Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/140

156 country by the side of a stream of the most crystalline water. The land seems to me to wear a holiday garb. Brunnen is the harbor for the Canton Schwytz, and the life and movement of the little town seem unceasing.

I might now speak somewhat less favorably of the conservatism of these Cantons, but defer doing so till I have seen more of them. They appear to me to look backward rather than forward, and that is injurious, in the long run. The old struggle for freedom and the rights they have acquired, seems to occupy the popular mind too exclusively, and to close it against higher spiritual development. The lately-ruptured Sonderbund is a bloody proof of this.

August 29th.—I visited Grutli during the morning, after crossing the lake in calm and beautiful weather. It is devoutly to be wished that the Swiss people may never take it into their heads to place upon this beautiful sun-lighted spot, a monument either of stone or marble, with inscriptions, etc. I cannot describe the peculiar charm there is, in finding here nothing besides the objects which surrounded the Sworn-Confederates during the nights when they assembled here, and upon the morning when the sun arose upon their solemn oath. This beautiful carpet of turf, these trees, this lovely pyramid, the Mythen Stone on the shore, this enchanting lake, with its garland wood and mountain, this image of Swiss scenery, and this memory,—are they not sufficient? And if people will still have any thing more, then nature and the popular poetical belief united, have provided it in the three springs from the crystalline waters of which people drink to the honor of