His usual dress (the only one indeed in which I ever saw him, except at the feast of the Knights of St. Stephen) is a plain uniform of white faced with red.—When he goes to Laxenberg, Schonbrun, and other places near Vienna, he generally drives two horses in an open chaise, with a servant behind, and no other attendant of any kind.—He very seldom allows the guard to turn out as he passes through the gate.—Nobody ever had a stronger disposition to judicious inquiry.—He is fond of conversing with ingenious people.—When he hears of any person, of whatever rank or country, being distinguished for any particular talent, he is eager to converse with him, and turns the conversation to the subject on which that person is thought to excel, drawing from him all the useful information he can. Of all the means of knowledge, this is perhaps the most powerful, and the most proper that can be used by one whose more necessary occupations do not leave him much time for study.
He seems to be of opinion, that the vanity and ignorance of many Princes are frequently owing to the forms in which they are intrenched, and to their being deprived of the advantages which the rest of mankind enjoy from a free comparison and exchange of sentiment. He is convinced, that unless a King can contrive to live in some societies on a footing of equality, and can weigh his own merit, without throwing his guards and pomp into the scale, it will be difficult for him to know either the world or himself.
One evening at the Countess Walstein’s, the conversation leading that way, the Emperor enumerated some remarkable and ludicrous instances of the inconveniencies of etiquette, which had occurred at a certain court. One person present hinted at the effectual means his Majesty had used to banish every inconveniency of that kind from the Court of Vienna. To which he replied, It would be hard indeed, if, because I have the ill fortune to be an Emperor, I should be deprived of the pleasures of social life, which are so much to my taste. All the grimace and parade to which people in my situation are accustomed from their cradle, have not made me so vain, as to imagine that I am in any essential quality superior to other men; and if I had any tendency to such an opinion, the surest way to get rid of it, is the method I take, of mixing in society, where I have daily occasions of finding myself inferior in talents to those I meet with. Conscious of this, it would afford me no enjoyment to assume airs of a superiority which I feel does not exist. I endeavour therefore to please, and to be pleased; and as much as the inconveniency of my situation will permit, to enjoy the blessings of society like other men, convinced that the man who is secluded from those, and raises himself above friendship, is also raised above happiness, and deprived of the means of acquiring knowledge.
This kind of language is not uncommon with poor philosophers; but I imagine it is rarely held by Princes, and the inferences to be drawn from it more rarely put in practice.
A few days after this, there was an exhibition of fire-works on the Prater. This is a large park, planted with wood, and surrounded by the Danube, over which there is a wooden bridge. No carriages being allowed to pass, the company leave their coaches at one end, and walk. There is a narrow path railed off on one side of the bridge. Many people very injudiciously took this path, to which there is an easy entrance at one end, but the exit is difficult at the other; for only one person can go out at a time. The path therefore was very soon choaked up; the unfortunate passengers crept on at a snail’s pace, and in the most straitened and disagreeable manner imaginable; whilst those who had kept the wide path in the middle of the bridge, like the fortunate and wealthy in their journey through life, moved along at their ease, totally regardless of the wretched circumstances of their fellow-passengers.
Some few of the prisoners in the narrow passage, who were of a small size, and uncommon address, crawled under the rail, and got into the broad walk in the middle; but all who were tall, and of a larger make, were obliged to remain and submit to their fate. An Englishman, who had been at the Countess Walstein’s when the Emperor expressed himself as above mentioned, was of the last class. The Emperor, as he passed, seeing that those of a small size extricated themselves, while the Englishman remained fixed in a very aukward situation, called out, Ah, Monsieur! Je vous ai bien annoncé combien il est incommode d’être trop grand.—A present vous devez être bien de mon avis;—Mais comme je ne puis rien faire pour vous soulager, je vous recommende à Saint George.
There are people who, having heard of the Emperor’s uncommon affability, and of his total contempt of pomp and parade, of which the bulk of mankind are so much enamoured, have asserted, that the whole is affectation. But if the whole tenor of any person’s words and actions is to be considered as affectation, I do not know by what means we are to get at the bottom of his real character. Yet, people who have a violent taste for any particular thing, are extremely ready to believe, that those who have not the same taste are affected.
I do not remember that I ever told you, that our friend R——, who loves his bottle above all things, and who, I believe, esteems you above all men, let me into a part of your character of which I never had the smallest suspicion.
One day after dinner, when a couple of bottles had awakened his friendship, and laid open his heart, he took it into his head to enumerate your good qualities, and concluded the list, by saying, that you were no milk-sop.—I know what that expression imports in the mouth of R——. I therefore stared, and said, I had seldom seen you drink above three glasses at a time in my life.—Nor I, said he; but take my word for it, he is too honest a fellow not to love good wine, and I am certain his sobriety is all affectation.