Translation:On Sweden's Future

On Sweden's Future

Speech in memory of King Carl XIV Johan's twenty-five year reign on 12 May 1843.

During the last thirty years, the Swedish people have received the call from their now reigning great king, to become not only a people of peace, but also the actual central force and starting point for the peace of the Nordics. This exhortation stands in strict opposition to the popular disposition we have inherited from our fathers, to our usual way of viewing our past history and the memories which are preserved therein, no less those which are near our pride and joy, than those which fill our the heart with resentment, despondency and desire for revenge, to our prevailing concept of human value and to the species of this which we treasure most, and to the desires which are most closely incorporated with our love for the fatherland and its glory. Whether in the future it will finally be able to triumph over these counteracting forces, and its obedience will thus ever determine the direction of our social life, is a question which now hardly anyone without foreknowledge can dare to attempt to answer. But the exhortation, however, applies to our whole future, its happiness and its glory, and we must fully perceive it and understand its real content, if we are to be able to test ourselves in regard to it and clearly realize the obligations to which the provision to which it refers, imposes on us. This should especially be done now because if the gratitude we solemnly bring home to our venerable king in these days is to be true, just and deep, it should not only be presented as a sacrifice of praise to his personal virtues, but it must proceed from a real recognition of the truth of the grand principle that guided his actions, and thus be able, to the awakening of courage and strength, to incorporate ourselves with our own zeal for the prosperity of the fatherland.

The first thing incumbent upon a people, which enters the service of peace and earnestly wishes to work for its dominion on earth, is to conquer its own country, or, as it should rather be expressed, by the care and refinement of the generative power of life in that country inhabitants acquire the right to rule over it. Only in so far as this duty is fulfilled, can a nation come into possession of the necessary condition of its true prosperity, and gain the real power of health, whereas, when this duty is neglected, all the wealth it otherwise acquires, whether by conquest or by trade, is only apparent and does more harm than good. Such wealth oppresses and enslaves the actual life of the people; it has the poverty of a twin brother, who also, under the brilliant guise of happiness and power, often captivates the merely superficial view, brings up inner misery and degradation, and gradually grows to the supremacy, that he finally becomes the victorious and prepares society's certain doom. This is written on every page of the nation's records, although the misleading illusions of false honor and false happiness often enough prevent not only the multitude but also sometimes the actual researcher from clearly and clearly realizing it. But the loving care a people exercises over the organic life of its homeland is a necessary condition, not only for its external prosperity, but also for the development of its own human interior, for the appearance in it of the true character and ennobling power of humanity. The caregiving call by nature essentially belongs to man's destiny, and thus she cannot fully perceive the demand of the follower and be faithful to it, if she neglects the former, misunderstands its meaning and despises its obligations. It is consequently a necessary law deeply rooted in the essence of humanity, that a people who neglects their country and fails to cultivate in it a nobler and richer life, itself becomes held in the shackles of brutality and incapable of attaining any higher and real culture, either intellectually or morally. The feeling of this spiritual impotence often leads the same to the attempt to acquire from foreign countries the gifts of education, but it rarely gains through these anything other than some external perishable ornaments, which only feebly hide the disgusting basic features of the inner rawness. The true love of country in such a people has no strong and living root, by virtue of which it can endure even in the days of adversity and triumph over the temptations of self-interest and vanity. The longing for foreign lands and a prejudiced reverence for foreign customs, laws and conditions then often turn into a gnawing disease of the mindset, which eats away the true courage of life, the power both for action and for suffering, and permeates the withered heart with the poison of the indefinitely gnawing dissatisfaction. "Speak to the earth and she will teach you" is a divine commandment, whose obedience man cannot neglect with impunity. But how should a people speak to nature that it may gain instruction from her? If it turns against this teacher of his with the invader's desire for conquest that only calculates profit and wants to claim her gifts as plunder, her voice becomes mute and her face is veiled; but within the invading people's own interior, she has allies in her unbridled urges, who eventually grow into terrible avengers of her violated peace. When man again meets nature with the warm love, the true zeal, which is immediately instilled in him by the deep feeling that the vocation of life's caretaker has a necessary connection with his destiny, then it is that nature not only opens its rich hand and liberally bestows upon her the means for the existence of her being, but also reveals his beautiful countenance and initiates her into the revelation of life from his holy interior, and teaches her, in wisdom and patience, in reverence and confidence. It is also mainly through this teaching that man can learn to properly understand, respect and cherish that side of society that is in immediate interaction with nature and to which it belongs to carry out through persistent