Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

had been witness of the awful scene, and he immediately fled to the mountainous district of Dalarna, where the stout and patriotic Stures had ever found a faithful race, ready to come to the rescue of their country. On his journey his faithless servant attempted to rob him; he narrowly escaped drowning by the breaking of the ice as he was crossing a frozen lake by night, and arriving in the country where he hoped to find zeal and faith, he found only shyness or treachery. His adventures in this wild region of mountains and forests, exceed those of any romance. Wandering in disguise from place to place; pursued by spies and bloody enemies, working in barns, hiding for days in mines, wintry woods, and under hedges; everywhere distrusted and rejected. Yet, in spite of all these difficulties, enough to sink the heart of all but such heroes as are prepared to maintain the cause of humanity, or die for it, within one year he became administrator of his nation, and within three, his country was delivered by him, it was free, and he was its crowned king. He had the honour and the blessing of introducing the reformation into it, of giving it new institutions, of establishing its prosperity, and of showing himself one of the greatest and wisest monarchs that Europe has produced.

But his throne was not destitute of disquiet. He had the freedom of his country, not only to achieve but to maintain. His Danish enemies, the partizans and priests of the old papal religion, were ever at work amid the people and nobles to expel him and the new order of things. The great Stures, who had been before the patriot champions of the country, felt themselves overshadowed, and stirred up the mountain tribes of Dalarna against him, and Russia brought down upon him her barbarous forces. The greater part of his reign was a period of anxiety and arduous strife; but he triumphed over all these trials by his wisdom and firmness. Greater trials and greater need of fortitude, however, awaited him from his own children, in whom he was far from happy. He was no exception to the almost universal and singular truth, that no man of first-rate genius or eminence in any department, transmits his genius and his fortune to his son. No mighty poet or mighty conqueror, no genius, hero, or statesman of the first magnitude, produces in his son his equal, far less his superior. Alexander of Macedon, Cæsar of Rome, or Napoleon of France, gave not birth to a second Alexander, a second Cæsar, or a second Napoleon. There has been no second Columbus, Nelson, or Blake; no second Marlborough or Wellington; Washington, Franklin, Cromwell, Hampden, or Pym, left no sons that could outshine them in deeds or counsels of liberty. In the realms of poetry where was the offspring and heir of Homer, of Virgil, of Horace;

Where was the son

where those of Chaucer, or Milton? of Francis Bacon that could write a new Novum Organum? of Newton, that could draw from the secret depths of nature hidden laws so mighty as he did? Who succeeded to the honours of Locke, of Descartes, of Leibnitz, of Laplace? Who shall succeed to those of Cuvier, of Humboldt, or of Bentham ? Where is the new Goethe or Schiller of Germany? Why did Shakspeare leave us no second dramatist to ascend still another step in the scale of transcendent genius, and make even himself a lesser wonder?

It is because the great Source and Giver of intellectual powers has seen fit otherwise to ordain. There may be physical and other causes which operate to produce this striking phenomenon; or, arguing from the doctrines of phrenology and physiology, we should have said that as the races of inferior animals are physically moulded and wonderously improved by attention to the laws of improvement, so grand developments of head and frame in the human being should produce their like; and by culture and the light and guidance of their superior knowledge and wisdom in the training of youth, their superiors and that by this means the progeny of heroes, whether mighty in arms, arts, or creative intellect, would go on advancing into higher forms of human greatness. But so far from this, where the highest pitch of mental vigour or wisdom, according to the old measurement of experience, is once attained, there is no maintainance of it even in the second generation; but more commonly a rapid retrogression. It would seem as if the transcendant energies that mark the individual, glorious as they may be, drawing upon him the wonder of the world, and fixing his fame as an eternal star in the heaven of history, are but just what are requisite for his appointed work-are all expended upon it, and leave no portion to be transferred to his posterity. Such men can transfer their power to their work, but not to their children. It is clearly a divine afflatus, and not transmittable and heritable property. Clever people can and do, by mere organization and idiosyncracy, propagate cleverness in their families for generations. We see many instances of it in society; but the great burning and shining lights burn out. Clever people often produce geniuses, but geniuses rarely ever clever people. Clever and wise mothers are generally the mothers and educators of the first-rate instances of genius. It was the case with Washington, with Napoleon, with Scott; and numerous are the proofs that may be cited: but on the other hand, how few are the cases where a great man is succeeded by an equally great son? Perhaps those of David and Solomon, and Lord Chatham and his second son, William Pitt, are the most like exceptions to this

mysterious rule, which seems thus luminously established that we may perceive beyond all question that genius and intellectual power are the peculiar gifts of God, and that he reserves jealously to himself their disposal and distribution for the needs and guidance of the world.

