diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-03 20:24:21 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-03 20:24:21 -0800 |
| commit | 88748f777491b5e5aba02c72bf9723e82a2ca2c2 (patch) | |
| tree | 0c5d4d92a4571e119ad6b482ef7c0fdcaf28fc9e | |
| parent | 90c36200fdbd4b689ffc4403a692b4a4b05e2095 (diff) | |
Add files from /home/DONE/44107.zip
| -rw-r--r-- | 44107-0.txt | 390 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 44107-h/44107-h.htm | 405 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 44107.json | 5 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-0.txt | 6874 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 152418 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-8.txt | 6875 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 152264 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 155367 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107-h/44107-h.htm | 7008 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107.txt | 6875 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/44107.zip | bin | 0 -> 152140 bytes |
11 files changed, 27642 insertions, 790 deletions
diff --git a/44107-0.txt b/44107-0.txt index 079517b..53c3e57 100644 --- a/44107-0.txt +++ b/44107-0.txt @@ -1,34 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Growth of a Soul - -Author: August Strindberg - -Translator: Claud Field - -Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** - - - - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org -(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44107 *** GROWTH OF A SOUL @@ -6516,359 +6486,5 @@ Strindberg takes the opposite view to that expressed here. End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** - -***** This file should be named 44107-0.txt or 44107-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org -(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44107 *** diff --git a/44107-h/44107-h.htm b/44107-h/44107-h.htm index 50d88d6..f7bd0eb 100644 --- a/44107-h/44107-h.htm +++ b/44107-h/44107-h.htm @@ -93,42 +93,7 @@ v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } <body> -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Growth of a Soul - -Author: August Strindberg - -Translator: Claud Field - -Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** - - - - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org -(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44107 ***</div> <h1>GROWTH OF A SOUL</h1> @@ -6636,373 +6601,7 @@ expressed here.</p></div> -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** - -***** This file should be named 44107-h.htm or 44107-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ - -Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org -(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44107 ***</div> </body> </html> diff --git a/44107.json b/44107.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3a4e21 --- /dev/null +++ b/44107.json @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +{
+ "DATA": {
+ "CREDIT": "Produced by Marc D'Hooghe (Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.)"
+ }
+}
diff --git a/old/44107-0.txt b/old/44107-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..079517b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6874 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Growth of a Soul + +Author: August Strindberg + +Translator: Claud Field + +Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + + + + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +GROWTH OF A SOUL + +BY + +AUGUST STRINDBERG + + +AUTHOR OF "THE INFERNO," "THE SON OF A SERVANT," ETC. + + +TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD + + + +NEW YORK + +McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY + +1914 + + + CONTENTS + + I IN THE FORECOURT + II BELOW AND ABOVE + III THE DOCTOR + IV IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + V JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + VI BEHIND THE CURTAIN + VII JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + VIII THE "RUNA" CLUB + IX BOOKS AND THE STAGE + X TORN TO PIECES + XI IDEALISM AND REALISM + XII A KING'S PROTÉGÉ + XIII THE WINDING UP + XIV AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + XV THE RED ROOM + + + +THE GROWTH OF A SOUL + + + +CHAPTER I + +IN THE FORECOURT + +(1867) + + +The steamer had passed Flottsund and Domstyrken and the university +buildings of Upsala began to appear. "Now begins the real +stone-throwing!" exclaimed one of his companions,--an expression +borrowed from the street-riots of 1864. The hilarity induced by punch +and breakfast abated; one felt that things were now serious and that +the battle of life was beginning. No vows of perpetual friendship were +made, no promises of helping each other. The young men had awakened +from their romantic dreams; they knew that they would part at the +gang-way, new interests would scatter the company which the school-room +had united; competition would break the bonds which had united them and +all else would be forgotten. The "real stone-throwing" was about to +begin. + +John and his friend Fritz hired a room in the Klostergränden. It +contained two beds, two tables, two chairs and a cupboard. The rent was +30 kronas[1] a term,--15 kronas each. Their midday meal was brought +by the servant for 12 kronas a month,--6 kronas each. For breakfast +and supper they had a glass of milk and some bread and butter. That +was all. They bought wood in the market,--a small bundle for 4 kronas. +John had also received a bottle of petroleum from home as a present, +and he could send his washing to Stockholm. He had 80 kronas in his +table-drawer with which to meet all the expenses of the term. + +It was a new and peculiar society into which he now entered, quite +unlike any other. It had privileges like the old house of peers and a +jurisdiction of its own; but it was a "little Pedlington" and reeked +of rusticity. All the professors were country-born; not a single one +hailed from Stockholm. The houses and streets were like those of +Nyköping. And it was here that the head-quarters of culture had been +placed, owing to an inconsistency of the government which certainly +regarded Stockholm as answering to that description. + +The students were regarded as the upper class in the town and the +citizens were stigmatised by the contemptuous epithet of "Philistines." +The students were outside and above the civic law. To smash windows, +break down fences, tussle with the police, disturb the peace of the +streets,--all was allowed to them and went unpunished; at most they +received a reprimand, for the old lock-up in the castle was no more +used. For their militia-service they had a special uniform of their +own which carried privileges with it. Thus they were systematically +educated as aristocrats, a new order of nobility after the fall of the +house of peers. + +What would have been a crime in a citizen was a "practical joke" in a +student. Just at this time the students' spirits were at a high pitch, +as a band of student-singers had gone to Paris, had been successful +there, and were acclaimed as conquerors on their return. + +John now wished to work for his degree but did not possess a single +book. "During the first term one must take one's bearings" was the +saying. John went to the student's club. The constitution of the club +was antiquated,--so much so that the annexed provinces Skåne, Halland +and Blekinge were not represented in it. It was well arranged and +divided into classes, not according to merit, but according to age +and certain dubious qualities. In the list the title "nobilis" still +stood after the names of those of high birth. There were several ways +of gaining influence in the club, through an aristocratic name, family +influence, money, talent, pluck and adaptability, but the last quality +by itself was not enough among these intelligent and sceptical youths. +On the first evening in the club John made his observations. There were +several of his old companions from the Clara School present, but he +avoided them as much as possible and they him. He had deserted them and +gone by a short cut through the private school, while they had tramped +along the regular course through the state school. They all seemed +to him somewhat conventional and stunted. Fritz plunged among the +aristocrats and obtained introductions, made acquaintances easily and +got on well. + +As they went home in the evening John asked him who was the "snob" in +the velvet jacket with stirrups painted on his collar. Fritz answered +that he was not a snob, and that it was as stupid to judge people by +fine clothes as by poor ones. John with his democratic ideas did not +understand this and stuck to his opinion. Fritz asserted that the youth +referred to was a very fine fellow and the senior in the club, and +in order to rouse John further, added that he had expressed himself +satisfied with the newcomers' appearance and manners; he was reported +to have said "they had an air about them; formerly the fellows from +Stockholm when they came there, looked like workmen." + +John was ruffled at this information and felt that something had come +in between him and his friend. Fritz's father had been a miller's +servant, but his mother had been of noble birth. He had inherited from +his mother what John had from his. + +The days passed on. Fritz put on his frock coat every morning and went +to pay his respects to the professors. He intended to be a jurist; +that was a proper career, for lawyers were the only ones who obtained +real knowledge which was of use in public life, who tried to obtain +deeper insight into social organisation and to keep in touch with the +practical business of everyday life. They were realists. + +John had no frock coat, no books, no acquaintances. + +"Borrow my coat," said Fritz. + +"No, I will not go and pay court to the professors," said John. + +"You are stupid," answered Fritz, and in that he was right, for the +professors gave real though somewhat hazy information regarding the +courses of study. It was a piece of pride in John that he did not +wish to owe his progress to anything but his own work, and what was +worse, he thought it ignominious to be regarded as a flunkey. Would +not an old professor at once perceive that he was flattering him for +his own purposes? To submit himself to his superiors was, in his mind, +synonymous with grovelling. + +Moreover everything was too indefinite. The university which he had +imagined to be an institution for free investigation, was only one for +tasks and examinations. The professors gave lectures for the sake of +appearances or to maintain their income, but it was useless to go up +for an examination without taking private lessons. John resolved to +attend those lectures for which no fee was necessary. He went to the +Gustavianum to hear a lecture on the history of philosophy. For the +three-quarters of an hour during which the lecture lasted the professor +went through the introduction to Aristotle's Ethics. John calculated +that with three lectures a week he would require forty years to go +through the history of philosophy. "Forty years," he thought, "that is +too long for me." And did not go again. It was the same everywhere. +An assistant-professor expounded Shakespeare's _Henry VIII_ with the +commentary, in English, to an audience of five. John went there a few +times, but reckoned that it would be ten years before _Henry VIII_ was +finished. + +It began to dawn upon him what the requirements of the degree +examination were. The first was to write a Latin essay; therefore he +must learn more Latin, which he did not like. He had chosen æsthetics +and modern languages as his chief subject. Æsthetics comprised the +study of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Literary History and the +various systems of æsthetics. That was work enough for a lifetime. The +modern languages were French, German, English, Italian and Spanish, +with comparative grammar. How was he to obtain the requisite books? And +he had not the means of paying for private lessons. + +Meanwhile he set to work at Æsthetics. He found that one could borrow +books from the club and so he took out the volumes of Atterbom's +_Prophets and Poets_ which happened to be there. These unfortunately +only dealt with Swedenborg and contained Thorild's epistles. Swedenborg +seemed to him crazy, and Thorild's epistles did not interest him. +Swedenborg and Thorild were two arrogant Swedes who had lived in +retirement and fallen a prey to megalomania, the special disease +of solitary people. It is remarkable how often outbreaks of this +hallucination occur in Sweden, owing probably to the isolated position +of the country and to the fact that a sparse population is scattered +over enormous distances. Megalomania is apparent in the imperial +projects of Gustavus Adolphus, in Charles X's ambition of becoming +a great European power, in Charles XII's Attila-like schemes, in +Rudbeck's Atlantic-mania, and in Swedenborg's and Thorild's dreams of +storming heaven and of world-conflagrations. John thought them mad and +threw them aside. Was that the sort of stuff he was expected to read? + +He began to reflect over his situation. What did he expect to do in +Upsala? To support himself for six years on 80 kronas till he took +his degree. And then? his thoughts did not stretch further; he had no +higher plan or ambition than to take his degree--the laurel crown, the +graduate's coat, and then to teach the catechism in the Jakob school +till his death. No, he did not wish to do that. + +Time went on, and Christmas approached. The little stock of money in +his table-drawer diminished slowly but surely. And then? It was not so +easy for students to obtain employment as private teachers since the +railways had made communication easier between remote country places +and the towns where schools were. He felt that he had embarked upon a +foolish undertaking. When he found he could get no more books, he began +to make visits among his fellow-students and discovered companions in +misfortune. Among them were two who had spent the whole term playing +chess and possessed nothing between them but a hymn-book which the +mother of one had placed in his box. They were also asking themselves +the question "What have we to do here?" The way to the degree +examination was not easy; one was compelled to seek out secret ways, +bribe door-keepers, creep through holes, run into debt for books, be +seen at lectures and much more besides. + +In order to fill up the time, he learnt to play the B-cornet in the +band of the students' club by the advice of Fritz who played the +trombone. But the practices were very irregular and began to cause +disputes. John also played backgammon, which Fritz hated, and so he +wandered about to acquaintances with his backgammon board and played +with them. He found it as dull as reading Swedenborg. + +"Why do you not study?" Fritz often asked him. + +"I have no books," answered John. That was a good reason. He could +not visit the restaurants, for he had no money, and lived very +quietly. At the midday meal he drank only water, and when on Sundays +he and Fritz drank half a bottle of beer, they remained sitting at +table half-fuddled and telling each other, perhaps for the hundredth +time, old school adventures. The term crept along intolerably slow, +uneventful and torpid. John perceived that, as one of the lower class, +he could plod on thus far but no further. The economic question brought +his plans to a standstill. Or was it that he was tired of living a +one-sided mental life without muscular exercise? Trifling experiences +for which he ought to have been prepared contributed to embitter him. +One day Fritz entered their room with a young count. He introduced +John to him, and the count tried to remember whether they had not been +comrades at the Clara School. John seemed to remember something of +the kind. The old friends and intimate companions addressed each other +as "count" and "sir." Then John remembered how he and the young count +had once played as boys in a tobacco store on the Sabbatsberg, and how +something had made him prophesy, "In a few years, old fellow, we shall +not know each other any more." The young count had protested strongly +against this and felt hurt. Why did John remember this just then +particularly, since it is quite natural that comrades should become +strangers to each other when intercourse has been so long broken off? +Because at the sight of the noble, he felt the slave blood seethe in +his veins. This kind of feeling has been ascribed to the difference of +races. But that is not so, for then the stronger plebeian race would +feel superior to the weaker aristocratic. It is simply class-hatred. + +The count in question was a pale, tall, slender youth of no striking +appearance. He was very poor and looked half-starved. He was +intelligent, industrious, and not at all proud. Later on in life +John came across him again and found him to be a sociable, pleasant +man, leading an inconspicuous life as an official, amid difficulties +resembling John's own. Why should he hate him? And then they both +laughed at their youthful stupidity. That was possible then, for John +seemed to have "got ahead" as the saying is; otherwise he would not +have laughed at all. "Stand up that I may sit down," this was the +more malicious than luminous way of expressing the aspiration of the +lower orders in those days. But it was a misunderstanding. Formerly +one strove to elbow one's way up to the other; now one would rather +pull the other down to save oneself the trouble of clambering up where +nothing is to be found. "Move a little so that we can both sit" would +now be the proper formula. + +It has been said that those who are "above" are there by a law of +necessity and would be there under all circumstances; competition +is free and each can ascend if he likes, and if the conditions were +changed, the same race would begin again. "Good!" say the lower +classes, "let us race again, but come down here and stand where I +do. You have got a start with privileges and capital, but now let us +be weighed with carriage harness and racing saddle after the modern +fashion. You have got ahead by cheating. The race is therefore declared +null and void and we will run it again, unless we come to an agreement +to do away with all racing, as an antiquated sport of ancient times." + +Fritz saw things from another point of view. He did not wish to pull +those above down, but to become an aristocrat himself, climb up to +them and be like them. He began to lisp and made elegant gestures with +his hands, greeted people as though he were a cabinet minister, and +threw his head back as though he had a private income. But he respected +himself too much to become ridiculous and satirised himself and his +ambition. The fact was that the aristocrats whom he wished to resemble +had simple, easy, unaffected manners,--some of them indeed quite like +the middle class, while Fritz was fashioning himself after an ancient +theatrical pattern which no longer existed. He did not therefore +become what he expected in life though he had dozed away many a summer +in the castles of his friends, and ended in a very modest official +post. He was received as a student in their guest-rooms but came no +further; as a district judge he was not introduced in the salons which +as a student he had entered without introduction. + +The effects of the different circles in which John and Fritz moved +began now to be apparent, first in mutual coldness, then in hostility. +One evening it broke out at the card-table. + +Fritz one day towards the end of the term said to John, "You should not +go about with such bounders as you do." + +"What is the matter with them?" + +"Nothing, but it would be better if you went with me to my friends." + +"They don't suit me." + +"Well, they suit me, but they think you are proud." + +"I?" + +"Yes; and to show you are not, come with me this evening and drink +punch." + +John went though unwillingly. They were a solid-looking set of +law-students who played cards. They discussed the stakes for which they +should play, and John succeeded in reducing them to a minimum, though +they made sour faces. Then a game of "knack" was proposed. John said +that he never played it. + +"On principle?" he was asked. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"How long ago did you make that resolve," asked Fritz sarcastically. + +"Just this minute." + +"Just now, here?" + +"Yes, just now, here!" answered John. + +They exchanged hostile looks and that was the end. They went home +silent; went to bed silent; and got up silent. For five weeks they ate +their dinner at the same table and never spoke to each other. A gulf +had opened between them and their friendship was ended; they had no +more intercourse with each other and there was nothing to bring them +together again. How had that come about? + +These two characters so opposed to each other had held together for +five years through habit, through comradeship in the class-room, +and common interests; they had felt drawn to each other by common +recollections, defeats and victories. It was a compromise between fire +and water which must cease sooner or later and might cease at any +moment. Now they flew asunder as if by an explosion; the masks fell; +they did not become enemies, but simply discovered that they _were_ +born enemies, _i.e._ two oppositely-disposed natures which must go, +each its own way. They did not close accounts with a quarrel or useless +accusations, but simply made an end without more ado. An unnatural +silence prevailed at their midday meal; sometimes in lifting dishes +their hands crossed but their looks avoided each other; now and then +Fritz's lips moved, as though he wished to say something, but his +larynx remained closed. What should he say after all. There was nothing +to say but what the silence expressed: "We have nothing more in common." + +And yet there was something left after all. Sometimes Fritz came home +in the evening, cheerful, and obviously prepared to say, "Come! cheer +up old fellow!" But then he stood still in the middle of the room, +petrified by John's icy manner, and went out again. Sometimes also +it occurred to John, who suffered under the breach of friendship to +say to his friend, "How stupid we are!" But then he felt frozen again +by Fritz's indifferent manner. They had worn out their friendship by +living together. They knew each other by heart, all one another's +secrets and weaknesses, and precisely what answer either would give. +That was the end. Nothing more remained. + +A miserable torpid time followed. Tom away from the common life of +school where he had worked like part of a machine in unison with +others, and abandoned to himself, he ceased to live in the proper sense +of the word. Without books, papers or social intercourse, he remained +empty; for the brain produces of itself very little, perhaps nothing; +in order to make combinations it must be supplied with material from +without. Now nothing came; the channels were stopped, the ways blocked, +and his soul pined away. Sometimes he took Fritz's books and looked +into them; among them he came across Geijer's History for the first +time. Geijer was a great name and known through his "Kolargossen," +"Sista Kampen," "Vikingen" and other poems. John now read his history +of Gustav Vasa. He was astonished to find no illuminating point of +view nor any fresh information. The style, which he had heard praised, +was pedestrian. It was like a mere memorial sketch, this history of a +long-lived king's reign, and cursory also like a text-book. Printed in +small type, and without notes, the history of this important king would +not have been longer than a small pamphlet. One day John asked some of +his friends what they thought of Geijer. + +"He is devilish dull," they answered. + +That was the common opinion before jubilee-commemorations and the +erection of statues prevented people saying plainly what they thought. + +John then looked for a little into law-books, but was alarmed at the +idea of having to study that sort of thing. His home life and religious +education had given him a distaste for everything that concerned the +common interests of people. Through the ceaseless repetition of the +maxim that young men should not interfere with politics, that is to +say, with the common weal, and through Christian individualism and +introspection, John had become a consistent egoist. + +"Let every one mind his own business" was the first command of this +egotistic morality. Therefore he read no papers and troubled little how +things were going on about him, what was happening in the world, how +the destinies of men were being shaped, or what were the thoughts of +the leading minds of the time. Therefore it never occurred to him to +go to the meetings of the club where questions of common interest were +dealt with. "There were enough to look after those things," he thought. + +He was not alone in that opinion, so that the meetings of the club were +managed by a few energetic fellows, who were regarded perhaps wrongly, +as egoists and managed public business in their own interests. John who +let the affairs of the little society go as they liked, was perhaps a +greater egoist, occupied as he was with the affairs of his own soul. +But in his own defence and on behalf of many of his countrymen it must +be said that he and they were shy. This shyness, however, should have +been got rid of at school by practice in public speaking. In this +shyness there was also a degree of cowardice, the fear of opposition +or ridicule, and especially the fear of being thought presumptuous or +wishing to push oneself forward. Every youth who did so, was at once +suppressed, for here the aristocracy of seniority prevailed in a very +high degree. + +When he found the room too stuffy, he went out of the town. But the +depressing landscape with its endless expanse of clay made him sad. He +was no plain-dweller, but had his roots in the undulating scenery of +Stockholm, diversified by water channels. The flat country depressed +him and he suffered from homesickness to such a degree that when he +returned to Stockholm at Christmas and saw again the smiling contours +of the coast of Brunsvik, he was moved to the point of sentimentality. +When he saw once more the gentle curves of the woods of Haga Park he +felt his soul, as it were, attuned again, after having been so long +out of tune. To such a degree were his nerves affected by his natural +surroundings. + +Under other circumstances, the society of a smaller town like Upsala +would have been more congenial to him than that of the great town +which he hated. Had the small town been but a developed form of the +village, preserving the simple rustic appliances for health and +comfort, with fragments of landscape between the houses, it would have +been far preferable to the great town. But now the small town was +merely a shabby pretentious copy of the great town with its mistakes, +and therefore the more offensive. It also reeked with provinciality. +Every one mentioned their birthplace, "My name is Pettersson, from +Ostgothland," "Mine is Andersson, from Småland." There was a keen +rivalry between the members of different provinces. Those from +Stockholm regarded themselves as the first and were therefore envied +and despised by the "peasants." There was much dispute as to whom the +first place really belonged. The Wormlanders boasted of having produced +Geijer whose portrait hung in their hall, while the Smålanders had +Tegner, Berzelius and Linnæus. The Stockholm students who had only +Bergfalk and Bellmann were called "gutter-snipes." This was not a very +brilliant piece of wit especially as it emanated from a Kalmar student +who was thereupon asked "whether there were no gutters in Kalmar?" + +There was something pettifogging also in the way in which the +professors fought for advancement by means of pamphlets and newspaper +articles. The election to any particular professorial chair rested in +the last resource with the Chancellor of the University who lived at +Stockholm. + +In 1867 the University had no especially distinguished teachers. Some +of them were merely old decayed tipplers. Others were young immature +dilettantes who had obtained advancement through their wives and the +modicum of talent which they possessed. The only one who enjoyed a +certain reputation was Swedelius. This, however, was rather due to +his bonhomie and the anecdotes which gathered round him, then to his +own talent. His learned activity was confined to the composition in +an austere style of textbooks and memorial addresses. These were not +strictly scientific, but showed traces of original research. + +On the whole all the subjects of study were introduced from abroad, +for the most part from Germany. The textbooks in most departments +were in German or French. Very few were in English which was little +known. Even the Professor of Literary History could not pronounce +English and began his lectures with an apology for not being able +to do