to our august founder. But, since the commemoration of this institution has been confided, as well as the memory of many other great events, to the profound, though silent sentiments of grateful hearts; since it is committed to the tardy, but just and durable testimony of history, whose voice will speak to the latest posterity, it is to be presumed that we shall not be refused the privilege of manifesting the gratitude, veneration, and pleasure, which animate our breasts, in beholding the æra of the foundation of this academy connected with one of the most happy and memorable days in the annals of our country, the day which gave birth to Gustavus-Adolphus. If, without incurring the reproach of selfcomplacency, we may be allowed to believe that an establishment, destined to cultivate a language of heroes, to excite the poet and the orator to immortalize the proofs of Swedish valour, to keep alive among us a taste for the sublime, the beautiful, the pathetic, the noble, and the natural; if we ought to believe that such an institution is in some degree connected with the glory of our country, what name could more forcibly animate us to persevere in the pursuit of this grand object than that of Gustavus-Adolphus? a hero who, among all nations, in all countries and ages, superior to the fluctuation of opinion, will preserve an everlasting claim to the admiration of mankind, and reflect on Sweden the most brilliant reputation. Where is the man, indeed, whose title to immortal fame was ever better founded than that of the heroic Gustavus-Adolphus?—A monarch mighty among kings: though receiving a kingdom, distracted by dissensions, and surrounded by enemies, he transmitted it to his successors in perfect peace, aggrandized by his efforts,
dreaded
