_Period of Liberty--The Aristocratic Republic_
Ulrica Eleonore succeeded her brother Charles XII as the sovereign
of Sweden. She was proclaimed queen by birthright, and called the
Riksdag, willing to cede the absolute power. When the Riksdag convened
a disagreeable surprise met her. The Estates refused to acknowledge
her right to the crown, stating that both she and her older sister had
deprived themselves of their rights of succession by marrying without
the consent of the Estates of the Riksdag. Princess Hedvig Sophie was
dead, but her son, the young Duke Charles Frederic of Holstein was
in Sweden, ready to claim the throne. Ulrica Eleonore was compelled
to yield gracefully. She sent a note to the Riksdag disclaiming her
hereditary right, but declaring herself willing to accept the crown,
with restriction of the absolute power. She was at once elected
queen by the Riksdag of 1719, which then proceeded to pass a new
constitution. Such a constitution had been formulated in advance by a
new party, chiefly consisting of nobles, who aimed at introducing a
royal government, restricted in its power by the state council and the
Riksdag. They were successful in their efforts, but unfortunately lost
their ablest leaders at the start, Per Ribbing dying soon after the
first Riksdag, and Arvid Horn retiring from the government and council
on account of a conflict with the queen. Thus the new government did
not open up under favorable auspices. Baron von Gœrtz was captured and
put to death for high treason without being granted the privilege of
an appropriate legal defence. The queen overstepped her limit of power
in being the active force in this illegal execution, anxious to rid
herself of Gœrtz because he was the ablest man among the supporters
of Duke Charles Frederic of Holstein. The duke gave up his chances
and left for Russia, where he married a daughter of Czar Peter. The
arrangements made to establish order in financial matters were not
satisfactory. The management of the war with Denmark was miserable. The
army was recalled from Norway and little done to protect the coast from
attacks by the Danish fleet under Admiral Tordenskiold. This valiant
naval hero, of Norwegian birth, who, during the reign of Charles XII.,
had made unsuccessful attacks on Strœmstad and Gothenburg, through
cunning captured the strong fortress of Carlsten, but was unable to
take New Elfsborg. Danckwardt, the commander who surrendered Carlsten,
was executed by the Swedish government. The Swedish army of 6,000
men, which had entered the district of Dronthiem by the command of
Charles XII., perished from hunger and cold when returning through the
mountains of Jemtland. Only a few hundred survived to tell the terrible
tale. The Russians sent a fleet to the Swedish shores with 40,000 men,
and burned, in two expeditions, twelve Swedish towns in the middle
and northern parts of the country. They avoided open battle, and when
landing in great numbers were effectively repulsed.
Under such conditions Sweden was anxious for peace. In compensation
for various sums of money, Bremen and Verden were ceded to Hanover
in 1719, Pomerania, south of the river Peene, with Stettin, Usedom
and Wollin to Prussia, in 1720, and Ingermanland, Esthonia, Livonia,
with Viborg and Kexholm, and surrounding Finnish territory, to Russia,
in 1721. Denmark had to give up all territory captured from Sweden,
but received a sum of money in exchange for Carlsten, in 1720. Thus
the Baltic empire of Sweden was swept away. It had been of importance
during the time of the German war and for the shielding of new
conquests in the Scandinavian Peninsula itself. Now its loss was a gain
for Sweden, as it allowed her to concentrate her attention upon the
interior development of the country.
The tendency of Ulrica Eleonore to exert more power than was within
her authority had created dissatisfaction, and when she commenced
an agitation to have her consort, Prince Frederic of Hesse, share
the throne with her, the crown was granted him only upon her own
resignation from the government.
Frederic I. was crowned in 1720 and Ulrica Eleonore retired from
the government. Frederic left the Reformed and entered the Lutheran
Church. The crown was to be inherited by his male issues only, in the
union with Ulrica Eleonore. He showed a tendency for mixing in the
affairs of state to further his own interests, but soon gave in to his
easy-tempered, pleasure-loving nature, occupying himself exclusively
with his hunts and his mistresses.
The real ruler of Sweden, during the first two decades of Frederic’s
reign, was _Arvid Horn_, one of the greatest of Swedish statesmen.
His was not the work of building up the government of a strong and
influential nation, like that of Oxenstierna or Gyllenstierna, nor were
his their grand, far-reaching views. But his mission was to raise
from the dust his bleeding, downtrodden country, and to reinstall
it in the honor and respect, not only of itself but of the world.
Count Arvid Bernhard Horn was an opportunist, but one of the noblest
kind, who by means of peace found the only way in which to protect
and further the financial and cultural development of Sweden. He was
an able soldier and a skilled diplomatist. The son of an illustrious
but poor family, of the Finnish nobility, he entered the military
service after a university course at Abo. He served in foreign armies,
but was with Charles XII. in Stockholm as the best companion of his
youth. As the commander of the royal body-guard he took an honorable
part in the early victories of Charles XII., later being chosen to
fulfil the delicate task of making the Polish nobles elect Stanislav
king, in which he was eminently successful. After a short captivity he
was released and returned to Sweden, where he became a member of the
state council and president of the state chancery. In this position
he repeatedly sent letters to Charles XII., in which he described the
distress of the country, in eloquent words pleading its need of peace.
Upon his return Charles XII. removed him from office with the other
councillors, although he was the one who had saved the tottering throne
for the king. Of this Ulrica Eleonore was aware and was glad to accept
his resignation; when reinstated in his position he found that he
could not preserve it with dignity in the face of the irregularities
committed by the queen. Count Horn was responsible for the exclusion
of Ulrica Eleonore from the government at King Frederic’s ascendency,
but the latter was forced to accept Horn in his former position as the
controlling power of the government. With due reason, the peaceful and
honorable decades of Frederic’s reign have been named the “Period of
Arvid Horn.”
