THE SWEDISH NATIONAL.CHARACTER 



37 





is not to be beaten anywhere, neither as regards organisation, nor in regard to 

 the interest shown by the public. 



Hand in hand with the active courageous temper of the Swedes is found a 

 strong independent feeling. The Swedes are a selfwilled people, ready to do 

 great deeds. (Gustavus Vasa). Our pride remains the same, from age to age, 

 through all our changing fate.* (Tegner). This strongly developed feeling of one's 

 own strength, one's own worth, leads all to easily to an over*estimation of one 

 self, the consequence of which is, that one sometimes tries to assert oneself at 

 the expense of others. The naive selfadmiration that one often meets with, 

 and that among country people is called bragging, is very common among the 

 Swedes. It may be an expression of their frankness. But when he boasts of 

 his own personal merits, both in season and out of season, very often laying 

 stress upon the incapacity of his fellow*men, then the Swede is not attractive. 

 This quality often leads to the envy, that flourishes in many parts of Sweden 

 and has even received the epithet, Royal Swedish*. 



This quality does not prevent the Swedes from being among the first in all 

 the world, to give a helping hand to their suffering and distressed fellowmen. 

 Let there be a failure in the crops in a part of the country, let there be a family 

 struck by misfortune and help committees are started at once, and both rich and 

 poor are not afraid of making every sacrifice to give aid to those in need. It has 

 happened more than once, that a family in need, thanks to the unselfish aid 

 given by others, has not only been saved from ruin at the time, but has been 

 placed in a better economical position than it occupied before the misfortune 

 happened. Sweden's leading position in the work of the Red Cross Society, 

 Save the children*, and other international aid societies is well known, and val* 

 ued as it deserves. The sympathy, charity and high ideals of our officials has 

 also given them a very high reputation. These occupy, not only in respect to 

 their intellectual reputation, but also in respect to a broad humanity, a position 

 that singles them out, to their advantage, from the officials of many other 

 countries. The unwritten history of the deeds done by Swedish doctors and 

 priests, would present numberless proofs of the greatness and nobility, unsel* 

 fishness and self-sacrifice, faithfulness and conscientiousness, which in silence, 

 without advertisment, as a matter of course, have been and are still being exhibited, 

 in the service of mankind. The justice administered by Swedish judges is also 

 raised above all doubt. 



The trait lying deepest in the character of the Swedish people, and which 

 to a large extent explains their nature, is their strong love of Nature.* (Sundbarg). 

 This explains their disposition towards and love of naturakhistory and geographi* 

 cal investigations, and their reputation as a nation standing above all others in 

 the fields of invention and exploration; this worship of Nature is also expressed 

 in the mildness of the Swede's temper, his dreams, and his changing moods. It 

 meets us in the best and deepest of Swedish poetry, in its finest and most delU 

 cate blossoms, the Swedish folk-songs; in a word, in everything where the Swe* 

 dish imagination, with undipped wing can take its flight. In contradiction to this 

 the Swede has no sharp eye or power of observation for the differences to be 

 found in the spiritual life of mankind. He is a mediocre and uninterested psycho' 