so. There was no doubt that he knew the language for he had +published translations of Swedish poems. "But why did he not learn +the pronunciation?" the students asked. Most of the dissertations for +degrees were mere compilations from the German; occasionally they were +direct translations which caused a scandal. + +The fact was that the period had no special feature to characterise +it. There is no such thing as Swedish culture any more than there is +Belgian, Swiss, or Hungarian. Sweden had indeed produced a Linnæus and +a Berzelius, but they had had no successors. + +John had no spirit of enterprise. At school his work had been settled +for him; at the university it was all left to him. He was overcome by +lethargy and listlessness and worried by not knowing what to do at the +end of the term. He saw that he must seek for a position in which he +could support himself. A friend had told him that one might become an +elementary teacher in the country without passing any more examinations +and could very well support oneself in such a post. Now it was John's +dream to live in the country. He had a natural dislike to towns though +he had been born in the metropolis. He could not accustom himself +to live without light and air, nor flourish in these streets and +market-places, where the outward signs of a higher or lower position in +the absurd social scale counted for so much, _e.g._ such subordinate +things as dress and manner. He had hostility to culture in his blood +and could never conceive of himself as anything else than a natural +product, which did not wish to be severed from its organic connection +with the earth. He was like a plant vainly feeling with its roots +between the pavement-stones for some soil; like an animal pining for +the forest. + +There is a fish which climbs up trees, and an eel can go on land to +look for a pease-field, but both of them return to the water. Fowls +have been domesticated so long that their ancestral characteristics +have died out, but they preserve the habit of sleeping on a perch which +represents the branch on which the black-cock and the wood-grouse +roost. Geese become restless in autumn, for an instinct in their blood +tells them that it is migrating time. So in spite of accommodation to +new circumstances there is always a tendency to go back. + +Thus is it also with men. The dweller in the north, so long as he +preserves civilised habits, has not been able to acclimatise himself +thoroughly, and is still liable to consumption. His stomach, nerves, +heart and skin were able to accommodate themselves, but not his lungs. +The Eskimo on the other hand, originally a southerner, succeeded in +acclimatising himself but had to give up civilised habits. + +And what is the meaning of the northerner's longing for the south +unless it be the wish to return to his first home, the land of the +sun, the bank of the Ganges where he was cradled? And the dislike +of children to meat, their longing for fruit and love of climbing, +what is it all but "reversion to type?" Therefore civilisation means +a continual strain and struggle to combat this backward tendency. +Education winds up the clock, but when the mainspring is not strong +enough it snaps and the works run down, till quiet ensues. As +civilisation advances the strain is ever greater and the statistics +of insanity show a perpetual increase. One cannot swim against the +stream of civilisation, but one may escape to land. Modern Socialism +which wishes to bring down the upper classes with their worthless +and dangerous motto "Higher!" is a backward movement in a healthy +direction. The strain will decrease as the pressure from above +decreases, and thereby a great deal of superfluous luxury will be got +rid of. In certain parts of German Switzerland there is already a +certain relative quiet. There we find no restless hunting after honours +and distinctions because there are none to be had. A millionaire +lives in a large cottage and laughs at the bedizened townsfolk,--a +good-natured laugh without any envy in it, for he knows that he could +buy up their finery for ready cash, if he chose. But he will not, for +luxury has no value in his neighbours' eyes. + +Men could therefore be happier if competition were not so keen and +they will yet be so, for the chief constituent of happiness is peace +along with less toil and less luxury. It is not the railways which are +to be blamed, but the superabundance of them. In Arcadian Switzerland +railways have ruined whole districts where no freightage is required +and people usually go on foot. To this day distances are reckoned by +pedestrian measures. + +"It is eight hours to Zurich," says some one. + +"Eight! is it possible?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"By the railway?" + +"Oh! by the railway,--that is only an hour and a half." + +In Sweden there is a railway which carries regularly three passengers +in its three classes, a factory-owner, a bailiff and a clerk. We may +live to see them shut up the railway stations for want of coal when +the coal strikes have sent up the price, for want of guards when wages +rise, and for want of freight when wood and oats can no longer be +procured; iron is already too dear to be used for railways, and the old +water-ways ought to be tried. + +It is no use to preach against civilisation,--that one knows well, but +if we observe the currents of the time we shall see that a return to +nature is in process of going on. Turgenieff has already described this +by the word "simplification." That is the mistake of the evolutionists +that in everything which is in motion or course of development they +see a progress towards human happiness, forgetting that a sickness may +develop to death or recovery. + +After all, what a superficial appendage civilisation is! Make a +nobleman drunk and he can become like a savage; let a child loose in +a wood without any one to look after it (provided that it can feed +itself) and it will not learn to speak of itself. Out of a peasant's +son who is generally considered so low in the social scale, one +can make in a single generation a man of science, a minister, an +arch-bishop, or an artist. Here there can be no talk of heredity, for +the peasant-father who stood apparently at such a low level, could not +have inherited anything from cultivated brains. On the other hand, the +children of a genius inherit usually nothing but used-up brains, except +occasionally a skill in their father's line of work, which they have +acquired by daily intercourse with their father. + +The town is the fire-place whither the living fuel from the country is +brought and devoured; it is to keep the present social machinery at +work, it is true, but in the long run the fuel will prove too dear, and +the machine come to a standstill. The society of the future will not +need this machine in order to work or they will be more sparing of the +fuel. But it is a mistake to conjecture the needs of a future state of +society from the present one. + +Our present society is perhaps a natural product, but inorganic; the +future society will be an organic product and a higher one, for it +will not deprive men of the first conditions for an organic existence. +There will be the same difference between these two forms of society as +between paved streets and grass meadows. + +The youth's dream often left artificial society to wander at large +in nature. Society had been formed by men doing violence to natural +laws, just as one may bleach a plant under a flower-pot and produce an +edible salad, but the plant's capacity to live healthily and propagate +itself as a plant is destroyed. Such a plant is the civilised man +made by artificial bleaching useful for an anæmic society, but, as +an individual, wretched and unhealthy. Must the process of bleaching +continue in order to insure the existence of this decayed society? +Must the individual remain wretched in order to maintain an unhealthy +society? For how can society be healthy when its individual members +are ailing? A single individual cannot demand that society should be +sacrificed for his sake, but a majority of individuals have a right to +bring about such changes in the society, which they themselves compose, +as may be beneficial to themselves. + +Under the simpler conditions of country life John believed he could +be happy in an obscure post, without feeling that he had sunk in the +social scale. But he could not be so in the town where he would be +continually reminded of the height from which he had fallen. To come +down voluntarily is not painful if the onlookers can be persuaded that +it _is_ voluntarily, but to fall is bitter, especially as a fall always +arouses satisfaction in those standing below. To mount, strive upwards +and better one's position has become a social instinct, and the youth +felt the force of it, though in his view the "upper" was not always +higher. + +John wished now to realise some result,--an active life which should +bring him an income. He looked through many advertisements for teachers +in elementary schools. Positions were advertised to which were attached +salaries of 300 or 600 kronas, a house, a meadow and a garden. He tried +for one of these places after another but obtained no answer. + +When the term was over and his 80 kronas spent, he returned home, not +knowing whither to turn, what he should become, or how he should live. +He had glanced in the forecourt and seen that there was no room in it +for him. + + +[1] A krona = 1s. _2d_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BELOW AND ABOVE + + +"Are you a complete scholar now?" With this and similar questions John +was greeted ironically on his return home. His father took the matter +seriously and strove to frame plans without coming to any result. John +was a student; that was a fact; but what was to follow? + +It was winter, and so the white student cap could not bestow on him +a mild halo of glory or bring any honour to the family. Some one has +asserted that war would cease if uniforms were done away with; and it +is certain there would not be so many students if they had no outward +sign to parade. In Paris where they have none, they disappear in the +crowd, and no one makes a fuss about them; in Berlin on the other hand, +they have a privileged place by the side of officers. Therefore also +Germany is a land of professors and France of the bourgeois. + +John's father now saw that he had educated a good-for-nothing for +society who could not dig, but perhaps was not ashamed to beg. The +world stood open for the youth to starve or to perish in. His father +did not like his idea of becoming an elementary school-teacher. Was +that to be the only result of so much work? His ambitious dreams +received a shock from the idea of such a come-down. An elementary +school-teacher was on a level with a sergeant, oil a plane from which +there was no hope of mounting. Climb one must as long as others did; +one must climb till one broke one's neck, so long as society was +divided into ranks and classes. John had not passed the student's +examination for the sake of knowledge, but of belonging to the upper +class, and now he seemed to be meditating a descent to the lower. + +It became painful for him at home for he felt as though he were eating +the bread of charity when Christmas was over, and he could no longer be +regarded as a Christmas guest. + +One day he accidentally met in the street a school-teacher whom he +knew, and whom he had not seen for a long time. They talked about the +future and John's friend suggested to him a post in the Stockholm +elementary school as suitable for him while reading for his degree. He +would get a thousand kronas salary and have an hour to himself daily. +John objected "Anywhere except in Stockholm." His friend replied that +several students had been teachers in the elementary school, "Really! +then he would have companions in misfortune." Yes, and one had come +from the New Elementary School where he was a teacher. John went, made +an application, and was appointed with a salary of 900 kronas. His +father approved his decision when he heard that it would help him to +read for his degree, and John undertook to live as a boarder at home. +One winter morning at half-past eight, John went down the Nordtullsgata +to the Clara School, exactly as he had done when he was eight years +old. There were the same streets and the same Clara bells, and he was +to teach the lowest class! It was like being put back to learn a lesson +of eleven years ago. Just as afraid as then,--yes, more afraid of +coming too late he entered the large class-room, where together with +two female teachers he was to have the oversight of a hundred children. +There they sat,--children like those in the Jakob School, but younger. +Ugly, stunted, pale, swollen, sickly, with cast-down looks, in coarse +clothes and heavy shoes. Suffering, most probably, suffering from the +consciousness that others were more fortunate, and would always be +so, as one then believed, had impressed on their faces the stamp of +pain, which neither religious resignation nor the hope of heaven could +obliterate. The upper classes avoided them with a bad conscience, built +themselves houses outside the town, and left it to the professional +over-seers of the poor to come in contact with these outcasts. + +A hymn was sung, the Lord's Prayer was read; everything was as before; +no progress had been made except that the forms had been exchanged for +seats and desks, and the room was light and airy. John had to fold his +hands and join in the hymn, thus already being obliged to do violence +to his conscience. Prayers over, the head-master entered. He spoke to +John in a fatherly way and as his superintendent gave him instruction +and advice. This class, he said, was the worst, and the teacher must +be strict. + +So John took his class into a special room to begin the lesson. The +room was exactly like that in the Clara School, and there stood the +dreadful desk with steps, which resembled a scaffold and was painted +red as though stained with blood. A stick was put into his hand with +which he might rap or strike as he chose. He mounted the scaffold. He +felt shy before the thirsty faces of girls and boys opposite who looked +curiously at him, to see if he were going to worry them. + +"What is your lesson?" he asked. + +"The first commandment," the whole class exclaimed. + +"Only one must answer at a time. You, top boy what is your name?" + +"Hallberg," cried the whole class. + +"No, only one at a time,--the one I ask." + +The children giggled. "He is not dangerous," they thought. + +"Well, then, what is the first commandment?" John asked the top boy. + +"Thou shalt have no other gods but Me." He knew that then. + +"What is that?" John asked again, trying to lay as little emphasis +as possible on the "that." Then he asked fifteen children the same +question and a quarter of an hour had passed. John thought this +idiotic. What should he do now? Say what he knew about God? But the +common point of view then was, that nothing was known about Him. John +was a theist, and still believed in a personal God, but could say +nothing more. He would have liked to have attacked the divinity of +Christ, but would have been dismissed had he done so. + +A pause followed. There was an unnatural stillness while he reflected +on his false position and the foolish method of teaching. If he had +now said that nothing was known of God, the whole catechism and Bible +instruction would have been superfluous. They knew that they must not +steal or lie. Why then make such a fuss? He felt a mad wish to make +friends and fellow-sinners of the children. + +"What shall we do now?" he said. + +The whole class looked at each other and giggled. + +"This is a jolly sort of teacher," they thought. + +"What must the teacher do when he has heard the lesson?" he asked the +top boy. + +"Hm! he generally explains it," he and one or two others answered. + +John could certainly explain the origin and growth of the conception of +God, but that would not do. + +"You need not do any more," he said, "but don't make a noise." + +The children looked at him, and he at them mutually smiling. + +"Don't you think this is absurd," he felt inclined to say, but checked +himself and only smiled. But he collected himself when he saw that they +were laughing at him. "This method would not do," he thought. So he +commanded attention and went through the first commandment again till +each child had had a question. After extraordinary exertions on his +part, the clock at last struck nine, and the lesson was over. + +Then the three divisions of the class were assembled in the great +hall to prepare for going into the play-ground to get fresh air. +"Prepare" is the right word for such a simple affair as going into the +play-ground demanded a long preparation. An exact description would +fill a whole printed page, and perhaps be regarded as a caricature; we +will be content with giving a hint. + +In the first place, all the hundred children had to sit motionless, +absolutely motionless, and silent, absolutely silent, in their seats as +though they were to be photographed. From the master's desk the whole +assembly looked like a grey carpet with bright patterns, but the next +moment one of them moved the head; the offender had to rise from his +seat and stand by the wall. The total effect was now disturbed, and +there had to be a good many raps with the cane before two hundred arms +lay parallel on the desks and a hundred heads were at right angles +with their collar-bones. When quiet was in some degree restored a new +rapping began which demanded absolute quiet. But at the very moment +when the absolute was all but attained, some muscle grew tired, some +nerve slackened, some sinew relaxed. Again there was confusion, cries, +blows, and a new attempt to reach the absolute. It generally ended by +the female teacher (the males did not drive it so far) closing one eye +and pretending that the absolute had been reached. + +Then came the important moment, when, at a given signal the whole +hundred must spring from their seats and stand in order, but nothing +more. It was a ticklish moment when slates fell down and rulers +clattered. Then they had to sit down and begin all over again by +keeping perfectly still. + +When they had really got on their legs, they were marched off in +divisions but on tip-toe without exception. Otherwise they had to turn +round and sit down again, get up again and so on. They had to go on +tip-toe in wooden sabots and water-boots. It was a great mistake; it +accustomed the children to stealthiness and gave their whole appearance +something cat-like and deceitful. In the play-ground a teacher had +to arrange those who wanted to drink in a straight line before the +water-tap by the entrance; at the same time the lavatories at the +other end of the play-ground had to be inspected, and games had to be +organised and watched over. Then the children were again drawn up and +marched into school. If it was not done quietly, they had to go out +again. + +Then another lesson began. The children read out of a patriotic +reading-book the principal object of which seemed to be to instil +respect for the upper classes and to represent Sweden as the best +country in Europe, although as regards climate and social economy, +it is one of the worst, its culture is borrowed from abroad, and all +its kings were of foreign origin. They did not venture to give such +teaching to the children of the upper classes in the Clara School and +the Lyceum, but in the Jakob School they had sufficient courage to +make poor children sing a patriotic song about the Duke of Ostgothland. +In this occurred a verse addressed to the crew of the fleet, saying +victory was sure in the battle they wished for "because Prince Oscar +leads us on," or something of the sort. + +Meanwhile the reading-lesson began. But just at that moment the +head-master came in. John wished to stop but the head-master beckoned +to him to go on. The children who had lost their respect for him after +the catechism-lesson were inattentive. John scolded them, but without +result. Then the head-master came forward with a cane; took the book +from John and made a little speech, to the effect that this division +was the worst, but now their teacher should see how to deal with them. +The exercise which followed seemed to have as its object the attainment +of perfect attention. The absolute again seemed to be the standard by +which these children were to be trained in this incomplete world of +relativity. + +The boy who was reading was interrupted, and another name called at +random out of the class. To follow attentively was assumed to be the +easiest thing in the world by this old man who certainly must have +experienced how thoughts wander their own way while the eyes pass +over the printed page. The inattentive one was dragged by his hair or +clothes and caned till he fell howling on the ground. + +Then the head-master departed after recommending John to use the cane +diligently. There remained nothing but to follow this method or to go; +the latter did not suit John's plans, therefore he remained. He made a +speech to the children and referred to the head-master. "Now," he said, +"you know how you must behave if you want to escape a thrashing. He who +gets one, has himself to thank. Don't blame me. Here is the stick, and +there is your lesson. Learn your lesson or you will get the stick,--and +it isn't my fault." + +That was cunningly put, but it was unmerciful, for one ought to have +first ascertained how far the children could do their work. They could +not, for they were the most lively and therefore the most inattentive. +So the cane was kept going all day, accompanied by cries of pain, and +fear on the faces of the innocent. It was terrible! To pay attention +is not in the power of the will, and therefore all this punishment was +mere torture. John felt the absurdity of the part he had to play, but +he had to do his duty. Sometimes he was tired and let things go as they +liked, but then his colleagues, male and female, came and made friendly +representations. Sometimes he found the whole thing so ridiculous +that he could not help smiling with the children while he caned them. +Both sides saw that they were working at something impossible and +unnecessary. + +Ibsen, who does not believe in the aristocracy of birth or of wealth, +has lately (1886) expressed his belief that the industrial class +are the true nobility. But why should they necessarily be so? If to +do no manual labour tends to degeneration, perhaps degeneration is +brought about even more quickly by excessive labour and want. All +these children born of manual labourers looked more sickly, weak and +stupid than the upper-class children which he had seen. One or the +other muscle might be more strongly developed,--a shoulder-blade, a +hand, or a foot,--but they looked anæmic under their pale skins. +Many had extraordinarily large heads which seemed to be swollen with +water, their ears and noses ran, their hands were frost-bitten. The +various professional diseases of town-labourers seemed to have been +inherited; one saw in miniature the gas-worker's lungs and blood spoilt +by sulphur-fumes, the smith's shoulders and feet bent out-wards, the +painter's brain atrophied by varnishes and poisonous colours, the +scrofulous eruption of the chimney sweeper, the contracted chest of +the book-binder; here one heard the cough of the workers in metal +and asphalt, smelt the poisons of the paper-stainer, observed the +watch-maker's short-sightedness, in second editions, so to speak. In +truth this was no race to which the future belonged, or on which the +future could build; nor was it a race which could permanently increase, +for the ranks of the workers are continually recruited from the country. + +It was not till about two o'clock that the great school-room was +emptied, for it took them about an hour with blows and raps to get out +of it into the street. The most unpractical part of it was that the +children had to march into the hall in troops to get their overcoats +and cloaks, and then march into the school-room again, instead of +going straight home. When John got into the street, he asked himself +"Is that the celebrated education which they have given to the lower +classes with so much sacrifice?" He could ask, and he was answered, +"Can it be done in any other way?" "No," he was obliged to answer. "If +it is your intention to educate a slavish lower class, always ready to +obey, train them with the stick,--if you mean to bring up a proletariat +to demand nothing of life, tell them lies about heaven. Tell them that +your method of teaching is ridiculous, let them begin to criticise +or get their way in one point and you have taken a step towards the +dissolution of society. But society is built up upon an obedient +conscientious lower class; therefore keep them down from the first; +deprive them of will and reason, and teach them to hope for nothing but +to be content." There was method in this madness. + +As regards the instruction in the elementary school, there was both +a good and bad side to it; the good was that they had introduced +object-teaching after the example of Pestalozzi, Rousseau's disciple; +the bad, that the students who taught in the elementary schools had +introduced "scientific" teaching. The simple learning by heart of the +multiplication table was not enough; it, together with fractions, +had to be understood. Understood? And yet an engineer who has been +through the technical high school cannot explain "why" a fraction +can be diminished by three if the sum of the figures is divisible by +three. On this principle seamen would not be allowed to use logarithm +tables, because they cannot calculate logarithms. To be always +relaying the foundation instead of building on what is already laid is +an educational luxury and leads to the over-multiplication of lessons +in schools. + +Some one may object that John should first have reformed himself +as teacher, before he set about reforming the system of education; +but he could not; he was a passive instrument in the hands of the +superintendent and the school authorities. The best teachers, that is +to say, those who forced the worst (in this case the best) results out +of the pupils were the uneducated ones who came from the Seminary. They +were not sceptical about the methods in use and had no squeamishness +about caning, but the children respected them the most. A great coarse +fellow who had formerly been a carriage-maker had the bigger boys +completely under his thumb. The lower class seem to have really more +fear and respect for those of their own rank than the upper class. +Bailiffs and foremen are more awe-imposing than superintendents and +teachers. Do the lower classes see that the superior who has come out +of their ranks understands their affairs better, and therefore pay him +more respect? The female teachers also enjoyed more respect than the +male. They were pedantic, demanded absolute perfection, and were not at +all soft-hearted, but rather cruel. They were fond of practising the +refined cruelty of blows on the palm of the hand and showed in so doing +a want of intelligence which the most superficial study of physiology +would have remedied. When a child by involuntary reflex action, drew +his fingers back, he was punished all the more for not keeping his +fingers still. As if one could prevent blinking, when something blew +into one's eye! The female teachers had the advantage of knowing very +little about teaching and were plagued with no doubts. It was not true +that they had less pay than the men teachers. They had relatively more; +and if after passing a paltry teacher's examination they had received +more than the students, that would have been unjust. They were treated +with partiality, regarded as miracles, when they were competent, and +received allowances for travelling abroad. + +As comrades, they were friendly and helpful if one was polite and +submissive and let them hold the reins. There was not the slightest +trace of flirtation; the men saw them in anything but becoming +situations, and under an aspect which women do not usually show to +the other sex, viz. that of jailers. They made notes of everything, +prepared themselves for their lessons, were narrow-minded and content, +and saw through nothing. It was a very suitable occupation for them +under existing circumstances. + +When John was thoroughly sick of caning, or could not manage a boy, or +was in despair generally, he sent the black sheep to a female teacher, +who willingly undertook the unpleasant rôle of executioner. + +What it is that makes the competent teacher is not clear. Some produced +an effect by their quiet manner, others by their nervousness; some +seemed to magnetise the children, others beat them; some imposed on +them by their age or their manly appearance, etc. The women worked as +women, _i.e._ through a half-forgotten tradition of a past matriarchate. + +John was not competent. He looked too young and was only just nineteen; +he