Viktor Rydberg: A Century of Scholarship

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR
by DR. H. A. W. LINDEHN.

Having been honored with the request to introduce to the American reader, by a biographical sketch, my distinguished compatriot, Dr. VlKTOR Rydberg, I very much regret that distance from our common country deprives me of access to the materials necessary for a comprehensive presentation of the man and his work. I fear, too, that my hand may lack the firmness and delicacy of touch requisite to fairly portray so accomplished a thinker and writer. Nevertheless, I feel myself under a certain obligation to give at least the outlines, believing that the reader himself, after a perusal of the charming work now presented to him, will be able to fill up the picture for himself more satisfactorily than can be done by any words of mine. The country which in common with the talented author I call my fatherland, is rich in treasures of song and saga, of memories from bygone days of power and fame, and can rightly boast of skilled laborers in every field of human culture. But, alas, its language is far less known throughout the world than its deeds of olden time, and this, together with remoteness from the literary markets of the world, prevents many of its most valuable productions from reaching foreign readers. It appears to me, therefore, that from pure patriotism, if for no other reason, I should grasp the opportunity, offered me by an able and faithful translator, to take a share in making known beyond the narrow limits of his own land, and especially on this side of the ocean, one of the most eminent of Swedish writers, trusting to the indulgence of the reader to judge leniently of the manner in which I have performed my task.

Viktor Rydberg was born at Jonkoping, a city of the province of Smaland, in Sweden, December 18, 1829. It was in the same province that a century and a quarter earlier Karl von Linne, the " King of the Flowers," opened those eyes to which nature was to reveal so many of its mysteries, and where, too, was born in our days Christina Nilsson, predestined to a world-wide fame in another sphere, the realm of song.

Smaland cannot be classed among the most fertile of the Swedish provinces, but its woody regions, its varying scenery, its numberless lakes, resting in slumbering silence within forests of dark northern pines, give to it a great natural charm. I can but imagine that these, the surroundings of his childhood, inspired Rydberg with the romantic sentiment, which pervades his earlier literary productions, and that from them he received those impressions, which later manifested themselves in his charming and realistic pictures of nature.

Rydberg's parental home was broken up early in his childhood, and, like many others who have been useful to mankind, and have won from the world its reluctant praise, he entered life's struggle with no inheritance of earthly goods. But, on the other hand, he was richly endowed with those higher mental capacities, which give promise of future success, and which, when rightly developed and adapted, rarely fail to insure it. Actuated by an ardent desire for knowledge, he, after having availed himself of the instruction that the common school of his native city afforded, entered the college at the city of Wexio, in order to prepare himself for the higher studies of the university. There his earnest diligence in study, his good behavior, and his attractive genial nature gained for him as well the approbation and regard of his instructors as the sympathies and affection of his fellow students.

At this time the celebrated poet, E. Tegner, resided at Wexio in the capacity of bishop of the diocese of the same name, being also superintendent of the college. Tegner was without question one of the greatest geniuses of this century. His Frithiof's Sagals familiar to almost every civilized nation, and on this side of the Atlantic he is further well known through Mr. Longfellow's excellent translations of other of his poems. The veteran poet, with his keen perception, was quick to discover the talents of the young Rydberg, and extended to him the encouragement and sympathies so precious to an ambitious youth from so great a genius.

Having completed his preliminary studies at the college in 1851, Rydberg went to the University at Lund, and there, in the same year, passed his examination as Bachelor of Arts. He now began the study of law, depending for his subsistence on the scant returns he could receive from newspaper contributions. But he soon found that this slender source of revenue was inadequate to the pecuniary demands of a protracted course at the University. He, therefore, in order to earn the necessary means for the further pursuit of his studies, accepted employment as tutor outside of the University city. This step, however, changed the course of his life, for he never more returned to the University. Whether this was of any final disadvantage to the development of his abilities, I shall not venture to say; but I am inclined to think that Rydberg was better guided in his search after knowledge by his own sound judgment and a clear insight into the requirements of his mental life, than he would have been by following the beaten track of doctrines expounded partly with the view of instructing students for the different branches of official life. As it was, to judge from the great fund of knowledge in so many different and heterogeneous sciences, which he displayed at a later period in his literary work, Rydberg seems to have made good use of his time and his acquiring capacities.