The new form of government introduced by Ribbing, Horn and others was
nothing else than that of an aristocratic republic. The rights of
the monarch, reduced in 1719, were still further reduced in 1720. He
had two votes in the state council and a deciding vote in deadlock,
but besides the authority to appoint councillors from the candidates
nominated by the Riksdag, and to appoint all higher officials, no
other rights. The government was in the hands of the state council,
consisting of sixteen members. The Riksdag decided all questions of
taxes and legislation, and settled issues of peace and war. Each of the
four Estates was represented in the committees, except in the “secret
committee,” for international affairs, to which no yeoman could be
chosen. Each Estate had its speaker. The president of the chancery was
the minister of foreign affairs and consulted the secret committee
on important questions, being the only head of a department who was
allowed as a member of the state council. The nobility held the balance
of power, much to the opposition of the lower Estates, who tried, by
repeated agitation, to invest the king with the authority held by him
before the days of absolute power. The nobility had done away with its
three classes, and, with these abandoned, it was the majority, viz.,
the lower nobility, who were the governing class. The aristocracy tried
its best to regain the privileges enjoyed during the reign of Queen
Christine and Charles X., but Horn forced it to be satisfied with
those granted by Gustavus Adolphus. The power of the higher nobility
was forever crushed by the loss of their immense possessions. The
friction between the nobility and the lower Estates of the Riksdag was
constant, Horn siding with the former, but keeping them all in check.
Arvid Horn led with superior skill and gentleness the management of
foreign affairs. All influences from the powers and from the restless
nobles to involve Sweden in a conflict of war were unsuccessful. A
treaty was never entered into with any one power without another one
formed with a power of the opposite continental party to counterbalance
it. Thus England, France and Russia were unable to make Sweden an
obedient ally, Horn upholding her independence, maintaining peace and
inspiring respect. Utterly refusing to accept the bribes which were
freely offered and considered the indispensable means of obtaining
diplomatic influence in that day, Horn himself distributed bribes
to gain his patriotic purposes. Horn’s great mistake was to refer
the decision of foreign affairs in which he was opposed by members
of the state council to the Riksdag and its secret committee. The
latter commenced to act independently in important foreign matters. By
signing an agreement with France, through which Sweden lost its former
privilege of an independent policy, the committee ultimately caused his
downfall, in 1738. Arvid Horn then retired, at the age of seventy-two,
and died a few years later.
During Horn’s peaceful administration the financial conditions
improved, the state debt was reduced and the peaceful trades and
industries were furthered. The great deed accomplished was the
completion of a new state law which was published in 1734 and is in
force to this very day. Arvid Horn was a perfect type of the great
Carolin era, of pure and severe morals and modest requirements. In a
day of increasing scepticism and levity, he ostentatiously preserved
the rigid religious practices of his youth. He showed unreserved
indignation at the unworthy and immoral conduct of the king, for
which reason strained relations existed between them. Count Horn was
of impressive form and carriage, controlling the quick temper of the
warrior beneath the smooth and dignified bearing of the statesman.
The decades which followed upon the fall of Arvid Horn were stormy
ones and full of miseries. The friends of peace were called Caps and
the warlike party Hats. The latter, now in power, commenced a war
against Russia, which turned out badly, the Swedes being defeated at
Vilmanstrand, in 1741, and at Helsingfors, in 1742. The government and
secret committee felt ashamed of their work and had the poor generals,
Charles Emil Lewenhaupt and Buddenbrock, executed for their lack of
martial skill and good fortune. Peace was made with Russia in 1743, the
towns of Fredericshamn, Vilmanstrand and Nyslott, in Finland, being
ceded by Sweden, and the river Kymene made the boundary line.
Next the Hats had to face a rebellion. In order to please Elizabeth of
Russia, Czar Peter’s daughter, they had selected Charles Peter Ulric,
her nephew and the son of the duke of Holstein, as heir-apparent to the
Swedish throne, to which he was the nearest in right, Ulrica Eleonore
dying without issue, in 1741. But when chosen as Elizabeth’s successor
in Russia, the Hats selected Adolphus Frederic, prince bishop of
Lubeck, who on his mother’s side was a descendant of Gustavus Adolphus.
This caused popular discontent, the people, forgetful of past enmities,
desiring to make Crown Prince Frederic of Denmark heir-apparent. The
peasants at the Riksdag of 1742 proclaimed loudly their desire of a
personal union with Denmark-Norway, which would establish Scandinavia
as one solid power against Russia. The peasants of Helsingland and
Dalecarlia revolted. They gathered, and marching down to Stockholm,
placed the government in a dangerous position by demanding the
election of Crown Prince Frederic of Denmark and the execution of the
two imprisoned generals. In that very moment peace was obtained with
Russia, and the government persuaded the leaders of the rebellion, who
had obtained admission to the Riksdag, that Adolphus Frederic must be
chosen, since it was a part of the treaty of peace. Later the rebels,
3,500 in number, were forced to surrender. Their principal leader was
executed.
The Hats were at first led by Count Gyllenborg, who was succeeded
by the brilliant Count Charles Gustavus Tessin, a son of the great
architect, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. Although not a statesman of
any higher ability, Charles Gustavus Tessin was able to shake the
oppressive influence of Russia. He was assisted by Prince Adolphus
Frederic, who said he would rather resign than be a Russian vassal. A
war seemed imminent, but was averted, Finland in the meantime being
effectively fortified. The unconquerable fortress of Sveaborg was
built near Helsingfors, and was the creation of Augustinus Ehrensverd.
The Hats were eager in their attempts to encourage industry and
manufacture, but did so at the expense of agriculture, and placed
immense taxes on imported goods. A pioneer of industry was John
Alstrœmer, who, in his town of Alingsos, built factories of various
kinds. King Frederic died in 1751.
_Adolphus Frederic_ was a good-natured and gentle man. He was not
averse to an increased royal authority, but was not energetic enough
to exert a controlling influence or to push his claims. His consort
was the ambitious and brilliantly gifted Louise Ulrica, the sister of
Frederic the Great of Prussia. She tried to inspire the king to action.