was sceptical about the methods employed and everything else; with +all his seriousness he was playful and boyish. The whole matter to him +was only an employment by the way, for he was ambitious and wished to +advance, but did not know in which direction. + +Moreover he was an aristocrat like his contemporaries. Through +education his habits and senses had been refined, or spoilt, as one may +choose to call it; he found it hard to tolerate unpleasant smells, ugly +objects, distorted bodies, coarse expressions, torn clothes. Life had +given him much, and these daily reminders of poverty plagued him like +an evil conscience. He himself might have been one of the lower class +if his mother had married one of her own position. + +"He was proud" a shop-boy would have said, who had mounted to the +position of editor of a paper and boasted that he was content with his +lot, forgetting that he might well be content since he had risen from +a low position. "He was proud" a master shoemaker would have said, who +would have rather thrown himself into the sea than become an apprentice +again. John _was_ proud, of that there was no doubt, as proud as the +master shoemaker, but not in such a high degree, as he had descended +from the level of the student to the elementary school-teacher. That, +however, was no virtue, but a necessity, and he did not therefore boast +of his step downward, nor give himself the air of being a friend of +the people. One cannot command sympathies and antipathies, and for the +lower class to demand love and self-sacrifice from the upper class is +mere idealism. The lower class is sacrificed for the upper class, but +they have offered themselves willingly. They have the right to take +back their rights, but they should do it themselves. No one gives up +his position willingly, therefore the lower class should not wait for +kings and the upper class to go. "Pull us down! but all together." + +If an intelligent man of the upper class help in such an operation, +those below should be thankful to him especially since such an act is +liable to the imputation of being inspired by impure motives. Therefore +the lower class should not too narrowly inspect the motives of those +who help them; the result is in all eases the same. The aristocrats +seem to have seen this and therefore regard one of themselves who sides +with the proletariat as a traitor. He is a traitor to his class, that +is true; and the lower class should put it to his credit. + +John was not an aristocrat in the sense that he used the word "mob" or +despised the poor. Through his mother he was closely allied to them, +but circumstances had estranged him from them. That was the fault of +class-education. This fault might be done away with for the future, if +elementary schools were reformed by the inclusion of the knowledge of +civil duties in their programme, and by their being made obligatory for +all, without exception, as the militia-schools are. Then it would be no +longer a disgrace to become an elementary school-teacher as it now is, +and made a matter of reproach to a man that he has been one. + +John, in order to keep himself above, applied himself to his future +work. To this end he studied Italian grammar in his spare time at the +school. He could now buy books and did so. He was honest enough not to +construe these efforts at climbing up as an ideal thirst for knowledge +or a striving for the good of humanity. He simply read for his degree. + +But the meagre diet he had lived on in Upsala, his midday meals at 6 +kronas, the milk and the bread had undermined his strength, and he +was now in the pleasure-seeking period of youth. It was tedious at +home, and in the afternoons he went to the café or the restaurant, +where he met friends. Strong drinks invigorated him and he slept well +after them. The desire for alcohol seems to appear regularly in each +adolescent. All northerners are born of generations of drinkers from +the early heathen times, when beer and mead was drunk, and it is quite +natural that this desire should be felt as a necessity. With John it +was an imperious need the suppression of which resulted in a diminution +of strength. It may be questioned whether abstinence for us may not +involve the same risk, as the giving up of poison for an arsenic-eater. +Probably the otherwise praiseworthy temperance movement will merely +end in demanding moderation; that is a virtue and not a mere exhibition +of will power which results in boasting and self-righteousness. + +John who had hitherto only worn east-off suits, began to wear fine +clothes. His salary seemed to him extraordinarily great and in the +magnifying-glass of his fancy assumed huge proportions, with the result +that he soon ran into debt. Debt which grew and grew and could never be +paid, became the vulture gnawing at his life, the object of his dreams, +the wormwood which poisoned his content. What foolish hopefulness, what +colossal self-deceit it was to incur debts! What did he expect? To gain +an academic dignity. And then? To become a teacher with a salary of 750 +kronas! Less than he had now! Not the least trying part of his work was +to accommodate his brain to the capacity of the children. That meant +to come down to the level of the younger and less intelligent, and to +screw down the hammer so that it might hit the anvil,--an operation +which injured the machine. + +On the other hand he derived real profit from his observations in +the families of the children, whom his duty required him to visit on +Sundays. There was one boy in his class who was the most difficult of +all. He was dirty and ill-dressed, grinned continually, smelt badly, +never knew his lessons and was always being caned. He had a very large +head and staring eyes which rolled and turned about continually. John +had to visit his parents in order to find out the reason of his +irregular attendance at school and bad behaviour. He therefore went +to the Apelbergsgata where they kept a public-house. He found that +the father had gone to work, but the mother was at the counter. The +public-house was dark and evil-smelling, filled with men who looked +threateningly at John as he entered probably taking him for a plain +clothes policeman. He gave his message to the mother and was asked +into a room behind the counter. One glance at it sufficed to explain +everything. The mother blamed her son and excused him alternately and +she had some reason for the latter. The boy was accustomed to "lick the +glasses,"--that was the explanation and that was enough. What could be +done in such a case? A change of dwelling, better food, a nurse to look +after him and so on. All these were questions of money! + +Afterwards he came to the Clara poor-house, which was empty of its +usual occupants and provisionally opened to families because of the +want of houses. In a great hall lay and stood quite a dozen families, +who had divided the floor with strokes of chalk. There stood a +carpenter with his planing-bench, here sat a shoemaker with his board; +round about on both sides of the chalk-line women sat and children +crawled. What could John do there? Send in a report on a matter which +was perfectly well known, distribute wood-tickets and orders for meat +and clothing. + +In Kungsholmsbergen he came across specimens of proud poverty. There he +was shown the door, "God be thanked, we have no need of charity. We +are all right." + +"Indeed! Then you should not let your boy go in torn boots in winter." + +"That is not your business, sir," and the door was slammed. + +Sometimes he saw sad scenes,--a child sick, the room full of sulphur +fumes of coke, and all coughing from the grandmother down to the +youngest. What could he do except feel dispirited and make his escape? +At that period there was no other means of help except charity; writers +who described the state of things, contented themselves with lamenting +it; no one saw any hope. Therefore there was nothing to do except to be +sorry, help temporarily, and fly in order not to despair. + +All this lay like a heavy cloud upon him, and he lost pleasure in +study. He felt there was something wrong here, but nothing could be +done said all the newspapers and books and people. It must be so but +every one is free to climb. You climb too! + +Time went on and spring approached. John's closest acquaintance +was a teacher from the Slöjd School. He was a poet, well-versed +in literature, and also musical. They generally walked to the +Stallmastergarden restaurant, discussed literature, and ate their +supper there. While John was paying his attentions to the waitress, +his friend played the piano. Sometimes the latter amused himself by +writing comic verses to girls. John was seized with a craze for writing +verse but could not. The gift must be born with one, he thought, and +inspiration descend all of a sudden, as in the case of conversion. +He was evidently not one of the elect, and felt himself neglected by +nature and maimed. + +One evening when John was sitting and chatting with the girl, she said +quite suddenly to him, "Friday is my birthday; you must write some +verses for me." + +"Yes," answered John, "I will." + +Later on when he met his friend, he told him of his hasty promise. + +"I will write them for you," he said. The next day he brought a poem, +copied out in a fine hand-writing and composed in John's name. It was +piquant and amusing. John dispatched it on the morning of the birthday. + +In the evening of the same day both the friends came to eat their +supper and to congratulate the girl. She did not appear for an hour for +she had to serve guests. The teachers' meal was brought and they began +to eat. + +Then the girl appeared in the doorway and beckoned John. She looked +almost severe. John went to her and they ascended a flight of stairs. +"Have you written the verses?" she asked. + +"No," said John. + +"Ah, I thought so. The lady behind the buffet said she had read them +two years ago when the teacher sent them to Majke who was an ugly girl. +For shame, John!" + +He took his cap and wanted to rush out, but the girl caught hold of him +and tried to keep him back for she saw that he looked deathly pale +and beside himself. But he wrenched himself free and hastened into +the Bellevue Park. He ran into the wood leaving the beaten tracks. +The branches of the bushes flew into his face, stones rolled over his +feet, and frightened birds rose up. He was quite wild with shame, and +instinctively sought the wood in order to hide himself. It is a curious +phenomenon that at the utmost pitch of despair a man runs into the +wood before he plunges into the water. The wood is the penultimate and +the water the ultimate resource. It is related of a famous author, who +had enjoyed a twenty years' popularity quietly and proudly, that he +was suddenly cast down from his position. He was as though struck by a +thunderbolt, went half-mad and sought the shelter of the woods where +he recovered himself. The wood is the original home of the savage and +the enemy of the plough and therefore of culture. When a civilised man +suddenly strips off the garb of civilisation, the artistically woven +fabric of his repute, he becomes in a moment a savage or a wild beast. +When a man becomes mad, he begins to throw off his clothes. What is +madness? A relapse? Yes, many think animals mad. + +It was evening when John entered the wood. In the midst of some +bushes he laid down on a great block of stone. He was ashamed of +himself,--that was the chief impression on his mind. An emotional man +is more severe with himself than others think. He scourged himself +unmercifully. He had wished to shine in borrowed plumage, and so lied; +and in the second place he had insulted an innocent girl. The first +part of the accusation affected him in a very sensitive point,--his +want of poetic capacity. He wished to do more than he could. He was +discontent with the position which nature and society had assigned +him. Yes, but (and now his self-defence began after the evening air +had cooled his blood), in the school one had been always exhorted to +strive upwards; those who did so were praised, and discontent with +the position one might happen to be in, was justified. Yes but (here +the scourge descended!) he had tried to deceive. To deceive! That was +unpardonable. He was ashamed, stripped and unmasked without any means +of retreat. Deception, falsity, cheating! So it was! + +As a quondam Christian, John was most afraid of having a fault, and +as a member of society he feared lest it should be visible. Everybody +knew that one had faults, but to acknowledge them was regarded as a +piece of cynicism, for society always wishes to appear better than it +is. Sometimes, however, society demanded that one should confess one's +fault if one wished for forgiveness, but that was a trick. Society +wished for confession in order to enjoy the punishment, and was very +deceitful. John had confessed his fault, been punished, and still his +conscience was uneasy. + +The second point regarding the girl was also difficult. She had loved +him purely and he had insulted her. How coarse and vulgar! Why should +he think that a waitress could not love innocently? His own mother had +been in the same position as that girl. He had insulted her. Shame +upon him! + +Now he heard shouts in the park, and his name being called. The girl's +voice and his friend's echoed among the trees, but he did not answer +them. For a moment the scourge fell out of his hands; he became sobered +and thought, "I will go back, we will have supper, call Riken and drink +a glass with her, and it will be all over." But no! He was too high up +and one cannot descend all at once. + +The voices became silent. He lay back in a state of semi-stupefaction +and ground his double crime between the mill-stones of rumination. He +had lied and hurt her feelings. + +It began to grow dark. There was a rustling in the bushes; he started +and a sweat broke out upon him. Then he went out and sat upon a seat +till the dew fell. He shivered and felt poorly. Then he got up and went +home. + +Now his head was clear and he could think. What a stupid business it +all was! He did not really mean that she should take him for a poet, +and had been quite ready to explain the whole trick. It was all a joke. +His friend had made a fool of him, but it did not matter. + +When he got home he found his friend sleeping in his bed. He wanted +to rise but John would not let him. He wished to scourge himself once +more. He lay on the floor, put a cigar-box under his head and drew a +volunteer's cloak over him. In the morning when he awoke, John asked in +trembling tones, "How did she take it?" + +"Ah, she laughed; then we drank a glass, and it was over. She liked the +verses." + +"She laughed! Was she not angry?" + +"Not at all." + +"Then she only humbugged me." + +John wished to hear no more. This trifle had kept him on the rack for a +whole dreadful night. He felt ashamed of having asked whether she was +disquieted about him. But since she had laughed and drunk punch she +could not have been. Not even anxious about his life! + +He dressed himself and went down to the school. + +The habit of self-criticism derived from his religious training had +accustomed him to occupy himself with his ego, to fondle and cherish +it, as though it were a separate and beloved personality. So cherished +the ego expanded and kept continually looking within instead of +without upon the world. It was an interesting personal acquaintance, a +friend who must be flattered, but who must also hear the truth and be +corrected. + +It was the mental malady of the time reduced to a system by Fichte, +who taught that everything took place in the ego and through the ego, +without which there was no reality. It was the formula for romanticism +and for subjective idealism. + +"I stood on the shore under the king's castle," "I dwell in the cave +of the mountain," "I, small boy, watch the door," "I think of the +beautiful times,"--all these phrases struck the same note. Was this "I" +really so proud. Was not the poet's "I" more modest than the editor's +royal "we"? + +This absorption in self, or the new malady of culture, of which much +is written nowadays, has been common with all men who have not worked +with their bodies. The brain is only an organ for imparting movement +to the muscles. Now when in a civilised man the brain cannot act upon +the muscles, nor bring its power into play, there results a disturbance +of equilibrium. The brain begins to dream; too full of juices which +cannot be absorbed by muscular activity, it converts them involuntarily +into systems, into thought-combinations, into the hallucinations which +haunt painters, sculptors and poets. If no outlet can be found, there +follows stagnation, violent outbreaks, depression, and at last madness. +Schools which are often vestibules for asylums, have recourse to +gymnastics, but with what result? There is no connection between the +pupil's cerebral activity and the muscular activity called into play by +gymnastics; the latter is only directed by another's will through the +word of command. + +All studious youths are aware of this tendency to congestion of the +brain. It is a good thing that they often go out to improve or to +beautify society, but it would be better if the equilibrium were +restored, and a sound mind dwelt in a sound body. It has been sought to +introduce physical work into schools as a remedy. It would be better +to let elementary knowledge be acquired at home, to make the school +a day-school, and to let every one look after himself. For the rest +the emancipation of the lower classes will compel the higher classes +to undertake some of the physical labour now carried on by domestics +and so the equilibrium will be restored. That such labour does not +blunt the intelligence can be easily seen by observing that some of +the strongest minds of the time have had such daily contact with +reality, _e.g._ Mill the civil service official, Spencer, the civil +engineer, Edison the telegraphist. The student period of life, the most +unwholesome because not under discipline, is also the most dangerous. +The brain continually takes in, without producing anything, not even +anything intellectual, while the whole muscular system is unoccupied. + +John at this time was suffering from an over-production of thought and +imagination. The mechanical school-work continually revolving in the +same circle with the same questions and answers afforded no relief. +It increased on the other hand his stock of observations of children +and teachers. There lay and fermented in his mind a quantity of +experiences, perceptions, criticisms and thoughts without any order. He +therefore sought for society in order to speak his mind out. But it was +not sufficient, and as he did not find any one who was willing to act +as a sounding-board, he took to declaiming poetry. + +In the early sixties declamation was much the fashion. In families they +used to read aloud "The Kings of Salamis." In the numerous volunteer +concerts the same pieces were declaimed over and over again. These +declamations were what the quartette singing had been, an outlet for +all the hope and enthusiasm called forth by the awakening of 1865. +Since Swedes are neither born nor trained orators, they became singers +and reciters, perhaps because their want of originality sought a +ready-made means of expression. They could execute but not create. The +same want of originality showed itself in the bachelor's gatherings +where reciters of anecdotes were much in request. This feeble and +tedious form of amusement was superseded when the new questions of the +day provided food for conversation and discussion. + +One day John came to his friend the elementary school-teacher whom he +found together with another young colleague. When the conversation +began to slacken, his friend produced a volume of Schiller, whose poems +had just then appeared in a cheap edition and were bought mostly for +that reason. They opened "The Robbers" and read round in turn, John +taking the part of Karl Moor. The first scene of the first act took +place between old Moor and Franz. Then came the second scene: John +read, "I am sick of this quill-driving age when I read of great men +in Plutarch." He did not know the play and had never seen bandits. +At first he read absent-mindedly, but his interest was soon aroused. +The play struck a new note. He found his obscure dreams expressed +in words; his rebellious criticisms printed. Here then was another, +a great and famous author who felt the same disgust at the whole +course of education in school and university as he did, who would +rather be Robinson Crusoe or a bandit than be enrolled in this army +which is called society. He read on; his voice shook, his cheeks +glowed, his breast heaved: "They bar out healthy nature with tasteless +conventionalities."... There it stood all in black and white. "And that +is Schiller!" he exclaimed, "the same Schiller who wrote the tedious +history of the Thirty Years' War, and the tame drama "Wallenstein" +which is read in schools!" Yes, it was the same man. Here (in "The +Robbers") he preached revolt, revolt against law, society, morals +and religion. That was in the revolt of 1781 eight years before the +great revolution. That was the anarchists' programme a hundred years +before its time, and Karl Moor was a nihilist. The drama came out with +a lion on the title-page and with the inscription "In Tyrannos." The +author then (1781) aged two-and-twenty had to fly. There was no doubt +therefore about the intention of the piece. There was also another +motto from Hippocrates which showed this intention as plainly; "What is +not cured by medicine must be cured by iron; what is not cured by iron +must be cured by fire." + +That was clear enough! But in the preface the author apologised and +recanted. He disclaimed all sympathy with Franz Moor's sophisms and +said that he wished to exhibit the punishment of wickedness in Karl +Moor. Regarding religion he said, "Just now it is the fashion to make +religion a subject for one's wit to play upon as Voltaire and Frederick +the Great did, and a man is scarcely reckoned a genius unless he can +make the holiest truths the object of his godless satire...." I hope +I have exacted no ordinary revenge for religion and sound morality in +handing over these obstinate despisers of Scripture in the person of +this scoundrelly bandit, to public contumely. Was then Schiller true +when he wrote the drama, and false when he wrote the preface? True in +both cases, for man is a complex creature, and sometimes appears in his +natural sometimes in his artificial character. At his writing-table +in loneliness, when the silent letters were being written down on +paper, Schiller seems like other young authors to have worked under the +influence of a blind natural impulse without regard to mens' opinion, +without thinking of the public, or laws, or constitutions. The veil +was lifted for a moment and the falsity of society seen through in its +whole extent. The silence of the night when literary work--especially +in youth,--is carried on, causes one to forget the noisy artificial +life outside, and darkness hides the heaps of stones over which animals +which are ill-adapted to their environment stumble. Then comes the +morning, the light of day, the street noises, men, friends, police, +clocks striking, and the seer is afraid of his own thoughts. Public +opinion raises its cry, newspapers sound the alarm, friends drop off, +it becomes lonely round one, and an irresistible terror seizes the +attacker of society. "If you will not be with us," society says, "then +go into the woods. If you are an animal ill-adapted to its environment, +or a savage, we will deport you to a lower state of society which +you will suit." And from its own point of view society is right and +always will be right. But the society of the future will celebrate the +revolter, the individual, who has brought about social improvement, and +the revolter is justified long after his death. + +In every intelligent youth's life there comes a moment when he is in +the transition stage between family life and that of society, when +he feels disgusted at artificial civilisation and breaks out. If he +remains in society, he is soon suppressed by the united wet-blankets +of sentiment and anxiety about living; he becomes tired, dazzled, +drops off and leaves other young men to continue the fight. This +unsophisticated glance into things, this outbreak of a healthy nature +which must of necessity take place in an unspoilt youth, has been +stigmatised by a name which is intended to depreciate the idealistic +impulses of youth. It is called "spring fever" by which is meant that +it is only a temporary illness of childhood, a rising of the vernal +sap, which produces stoppage of the circulation and giddiness. But who +knows whether the youth did not see right before society put out his +eyes? And why do they despise him afterwards? + +Schiller had to creep into a public post for the sake of a living and +even eat the bread of charity from a duke's hand. Therefore his writing +degenerated, though perhaps not from an æsthetic or subordinate point +of view. But his hatred of tyrants is everywhere manifest. It declares +itself against Philip II of Spain, Dorea of Genoa, Gessler of Austria, +but therefore ceases to be effective. Schiller's rebellion which was in +the first instance directed against society, was afterwards directed +against the monarchy alone. He closes his career with the following +advice to a world reformer (not, however, till he had seen the reaction +which followed the French Revolution). "For rain and dew and for the +welfare of mankind, let heaven care to-day, my friend, as it has always +done." Heaven, the unfortunate old heaven will care for it, just as +well as it has done before. + +Just as a man once does his militia duty at the age of twenty-one, so +Schiller did his. How many have shirked it! + +John did not take the preface to "The Robbers" very seriously or rather +ignored it; but he took Karl Moor literally for he was congenial. He +did not imitate him, for he was so like him that he had no need to do +so. He was just as mutinous, just as wavering, and just as ready at an +alarm to go and deliver himself into the hands of justice. + +His disgust at everything continually increased and he began to make +plans for flight from organised society. Once it occurred to him to +journey to Algiers and enlist in the Foreign Legion. That would be +fine he thought to live in the desert in a tent, to shoot at half-wild +men or perhaps be shot by them. But circumstances occurred at the +right moment, to reconcile him again with his environment. Through the +recommendation of a friend he was offered the post of tutor to two +girls in a rich and cultured family. The children were to be educated +in a new and liberal-minded method and neither to go to a girls' school +nor have a governess. That was an important task to which he was +called and John did not feel himself adequate to it; besides which he +objected that he was only an elementary school-teacher. He was answered +that his future employers knew that, but were liberal-minded. How +liberal-minded people were at that time! + +Now there commenced a new double life for him. From the penal +institution of the elementary school with its compulsory catechism and +Bible, its poverty, wretchedness, and cruelty, he went to dinner at +one o'clock, which he swallowed in a quarter of an hour, and then by +two o'clock was at his post as private tutor. The house was one of the +finest at that time in Stockholm with a porter, Pompeian stair-cases +and painted windows in the hall. In a handsome, large, well-lighted +corner room with flowers, bird-cages and an aquarium he was to give +lessons to two well-dressed, washed and combed little girls, who +looked cheerful and satisfied after their dinner. Here he could give +expression to his own thoughts. The catechism was banished, and only +select Bible stories were to be read together with broad-minded +explanations of the life and teachings of the Ideal Man, for the +children were not to be confirmed, but brought up after a new model. +They read Schiller and were enthusiastic for William Tell and the +fortunate little land of freedom. John taught them all that he knew and +spent more time in talking than in asking questions; he roused in them +the hopes of a better future which he shared himself. + +Here he obtained an insight into a social circle hitherto unknown to +him, that of the rich and cultured. Here he found liberal-mindedness, +courage and the desire for truth. Down below in the elementary school +they were cowardly, conservative and untruthful. Would the parents of +the children be willing to have religious teaching done away with, +even if the school authorities recommended it? Probably not. Must +then illumination come from the upper classes? Certainly, though not +from the highest class of all, but from the republic of truth-seeking +scientists. John saw that one must get an upper place