I have always found that amongst a fair race of people beauty predominates: and in no country did I ever see more general claims than both the males and females of Sweden have to that charming gift of nature. The figures of the men are well proportioned, often very elegantly; with good features and animated complexions. The women are delicately shaped, with skins so softly tinted, that it looks more like the soft texture of the maiden rose, than flesh and blood. There is something very feminine in this sort of beauty, and when in perfection it is absolutely seraphic. You can recollect Homer's description of the golden haired Helen, and you will understand what I

mean.

A more lovely assemblage of these demi-goddesses could not have been produced, than those I saw last night in the ball room; however, they wanted that air which we call fashion, that ease of deportment, that, I cannot tell what, of ton, which the French, Russian, and English fair of the same rank, so eminently possess.

In one accomplishment both sexes are agile to an excess: dancing. There are few Swedes of any quality, that do not perform this exercise with a science beyond any thing we could either expect or desire in a mere amateur. I am much of Chesterfield's opinion, that "whatever it is worth while to do, it is worth while to do well." And certainly, though it be worth while for a gentleman or lady to dance elegantly, it is mere fantastic idleness to become such proficients, as to rival the professional exertions of a Vestris or Deshayes. I do not in. sinuate a sly whip at any of my acquaintance by this remark: some persons are so happily formed by nature, inheriting grace at their birth, that "nothing they mean well, they can do ill." I only dislike where men and women make a study of dancing, and raise into first considerations the mere playthings of life.

Having led you such a whirligig, you will think it high time I should profit by my own remark; and ceasing my curvets, bid you adieu for the night. Then, taking the civil hint, I very gladly subscribe myself your ever faithful friend.

LETTER XXXVIII.

Stockholm, February, 1808.

HAVING presented you at court, I shall now conduct you to parade; and show the monarch of Sweden in the midst of his soldiers. On great occasions he is always attended by his drabant, or body guard, which is composed wholly of nobility. Their dress is particularly martial; and, I understand, is in the same fashion they wore in the reign of Charles the Twelfth.

The number of the drabants is now confined to forty; but under Charles they were more numerous, being ever an almost impregnable belt of braye hearts around him. At the terrible battle of Pultowa, when the litter in which the wounded king lay was shattered to pieces by a volley from the Russian cannon, twenty-four of these young nobles were killed by the explosion, and the rest, all excepting seven, slain in the contention over their fallen sovereign. In honour of this valiant remnant, who carried off the almost expiring Charles, the corps, hereafter, wore seven buttons on a particular part of their dress, in commemoration of the circumstance.

Every individual of the drabant being noble, even to the privates, they all have military rank. On days of state they stand round the person of the king as our yeomen of the guards attend on king George. Their cuirasses are of polished steel, and have three golden crowns, the arms of Sweden, embossed upon them. Their sleeves, breeches, &c. are of buff cloth; their boots are high, with long spurs. A superb casque of gilded brass, splendidly plumed, and crested with a lion, is worn on the head. Their weapons are a carbine and sword. The effect of such a guard is regal; and becoming a military monarch.

The foot guards of his majesty are comprised in three regiments, under the titles of the first, second, and Finish guards. Formerly, each regiment contained eight hundred men, but now they are reduced to five hundred. I also saw the only corps of life guards à cheval; they were wretchedly mounted,

and not very martially attired; their dress being white with blue returns; round hats awkwardly ornamented with bear skin, and other accompaniments not at all conducive to their soldierlike appearance. The heads of the foot guards, also, are covered with a round hat, turned up on one side with a yellow cockade and feather: all the infantry have this latter decoration.

The navy wear blue, with a metal epaulet; round hats, and very high feathers, rather a troublesome appendage, I should suppose, in a gale of wind. But useless, or rather inconvenient as the plume may be at sea, there is yet another orderedessential in their dress ten times worse in both respects: spurs! Not only officers of every description belonging to the army wear them, by a special ordinance, but even the naval officers are obliged to put them on. These last gentlemen, until they arrive at the rank of admiral, are distinguished by the military titles of major, colonel, &c.

