no, not alone in connection with these pictures does he live before me; time and space do not contain a character such as his. To-day, as yesterday, and in eternity, shall I perceive his glance, his voice, his words, as they were once present with me; they are united with all that is beautiful and noble in the great realm of creation. His words are a guide to me as well in Sweden as they were in America. I love to recall every one of them.

"You will know it all when you come into your own country," said he, with reference to many questions, many inquiries, which at my departure from America were dark to my understanding.

The thought of publishing the letters which I had written home from America, as they first flowed from my pen on the paper, or as nearly so as possible, did not occur to me until several months after my return, when with a feeble and half unwilling hand I opened these letters to a beloved sister who was now no longer on earth. I confess that the life which they contained reanimated me, caused my heart to throb as it had done when they were written, and I could not but say to myself, "These, the offspring of the moment and warm feeling, are, spite of all their failings, a more pure expression of the truth which my friends desire from me, and which I wish to express, than any which I could write with calm reflection and cool hand." And I resolved to publish the letters as they had been inspired by the impression of the moment, and have, on their transcription, merely made some omissions and occasional additions. The additions have reference principally to historical and statistical facts which I found passingly touched upon in the letters or in my notes, and which are now amplified. The omissions are of such passages as refer to my own affairs or those of others, and which I considered as of too private or too delicate a nature to bear publicity. I have endeavored, in my communications from private life, not to overstep

the bounds which a sense of honor and delicacy prescribed, nor to introduce any thing which it would be undesirable to publish, either as regarded confidential communication or the names of individuals. I am deeply sensible of the requirements of delicacy in this respect, and nothing would be more painful to me than to feel that from want of due circumspection I had failed herein.

I fear, nevertheless, that some of my friends may feel their delicacy wounded by the praise which I could not always withhold. They must forgive me for my love's sake!

I have lived in your country and your homes with no ordinary affection; your homes received me there in no ordinary manner. If the heaped-up measure sometimes ran over, it was less my fault than-yours. Ah! the deeds of selfishness and of hatred ring every day in our ears with the names of those who practice them. Let us preserve, then, other names to be conveyed round the world on the wings of spring and love, that like a heav enly seed they may take root in the earth, and cause all the best feelings of the soul to blossom. The heart sometimes is ready to doubt of goodness and its power on earth -it must see before it can believe. I would hereby aid it in this respect. I have spoken of you.*

The best, the most beautiful, in your hearts and in your homes, has, after all, not been revealed. I know that within the human heart and home, as in the old temple of the older covenant, there is a holy of holies upon whose golden ark the countenances of the cherubim may alone gaze and read the tables of the covenant.

I have followed my own convictions in that which J have censured or criticised in your country and your peo

* In the English and American editions the initials of the names are merely given, where the names belong to private individuals. I have; however, considered this veiling of my friends to be superfluous in the Swedish, where in any case their names merely sound as a remote echo.

ple. That which I myself have seen, heard, experienced, felt, thought, that have I written, without fearing any thing, excepting any error as regards truth and justice.

But when you read these letters, my friends, have patience, if possible, till the end; and remember that these are often the impression of the moment, which later impressions mature or change.

Consider them as digits, which you must go through before you are able to combine them into a whole. Four of the letters, those, namely, to H. C. Örsted, to I. P. Böcklin, to her majesty the Queen Dowager of Denmark, and to H. Martensen, are to be regarded as resting-places by the way, from which the ground which has been passed over is reviewed, and the path and the goal reflected upon. Some repetitions occur in these, which it was not possible to avoid. I fear that some repetition may also be found in the other letters, and it might have been avoided. But..

From you, my friends, I hope for that truth before which it is pleasant to bow even when it is painful. Wherever I have erred, wherever I have formed a wrong judgment, I hope that you will freely correct me. I know that you will acknowledge all that which is good and true. in what I have written. I fear from you no unjust judgment. It seems to me that I have found among you the gentlest human beings, without weakness; therefore I love to be judged by you.

I here return to your beautiful homes as a spirit, reminding you of the stranger whom you received as a guest, and who became a friend, to converse with you of former days spent on your hearths, to thank and to bless you, and not merely you, whose guest I was, but the many who benefited me in word or deed, the warm-hearted, noble-minded, all those who let me drink the morning dew of a new, a more beautiful creation, that elixir of life which gives new, youthful life to heart and mind. Words

are poor, and can only feebly express the feelings of the soul. May, however, somewhat of the life's joy which you afforded me again breathe forth from these letters to you, and convey to you a better expression of thanks than that which can here be uttered by,

Your guest and friend,

FREDRIKA BREMER.

THE

HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD

LETTER I.

ON THE SEA.

September 23d, 1849.

This is, dearest Agatha, my second day on the great ocean! And if the voyage goes on as it has begun I shall not soon long for land. The most glorious weather, the heaven and the sea full of light, and for a habitation on my voyage to the New World a cabin large and splendid as a little castle, and besides that, convenient in the highest degree. And how I enjoy my quiet, uninterrupted life here on board, after the exciting days in England, where the soul felt itself as on a rack, while the body hurried hither and thither in order to see and accomplish' that which must be seen and accomplished before I was ready for my journey! For it was requisite to see a little of England, and especially of London, before I saw America and New York. I did not wish to be too much overcome by New York, therefore I would know something of the mother before I made acquaintance with the daughter, in order to have a point and rule of comparison, that I might correctly understand the type. I knew that Sweden and Stockholm were of another race, unlike the English country, and towns, people, manners, mode of building, and so on. But England had in the first place given population, laws, and tone of mind to the people of the New World. It was the Old World in England which must be

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