efforts the great work of the refinement of the modern; or the so-called working class in the real sense. Nowadays, it should not only be comprehensible to every thinking person, but also completely understood and realized by most, that the forces of destruction, which arise within society itself through the neglect and depravity of the working class, are its most terrible enemies, and that only from the point of view of the threatening power of invasion, however great it may be, is a trifling thing in comparison with them. Namely, it has been these who, in all the shifts in our family's history, have mainly undermined society and prepared the abyss of destruction into which states and empires over the course of time have finally collapsed. That the truth of this is more and more deeply perceived by the general mind and increasingly acquires the victorious power of conviction, constitutes one of the noblest triumphs won by the progressive education of our time, and, let it be said to the real honor of this epoch, the rights and demands of the working people be now, more than ever before, generally and seriously affected. That the worker must be recognized as a real human being and consequently as free and thus no longer allowed to be a slave, as was the case with the people of ancient times with few exceptions, is the just and truly humane principle, which our time has praised, at least in words, over those of the past. But if this principle is only half-understood, it becomes false and leads to a goal which is quite the opposite of what has been recognized as really intended. Namely, the demand of the working class is far greater than it could be considered satisfied through the external position of the so-called civil freedom. It applies even more to the deep respect and loving care, which have their basis in the sacred commandments of religion and humanity, which recommend to people a mutual brotherly disposition and joint cooperation for the true and higher common destiny. Without insight into the importance of the working class to this higher goal of humanity, without respect for its heavy obligations dependent on it and without gratitude for its toils, the gift of civil liberty is rather a mockery than a beneficence. The oppression can still continue and it will not be milder until its exercise is simply transferred from the holders of power to those of wealth and knowledge. It can thus happen, and no doubt has happened several times, that what was called and to the outward form was also the gift of freedom, in fact meant nothing other than a cessation of the duty of care, whereas that which in ancient times had the appearance of merely oppression, many times, if not always, was the condition and means of real care. But even more profoundly, the command of freedom to improve the position of the workers has been misunderstood or distorted by those who used it as a call to the secularists to hasten the act of destruction of society, which in any case in the future must be the final consequence of their depravity, if this may continue and grow. It is possible that this call for many came from good intentions and zeal, but then it testifies to extremely limited and low concepts, not only about society and its needs, but also about the future and the destiny of humanity. Where it is combined with some deeper insight into the nature and purpose of society, it is of such a nature that even the strictest judgment that can be pronounced on it is too lenient. — But we should have no reason to fear the terrible effect that such exhortations could possibly produce in other nations, because our entire state constitution, perhaps to a greater extent than any other, is deeply imbued with respect for the value and rights of the working people, and thereby the Swedish Odalman has a weight and importance in community life that the worker in other countries lacks. To him also therefore belongs a considerable part of the honor which gives luster to our books, and, what is far more, he has been from old age and will probably remain in the future also our strongest conservative force, a maintainer of our peace and real freedom. But although we thus have in him a respectable preacher of the power and honor of work, we regretfully have to admit that some deeper insight into the meaning of the care of life and nature has not yet been incorporated into our so-called higher education. We rarely seek such an insight and even less understand how to appreciate the richness of its content. If we are forced to admit that the care of nature and the work it requires are necessary for our external existence, we may not yet appreciate their importance for the development of our interior to real refinement and formation, as a result of which we also could not include them with true respect and love. According to the opinion we inherited from our fathers and maintained during our changing destinies, the action we value most and to which we owe our true reverence is that which has the character of heroic feat and consists in battle against and victory over great and mighty obstacles, difficulties and dangers. But even as peaceful guardians of life, we need not surrender this beloved ideal of heroism, for it is not the wretch whom the wildly defiant Swedish nature calls to its meeting and promises success and victory. If she is to submit to the guardian's hand, she demands from him the highest measure of wisdom, courage and perseverance. It is because of this that quite a few of the daring enterprises of human power can be considered in terms of the character of external greatness to surpass that which, in the lean and hard foundation of the Scandinavian rock, is able for the nobler creations of the organic world to acquire a deeper root and to extend the protective and preserving dominion of human care right up to the border of the imperishable realm of winter, where its strong guardians, the cold and the darkness, hold over the life sunk in the deep sleep of death the shining blanket, which will surely never be lifted by human hands.