in order to be +heard; therefore he must strive upwards or pull culture down and cast +the sparks of it among all. One needed to be economically independent +in order to be liberally minded; a position was necessary in order to +give one's words weight; thus aristocracy ruled in this sphere also. + +There was at that time a group of young doctors, men of science and +letters, and members of parliament who formed a liberal league without +constituting themselves a formal society. They gave popular lectures, +engaged not to receive any honorary decorations, cherished liberal +views on the subject of the State Church and wrote in the papers. Among +them were Axel Key, Nordenskiöld, Christian Loven, Harald Wieselgren, +Hedlund, Victor Rydberg, Meijerberg, Jolin, and many less-known names. +These, with one or two exceptions, worked quietly without creating +excitement. After the reaction of 1872 they fell off and became tired; +they could not join any political party which was rather an advantage +than otherwise for the country party had already begun to be corrupted +by yearly visiting Stockholm and attendance at the court. They now all +belong to the moderate or respectable liberal party, except those of +them who have joined the indifferents, a fact not to be wondered at, +after they had for so many years fought uselessly for nothing. + +Through the family of his pupils John came into external touch with +this group, obtained a closer view of them, and heard their speeches at +dinners and suppers. To John they sometimes seemed the very men whom +the time needed, who would first spread enlightenment and then work +for reform. Here he met the superintendent of the elementary school +and was surprised at finding him among the liberals. But he had the +school authorities over him and was as good as powerless. At a cheerful +dinner, when John had plucked up heart, he wished to have an intimate +talk with him and to come to an understanding. "Here," he thought, +"we can play the part of augurs and laugh with each other over our +champagne." But the superintendent did not want to laugh and asked him +to postpone the conversation till they met in the school. No, John did +not want to do that, for in the school both would have other views, and +speak of something else. + +John's debts increased and so did his work. He was in the school from +eight till one; then he ate his dinner and went to give his private +lessons within half-an-hour, arriving out of breath, with food half +digested, and sleepy; then he taught till four o'clock going out +afterwards to give more lessons in the Nordtullsgata; he returned to +his girl pupils in the evening, and then read far into the night for +his examination after ten hours' teaching. That was over-work. The +pupil thinks his work hard, but he is only the carriage while the +teacher is the horse. Teaching is decidedly harder than standing by a +screw or the crane of a machine, and equally monotonous. + +His brain, dulled by work and disturbed digestion, needed to be roused, +and his strength needed replenishing. He chose the shortest and best +method by going into a café, drinking a glass of wine, and sitting for +a while. It was good that there were such places of recreation, where +young men could meet and fathers of families recruit themselves over a +newspaper and talk of something else than business. + +The following summer he went out to a summer settlement outside the +city. There he read daily for a couple of hours with his girl pupils +and a whole number of children besides them. The summer settlement +afforded rich and varied opportunities of social intercourse. It was +divided into three camps,--the learned, the æsthetic and the civic. +John belonged to all three. It has been asserted that loneliness +injures the development of character (into an automaton), and if +has been also asserted that much social intercourse is bad for the +development of character. Everything can be said and can be true; it +all depends upon the point of view. But no doubt for the development +of the soul into a rich and free life much social intercourse is +necessary. The more men one sees and talks with, the more points +of view and experiences one gains. Every one conceals a grain of +originality in himself, every individual has his own history. John got +on equally well with all; he spoke on learned matters with the learned, +discussed art and literature with the æsthetes, sang quartettes and +danced with the young people, taught the children and botanised, +sailed, rode and swam with them. But after he had spent some time in +the rush, he withdrew into solitude for a day or two to digest his +impressions. Those who were really happy were the townsmen. They came +from their work in the town, shook off their cares and played in the +evening. Old wholesale merchants played in the ring and sang and danced +like children. The learned and the æsthetic on the other hand sat +on chairs, spoke of their work, were worried by their thoughts as by +nightmares and never seemed to be really happy. They could not free +themselves from the tyranny of thought. The tradesmen, however, had +preserved a little green spot in their hearts which neither the thirst +for gain nor speculation nor competition had been able to parch up. +There was something emotional and hearty about them which John was +inclined to call "nature." They could laugh like lunatics, scream like +savages, and be swayed by the emotions of the moment. They wept over +a friend's misfortune or death, embraced each other when delighted +and could be carried out of themselves by a beautiful sunset. The +professors sat in chairs and could not see the landscape because of +their eye-glasses, their looks were directed inwards, and they never +showed their feelings. They talked in syllogisms and formulas; their +laughter was bitter, and all their learning seemed like a puppet play. +Is that then the highest point of view? It is not a defect to have let +a whole region of the soul's life lie fallow? + +It was the third camp with which John was on the most intimate +terms. This was a little clique consisting of a doctor's family and +their friends. There sang the renowned tenor W. while Professor M. +accompanied him; there played and sang the composer J.; there the +old Professor P. talked about his journeys to Rome in the company +of painters of high birth. Here the emotions had full play, but +were under the control of good taste. They enjoyed the sunsets, but +analysed the lights and shades and talked of lines and "values." The +more noisy enjoyments of the tradesmen were regarded as disturbing +and unæsthetic. They were enthusiasts for art. John spent some hours +pleasantly with these amiable people, but when he heard the sound of +quartette singing and dance-music from the villa close by, he longed to +be there. That was certainly more lively. + +In hours of solitude he read, and now for the first time, became really +acquainted with Byron. "Don Juan," which he already knew, he had found +merely frivolous. It really dealt with nothing and the descriptions +of scenery were intolerably long. The work seemed merely a string of +adventures and anecdotes. In "Manfred" he renewed acquaintance with +Karl Moor in another dress. Manfred was no hater of men; he hated +himself more, and went to the Alps in order to fly himself, but always +found his guilty self beside him, for John guessed at once that he had +been guilty of incest. Nowadays it is generally believed that Byron +hinted at this crime, which was purely imaginary, in order to make +himself appear interesting. To become interesting as a romanticist at +whatever price would at the present time be called "differentiating +oneself, going beyond and above the others." Crime was regarded as +a sign of strength, therefore it was considered desirable to have a +crime to boast about, but not such a one as could be punished. They did +not want to have anything to do with the police and penal servitude. +There was certainly a spirit of opposition to law and morality in this +boasting of crime. + +Manfred's discontent with heaven and the government of Providence +pleased John. Manfred's denunciations of men were really levelled at +society, though society as we now understand it, had not then been +discovered. Rousseau, Byron and the rest were by no means discontented +misogynists. It was only primitive Christianity which demanded that men +should love men. To say that one was interested in them would be more +modest and truthful. One who has been overreached and thrust aside in +the battle of life may well fear men, but one cannot hate them when +one realises one's solidarity with humanity and that human intercourse +is the greatest pleasure in life. Byron was a spirit who awoke before +the others and might have been expected to hate his contemporaries, but +none the less strove and suffered for the good of all. + +When John saw that the poem was written in blank verse he tried to +translate it, but had not got far, before he discovered that he could +not write verse. He was not "called." Sometimes melancholy, sometimes +frisky, John felt at times an uncontrollable desire to quench the +burning fire of thought in intoxication and bring the working of his +brain to a standstill. Though he was shy, he felt occasionally impelled +to step forward, to make himself impressive, to collect hearers and +appear on a stage. When he had drunk a good deal, he wanted to declaim +poetry in the grand style. But in the middle of the piece, when his +ecstasy was at its highest, he heard his own voice, became nervous and +embarrassed, found himself ridiculous, suddenly dropped into a prosaic +and comic tone and ended with a grimace; he could be pathetic, but +only for a while; then came self-criticism and he laughed at his own +overwrought feelings. The romantic was in his blood, but the realistic +side of him was about to wake up. + +He was also liable to attacks of caprice and self-punishment. Thus he +remained away from a dinner to which he had been invited and lay in his +room hungry till the evening. He excused himself by saying that he had +overslept. + +The summer approached its end and he looked forward to the beginning of +the autumn term in the elementary school with dread. He had now been +in circles where poverty never showed its emaciated face; he had tasted +the enticing wine of culture and did not wish to become sober again. + +His depression increased; he retired into himself and withdrew from the +circle of his friends. But one evening, there was a knock at his door; +the old doctor who had been his most intimate friend and lived in the +same villa, stepped in. + +"How are the moods?" he asked, and sat down with the air of an old +fatherly friend. + +John did not wish to confess. How was he to say that he was +discontented with his position, and acknowledge that he was ambitious +and wished to advance in life? But the doctor had seen and understood +all. "You must be a doctor," he said. "That is a practical vocation +which will suit you, and bring you into touch with real life. You have +a lively imagination which you must hold in check, or it will do harm. +Now are you inclined to this? Have I guessed right?" + +He had. Through his intercourse from afar with these new prophets who +succeeded the priests and confessors, John had come to see in their +practical knowledge of men's lives, the highest pitch of human wisdom. +To become a wise man who could solve the riddles of life,--that was for +a while his dream. For a while, for he did not really wish to enter any +career in which he could be enrolled as a regular member of society. +It was not from dislike of work, for he worked strenuously and was +unhappy when unoccupied, but he had a strong objection to be enrolled. +He did not wish to be a cypher, a cog-wheel, or a screw in the social +machine. He wished to stand outside and contemplate, learn and preach. +A doctor was in a certain sense free; he was not an official, had no +superiors, set in no public office, was not tied by the clock. That was +a fairly enticing prospect, and John was enticed. But how was he to +take a medical degree, which required eight years' study? His friend, +however, had seen a way out of this difficulty. "Live with us and teach +my boys," he said. + +This was certainly a business-like offer which carried with it no sense +of accepting a humiliating favour. But what about his place in the +school? Should he give it up? + +"That is not your place!" the doctor cut him short. "Every one should +work where his talents can have free scope, and yours cannot in the +elementary school, where you have to teach, as prescribed by the school +authorities." + +John found this reasonable, but he had been so imbued with ascetic +teaching that he felt a pang of conscience. He wanted to leave the +school, but a strange feeling of duty and obligation held him back. He +felt quite ashamed of being suspected of such a natural weakness as +ambition. And his place, as the son of a servant, had been assigned to +him below. But his father had literally pulled him up, why should he +sink and strike his roots down there again? + +He fought a short bloody conflict, then accepted the offer thankfully, +and sent in his resignation as a school-teacher. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DOCTOR + +(1868) + + +John now found his new home with the homeless, the Israelites. He +was immediately surrounded by a new atmosphere. Here there was no +recollection of Christianity; one neither plagued oneself or others; +there was no grace at meals, no going to church, no catechism. + +"It is good to be here," thought John. "These are liberal-minded men +who have brought the best of foreign culture home, without being +obliged to take what is bad." Here for the first time, he encountered +foreign influences. The family had journeyed much, had relatives +abroad, spoke all languages, and received foreign guests. Both the +small and great affairs of the country were spoken about, and light +thrown on them by comparison with their originals abroad. By this means +John's mental horizon was widened and he was enabled to estimate his +native country better. + +The patriarchal constitution of the family had not assumed the form of +domestic tyranny. On the contrary the children treated their parents +more as their equals, and the parents were gentle with them without +losing their dignity. Placed in an unfriendly part of the world, +surrounded by half-enemies, the members of the family helped each other +and held together. To be without a native country, which is regarded +as such a hard-ship, has this advantage that it keeps the intelligence +alive and vigorous. Men who are wanderers have to watch unceasingly, +observe continually, and gain new and rich experiences, while those who +sit at home become lazy and lean upon others. + +The children of Israel occupy a peculiar and exceptional position from +a social point of view. They have forgotten the Messianic promise and +do not believe in it. In most European countries they have remained +among the middle classes; to join the lower classes was for the most +part denied them, though not so widely as is generally believed. Nor +could they join the upper classes; therefore they feel related to +neither of the latter. They are aristocrats from habit and inclination, +but have the same interests as the lower classes, _i.e_. they wish to +roll away the stone which lies upon and presses them. But they fear the +proletariat who have no religious sense and who do not love the rich. +Therefore the children of Abraham rather aspire to those above them, +than seek sympathy from those below. + +About this time (1868) the question of Jewish emancipation began to be +raised. All liberals supported it and it was practically a discarding +of Christianity. Baptism, ecclesiastical marriage, confirmation, +church attendance were all declared to be unnecessary conditions for +membership in a Christian community. Such apparently small reforms +make an impression on the state, like the dropping of water on a rock. + +At that time a cheerful tone prevailed in the family, the sons having a +brighter future in prospect than their fathers, whose academic course +had been hindered by State regulations. + +A liberal table was kept in the house; everything was of the best +quality, and there was plenty of it. The servants managed the house +and were allowed a free hand in everything; they were not regarded as +servants. The housemaid was a pietist and allowed to be so, as much +as she pleased. She was good-natured and humorous, and, illogically +enough, adopted the jesting tone of the cheerful paganism which reigned +in the house. On the other hand, no one laughed at her belief. John +himself was treated as an intimate friend and a child alternately and +lived with the boys. His work was easy and he was rather required to +keep the boys company than to give them lessons. Meanwhile he became +somewhat "spoiled" as people, who have the usual idea of keeping youth +in the background, call it. Though only nineteen, he was received +on an equal footing among well-known and mature artists, doctors, +_littérateurs_ and officials. He became accustomed to regard himself as +grown up, and therefore the set-backs he encountered afterwards, were +the harder to bear. + +His medical career began with chemical experiments in the technological +institute. There he obtained a closer view of some of the glories he +had dreamed of in his childhood. But how dry and tedious were the +rudiments of science! To stand and pour acids on salts and to watch the +solution change colour, was not pleasant; to produce salts from two or +more solutions was not very interesting. But later on, when the time +came for analysis, the mysterious part began. To fill a glass about +the size of a punch-bowl with a liquid as clear as water and then to +exhibit in the filter the possibly twenty elements it contained,--this +really seemed like penetrating into nature's secrets. When he was alone +in the laboratory he made small experiments on his own account, and it +was not long before with some danger he had prepared a little phial +of prussic acid. To have death enclosed in a few drops under a glass +stopper was a curiously pleasant feeling. + +At the same time he studied zoology, anatomy, botany, physic and +Latin,--still more Latin! To read and master a subject was congenial to +him, but to learn by heart he hated. His head was already filled with +so many subjects, that it was hard for anything more to enter, but it +was obliged to. + +A worse drawback was that so many other interests began to vie in his +mind with his medical studies. The theatre was only a stone's throw +from the doctor's house and he went there twice a week. He had a +standing place at the end of the third row. From thence he saw elegant +and cheerful French comedies played on a Brussels carpet. The light +Gallic humour, admired by the melancholy Swedes as their missing +complement, completely captivated him. What a mental equilibrium, what +a power of resistance to the blows of fate were possessed by this +race of a southern sunnier land! His thoughts became still more gloomy +as he grew conscious of his Germanic "Weltschmerz" lying like a veil +over everything, which a hundred years of French education could not +have lifted. But he did not know that Parisian theatrical life differs +widely from that of the industrious and thrifty Parisian at the desk +and the counter. French comedies were written for the parvenus of +the Second Empire; politics and religion were subject to the censor, +but not morals. French comedy was aristocratic in tone, but had a +liberating effect on the mind as it was in touch with reality, though +it did not interfere in social questions. It accustomed the public to +sympathise with and feel at home in this superfine world; one came to +forget the lower everyday world, and when one left the theatre it felt +as though one had been at supper with a friendly duke. + +As chance fell out, the doctor's wife possessed a good library in +which all the best literature of the world was represented. It was +indeed a treasure to have all these at one's elbow! Moreover the doctor +possessed a number of pictures by Swedish masters and a valuable +collection of engravings. There was an efflorescence of æstheticism +on all sides, even in the schools, where lectures on literature were +delivered. The conversation in the family circle mostly turned on +pictures, dramas, actors, books, authors, and the doctor felt from time +to time impelled to flavour it with details of his practice. + +Now and then John began to read the papers. Political and social life +with their various questions opened up before him, but at first with a +repelling effect, as he was an æsthete and domestic egoist. Politics +did not seem to touch him at all; he considered it a special branch of +knowledge like any other. + +He continued his lessons to the girls and his intercourse with +their family. Outside the house he met grown up relatives, who were +tradesmen, and their acquaintances. His circle was therefore widened, +and he saw life from more than one point of view. But this constant +occupation with children had a hampering effect on his development. He +never felt himself older, and he could not treat the young with an air +of superiority. He already noticed that they were in advance of him, +that they were born with new thoughts, and that they built on, where he +had ceased. When later on in life, he met grown-up pupils, he looked up +to them as though they were the older. + +The autumn of 1865 had commenced. There had been so much miscalculation +as to the effects of the new State constitution that there was +widespread discontent. Society was turned topsy-turvy. The peasant +threatened the civilised town-dwellers and there was a general feeling +of bitterness. + +Has the last word regarding the agrarian party yet been said? Probably +not. It began with a democratic and reforming programme and its attack +on the Civil List was the boldest stroke which had yet been seen. It +was a legal attempt to overthrow the monarchy. If the vote of supply +was screwed down to the lowest possible, the king would go. It was a +simple and at the same time a clever stroke. + +At a period which proclaims the right of the majority, one would not +have expected the peasants' cause would encounter resistance. Sweden +was a kingdom of peasants, for the country population numbered four +millions, which in a population of four and a half millions, is +certainly the majority. Should then the half million rule the four or +vice versa? The latter course seemed the fairer. Now naturally the +townsmen talk of the egotism and tyranny of the peasants, but have the +labour party in the town a single item in their programme to improve +the condition of the peasants and cottagers? It is so stupid to talk +of egotism when every one now sees that he profits the whole, in +proportion as he profits himself. + +Meanwhile, in 1868, the malcontents discovered a party which could be +opposed to the constitutional majority and whose programme contained +all kinds of thorough-going reforms. That was the new liberal party, +consisting for the most part of authors, some artisans, a professor, +etc. By means of this handful of people who had none of the weighty +interests which landed property involves, and whose social position +was so insecure that a single unfavourable harvest could turn them +into members of the proletariat, it was proposed to remodel society. +What did the artisans know about society? How did they wish it to be +constituted? Did they wish it to be remodelled in their interest, +although the peasantry should be ruined? But that meant cutting off +their own legs, for Sweden is not a land of exporting industries. +Therefore the four million consumers in the land, as soon as their +purchasing power was diminished, would involuntarily ruin the +industries and leave the artisans stranded. That the artisans should +advance is a necessity, but to wish to make all men industrial workers +as the industrial socialists do, is much more unreasonable than to make +them all peasants as the agrarian socialists purpose doing. Capital, +which the labour party now attack, is the foundation of industry and if +that is touched, industry is overthrown, and then the workmen must go +back whence they came and still daily come,--to the country. + +Meanwhile, the agrarian party was not yet corrupted by intercourse with +aristocrats; it was neither conservative nor did it make compromises. +The war seemed to be between the country and the town. The atmosphere +was electric and the smallest cause might produce a thunderstorm. + +In the capital there prevailed a general desire to erect a statue to +Charles XII. Why? Was this last knight of the Middle Ages the ideal +of the age? Bid the character of the idol of Gustav IV, Adolf, and +Charles XV suitably express the spirit of the new peaceful period +which now commenced? Or did the idea originate, as so often is the +case in the sculptor's studio? Who knows? The statue was ready and the +unveiling was to take place. Stands were erected for the spectators, +but so unskilfully that the ceremony could not be witnessed by the +general public, and the space railed off could only contain the +invited guests, the singers and those who paid for their seats. But +the subscription had been national and all believed they had a right +to see. The arrangements were obnoxious to the people. Petitions were +made to have the stands removed, but without success. The crowd began +to make attempts to tear them down, but the military intervened. The +doctor that day was giving a dinner to the Italian Opera Company. They +had just risen from dessert when a noise was heard from the street; it +was at first like rain falling on an iron roof, but then cries were +distinctly audible. John listened, but for the moment nothing more was +to be heard. The wine-glasses clinked amid Italian and French phrases +which flew hither and thither over the table; there was such a noise of +jests and laughter that those at the table could hardly hear themselves +speak. But now there came a roar from the street, followed immediately +by the tramp of horses, the rattle of weapons and harness. There was +silence in the room for a moment, and one and another turned pale. + +"What is it?" asked the prima donna. + +"The mob making a noise," answered a professor. + +John stood up from the table, went into his room, took his hat and +stick and hurried out. "The mob!"