onor them all.
Lo, the Adam of poets is here, the Northern king among singers;
Heir to the throne in poesy's world; for the throne yet is Goethe's.
Oscar, the king, if he knew it, would give his grace to my action.
Now I speak not for him, still less for myself, but the laurel
Place on thy brow in poesy's name, the bright, the eternal.

* * * * *

Past is disunion's age (in the infinite realm of the spirit
Never it ought to have reigned), and kindred tones o'er the water
Ring, which enrapture us all, and they are especially thine.
Therefore, Svea--I speak in her name--adorns thee with laurel:
Take it from brotherly hand, of the day in festal remembrance."

Restless official activity, parliamentary labors, educational addresses,
and metrical discourses on memorable occasions filled the years from
1829 to 1840. He felt the demon of insanity lurking behind him, now
close at his heels, now farther away; and it was a desperate race, in
which life and death, nay, worse than death, was at stake. His
indefatigable exertions afforded him a respite from the thought of his
terrible pursuer. We can only regard with respectful compassion the
outbreaks of misanthropic spleen which often disfigure his
correspondence from this period of deepening twilight, relieved by a
brief interval of brightness. It is especially woman who is the object
of his bitterest objurgation. The venerable _mutabile et varium_ of
Virgil is the theme upon which he perpetually rings the changes. No
occasion is too inappropriate for a joke at the fickle and faithless
sex; and even the school-boys in the Wexioe gymnasium are treated to some
ironical advice, _a propos_ of the beautiful jade, which must have
sounded surprising in an episcopal oration. Life with its bright pageant
was oppressive, like a nightmare to the afflicted poet. All charm, all
rationality had departed from existence, which was but a meaningless
dance of hideous marionettes. The world was battered and befouled;
inexpressibly loathsome. And finally, in 1840, while Tegner was
attending the Riksdag (of which in his official capacity he was a
member), the long-dreaded catastrophe occurred. His insanity manifested
itself in tremendous projects of reform, world-conquests, and outbreaks
of wild sensuality. He was sent to a celebrated asylum in Sleswick; and
on the way thither wrote a series of "Fantasies of Travel" which hav