g Thorwaldsen is perhaps in part the cause of
his remembering the Danish capital with peculiar favour. He gives
various details concerning that celebrated sculptor, his character and
habits, and commences the chapter, which he styles, "A Fragment of
Italy in the North," with a comparison between Sweden and Denmark, two
countries which, both in trifling and important matters, but especially
in the character of their inhabitants, are far more dissimilar than from
their juxtaposition might have been supposed. Listen to Mr Boas.

"On meeting an interesting person for the first time, one
frequently endeavours to trace a resemblance with some previous
acquaintance or friend. I have a similar propensity when I visit
interesting cities; but I had difficulty in calling to mind any
place to which I could liken Copenhagen. Between Sweden and Denmark
generally, there are more points of difference than of resemblance.
Sweden is the land of rocks, and Denmark of forest. Oehlenschlaegel
calls the latter country, 'the fresh and grassy,' but he might also
have added 'the cool and wooded.'

"The Swedish language is soft and melodious, the Danish sharp and
accentuated. The former is better suited to lyrical, the latter to
dramatic poetry.

"When a Swede laughs, he still looks more serious than a Dane who
is out of humour. In Sweden, the people are quiet, even when
indulging in the pleasures they love best; in Denmark there is no
pleasure without noise. In a political point of view, the
difference between the two nations is equally marked. Beyond the
Sound, all demonstrations are made with fierce earnestness; on this
side of it, satire and wit are the weapons employed. On the one
hand shells and heavy artillery, on the other, light and brilliant
rockets. The Swedes have much liberty of the press and very little
humour; the Danes have a great deal of humour and small liberty of
the press. As a people, the former are of a choleric and melancholy
temperament, the latter of a sanguine and phlegmatic one.

"Whilst the Swedish national hatred is directed against Russia,
that of Denmark takes England for its object. Finland and the fleet
are not yet forgotten.

"The Swede is constantly taking off his hat; the Dane always shakes
hands. The former is courteous and sly, the latter simple and
hones