France. His ironic romance, Martin Birck's Youth, created a sensation in 1901. Karl Johan Warburg (b. 1852) has done good work both as an essayist and as an historian of literature. But in this latter field by far the most eminent recent name in Swedish literature is that of Professor Johan Henrik Schück (b. 1855), who has made great discoveries in the 16th and 17th centuries, and who has published, besides a good book about Shakespeare, studies in which a profound learning is relieved by elegance of delivery. Warburg and Schück have written an excellent history of Swedish literature down to 1888. The poet Levertin, who was also a distinguished critic, wrote a good book about the Swedish theatre. Drama has rarely flourished in Sweden, but several of the poets mentioned above have written important plays, and, somewhat earlier, the socialistic problem pieces of Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello (1849-1893), possessed considerable dramatic talent, working under a direct impulse from Ibsen; but her greatest gift was as a novelist. The plays of Harald Johan Molander (1858-1900) have been popular in the theatres of Sweden and Finland since his first success with Rococo in 1880. Altogether a remarkable revival of belles-lettres has taken place in Sweden after a long period of inertness and conventionality. It is regrettable, for its own sake, that the Swedish Academy, which in earlier generations had identified itself with the manifestations of original literary genius, has closed its doors to the new writers with an almost vindictive pertinacity.
Swedish Philosophy.—Swedish philosophy proper began in the 17th century with the introduction of Cartesianism. The protagonist of the movement was J. Bilberg (1646-1717), who, in various theses and discussions, defended the new ideas against the scholastic Aristotelianism of the orthodox churchmen. A. Rydelius (1671-1738), an intimate friend of Charles XII., endeavoured to find a common ground for the opposing schools, and the Leibnitzio-Woltfian philosophy was maintained by N. Wallerius (1706-1764). Towards the close of the 18th century, a number of thinkers began to expound the philosophy of the Enlightenment under the influence of English and French ideas—J. H. Kellgren (1751-1795), K. G. af Leopold (1756-1829), T. Thorild (1759-1808), K. A. Ehrensvärd (1745-1800); while the Kantian dialectic was worthily defended by D. Boëthius (1751-1810), whose work paved the way for a great idealistic speculative movement headed by B. Höijer (1767-1812), the poet P. D. A. Atterbom (1790-1855), a follower of Schelling, and J. J. Borelius (b. 1823), the great Swedish exponent of Hegelianism.
All the above thinkers reflected the general development of European thought. There exists, however, a body of thought which is the product of the peculiar genius of the Swedish people, namely, the development of the individual soul in accordance with a coherent social order and a strong religious spirit. This Personal Philosophy owes its development to K. J. Boström (q.v.), and, though traceable ultimately to Schelling's idealism, received its distinctive character from the investigations of N. F. Biberg (1776-1827), S. Grubbe (1786-1853) and E. G. Geijer (q.v.) (1783-1847), all professors at Upsala. Boström's philosophy is logically expressed and based on the one great conception of a spiritual, eternal, immutable Being, whose existence is absolute, above and external to the finite world of time and space. It has for a long time exercised almost unquestioned authority over Swedish thought, religious and philosophical. It is strong in its unequivocal insistence on personal purity and responsibility, and in the uncompromising simplicity of its fundamental principle. Boström wrote little, but his views are to be found in the works of two groups of thinkers. The older group includes S. Ribbing (1816-1899), C. Y. Sahlin (b. 1824), K. Claëson (1827-1859), H. Edfeldt (b. 1836), the editor of Boström's works, A. Nyblaeus (1821-1899) and P. J. H. Leander (b. 1831); the younger writers, less in agreement with one another, but adhering in the main to the same tradition, are E. O. Burman (b. 1845), K. R. Geijer (b. 1849), L. H. Aberg (1851-1895), F. v. Schéele (b. 1853), J. V. A. Norström (b. 1856), of Gothenburg, and P. E. Liljeqvist (b. 1865), of Lund. Of these, Nyblaeus compiled a lucid account of Swedish philosophy from the beginning of the 18th century up to and including Boström; Ribbing (Platos Ideelära and Socratische Studien) showed how closely Swedish idealism is allied to Greek. P. Wikner (1837-1888) broke away from the Boströmian tradition and followed out a path of his own in a more essentially religious spirit. V. Rydberg (q.v.) (1828-1895) closely followed Boström, and in his numerous and varied writings did much to crystallize and extend the principles of idealism. Among prominent modern writers may also be mentioned H. Larrson and A. Herrlin at Lund, and A. Vannerus in Stockholm.
