in the ensuing epoch (1730-1772) the great Swedish names are Swedenborg and Linmens; but they belong, respectively, to the history of re ligion and of science. In belles lettres the ideals of Sweden were substantially those of contempo rary France and England. The presiding genius is Dalin (1708-63). whose Swedish Argus, started in 1732 in imitation of the Spectator, became the rallying-point of the dominant ideas. Dalin had something of Voltaire's versatility and cleverness. He wrote much poetry, but is best remembered as an elegant stylist in prose, the first in Swedish annals. Opposed to Dalin in some of his tendencies was the coterie of Ern Nordenflycht (1718-63), the 'Northern Aspasia.' Her salon in Stockholm was not unworthy of its Parisian models. To her circle belonged Crentz (1729-85) , best known for his pleasant pastoral A tis och Camilla, and Gyllenborg (1731-1808), author of many ratiocinative poems. All these mid-century writers were strongly influenced by their contemporaries in England.
The Gustavian epoch (1772-1809) is marked by royal patronage of letters on a large scale. Gus tavus III., himself a playwright and a prize orator, assembled an academic court of talent, which continued the French tradition of the Old RC.gime. The leading Gustavians were Kell gren (1751-95). Leopold (1756-1829), and Oxenstjerna (1750-1818), all poets of consider able talent and devoted to the ideals and senti ments of the expiring Age of Enlightenment. Here belongs also the name of the gifted poetess Fru Lenngren (1754-1817) , famed for her idyls and satires and her literary salon. Quite un touched by academic influence was the much ad mired Bellman (1740-95). a genial humorist of Anacreontic tendencies, who turned his observa tions of Stockholm low life into wonderfully tuneful verse. To the Gustavian period belongs,
finally, though not of its spirit and distinctly prophetic of a new era, the best work of the eminent lyric poet (1772-1847).
The great romantic movement of the nine teenth century, with the coneomitant renais sance of national feeling, affected Swedish litera ture profoundly. The new ideas, coming from Germany by way of Denmark, precipitated at first a wordy war of various schools and ten deneies, after which came a season of really brilliant production. In the soulful verse of Wallin (1779-1839) ; in the best work of the arch-Romanticist Atterbom (1790-1853) ; in the fine spirituality and exquisite workmanship of Stagnelius (1793-1823) : in the stirring North ern poems of Geijcr (1783-1847), who was des tined to become, next to Fryxell, perhaps, his country's greatest historian; in the productions of the brilliantly endowed but erratic and un even Ainiqvist (1793.1866) ; and of several minor poets like Sjfiberg (1794-1828) and Nieander (1799-1839) ; hut above all in the splendid talent of Tegner (1782-1846). who won world-wide fame with his romanticized Frithiors national genius found a richer expression than at any time before or since.
In the mid-century period the prominent names are Fredrika Bremer (1801-65), once widely read at home and abroad, and Runeberg (1804 77), a strong rival of Tegn8r for the first place of honor in the whole Swedish Parnassus. Some what later come Topelius (1818-98), best known for his novels of Finnish history, and Rydberg (1829-95), eminent as poet, novelist, and trans lator of Goethe's Faust. The newer realism is most conspicuously represented by Strindberg (1849—), and recent poetry by Count Snoilsky (1841-1903).