ART. IV.-Swea. Tidskrift för Vetenskap och Konst.

12

Häfter.* (Sweden, a Journal of Science and Art. Numbers I.-XII.) Upsala, 1819-1829. 8vo.

PERIODICALS are not in general esteemed fit matter for reviewing in journals like ours, although, when such periodicals consist altogether, or chiefly, of original essays and original poetry, we scarcely know why they should be thus considered. This impression would, however, probably prevent our dedicating our attention and our pages to French or German Magazines ;but of Swedish literature we still know so little, and Swedish books are, in this country, so hard to procure, that we conceive a short account of the Swedish periodical miscellany, entitled Swea, cannot but be acceptable to our readers.

The Swea is edited by Professor Geijer, the author of the unfinished History of Sweden, the first volume of which was reviewed in one of our late numbers. Independent of his historical labours, which we have already noticed, Geijer has distinguished himself as an orator, a philosopher, a poet, and a musical composer. In two of these characters he contributes to, we believe, all the Swedish periodicals that belong to the National, or AntiGallican school; and as though all this were insufficient occupation, he has further undertaken the editorship of the Swea.

The principal of Geijer's brother contributors are Atterbom, who, amongst his compatriot admirers, bears the title of the Swedish Goethe; Franzén, similarly designated as the Swedish Scott and Byron blended into one; Palmblad, an oriental scholar; Schröder, sub-librarian at Upsala, an erudite scholar, and Geijer's colleague in the editorship of the old Swedish historians, with others less generally known.

The mention of these names, in addition to the auto-descriptive title (a title, by the way, rather too exclusive-Journal of Science and Art,) renders it superfluous to state that the Swea is a periodical of a far more ambitious character than most of the magazine fraternity; but this would not, unassisted, convey an idea of its singular austerity. Never does it, like those of the highest reputation in this country, attemper its profounder disquisitions by the admixture of light tales or jeux d'esprit; a very, very small infusion

The work is, we believe, still in progress, although we have seen only the first twelve Häfter, or numbers, divided into two or more parts each, (if we should not rather say volumes published in numbers); but this dozen being fully sufficient for our purpose of showing the nature of this learned periodical, we resolved to review them, without waiting the result of that usually tedious operation, the procuring more volumes from Sweden.

of poetry, and some accounts of travels, offering pretty nearly the sole relief from metaphysics, political philosophy, statistics, &c. Neither does the Swea seek to uphold its essentially miscellaneous nature, by confining every single paper within such limits as may insure variety in each separate number. So far from it, that the number which at this moment catches our eye, namely, the first number of the tenth Häfte for 1826, consists wholly of an essay upon the nature and origin of society, of a discussion upon one or two articles of the Swedish constitution, relative to the formation and the duties of the Royal Council, and a list of new books. Such essays, somewhat more varied, are almost the sole contents of the first few numbers; in later years the learned editor has added thereto, reviews of valuable new publications, whether Swedish or foreign.

Having thus given a general idea of the nature of this journal, we are next to speak more particularly of its literary and philosophical merits. These we think very considerable, although the dissertations are conceived and executed so much more in the German than the English taste, that we should fear to weary our readers, did we offer such an analysis of any of them, as, in our private opinion, some, at least, abundantly deserve. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with giving some brief notices concerning their nature and character, ere we select for translation what may appear more likely to interest an English reader. For this purpose we shall class the papers contained in the twelve Häfter before us, according to the subject matter of which they

treat.

One of the most important divisions is that which more especially entitles the journal to its name of Swea, to wit, information relative to Sweden. Amongst the papers on such matters we have a geological description of the country by Wahlenberg; a statement respecting the working of the native silver mines, and a comparison of the Swedish and English modes of manufacturing iron; essays upon the ancient or Sweo-Gothic laws of Sweden, by Collin and Schlyter; upon the legal History of Sweden, by Delldén; upon Swedish legislation, with relation to the proposal of new laws, upon different articles of the Swedish constitution, and upon the composition and character of one or two national tribunals, by Schlyter and Delldén; anecdotes of Sweden's financial and economical history; a scientific disquisition upon old Scandinavian songs, by Haeffner; a sketch of Linnæus's life and labours, by Wahlenberg; an account of Swedish picture galleries; and an account, by Grafström, of a Swedish sculptor, named Sergell, outlines of some of whose works, namely, a Cupid

and Psyche, a drunken Faun, and two busts, by no means deficient in talent, adorn the first three Häfter. Occasional short surveys of the literary productions of the year, too many of which, we regret to say, are only translations, complete this division. A moment's reflection makes it evident that most of these papers, however valuable to Swedes, are scarcely of a kind to afford extracts interesting or instructive to foreigners. To inform readers altogether unacquainted with the subjects, each of them should be treated as a whole, and in the present active state of the Swedish mind, we do not despair of meeting occasionally with opportunities for presenting our readers with more comprehensive, and therefore more comprehensible, developements of some of these matters. The accounts of Linnæus and Sergell might have proved exceptions, but we have our own private reasons for not introducing into these pages a detail of the rise and progress of the naturalist's botanical observations, discoveries and opinions; and with regard to the statuary, (of whom Atterbom thinks that " had he not lived and died concealed in the North, he might have disputed with Canova the honour of reviving sculpture,") Grafström gives us merely an enumeration and eulogy of his works, together with a descriptive catalogue of all the Cupids and Psyches extant.

