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IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
Humanism has left only very faint traces in our literature from the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. Only with the Reformation literature revives. The van
of thought during the time of the Reformation was guided by Olaus Petri
(1493/1552), an extremely nobleminded, independent and courageous man, a
personal disciple of Luther. All his writings are marked by powerful geniality, and his
style bears the stamp of simplicity coupled with erudition and an unusually keen
view. Few authors have handled our language as he, and rarely has it been so
beautifully or so lucidly moulded as in his works. But that freedom of research
which characterized the early days of the Reformation was quenched after his
death, and the religious literature grows more orthodox and dogmatic. At the
end of the sixteenth, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century, theology
is the main subject of interest and, barring history, the other sciences are
neglected. Polite literature is during this period of small value.
During the time of the Thirty
Years’ War a great change takes
place. Sweden then comes in closer
contact with the civilization of
Germany, France, and Holland, and
with the spirit of the Renaissance.
For the first time it is understood
that poetry is an art and not
merely a handmaid of religion. Yet
there is a vein of religious feeling
even in the merriest songs. Strong
and sparkling humour distinguishes
most poems of this period, and the
national character is clearly
discernible under the antique garb.
This is particularly the case with
G. Stiernhielm (1598/1672), the
most prominent Swedish author of
the seventeenth century. His
principal work, entitled »Hercules»,
depicts the deeds of a Swedish
youth during that glorious period.
Stiernhielm was a man of
ma-nysided endowment; but, like so
many other eminent Swedes of
ability, he frittered away his great
gifts. Besides poetry, he devoted
himself to mathematics, philosophy, and archeology. In consequence of the political
importance of the country, the latter science revived, and became of especial
interest because it served the purposes of patriotism. Efforts were made to
prove that the ancient history of Sweden could be traced as far back as that of
any other nation, or still farther. O. Rudbeck (1630/1702), eminent above all as
a natural philosopher, has given a grand expression to these ideas in his genial
and learned though fantastic work, entitled »Atland», in which he attempts to
prove that Sweden is the oldest civilized country on the face of the earth.
But our political greatness vanished with Charles XII, and the misfortunes
of the country during his reign recalled all minds to sober reality. During
the so-called »Frihetstiden» (The Era of Liberty; 1718/72), a period of an almost
republican constitution, all energies were devoted to the improvement of the
interior conditions of the country. Hence scientific interests were directed
principally to utilitarian ends: political economy and the natural sciences
Georg Stiernhielm.
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