49 



GEI.1ER, ERIK GUSTAF. 



CELL, Sill WILLIAM. 



60 



earliest numbers poems by Geijer ' The Viking,' ' The Last Cham- 

 pion," &c. which were full of vigour and spirit, which became imme- 

 diately popular, were translated into Danish and German, and still 

 retain their place in all selections of Swedish poetry. In subsequent 

 numbers the early cantos of ' Tegndra Frithiof ' appeared for the first 

 time. As in the case of many other Swedish periodicals, there seems 

 to have been no intention of continuing the ' Iduua,' however success- 

 ful, for an indefinite space of time : it was brought to an end after 

 ten numbers, and the society of the Goth?, which was painfully kept 

 up by the exertions of Adlerbeth for many years after the other 

 members had grown tired of it, was finally buried in his grave on his 

 death in 1844. Geijer put forth, in 1813, a translation of ' Macbeth ;' 

 and between 1814 and 1816 was associated with Afzelius in the publi- 

 cation of a collection of Swedish popular ballads, ' Sveuska Folkvisor,' 

 in 3 voh., to which however Geijer contributed little more than 

 introductory matter. He had held from 1810, when he was elected 

 during his absence in England, a subordinate post in the University of 

 Upaal, and for some years was in search of a position that would 

 enable him to marry. In 1816 he was appointed adjunct or assistant 

 to Fant [FANT], the professor of history at the University of Upsal, 

 on bis retirement ; be then married a lady to whom he had been 

 engaged before his journey to England, and in the next year, on the 

 death of Fant, he succeeded to the full professorship. His first 

 lectures bad an unexampled popularity, and the lecturo-room was 

 crowded, not only with students, but with the best society of Upsal, 

 including ladies. These early lectures were different both in matter 

 and manner from those which his more matured knowledge and taste 

 afterwards approved : as he grew more profound he became less 

 popular, but he still continued the pride of the university and the 

 favourite of the students. His success with the eulogy of Sten 

 Sture had proved his genius, but had not proved the steadiness he was 

 charged with wanting, and as a professor he was not remarkable fur 

 regularity in the discharge of his duties. His musical tastes interfered 

 a good deal with his other pursuits, and it was remarked that 

 when ho bad once got to a pianoforte, it was nut easy to get him 

 away from it. He had also frequent leave of absence for the purpose 

 of prosecuting historical researches. One of the most prominent 

 incidents in his academical life was an academical trial to which he 

 was subjected on account of his theological opinions. In an edition 

 which he published about 1820, of the works of Thorild, a Swedish 

 philosophical speculator, some passages in the introduction by Geijer, 

 which was entitled, 'A Philosophical or Unphilosophical Confession 

 of Faith,' were regarded by some of his colleagues as hostile to the 

 doctrine of the Trinity, and the author was denounced to the univer- 

 sity authorities, but a long examination terminated in an acquittal, 

 which was celebrated as an important triumph of liberty of thought 

 and liberty of the press in Sweden. Geijer savs, in a passage in one of 

 his writings, "I am not a Church-Christian; I am not alible-Christian, 

 I am, so to speak, a Christian on my own account," and he concludes a 

 statement of bis way of thinking in theology with the declaration, "If 

 this is Christianity, I am a Christian." The trial to which he had 

 been subjected did not prevent hii being twice offered a bishopric, that 

 on the second occasion being in his native diocese of Carlstad, a dis- 

 tinction the more flattering that in Sweden a buhop must in the first 

 e be nominated by the clergy. He declined on both occasions. 

 " Perhaps if I accepted," he wrote to a friend, " they might have a 

 blameless middling bishop, but there would be an end of Erik Gutaf 

 Urijer. It is not pride that speaks, but humility and conscience. I 

 am afraid of this dignity, thin new path, these new duties. Better 

 keep on working in the circle where I am at home, and know that I 

 work to some purpose. For the University of Upsal I am somebody. 

 That would lose more than Wermelaud gained." Geijer was in fact 

 for many years in a distinguished position as the head of Swedish 

 historical literature. He planned a great history of the country to 

 supersede that of Dalin and Lagerbring, who have been for Sweden 

 v. h..t Hume and Smollett have been for England ; and it was univer- 

 sally acknowledged that his introduction to the great work, the first 

 volume of ' Svea Kikes Hiifder,' or ' Records of Sweden,' promised a 

 masterpiece. Unfortunately the great work was never carried further. 

 Before proceeding with it the author undertook another history of 

 Sweden on a smaller scale, the ' Sveuska Folkets Historia,' for the 

 general collection of the histories of Europe, set on foot by Leo and 

 L'ckert ; and this was carried before 1843, in three volumes, to the 

 death of Queen Christina, but there it stopped. The professor, in 

 place of continuing it, was occupied in examining the papers of 

 Gustavus III., which the king had bequeathed to the University of 

 Upaal, in a chest not to be opened till litty years after his death. The 

 work founded on these, ' Konung Gustaf III.'s efterleinnade Tapper 

 Ofvenikt, UUlrag och Jemnfurelse af E. G. Geijer' (2 vols., bvo, 

 Upsal, 1843), disappointed the public expectation, but more owing to 

 the insignificance of the royal legacy than to any deficiency on the 

 part of the editor. 



