When this duty was discharged, and the education of her sons completed,
the dreams and fancies of her youth once more revived within her. She
thought of the manners and customs of foreign lands, of remote islands
girdled by the "melancholy main," and dwelt so long on the great joy of
treading "the blessed acres" trodden by the Saviour's feet, that at last
she resolved on a pilgrimage thither. She made the journey to Palestine.
She visited Jerusalem, and other hallowed scenes, and she returned in
safety. She came, therefore, to the conclusion that she was not
presumptuously tempting the providence of God, or laying herself open to
the charge of wishing to excite the admiration of her contemporaries, if
she followed her inward impulse, and once more adventured forth to see
the world. She knew that travel could not but broaden her views, elevate
her thoughts, and inspire her with new sympathies. Iceland, the next
object of her desires, was a country where she hoped to see Nature under
an entirely novel and peculiar aspect. "I feel," she says, "so
wonderfully happy, and draw so close to my Maker, while gazing upon such
scenes, that no difficulties or fatigues can deter me from seeking so
great a reward."
* * * * *
It was in the year 1845 that Madame Pfeiffer began her northward journey.
She left Vienna on the 10th of April, and by way of Prague, Dresden, and
Altona, proceeded to Kiel.
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