republican songs, and seem earnestly to wish that the republic may
stand; yet they appear very much attached to their prince royal;
and, as far as rumor can give an idea of character, he appears to
merit their attachment."

She remained in Copenhagen and Hamburg but a short time. Imlay's
unkindness and indecision had, by the time she reached Holland, so
increased her melancholy that the good effect of the bracing northern air
was partially destroyed. She lost her interest in the novelty of her
surroundings, and as she says in one of her last letters, stayed much at
home. But her perceptive faculties were not wholly deadened. She notes
with her usual precision the indolence and dulness of the Danes, and the
unwavering devotion of the Hamburgers to commerce, and describes the
towns of Hamburg and Copenhagen with graphic force. These descriptions
are well worth reading.

It was always impossible for Mary not to reflect and moralize upon what
passed around her. She not only wanted to examine and record phenomena
and events, but to discover a reason for their existence. She invariably
sought for the primal causes and the final results of the facts in which
she was interested. The civilization of the northern countries through
which she travelled, so different from the culture of England and France,
gave her ample food for thought. The reflections it aroused found their
way into her letters. Some of them are really remarkable, as for example,
the following:--

"Arriving at Sleswick, the residence of Prince Charles of
Hesse-Cassel, the sight of the soldiers recalled all the unpleasing
ideas of German despotism, which imperceptibly vanished as I
advanced into the country. I viewed, with a mixture of pity and
horror, these beings training to be sold to slaughter, or be
slaughtered, and fell into reflections on an old opinion of mine,
that it is the preservation of the species, not of individuals,
which appears to be the design of the Deity throughout the whole of
nature. Blossoms come forth only to be blighted; fish lay their
spawn where it will be devoured; and what a large portion of the
human race are born merely to be swept prematurely away! Does not
this waste of budding life emphatically assert, that it is not men,
but man, whose preservation is so necessary to the completion of
the grand plan of the universe? Children peep into exi