An Account of Denmark. Robert Molesworth
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Opinions, which of late have been too much back’d by God’s Authority, almost to the ruin of a Free People.
I do not hereby mean to reflect on the Order which generally has the government of our Youth; we have had the Experience of many among them who have given proof of a freer Education and useful Learning: And without question the chief Posts of the Gown of both kinds were never better fill’d than at present. I only lament the ill Contrivance of their Constitution, for while Interest draws one way, and Honesty another, when a Man may make his Fortune by forgetting his Duty to his Country, but shall always stick at Mark while he serves it; ’tis scarcely to be hoped Men should hold out against such Temptations, unless they be more gifted with Honesty than the generality of Mankind are. And since they continue still upon the same bottom, it must be expected the same, or other as mischievous Doctrines will every day be broach’d: whereas if they were once set upon the same foot the Philosophers of old were, if Honesty and the Duty to their Country were made their private Interest, and the way to thrive; we should soon see them shift hands, and the Spirit of those Philosophers revive again in them.
The Constitution of our Universities, as to Learning, seems as unfortunately regulated as it is to Politicks. We receive the directions of our Studies there, from Statutes made by those who understood nothing of the Matter, who had a quite different Notion and Taste of Learning from what the World has at present: It seems as ridiculous to take Patterns for the gentile Learning of this Age from the old fashion’d Learning of the Times wherein the University Statutes were compiled, as it would be for one who would appear well dress’d at Court, to make his Cloaths after the Mode in Henry the VIII’s day: But ’tis of infinitely worse consequence; for the Prejudices and wrong Notions, the stiffness and positiveness in Opinion, the litigiousness and wrangling, all which the old Philosophy breeds, besides the narrow Spiritedness, and not enduring of Contradiction, which are generally contracted by a Monastick Life, require a great deal of time to get rid of, and until they be filed off by Conversation in the World abroad, a Man’s Learning does but render him more useless and unfit for Society.
I dare appeal to common Experience, whether those excellent Men that of late Years have been preferred in our Church (than which Set of Divines England scarce ever knew a better) be not for the most part such as have been very conversant with the World; and if they have not all travell’d out of this Kingdom, have at least spent the best part of their days in this Epitome of the World, the City of London, where they have learnt Christian Liberty as well as other Christian Virtues. The great difference between these and others of narrow Opiniastre Tempers caus’d by their Monk-like Education is discernable by every Body, and puts it out of all doubt, that such who have seen most, of what Profession soever they be, prove the most honest and virtuous Men, and fittest for Humane Society: these embrace better Notions relating to the Publick, weigh Opinions before they adhere to them, have a larger Stock of Charity, a clearer Manner of distinguishing between Just and Unjust, understand better the Laws of our own Land, as well as the Privileges and Frailties of Human Nature; And all this in a degree far excelling the most zealous learned religious Person who has been brought up in his Cell, and is therefore what we call a Bigot, stiff in an Opinion, merely because he has been used to it, and is ashamed to be thought capable of being deceived.
Lawyers, whose manner of Breeding is much abroad in the World, and who are used to promiscuous Conversation, have been observed in most places to be great Favourers of Liberty, because their knowledge of ancient Practice, and the just Title which the People have to their Privileges (which they meet with every where in their course of Reading) makes them less scrupulous of committing what some Divines miscall a Sin in those that endeavour to preserve or recover them; the Oversights of some few Gentlemen of this honourable Profession are therefore the less excusable; for I must confess, among other things, that Motto, A Deo Rex, à Rege Lex,8 wherein the Divine Right of the impious Will of a Tyrant is as strongly asserted as could be in the compass of a Ring, has occasioned frequent Reflections, not much in favour of those that made use of it.
Thus I have touch’d upon the Manner of Education necessary to the beginning and finishing a Gentleman, who is to be useful to his Country, which I suppose ought to be the principal end of it. And I can’t but believe, if in our Schools our Youth were bred up to understand the Meaning of the Authors they are made to read, as well as the Syntax of the Words. If there were as much care taken to inculcate the good Maxims, and recommend the noble Characters the old Historians are so full of, as there is to hammer into their Heads the true Grammar of them, and the fineness of the Phrase: If in our Universities a proportionable Care were taken to furnish them with noble and generous Learning: If after this they were duly informed in the Laws and Affairs of their own Country, trained up in good Conversation and useful Knowledge at home, and then sent abroad when their Heads began to be well settled, when the heat of Youth was worn off, and their Judgments ripe enough to make Observation: I say, I cannot but believe that with this manner of Institution a very moderate Understanding might do wonders, and the coming home fully instructed in the Constitutions of other Governments, would make a Man but the more resolute to maintain his own.
For the advantage of a free Government above its contrary needs no other help to make it appear, than only to be exposed to a considerate View with it: The difference may be seen written in the very Faces of the several People, as well as in their manner of Living; and when we find nothing but Misery in the fruitfullest Countries subject to Arbitrary Power, but always a Face of plenty and Chearfulness in Countries naturally unfruitful, which have preserv’d their Liberties, there is no further room left for Argument, and one cannot be long in determining which is most eligible. This Observation is so obvious that ’tis hard for any that Travels not to make it; therefore ’tis a sufficient reason why all our Gentry should go abroad. An English Man should be shewn the Misery of the enslaved Parts of the World, to make him in Love with the Happiness of his own Country; as the Spartans exposed their drunken Servants to their Children, to make them in love with Sobriety.
But the more polish’d and delicious Countries of France, Spain, or Italy, are not the places where this Observation may be made to greatest advantage; the Manner of Living, Goodness of the Air and Diet, the Magnificence of the Buildings, Pleasantness of the Gardens, pompous Equipage of some great Persons, dazzle the Eyes of most Travellers, and cast a disguise upon the Slavery of those Parts; and as they render this Evil more supportable to the Natives, so they almost quite hide it from the view of a Cursory Traveller, amusing him too much from considering the Calamities which accompany so much Splendour, and so many Natural Blessings: or from reflecting how much more happy the Condition of the People would be with better usage. But in the Northern Kingdoms and Provinces there appears little or nothing to divert the Mind from contemplating Slavery in its own Colours, without any of its Ornaments. And since, for that reason, few of our Gentlemen find temptation enough to Travel into those Parts, and we have hardly any tolerable Relation of them extant, though we have frequent occasions of being concerned with them, I thought it might be of use to publish the following Account of Denmark, which I took care to be informed of upon the place with the greatest Exactness possible, and have related fairly and impartially, which may save the Curious the labour and expense of that Voyage.
That Kingdom has often had the Misfortune to be govern’d by French Counsels. At the time when Mr. Algernon Sydney was Ambassador at that Court, Monsieur Terlon, the French Ambassador, had the Confidence to tear out of the Book of Motto’s in the King’s Library, this Verse, which Mr. Sydney (according to the liberty allowed to all noble Strangers) had written in it: manus haec inimica tyrannis Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.9 Though Monsieur Terlon understood not a word of Latin, he was told by others the Meaning of that Sentence, which he considered as a Libel upon the French Government, and upon such as was then a setting up in Denmark by French Assistance, or Example.
To conclude; A considering English Traveller will find by experience, that at present nothing is so generally studied by the Sovereign Princes of the World, as the Arts of War, and the keeping of their own Countries in the desired Subjection. The Arts of Peace, whereby the Encrease and Prosperity of their Subjects might be promoted, being either intirely neglected or faintly prosecuted; he will further be convinced what great reason he has to bless Providence for his being born, and continuing yet a Freeman: He will find that the securing