asm and a complete
disregard of the laws of poetry. At an early age he had become a power
in literature, and a political power as well. From 1831 to 1835 he
was subjected to severe satirical attacks by the author Welhaven and
others, and later his style became improved in every respect. His
popularity, however, decreased as his poetry improved, and in 1840
he had become a great poet but had no political influence. Among his
works may be named _Hasselnoedder, Joeden_, "The Jew," _Jodinden_,
"The Jewess," _Jan van Huysum's Blomsterstykke_, "Jan van Huysum's
Flowerpiece," _Den Engleske Lods_, "The English Pilot," and a great
number of lyric poems. The poems of his last five years are as popular
to-day as ever. Wergeland died in 1845.

The enthusiastic nationalism of Henrik Wergeland and his young
following brought conflict with the conservative element, which
was not ready to accept everything as good simply because it was
Norwegian. This conservative element maintained that art and culture
must be developed on the basis of the old association with Denmark,
which had connected Norway with the great movement of civilization
throughout Europe. As the political leader of this "Intelligence"
party, as it was called, appeared J.S. Welhaven.

John Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born in Bergen in 1807,
entered the university in 1825, became a _Lector_ in 1840, and
afterward Professor of Philosophy. "His refined esthetic nature," says
Fr. Winkel Horn, "had been early developed, and when the war once
broke out between him and Wergeland, he had reached a high point
of intellectual culture, and thus was in every way a match for
his opponent." The fight was inaugurated by a preliminary literary
skirmish, which was, at the outset, limited to the university
students; but it gradually assumed an increasingly bitter character,
both parties growing more and more exasperated. Welhaven published a
pamphlet, _Om Henrik Wergelands Digtekunst og Poesie_, in which he
mercilessly exposed the weak sides of his adversary's poetry. Thereby
the minds became still more excited. The "Intelligence" party withdrew
from the students' union, founded a paper of their own, and thus
the movement began-to assume wider dimensions. In 1834, appeared
Welhaven's celebrated poem, _Norges Daemring_, a series of sonnets,
distinguished for their beauty of style. In them the poet scourges,
without mercy, the one-sided, narrow-minded patriotism of his time,
and e