SWEDEN AND NORWAY SWEDENBORG. 



479 



and elevated. Isaiah Tegner, bishop of Wexio, in 

 Smaland, is a lyric and pastoral poet of genius. 

 He lately wrote Frithiofssaga (three times trans- 

 lated into German). We should also mention the 

 poems of Geijar and Atterbom, likewise Francen's 

 lyric Idyls Saml. Arb. (Stockh., 1819) the 

 writings of Stagnelius, who died in 1822 Liljor i 

 Saaron (Stockh., 1821 ; complete works edited by 

 Hammarskold, in 1824) Dalgren's successful imi- 

 tation of Bellmann, particularly in his Mollbergs 

 Epistlar (Stockh., 1819); Beskow's Poetical Es- 

 says, (collected Stockh., 18181819); and the 

 translations by Regner (died 1819), as well as 

 Palmblad's works. These show that great pro- 

 gress has been made in the art of versification. 

 The drama is less cultivated. It remained foreign 

 to the people, and only served for the entertain- 

 ment of the court. The productions of Dalin, 

 Gustavus III., Adlerbeth, Gyllenborg, Leopold, 

 were insignificant, and mostly in a foreign manner; 

 Hallmann's humour was too coarse ; Lindegren's 

 attempts in Kotzebue's manner are no longer liked ; 

 and Ling alone seems to afford some hope for this 

 branch of poetry. His Agnes (Lund, 1812) has 

 some fine lyrical passages, though it is void of true 

 dramatic life. The numerous class of female 

 Swedish authors and poets is mostly confined to 

 novels. Euphrosyne (Christ. Julia Nyberg) has 

 written lyrical poems, full of tenderness (Dikter of 

 Euphrosyne, Upsal, 1822). Charlotte Berger's 

 productions betray their French models (Defransca 

 Kriegsf6ngame, Stockh., 1814) ; Trollgrottan (1816) ; 

 Ruinerna vid Brahelms (1816) ; Albert and Louisa 

 (1817). Livijus has written the novels, the 

 Knight St Jorrn, the Pique-Dame, &c. Before 

 *hem, Dalin 's elegance and affectation were ap- 

 plauded at the expense of truth and accuracy. The 

 novels of J. H. Mork (1714 1763) Adalrick and 

 Gothilda (Stockh., 1742), and Thekla (1749) 

 were not popular, though they directed attention 

 to domestic history. Gustavus III. showed skill 

 in the oratorical style, so that his anonymous eloge 

 on Torstensohn gained the prize of the academy ; 

 but his French education by count Tessin and Dalin 

 (he hated nothing more than German and tobacco) 

 had made him too fond of rhetorical phrases, which 

 easily degenerate into empty declamation. The 

 great change of taste was not without effect upon 

 this branch of writing. Swedish pulpit eloquence 

 is in great want of good models, and the printed 

 sermons of bishop Lehnberg (died 1808), which 

 were published in Stockholm in 1809 1813, and 

 his occasional discourses (1819), did not supply the 

 want ; but we find subjects of general interest 

 treated with considerable talent in Swedish news- 

 papers. Boethius (died 1810) strove to diffuse 

 Kant's principles. Schelling's works hare been 

 translated. Geijer's History of the Swedish Realm 

 (1824 seq.) is an addition to the treasures of Euro- 

 pean literature. Geijer and J. H. Schroder, sub- 

 librarian at Upsal, have united to edit the Scrip- 

 tores Rerum Suecicarum Medii jEvi. About fifty 

 newspapers are published in Sweden, one literary 

 gazette, and several magazines ; among the latter, 

 since 1819, Svea, at Stockholm a periodical de- 

 voted to science and the arts. In Norway, there 

 were published, in 1827, three scientific magazines 

 and twelve newspapers, devoted to politics and 

 general information, eight of them at Christiania. 

 The collections of two literary societies are im- 

 portant, particularly as respects ancient northern 

 literature those of the Scandinavian literary go- 



ciety, and those of the royal Norwegian society of 

 science, in the nineteenth century. The natural 

 sciences are particularly cultivated in Christiania, 

 by men like Lund, Hansten, Maschman, Schielder- 

 up, and others. Falsen, formerly attorney-general 

 of the kingdom of Norway, has published a History 

 of Norway under the Government of Harald Har- 

 fagar and his male Successors (Christiania, 1824, 4 

 vols.). The works printed in Sweden, during the 

 year 1818, amounted to 362, of which 91 were 

 translations. The Notices sur la Litterature et les 

 Beaux Arts en Suede, by Marianne de Ehrenstrbm 

 (Stockh., 1826), are somewhat panegyrical. 



SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL, the most cele- 

 brated mystic of the eighteenth century, was born 

 at Stockholm, in 1688. Educated by his father, 

 Jasper Swedberg, bishop of West Gothland, in the 

 severe doctrines of Lutheranism, which prevailed 

 in Sweden, his ardent and imaginative mind soon 

 took a religious turn. His studies embraced theo- 

 logy, philosophy, mathematics, and the natural 

 sciences. His first poetical efforts appeared, in 

 1710, at Skara, under the title of Carmina Miscel- 

 lanea. The period from 1710 to 1714 he spent in 

 scientific travels through England, Holland, France 

 and Germany, and visited the universities of these 

 countries. He then returned to Upsal, and pub- 

 lished his Dadalus Hyperboreus (six numbers, con- 

 taining experiments and observations in mathema- 

 tics and natural philosophy). He had several in- 

 terviews with Charles XII., who in 1716, appointed 

 him assessor in the mining college, and formed an 

 acquaintance with Christoph Polhem, the Archi- 

 medes of Sweden, whose experience was of great 

 service to him. The invention of a rolling 

 machine, by means of which he conveyed a shallop, 

 two galleys and four large boats (which Charles 

 XII. used, in 1718, to transport cannon to the siege 

 of Frederickshall) five leagues, over mountains and 

 valleys, from Strb'mstadt to Idefjal, and his treatises 

 on algebra, the value of money, the revolutions of 

 the planets, and on tides, gained for him the favour 

 of the government. Queen Ulrica raised him to the 

 rank of nobility in 1719, upon which occasion his 

 name was changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg. 

 In the discharge of the duties of his office, he visi- 

 ted, in 1720, the Swedish mines, and, in 1721, the 

 Saxon, and wrote some valuable treatises on them. 

 He likewise made similar journeys to the mines of 

 Austria and Hungary. A collection of his works 

 on philosophy and mineralogy ( Opera Philosophica 

 et Mineralogica') was published in 1734 (in 3 vols., 

 folio), and attracted much attention among the 

 scholars of Europe. He was chosen a member of 

 the academies of Upsal and Petersburg. The 

 academy at Stockholm had already elected him an 

 honorary member, in 1729. He increased his stock 

 of knowledge by new travels to France and Italy, 

 in 1738 40. The (Economia Regni Animalis, 

 which he published after his return, in 1740 41, 

 contains the application of the system of nature, 

 unfolded in his philosophical works, to the animal 

 creation. The principle of a necessary emanation 

 of all things from a central power, is the basis ot 

 this system, which is ingeniously unfolded, and 

 illustrates the extent of the author's reading. It is 

 explained particularly in the Principia Rerum Na- 

 turalium. Swedenborg was first introduced to nn 

 intercourse with the spiritual world, according to 

 his own statement, in 1743, at London. The eyes 

 of his inward man, he says, were opened to see 

 heaven, hell, and the spiritual world, in which IIP 