We now turn to the philosophical division of the Swea. The first paper of this kind that we shall notice is an Essay by Geijer himself upon Feudalism and Republicanism, of which 227 pages are divided between the first and second Häfter, and the remainder is promised, but not given in those we possess; the learned editor being perhaps too much engrossed by his historical labours to spare the time and thought requisite for completing a dissertation, which, however homogeneous with his professional avocations, demands more of both than magazine contributions, usually considered as light recreations from hard study, should naturally claim. This fragment displays a familiar, a profound, and a varied knowledge of modern history, with much acumen and some originality. The writer cherishes a tenderness for the better parts of feudalism, the very reverse of that abhorrent and keen search after its abuses which distinguishes modern liberalism in France, Italy, and even Germany. But with this reverence for the past, Geijer blends a cordial love of liberty, such as was to be expected from the highly gifted and cultivated son of a country, where the popular portion of the representative system is carried further than in any other land with which we are acquainted, the peasants having long constituted, and still we believe constituting, in the diet, a distinct and separate order or estate from the burgesses. So that the two orders of what, upon the continent, has usually been called the third estate, form, in fact, an overbalance for the

two, equally distinct, orders of nobility and clergy, inasmuch as the last of these contains an upper and lower house within itself, in the prelates and the parish priests.

Without entering into a detail of Geijer's views, for which we have no room, we may briefly state that he considers the whole history of modern Europe as one uninterrupted conflict between feudalism and republicanism, which two principles he thus characterizes-feudalism as the spirit of, or resting upon, relations not created by law, but natural, analogous to those of parent and child, &c.; republicanism as the spirit of, or resting upon, relations wholly legal. Of republicanism he finds a twofold source; the one in the forests of Germany and Scandinavia, in the part which, amongst all tribes of Teutonic origin, the universal nation took as well in the discussion of foreign politics as in the internal administration of justice, and the fruit of this source he distinguishes as rural liberty; the other, he traces back to the municipal Roman forms, uninterruptedly preserved in the internal government of many cities of Italy, southern France, and the banks of the Rhine, amidst and despite all the tyranny of the Roman Emperors, all the devastation of barbarian conquest; and the offspring of this source he distinguishes as civic liberty. The first tempered whatever might otherwise have been too harsh in early feudalism, dying away as the power of the aristocracy became excessive; at which very period, namely, that of the Crusades, civic liberty revived to supply its place, encouraged by the monarchs of Europe, who sought, by the help of the third estate, to free themselves from baronial encroachment. From this civic liberty Geijer derives taxation and, as therewith connected, a spirit of represen tation, the fruitful parents of mercenary soldiers (the citizens soon learning to fight by deputy), standing armies and all modern tyranny, as well as of true freedom, in the representative system of government. The French revolution, when republicanism gained an undue ascendancy, is the point selected as the close of the conflict between feudalism and republicanism; but this is merely indicated, all inquiry into that fearful event, its causes and consequences, is wanting, with the continuation of the Essay.

Amongst the other politico-philosophical papers, is one, in 150 pages, upon true and false liberalism; in which, notwithstanding the anonymous writer's admiration for the British constitution and its gradual developement or growth, (resembling, he says, that of an organized body,) the horror excited by the French revolution produces a considerable anti-liberal tendency, whence we infer the irritating presence of French liberalism in Sweden. Another, upon the fundamental idea of the social doctrine of society, by Grabbe, incomplete in SO and 202 pages, is written more in the

VOL. XIII. NO. XXVI,

A A

impartial and fair temper of Geijer. Both dissertations are, however, characterized by deep historical research, by acute and judicious reasoning; but in virtue of their essentially metaphysical character, they are, as before observed, better adapted to the meridian of Germany than to that of England. The same remarks apply to the purely metaphysical and to the asthetic papers, concerning which we shall only say that the whole philosophy of the Swea, whether political, metaphysical or asthetic, is deeply and essentially religious. Religion is herein considered as the sole and indispensable foundation of society itself, as well as of true liberty, morality and happiness.

Our next division embraces the papers relative to foreign countries. These are many and various. Perhaps the most valuable and attractive amongst them, to that reading public for which they are designed, are Palmblad's upon Oriental subjects. But how great soever be this scholar's reputation and his proficiency in such studies, it is not to be supposed that his disquisitions upon Tibet, the Ancient Histories of the Hindus, &c. can offer any thing peculiarly new or striking to readers familiar with the researches and writings of the mighty Orientalists of France, Germany and England. We shall, therefore, pass them by without further notice than the expression of our gratification at finding them in a much read Swedish miscellany, and turn to others that may, we conceive, contain metal more attractive to British readers, namely, some papers upon North America.

Even after all that has been published about the United States within the last few years, nay, the last few months, a Swede's views of the country might still, we apprehend, not be uninteresting; but there is in these papers matter of yet more novelty, and it is to this we shall address ourselves. It is not, we believe, very generally known, either that the Scandinavians claim the merit of having been the first, the original, albeit accidental, discoverers of America, or that the Swedes established a colony upon the Delaware, much about the time when our persecuted Puritans were colonizing New England; which Swedish colony remained, up to the period of the establishment of American independence, so far unabsorbed by its British neighbours and masters, as to be regularly supplied with Lutheran pastors from Stockholm, a fact implying the preservation of their mother tongue. Concerning these two points we shall select a few extracts; and, first, from Schröder's paper, Om Skandinavernes fordna Upptäcktsresor till Nord Amerika, or " Upon the Scandinavians' former voyages of discovery to North America."

Iceland had been discovered by Northman Vikingr, or seakings, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, early in the ninth cen