Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/233

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THE PARTING.

knowledge, or even keep up with the progress of the
day, and it must be a rare triumph over the weakness
of human nature if want, solitude, elementary teach-
ing, care of the sheep, dependance upon the price of
wool, do not by degrees dwarf the former man, and un-
fit him for further development. Only in him, who,
before this trial, had become thoroughly penetrated with
a true intellectual life, can we ever hope to find it pre-
served. For him who is placed in such circumstances
before he is thoroughly matured, it is earnestly to be
desired that his stay there should not be long. But
even though it may be fruitless to you, his former com-
panions, still he must speak with the warm zeal of a
brother who has long felt the necessity of saying some-
thing for you, and who reaches his hand to you over
the water. If his words return empty to him from the
closed hearts of those, who, from the high places of
their worldly care, look down upon you, still they will
be soothing to your hearts ; and it is the first time that
a voice has been heard in your defense against the un-
just opinions entertained of you, and the little consider-
ation felt for your martyrdom in the service of the
church.*

  * The above remarks have induced some women of rank, in Copenha-
gen, to make an attempt to improve the condition of the hallig clergy.
Little as the success of their effort has answered their wishes, I can not
pass over these exertions in silence. The interest of the capital collected
will at least furnish an increased allowance for the desolate widow of
some hallig pastor, in her extreme destitution, and so this mite, too,
shall not lose its reward. Neither would I take back my greeting to
that Danish island which was the only witness that these words, in be-
half of my fellow-laborers, were not in vain, although the relief afforded