circular career. Such, however, are the friendly effects of habit, that a Swede finds himself at no loss: he takes part of every dish that is presented. The whole is mixed: "Anchovies, herrings, onions, eggs, pastry," says Acerbi, "often meet on the same plate, and are swallowed promiscuously. The sweet is associated with the sour, mustard with sugar, confectionaries with salt meat, or salt fish." Little, or rather no wine, is drunk during dinner. When the ceremonies of eating are concluded, the whole retire to the drawing-room, and, with much formality, thank the master and mistress of the house for the elegant entertainment. Tea and coffee are immediately served. Between tea and supper, cards are the only amusement. If one be unable or unwilling to enter into the game, he may retire to a corner and fall asleep, since rational conversation is altogether out of the question.8

The greater part of the houses in Sweden are built of wood covered with turf; for, though stone or brick might, in many cases, easily be procured, experience has shown them that wooden houses, when reared with solidity and preserved with care, are more comfortable and more healthy than houses of stone. Besides, wood is easily procured at a very small expense. The seams of the windows, and such chinks as might admit the air, are covered with pitch, and the inside is warmed by stoves; in the management of which, the Swedes, from long practice, have become peculiarly expert. The prices of provisions in Sweden are considered, by such foreigners as visit that country, as being very reasonable; but such prices must always be estimated by the comparative plenty or scarceness of money, and its consequent value. The food of the common people consists of a kind of bread somewhat similar to the oaten bread common in Scotland; fish dried or salted, and a kind of gruel, probably not greatly different from Scottish porridge. Beer is plentiful, and is used in large quantities by those of all ranks.

"As in the course of this route," says Coxe, "I constantly took my repast during the day, and passed every night in the cottages, I had frequent opportunities of observing the customs, manners, and food, of the peasants. Upon entering a cottage, I usually found all the family employed in carding flax, spinning thread, and in weaving coarse linen, and sometimes cloth. The peasants are excellent contrivers, and employ the coarsest materials to some useful purpose. They twist ropes from swines' bristles, horses' mares, and bark of trees, and use eel-skins for bridles. Their food principally consists of salted flesh and fish, eggs, milk, and hard bread. At Michaelmas they usually kill their cattle, and salt them for the ensuing winter and spring. Twice in the year they bake their bread in large round cakes, which are strung upon files of sticks, and suspended close to the ceilings of the cottages. They are so hard as to be occasionally broken with a hatchet, but are not unpleasant. The peasants use beer for their

The passion for card-playing seems, in Sweden, to be carried, if possible, farther than in almost any other country. If the following story, told by Acerbi, be true, it exhibits, in a striking manner, the Swedish love of gambling. "A nobleman of great rank, having waited longer than usual for his dinner, and seeing that no preparation was made for it, went down to call his servants to an account, and to examine into the reason of the delay. He found them, in imitation of their superiors, deeply engaged at cards. They excused themselves to their master, by telling him, that they were now at the most interesting point of the game; and the butler, who had the greatest stake, took the liberty of explaining the case to his excellency, who could not in conscience but approve his reasons; however, being unwilling to wait for his dinner till the game was decided, he sent the butler to lay the cloth, while he himself sat down with the other servants, and managed the interest of that individual in his absence."