Continually occupied by ambitious schemes, she spoiled them herself,
through lack of caution and stability. As crown princess, she stood
close to Count Tessin, whom she hoped to win over for her plans. They
devised the institution of the knightly orders of the Seraphim, the
Sword and the North Star, the credit of their introduction being given
to King Frederic I. Adolphus Frederic was forced to subscribe to the
same minimum of royal privileges as those enjoyed by Frederic I. At
court a party was formed which supported the king, who soon commenced
to oppose the state council. In 1755 this went so far that he refused
to sign a document from the council. The case was brought before the
Riksdag, where, in spite of strong opposition from the peasants, a
resolution was passed indorsing the action of the state council. Count
Tessin, in friction with the court, resigned from all his positions.
The Riksdag tried to reinstall him as governor of the royal princes,
but gave in upon the request of Tessin. The Riksdag went to the extreme
of having a stamp made of the king’s signature, to use in cases where
he refused to sign, and also took upon itself to engage and dismiss
teachers for the royal princes. At court indignation rose high, and a
conspiracy was formed to take possession of the capital, with the state
council and the speakers of the four Estates, in order to bring about
a revolution with increased power for the king. The conspiracy was
discovered, and Count Eric Brahe, Count Jacob Horn and six others of
its leaders executed.
A new humiliation to the court was Sweden’s alliance with Austria,
Russia and France against Frederic the Great of Prussia. The plans laid
out by the Swedes were as elaborate as those for the Russian war. But
on account of poor equipment and repeated change of commanders nothing
effective was done. When peace was made at Hamburg, in 1762, Sweden
neither lost nor gained anything. The Swedes had fought no battles, and
Frederic the Great said he would call the Swedish invasion of Pomerania
a private fight at the frontier.
The great expense of the profitless war gave the Caps an occasion
to gain in influence, and at the Riksdag of 1765 they overthrew the
power of the Hats, in their turn summarily dismissing the councillors
of their opponents. They introduced perfect liberty of the press
in 1766, but went too far in their policy of economy, dangerously
injuring the new industries by the withdrawal of loans and subsidies.
The expensive factories came to a standstill and skilled workingmen
emigrated. Popular opinion turned against these repeated changes and
the endless strife of the parties, and felt inclined to criticise a
Riksdag which had attained such power without giving a prosperous and
secure administration in return. Foreign powers, encouraged by the
court, tried to gain adherents of their various policies by bribes
to councillors and members of the Riksdag, thus demoralizing state
politics.
The king received a valuable supporter in the crown prince Gustavus,
who in 1767 became of age. He prevailed upon the king to resign when
the state council refused to call an extraordinary Riksdag for the
granting of added royal authority. The king did so, and the country
was without a monarch for six days (December 15-21, 1768). The crown
prince notified the presidents of the different administrative offices
in Stockholm that his father had ceased to reign. The state council
persisted; but had to give in, when the colonels of the regiments
reported that they could no longer answer for their troops, since also
the paymaster’s office was closed. The Riksdag convened in Norrkœping
in 1769. The Caps suffered defeat in spite of strenuous efforts made
for their preservation by the secret agents of the powers, anxious to
see the anarchic condition of the government continue. But the court
party failed in the exertions to have the royal privileges augmented.
The intrigues of the foreign powers continued, and the crown prince
left for France to insure her support in case of war. While the Hats
were once more in power, Adolphus Frederic died suddenly in February,
1771.
Gustavus was to put an end to the party strife of the “Period of
Liberty,” as it has been called. His own reign belongs properly to it,
for he reaped the benefit of the seed it had been sowing. The Period of
Liberty, with all its faults, forms an important chain in the cultural
and political development of Sweden. Its form of government made
necessary a varied and active part in public affairs, educating all
classes of officials to a high degree of efficiency and the people at
large to self-government. The Riksdag, through parliamentary activity
and importance, developed an authority which, although too composite
to govern itself, was enabled to act as a shield of steel against
all abuse of the executive power. The national life never gathered a
richer harvest of men of genius who worked for the progress of their
country and for that of the world. The heroism of the Swedish people
during the preceding period of suffering and distress bore fruit in
men like Emanuel Swedenborg, the inventor, naturalist, philosopher
and founder of a new religion; Charles Linnæus; the founder of modern
botany; Andrew Celsius, Junior, the inventor of the centigrade
thermometer; John Ahlstrœmer, the pioneer of industry; John Ihre, the
able philologist, and Olof von Dalin, the poet, humorist, and, with
Sven Lagerbring, the first modern historian of Sweden. The Period of
“Liberty,” viz., of an Aristocratic Republic, was the golden era of
Swedish science, the latter for the first time becoming of universal
fame and of universal importance. The scientists of this period
belong to the fathers of modern research, basing their conclusions
upon personal observation, in strong contrast to _their_ fathers and
precursors of the chauvinistic barocco period.
Emanuel Swedenborg, the most remarkable man whom Sweden has ever
brought forth, was born in Stockholm, June 29, 1688. His father was
Jesper Svedberg, bishop of Skara, in West Gothland, and his mother Sara
Behm. The tendency toward mysticism, an inheritance from his father,
was noticed in him at an early age. He has told of himself that between
the age of four and ten his thoughts were exclusively occupied with
religious subjects. While in prayer, he sometimes entered a somnambulic
condition, revealing things which surprised his parents, who said that
angels spoke through him. As a child, he had the idea of God as one,
without any conception of a Trinity. Later he received instruction in
the systematic theology of his day. His father gave him a thorough
training in the Oriental and classical languages. The early mysticism
of the boy was supplanted by a thirst for knowledge of the phenomena of
life and nature, coupled to a burning desire to illustrate his reading
by practical experiments. Having entered the University of Upsala, he
at first devoted himself to the study of the classical languages and
literature, later to that of mathematics and natural science. When the
university was visited by the plague in 1710, and almost all courses of
instruction were interrupted, Swedenborg made a journey for scientific
purposes to England, Holland, France and Germany. He returned in 1714,
enriched with valuable results. In 1716-18 he published the first
scientific journal of Sweden, “Dædalus Hyperboreus,” treating subjects
of mathematics and physical science. In 1716 he came in close personal
contact with Charles XII. at the university town of Lund. The king,
being deeply impressed by his great learning and practical ability,
appointed him assistant assessor of the college of mining. Swedenborg
had, by the scholar Eric Benzelius, been made acquainted with the idea
of the old Bishop Brask, of the time of Gustavus I., to “cut up the
land” between the North Sea and the Baltic to make a navigable route
through Sweden. Swedenborg gave close attention to this scheme, and
communicated his plans to Charles XII., who became very much interested
in them. Christopher Polhem was selected to build the great canal, and
Swedenborg was made his assistant. We know from the sketch of Polhem’s
life why the great work failed of accomplishment. Swedenborg gave a
proof of his superior genius as a practical engineer during the siege
of Fredericshall. Tordenskiold made the sea unsafe and had hedged in
the Swedish fleet at Iddefiord. The Swedish boats and galleys were then
carried overland to the town of Strœmstad, travelling the main road
for fifteen miles on rolling machines devised by Swedenborg. After the
death of Charles XII., whom he highly respected, Swedenborg travelled
to Saxony and Hungary to study the mining industry of these countries.
