieting than the best founded grief.
The imagination well knows how to torment itself.
IMAGINARY EVILS.51
I shall die, without comprehending why, under the same circumstances, persons whom I love appear to me in danger, and those who are indifferent to me in safety. I have a visionary heart. The silence of a dear friend, after a letter in which he had promised me another by the next courier, suddenly became to me a certain proof that some great misfortune had happened. "When once this idea had possessed my mind, I became its prey; my solitary carriage peopled itself with phantoms. In this fever of the soul, fears are no sooner conceived than realised. All is possible; therefore the misfortune is undoubted: thus it is that despair reasons. "Who has not felt this torment ? but no one feels it so often, so forcibly, as myself. Alas ! it is the troubles of the mind that make us fear death ; for death only puts au end to those of the body. All this is a dream, yet dreams are warnings: they are more to me than realities, for there is a closer affinity between the phantoms of the imao`ination and the mind that produces them, than between that mind and the external world.
This morning the fresh air of the fields, the beauty of the heavens, the smooth and tranquil aspect of the landscape on the sweet shores which border the Baltic at Travennmde, have quieted these secret forebodings, and dissipated, as if by enchantment, the unbroken dream which had tormented me for these three days past. It is not because I have wisely reflected — What can reason do against the influences of a supernatural power? but, fatigued with causeless fear, I have become re-assured also without a cause. This repose, therefore, cannot be security. An evil, apprehended without cause, and dissipated without rca-