But it is not only with nature that a people, which wants to work with all seriousness for the development of its inner educational power, must seek peace, but also with humanity. From the eternal force, which permeates our entire lineage and gives it its great common significance within time and the world, emanates the necessary law, which both for the individual and for the nations contains the sacred demand of destiny. Again, it is only through fidelity to this demand that man gains liberation, rises to independence from fate and exercises eternal dominion over even the restraining forces of the external world. Thereby she becomes the immediate revelation of the eternal on earth, and it is then through her that

»Life arises from decay And eternity out of time.”

If she again forgets this demand and falls away from the highest object of her fidelity, the hand of fate seizes her, and her being must, through its destruction and ruin, give homage and confirmation only to the power of time and decay. Each people, therefore, at the same moment it steps out of its merely natural position and becomes a member of the kingdom of humanity and freedom, has a decree presented to it proceeding from the holy order of Providence, the fulfillment of which constitutes its true reality, the only infallible basis for its existence, its happiness and its precocity. It is therefore insight into this provision that a people should above all seek, and when it gains certainty and faith from it, it must obey its commandments with never wavering fidelity and for its attainment perseverely fight against all obstacles, both external and internal, both the threatening and the seductive. But it is in this battle that it so often not only succumbs to its own weakness, but is also exposed to temptations that confuse its concepts and paralyze its fidelity. Sometimes these temptations are actually two, which, above all others, have the power to lead people to apostasy and prepare their ruin or humiliation. One is the desire for conquest, the desire for power and plunder. The demonic power that emanates from this desire is great and has not only overwhelmed individual personalities, but has also permeated entire nations. In its lower form or that of desperation, its power belongs to a certain period of development in the history of almost all peoples, and to the same extent that the masses it has been able to set in motion have been great and victorious over external obstacles, it has intervened with terrible destruction in the civilized world and more than a bunch completely enveloped its position. But at a higher degree of development of society and education, it assumes, as it seems, a milder and nobler appearance, but which, however, in the act itself implies a deeper waste and is more terrible in its consequences. It is, namely, when man wants to snatch his race away from the eternal dominion and himself take over the board of humanity and its destinies, wants to put himself in the place of Providence, to praise his own reason as the source of truth and his will as the holy law of justice. This higher desire for domination really appears in individuals, but through them it can also permeate whole nations, and in both cases the enterprise sometimes succeeds for a time, but the final outcome has always been a complete confirmation of the truth of the Greek myth of Phaëthon, who, because he knew himself to be the son of Apollo, the immediate fruit of the higher education, thought himself capable of being the ruler of light and driving the chariot of the sun. But even more deeply, than through the desire for conquest, a nation is degraded and its true destiny unfaithful through the desire for revenge. There is scarcely any of those false directions of thought which arise from the power of the passions, which to the same degree as the lust of revenge darkens man's reason and suppresses his will, which makes him free even to madness, terrible when he can satisfy his desire, but contemptible and ridiculous, as she lacks the ability to do so. This applies to the individual personality, but also and to an even greater extent to entire nations. Before that, it would also happen many times that a people, who have the courage and ability for a complete and thorough self-examination, finally finds that the inner secret cause of the weakening of its power, of the changeability of its principles, of the correctness of its temper, is the oppressive and overwhelming feeling of an impotent desire for revenge. In the history of every nation, insofar as it has more or less incorporated itself into the great common development of humanity, sooner or later a time occurs when it is penetrated by the longing for true freedom and feels in its innermost need to become part of the sustaining power of humanity and immediately dependent on Providence's protective board. But this liberation's heaven-seeking longing cannot turn into