Returning in 1722, he entered for the first time upon his work of the
college of mining, becoming assessor a few years later. In 1719 he was
ennobled with his brothers and sisters, when the change of name from
Svedberg to Swedenborg was made. In 1724 he declined to accept the
chair of mathematics at the University of Upsala, dividing his time
between his official work and his studies, until 1747, when he resigned
from his position with a pension of the same amount as his salary. His
religious works were commenced in 1745, and after that time he made
repeated journeys to London or Amsterdam to have these printed, as they
could not be published in Sweden on account of the strict and highly
orthodox censure of that period.
In 1744 the event occurred which Swedenborg in various places of
his works has described as the opening of his spiritual sight, or
the manifestations of the Lord to him in person. He had not, by
geometrical, physical and metaphysical principles, succeeded in
grasping the infinite and the spiritual, or their relation to the
nature of man, but he had touched on facts and methods which seemed
to conduct him in the right direction. He thought that God had led
him into the natural sciences in order to prepare him for his later
spiritual development. The visions of his boyhood returned, now
conceived by a nature enriched by the experiences of a life spent in
ardent and scientific research. The great seer remained a man whom
everybody loved and respected. People who did not believe in his
visions feared to ridicule them in the presence of this august savant.
His manner of life was simple, his diet chiefly consisting of bread,
milk and large quantities of coffee. He made little distinction between
night and day, and sometimes lay for days in a trance. His servants
were often disturbed at night by hearing him engaged in what he called
conflicts with evil spirits. His intercourse with spirits was often
perfectly calm, in broad daylight, and with all his faculties awake.
He held that every man and woman has the same power of spiritual
intercourse, although not developed in the same degree as it was found
in him.
The work which established the scientific reputation of Swedenborg was
published, in 1734, in three massive folios, at the expense of Duke
Ludvig Rudolph of Brunswick. The second and third volumes describe
the best methods employed in Europe and America in the manufacture
of iron, copper and brass. The first volume contains a philosophical
explanation of the elementary world which has aroused admiration as a
beautiful, daring and consistent creation of human genius, worthy of
being placed side by side with the works of Newton, and replete with
remarkable ideas and anticipations of later discoveries. Swedenborg
indicated the existence of the seventh planet forty years before Uranus
was discovered by Herschel. He was the first to form an idea of the
development of nebulæ from chaotic masses to concrete heavenly bodies,
a hypothesis later perfected by Herschel, and the first to offer the
theory, later developed by Buffon, Kant and La Place, of the solar
origin of the planets and their satellites. As in astronomy, so also in
physics and geology he preconceived great discoveries. His experiments
and theories in physics have been confirmed by the discoveries
of the polarity of light and the galvanometer and its magnetic
properties. Swedenborg discovered before anybody else the great
importance of magnetism and the fact that magnetism and electricity
are manifestations of the same power. He made observations concerning
air and water which have been confirmed as to their correctness by
Priestley, Cavendish and Lavoisier, who long were supposed to have been
the first discoverers. In geology, he was the first to demonstrate
that the Scandinavian peninsula, except the southern part of Scania,
was a rising continent, proving the earlier level of the sea to have
been much higher and the inland lakes to have stood in connection with
the sea. Through his remarks on bowlders, he gave rise to the later
theories of Berzelius and Sæfstrom of a bowlder period. Upon these
researches followed great and remarkable works of anatomy, which, by
later anatomists of the first rank, have been declared to be classics
in the literature of physiology. His immense work, “Arcana Cœlestia,”
and other theosophical writings which he has placed as a foundation
for the New Church, and on which his present fame rests, were not so
celebrated in his days as his scientific works. Like the latter, they
were all written in Latin.
The new religion, founded by Swedenborg, more spiritual than the old,
has proved equally attractive to the individual and idealistic thinkers
of all sects, Protestants and Catholics, Unitarians and Theosophists.
Swedenborg made no attempt to establish a sect, and the New Church as
an organization is the result of a movement which was started after his
death.
In his personal appearance Swedenborg was a middle-sized man of strong
constitution. His head was of a fine shape, the color of his face
somewhat dark and its expression pensive, but his blue eyes were large
and radiant. His disposition was amiable. He was a man of the world,
fond of music and society, especially of that of cultured women, and
was often seen at court. He had a tendency to stutter when speaking
fast, for which reason he used a slow diction, characterized by choice
and mature expressions. In his youth, he frequented the house of
Christopher Polhem and fell in love with his daughter Emerentia. Both
Polhem and Charles XII. favored the idea of seeing them united, the
young girl of fourteen giving her consent. But young Emerentia was
secretly in love with somebody else, and her health and disposition
suffered under the strain. When Swedenborg discovered the truth, he
gave his betrothed freedom from her allegiance. He ceased to visit the
house of Polhem and never entered any other relation of love.