The forces of the line are raised in the provinces on a similar plan with our militia; each district being obliged to furnish a given number of infantry or troops. These regiments do not remain embodied, as a continued standing army, but serve merely during the war. I am told, that in less than six hours a battalion of a thousand or two men can be got together, armed and equipped for instant service. In the province to which they belong, the peasantry are constrained, by an order of state, to convey them in wagons to a certain rendezvous, and leave them there within a given period; so as to insure the assembling of the strength of the kingdom, at any fixed point, in a short time.

During the absence of the soldiers, their fellow peasants are obliged to till the ground belonging to each military individual, that his family may not suffer by the service he is gone to render to his country. Surely there is reason in this; wisdom as well as humanity. A subsistence being provided for the wives and children of soldiers, much wretchedness, and its consequent beggary and plunder, are prevented: instead of mendicants and robbers, useful citizens are reared to the state. And one prevention to insure the health of the body politic, is

worth half a score remedies to heal a constitution, which must be crazed by repeated disorders. Should the soldier be killed, or die in the service, the neighbour peasants continue their care of his family, till the boys be old enough to cultivate for themselves. By this arrangement, the Swede goes forth for the defence of his, country with a free mind: while he is absent, that country will protect his family; and should he die, the same would provide for them, till years and strength render it no longer necessary.

The officers have houses and lands assigned them according to their military rank; on each individual's death it devolves to his regimental successor: so that in time of peace they live amongst the peasants who have formed, and may again, hereafter, their respective corps. Consequently the attachment of the men to their commanders is often so firm, that in the defence of some of their officers, they have been known to stand till they were cut piecemeal. The plan is not unlike that of the clanships of Scotland, where the chief, by his title of superiority, residence amongst a certain race, protection and kindness, makes himself such a power in their hearts, that they are ready to follow him to the extremity of the globe, to life or death. There is something very patriarchal in this mode of national defence; its sufficiency seeming to depend more on the affection of the people than the authority of the king. Such a foundation is the strongest: it was the ground of the mighty Gustavus of Sweden. And who will say, but to be thus a monarch, is to reign indeed!

The noble Swede who was my conductor through the military department, next led me to view the architectural ornaments of Stockholm. The first we visited was the church of Adolphus Frederic, the grandfather of the present king. He was much beloved by the country; and during his reign made many beneficial alterations in the laws. His memory rendered the building interesting; although its architectural perfections were few indeed. Being the most modern religious edifice of consequence in Stockholm, it is regarded with admiration by the inhabitants. Nothing without or within deserves their

eulogiums excepting the altarpiece and a fine monument, both the work of Sergal.

The first is plaster of Paris, a basso relievo of the resurrection of our Saviour. The subject is simply and beautifully treated. Christ is ascending with extended arms, his face elevated towards heaven. Three angels harmoniously group with his divine figure, being in the attitude of supporting the stone which has opened from the tomb. The drapery in which the body had been wrapped, is exquisitely disposed, and admirably unites the design. In the corner, at the bottom, sits a soldier, the only mortal in the scene; and he sleeps! The sentiment of the sculpture teems with thought: I leave it not in unprofitable hands when I resign it to yours.

A little to the right of the altar is a monument erected in the year 1777, to the memory of a nobleman who died in 1560. It is of bronze, and surpasses almost every specimen of the kind I have seen: in short, I cannot speak too highly of the design, or sufficiently eulogize the undescribable beauty of its expression. It is an angel holding up in his left hand the torch of life, which is extinguished; with his right he unveils the world by raising a piece of drapery: emblematic, I suppose, that death, while it destroys our mortal fires, opens the universe to the sight of our unembodied spirit. If this be not the explanation of Mr. Sergal's allegory, I have read his sculptured eloquence amiss; but though I may be mistaken in that mystery, you will not discredit my eyes when I tell you, that the execution of this monument, the globe, the drapery, and the cloud, so judiciously blending with the angel, gave me a thousand times the pleasure I received from the altarpiece, or the newly erected statue of the late king.

It would be dangerous to step forward as the first criticiser of the latter work. I dare hardly allow myself to see any thing but beauties in this great and last labour of genius. Only a few, the inhabitants of Stockholm and its environs, have yet seen it; and how can I presume to judge of what deserves the suffrages of a world. Being but a young scholar in the school of arts, I fear to speak before my seniors in experience; and besides, respect for the venerable artist, who dedicated so much