--the words rang in his ear while +he went down the street. "The mob!" They were his mother's former +associates, his own school-mates and afterwards his pupils; they formed +the dark background against which the society he had just quitted, +stood out like a brilliant picture. He felt again as though he were a +deserter, and had done wrong in working his way up. But he must get +above if he was to do anything for those below. Yes many had said +that, but when once they did get above, they found it so pleasant, +that they forgot those below. These cavalrymen, for instance, whose +origin was of the humblest, what airs they gave themselves! With what +unmixed pleasure they cut down their former comrades, though it must +be confessed they would have even more enjoyed cutting down the "black +hats." + +He went on and came to the market-place. The stands for the spectators +stood out against the November sky like gigantic market booths, and +the space below swarmed with men. From the opening of the Arsenal +street the tramp of horses was heard only a short way off. Then they +came riding forth, the blue guardsmen, the support of society, on whom +the upper class relied. John was seized with a wild desire to dash +against this mass of horses, men and sabres, as though he saw in them +oppression incarnate. That was the enemy! very well--at them! The troop +rode on and John stationed himself in the middle of the street. Whence +had he derived this hatred against the supporters of law and order, who +some day would protect him and his rights after he had clambered up, +and was in a position to oppress others? If the mob with whom he now +felt his solidarity had had their hands free, they would probably have +thrown the first stone through the window, behind which he had sat with +four wine-glasses in front of him. Certainly, but that did not prevent +his taking their side just as the upper class often, inconsistently +enough, takes sides against the police. This mania for freedom in the +abstract is probably the natural man's small revolt against society. + +He was going against the cavalry with a vague idea of striking them +all to the ground or something of the sort, when fortunately some one +seized him by the arm firmly but in a friendly way. He was brought back +to the doctor's who had sent out to seek for him. After he had given +his word of honour not to go out again he sank on a sofa, and lay all +the evening in fever. + +On the day of the unveiling of Charles XII's statue, he was one of the +student singers, therefore among the elect, the "upper ten thousand," +and had no reason to be discontented with his lot. When the ceremony +was over, the people rushed forward. The police forced them back, and +then they began to throw stones. The mounted police drew their sabres +and struck, arresting some and assaulting others. + +John had entered the market in front of the Jakob's church when he saw +a policeman lay hold of a man, under a shower of stones which knocked +off the constables' helmets. Without hesitation he sprang on the +policeman, seized him by the collar, shook him and shouted, "Let the +fellow go!" + +The policeman looked at his assailant in astonishment. + +"Who are you?" he asked irresolutely. + +"I am Satan, and I will take you, if you don't let him go." + +He actually did let him go and tried to seize John. At the same instant +a stone knocked off his three-cornered hat. John tore himself loose; +the crowd were now driven back by bayonets towards the guard-house in +the Gustaf Adolf market. After them followed a swarm of well-dressed +men, obviously members of the upper classes, shouting wildly, and as it +seemed, resolved to free the prisoners. John ran with them; it was as +though they were all impelled by a storm-wind. Men who had not been +molested or oppressed at all, who had high positions in society, rushed +blindly forward, risking their position, their domestic happiness, +their living, everything. John felt a hand grasp his. He returned the +pressure, and saw close beside him a middle-aged man, well-dressed, +with distorted features. They did not know each other, nor did they +speak together, but ran hand in hand, as if seized by one impulse. +They came across a third in whom John recognised an old school-fellow, +subsequently a civil service official, son of the head of a department. +This young man had never sided with the opposition party in school, +but on the contrary, was looked upon as a re-actionary with a future +in front of him. He was now as white as a corpse, his cheeks were +bloodless, the muscles of his forehead swollen, and his face resembled +a skull in which two eyes were burning. They could not speak, but +took each other's hands and ran on against the guards whom they were +attacking. The human waves advanced till they were met by the bayonets, +and then as always, dispersed in foam. Half-an-hour later John was +discussing a beefsteak with some students in the Opera restaurant. He +spoke of his adventure as though it were something which had happened +independently of him and his will. Nay, he even jested at it. That +may have been fear of public opinion, but also it may have been the +case that he regarded his outbreak objectively and now quietly judged +it as a member of society. The trap-door had opened for a moment, the +prisoner had put his head out, and then it had closed again. + +His unknown fellow-criminal, as he discovered later, was a pronounced +conservative, a wholesale tradesman. He always avoided meeting John's +eye, when they met after this. One time they met on a narrow pavement, +and had to look at each other, but did not smile. + +While they were sitting in the restaurant, came the news of the death +of Blanche. The students took it fairly coolly, the artists and middle +class citizens more warmly, but the lower classes talked of murder. +They knew that he had personally besought Charles XV to have the +spectators' stands taken down; they knew also, that though he was +very prosperous himself, he had always thought of them and they were +thankful. Stupid people objected, as is usual in such cases, that it +required no great skill on his part to speak on behalf of the poor, +when he was rich and celebrated. Did it not? It required the greatest. + +It is remarkable that the chief outbreak of discontent was directed, +not as elsewhere against the King, but against the governor and the +police. Charles XV was a _persona grata_; he could do as he liked +without becoming unpopular. He was neither condescending nor democratic +in his tastes, but rather proud. Stories were told of some of his +favourites having fallen into disgrace for want of respect on some +mirthful occasion. He could put tobacco into his soldiers' mouths, +but he scolded officers who did not at once fall in with his moods. +He could box people's ears at a fire, and did not laugh when he was +caricatured in a comic paper, as was supposed. He was a ruler and +believed he was also a warrior and a statesman; he interfered in the +government and could snub specialists with a "You don't understand +that!" But he was popular and remained so. Swedes, who do not like to +see a man's will slackening, admired this will and bowed before it. +It was also strange, that they forgave his irregular life; perhaps it +was because he made no secret of it. He had laid down a standard of +morality for himself and lived according to it. Therefore he lived at +harmony with himself, and harmony is always pleasant to contemplate. + +People might be revolters by instinct, but they did not believe in the +transition form to a better social constitution, _i.e_. a republic. +They had seen how two French republics had been followed by new +monarchies. There were secret anarchists, but no republicans, and they +had persuaded themselves that the monarchy offered no barrier to the +progress of liberty. + +These were the ideas of the younger men. The elder men with Blanche +thought a republic the only means of social salvation and therefore in +our days the old liberal school has become conservative-republican. + + * * * * * + +When the doctor saw that his wife's literary books threatened to +encroach upon John's medical studies, he resolved to give him a +glimpse into the secrets of his profession, and to allow him such a +foretaste of real work as should entice him to overcome the tedious +preliminary studies which he himself thought too extensive. John now +knew more chemistry and physics than the doctor, and the latter thought +it was merely malicious to hinder a rival's course by imposing too +hard preliminary studies. Why should he not, as in America, commence +dissection, which was a special branch of study? Now after the +theoretical study of anatomy, he could begin practice as an assistant. +That was a new life full of variety and reality. One went for instance +into a dark alley and came into a porter's room, where a woman lay, +sick of fever, surrounded by poor children, the grandmother and other +relations, who stole about on tip-toe, awaiting the doctor's verdict. +The malodorous ragged bed-cover would be lifted, a sunken heaving chest +exposed to view, and a prescription written. Then one went to the +Tvädgårdsgatan and was conducted over soft carpets through splendid +rooms into a bed-chamber which looked liked a temple; one lifted a +blue silk coverlet and put in splints the leg of an angelic-looking +child, dressed in lace. On the way out one looked at a collection of +paintings, and talked about artists. This was something novel and +interesting, but what connection had it with Titus Livius and the +history of philosophy? + +But then came the details of surgery. One was roused at seven o'clock +in the morning, came into the doctor's dark room, and manually assisted +at the cauterising of a syphilitic sore. The room reeked of human +flesh, and was repugnant to an empty stomach. Or he had to hold a +patient's head and felt it twitch with pain while the doctor with a +fork extracted glands from his throat. + +"One soon gets accustomed to that," said the doctor, and that was true, +but John's thoughts were busy with Goethe's Faust, Wieland's Epicurean +romances, George Sand's social phantasies, Chateaubriand's soliloquies +with nature, and Lessing's common-sense theories. His imagination +was set in motion and his memory refused to work; the reality of +cauterisations and flowing blood was ugly; æstheticism had laid hold +of him, and actual life seemed to him tedious and repulsive. His +intercourse with artists had opened his eyes to a new world, a free +society within Society. They would come to a well-spread table where +cultivated people were sitting with badly-fitting clothes, black nails, +and dirty linen, as if they were not merely equal, but superior to the +rest,--in what? + +They could scarcely write their names, they borrowed money without +repaying it, and their talk was coarse. Everything was permitted to +them, which was not permitted to others. Why? They could paint. They +studied at the Academy, and the Academy did not ask whether all who +enrolled themselves as students were geniuses. How was it known that +they were geniuses? Was painting greater than knowledge and science? + +They also had, as was well recognised, a peculiar morality of their +own. They opened studios, hired models, and boasted of their paramours, +while other men were ashamed of theirs and incurred disapproval on +account of them. They laughed at what were very serious matters for +other men, nay, it seemed to be part of an artist's equipment to be a +"scoundrel," as any one else would be called for similar conduct. + +"That was a glad free world," thought John, and one in which he could +thrive, without conventional fetters or social obligations, and above +all, without contact with banal realities. But he was not a genius? +How should he get the entrée to it? Should he learn to paint and so be +initiated? No! that would not do; he had never thought of painting; +that demanded a special vocation, he thought, and painting would not +express all he had to say, when once he began to speak. If he _had_ +to find a medium for self-expression it would be the theatre. An actor +could step forward, and say all kinds of truths, however bitter they +might be, without being brought to book for them. That was certainly a +tempting career. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +John's proposal to transfer the university from Upsala to Stockholm was +destined to have consequences, and his comrades had warned him of them. +When he went up early in spring in order to write the obligatory Latin +essay he had sent the professor by post the three test-essays and the +15 krona fee. So he could carry out his purpose unhindered and enrolled +himself. + +But now in May he wished to go and pass the preliminary examination in +chemistry. In order to be well prepared, he had himself tested by the +assistant-professor at the technological institute. The latter did so +and declared that he already knew more than was needed for the medical +examination. Thus prepared, he went up to Upsala. His first visit was +to a comrade, who had already passed the preliminary examination in +chemistry, and knew the "tips" for it. + +John began: "I can do synthesis and analysis, and have studied organic +chemistry." + +"That is very well, for we only need synthesis; however, it is no use +for you have not studied in the professor's laboratory." + +"That is true; but the course at the Institute is much better." + +"No matter,--it is not his." + +"We shall see," said John, "whether knowledge does not tell in any +ease." + +"If you are so sure, then try, but consider first what I say. You must +first go to the assistant-professor and get a 'tip'." + +"What do you mean?" + +"For a krona he will give you an hour's polishing, and ask you all the +important questions which the professor has put during the past year. +Just now he is in the habit of asking whether matches can be made out +of his carcase and ammonia from your old boots. But that you will +learn from the assistant. Secondly, you must not go to be examined +in a frock coat and white tie; least of all, dressed as well as you +are now. Therefore you must borrow my riding-coat, which is green in +the shoulders and red in the seams, and my top-boots, for he does not +like elastic boots." + +John followed his friend's instructions and went first to the +assistant-professor who gave him the questions which had been last +asked. In return John promised that under all circumstances he would +return and tell him the questions which he himself had been asked, as a +means of enlarging his catechism. + +The next day John went to his friend to array himself. His trousers +were drawn up so that the tops of the boots should be seen and his +loose collar turned on one side, so that the skin should show between +the tie and the collar. Thus equipped, he went up for his first trial. + +The professor of chemistry had formerly been a fortification officer, +and had received in his time a not very cordial welcome from the +learned staff in Upsala. He was a soldier, not academically cultivated, +and thus a kind of "Philistine." This had galled him and made him +bilious. In order to efface the effect of his laymen-like exterior, he +affected the airs of an over-read and blunt professor. He went about +ill-dressed and behaved eccentrically. Though many hundreds besides +himself had been pupils of Berzelius, he was fond of mentioning the +fact; it was his trump card. Berzelius, among other things, went about +in shabby trousers, therefore a hole in one's clothes was the sign of a +learned chemist, and so on. Hence all these peculiarities. + +John presented himself, was regarded with suspicion and bidden to come +again in a week. He replied that he had come from Stockholm and was +too poor to support himself for a week in the town. He managed to get +permission to present himself the next day. "It would be soon over," +said the old man. + +The next day he sat on a seat opposite the professor. It was a sunny +afternoon in May, and the old man seemed to have digested his dinner +badly. He looked grim as he threw out his first question from his +rocking-chair. The answers were correct at the beginning. Then the +questions became more tortuous like snakes. + +"If I have an estate, where I suspect the presence of saltpetre, how +shall I begin to construct a saltpetre factory?" + +John suggested a saltpetre analysis. + +"No." + +"Well, then, I don't know anything else." + +There was silence and the flies buzzed,--a long and terrible silence. +"Now will come the question about the boots or the matches," thought +John, "and there I shall shine." He coughed by way of rousing the +professor, but the silence continued. John wondered whether he had been +seen through and whether the old man recognised the "examination coat." + +Then came a new question which was unanswered, and then another. + +"You have come too soon," said the old man, and rose up. + +"Yes, but I have worked a whole year in the laboratory, and can do +chemical analysis." + +"Yes, you know how to make up prescriptions, but you have not digested +your knowledge. In the Institute only manual dexterity is necessary, +but here scientific knowledge is required." + +As a matter of fact the case was exactly the reverse for the medical +students in Upsala complained that they had to stand like cooks and +make up mixtures and salts, without having time to look at an analysis, +which last was just what a doctor ought to do while synthesis was the +apothecary's work. But now the proposal made some years before whether +the university had not better be transferred to Stockholm had roused a +feeling in Upsala against the capital. Moreover the laboratory of the +newly-built technological institute was as famous for its excellent +equipment, as that of Upsala was notorious for its poor one. Here, +therefore, petty prejudices were at work and John felt the unfairness +of it. "I do not then get a certificate?" he asked. + +"No, sir, not this year; but come again next year." + +The professor was ashamed to say, "Go to my only soul-saving +laboratory." + +John went out furious. Here then again neither diligence nor knowledge +prevailed, but only cash and cringing! Had he tried short cuts? No, +on the contrary, he had been obliged to travel by painful circuitous +paths, while others had gone the direct road, and the directest is the +shortest. + +He went to the Carolina Park, as angry as an irritated bee. He did +not wish to return at once to the town, but sat down on a seat. If he +could only set this devil's hole on fire! Another year? No, never! Why +read so much unnecessary stuff, which would only be forgotten, and be +of no practical use? And slave in order to enter this dirty profession +where one had to analyse urine, pick about in vomit, poke about in all +the recesses of the body? Faugh! Just as he was sitting there, a group +of cheerful-looking people came by, and stood laughing outside the +Carolina library. They looked up to the window's, through which long +rows of books were visible, shelf after shelf. They laughed,--the men +and women laughed at the books. He thought he recognised them. Yes, +they were Levasseur's French actors, whom he had seen in Stockholm and +who were now visiting Upsala. They laughed at the books! Lucky people +who could be importers of genius and culture without books. Perhaps +every soul had something to give which was not in books, but would be +there some day. Yes, certainly it was so. He himself possessed stories +of experience and thoughts, which could enrich anthropology, and were +ready to be throw out. + +Again there stole upon him the thought of entering this privileged +profession, which stood outside and above petty social conventions +which ignored distinctions of rank, and in which one need never be +conscious of belonging to the lower classes. There one could appeal to +the universal judgment, and work in full publicity instead of being +hung up here in a remote dark hole, without a verdict, examination, or +witnesses. + +Strengthened by this new idea, he stood up, east a glance at the books +above, and went down to the town resolved to go home and seek for an +engagement in the Theatre Royal. + +Every townsman has probably felt once in his life the wish to appear +as an actor. This is probably due to the impulse of the cultivated +man to magnify and make himself something, to identify himself with +great and celebrated personalities. John, who was a romanticist, had +also the desire to step forward and harangue the public. He believed +that he could choose his proper rôle, and he knew beforehand which it +would be. The fact that he, like all others, believed that he had the +capacity to become an actor, sprang from the superfluity of unused +force, produced by a want of sufficient physical exercise, and from the +tendency to megalomania connected with mental over-exertion. He saw no +difficulties in the profession itself, but expected opposition from +another quarter. + +To attribute his being stage-struck to hereditary tendencies would +perhaps be hasty, since we have just remarked that it is an almost +universal impulse. But his paternal grandfather, a Stockholm citizen, +had written dramatic pieces for an amateur theatre, and a young +distant relative still lived as a warning example. The latter had been +an engineer, had been through a course of instruction in the Motala +iron-works, and had a post on the Köping-Hult railway. He therefore had +fine prospects in front of him, but suddenly threw them up, and became +an actor. This step of his was an incessant trouble to his family. Up +to this time the young man had become nothing but was still travelling +about with an obscure theatrical company. The danger of becoming like +him was the difficult point. "Yes," said John to himself, "but I shall +have luck." Why? Because he believed it; and he believed it because he +wished it. + +Some might be inclined to derive this strong impulse on John's part +from the fact that he loved to play, as a child, with a toy theatre, +but that is not sufficient, as all children do the same and he had got +the taste from seeing them do it. The theatre was an unreal better +world which enticed one out of the tedious real one. The latter would +not have seemed so tedious if his education had been more harmonious +and realistic and not given him such a strong tendency to romance. +Enough; his resolution was taken; and without saying anything to any +one, he went to the director of the Theatrical Academy the dramaturgist +of the Theatre Royal. + +When he heard the sound of his own words "I want to be an actor," +he shuddered. He felt as though he tore down the veil of his inborn +modesty, and did violence to his own nature. + +The director asked what he was doing at present. + +"Studying medicine." + +"And you want to give up such a career, for one that is the hardest and +the worst of all?" + +"Yes." + +All actors called their profession the "hardest and the worst" though +they had such a good time of it. That was in order to frighten away +aspirants. + +John asked for private lessons in order that he might make his début. +The director replied that he was now going to the country for the +theatrical season was at an end, but he told John to come again on the +1st of September when the theatre opened, and the board of management +came again to the town. That was a definite appointment and he saw his +way clear. + +When he went down the street, he walked with his eyes wide open, as +though he gazed into a brilliant future; victory was already his; he +felt its intoxicating eating fumes, and hurried, though with unsteady +steps, down the street. + +He said nothing to the doctor nor to any one else. He had still three +months in front of him in which to train and prepare himself, but in +secret, for he was shy and timid. He was afraid of annoying his father +and the doctor, afraid of the whole town knowing that he thought +himself capable of being an actor, afraid of his relatives' scorn, his +friends' grimaces and efforts to dissuade him. This was the fruit of +his education, the fear,--"What will people say?" His imagination made +the act seem like a crime. It was certainly an interference with other +people's peace of mind for relations and friends feel a shock, when +they see a link torn out of the social chain. He felt it himself, and +had to shake off the scruples of conscience. + +For his début he had chosen the rôles of Karl Moor and Wijkander's +Lucidor. This was no mere chance but perfectly logical. In both of +these characters he had found the expression of his inner experience, +and therefore he wished to speak with their tongues. He conceived of +Lucidor as a higher nature undermined and ruined by poverty. A higher +nature of course! In his enthusiasm for the theatre he felt again what +he had felt when he had preached, and when he had revolted against the +school prayers,[1] something of the proclaimer, the prophet, and the +soothsayer. + +What most of all elevated his ideas of the great significance of the +theatre was the perusal of Schiller's essay, "The theatre regarded +as an instrument of moral education." Sentences like the following +show how lofty was the goal at which Schiller aimed. "The stage is +the chief channel through which the light of wisdom descends from +the better, thinking portion of the populace in order to spread its +beneficent light over the whole state." "In this world of art we +dream ourselves away from the real one, we find ourselves again, our +feelings are roused, wholesome emotions stir our slumbering nature and +drive our blood in swift currents. The unhappy here forget their own +sorrows in watching those of others, the happy become sober, and the +self-confident, reflective. The effeminate weakling is hardened into a +man, the coarse and callous here begin to feel. And then finally,--what +a triumph for thee O Nature, so often trodden down and so often +re-arisen,--when men of all climates and conditions, casting away all +fetters of convention and fashion, set free from the iron hand of fate, +fraternising in one all-embracing sympathy, dissolved into _one_ race, +forget themselves and the world, and approach their heavenly origin. +Each individual enjoys the delight of all, which is mirrored back to +him strengthened and beautified from a hundred eyes, and his breast has +only room for one aspiration,--to be a man!" + +Thus wrote the young Schiller at twenty-five, and the youth of twenty +subscribed it. + +The theatre is certainly still a means of culture for young people and +the middle class who can still feel the illusion of actors and painted +canvas. For older and cultivated people it is a recreation in which the +actor's art is the chief object of attention. Therefore old critics +are almost invariably discontent and crabbed. They have lost their +illusions and do not pass over any mistake in the acting. + +Modern times have overprised the theatre, especially the actor's art in +an exaggerated degree, and a re-action has followed. Actors have tried +to ply their art independently of the dramatist, believing that they +could stand on their own legs. Therefore particular "stars" become the +objects of homage and therefore also opposition has been aroused. In +Paris, where people had gone to the greatest lengths, a reaction first +showed itself. The _Figaro_ called the heroes of the Théâtre-Français +to order, and reminded them that they were only the author's puppets. + +The decay of all the great European theatres shows that the actor's +art has lost its interest. Cultivated people no more go to the +theatre because their sense for reality has been developed, and +their imagination which is a relic of the savage has diminished; the +uncultivated lack the time, and the money to go. The future seems to +belong to the variety theatre, which amuses without instructing, for it +is mere play and recreation. All important writers choose another, more +suitable form in which to handle important questions. Ibsen's dramas +have always produced their effect in book form before they were played; +and when they are played, the spectators' interest is generally +concentrated on the _manner_ of their performance; consequently it is a +secondary interest. + +John committed the usual mistake of youth, _i.e._ of confusing the +actor with the author; the actor is the mere enunciator of the +sentiments for which the author who stands behind him, is responsible. + +In the spring John resigned his post as tutor to the two girls, and +now he had leisure during the summer to study his art in secret, +and on his own responsibility. He had scoffed at books, and now the +first things he sought were books. They contained the thoughts and +experiences of men with whom, though most of them were dead, he could +converse familiarly, without being betrayed. He had heard that in the +castle there was a library which belonged to the State, and from which +one could borrow books. He obtained a surety and went there. It was a +solemn place with small rooms full of books where grey-haired silent +old men sat and read. He got his books and went shyly and happily home. + +He wished to study the matter thoroughly in all its aspects, as was his +custom. In Schiller he found the assurance that the theatre was of deep +significance; in Goethe he found a whole treatise on the histrionic +art with directions how one should walk and stand, behave oneself, sit +down, come in and go out; in Lessing's _Hamburgische Dramaturgie_ he +found a whole volume of theatrical critiques filled with the closest +observations. Lessing especially roused his hopes, for he went so far +as to declare that the theatre had come down owing to the inferiority +of the actors, and said that it would be better to employ amateurs +from the cultivated classes who would play better than the drilled and +often uncultured actors. He also read Raymond de St. Albin, whose often +quoted observations on the actor's art are of great value. + +At the same time he exercised himself practically. At the doctor's he +arranged a stage when the boys were out. He practised entrances and +exits; he arranged the stage for "The Robbers," dressed himself like +Karl Moor, and played that part. He went to the National Museum and +studied gestures of antique sculptures and gave up using his walking +stick in order to accustom himself to walk freely. He did violence +to his shyness, which had almost produced in him "agoraphobia," or +the dread of crossing open places, and accustomed himself to walk +across Karl XIII's square where great crowds used to be found. He did +gymnastics every day at home, and fenced with his pupils. He gave +attention to every movement of the muscles; practised walking with head +erect and chest expanded, with arms hanging free and hands loosely +clenched, as Goethe directs. + +The chief difficulty he found was in the cultivation of his voice, +for he was overheard when he declaimed in the house. Then it occurred +to him to go outside the town. The only place where he could be +undisturbed was the Ladugårdsgärdet. There he could look over the plain +for a great distance and see whether any one was coming; there sounds +died away so quickly that it cost him an effort to hear himself. This +strengthened his voice. + +Every day he went out there, and declaimed against heaven and earth. +The town whose church tower rose opposite Ladugårdsgärdet symbolised +society, while he stood out here alone with Nature. He shook his fist +at the castle, the churches, and the barracks, and stormed at the +troops who during their manoeuvres