In 1770, at the age of eighty-two, Swedenborg for the last time
visited Amsterdam. John C. Cuno, who then saw him, thus described the
impression which the aged visionary and thinker made upon him: “He
looked so touchingly pious, and when I gazed into his smiling eyes of a
heavenly blue, it always seemed to me that truth itself spoke from his
lips.” Swedenborg left Amsterdam for London, where, on Christmas eve,
1772, he was struck by hemiplegia. After a few weeks he recovered his
speech, and his faculties were clear to the last. The chaplain of the
Swedish legation asked him if he had not formulated the doctrines of
his new religion in order to gain fame, and if he wished to recall it
all before he died. The yet partly paralyzed man raised himself into
a sitting position, saying: “As true as it is that you see me here in
front of you, as true is also all that I have written, and in eternity
you will find a confirmation of it.” The chaplain asked him if he
wanted to receive the sacrament. Swedenborg answered: “I need it not;
for I am already a member of the other world; but your intention is
good, and I will with joy receive the sacrament in token of the bond
of unity between heaven and earth.” Swedenborg died March 29, 1772, and
was buried in the Lutheran church of London.
Swedenborg was shrewd in worldly affairs and discussed politics and
finance in the Swedish Riksdag for nearly a score of years after his
visions and theological writings had begun to occupy most of his time.
If the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg at first were apt to
discredit the results of his manifold scientific research in the eyes
of those who did not share his theosophical views, the renown of the
great religious thinker in later times has outshone the fame of which,
as the versatile scholar and philosopher, he was so eminently worthy.
With his younger contemporary, Charles Linnæus (or Carl von Linné), the
case was different. There was in his career no radical change to divert
or throw an umbrage over the fame he had won as a scientist of the very
first rank.
Charles Linnæus, the most celebrated of Swedish scientists, was born
at Rashult, in Smaland, in 1707. His father was a minister of a very
subordinate charge of the state church. The neighborhood in which the
young Linnæus grew up was not fertile, but rich in flowers, which were
the toys and comrades of his childhood. He made but little progress at
his work in the college of Vexio, being more fond of collecting and
examining plants than of studying Greek and Latin. It was the wish of
his parents that he should become a minister and the assistant of his
father; but the youth had so little inclination to pursue the life or
studies of a clergyman that he at last found it necessary to tell his
parents so. He had found a friend and protector in Doctor Rothman,
a district physician, who encouraged him to follow his ambition of
becoming a naturalist and physician. Doctor Rothman supervised his
studies in botany and succeeded in teaching him Latin by giving him
the natural history of Pliny to study. In this manner Linnæus, who at
college showed utter dislike for the classical languages, learned to
write and speak Latin with ease. His teachers, who at first had advised
his parents to let him quit the book, in order to take up some trade,
were made aware of his gifted nature, but as he was found deficient in
the regular courses, their recommendation, necessary for his admittance
to the University of Lund, was very carefully worded. “The youths
in our colleges may be likened unto little trees in a plant school,
where it happens, although but rarely, that young trees upon which the
greatest care have been lavished do not turn out well, but resemble
wild stems, yet, when removed and transplanted, change their wild
nature and develop into beautiful trees of agreeable fruit. Likewise,
and for no other purpose, this youth is sent to the university, where
he may venture into a climate favorable to his growth.” There was
an accurate but unconscious prophecy concealed in this beautiful
“recommendation,” which, curiously enough, has chosen the similes which
were considered indispensable in the artificial language of the period
from the world of plants, when speaking of the future flower king of
the North.
The young Linnæus made his way to the university town of Southern
Sweden, walking the whole distance from Vexio to Lund, with a heavy
knapsack and a light pocket-book. He was in hopes to win the protection
of his uncle, the influential dean of the cathedral. Upon entering
Lund, he heard all church bells tolling, and, upon inquiry, learned
that they rang for the funeral of his uncle, the dean! A former
teacher of his managed to have him enrolled at the university without
having to turn in the diplomatic recommendation from his college. He
took his bachelor’s degree and was kindly encouraged by Professor
Chilian Stobæus, at whose house he was stopping. The mother of Stobæus
told him to look after the young man from Smaland, who was in the habit
of going to sleep with his candle left burning, thus liable to “lead
the whole house into adventure.” When the learned professor looked into
the matter he found his own works in the hands of the youth, who spent
his nights reading them. After that all the books and the heartfelt
sympathy of the scholar were at the command of Linnæus.
In 1728 Linnæus, so advised by his earliest protector, changed his
place of study to the University of Upsala, which at the time was
better equipped and provided with a fine botanical garden. The young
scholar endured a great deal of suffering for lack of funds, his
father no longer being able to provide for his support. His diet was
very light, and he wrapped his benumbed feet in paper to keep them
from peeping out of his ragged shoes. His father called him home to
reconsider his resolution as to a ministerial calling. Linnæus was
ready to leave and paid a farewell visit to the botanic gardens. He
lingered in melancholy thoughts before a rare flower which he intended
to pluck. A harsh voice behind commanded him to leave the flower alone.
Linnæus turned and stood face to face with the dean, Olof Celsius the
Elder. In the interview which followed the young man surprised the
dean, who was an able and enthusiastic botanist, by his exceptional
knowledge of plants. Celsius inquired about his circumstances and ended
by taking him into his house and providing for his future. Shortly
afterward Linnæus published a short but important treatise on the
sexual life of plants, which he handed in to Professor Olof Rudbeck
the Younger. This able scholar was forcibly struck by the ingenuity
of the thoughts in the work, which contained the nucleus to the grand
scientific system which Linnæus later developed. When, in 1730, Rudbeck
obtained a vacation he had Linnæus installed as a lecturer of the
botanic gardens. Shortly afterward Linnæus received the commission to
pay a visit of botanic research to Lapland, on the plants of which he
published a remarkable work. The journey was made on horseback, the
young scholar returning deeply impressed by the grandeur of natural
sceneries in the extreme North.
