Tlii INTRODUCTION. 



in the country, will perhaps find it difficult to escape. The 

 latter must necessarily have gained something like a par- 

 tiality for the land (or he would not have remained in it) ; 

 he must have received many an act of kindness from, and 

 probably made many a good friend among, the people with 

 whom he has been so long associated, and it would be an 

 act of base ingratitude, to say nothing of its inconsistency, 

 if after having, as it were, eaten of their salt for so long 

 a time, he were to turn round and abuse his kind enter- 

 tainers directly he left their board. But still, if a man once 

 undertakes the grave task of describing a country, and the 

 habits of a people, he has a public duty to perform, and 

 unless he can draw the picture with an impartial hand, 

 he had better by far leave it alone. To give praise only 

 where it is due, to avoid unjust censure, and above all, never 

 to sacrifice plain truth to flattery, should be his invariable 

 motto. 



Such, at least, shall be mine, and although I trust that 

 not a single remark in the following pages will wound the 

 feelings of a Swede, I hope that not one of my own country- 

 men will ever have it in his power at a future day to say 

 he has been misled by my statements, or formed a dif- 

 ferent opinion of Sweden and the Swedes from a perusal 

 of this book, than future experience will warrant him in 

 retaining. 



It is on this account that I set about my task with no 

 little reluctance, fearful of being accused of partiality, for 

 candour forces me to confess that my heart warms towards 

 old Sweden. During more than ten years' residence in the 

 country, I have invariably received the greatest kindness from 

 all. From the first moment I set foot in the country, I was 

 \reated far more like a friend, than a stranger, and if ever 