hope, hope and action, because the deep passions that penetrate the people's mood with heavy chains drag her down to earth and prevent her from understanding herself. If again, during such an internal battle, the people hear the gentle exhortation, to throw off no less the tight armor of the desire for conquest, which only constricts its breast, than the bloody clothing of revenge, which with horrible dream images confuses its thoughts, in order to be able to fully perceive the true content of freedom's holy calling, it should understand that it then hears the voice of its savior. If it is not able to understand and obey this voice, the gift of true liberation cannot be its lot, but, falling under the sway of its passions, it must sooner or later prepare its downfall, if it is great and powerful, through internal corruption, if it is small and weak, then through the encroachment of external enemies.

If, above all others, the people should be considered happy, who, in their position in the world and towards other nations, find the claim of their destiny clearly stated, when this destiny is at the same time great, noble and important, the Swedish people undeniably possess such a happiness, which, without to fall into a deep and degrading delusion, cannot fail to both understand and highly value. Without detracting from the great importance that also accrues to other peoples, in terms of the real and highest purpose of humanity, one should however have the right to recognize that the foremost homeland of the deeper education in later times was and still is Germany, and this applies in particular about the northern division thereof, where the development of man's innermost spiritual powers is recognized and cherished by the principle of the Protestant Church. It is there, more than elsewhere, that on the one hand education is regarded as an end and not merely as a means, and on the other the inner living basis for its development and progress is kept sacred and protected against the oppression that arises through the preponderance both of the external and of the traditional. It is also because of this that the freedom, independence and peace which Germany, after many years of unheard of fighting, has finally won in recent times, is of such great and pervasive importance for the entire civilized world and its future. But from this importance of Germany also follows the deep need for peace in the European north, arising from the demands of culture. Those with each other secretly or openly fighting world powers, whose mutual battles will probably be fruitful for the spread of a nobler civilization over the earth - if, as manifold signs now seem to foretell, they come to be carried out in other parts of the world, especially in Asia - would, on the other hand, attack destructively the innermost and noblest forces of culture and inhibit their development, in case circumstances should cause them to meet in the north, and thereby the power of peace was completely nullified there. Thus, from the higher and truly spiritual of the times, a call to the people of the north, to seriously pay tribute to the spirit of peace and to work with perseverance and patience for the maintenance of its rule; and it is the Swedish people to whom this call primarily applies. But does this people then possess a mindset that is open to such a calling, able to perceive with love and obey its commands with seriousness, zeal and fidelity? — It would be difficult to dare an affirmative answer to this question. From ancient times, Sweden has been the Nordic region's mightiest and liveliest concern. Not only from the night of ancient times do huge fighting memories emerge, which with the bloody brilliance of their hero's life, like the terrible flaring flames of the northern lights, captivate the gaze of the amazed spectator and seem to ceaselessly call to feats and battle, but also during our later history another close to a century has rising period of almost wonderful success on the path of conquest affixed an indelibly brilliant war glory to our name. These memories have penetrated into the innermost part of our way of thinking and to a large extent still determine its direction, even when perceiving the demands and hopes of the future. The bitter experience of adversities and losses, which subsequently fell to our lot, has not been able to completely cool this once-awakened longing for the happiness of the conquerors and the glory of war, but instead it has evoked for the sustenance of the follower the corrosive feelings of revenge and resentment, which with the deluding phantoms of horrible brooding incessantly troubling our thoughts, and preventing us from perceiving with perfect freedom and clarity the meaning both of our position and of our future. That peace, as soon as it exceeds the measure of a shorter shift for rest and recuperation, makes the soul slack, dove and low-minded because it only encourages