Linnæus had to fight poverty and adversity for some time still. His
mother, who always had regretted that he should “turn out a surgeon
instead of a minister,” was elated over his first triumph when opening
the field of a new science by his sexual system of plants. He suffered
all the more at her death, which he was forced to conceal because he
could not afford a mourning garb. Envious comrades put an end to his
lectures at Upsala by having enforced, through petitions, an order
against the filling of temporary vacancies by men who had not taken
the doctor’s degree. It was found necessary for Linnæus to go abroad,
and some money was subscribed by his friends for that purpose. In
Holland he met the learned Professor Boerhave, who, on being made
acquainted with his system of botany, which Linnæus then for the first
time published, received him with tokens of unlimited admiration and
friendship. It was by Boerhave that the continental fame of Linnæus
was founded. The latter found, in the arranging of the great gardens
of Hartekamp intrusted to him, a work both agreeable and instructive.
In London, Linnæus broadened his experience with study of the rich
collections of plants and naturalia which were made accessible to
him by the celebrated scholar Hans Sloane, later the founder of the
British Museum. The letter of recommendation from Boerhave was somewhat
different to the one Linnæus had received at Vexio: “Linnæus, who
hands you this letter, is the only one worthy to see you, and to be
seen by you. Those who see you together look upon two men the peers of
which the world does hardly possess.” After a stay in Paris, where the
greatest scientists of France treated him with distinction, he returned
to Holland, to find his friend Boerhave dying in Leyden. Linnæus kissed
the hand of the dying man, who insisted on kissing the hand of Linnæus
in return, pronouncing him the greater genius, of whom the world should
expect and receive more.
Linnæus, the celebrated founder of a new science, returned home as an
unknown man. His ability as a physician, acquired at the University of
Leyden, and his growing continental fame soon made him distinguished.
In 1741 he was appointed professor of medicine at Upsala, but changed
chairs with the professor of botany. The study of the latter science
was highly developed through the continued research of Linnæus, and
became very popular, while giving a great impetus to the study of
medicine. The grace and animation of Linnæus as a lecturer caused
students and scholars to flock around him in hundreds. The botanic
excursions led by Linnæus resembled daily marches of triumphs, the
multitude of students escorting their beloved teacher back to the
botanic gardens with flowers in their hats and with music of drums
and French horns. Sweden, with Upsala as a centre, was for the first
time in history considered a home of scientific culture, to which
naturalists gathered from all parts of the world, America included.
Pupils of ability and distinction were sent by Linnæus to strange and
unknown quarters, from which they returned with new and unfamiliar
plants, which were examined and classified by the flower king of the
North. Linnæus was honored by his contemporaries in such a superlative
manner as no one of his countrymen, before or after, and few other
scientists of any age or country. Count Charles Gustavus Tessin has the
credit of having encouraged him in his work and improved his career
upon his return from the Continent. When ennobled, Linnæus changed his
name to Von Linné, the earlier form being the more familiar to English
readers. King Gustavus III. presented him with the estate Hammarby,
where he liked to dwell, surrounded by his flowers and his family,
resting from the fatigue caused by the endless stream of distinguished
pilgrims who came to visit his flower court at Upsala. The offers of
foreign monarchs to have him come and dwell with them were many and
liberal. In 1739 he married the love of his youth, Maria Elizabeth
Moræus, “and never since felt an inclination to leave Sweden.”
Linnæus in many respects resembled Swedenborg, being convinced that
his acceptance of truth was the correct one and disliking disputes.
Like Swedenborg, he was pious, modest, benevolent and sincere. Of his
own exterior and disposition Linnæus has himself given the following
characteristic account: “Linnæus was not tall, not small, lean,
brown-eyed, light, quick, walked briskly, did everything promptly,
disliked slow people, was sensitive, easily moved, worked continuously
and could not spare himself. He was fond of good food and drank good
drinks, but never to excess. He cared little for exteriors, considering
that man should adorn his dress and not vice versa. Faculty meetings
were not his delight, or business, for he was made for quite other
things, and had other things in mind than those which there were
discussed and decided upon.” In the preface to the late edition of his
principal work, “Systema Naturæ,” the following noteworthy paragraph
is found: “I saw the shadow of the Supreme Being go past me, and I was
seized with respect and admiration. I searched for His footsteps in
the sand--what power, what wisdom! I saw how the animals existed only
by means of the plants, the plants by means of the lifeless particles,
and these in their turn constitute the earth. I saw the sun and stars
without number hanging suspended in the air, held by the hand of the
Being of beings, the artist of this grand masterpiece.”
Linnæus died January 10, 1778, and was buried in the cathedral of
Upsala. His botanic system has been superseded by others, but the
influence that his researches and discoveries have exerted on the
natural sciences and medicine, has not ceased to be benignantly felt,
nor have the utmost results of his researches been as yet attained.
Andrew Celsius, professor of astronomy at Upsala, acquired fame as
a writer on astronomy and was successful in his efforts to have
an observatory built at the university. In 1742 he introduced his
invention, the Celsius or centigrade thermometer, which is of almost
indispensable practical value in all physical and chemical experiments.
Olof Celsius, Senior, the able botanist, Orientalist and patron of
Linnæus, was his uncle, he thus being a cousin of Olof Celsius, Junior,
whose brightly written histories of Gustavus Vasa and Eric XIV. were
translated into contemporaneous French and German.
John Ahlstrœmer accomplished more for the resurrection of the
downtrodden industry of his country than any one else, and therefore
justly deserves the name of the Father of Swedish Industry. This man,
who occupies an honored place in Swedish history, was born in 1685, of
poor parents, at the town of Alingsos, in West Gothland, his original
name being John Toresson. He worked himself up in various mercantile
positions in Stockholm and other towns, later coming to London, where
he engaged in business of his own and became an English citizen. He
saw with regret that his countrymen sent their money abroad to obtain
articles which they could manufacture at home, and was seized with the
ambition to introduce into Sweden the industries which constitute the
foundation of England’s mercantile wealth.