common drink, and are much addicted to malt spirits. In the districts towards the western coast, and at no great distance inland, tea and coffee are not unusually found in the Swedish cottages; which are procured in great plenty, and at a cheap rate, from Gottenburg. The peasants are all well-clad in strong cloth of their own weaving. Their cottages, though built of wood, and only of one story, are comfortable and commodious. The room in which the family sleep is provided with ranges of beds in tiers-if I may so express myself-one above the other; upon the wooden testers of the beds in which the women lie, are placed others for the reception of the men, to which they ascend by means of ladders. To a person who has just quitted Germany, and been accustomed to tolerable inns, the Swedish cottages may perhaps appear miserable hovels; to me, who had been long used to places of far inferior accommodation, they seemed almost palaces. The traveller is able to procure many conveniences, and particularly a separate room from that inhabited by the family, which could seldom be obtained in the Polish and Russian villages. During my course through these two countries, a bed was a phenomenon which seldom occurred, excepting in the large towns, and even then not always completely equipped; but the poorest huts of Sweden were never deficient in this article of comfort; an evident proof that the Swedish peasants are more civilized than those of Poland and Russia. After having witnessed the slavery of the peasants in those two countries, it was a pleasing satisfaction to find myself again among freemen, in a kingdom where there is a more equal division of property; where there is no vassalage; where the lower orders enjoy a security of their persons and property; and where the advantages resulting from this right are visible to the commonest observer." Cleanliness is a universal characteristic of the Swedish poor. Even in the latitude of 68°, Von Buch found comparative opulence and comfort among the industrious Finns of Swedish Lapland. At Lower Muonionesko, he found a large village; and was ushered into a separate room, having glass windows, and served with silver spoons.

Finns.] II. The Finns once composed the second branch of the Swedish population, and had spread over all Finland. They are now found only in the Lapmarks and Hernösand as colonists, preserving their own language, which has been identified with the Hungarian. The Finns have dark coarse hair, sallow countenances, eyes extended lengthwise and half-closed, sharp chins, and elevated cheek-bones. They are notoriously of a livelier and more profligate disposition than the Swedes."

Lapps.] III. The Lapps inhabiting the Lapmarks, exist partly as Nomades, supported by their herds of rein-deer, and partly as fishermen. They are related to the Finns, and speak a peculiar Finnish dialect. In 1805, there were only 5,444 Lapps in the Swedish kingdom, of whom about 1,100 have subsequently come under the government of Russia. A great resemblance is observable between the Finns and Laplanders.10

"The Finns are to the Swedes and Lapps what the Irish are to the English and Scotch; that is to say, a nation in which the extremities of virtue and vice are singularly blended; haughty, impetuous, and arrogant, in prosperity; abject and spiritless in adversity; in all things given to excess, whether on the brighter or on the darker side: which is the real reason why it has been so often observed of the Irish, that every individual among them has two characters: and fortunate is it for those who have witnessed only a manifestation of the one, which is deserving of all praise."Clarke, vol. x. p. 37.

10" Both the Lapland and Finnish languages are pleasing to the ear, and admirably suited to poetry, owing to their plenitude of vowels. They constantly reminded us

186

CHAP. V.-RELIGION-LANGUAGE-LITERATURE-ESTAB-
LISHMENTS FOR EDUCATION.

Religion.] THE Swedes have long been accounted among the most it with almost complete unanimity in the reign of Gustavus Vasa, and vigorous and steady supporters of the reformed faith, having adopted having subsequently made the most signal exertions for its maintenance

in Germany.

That form of it designated Lutheranism has been adopted

likewise. Emanuel Swedenborg, famous for visions and mystical reveries, as the national creed, and embraced by a great proportion of the Lapps was a native of Sweden, and has still a considerable number of followers. Some other sects exist in this country, as Greeks, members of the reformed church, about 150 Jews, and a few Pietists; but they do not, upon the whole, bear a great proportion to the other inhabitants. To the Catholics, there prevails a general and decided antipathy: nor would it have been prudent, but a few years back, for a priest of that persuasion to have shown himself openly in the provincial parts of the country. Language.] The Icelandic language is the mother of the Swedish and Danish dialects. The learned Dane, E. C. Rask, bears testimony to the extraordinary copiousness, flexibility, and force of the old Icelandic, which, in those qualities, he affirms to be superior to every modern language; and Sweden is considered to have preserved the elements of the original tongue with comparative purity, presenting at this moment, in the national dialect, one of the most musical and flexible languages in Europe.11

