fice. It is a delight to read his published
correspondence, because of this power of strong and luminous utterance,
which he wields with such Titanic ease. Then, again, there is no
affectation or cant, but an engaging candor and straightforwardness
which bespeak a true man, considering the time when they were written.
What clarity of political vision there is in such passages as these:

(1813.) "He who fancies that Europe will be delivered by Russia and her
confederates, or that the progress of the Cossacks is for the advantage
of Sweden, may perhaps be in the right; but his views are very different
from mine. In the hatred of the Barbarians I am born and bred, and I
hope to die in it, unbewildered by modern sophisms."

(1814.) "Who can believe in the re-establishment of the European balance
of power or rejoice in the victory of wretched mediocrity over power and
genius. The upheavals of the age will soon affect us all--at least us
Swedes."

(1817) "That we are living on an earth yet quaking from the French
Revolution is undeniable; and extremely foolish seems to me the speech
of those who insist that the Revolution is finished, or even approaching
its end."

"Napoleon fell, not on account of his wretched opponents, but because
despotism is the livery of all strong souls, because his spirit was
opposed to the spirit of the age, with which he wrestled, and which was
stronger than he."[33]

[33] Quoted from G. Brandes: Esaias Tegner: En
Litteraturpsychologisk Studie. Kjoebenhavn, 1878, pp. 87 and 88.

Living as he did in an age of general disillusion, Tegner performed an
important service in endeavoring to stem with the full force of his
personality the rising tide of reaction. How much he accomplished in
this direction is difficult to estimate, for we can never know what turn
Swedish affairs might have taken, if his clarion voice had not been
heard. But it could scarcely fail that such a speech as the one at the
Festival of the Reformation (1817), delivered in the presence of a large
assembly of scholars and public men, must have made a great impression,
and in a hundred direct and indirect ways affected public opinion.
Luther is to Tegner a hero of liberty, a breaker of human shackles, a
deliverer from spiritual bondage and gloom.

"Luther was one of those rare historical characters who always, in
whatever they undertake, by their very manner, surprise, and indelibly
impress themselves upon the memory. T