When Charles XII. returned to Sweden, Ahlstrœmer went there also,
trying to win the king to his industrial plans. He did not succeed,
but found in Christopher Polhem a man who listened to and appreciated
them. Ahlstrœmer intended to return to England, but was captured by the
Danes during the journey. On account of his English citizenship he soon
regained his liberty, visiting England and the Continent, and carefully
selecting everything which he had in view of sending to Sweden as the
requisite instruments for his plans. This work sometimes involved great
danger, as the buying of looms for hose and ribbon, fulling vats, dyes,
etc.; for the great manufacturing countries were keeping jealous watch
that the secrets of their industries should not become known abroad. In
a town in Holland, Ahlstrœmer barely missed being pelted with stones
by the mob. Pursued by the revenue authorities, he managed to escape
with his ship, arriving safely in Gothenburg with the valuable cargo
and skilled laborers in his employ. Shortly afterward he arrived in
his native town of Alingsos, where the industrial enterprises were
established. The Riksdag at first was unwilling to grant him the
necessary concessions, the clergy especially being averse to allow so
many foreign workingmen free confession of their Catholic religion. In
1724 the concessions were at last obtained, and Ahlstrœmer began his
course, which he was resolved should result in the fostering of the
same industrial activity in his impoverished country, which he, with
surprise, had noticed in England and on the Continent.
In establishing his enterprises, Ahlstrœmer exhausted his resources,
and when he tried to form a company to keep them going he was met with
stubborn resistance, caused by ignorance and jealousy. He succeeded at
last in obtaining the financial backing of some wealthy mine owners
of Vermland, who took shares in his enterprises. The Riksdag of 1726
encouraged him by placing high protective or prohibitive tariffs
on foreign articles which could be produced in the country. In the
following year King Frederic paid a visit to Alingsos, spending a
whole day in looking over the mills and factories. The king said that
he would rather own the stock of goods of Ahlstrœmer than the largest
arsenal in his kingdom, and saw to it that his servants were dressed in
broadcloth manufactured at Alingsos.
Alingsos saw its population suddenly increase from 300 to 1,800 and
entered upon an era of prosperity. Ahlstrœmer’s factories formed almost
a little town of their own beside the older one. There were twelve
looms for the manufacturing of broadcloth, forty-five looms for
wool, and, besides, cotton mills, dye works for wool and silk, hose
factories, an English tannery and various other industrial works. Also
a foundry, with eight communicating shops, where all kinds of household
articles of simple and composite metals were manufactured. Alingsos
was made a kind of normal school of industry for the whole country.
The foreign master workmen, who at the beginning had charge of the
factories, instructed in time a great number of native apprentices, who
later found employment elsewhere, thus distributing to various parts
the experience obtained at Alingsos. Wool was the principal material
in the factories, and in order to obtain a refined quality, Ahlstrœmer
imported stocks of foreign breeds. He commenced with English sheep, the
Riksdag of 1727 granting him the use of the royal estate Hœjentorp for
the purpose. Angora goats were later imported and seemed to thrive.
Ahlstrœmer did his country a great service by introducing the
cultivation of potatoes. The first shipment of this useful plant
arrived in 1723, with workingmen imported from France. As soon as
the plant was seen to stand the climate, larger quantities were sent
for. Potatoes were cultivated in the vast fields around Alingsos
at a period when they were exhibited in the botanic gardens of the
Continent as rare plants from Peru. Prejudice at first interfered,
but when the soldiers returned home from Pomerania with the habit of
eating potatoes, and planted such around their cottages, the popularity
of the Peruvian plant was assured. Ahlstrœmer also introduced the
cultivation of tobacco and several dye plants. The coal mines, near
Helsingborg, in Scania, commenced to be operated at his instigation.
When the Academy of Science was instituted, in 1739, Ahlstrœmer was
made one of its members. The Academy of Science served originally and
in that era of utilitarianism a more practical purpose than later. The
Cap administration of Arvid Horn gave comparatively little attention
to the enterprises of Ahlstrœmer, having more in view to develop
agriculture than industry. When the Hats got into power the conditions
were reversed. Count Charles Gyllenborg, the successor of Arvid Horn
as president of the chancery, in order to set a good example, always
dressed in broadcloth of Swedish manufacture. Ahlstrœmer was made a
councillor of commerce, and ennobled, while his bust was placed in the
Exchange of Stockholm and medals issued in his honor by the Academy of
Science.
Ahlstrœmer was a middle-sized man of a strong constitution. He was
amiable, courteous and hospitable, ever ready to conduct visitors
through his factories and warehouses. His energy was as great as his
kindness, and he refused to recognize an enemy in anybody. The large
profits of his plants he mostly spent on other patriotic enterprises,
leaving hardly any other inheritance to his sons than an excellent
education. During the last few years of his life he suffered the
consequences of a stroke of paralysis. He died in 1761, and thus was
saved from witnessing the destruction which was caused to the new
factory industry and his own works at Alingsos by the reckless policy
of the new Caps.
Olof Dalin is the principal poet and writer of the Period of Liberty,
strongly influencing not only the creative minds of his own day, but
also those who with more or less right have been counted as belonging
to the Gustavian Period. Dalin was the son of a minister in the
province of Halland and a relative of Professor Andrew Rydelius of
Lund, a historian of the older generation, who conducted the course of
his studies. He came to Stockholm in 1726, where several positions in
various state departments afforded opportunity for study in libraries
and archives. Dalin, from the year 1732 to 1734, published a magazine
called “The Swedish Argus,” which, with the English “Spectator” as
a pattern, contained articles on public and individual morals, with
allusions to the facts of contemporary life. This publication caused a
great stir and became very popular on account of the acute logic and
excellent language of its editor. Dalin was appointed royal librarian
by the Riksdag, and, on the recommendation of Count Tessin, teacher to
the young crown prince Gustavus.
Dalin was an enthusiastic admirer of the glorious epoch of Swedish
history and of the character of Charles XII., which caused him to join
the party of the Hats. When the latter utterly failed in their attempts
to restore the political grandeur of the past, and Dalin witnessed the
excesses of the rivalling parties, he joined the secret agitators for
an increased royal power. In the literary and artistic circle of the
brilliant Queen Louise Ulrica, Dalin was the leading spirit. He was
not unaware of the conspiracies and intrigues of the queen, and is
supposed to have been the author of several of the sharp notes which
the king added to the records of the state council. The Hats, who
took offence at his sharp satires, made him resign from his position
as the teacher of the crown prince. After the conspiracy of the court
party was detected, Dalin was called before a committee of the Estates
and by order dismissed from the court. Dalin used the time of his
compulsory isolation for the writing of a history of Sweden. This
work, which never was carried further than to the end of the Period
of Reformation, is characterized by an attractive style, but is not
reliable as to facts.