During this period he became acquainted.with Dr. S. A. Hedlund, a highly gifted and liberal journalist, who then was editor of the " Gottenburg Shipping and Mercantile Gazette," one of the most influential newspapers in Sweden. This acquaintance proved to be of great moment in his life, inasmuch as, influenced by Dr. Hedlund, he resolved to confine himself entirely to the press, and to spend his leisure time in free and independent studies and literary undertakings. In 1854, therefore, he joined Dr. Hedlund in the editorship of the paper mentioned, to which he has since contributed largely on political, social, and religious matters, touching in his articles on widely different subjects. Some of his novels were also published in this paper before they appeared in book form. And now, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, he still occupies this position, never having aspired to any public office, preferring to be free and unrestrained in the pursuit of his scientific researches, and to be left undisturbed in unfolding his rich inner life by giving expression to the vivid conceptions of his imagination. Latterly he has also given a portion of his time to lectures on philosophy at Gothenburg, with the purpose of realizing one of his favorite ideas, viz.: the establishing of a free university in this mercantile metropolis of the Scandinavian North.

From this brief sketch it will be seen, that Rydberg's career does not furnish materials for a biography of exciting interest to those who measure the significance of life by its thrilling events, strange adventures, or sudden changes of condition. With Rydberg, it is to his inner life, to the different stages in his development into a rich and varied character, a profound thinker, and a finished writer, that we must look for phases of interest. Most of his time was spent in unnoticed retirement, and that period of his life may fairly be compared to a river flowing unseen, gathering strength and volume in its course till it bursts forth into open day, mirroring upon its surface a life rich in thought.

No sooner had the first ripe fruit of Rydberg's genius, "The Last Athenian" appeared, than he at once was greeted as a thinker and writer of the first rank; and every new book from his pen was anxiously awaited and enthusiastically received. He was very shortly called upon to take part in public affairs. In 1868 he was elected a lay member of the first Ecclesiastical Convention of Sweden, and in 1870 and 1872 a member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag). In public as in private life, all his acts were in strict adherence to the liberal principles and the fervent patriotism which pervade his whole work as an author.

In 1877 a new honor, the highest that can fall to a writer in Sweden, was bestowed upon him, that of a chair in the Swedish Academy. This institution was founded in 1786, by King Gustavus III., himself a gifted writer, for the care and culture of the Swedish language, and with the view of enlivening and elevating the national sentiment of the beautiful. This distinction, like that for a Frenchman of membership in the French Academy, is a goal which is looked forward to more or less hopefully by every talented Swedish writer, and attracts him as by a magnetic force; but though " many are called, but few are chosen." The Academy has only eighteen places to be filled with candidates for "immortality." The number of those, therefore, who can arrive at the desired goal necessarily falls far short of the long list who fail to reach it. Rydberg, however, by public opinion, had long been designated for a seat in this lettered Areopagus, when the Academy itself called him to the chair that had been vacated through the death of another celebrated poet, Dr. C. W. Strandberg. The election of Rydberg was only a simple act of justice to a man who has hardly ever been exceeded in zeal for the culture of his native language.

In the same year that Rydberg became member of the Academy, the University at Upsala celebrated its four hundredth anniversary by a jubilee, to which had been sent representatives from universities and learned institutions of all parts of the civilized world. Among those upon whom the University on this occasion conferred the title of honorary Doctor of Philosophy was Rydberg. And it may here be especially mentioned that the festival hymn was his work ; for it is a masterpiece of genius, full of pious sentiment, deep thought, and glowing inspiration, and it can fairly be said to stand unrivaled by anything that has ever been written for similar occasions.

This jubilee was a solemn occurrence in the annals of the time-honored University. The great old cathedral, filled to its utmost capacity with thousands of sightseekers, eager to behold the laureating of celebrities from the whole learned world, with veterans of science side by side with the younger seekers after knowledge, with glittering uniforms and brilliant flowers of female beauty; the subdued light falling through the stained windows on the great multitude like a blessing, and the festival hymn, bursting forth from the grand organ and from the mighty choir of thousands of voices, borne on the wings of melody to the vaulted dome above; indeed all this formed a scene seldom to be equaled ; and we can imagine that for Rydberg, who now stood at the height of his fame, honored and admired by his countrymen, it was an especially proud moment.

Having thus briefly sketched the principal events of Rydberg's life, I will now proceed to touch slightly upon his qualities as an author, and to indicate the characteristics of his more important works.

In Viktor Rydberg there is a rare combination of all the faculties which constitute the thinker, artist, and writer.

