The contrast with Copenhagen was obvious; there the young sons of
the middle classes were a burden on their families sometimes until they
were thirty, had no enterprise, no money of their own to dispose of,
were often glued, as it were, to the one town, where there was no
promotion to look forward to and no wide prospect of any sort.
It was a long time since I had been so much struck by anything as by an
expression that a Hamburg lady, who had been to Copenhagen and had
stayed there some time, used about the young Danish men, namely, that
they had _l'apparence chetive_. I tried to persuade her that life
in Copenhagen had only accidentally appeared so wretched to her; but I
did not convince her in the least. She demonstrated to me, by numerous
examples, to what an extent enterprise was lacking in Denmark, and I was
obliged to restrict myself to explaining that the tremendous pressure of
political pettiness and weakness had brought a general slackness with
it, without people feeling or suspecting it, and had robbed nearly every
one of daring and success. The result of the conversation was that
Denmark was shown to me in a fresh light.
A Hamburg merchant who had lived for a long time in Mexico invited me to
dinner, and at his house I had the same impression of apparent
happiness, comfort, enterprise and wide outlook, in contrast to the
cares and the narrowness at home, where only the few had travelled far
or collected material which might by comparison offer new points of view
and give one a comprehensive experience of life.
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