Dalin was allowed to return to the court in 1761. He stood in great
favor and was covered with testimonials of appreciation. He died in
1763, at the moment when King Adolphus Frederic was resolved to make
him a state councillor. Dalin was the first writer who made Swedish
history popular, and exerted, by his poems and his magazine, and by his
education of Gustavus III., a considerable influence upon the history
of his own time.
In point of scientific research the historical works of Sven Lagerbring
have a much higher value than Dalin’s history, although they lacked the
literary excellence of the latter. Lagerbring, who, born in Scania, was
professor of history at the University of Lund, carried his work to the
times of Charles VIII. A shorter history of his was translated into
French and long formed the chief source of continental knowledge of
Swedish history.
As a poet Dalin had a rival in the somewhat younger Hedvig Charlotta
Nordenflycht, one of the most interesting characters in Swedish history
of literature. Her works, chiefly consisting of lyrics and idyls,
show a long chain of development from the taste of the Carolinian
period to that of the Gustavian epoch. In her deep emotional nature
and enthusiasm for all cultural movements she stands without a
rival. Receiving an annuity from the government, she was after many
adversities able to maintain a literary salon. The men who met there,
like Gustavus Philip Creutz and Gustavus Frederic Gyllenborg, were the
founders of an academic style in poetry, as was Charles Gustavus Tessin
in eloquence.
John Ihre is perhaps the most highly gifted of Swedish philologists
and the first whose research had a lasting scientific value. He stood
at the summit of contemporary European study of language, and rose a
head or more higher than the philologists of his own country in that
day. The period was characterized by a movement for the purification
and analyzation of the language, Dalin expressing his wish to speak the
truth to the Swedes in pure Swedish, and the Academy of Science taking
pride in publishing their important papers in the mother tongue. Eric
Benzelius, an able critic of the Gothic, and interested in Swedish
dialect research, was one of the precursors of Ihre; and so was Olof
Celsius, Senior, professor of Greek, later of Oriental languages, who
was the first to fix the age of the majority of Runic inscriptions as
dating from the Christian era.
John Ihre was born, in 1707, in Lund, where his father was a professor
of theology, a talented, witty and learned man. The young Ihre lost his
father in 1720, after which time his uncle, Archbishop Steuchius of
Upsala, had charge of his education. He later studied modern languages
at the University of Jena, made the acquaintance of the contemporary
philologists of Holland, and also studied at the universities of
London, Oxford and Paris. After an absence of three years he returned,
soon to be connected with the University of Upsala, where he remained
for forty-two years as professor of rhetoric and politics. Ihre was
a liberal, outspoken man, who was severely censured for his opinions
upon political and religious subjects, once by the Riksdag being
sentenced to pay fines and receiving a warning from the chancellor
of the university. When the clergy upon another occasion warned the
philosophers not to mix in theological subjects, Ihre defended himself
in the following terms in a letter to the chancellor, Count Charles
Gustavus Tessin. “Gracious lord! I teach _eloquentiam_, _politicam_
and the states, with all things pertaining to them. To become a heretic
I possess neither genius nor stupidity enough, less an evil purpose.
Therefore I am willing to forego all theology, if only an allowance
of it be made large enough for my private practice and edification in
Christianity. I never intended to go any further.”
Ihre left religion and politics alone, and received many high
distinctions in return for his great scientific merits. When ennobled,
he kept his old family name, stating that he was “somewhat known abroad
under the name of Ihre,” while if he changed it to Gyllenbiorn or
Vargstierna, it would take “some time to announce this new disguise.”
He was renowned for his ready wit, and wielded a considerable influence
in academic circles. Ihre was satisfied with his position and his
science, and was not willing to exchange them for a political career.
Ihre was led to the study of the Teutonic languages in their oldest
forms by his desire to find a consistent spelling and correct
understanding of the words in his own language. He was desirous of
freeing it from foreign words, but only when those substituted were as
expressive and comprehensible as the old. Ihre was a pioneer in the
field of dialect lexicographers, publishing the outline of a Swedish
dialect dictionary in 1766, and wrote a number of works pertaining to
the historic forms of Gothic, Lappish, Finnish and Old Norse. Special
importance is due to his epoch-making research concerning the language
of the Codex Argenteus. He once for all settled the controversy,
proving the Codex to contain the Gothic Bible translation of Bishop
Wulfila against the assertions of M. Lacroze of Berlin, who claimed
that it was written in Frankish. In regard to the Edda of Snorre
Sturleson, he declared it to be intended as an introductory study
of poesy, a handbook of poetics for young scalds, an opinion which
has been fully established in a much later time. By these and other
theories Ihre attained a much higher standpoint as a scientific critic
than his contemporaries. He spoke of the resemblance between the
Teutonic and the classical languages, without being able to find the
reasons. He even to some extent anticipated the great discovery which
after its formulator has been called Grimm’s Law, by pointing out “a
certain regularity of consonant shift” in the Teutonic languages.
The monumental work of Ihre and the crowning effort of his life was
prepared between the years 1750-1759. This Glossarium suiogothicum,
published at the expense of the government, is the best Swedish
dictionary of the eighteenth century. Ihre by his severe critical
method kills the wild etymologies of the “Rudbeckian philology,”
turning to Old Swedish for the derivations, and, where this gave no
satisfaction, to the Old Icelandic, “because this language nine hundred
years ago was separated from our own and has remained undisturbed
by foreign influence.” From the Old Northern dialects he turned to
Old High German, Old English and Gothic, the last mentioned of which
he considered the mother of the Teutonic languages. Many of Ihre’s
etymologies have not been able to withstand the scrutiny of later
criticism, but his great etymological dictionary is the product of
versatile knowledge and unusual insight, and has not only exerted a
profound influence upon his own period but also served as a model for
later epochs of philological research.