weakness, to self-interest, to narrow aims of life, to low and petty pursuits, whereas war, on the other hand, restores the lost of the mindset tension, and fosters nobility and power in that it evokes the direction towards the high and great in life, is one with us, both by poets and others, so often expressed opinion, that one can hardly doubt its real root in the general way of thinking. The courage with which our forefathers defied danger and regarded life as precious, when the god of war demanded it as a sacrifice, still shines through the ages with a magical glow, and we seem to be committing a disgraceful infidelity against the call that its reverently preserved memory for us contains, if we let the love of war die out in our breast and consider the call of peace as higher. But if the true meaning of the exhortation is understood by us, we could both revere and obey it and regardless faithfully devote ourselves to the worship of peace. The human being is, in its highest and innermost meaning, a sacrifice, and the greatness of her way of thinking has its root in the fact that this sacrifice is carried home by her herself lovingly and with free will, for only thereby does the human within her own breast win victory over the perishable. This our ancestors did, and the character of greatness, their feats thereby acquired, is therefore not an empty and false guise, but real and true. But they sacrificed to false gods, to rapacity, desire for revenge, hatred and the enticing idol of their own glory; and this was deep and degrading paganism. From this we must completely free ourselves. We must give up the false objects of the worship of our ancestors, but the firm fidelity which animated it we should retain. We should understand and obey the call of peace, but not as a means for our individual happiness and trifle, but with a clear understanding of the importance of its higher goal, we should as freely and courageously, as our fathers, for its achievement fight both against spiritual and worldly enemies, and in this battle we, like them, should vigorously and honestly sacrifice everything, even life. When we do this again, we fight and fall, if our lot so demands, not only for our individual good and that of our nearest and dearest, not only for the freedom of our motherland and the existence of our society, but also for the higher human, to whose service the holy of peace voice called us. Then our ancients come again to our meeting, and, though they have cast off their bloody armor and are clothed in the white garments of peace, they nevertheless remain, as of old, reverent preachers of the lofty and manly teachings of sacrifice, renunciation, fidelity, and heroism.

But peace is not a child of the earth, but a daughter of heaven. She must therefore come to us from this her real home, if she is to be able to establish a kingdom on earth, which is lasting and powerful. It is again the good of men, the power and demand of the holy, faithfully praising, will, which constitutes the only eternal foundation of this kingdom, because it is at its calling voice that the heavenly dweller descends on earth and makes humanity victorious over the forces of destruction. Belief in the sacred gives man power to develop his essential inner self and thereby understand the highest and real purpose of his being, his destiny to become the servant of heaven and as such make the earth the true home of peace; and this holy faith expresses itself within the way of thinking through the spiritual forces which in the human will maintain the direction to the good and which are called: reverence and love. Men's opinions may be clouded in many ways and concepts confused, but as long as reverence and love still maintain dominion over their will, religion has reality with them and they become partakers of its protecting and sustaining power. But if the will completely falls away from these higher spiritual powers and becomes completely independent of them, the real basic features of human behavior disappear from the face of the soul and the lower, degrading and oppressive drives of nature gain dominion over her interior. When again such waste becomes general, the meaning and position of humanity changes. She no longer constitutes the divine kingdom of peace on earth, but instead the central area of ravages and battle; she is no longer the peaceful guardian of nature, but the great destroyer of peace, who clouds the mirror-clear surface of the river of life and in the temporal creature in general wipes out the expressions of purpose, harmony and wisdom. Through the general act of destruction she then evokes and leads, she always falls herself, although she still believes in the reality of the mirror image, the pride holds up for her confused thoughts, and where she sees herself in the victor's and the avenger's, sometimes also in the martyr's, flaunting guise. When, during such periods of division, strife and