Ueijer was also occupied with speculations in politics and political 

 economy. Twice he was the representative of the University of Upsal 

 at tli d:i t, and while on the first occasion he was a warm defender 

 of monarchical power, in the second (in 1838) he saw cause to modify 

 his views, and lost the approbation of several of his former supporters 

 by a change of opinion in favour of progress and liberalism, which he 



BIOO. DIV. VOL. HI. 



avowed and defended in a periodical called ' Litteraturbladet,' written 

 by himself. His views of pauperism were developed in ' The Poor 

 Laws and their Bearing on Society, a Series of Political and Historical 

 Essays,' which were published in English (Stockholm, 1840) as well 

 as Swedish, and of which the English version, as it bears no translator's 

 name, and has marks of a foreign hand, may possibly be from his own 

 pen. A dissertation on the history of Sweden during the ' Frihetstiden,' 

 or ' Freedom-Time,' as it is called, which extended from the death of 

 CLarles XII. to the revolution in favour of regal power which was 

 forcibly effected by Gustavus III., is the last of Geijer's works of 

 much importance. His opinions of the superiority of regal to aristo- 

 cratical government did not pass unquestioned, and were the subject 

 of a controversy with Fryxell. [FRTXELL.] During about thirty years 

 <Jeijer continued one of the literary magnates of Sweden, in constant 

 intercourse with all that was distinguished. He was tiie iutimate 

 friend of Tegudr and Atterbom, had a correspondence with Fn'derika 

 Bremer, and wrote both verses and music for Jenny Lind. In 1846 

 his health began to break, he was obliged to pay a visit to the 

 Schlaugenbad of Nassau, and resigned his professorship. He died 

 at Stockholm on the 23rd of April 1817 a year which was fatal to 

 many of the literary celebrities of Sweden. 



A collected edition of Geijer's works was commenced soon after hU 

 death, but is still incomplete, though advanced (in 1856) to thirteen 

 octavo volumes. A life by his son, Knut Geijer, is prefixed to the 

 first volume, but before the second shset had been printed the writer 

 suddenly died. Most of the works of Geijer have beeu already 

 mentioned. The most important is undoubtedly his ' Sveuska Folkets 

 Historia,' of which an English translation by J. H. Turner was pub- 

 lished at London, and the first volume of a continuation of which by 

 Carhon was issued in German, in Leo and Uckert's collection iu 

 1855. Many of the volumes of his works are occupied with shorter 

 pieces, articles iu periodicals and papers read before the Swedish 

 Academy, of which Geijer became 'One of the Eighteen ' iu 1824, 

 and was afterwards for some years President. The academical disser- 

 tations of which he was the author are as yet not reprinted, but 

 several of them oue in particular on the Swedish colonies iu America 

 are of considerable interest. His letters and his minutes of con- 

 versations with Beruadotte, with whom, he seema to have been a 

 favourite, were first printed iu this collection, and embrace much that 

 is worthy of notice and preservation, especially wheu taken iu con- 

 junction with his ' Minueu,' or ' Reminiscences,' perhaps his most 

 attractive production, but one which like so many others was left 

 unfinished. It should be observed that Geijer had not only a taste 

 but a talent for music, and eujoyed some reputation as a musical 

 composer, a volume of music having been published in coujunctiou 

 by himself and Liudblad. 



GELA'SIUS I. succeeded Felix II. as Bishop of Rome in 492, aud 

 carried on the controversy with the Greek Church which had begun 

 under bis predecessor, but without bringing it to any conclusion. He 

 died in 496, and was succeeded by Anastasius IL Gelasius wrote 

 several theological works, euch as ' De Duabua Nairn-is in Christo,' iu 

 which he expresses sentiments which are considered as opposed to 

 transubbtantiatiou. It is found iu tho Lyou ' Bibliotheoa Maxima 

 Patrum.' 



GELA'SIUS II., a Benedictine monk, succeeded Paschal II. in 1118. 

 The popes were then at open war with the emperors of Germany, and 

 the partisans of the latter at Rome, headed by the powerful family of 

 Fraugipani, opposed the election of Gelasius, and afterwards seized 

 him and personally ill-treated him, until he 'was rescued from their 

 hands by tho praefect of Rome. Soon after, the Emperor Henry V. 

 came himself with troops, aud the pope having run away to Gaeta, 

 an anti-pope was elected by the imperial party, who styled himself 

 Gregory VIII. Gelasius after many wanderings repaired to France, 

 where he held a council at Rheims. He died at the convent of Cluny . 

 in January 1119, after a short but stormy pontificate, and was succeeded 

 by Colixtus IL 



GELL, SIR WILLIAM, was born iu 1777, and was a younger son 

 of Philip Cell, Esq., of Hopton, Derbyshire. He was educated at Jesus 

 College, Cambridge, aud took his degree of B.A. in 1798 aud of M.A. 

 in 1S04. He was for some time a Fellow of Emanuel College. He is 

 stated to have received his knighthood on the 14th of May 1803, on 

 his return from a mission to the Ionian Islands ; but of the nature of 

 this mission we are not informed, and he certainly was not knighted 

 at so early a date. He had already spent much of his time abroad, 

 when on the Princess of Wales leaving England in 1814, she appointed 

 him one of her chamberlains. He attended the princess in various 

 parts of Italy, especially at Naples and Rome, as appears from the 

 evidence he gave at the bar of the House of Lords in the course of 

 the proceedings taken against her alter she became queen and had 

 returned to England in 1820. After this Gell returned to Italy, and 

 he resided mostly at Naples till his death, which took place there on 

 the 4th of February 1836. He had also however a house at Rome, in 

 which he occasionally resided. He had long suflered severely from 

 gout and rheumatism, and for some years before his death he had 

 nearly altogether lost the use of his limbs. 



Gell first appeared as an author in 1804, when he published his work 

 entitled 'The Topography of Troy and its Viciuity, illustrated and 

 explained by Drawings aud Descriptions,' folio. This was followed by 



E 