often came too close to him. There +was something fanatical in his work and he spared himself no pains in +order to make his unwilling muscles obedient. + + +[1] _Vide_ the _Son of a Servant_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + +(1869) + + +Among those who frequented the doctor's house was a young man who +studied sculpture. He had come from the lower strata of society, had +been a smith's apprentice, and had now entered the Academy, where he +was a probationary student. He was happy and always cheerful, believed +himself called by providence to his new career, and narrated how he +had been aroused and impelled by the spirit to work in the service +of the Beautiful. John liked him because he was not introspective or +self-critical and quite free from self-consciousness. Moreover he was a +fellow culprit, who was making the same daring attempt as John to work +his way out of the lower class, but entirely lacked the consciousness +of guilt which persecuted the latter. + +One day this friend, whose name was Albert, came to him and said +that he was going to Copenhagen to visit Thorwaldsen's Museum. An +enterprising speculator had arranged a trip there through the canal +and back by sea for a very small fare. "You come too," he said, and it +was soon settled that John should accompany him with one of the boys. +The occasion of the expedition was the crown princess's entry into +Copenhagen, but that was a secondary object in the eyes of the pilgrims +to Thorwaldsen's tomb. + +On an August evening John sat on the poop of the steamer with the +sculptor, one of the boys and a school friend of his. In the twilight +which had already fallen one saw ladies and gentlemen coming on board. +The society seemed to be first-class. Stout fathers of families with +field-glasses and tourist knapsacks, ladies in summer dresses and hats +of the latest fashion. There was a bustle and stir, as each sought a +sleeping-place which was guaranteed to all. John and his companions sat +quietly waiting. They had their provisions and rugs and feared nothing. +When the steamer had started and the confusion had ceased, John said, +"Now we will have some bread and butter before we lie down." + +They looked for their knapsacks and the provision basket, but they were +not to be found. They discovered that they had not come with them. This +was a hard blow, for they had only a little cash and they had counted +on the excellent provisions which the doctor's wife had put up for +them. Accordingly they had to eat from the sculptor's box, which only +contained poor dry victuals. + +Then they wanted to lie down. On all sides people were asking for +sleeping-places, but could not find any. The passengers were in an +uproar and there was a storm of curses. They had therefore to sit on +deck; there were inquiries for the organiser of the expedition, but he +was not on board. John lay down on the bare deck and the boys drew a +tarpaulin over themselves, for the dew was falling and it was bitterly +cold. They awoke at Södertelje, freezing, for the sailors had taken +away the tarpaulin. + +On the canal bank there now appeared the organiser of the excursion, +who was an upholsterer. The passengers rushed at him, drew him on +board, and loaded him with reproaches. He defended himself and tried +to land again, but in vain. A court martial was held; they resolved +to continue their journey, but detained the upholsterer as a hostage. +The steamer went on through the canal, but as it was passing through a +lock, the man-swung himself up on the dam and disappeared amid a hail +of curses. + +The journey was continued and by midday they were in the Gotha canal. +Dinner was laid on the poop. John and his companions ensconced +themselves in the lifeboat which hung there and ate a simple meal out +of the sculptor's box. The sculptor, who had slept on a bale do mu in +the luggage-hold, was in a good humour and knew all the passengers' +characters and names. + +The dinner-table was now crowded. It was presided over by a master +chimney-sweep with his family. Then there came pawnbrokers, +public-house keepers, cabmen, butchers, waiters, with their families, +a number of young shop boys and some girls. John suffered when he saw +stewed perch and strawberries together with claret and sherry, for he +had been so spoilt by luxury that simple food made him poorly. This +was the "upper class" among the passengers. The master chimney-sweep +played the grand gentleman, he made a grimace at the claret and scolded +the waitress who said that the restaurant-keeper was responsible. The +porter from the Record Office affected the learned man, and as an +official seemed to look down on the "Philistines." + +While the sherry circulated, speeches were made. The lower class +from the fore-deck hung on the gunwales and hand-rails and listened. +The pariahs in the lifeboat were ignored. People knew that they were +there, but did not see them. They may very likely have wished the +"white cap" away, for there were two eyes under its peak, which saw +that they were no better than himself. John felt that. He had just +emerged from this class to which he belonged by birth, but he had no +food and was nothing. He felt his inferiority and his superiority; and +their superiority. They had worked; therefore they ate. Yes, but he +had worked as much as they, though not in the same way. He had derived +honour from his work, while they took the good eating and dispensed +with the honour. One could not have both. + +The people sat there satisfied and happy, drank their coffee and +liqueurs, and occupied the whole poop. They now became bold and made +remarks over those in the lifeboat, who could only suffer in silence, +because the others were in the majority and the upper class, for they +were consumers. + +John felt himself in an element which was not his. There was an +atmosphere of hostility about him, and he felt depressed. There were +no police on board to help him, no arbitration to appeal to, and if +there were a quarrel, all would condemn him. There only needed a sharp +retort on his part, and he would be struck. "The deuce!" he thought, +"it would be better to obey officers and officials; they would never +be such tyrants as these democrats." Later on, at Albert's advice, he +sought to approach them, but they were inaccessible. + +Further on during the voyage between Venersborg and Göteborg the +explosion came. John and his companions' hunger increased so much that +one day they determined to go down to the dining-saloon and eat some +bread and butter. It was so full of people eating and drinking that +they could hardly find room. John's pupil, according to the custom of +his class, kept his hat on. The master chimney-sweep noticed this. +"Hullo!" he said, "is the ceiling too high for you?" + +The boy seemed not to understand him. + +"Take your hat off, boy!" he shouted again. + +The hat remained as it was. A shop assistant knocked it off. The boy +picked up the hat, and put it again on his head. Then the storm burst. +They all rushed on him like one man and knocked the hat off. Then they +went for John, "And such a young devil has a tutor who cannot teach +boys to know their proper place! We know well enough who _you_ are." +Then they rained abuse on his parents. John tried to inform them that +in the social circles to which the boy belonged, it was the custom to +keep one's hat on in public places, and that he had not intended any +expression of contempt by it. But his explanation was ill-received. +What did he mean by "those circles"? What nonsense he talked! Did he +want to teach them manners? And so on. + +Yes, he could; for it was precisely from these circles that they had +learnt five-and-twenty years ago to take their hats off, which was no +longer the custom, and he could have told them that in twenty-five +years more they would keep their hats on as soon as they got wind that +_that_ was the fashion. But they had not discovered it yet. + +John and his friends went again on deck. "One cannot argue with these +people," he said. + +His nerves were shaken by the scene just witnessed. He had seen an +outbreak of class-hatred and the flashing eyes of people whom he had +not injured; he had felt the foot of the upper class of the future upon +his breast. They had become his enemies; the bridge between him and +them was broken down; but the tie of blood remained and he cherished +the same hatred towards aristocratic society, and its unjust ascendency +as they did; he felt the same grudge against the conventions before +which they all had to bow; yes, he had Karl Moor's replies in his mind, +but those who had just defeated him were all Spiegelbergers.[1] If they +got the upper hand they would trample on all,--great and small; if he +got the upper hand, he would only trample on the great. That was the +difference between them. It was, however, education which had made him +more democratic than they; he would therefore side with the educated. +They would work for those below, but from a distance, and from above. +One could not handle this raw uncouth mass. + +The stay on board was now intolerable. An outbreak might take place at +any moment. And it came. + +They were now in the Kattegat, and John was sitting on the upper deck +when he heard a loud noise beneath him of voices and cries. He thought +he recognised his pupil's voice, and rushed down. On the middle deck +stood the accused surrounded by a crowd. A pawnbroker waved his arms +about and shouted. John asked what the matter was. + +"He has stolen my cap," shouted the pawnbroker. + +"I don't believe it possible," said John. + +"Yes, I saw it; he has put it in this clothes bag." + +It was John's bag. "That is mine," said John. "You can look into it +yourself." He opened the bag and there lay the pawnbroker's cap! There +was general excitement. John stood convicted and a storm was on the +point of breaking out against the two thieves. A student who stole! +That was a bonne bouche. How had it happened? Now John remembered. He +had a grey cap similar to the pawnbroker's which he used to sleep in +at night. He had told the boy to put it in his bag; the boy had taken +the wrong one. John turned to the foredeck passengers: "Gentlemen," he +began, "do you think it likely that a rich man's son would go and take +a greasy cap when he has a perfectly new one? Do you not see that there +has been a mistake?" + +"Yes," said the plebeians, "there has." + +Only the pawnbroker was obstinate and stuck to his statement. + +"Then it only remains for me to beg this gentleman's pardon for the +mistake, and I ask my pupil to do the same." + +The latter did so, though unwillingly. There was general satisfaction +and a murmured opinion that he had "spoken like a gentleman." The +matter was fortunately settled. + +"You see," said John to the boy, "the people are open to reason after +all!" + +"Bah! That was only because they felt flattered at being called +gentlemen,--the cursed rabble!" + +"Perhaps," answered John, who felt that he had been sufficiently +humiliated for such a trifle. + +At last they reached Copenhagen. Hungry, freezing, and in the worst of +humours they sat in the rain outside the Thorwaldsen Museum, which was +closed on account of the festivities. But Albert swore he would get +in. After they had waited for an hour with the master chimney-sweep, +the public-house keeper, and all the other passengers there came an +old man who looked learned and wished to enter. Albert rushed after +him, mentioned the name of Molins, the Swedish sculptor, and they got +in, leaving the other passengers outside. Albert was delighted, and +could not help making a face at the master chimney-sweep who remained +outside. But the one who enjoyed it most was the young sinner, who +hated the mob. + +"Now we are gentlemen," he said. + +John was not in the mood to enjoy Thorwaldsen's works. He regarded +him as an average artist talented enough to win fame. Albert found +the antiques too elaborate, but did not dare to criticise them. +They did not witness the royal entry, but sat on the tower of the +Fruekirke and looked at the view. At nightfall, when they felt tired +and exhausted, they wanted to go down to the steamer to sleep, but it +had gone to Malmö. They stood in the street in the rain. They could +not go to an hotel, for they had no money. Albert resolved to go to a +public-house and ask for a night's lodging. They found a sailors' inn +near the public-house. The landlord said it was only for seamen, but +they answered that they must have shelter. They were taken into a back +room where there were two camp-beds, but a basin was not to be seen. +The walls were unpapered and looked shabby. In one of the beds lay a +sailor. Who was to be his bed-fellow? Albert undertook that, and slept +with the stranger, who was a Dutchman. So they all went to sleep, John +cursing the whole adventure, for the bed-clothes were malodorous. + +The return voyage home by sea was one long penance. Without provisions +and hardly any money they had to sustain life on raw eggs which they +bought in the small towns they touched at. These along with stale +bread and brandy, composed their diet for three days. Albert alone +was cheerful and enjoyed himself. He slept on the poop with the +passengers and amused them with stories; he was akin to them, and knew +their language. He drank with them and got hot food; he even went into +the kitchen sometimes and begged himself a plate of soup. "How easily +he takes life!" thought John. "He does not miss luxuries, for he has +never known them; he will never be expelled as an intruder when he +approaches people; he feasts while others starve, and sees only friends +everywhere. But his day will come when he will no longer be one of the +lower class, when luxury and refined habits will make him as helpless +and unfortunate as me." + +When he got home he was furious. So it was everywhere. Those who were +above trampled on those below, and those who were below tried to +pull one back when one tried to mount. What was the meaning of all +this talk about aristocrats and democrats? The lower class spoke of +their democratic way of thinking, as though it were a virtue. What +virtue is there in hating those who are above? What is the meaning of +"aristocrat"? Αριστος means the best, and κρατέω "I rule." Therefore +an aristocrat is one who wishes that the best should rule and a +democrat one who wishes that the worst should do so. But then comes the +question: Who are really the best? Are a low social position, poverty +and ignorance things that make men better? No, for then one would not +try to do away with poverty and ignorance. Into whose hands then should +men commit political power, with the knowledge that it would be in the +hands of the least mischievous? Into the hands of those who knew most? +Then one would have professorial government, and Upsala would be--no, +not the professors! To whom then should power be given? He could not +answer, but certainly not to the chimney-sweep and cab-owner who were +on the steamer. + +On this occasion he did not go deeper into the matter, for the question +had not yet been raised whether the same culture could not be imparted +to every one, or whether there need be any governing body at all. + +He had come across the worst aristocracy of all, the upper stratum +of the lower class, or, to name them by their usual ugly title, "the +Philistines." They were a bad copy of the aristocracy; they sided with +the powerful, aped the habits of their superiors, grew rich by others' +labours, quoted authorities and hated opposition with the exception of +their silent opposition to those above them. The master chimney-sweep +made money through the toil of the abjectly poor, the cab-owner through +the wretched cabbies and hacks, the pawnbroker wrung unrighteous +gain from the need of the poverty-stricken, and so on, everywhere. +A teacher, on the other hand, a doctor, an artist, could not depute +slaves to his work; he must do it himself, and was therefore not such +a shark as those below. If, then, culture brought men happiness and +made them better, then the aristocracy were justified and beneficent, +and could regard themselves as better than those below. Yes, but one +could buy culture for money, could beg or borrow the means for it, +as so many students did, and there was no virtue in that at any rate. +Yet one could not help feeling superior to others when one knew more +and observed the laws of social life so as to injure no one. All that +remained for the real democracy was to reduce everything to a dead +level, so that no one need feel themselves below, and no one could +think they were above. + + +[1] _Vide_ Schiller's "Robbers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BEHIND THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +The Swedish theatre was at this time exposed to many attacks, and when +is a theatre not in that condition? The theatre is a miniature society +within society, with a monarch, ministers, officials, and a whole +number of classes, ranged above one another in ranks. Is it any wonder +that this society is always exposed to the attacks of the malcontents? +But at this period the attacks had a more practical object. A former +provincial actor had written a pamphlet against the Theatre Royal, of +little real importance, but with the result that the author was invited +to a seat on the board of directors. This aroused imitators, and many +published treatises in order to attain the same result. + +As a matter of fact, the Theatre Royal was neither better nor worse +than it had been before. "But," it was asked, "if the theatre is +an institution supported by subscriptions for forwarding culture, +why set an uncultivated person at the head of it?" To this it was +answered, "We have just had one of the most learned men in the country +as director, and how did that answer? Although he had the advantage +of plebeian birth he was worried to death by the democratic press, +which incessantly carped at him." At last, in our time, the utopia of +self-government has been realised, the theatre has a man from the lower +classes at its head, and there is general satisfaction. + +On the day fixed, John went to the theatre in order to announce his +intention of making his début. After some delay, he was sent for and +asked his business. + +"I want to make my début." + +"Oh! have you studied any special character?" + +"Karl Moor in 'The Robbers,'" he answered more defiantly than was +necessary. + +They looked at each other and smiled. "But one must have three rôles; +have you got no other to suggest?" + +"Lucidor!" + +There was a consultation, and John was informed that these dramas were +not now in the repertory of the theatre. He objected that this was not +a sufficient reason for his not undertaking those rôles, but received +the perfectly fair answer, that the theatre could not stage such +important dramas and disarrange its programme for untried débutants. +Then the director proposed to John that he should take the rôle of the +"Warrior of Ravenna." But after the great success which had attended +the last actor of that part, he dared not. They finally suggested that +he should have a talk with the literary manager. Then began a battle +which was probably not the first or the last which had taken place in +that room. + +"Be reasonable, sir; one must study this profession like all others. No +one becomes an adept all of a sudden. Creep before you walk. Undertake +at first a minor rôle." + +"No, the rôle must be great enough to sustain me. In a minor rôle one +must be a great artist in order to attract attention." + +"Yes, but listen to me, sir; I have experience." + +"Yes, but others have made their début in leading parts, without having +been on the stage before." + +"But you will break your neck." + +"Very well, then! I will!" + +"Yes, but the board of directors will not give the best stage in the +country to the first chance aspirant to make experiments on." + +That seemed reasonable. He therefore consented to undertake a minor +rôle. He was given the part of Härved Boson in Hedberg's _Marriage of +Ulfosa_. + +John read over the part at home, and was astonished. It was quite +insignificant. He only had a few quarrels with his brother-in-law and +then embraced his wife. But he had to undertake the part, as he had +agreed to do. + +The rehearsals began. To have to shout out empty words without meaning +was repugnant to him. + +After some trials the teacher declared that he had no more time and +recommended John to take lessons in the Dramatic Academy. + +"But I won't be a pupil," he said. + +"No, of course." + +They talked of the Dramatic Academy, as of an elementary or Sunday +School; all kinds of pupils were accepted whether they had any +education or not. John did not intend to become a pupil, but went +just to listen. He went there reluctantly. Accustomed to be a teacher +himself, he was received as a sort of honorary guest, and sat down, but +attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention. The hour was passed in +reciting "Vintergatan," which he knew by heart, and some other pieces +of verse. + +"But one can't learn anything for the stage here," he ventured to say +to the teacher. + +"Well! come on the stage, and try before the footlights." + +"How can I do that?" + +"As a supernumerary actor." + +"Supernumerary! H'm! That is like going downhill before beginning," +thought John. But he determined to go through with it. One morning he +received an invitation to try a part in Björnson's _Maria Stuart_. +The theatre messenger gave him a little blue note-book on which was +written, "A nobleman," and inside, on a white sheet of paper, "The +Lords have sent an intermediary with a challenge to Count Both well." +That was the whole part! Such was to be his début! + +At the appointed time he went up the little back stairs, passed the +door-keeper and came on the stage. It was the first time that he was +behind the scenes, and saw the reverse of the medal. The stage looked +like a great warehouse with black walls; a cracked and dirty floor like +that of a hay loft, and grey linen screens mounted on rough wood. + +It was here that he had seen represented majestic scenes from the +world's history; here Masaniello had shouted "Death to Tyrants" while +John stood trembling at the end of the fourth row among the audience; +here Hamlet had given vent to his scorn and suffered his sorrows, and +from here Karl Moor had defied society and the whole world. John felt +alarmed. How could one preserve the illusion hero in sight of the +unpainted wood and the grey canvas? Everything looked dusty and dirty; +the workmen were poor melancholy devils, and the actors and actresses +looked insignificant in their ordinary clothes. + +He was led into the lobby where they were going to dance for +half-an-hour the gavotte, which introduced the play. It was broad +daylight. The old music teacher sat on a chair and played the viol. The +ballet-master shouted, struck his hands together and arranged them in +their places. "I didn't bargain for this," thought John, but it was too +late. So he found himself in the midst of a complicated dance which he +did not know, and was pushed about and scolded. "No, I am not going to +do this," he thought, but he could not get out of it. + +A feeling of shame came over him. Dancing in the day-time was not a +seemly occupation. And then to descend from teacher to pupil, and be +the last here; he had never before gone back so far. + +The bell rang for the rehearsal, and they were driven on the stage. +Then they were arranged for the gavotte. By the footlights stood the +chief actors who had the important rôles; and behind them the rest in +two lines occupied the background. + +The orchestra struck up and the dance began in slow solemn rhythm. From +the footlights were heard the deep voices of the two Puritans lamenting +the depravity of the court. + +_Lindsay_. "Look! the dancing lines wind like snakes in the sun. +Listen! the music plays with the flames of hell! The devil's roar of +laughter is in it." + +_Andrew Kerr_. "Hush, hush; the penalty will overwhelm them as the sea +overwhelmed Pharaoh's army." + +_Lindsay_. "Look, how they whisper! The infecting breath of sin! See +their voluptuous smiles; see the ladies' frivolous gowns." + +_Citizen_. "All that Knox preaches is wasted on this court." + +_Lindsay_. "He is as the prophet in Israel, he does not speak in vain; +for the Lord Himself shall perform His word upon the ungodly race." + +The piece had an arresting effect, and John felt it. The men actors had +their hats, overcoats and sticks, and the women their cloaks and muffs, +but still the drama was impressive in its simple greatness. He stood in +the wings and listened to the whole of it; Mary Stuart did not please +him; she was cruel and coquettish; Bothwell was too rough and strong; +his favourite was Darnley, the weak, Hamlet-like man whose love to this +woman continued to burn in spite of unfaithfulness, scorn, malice and +everything. Knox was as hard as stone with his Puritanism and gloomy +Christianity. + +It was after all something to step forward and enact a piece of history +in the garb of such persons. There was something solemn about it as he +had felt before in the church. After he had gone on the stage and made +his speech he went away firmly resolved to bear all on behalf of sacred +art. + +He had thus taken the decisive step. To his father he had written a +high-flown letter, and declared that he would either become something +great in the career which he had now entered or would retire from it +altogether; he had resolved not to go home till he had succeeded. The +doctor was sorry but made no fuss, for he saw it was impossible to +stop him. But he had other secret plans for saving him which he now +began to set in motion. In the first place he induced John to translate +one or two medical pamphlets for which he had found a publisher. Now +he came with a proposal that they should together write articles for +the _Aftonbladet (Evening New's_). John for his part had translated +Schiller's essay, _The Theatre Regarded as a Moral Institution_, and as +the subject of the theatre had now conic up in the Reichstag the doctor +wrote an introduction to it in which he seriously expostulated with +the Agrarian party on their indifference to culture. The whole article +was inserted. Another day the doctor came with a member of the medical +journal, the _Lancet_, which treated of the question whether women were +fit for a medical career. Without hesitation and instinctively John +decided against it. He had an indescribable reverence for women as +woman, mother and wife, but as a matter of fact, society was founded +upon the man regarded as provider for the family, and upon the woman +as wife and mother; thus man had a full right to his work-market and +all the duties involved in it. Every occupation taken from the man +would mean a marriage less or one more overworked family-provider, for +the impulse to marry was so strong in men that they would not cease +to marry, however great the difficulties in which they might become +involved. Moreover women had abundant opportunities of work; they +could become servants, house-keepers, governesses, teachers, midwives, +seamstresses, actresses, artists, authoresses, queens, empresses, +besides wives and mothers. Many of these vocations were also open to +the unmarried. Anything more than this was an encroachment on the man's +territory. If the woman did that, the man should be free from the cares +of providing for the family, and inquiries after paternity should not +be made. But society would not consent to that. On the contrary it +began to persecute the prostitutes by way of forcing men to marry. Once +caught in the snares of the married women's property law, they would +sink to the level of domestic slaves. + +John instinctively took sides in this complicated problem, which was +destined to take many years to solve, and wrote against the women's +movement, which he saw would involve, if victorious, man's overthrow. +The movement for the emancipation of women had during the fifties, +assumed the wildest forms, and the war-cry, "No lords! No lords!" had +shown the true nature of the movement, which had also been ridiculed +by Rudolf Wall in his comedy, _Miss Garibaldi_. But while years went +on, the women had worked in silence. + +Great therefore was the surprise of the doctor and John when they found +their article in the _Aftonbladet_ so altered that it seemed in favour +of the movement. "The editor is under the thumbs of women," said the +doctor, and thereby the matter was explained. + +Meanwhile John's theatrical career approached a crisis. He had been +sent into a green room where brandy was drunk and everything was dirty, +to put on his clothes with the supernumeraries. "They want to humiliate +me," he thought, "but patience!" + +Now he was simply appointed as supernumerary in one opera after the +other. He declared that he feared neither the footlights nor the +public after having preached in church, but it was no good. The worst +was, having to lounge about