destruction, some grander personality appears and, like the Israelite hero in Dagon's temple, blindly and vengefully grasps the pillars which uphold the edifice of society, the fools sing the praises of his boldness and power, although they already hear the roar of the tumbling whales that will crush both him and themselves. — It is thus the development of the faith of the holy to complete dominion over man's consciousness, which alone deserves the venerable name of education. Everything that departs from or curtails this dominion, may it be valued and praised under whatever name, such as decency or skill, knowledge or art, is malformation, false in its foundation and pernicious in its effects. In the course of its development, however, humanity deviates one time after another, on these misguided paths of malformation, from the right path of its destiny, and both families and entire peoples have, through their misfortunes and their downfall, had to pay the never-failing punishment for this infidelity. The extended dominion over the lower and temporal, which man acquires through the ascending formation, leads him to possess a love there, which by earth and time imprisons her to the higher and eternal striving spirit; and through the growing masses of the diverse knowledge, the external penetrates with superior power into her soul and draws a dark and cold veil of mist over it, which lives there as the real center of light; then dereraot the feeling thoroughly penetrated by all this sometimes seeks its salvation in the mysterious world of images of the fallen superstition, in the fruitless hope that the real home of the spiritual will be found there. Through the mutual battle of all these hostile forces, both peace, light and power disappear from the inner world of man, and his own thoughts flee from there in terror, because there is nothing but doubt and worry, darkness and impotence. It is under such conditions that in nobler and stronger personalities the eternal longing for truth awakens with supremacy over all other desires, and tries to fight in all areas of imagination and concept to attack the kingdom of lies, in order to thereby win the certain and clear view of truth, the restored conviction heavenly happiness. This battle with the lie and delusion, which proceeds from the innermost of the mindset, is called science, and it is from this that our time has its deepest and noblest meaning, because it is mainly in science and its pursuit that the sacred now, more than in any past era, has real life; and it is really from its fighting forces that one can hope that the kingdom of peace on earth will still be able to be prepared. But the battle is fierce and upsets the very core of humanity to such an extent that not only thoughts and opinions are permeated by an incessantly shifting confusion, but a tremor spreads from there, from which the very foundations of society fail. One of the most dangerous conditions in this battle of science is again that several of her most powerful enemies themselves wear her colors and, with the new art of hypocrisy, profess to her name. Science proceeds from faith in the sanctity of truth, and if this faith ceases, its life must be extinguished. But to achieve her goal, she must go through the purgatory of doubt and question, doubt and test all human notions, even the highest. This is inevitable, if even within the realm of concepts the victory of truth is to be won, and piety errs greatly and perceives incompletely the demand of the holy, if she is thereby wounded and thus tries to hold back the progress of science with external inhibiting measures. But if again doubt becomes victorious and passes into denial, and even more, if the passions pervade the activity of thought, and thereby pride takes the place of reverence and hatred that of love, and these are held up to the people as objects of their worship, then science itself has fallen and is no more worthy of his name. She is no longer the seeker of truth, but the tool of lies, no longer the angel of light but the demon of darkness. If again, even after this apostasy, she maintains or even extends her dominion over the public mind, she is a sure and terrible messenger of an incipient self-destruction, which will not cease before the kind which, through the celebration of the power of the lie, have made their inner life to the cultivation ground of an incessantly growing blasphemy, disappeared from the earth.

Several signs have appeared in our time, which allude to such, arising through the waste of science itself, deeper deformity and threatening seem to foreshadow its terrible consequences. In the imagination of many, therefore, lies a terrible and deep darkness over the immediate future, although they still dare to doubt whether it is really an approaching night, full of horrors and devastation or merely a confluence of clouds, which still during the still day the sun will finally disperse.