In his own creations are made manifest a lively imagination, guided and checked by the keenest critical judgment, and a refined and cultivated taste connected with a clear and penetrating perception of the true and the beautiful in all forms of life. To this may be added a profound knowledge of his own native language, and great force and elegance of style. According to his idealistic conception, language is an essential form of national life. He has, therefore, given an almost devout care to the Swedish language in purifying it from foreign words and phrases, and in zealously gathering up neglected or half-forgotten words, appreciating every single word of pure idiomatic origin as too precious a grain of gold to be wasted or even alloyed with those of foreign extraction. Hence the peculiar charm of his style to Swedish readers, but also the difficulty in transferring the beauty of his creations into a foreign language.

The leading principles in his authorship can be best exhibited in the following quotation from one of his own works: " In science to believe in liberty, is to believe in the human reason; in politics to believe in liberty, is to believe in an ethical order of the world; in religion to believe in liberty, is to believe in God." If to this be added another quotation from himself, " the true love of human kind manifests itself first in the love of one's country," we have before us the main features of his personality in all phases of his life and writings.

It would lead me far beyond the limits of this sketch, were I to go into the details of a literary work that deals with so many different topics. Especially may this be said with regard to his more exclusively scientific works. I cannot, however, pass by in silence "The Christ of the Bible," a volume that called forth a lively and protracted controversy between orthodoxy and independent research into the scriptural sources of the Christian faith, and which violently stirred up the learned world of Sweden. In connection with this work of accomplished scholarship, may also be mentioned " The Magi of the Mediceval Time" and " The Pre-existence of Man" in which Rydberg showed himself a philosopher rarely excelled in power of thought and clearness of expression.

Foremost among Rydberg's works as a novelist may be ranked "The Last Athenian," which has been translated into several languages. In this, on the substratum of a thorough knowledge of the Hellenic race, literature, and life, and also of the differences and shades of opinion within the rising Christianity, he evinces an admirable capacity for seizing the important features of an epoch, a keen appreciation of character, a quick sense of nature, and a vivid imagination, by means of which his pictures rise as realities before us. When he takes us to the Athens of fifteen hundred years ago, we feel ourselves at home in the midst of the » every-day life of this wonderful people, rejoicing in the sunny sky that hangs over this classic soil, and breathing with delight the balmy breezes from the Archipelago. When Bulwer wrote " The Last Days of Pompeii" he had at least seen the places he described; but when writing " The Last Athenian," Rydberg had not yet set foot beyond the borders of his own country: yet his knowledge of the remotest corner of the land he pictures impresses us with the feeling that he must have been born in this very land of the distant South.

But it ought not to be forgotten that early in his life Rydberg turned his eyes toward the Acropolis and the race that had erected its shining marble colonnades, and that he keenly appreciated all that this little people had done for the Occidental culture in its seeking after the same ideal that is everywhere apparent in his own writings, that of a beautiful, free, and wise mankind.

In " The Last Athenian," Rydberg has revealed qualities which prove that his authorship is not confined within the limits of a single land or nation, and which place him in the foremost rank of writers for the world. These high qualities he has also shown in a Swedish translation of Goethe's Faust and a discursive commentary on that work. We know no equal to this translation in any language, unless it be Bayard Taylor's English rendering of the world-renowned drama. Rydberg's great power of thought, his profound knowledge of human nature, his poetic imagination, and his brilliancy and versatility of diction have here combined to produce what is truly a masterpiece in translation of this wonderful production of modern thought and poetry. Alike are to be admired the rare understanding of Goethe and the perfect manner in which the spirit of the great poet is breathed into another language.

In 1873, Viktor Rydberg made a journey via Paris to Italy, where he stayed until the summer of the following year. It is a fruit of this visit to the city on the Tiber, " once the city of the world," that now is offered in this translation, under the title of "Roman Days." I shall not dwell at any length on this work of the emi.nent writer. The reader may judge it for himself. I shall only say that here will be met the same excellent qualities which rendered the "Last Athenian" so attractive. The "Roman Traditions" were originally published by themselves. In this volume they have properly enough been brought together with the "Roman Emperors in Marble" so as to form a bouquet of varied characters. In his studies on the emperors, the Aphrodite of Milos and the Antinous, the author places us face to face with ancient Rome, throwing the light of new views on some of the most debated characters among its former rulers; and in the pencil sketches, with a nice aesthetic sense and excellent power of observation and description, he gives us, in lively pictures, the physiognomy of this city as the capital of the New Italy; again, in the traditions of Paul and Peter, he keeps a middle way between the historical style and the plain attire in which the people are accustomed to clothe the products of their own imagination, thus handling the subjects in a style appropriately adapted to their different intrinsic qualities. The whole is a highly interesting series of historical and artistic studies and picturesque sketches. And I should question whether the tourist, who spends some time in the Eternal City, could find a better companion during his days in Rome, than the " Roman Days " of Victor Rydberg.