Authorities.—The Svecia litterata (1680) of J. Schefferus (1621-1679) is the first serious attempt at a bibliography of Swedish literature. The Svenska siare och skalder (Upsala, 1841-1855) contains an admirable series of portraits of Swedish writers up to the end of
the reign of Gustavus III.; many of Atterbom's judgments are reversed in the Grunddragen af Svenska vitterhetens historia (1866-1868) of B. E. Malmström; and a body of excellent criticism of the subsequent period was supplied by G. Ljunggren in his Svenska vitterhetens häfder från Gustaf död (1818-1819; new ed. by Sondén III.'s. 1833), which remains a classic exposition of the views of the romanticists. The history of Swedish letters as it reflects the life of the nation is dealt with by C. R. Nyblom, Estetiska studier (Stockholm, 1873-1884). Among general works on the subject, see H. Schück, Svensk literaturhistoria (1885, &c.); Schück and Warburg, Illustrerad Svensk literatur historia (1896); H. Paul, Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (new ed., Strassburg, 1901, &c.). The official handbook of Sweden prepared by the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics for the Paris Exhibition (English ed., Stockholm, 1904); Ph. Schweitzer, Geschichte der skandinavischen Litteratur, forming vol. viii. of Geschichte der Welt Litteratur in Einzeldarstellungen (Leipzig, 3 pts., 1886-1889); Oscar Levertin, Svenska Gestalter 1904. (E. G.)
SWEDENBORG (or Swedberg), EMANUEL (1688-1772), Swedish scientist, philosopher and mystic, was born at Stockholm on the 29th of January 1688. His father, Dr Jesper Swedberg, subsequently professor of theology at Upsala and bishop of Skara, was a pious and learned man, who did not escape the charge of heterodoxy, seeing that he placed more emphasis on the cardinal virtues of faith, love and communion with God than on the current dogmas of the Lutheran Church. Having completed his university course at Upsala, in 1710, Swedenborg undertook a European tour, visiting England, Holland, France and Germany, studying especially natural philosophy and writing Latin verses, a collection of which he published in 1710. In 1715 he returned to Upsala, and devoted himself to natural science and various engineering works. From 1716 to 1718 he published a scientific periodical, called Daedalus hyperboreus, a record of mechanical and mathematical inventions and discoveries. In 1716 he was introduced to Charles XII., who appointed him assessor-extraordinary on the Swedish board of mines. His reports on smelting and assaying were remarkable for their detail and for the comparisons drawn between Swedish and other methods. Two years later he distinguished himself at the king's siege of Frederikshall by the invention of machines for the transport of boats and galleys overland from Stromstadt to Iddefjord, a distance of 14 m. The same year he published various mathematical and mechanical works. At the death of Charles XII. Queen Ulrica elevated him and his family to the rank of nobility, by which his name was changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg, the “en” corresponding to the German “von.” In the Swedish House of Nobles his contributions to political discussion had great influence, and he dealt with such subjects as the currency, the decimal system, the balance of trade and the liquor laws (where he was the pioneer of the Gothenburg system) with marked ability. He strongly opposed a bill for increasing the power of the crown. The next years were devoted to the duties and studies connected with his office, which involved the visitation of the Swedish, Saxon, Bohemian and Austrian mines. In 1724 he was offered the chair of mathematics in the university of Upsala, which he declined, on the ground that it was a mistake for mathematicians to be limited to theory. His inquiring and philosophical mind gradually led him to wider studies. As early as 1721 he was seeking to lay the foundation of a scientific explanation of the universe, when he published his Prodromus principiorum rerum naturalium, and had already written his Principia in its first form. In 1734 appeared in three volumes (Opera philosophica et mineralia, the first volume of which (his Principia) contained his view of the first principles of the universe, a curious mechanical and geometrical theory of the origin of things. The other volumes dealt with (a) iron and steel, (b) copper and brass, their smelting, conversion and assaying, and chemical experiments thereon.
There is no doubt that Swedenborg anticipated many scientific facts and positions that are usually regarded as of much more modern date. It was only towards the end of the 19th century that his voluminous writings began to be properly collected and examined, with the result of proving that there was hardly one department of scientific activity in which he was not far ahead of