If an observer of the time, seriously pervaded by these gloomy notions, looks around with trepidation, searching for the individual points of the civilized world from which help may be hoped for, he has reason, at least for a moment, to linger also by Sweden. That little people up in the high north, who two centuries ago, through real and deeply affecting European social conditions and education, acquired the glorious crown of victory that belongs to those who fight for truth and right, and received this honor sealed by the martyrdom of its greatest hero, and subsequently avoided the greater temptations which misled Europe's more powerful peoples, namely those of wealth, the luck of conquest and the excesses of the lower education, but instead through both adversity's chastisement of arrogance and the several times almost miraculous rescue from imminent dangers of real doom, deeply felt by the nurturing hand of Providence, have a just claim to the attention of such a beholder. But if he thus asks: does this people really now have in its interior, a power of fidelity, reverence and love, which is strong enough to intervene immediately in the formation and with spiritual weapons to fight for the same holy cause, for which its ancestors in external battle sacrificed life and blood, and thereby acquired his imperishable glory? What then do we have to answer such a question? Could we not answer with anything but the no of powerlessness, humiliation and mockery! — then the luster of our glory disappears completely, because the actual, almost superstitiously worshiped by many, the starting point for its rays, then becomes completely foreign and meaningless to us. But could yet a new mighty spirit awaken in our interior, which permeating us with the foreboding of the future cancels the present obscuration of our way of thinking and gives us the humble, but confident yes of hope! — then our old memories arise again in renewed form as mighty forces of the future. The memorial service on Lützen's field becomes not only a herald of the glory of a bygone era, which is indeed great and noble, but fallen from life and the future, sinking deeper and deeper into the river of oblivion, but the high, revered, almost to the point of worship, personal memory, of which the remembers, comes forward again as an enlightened spirit and speaks anew to his people: "Do not be seduced, you little crowd, but with newly awakened hope raise your eyes again to the great goal of life and continue within the inner world the holy battle, I within it outer started. Trust in God again, and you will once again, as before, both win and keep the victory!» But not only this our greatest and most glorious memory then announces to us the demand of the future, but on our whole history fall the morning rays of a dawning day, which do not so much increase its glory, as do not even more reveal its true interior, and that call to peace love, which we have received during the last shift of time, no longer becomes a foreign voice, but in tune with the innermost fundamental tone of our community life, she bestows upon it a penetrating power, which in the future will restore its dominion and, through the harmony of the right, defeat those who now struggle fruitlessly with each other dissonant.

If this provision for the Swedish people is the real one and if we could be able to understand its demand so completely and deeply that our way of thinking hails it as its highest law, the future opens up a new path for our community life, which is indeed steep and requires both efforts and sacrifice, but which leads not only to peace and happiness, but also to the sunlit heights of true honor, to that saving and protective kingdom of real refinement, whose eternal foundation is faithful love for the highest common goal of humanity. But this path cannot be walked without hard and serious battles. The confused, sometimes rather loud, murmur of discontent and grumbling that has gone through the last few days clearly shows that the call for peace has penetrated deeply and agitated the interior of the general mindset, but at the same time that the inhibiting forces that prevent free obedience to it are not few. . We have to contend not only with the manifold powers of the old hatred, but also no less with the crudeness and its scorn, than with indolence and listlessness, no less with the weakness that thinks itself strong, and the narrow-mindedness that thinks itself shrewd, than with self-interest and the self-prudence, the uncertain zeal and the superficial but anxious desire for change; in a word, with all these small forces of movement, which, like the weather bubbles of yawning, incessantly puff up within the mindset, when it is not penetrated and controlled by the real fundamental forces of culture and peace. These battles can be fought successfully and to victory only by men who love truth and justice higher than themselves and can thus suffer the utmost and sacrifice everything for them; men who can fight against hatred, without hating themselves, and endure with patience both reproach and persecution, when these befall only themselves and not the thing exalted above their individual interests, which is the object of their highest love. If there were such men among us, even if their number were small and their powers apparently small, we could still hope, for the promises of Providence so often given and confirmed contain, that they are truly faithful to the power, although the outward appearance of the social character usually hides or obscures it for a time it, however, is the largest on earth! For these men also precisely because of this the feast of these days is real and great, for it presents to their thought a high and uplifting vision, which shows them how true love, when it is rich and strong, can endure in its noble battle, because it is maintained and protected by the higher power that guides the destinies of both personalities, peoples and humanity.