Literature.] The introduction of Christianity into Sweden, about the middle of the 12th century, mitigated the fierce and roving spirit of the descendants of the Asae; and the union of Calmar gave peace and stability to the three Scandinavian States. But the songs and traditions of the ancient Scalds were allowed to perish from the national poetry of of the Italian; and we might cite several instances of words common to all the three. Acerbi, as an Italian, sometimes understood the expressions used by the natives of Finland. But how great is the obscurity which involves the origin of the Finnish tongue! The people who speak it have no written character: their language therefore suffers in writing. Foreigners judge of it by the manner in which it is written either by the Russians or by the Swedes; and both these nations, using their own characters, express the language of the Finns, not merely according to their peculiar notions of its pronunciation, but, what is worse, according to their peculiar method of expressing that pronunciation. Nothing can be softer, or more harmonious, than the sounds uttered by a Finland peasant, when reciting his Pater Noster. It is full of labials, nasals, open vowels, and diphthongs, and is destitute even of a single guttural. It may be considered, therefore, as having, of all languages, the least resemblance to the Arabic, which, as spoken by the Arabs, is full of the harshest gutturals."— Clarke, vol. x. pp. 24, 25.

Coxe assures us, that it has, in many instances, a strong similarity to Old English, or rather to the present dialect of Scotland. Nothing was more common than to hear the postillions exclaim, "Come, let us go." (Com, let oss go.) "Let us

see. (Let oss se.) "Stand still." (Stand still.) "Hold your tongue." (Hold din tunga.) "Go on." (Go an.) A writer in the first number of the Foreign Review, has furnished us with a comparative list of words, exhibiting the relation subsisting between the Icelandic, English, German, and Swedish languages, from which we here insert a few specimens:

German.
freund

Icelandic.

Swedish.

English.

friend

Sweden; and the old classical language, as well as the magnificent mythology of the North, found their last asylum in Iceland. When the Catholic bishops, Johannes and Olaus Magnus, were expelled by Gustavus Vasa, the hero of the Reformation in Sweden, they retired to Rome, where the one published a fabulous description of Scandinavia, and the other gave to the world a still more fabulous history of his native country. The two reformers, Olaus and Laurentius Petri, were followed by Skytte, Schäffen, Loccenius, and Peringskoeld Stiernhoek, in the study of national history and antiquities. The patriarch of Swedish poetry was Stiernhieln, who wrote a very powerful hexameter poem, entitled Hercules;' but it was Ulrica Eleanora who introduced the successful cultivation of poetry and the fine arts into Sweden. Under her auspices flourished Olaus Dahlin, a poet of considerable reputation; and her son, Gustavus III., himself a distinguished writer, was indefatigable in his endeavours to encourage and reward genius of every kind. He enriched his country with several valuable libraries, the fruits of his numerous warlike expeditions, and established several academies, besides liberally patronizing the two universities of Upsala and Lund. About the 14th century, Sweden seems to have had some histories, or rather chronicles. A curious work, entitled The Government of Kings and Chiefs,' must be referred to this period. The first book printed in, Sweden is the Dialogus Creaturarum Moralisatus,' which bears the date, Stockholm, 1483. But it was not till the 18th century that men appeared in this country whose learned labours have rendered them deservedly illustrious in every part of the world. Strahlenberg and Hermelin may be allowed to bear the palm of geographical science with a Delisle, a D'Anville, and a Rennel. The name of Linnæus stands as high in the Natural as that of Newton in the Geometrical sciences; and to his name may be joined those of Tillas, Wallerius, Retzius, Scheele, Cronstedt, and Bergmann; the last of which names marks a new era in mineralogy. Sven, Hedin, Berzelius, and Afzelius, have distinguished themselves in medical science. Sven, Lagerbring, Botin, Hallenberg, and Lindfors, are eminent historians. Kalm, Thunberg, Sparrmann, Schwaz, and Thorild, have published lively accounts of their travels in foreign countries. The philosophical doctrines of Kant and Fichte have been ably commented upon by Hoeijer and other native Swedes; but history, literature, and the fine arts, have been much more generally cultivated than the abstract sciences.12 Within the last twenty years an extraordinary impulse has been communicated to Swedish literature. The frigid rules of the French academicians bad long checked the progress of dramatic literature in Sweden; but the influence of the master-spirits of Germany has happily overcome the French school, though supported here by the poet Leopold,