Gustavus Wasa and his son Erik XIV. are amongst the most striking examples of this law. Gustavus was a pre-eminently handsome man, and as kind and wise, and pious in his family, as brilliantly successful in his political fortunes; yet a more eccentric or unhappy monarch than his son never reigned. He is that Erik of Sweden who sought the hand of our Queen Elizabeth so zealously, and who possesses, therefore, a particular interest for English readers; but, besides this, his fate is singularly attractive from its melancholy romance. Like his father, he was of a noble exterior, and was endowed with many good qualities. He gave the best promise while he was growing up. He had from nature,' says Fryxell, a handsome and manly appearance, a supple and strong body, developed by a hardy education. When a youth, he excelled almost all his companions in racing, swimming, dancing, in the tennis court, in the lists, and in all feats of agility. It was a pleasure, but a fearful one, to see him careering on horseback. He was likewise richly gifted with mental endowments, and was a remarkably learned man in his day. He wrote an easy and elegant Latin; but he was particularly skilled in astronomy and mathematics. Like his father, he was a lover of music, and composed himself. His poetry was also the best of his day in Swedish.' But, with these advantages, he possessed also violent passions. With the person of Absalom, he had also his ambition and popular arts, and excited fear and jealousies in his father's heart. He had bad counsellors, especially in Dionysius Beurreus, a Frenchman, who darkened his mind with the superstitions of astrology, and Göran Persson, who put him upon dangerous and impolitic acts of government. His magnificent embassies to Queen Elizabeth, and when disappointed there, out of pique, to the queen of Scots, and finally to the princess Renata of Lotringen, heiress of the Danish throne, involved him in much debt, besides filling him with the chagrin of failure. His government gradually grew into one of sternness and blood. He imprisoned one brother, the Duke John, and drove another to madness by prevailing on him to sign his consent to John's death. He imprisoned the heads of the great Swedish family of the Stures, and only when driven to distraction by his violent remorse, liberated his brother John, to be by him captured and committed to perpetual incarceration. His madness was, in fact, become apparent to all, and may tend to excuse many of his crimes, but only aggravate that

of his cruel treatment in his prison by his brother. To this day King Erik is the great hero of the people. His naturally kind heart, his fine person and bravery, his melancholy insanity and more melancholy fate, make his memory universally popular amongst them. Even their greatest poets and romancers have made him their theme. But it contributed not a little to the people's interest in him, that he married one of their own class. After all his royal and state suits, he fell in love with and married Karin Mansdotter, a young girl who originally sate in the market and sold nuts. This poor girl is celebrated alike for her extreme beauty, her good sense, and gentle disposition. It was, perhaps, beyond any earthly power to controul the madness of Erik, but Karin soothed it and often diverted him from desperate deeds. She never meddled with affairs of state, and the only happy hours Erik spent, were those in her society. The love he bore her remained unchangeable. On beautiful summer afternoons, while still reigning, he, with his most intimate associates, would sail on the lake Mälar, when Karin was always of the party, and the object of his constant devotion and tenderness. The evenings were passed in the open air in singing, dancing, and rural sports. As they rowed home at night, Erik sate by her side contemplating the sun-set lingering on the northern horizon through the long summer night, or the stars as they came forth in beauty in the heavens above, and the depths below, listening the while to the songs which echoed from the shores, or from distant boats. They were executed by his orders; he was himself often the author of both the words and music. One of these, in which he extols 'his shepherdess,' promises to love her for ever, and bids her thousand good nights,' has descended to us, and is still known and sung by the people.

[ocr errors]

But still more has the sad music of his captive hours sunk into the heart of the Swedish people. This they still hear in their churches. Besides writing letters to his wife, he employed his prison hours in composing music, and remarks on the books which he read. Sometimes his sorrow found vent in psalmody. Nos. 180 and 373 of the Swedish Psalm-book are composed by him. The latter is one of the most simply touching, and heartfelt confessions of contrition and faith in God ever penned. It tells forcibly the whole history of the royal prisoner's altered heart and fortunes. It speaks from the heart to the heart, and has been appointed in Sweden, one of the Penitentiary psalms sung at the execution of criminals. The music also, by the unfortunate Erik, is worthy of the words; and both make us forget his many crimes in the bitterness of his punishment, and the humility of his repentance.

[blocks in formation]

Here close these two very interesting volumes. We cordially wish both the author and the translator well through the remainder, which will have to deal with no ordinary matter,Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North,' the pious and devoted champion of protestantism, Charles XII.; the singular Queen Christina, who again renounced this religion of her greatest ancestors, and sought comfort in abdication and Rome, with the expulsion of the last of the Wasa's, Gustavus IV., and the enthronement of the Frenchman, Bernadotte, these are characters and changes that present at once to the writer an arduous and a splendid task.

A careful comparison of this translation with the original, has given us the highest respect for the ability of the translator, and her familiarity with the language, as well as for the care with which Mrs. Howitt has carried the work through the press for her absent friend. The translator, whom we should judge from her name, Anne von Schultz, to be an English lady married into a Swedish family, appears to have taken but one slight liberty with her original, that of omitting occasionally a rhythmical stanza; probably doubting its fitness for grave history. We regard these, however, as quite characteristic of a northern history, and counsel her to give us everything of the kind in the future. Her preface, descriptive of Swedish scenery and life, brief as it is, is one of the most graphic and charming compositions of the kind that we have chanced to meet with.

Art. V.-1. Pastoral Letter of William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. London, 1845.

2. Correspondence between Henry Lord Bishop of Exeter, his Clergy, and others.

1845.

3. Considerations on the exercise of Private Judgment by Ministers of the United Church of England and Ireland in matters connected with the Doctrine and Discipline of that Church. By James Parker Deane, D.C.L., Advocate in Doctor's Commons. London: Parker. 1845. 4. The Helstone Case; or, Twelve Letters on the Rubric and Ritual Innovations Reprinted from the 'Standard,' by a Provincial: with an engraving taken from Bishop Patrick's Devotions,' 1672, showing a Minister officiating in his gown at Church. London : Hatchard; Exeter: Hanneford. 1845.

[ocr errors]

5. Prayers on behalf of the Church of England and her Children in their present time of Trouble. By Francis E. Paget, M.A., Rector of Elford. London: Burns. 1845.

Ar the commencement of the Long Parliament, little more than

« ZurückWeiter »