With the most heartfelt gratitude and reverence, I thus dare to turn to You, great and gentle King, because it is You, who in word and deed brought to us the holy message of peace and pronounced the awe-inspiring call of our real future. It was in a situation of menacing and great fear that the Swedish people called you to their throne vacated by crime and misfortune. There awaited in You not only a savior from the straits and need of the moment, but also an avenger of suffered losses, and in the hearts of many your brilliant reputation as a general evoked the hope, so long suppressed by adversity, of a renewal of the conquerors' past. You came and performed the great work of salvation not only happily, but in a way which, if it is perpetuated with faithfulness and strength, promises a secure existence even in times to come. But to become the organ of the restless desires of revenge burning in the depths of our people's temper, You were too high-minded, too human, too wise for that: and when You defeated the temptation, which the success of the conquest meant, this became in Your hand a means, through the liberation give new life to reawaken one of the strongest people's forces in the Nordics, which has been suppressed by external oppression for centuries. But for the call you gave us to pay tribute to the spirit of peace and faithfully carry out his work, the general mindset was not yet, as it seems, sufficiently cleansed from the deep roots of the old hatred, lust for war and desire for conquest, and through the long-standing internal battle of that benevolence, which You were consequently forced to fight, You have acquired new honor and glory for the virtue of patience, and, as You are still likely to be the strongest both in love and in hope with regard to the future of the Nordic countries, You have become for us an awe-inspiring teacher both in tolerance and in confidence. The glory of war has a dazzling luster to the common imagination of man, and most of the greatest personalities of history have fallen to its temptation. Even You have drunk deeply from its intoxicating cup, but Your heart beating warmly for the higher demands of humanity did not lead it to fall away from the love of peace, but with pious zeal You laid down the rich laurel wreath of Your victories on this and humanity's altar; and it was from the old home of the Viking clan, from the storm-dwelling rocks of Scandinavia, that you appeared before the princes of Europe as a herald of peace and urged them, in the bloody battle in which they were entangled, not to dwell on the smaller and more individual issues of the day, but to endure until its victory of peace over war and violence was completely won, or at least for a longer period of time to come. The period which immediately followed this victory had the outward appearance of peace, and notwithstanding it was inwardly more deeply agitated by anxiety and strife, than probably any previous one; but your firm faith in the sanctity of peace has not been able to shake it, but you have both preserved it yourself and, as a protection against the temptation of war, made it valid also with others; and, perhaps more than any other possessor of worldly authority, convinced that the real renewal of society must proceed immediately from a higher power than that exercised by men, You have kept the ruler's duty of prudence, patience, and forbearance in sanctity, and made the mildness to the most brilliant gem in Your crown.

If, in a probably still very distant future, the Scandinavian peninsula, through the faithfulness, determination, zeal and courage of its inhabitants, gains the meaning of a mighty stronghold, which between two with each other fighting conquering empires from the north strongly protects the free-flowing life of higher education, which it presents others seem to be the destiny of the Germanic nations to develop; and if we then, through human faith and human wisdom, recapture the beautiful name of human home, to which wild human courage alone cannot justify our claims, through inner spiritual culture, we ourselves contribute to the dominion of that innermost fundamental force of humanity, which is the only true and eternal source of peace; — then and only then will the great hope, which has been the living center of your Royal thoughts, achieve its fulfillment, your warm love will reach its goal, and the hour will strike for the fulfillment of your life's prayer, which you persistently offered with faith and sacrifice both to men and to God!