at the rehearsals for hours together with +nothing to do. If he read a book, he was told he had no interest in the +play, and if he went away, an outcry was raised. + +In the Theatrical Academy roles were merely learnt by heart. Children +who had only gone through an elementary school, began to read Goethe's +_Faust_, naturally without understanding anything of it. But curiously +enough, their very boldness saved them; they got on so well that one +was inclined to think there was no need for an actor to understand +anything, if only he could say his piece fluently. After a few +months John was sick of it all. It was all mechanical. The greatest +actors were blasé and indifferent, never spoke of art, but only of +engagements and honorariums. There was no trace of the gay life behind +the scenes, of which so much had been written. They sat silent waiting +for their turns to come; the dancers and actresses in their costumes, +sewing and stitching. In the lobby the actors went about on tip-toe, +looked at the clock and put on their false beards, without speaking a +word. + +One evening, when _Maria Stuart_ was being acted, John sat alone in +the lobby reading a paper. The actor Dahlqvist, who was taking the +part of John Knox, came in. John, who cherished a deep admiration +for the great actor, stood up and bowed. If he could only speak with +such a man. He trembled at the very thought. Knox, with his venerable +long white hair, his black dress, and his great eyes half-sunk in his +powerful deeply-lined face, sat down at the table. He yawned. "What is +the time?" he asked in a sepulchral tone. John answered that it was +half-past ten, unbuttoning his Burgundian velvet jacket to look for the +watch which was not there. + +"The time is going devilish slow this evening," said Knox and yawned +again. Then he began to retail bits of gossip. He was only a ruin of +his former greatness when his acting of Karl Moor had cast all his +rivals into the shade. He too had seen through everything and was weary +of it all. And yet he had once thought so highly of his art. + +Since John had now the right of free entrance into the theatre he +tried to study acting from the auditorium. But behold! the illusion +was gone! There was Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, there was the +background for _Quentin Durward_, there sat Högfelt, and there behind +the scenes, stood Boberg. There was no further possibility of illusion. + +He was sick of the wretched rôle which he had to repeat continually. +But he also felt remorse and feared that he could not retire from the +game honourably. At last he plucked up courage and demanded a leading +part. The piece in which it occurred had already been performed fifty +times, and the chief actors were tired of it, but they had to come. The +rehearsal took place without costumes or scenery. John was accustomed +to the declamatory manner usual then, and shouted like a preacher. It +was a failure. After the rehearsal the head of the theatrical academy +pronounced his verdict and advised John to enter it for a course of +training, but he would not. He wept for rage, went home and took an +opium pill which he had long kept by him, but without effect; then a +friend took him out and he got intoxicated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + +(1869) + + +The next morning he felt in a state of complete collapse. His nerves +still trembled and his body felt the fever of shame and intoxication. +What should he do? He must save his honour. He must still hold out +for two or three months and try again. That day he remained at home +and read _The Stories of a Barber-Surgeon_. As he read it seemed +to him that they recorded his own experience; they were about the +reconciliation of a step-son to his step-mother. The breach in +his domestic life had always weighed upon him like a sin, and he +longed for reconciliation and peace. That day this longing took an +unusually melancholy form, and as he lay on the sofa, his brain began +to evolve various plans for smoothing away the domestic discord. A +woman-worshipper as he then was, and under the influence of the book he +had been reading, he thought that only a woman could reconcile him with +his father. This noble rôle he assigned to his step-mother. + +While thus tying on the sofa he felt an unusual degree of fever, +during which his brain seemed to work at arranging memories of the +past, cutting out some scenes, and adding others. New minor characters +entered; he saw them mixing in the action, and heard them speaking, +just as he had done on the stage. After one or two hours had passed, +he had a comedy in two acts ready in his head. This was both a painful +and pleasurable form of work if it could be called a work; for it went +forward of itself, without his will or co-operation. + +But now he had to write it. In four days the piece was ready. He kept +on going from the writing-table to the sofa and back; and in the +intervals of his work, he collapsed like a rag. When the work was +finished, he drew a deep sigh of relief, as though years of pain were +over, as though a tumour had been cut out. He was so glad, that he felt +as though some one was singing within him. Now he would offer his piece +to the theatre;--that was the way of salvation. The same evening he +sat down to write a note of congratulation to a relative who had found +a situation. When he had written the first line, it seemed to him to +read like a verse. Then he added the second line which rhymed with the +first. Was it no harder than that? Then with a single effort he wrote a +four-page letter in rhyme and discovered that he could write verse. Was +it no harder than that? Only a few months before he had asked a friend +to help him with some verses for a special occasion. He had, however, +received a negative but complimentary answer, in being told not to +drive in a hired carriage, when he had one of his own. + +One was not then born to write verses, he said to himself, nor did one +learn it, though all kinds of verse-measures were taught in school, +but it came,--or did not come. It seemed to him like the working of +the Holy Spirit. Had the psychical convulsion, which he had felt at +his defeat as an actor, been so strong that it had turned upside down +all the strata of his memories and impressions, and had the violent +impulse set his imagination to work? There had doubtless been a long +preparation going on. Was it not his imagination, which had conjured up +pictures, when as a child he had been afraid of the dark? Had he not +written essays in school and letters for years? Had he not formed his +style through reading, translating and writing for the papers? Yes, he +had, but it was not till now that he noticed in himself the so-called +creative power of the artist. + +The art of the actor was therefore not the one suited to his powers; +his having thought so was a mistake which could easily be rectified. +Meanwhile he must keep his authorship fairly secret and remain at the +theatre till the end of the season, so that his failure as an actor +might not be known, or at any rate till his piece was accepted, as it +naturally would be, for he thought it good. + +But he wished to make sure of it, and for that purpose invited two +of his learned friends outside the theatrical circle. In the evening +before they came, he arranged the lumber-room which he had hired in +the doctor's house. He tidied it up, lighted two candles instead of +the study lamp, covered the table with a clean cloth and set on it a +punch-bowl with glass, ash-trays and matches. This was the first time +he had entertained guests, and the experience was novel and strange. + +The work of an author has often been compared to childbirth, and the +comparison has something to justify it. He felt a kind of peace like +that which follows parturition; something or some one seemed to be +there which, or who, was not there before; there had been suffering and +crying and now there was silence and peace. He felt in a festival mood +as he used to do in the old times at home; the children were in their +Sunday best, and their father in his black frock coat cast a last look +round on the arrangements before the guests came. + +His friends arrived and he read the piece through in silence till the +end. They gave their verdict, and John was greeted by his elders as an +author. + +When they had gone, he fell on his knees on the floor, and thanked +God for having delivered him from difficulty and bestowed on him the +gift of poetry. His communion with God had been very irregular; it +was a curious fact, that in cases of great necessity he rallied his +powers within himself and did not cry to the Lord at all; but on joyful +occasions, on the other hand, he involuntarily felt the need of at once +thanking the Giver of all good. It was just the contrary to what it had +been in his childhood, and that was natural since his idea of God had +developed into that of the Author and Giver of all good things, whereas +the God of his childhood had been a God of terror whose hand was full +of misfortunes. + +At last he had found his calling, his true rôle in life and his +wavering character began to develop a backbone. He had a pretty good +idea now of what he wanted, and this gave him at least a rudder to +steer by. Now he pushed off from land to go for a long voyage, but +always ready to tack when he encountered too strong a head wind,--not, +however, to fall to leeward, but the next moment to luff his ship up to +the wind with bellying sails. + +By writing this comedy, he had now relieved himself of his domestic +troubles. He next described the religious conflicts he remembered so +vividly in a three-act play. This lightened the ship considerably. + +His creative energy during this period was immense. He had the writing +fever daily; within two months he composed two comedies and a rhymed +tragedy, besides occasional verses. The tragedy was his first real +"work of art," as the phrase is, for it did not deal with any of his +subjective experiences. "Sinking Hellas" was the not inconsiderable +theme. The composition was finished and clear, but the situations were +somewhat threadbare, and there was a good deal of declamation. The +only original elements in it were an austere moral tone and contempt +for uncultured demagogues. Thus, for instance, he introduced an old +man inveighing against the immorality and want of patriotism of the +youth of the time. He made Demosthenes speak disparagingly of a +demagogue, and express something of what he had felt towards the master +chimney-sweep and pawnbroker on the journey to Copenhagen. The head +of the Theatrical Academy also got a rap over the knuckles because +he had often lamented over John's "lack of culture." The piece was +aristocratic in tone, and the freedom celebrated in it was that which +was the object of aspiration in the sixties,--national freedom. + +Meanwhile he had sent his domestic comedy anonymously to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. While it was under consideration, he +went on cheerfully with his work as supernumerary actor. "Just you +wait!" he said to himself, "then my turn will come and I shall have a +word to say in the matter." He was now quite cool on the stage, and +felt, even when dressed as a peasant youth in _Wilhelm Tell_, like a +prince in disguise. "I am certainly no swineherd, though you may think +so," he hummed to himself. + +He had to wait long for an answer about his piece. At last he lost +patience and revealed himself as the author to the head of the +Theatrical Academy. The latter had read the piece and found talent in +it, but said it could not be played. This was not a great blow for him, +for he still had the tragedy in reserve. That was better received, but +he was told it needed remodelling here and there. + +One evening when the Academy closed, the head instructor expressed a +wish to speak with John. "Now we see what you are good for," he said. +"You have a fine career in front of you; why should you choose an +inferior one? You can become an actor probably if you work for some +years, but why toil at this thankless task? Go back to Upsala and take +your degree if you can. Then become an author, for one must first have +experiences in order to write well." + +To become an author,--that John agreed with, and also with the +suggestion that he should give up the theatre; but as for returning to +Upsala,--no! He hated the university, and did not see how the useless +things one learnt there could help him as an author; he rather needed +to study life at first hand. But then he began to reflect, and when +he considered that, at present, he could get no piece of his accepted +so as to serve as a plank to save himself by, he grasped at the other +straw,--Upsala. There was no disgrace in becoming a student again, and +at the theatre they knew that he was not only an unsuccessful débutant, +but also an author. + +At the same time he learnt that there was a legacy due to him from his +mother of a few hundred kronas. With them he could support himself for +a half-year at the university. He went to his father, not as a prodigal +son, but as a promising author, and as a creditor. There was a vehement +dispute between them which ended in John receiving his legacy. He had +now conceived the plan of a tragedy with the startling title "Jesus of +Nazareth." It dealt in dramatic form with the life of Christ, and was +intended, with one blow and once for all, to shatter the divine image +and eradicate Christianity. But when he had completed some scenes, he +saw that the subject-matter was too great and would demand prolonged +and tedious study. + +The theatrical season now approached its end. The Theatrical Academy +gave their customary stage performance. John had received no rôle in +it, but undertook the task of prompter. And his career as an actor +closed in the prompter's box. To this was reduced his ambition of +acting Karl Moor on the stage of the Great Theatre! Did he deserve this +fate? Was he worse equipped for acting than the rest? That was probably +not so, but the question was never decided. + +In the evening after the performance, a dinner was given to the +Academy pupils. John was invited and made a speech in verse in order +to make his exit seem as little like a fiasco as possible. He became +intoxicated, as usual, behaved foolishly and disappeared from the +scene. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "RUNA" CLUB + +(1870) + + +The Upsala of the sixties showed signs of the end and dissolution of a +period which might be called the Boströmic.[1] In what relation does +the philosophic system which prevails in a given period stand to the +period itself? The system seems like a collection of the thoughts of +the period at a particular point of time. The philosopher does not +make the period, but the period makes the philosopher. He collects all +the thoughts of his period and thereby exercises an influence on it, +and with the close of the period his influence ends. The Boströmic +philosophy had three defects; it wished to be definitely Swedish; +it came too late; and it wished to outlive its period. To attempt +to construct a purely Swedish philosophy was absurd, for that meant +trying to break loose from the connection with the great mother-stem +which grows on the Continent and only sends out seeds towards the +Northern peninsula. The attempt came too late, for time is necessary to +construct a system, and before the system was constructed, the period +had passed. Boström, as a philosopher, was not, as it were, shot out +of a cannon. All knowledge is collecting-work, and is coloured by +the personality of the collector. Boström was a branch grown out of +Kant and Hegel, watered by Biberg and Grubbe, and finally producing +some offshoots of his own. That was all. He seems to have derived +his fundamental principle from Krause's Pantheism, which itself was +an attempt to unite the philosophy of Kant and Fichte with that of +Schelling and Hegel. This eclecticism had been already attempted by +Grubbe. Boström first studied theology, and this seemed to have a +hampering effect on his mind when he wrote about speculative theology. +His moral philosophy he derived from Kant. To call him an original +philosopher is provincial patriotism. His influence did not reach +beyond the frontiers of Sweden, nor did it outlast the sixties. His +political system was already antiquated in 1865, when the students out +of reverence for the philosopher, had still to declare, conformably to +his textbook, that the representation of the four estates was the only +reasonable one--a doctrine which was subsequently contradicted in the +college lectures. + +How did Boström come by such an idea? Can one draw an inference from +the accidental circumstance that he, a poor man's son from Norrland, +came into too close touch with King John and his court, in his capacity +of tutor to the princes? Could the philosopher escape the common lot +of generalising in _certain_ respects, from his own predilections and +current time-sanctioned ideas? Probably not. Boström as an idealist +was subjective--so subjective that he denied reality an independent +existence, declaring that, "to be is to be perceived (by men)." The +world of phenomena therefore, according to him, exists only in and +through our perceptions. The error of the deduction was overlooked, and +it was a double one. The system rested on an unproved assumption, and +had to be corrected; it is true that the phenomenal world only exists +for its through our perception, but that does not prevent its existing +for itself without our perception. In fact science has demonstrated +that the earth already existed with a very high degree of organic life, +before any one was there to perceive it. + +Boström broke with ecclesiastical Christianity, but, like Kant and +the later evolutionist philosophers, retained Christian morality. +Kant had been arrested in the bold progress of his thought by a want +of psychological knowledge, and had simply laid down as axioms the +categorical imperative and the practical postulate. The moral law, +which depends on the epoch and changes with it, received in his system +quite a Christian colouring as God's command. Boström was still +"under the law"; he judged the moral worth or baseness of an action +simply by its motives; according to him the only satisfactory motive +is that regard for the spiritual nature of duty which is revealed in +conscience. But there are as many consciences as there are religions +and races; therefore his moral system was quite sterile. + +Boström's importance for theological development only consisted in +his coming forward against Bishop Beckman in the discussion regarding +the doctrine of hell (1864), although that doctrine had recently been +rejected by the cultivated with the assistance of the rationalists. +On the other hand Boström was obstructive in his pamphlets _The +Irresponsibility and Divine Right of the King_ and _Are the Estates of +the Realm Justified in Resolving on and Carrying Out the Change in the +So-called (!) Representation of the People_? (1865). + +In his capacity as an idealist, Boström is, for the present generation, +not only without significance, but positively reactionary. He is +nothing but a necessary link in the worthless reactionary philosophy +which followed with such fatal obscurantism the "illuminative" +philosophy of the eighteenth century. He has lived and is dead. Peace +to his ashes! + +Literature ought to be another barometer for testing the atmosphere of +any given period. And in order to be that, it must be free to deal with +the questions of that period; but this, the then prevailing æsthetic +theories forbade. + +Poetry ought to be and was (according to Boström) a recreation like the +other fine arts. Under such a theory and influenced by the prevalent +idolatry of the "ego," poetry became merely lyrical, expressing +the poet's small personal feelings and inclination, and reflecting +therefore only some of the features of the period, and those perhaps, +not the most important. Only two names in the poetry of the sixties +were of importance--Snoilsky and Björck. Snoilsky was "awake," to use +a pietistic expression, Björck was dead. Both were born poets, as the +saying is; that is to say, their talents showed themselves earlier +than usual. Both attained distinction while still at school, early won +honour and renown, and by birth and position were enabled to view life +from its sunny heights. Snoilsky, without knowing it, was under the +power of the spirit of the new age. Freed from the fear of hell and +monkish morality, experiencing the retrenchment of his privileges as a +nobleman, he gave free play both to mind and body. In his first poems +he was a revolutionary and praised the cap of liberty; he preached the +emancipation of the flesh and had a certain dislike to over-culture as +a conventional restraint. But as a poet, he did not escape the poet's +tragic destiny--not to be taken seriously. Poetry in the eyes of the +public, was simply poetry, and Snoilsky was a poet. Björck had a mind +which was not capable of receiving strong impressions. At peace with +himself, languid, complete from the beginning, he lived his life sunk +in his own reflections or noticed only the trifling events of the +outer world and described them neatly and correctly. In the opinion of +the great majority who live the peaceful life of automata his poetry +shows a remarkable degree of philanthropy. But why does not this +philanthropy extend itself further to large circles of men, and to +humanity at large? In the writer's opinion Björck's philanthropy does +not extend beyond the limits of the personal quiet which the individual +attains when he ignores the duties of social life. He is satisfied +with the world because the world has been kind to him; he avoids +strife because it disturbs his own serenity. Björck is an example of +the fortunate man whose life is not in conflict with his upbringing, +but who rather builds up stone by stone, on the foundation already +laid; everything proceeds in a workmanlike way by level and rule; the +house is finished, as it was designed, without the plan undergoing any +alteration. Stunted by domestic tyranny, tasting early the sweets +of homage and reverence, he ceased to grow. He accepted Boström's +compromise with Christianity without examining it, and in doing so, he +had finished his life-work. His poetry is especially praised for its +purity and spiritual character. What is this "purity" which in our +days is so sharply contrasted with the sensual? The secret is, that he +did not get her; just as Dante's heavenly love for Beatrice was due to +the same involuntary cause. Björck therefore sang of the unattainable +with the quiet melancholy of unsatisfied love. But that, however, is no +virtue, and purity should be a virtue. + +In short, Björck and Snoilsky sang of water and drank wine, and in this +were just the opposite to the poets of our time, who are said to sing +of wine and drink water. A poet's life always seems to be at variance +with his teachings. Why? Is it that, in composing, he wishes to escape +from his own personality, and find another? Is it a wish to disguise +himself? Or is it modesty, the fear of giving himself away, and of +self-exposure? This is a weighty problem for future psychologists to +unravel. + +Björck composed poems both for the reformation of the constitution +in 1865, and for the restoration to power of the King. He saw harmony +everywhere, and when he celebrated the restored union between Sweden +and Norway in 1864, he was extremely melodious. He also praised +Abraham Lincoln; negro-emancipation and white slavery--that is the +ideal of freedom of the Holy Alliance! Revolution certainly, but legal +revolution by the will of God! Well, he knew no better, and few did at +that time. Therefore we do not judge the man but only his work, the +motives inspiring which are a matter of indifference to posterity. + +Young men read these poets, many of them with great edification. +They proclaimed no new era, but prophesied after the event that +now the millennium was come, the ideal realised, and lines of +demarcation obliterated once for all. They looked with satisfaction +on their creations, rubbed their hands, and found them all good. An +atmosphere of peace had spread itself over the whole of Upsala and +its neighbourhood; now one might sleep till Doomsday was the belief +of old and young. But then discordant sounds began to be heard, and +in the days of universal peace fire-beacons began to be seen on the +neighbouring mountain-tops. From Norway open water was signalled +and the revolving lights were kindled. Rome captured Greece, but +Greece re-captured Rome. Sweden had captured Norway, but now Norway +re-captured Sweden. Lorenz Dietrichson was appointed as professor +at the university of Upsala in 1861, and he was the forerunner of +Norwegian influence. He made Sweden acquainted with Danish and +Norwegian literature, then almost unknown, and founded the literary +society which produced poets like Snoilsky and Björck. + +After Norway had broken loose from the Danish monarchy and had ceased +to be a branch of the head office in Copenhagen, it was not grafted +into Sweden but retreated into itself. At the same time it opened +direct communication with the continent. Its awakening to independence +was coincident with a strong stream of foreign influence. It was +Björnson who first roused Norway to self-consciousness; but when this +degenerated into a narrow patriotism, Ibsen came with the pruning +shears. + +As the strife became fiercer and Christiania would not lend itself +to be a field of battle, the conflict was transferred to hospitable +Sweden. The Norwegian wine was well adapted for exportation; pamphlets +grew in size as they travelled and in Sweden became literature. +Thoughts came to the top and personalities settled at the bottom of +the vessel. Ibsen and Björnson broke into Sweden; Tidemand and Gude +took prizes in the art exhibition of 1866; Kierulf and Nordraak were +authorities in singing and music. Then came Ibsen's _Brand_. This had +appeared in 1866, but John did not see it till 1869. It made a deep +impression on the primitive Christian side of him, but it was gloomy +and severe. The final utterance in it regarding "Deus caritatis" was +not satisfying, and the poet seemed to have had too much sympathy with +his hero to have described his overthrow with cold irony. + +_Brand_ gave John a good deal of trouble. He (Brand) had dropped +Christianity but kept its stern ascetic morality; he demanded obedience +for his old doctrines though they were no more practicable; he despised +the tendency of the time towards humanity and compromise, but ended by +recommending the God of compromise. Brand was a fanatic, a pietist, +who dared to believe himself right against the whole world, and John +felt himself related to this terrible egoist who was wrong besides. No +half-measures! go straight on; break down everything that stands in the +way, for you only are right! John's tender conscience, which suffered +at every step he took lest it should vex his father or friends, was +stupefied by Brand. All ties of consideration and of love should be +torn asunder for the sake of "the cause." That John was no longer a +pietist was a piece of good fortune, otherwise he too would have been +overwhelmed by the avalanche.