"It must be allowed that Sweden is by no means favourably situated for the cultivation of literature. For learned men can address themselves only to a very limited portion of the community, and it seldom happens that the sale of a book is considerable enough to defray the expenses of publication, and least of all in scientific works. To these difficulties we may add, that a very serious obstacle to the diffusion of a literary spirit, arises from the want of regular mails and conveyances. In 1816, there were only 32 booksellers' shops in Sweden, and only 177 works published, 90 of which were originals, and the rest translations. In Stockholm, were 9 newspapers and other journals; in Gothenburg 6; and in the rest of Sweden 20; a proportion equal to about one-fourteenth of the literature of the public press in Germany. The year 1818 was, however, more productive, the total number of books printed that year amounting to 362, of which 91 were translations; but it may be mentioned as a proof of the reward which literary merit is likely to meet with in Sweden, that the total sum paid for copy-right in that year amounted only to 372 dollars.

and of late years a host of bold and original poets have appeared; among whom we may enumerate Atterborne, Ingelgren, and Elgstroem. Tegner, the present bishop of Wexio, has written a romance said to possess extraordinary merit, and professor Franzén has been compared, by his countrymen, to Sir Walter Scott. Bellmann is entitled to distinction as a musical composer, and Hoerberg to still greater ability as a painter. The 'sagas' or novels of Sir Walter Scott, and other foreign works of merit, are regularly translated for the Swedish press.

University of Upsala.] The university of Upsala was founded in 1471. In its constitution and mode of education, the university of Upsala resembles partly the Scottish, and partly the English universities. The resemblance to the former, however, is much more close than to the latter. At the head is a chancellor, who must always be a person previously important by birth and office, proposed by the professors, and approved by the king. The number of professors in Upsala is twentytwo. Their salary is not less than £70, but never exceeds £100, to which may be added a small sum annually received from such students as attend private lectures. The students lodge in the town, and resort to the university only for the purpose of hearing lectures. To preserve as much order as possible, they are divided into tribes or nations, according to the different provinces to which they belong. Each tribe has an inspector and two curators, and the ordinary members are divided into seniors and juniors, of whom the former are, in some degree, intrusted with the care of the latter. The university of Upsala has, to use the English phrase, two annual terms, one commencing in February, the other in October; but a great part of the year is consumed in holydays. The university library contains upwards of 30,000 volumes, and many manuscripts. This collection was commenced by Gustavus Adolphus, who, during his numerous warlike expeditions, was careful to carry home all the books which fell in his way. Among the manuscripts, are many in Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic; but that which is reckoned the most extraordinary, is what is denominated the Codex Argenteus, a copy of the four gospels written in letters of silver, a circumstance from which it has derived its name.13

University of Lund.] Lund, or, as it is sometimes called, Lunden, one of the most ancient cities of Sweden, is the seat of another university. It was established by Charles XI. in 1666. It has 15 professors, with about 45 inferior teachers and assistants, and at present about 400 students. The library contains 20,000 volumes. It has, besides, a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre, an observatory, laboratory, and a cabinet of curiosities. The celebrated Puffendorf was a professor in this university. There is no garrison in this town, and every disturbance is carefully guarded against, which could at all interfere with the regular habits so necessary for the purposes of the student. Even the appearance of players, and such like contributors to public amusements, is strictly forbidden, and, according to rule, social evening parties are not allowed to remain later together than ten o'clock.

13 Concerning this manuscript, which all allow to be very ancient, antiquarians have formed different conjectures; but the most general seems to be that it is a copy of the Gothic translation of the gospels made by Uphilas in the fourth century. From this manuscript several editions have been printed at different times. The most valuable edition is that of Oxford. The library of Upsala has many valuable editions of the Greek and Latin classics, but few manuscripts.