“. . . . .You are going to a country* which has more in its history and its literature to recommend it than in its objects of art or nature. But to an Englishman it is a very interesting land, and the language of all others most akin to our own, and consequently easier than any other foreign one whatever. You will readily acquire it, and find the value of the acquisition, as an aid towards other northern tongues, and an indispensable step towards a lexicographical knowledge of our own.
“One subject will be very well worth your inquiry there,—the history of the Reformation, and the present state of the Church in Denmark and Sweden. For in those countries the work was more effectually done than anywhere else, and therefore it should seem, more wisely. The Romanists have never recovered strength there; nor have any sects acquired head enough to be troublesome. I have long (for my own satisfaction) been desirous of obtaining more information on this subject than I know where to find.
“There is much sound learning in Denmark, though it may not be of that kind which is rated so much above its real worth in our English Univer-
* Mr. Warter was about to be ordained as chaplain to the British Embassy at Copenhagen. |
| 96 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 56. |
“For the climate’s sake I shall be glad if you migrate to Naples. Such a migration is likely, because nothing can be more according to the wisdom of English diplomacy, than that a minister who has made himself acquainted with northern interests should be sent to a southern court—where he has everything to learn. But I hope you will lay your Danish and German foundations first. The Goths, who overthrew the Roman empire, were not superior in a greater degree to the Romans whom they subdued, than the Northerns are now in literature to anything that the South produces, or can produce as long as Italy is blasted by the Papal Upas. . . . .
