MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 83 



these. With the exception of Charles Frederick of Holstein, also an 

 inferior character, this new dynasty is in no way related to the former 

 dynasty of Palatine, which, like that of Vasa, we have found so re- 

 markable. 



Adolphus Frederick of Holstein, one of the inferior ones above 

 mentioned, married Louisa Ulrica, a sister of Frederick the Great. 

 We find in her a woman of a very different stamp. Among all the 

 richly endowed sisters of Frederick the Great, Louisa Ulrica, Queen of 

 Sweden, stands probably at the head of the list. An idea of her charac- 

 ter and attainments can be drawn from several contemporaries here 

 quoted. 



The Queen Dowager to whom we had the honor of heing presented, a sister 

 of the King of Prussia ... a princess who resembled her brother as well in the 

 features of her countenance as in those eminent qualities which characterize 

 the house of Brandenburg. 



She was accustomed to rule the cabinet with absolute authority in the 

 reign of her husband.* 



A great and inflexible woman of rare endowment and uncommon cultiva- 

 tion. Really merited the appellation of the ' Minerva of the North.' 



Since Louisa Ulrica belongs, of course, among the Hohenzollerns, 

 we have passed rather rapidly over the dynasty of Holstein, which to 

 this point has furnished no great names. The next generation, chil- 

 dren of Adolphus Frederick and Louisa Ulrica, gives us four, and 

 among them, third in the list, Gustavus Adolphus III., who was des- 

 tined to shine as another Swedish king of extraordinary ability. 



His ardent mind and fertile genius acted as a perpetual impetus to things 

 that were new, grand and out of the common track. He was so accomplished 

 a gentlemen that there was scarcely a professor of literature or any of the 

 liberal arts but he was able to excel each in his own peculiar study. He was 

 always spoken of as a prodigy of talents.f 



Lippincott's 'Biographical Dictionary' says that 



In addition to his talents as a statesman, he was distinguished as a poet 

 and dramatist. 



This literary bent was very strong in his mother as well as in many 



members of her family. 



His sister, Sophia Albertina, 'was possessed of a great share of 

 personal virtue and a capacity as vast and varied as her brother, and 

 unsullied by his vices.' The oldest brother amounted to nothing, 

 while the youngest, as Charles XIII., showed in his ambition, wisdom 

 and skill in the management of the country's affairs much of the 

 family genius. 



Gustavus IV., the only son of Gustavus III. and the last of the 



*Coxe, 'Travels,' IV., 30. 



t J. Brown, ' Northern Courts.' 