[2] But Brand gave him a belief in a +conscience which was purer than that which education had given him, and +a law which was higher than conventional law. And he needed this iron +backbone in his weak back, for he had long periods during which by +fits and starts and out of mildness he thought himself wrong, and the +first who came, right; therefore, he was also very easily misled. Brand +was the last Christian who followed an old ideal, therefore he could be +110 pattern for one who felt a vague inclination to revolt against all +old ideals. + +_Brand_ after all was a fine plant, but without any roots in its own +period; and, therefore, it belonged to the herbarium. Then came +_Peer Gynt_. This was rather obscure than deep and had its value as +an antidote against the national self-love. The fact that Ibsen was +neither banished nor persecuted after having said such bitter things +against the proud Norwegians, shows that in Norway they were more +honourable fighters than the Swedes afterwards showed themselves to be. + +Ibsen was at that time regarded as a misanthrope and as an enemy and +envier of Björnson. People were divided into two camps, and the dispute +as to which of the two was the greater was endless, for it concerned an +artistic problem--"contents or form." + +The influence of Norwegian on Swedish poetry has been great and partly +beneficent, but there was a peculiarly Norwegian element in it, which +was not adaptable to Sweden, a land with quite another development. +In the sequestered valleys of Norway there lived a people who, under +the pressure of need and poverty, found ready to their hand in the +Christian doctrine of renunciation an ascetic philosophy which promised +heaven as a compensation for earth's hardships. Nature in her most +gloomy and parsimonious aspect, a damp climate, long winters, great +distances between the villages,--all co-operated to preserve an +austere mediæval type of Christianity. There is something which may +be said to resemble insanity in the Norwegian character, of the same +kind as the English "spleen;" and possibly the intimate relations of +Norway with the hypochondriacal islanders may have impressed traces +on its civilisation. In Jonas Lie's _Clair-voyant_ this melancholy +is depleted, and in it one finds the same weird atmosphere as in the +Icelandic sagas, and the theme also is similar,--the struggle of the +spirit against physical darkness and cold. There we have depicted +the tragic lot of the Norseman banished from sunny lands to gloomy +wildernesses, and seeking relief by emigration, the ethnographical +significance of which has been overlooked in view of its economical +aspect. The Norwegian character is the result of many hundred years of +tyranny, of injustice, of hard struggling for a livelihood, of want of +gladness. + +Swedish literature should have avoided absorbing these national +peculiarities, but they have made it half-Norwegian. Brand still haunts +Swedish literature with his ideal demands, with which the romanticised +and cheerful Swede cannot sincerely sympathise. Therefore this foreign +garb suits him so badly; therefore modern Swedish music sounds so +unharmonious, like an echo of the violins of Hardanger, tuned over +again by Grieg; therefore the talk of greater moral purity sounds +discordant in the mouth of the vivacious Swede. He has not suffered +from long oppression and does not need to seek himself in the past; +melancholy has not so beset him in his open flat land of lakes and +rivers, and therefore a sour mien becomes him ill. + +When the Swedes received great and novel ideas by way of Norway or +direct from the Continent through Ibsen and Björnson, they should have +kept the kernel and thrown away the Norwegian husk. Even the _Doll's +House_ is Norwegian. Nora is related to the Icelandic women who wished +to set up a matriarchate; she belongs to the weird imperious women in +_Härmännen_ who again are pure Norse. In them the emotions have become +frozen or distorted by centuries of cognate marriages. + +The whole Swedish literature of feminism is ultra-Norwegian; it +contains the same immodest demands on the man and petting of the spoilt +woman. Several young authors have introduced the Norwegian style into +Swedish; one authoress has placed the scene of her book in Norway, and +made her hero talk Norwegian! Further one could not go! + +Let us welcome foreign influence which is cosmopolitan; but not +Norwegian, for that is provincial, and we have plenty of the same kind +ourselves. + + * * * * * + +So John found himself again in Upsala,--the same Upsala from which he +had fled nine months before, and to which he most unwillingly returned. +To be compelled to a course which he did not wish always made him feel +as though he were encountering a personal foe, who cajoled him out of +his wishes and antipathies, and forced him to bend. Since he still +believed himself under God's personal providence, he accepted that as +though it were for his best. Later on he had a feeling that there was +a malignant power; this developed into the belief that there were two +ruling powers, one good, one evil, which divided the empery, or ruled +alternately. + +He asked himself again, "What have you to do here?" To take his degree, +but especially to cover his retreat from the theatre. Privately he +wished to write a play, and, under the screen of its success, wriggle +out of the examination. + +At first he was not at all comfortable in his lonely attic. He had +become accustomed to luxury, a large room, a good table, attendance +and society. After having been habituated to be treated as a man and +to have intercourse with older and cultivated people, he found himself +again in a state of pupilage as a student. But he cast himself into +the crowd and soon found himself on social terms with three distinct +circles. The first consisted of friends whom he met by day, who were +students of medicine and natural history and atheists. From them he +heard for the first time the name of Darwin; but it passed by him like +a doctrine for which he was not yet ripe. His evening society consisted +of a priest and a lawyer with whom he played cards till deep in the +night. He considered himself now in Upsala merely to grow and get +older, and that it was a matter of indifference what he did, as long as +he killed the time. He drew up the scheme of a new tragedy, Eric XIV, +but found it poor, and burnt it, for his faculty of self-criticism had +awakened and was severer in its demands. + +Later on in the term he entered a third society, which formed his +special circle during the whole of his time at Upsala and for a long +while afterwards. One evening he chanced to meet a young companion +with whom he had been a pupil at the private school. They discussed +literature, and over a glass of toddy made the plan of forming some +young poets into a club for literary work. The plan was carried out. +Besides John and the other founder of the club, four young students +were elected to it. They were fine young fellows of an idealist turn of +mind, as the saying is, with high purposes and enthusiastic for vague +ideals. They had not yet come into contact with the hard realities of +life; they had all well-to-do parents, no cares, and knew nothing at +all of the struggle for a subsistence. John, on the other hand, had +just left the most unpleasant surroundings; he had seen people who +were always ready to quarrel, conceited, empty-headed pupils of the +Theatrical Academy. Here he found himself transplanted into an entirely +new world. There were these happy youths going to their well-supplied +tables, smoking fine cigars, taking walks, and poetising beautifully +over the beauty of life which they knew nothing of. + +Rules were drawn up for the club, which received the name "Runa," +_i.e_. "song." The choice of this title was probably due to the +Northern renaissance which came in with the Scandinavian movement. +Its chief ornaments were Karl XV in poetry, Winge and Malmström in +painting, and Molin in sculpture. Recently it had been quickened by +Björnson's and Ibsen's dramas on subjects from the old Norse life. +The study of Icelandic, which had been newly introduced into the +university, also lent strength to this movement. + +The number of members of the club was not to exceed nine; each of +them was known by a Runic sign. John was called "Frö" and the other +founder of the club, "Ur." Every variety of opinion was represented. +Ur was a great patriot and venerated Sweden with its memories. In his +opinion it had the most brilliant history in Europe, and had always +been free. For the rest he was a practically minded man with a special +faculty for statistics, politics, and biography; he was a severe and +clever critic, and also managed the affairs of the club. He was a +reliable friend, good company, helpful and hearty. Secondly, there +was a full-blooded romanticist who read Heine and drank absinthe--a +sensitive youth enthusiastic for all old ideals, but especially for +Heine. There was also a seraph who sang of the indescribably little, +especially the happiness of childhood; fourthly, a silent worshipper of +nature, and, lastly, an eclectic philosopher and improvisator, who had +an extraordinary faculty for improvising in any style whatever, when +requested. Two minutes after he had been asked, he would stand up and +speak or sing on the spur of the moment in the character of Anacreon, +Horace, the Edda, or any one else, and even in foreign languages. + +The first meeting of the club was at Thurs', who was lodged the most +comfortably in two rooms and had the best pipes. As one of the founders +of the club John first of all read his prologue, which, according +to the rules of the society, had to be in verse. It began by asking +after the ancient bard Brage and his harp which was now silent. Brage +represented the new Norse element, the resuscitation of which was +believed necessary. The whole programme of the idealists was called +"a trivial striving." All the great efforts of their contemporaries +after reality and for the improvement of the conditions of life was +"trivial." The spirit was taken prisoner in matter, and therefore +all that was material was to be regarded as the enemy. Such was the +teaching of the romanticists, and of John's prologue. Then the poet +went out into nature, listened to the bells of the cathedral, the +wind, the pines, and the singing of the birds in order to ask the very +natural question: "Nature sings; why should I then be silent?" He +resolved to be no longer silent but to sing,--about the joyous youthful +spring-time of life, its autumn, and about love to one's native soil. +Then (he said) came the wise man with the frozen heart, took his song, +dissected it and found that it was all nonsense. Thus the song was +killed by "overwiseness." + +It is not easy to say exactly now what John meant by "overwiseness" +in 1870. He probably had simply forebodings of future critics, and +the "wise man" was no other than the reviewer. Then he inveighed +against the wretched mercenary souls who worship the golden calf but +do not love songs. This had no connection with contemporary matters, +for the sixties were remarkable for bad harvests and consequently +for want of gold. The swindles by company-promoters began with the +seventies. But it was the custom of the contemporary poets to attack +money and the golden calf, and therefore John did so in his prologue. +Now began a life of poetic idleness. Every evening they met either in +a restaurant, or in each other's rooms. But the time was not wasted +in view of his future authorship. John could borrow books from the +well-stocked libraries of his friends, and the interchange of opinions +accustomed him to look at literature from different points of view. But +for them real life, public interests, contemporary politics did not +exist; they lived in dreams. Sometimes his lower-class consciousness +awoke, and he asked himself what he had to do among these rich youths. +But he soon stilled these scruples by drink and talk, and encouraged +himself to go forward and demand something of life, for he had in his +companions' opinion a good chance. + +His room was a wretched one; the rain came through the roof, and he had +no proper bed, but only a plank-bed, which in the day-time served as a +sofa. When time hung heavily on his hands and he grew weary of poetical +discussions he looked up his old school-fellow, the natural history +student. There he looked through the microscope, and heard of Darwin +and the new scientific views. His friend gave him well-meant practical +advice and recommended him to get out of his difficulties by writing a +one-act play in verse for the Theatre Royal. + +John objected that his dramatic talent had not scope enough in one act, +and said that he would rather write a tragedy in five. + +"Yes, but it is harder to get that accepted," replied his friend. +Finally he let himself be persuaded and determined to carry out a +small idea he had of a short play based on Thorwaldson's first visit +to Rome. His friend lent him books on Italy and John set to work. In +fourteen days the piece was ready. + +"That will be acted," said his friend. "It has dramatic points, you +see." + +Since it was still a long time to the next meeting of the club, John +hastened in the evening to Thurs and Rejd and read the piece to them. +They were both of the same opinion as the natural history student, +that the piece would be performed. They had a champagne supper, and +kept drinking till the morning, and then went to sleep on the floor of +Rejd's room with the punch-glasses by them. In a couple of hours they +awoke, finished their half-empty glasses at sunrise and went out to +continue the celebration of the occasion. + +The sympathy of John's friends was hearty, unselfish and warm, without +a trace of envy. He always remembered with pleasure this first success +as one of the brightest recollections of his youth. The enthusiastic, +devoted Rejd increased Hohn's debt of gratitude by copying out the +piece in his graceful hand-writing. Then it was sent to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. Spring arrived and they spent the +month of May in a continual carouse. The club had a small room in the +restaurant Lilia Förderfvet for their evening suppers. There they +talked, made speeches, and drank enormously. At last the term ended and +they had to part, but they arranged to meet once more at Stockholm, +and celebrate the festival day of the club by an excursion into the +country. + +At six o'clock one June morning the four members of the club met at +Skeppsholm, where they had hired a rowing-boat. The chest of the club, +a card-board box containing documents, was stowed away with baskets of +provisions and bottles of wine. After Os and Rejd had taken the oars, +they steered the boat to the canal leading through the Zoological +Gardens, in order to reach the place they had appointed, a promontory +of Liding Island. Thurs played airs on the flute to Bellmann's songs, +and Frö (John) accompanied him on a guitar which he had learnt to play +at Upsala. + +As soon as they landed, breakfast was laid in a meadow by the shore. +The club-chest adorned with leaves and flowers was set in the middle +of the table-cloth, and on it were set the brandy-bottles and glasses. +John, who had studied antiquities for his play, _Sinking Hellas_, +arranged the meal in the Greek style, so that they wore garlands, and +ate reclining. A fire was lit between some stones and coffee was made. +At nine o'clock in the morning they drank brandy and punch. + +John read his drama, _The Free-thinker_, which was duly criticised. +Then they gave full course to their eloquence. Thurs was the best +speaker; he could express emotions and thoughts rhythmically. Poems +were read and received with applause. John sang folk-songs to the +accompaniment of his guitar, some on sentimental subjects, and some on +improper ones. At noon they were still in high spirits but inclined to +be sleepy. + +In the afternoon when the sun was over Lilia Värtan they had a short +sleep, and then the carouse passed into a new phase. Thurs, the +Israelite, had recited a poem on the greatness of the North, and called +on the old gods of Scandinavia. Ur, the patriot, denied him the right +to appropriate other people's gods. The Jewish question came up; they +took fire and nearly quarrelled, but ended by embracing. + +Then began the sentimental stage. They had to weep, for alcohol has +this effect on the membranes of the stomach and the lachrymal duets. +Ur first felt this and unconsciously sought for a melancholy subject. +He burst into tears. When asked why, he did not know, but said at last +that he had been treated as a buffoon, which he always was. He declared +that he had a very serious nature and that he also had great troubles +which no one knew about, but now he unburdened his heart and told us a +domestic story. After he had done so, he became cheerful again. + +But the evening was long and they began to wish to go home. Their +brains were empty; they were tired of each other, and weary of play +and drinking. They began to reflect and examine the philosophy of +intoxication. From whence do men derive this desire to make themselves +senseless? What lies behind it? Is it the southern exile's longing +for a lost sunny existence in northern lands? There must be some felt +necessity underlying intoxication, for a vice like this would not +have laid hold of all mankind without reason. Is it that the member +of society in a state of intoxication throws away all the lies of +society? For the laws of social intercourse involuntarily forbid one to +speak out all one's thoughts. Otherwise whence comes the saying, _In +vino veritas_? Why did the Greeks honour Bacchus as one who improved +men and manners? Why did Dionysus love peace, and why was he said +to increase riches? Has wine, which is chiefly drunk by men, some +influence on the development of man's intelligence and activity, so +that he becomes superior to woman? And why do the Muhammadans who drink +no wine stand on what is regarded as a lower level of civilisation? +As salt is used as a daily nutrient to replace the salts which their +hunting forefathers found in the blood of beasts of the chase, does not +wine compensate for some lost nutritive matter belonging to earlier +stages, and, if so, which? Some idea or necessity must underlie so +singular a custom. + +Perhaps the need of losing consciousness justifies the axiom of the +pessimists that consciousness is the beginning of suffering. Wine makes +one naive and unconscious as a child; or even as an animal. Is it +the lost paradise which one wishes to recover? But the remorse which +follows it? Remorse and acidity of the stomach have the same symptoms. +Is there then a confusion, and are sensations called "remorse" which +are only heart-burn? Or does the drinker returned to consciousness +regret that he has exposed himself by daylight and betrayed his +secrets? There is something to feel remorse for in that! He is ashamed +that he has been taken by surprise, he feels afraid because he has +exposed himself and given away his weapons. Remorse and fear are close +neighbours. + +Yet once more the members of the club drowned their consciousness in +drink and then got into the boat to proceed home. John and Thurs began +a dispute about Bellmann[3] which lasted till they reached Skeppsholm, +and closed with sharp remarks on both sides. + +John had an old grudge against this poet. Once as a child, he had been +ill for a whole summer, and had by chance taken Bellmann's _Fredman's +Epistles_ out of his father's book-case. The book seemed to him silly, +but he was too young to form a well-grounded opinion on it. Later on, +it sometimes happened that his father sat at the piano, and hummed +Bellmann's songs. The boy found it incomprehensible that his father and +uncle admired them so much. Subsequently one Christmas he saw a violent +controversy break out between his mother and his uncle on the subject +of Bellmann. The latter set the poet above everything--Bible, sermons +and all. There were depths, he said, in Bellmann. Depths indeed! +Probably Atterbom's romanticist one-sided criticism had filtered +through the daily papers to the middle classes. As a school-boy and +student, John had sung "Up, Amaryllis" and other idylls of Bellmann's, +naturally without understanding them or thinking of the meaning of the +words. He sang in a quartette, or choir, for it sounded well. Finally, +in 1867, he read Ljunggren's lectures and a light broke upon him, but +not one of Ljunggren's kindling. He thought the latter mad. Bellmann +was a ballad-singer, that was true, but a great poet, the greatest poet +of the North?--impossible! + +Bellmann had sung his songs composed on the French model for the +Court and his own friends, but not for the common people, who would +not have understood "Amaryllis," "Eol," "The Tritons," "Fröja" and +all the rococo stock-in-trade. He died and was forgotten. Why had +he been disinterred by Atterbom? Because the pugnacious romantic +school required an embodiment of irregularity to set up against the +classicists, as they had nothing of their own to boast of. Thus the +romantic school gained the day; and when one considers how cowardly +most people are in the face of public opinion, and the tendency of the +middle-class to ape its superiors and reverence authority, one ceases +to be surprised at the elevation of Bellmann. Ljunggren and Eichhorn +outstripped Atterbom in finding beauty and genius in his writings they +were reinforced by the clerical element, and thus the idol was set up +for worship. Bystrom, the sculptor, had already magnified the little +lottery-secretary and court-poet into a Dionysus and lent him the +features of an antique bust of Bacchus. + +Bellmann's idylls are careless, extemporised compositions with forced +rhymes, and as disconnected as the thoughts in the brain of a drunkard. +One does not know whether it is day or night, the thunder rolls in the +sunshine, and the weaves beat while the boat is floating calmly on the +waters. They simply provide a text for music, and for that purpose +one might use a book of addresses. The meaning of the words does not +matter, as long as they sound well. + +According to his custom Thurs took the matter personally. It was an +attack on his good taste and on his honour, for John said that his +admiration of Bellmann was mere humbug; that he had read himself into +it, and that it was not genuine. Thurs on the other hand declared John +to be presumptuous, because he wished to criticise the greatest Swedish +poet. + +"Prove that he is the greatest," said John. + +"Tegner and Atterbom say so." + +"That is no proof." + +"Simply because you have a spirit of contradiction." + +"Doubt is the beginning of certainty, and absurd assertions must arouse +opposition in a healthy brain." + +And so on. + +Although there is no such thing as a judgment which holds good +universally, since every judgment is individualistic, there are, on the +other hand, judgments of a majority and of a party. By means of these +John was suppressed and kept silence on the subject of Bellmann for +many years. Only when later on the old historian Fryxell proved that +Bellmann was not the apostle of sobriety which Eichhorn and Ljunggren +had made him out to be, and also no god, but a mediocre ballad-singer, +did John see a gleam of hope that his individual opinion might become +some day the opinion of the majority. But he already saw the question +from another point of view; Sweden would have been neither unhappier +nor worse, if Bellmann had never lived. He would like to have said to +the patriots and democrats, "Bellmann was a poet of Stockholm and of +the Court, who jested very cruelly with poor people." He would like +to have said to the Good Templars who sang Bellmann's songs, "You are +singing drinking songs which were written during fits of intoxication +and celebrate drink." For his own part, John held that Bellmann's +songs were pleasant to sing because of the light French melodies which +accompanied them, and as for their French morality it did not vex him +at all--quite the contrary. But earlier, at the age of twenty-one, he +was vexed by it, for he was an idealist and desired purity in poetry, +just as the surviving idealists and admirers of Bellmann do at the +present time. + +These have used the word "humour" to save themselves and their +morality. But what do they mean by "humour"? Is it jest or earnest? +What is jest? The reluctance of the cowardly to speak out his mind? +Humour reflects the double nature of man,--the indifference of the +natural man to conventional morality, and the Christian's sigh over +immorality which is after all so enticing and seductive. Humour speaks +with two tongues,--one of the satyr, the other of the monk. The +humorist lets the mænad loose, but for old unsound reasons thinks that +he ought to flog her with rods. This is a transitional form of humour +which is passing away, and already at the last gasp. The greatest +modern writers have thrown away the rod, and play the hypocrite +no longer, but speak their minds plainly out. The old tippler's +sentimentality can no longer count for "a good heart," for it has been +discovered to be merely bad nerves. + +After arguing till they were weary, the members of the club landed in +Stockholm harbour. + +[1] Boström: Swedish Philosopher (1797-1866). + +[2] _Vide_ the end of _Brand_. + +[3] Famous Swedish poet. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BOOKS AND THE STAGE + + +The history of the development of a soul can be sometimes written by +giving a simple bibliography; for a man who lives in a narrow circle +and never meets great men personally, seeks to make their acquaintance +through books. The fact that the same books do not make the same +impression, nor have the same effect upon all, shows their relative +powerlessness to convert anybody. For example, we call the criticism +with which we agree good; the criticism which contradicts our views is +bad. Thus we seem to be educated with preconceived views, and the book +which strengthens, expresses and develops these makes an impression +on us. The danger of a one-sided education through books is that most +books, especially those composed at the end of an era, and at the +university, are antiquated. The youth who has received old ideals from +his parents and teachers is accordingly necessarily out of date before +his education is completed. When he enters manhood, he is generally +obliged to fling away his whole stock of old ideas, and be born again, +as it were. Time has gone by him, while he was reading the old books, +and he finds himself a stranger among his contemporaries. + +John had spent his youth in accumulating antiquarian lore. He knew all +about Marathon and Cannae, the war of the Spanish succession and the +Thirty Years' War, the Middle Ages and antiquity; but when the war +between France and Germany broke out, he did not know the cause of it. +He read about it as he would have read a play, and was interested to +see what the result of it would be. + +In Kristineberg, where he spent the summer with his parents, he lay +out on the grass in the park and read Oehlenschläger. For his degree +examination, he had, besides his chief subject--æsthetics,--to +choose a special one, and, enticed by Dietrichson's lectures, he had +chosen Danish literature. In Oehlenschläger he had found the summit +of Northern poetry. That was for him the quintessence of poetry,--the +directness which he admired perhaps for the very reason that he had +not got it. The Danish language perhaps also contributed to this +result; it seemed to him an idealised Swedish, and sounded like his +mother-speech from the lips of a woman worshipped from afar. When he +read Oehlenschläger's _Helge_, Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_ seemed to him +petty; he found it unwieldy, prosaic, clerical, unpoetic. + +Oehlenschläger's dramas were a book which had an influence on John by +way of a supplementary contrast. Perhaps the romantic element in them +found an echo in the youth's mind, which had now awoken* to poetic +activity, and looked upon poetry and romance as identical. Other +contributory circumstances were his liking for Norse antiquities which +Oehlenschläger had just discovered, and the unrequited love he had +just then for a blond maiden who was engaged to a lieutenant. But the +impression made by Oehlenschläger was only fleeting, and hardly lasted +a year; it was a light spring breeze which passed by. + +It fared worse with John's study of æsthetics as expounded by +Ljunggren in two closely printed volumes, containing the views of all +philosophers on the Beautiful, but giving no satisfactory definition of +it. + +John had studied the antique in the National Museum, and asked himself +how the pot-house scenes of the Dutch genre painters which, when +they occurred in reality, were called ugly, could be reckoned among +beautiful pictures, although they were in no way idealised. To this the +æsthetic philosophers gave no answer. They shirked the question and +set up one theory after another, but the only excuse they could find +for the admission of ugliness was that it acted as a foil, and provided +a comic element. But a strong suspicion had been aroused in John that +the "Beautiful" was not always beautiful. + +Furthermore, he was troubled by doubts whether it was possible to +have independent standards of taste. In the newly-founded paper, the +_Schwedische Zeitschrift_, he had read discussions about works of +art, and seen how disputants on both sides defended their position +with equally strong arguments. One sought beauty in form, another in +subject, and a third in the harmony between the two. Accordingly a +well-painted subject from still life can rank higher than the Niobe, +for this group of statuary is not beautiful in its outlines, the +arrangement of the drapery of the principal figure being especially +tasteless although the judgment of the majority regards the work as +sublime. Therefore the sublime does not necessarily consist in beauty +of form. + +Victor Hugo's romances had found a fertile soil in John's mind. The +revolt against society; the reverence paid to Nature by the poet living +on a lonely island; the scorn for the ever-prevalent stupidity; the +indignation against formal religion and the enthusiasm for God as the +Creator of all,--all that was germinating in the young man's mind began +to grow, but was stifled by the autumn leaf-drifts of old books. + +John's life in the domestic circle was now a quiet one. The storms +had subsided; his brothers and sisters were grown up. His father, who +still always sat over his account-ledgers, calculating the ways and +means of providing for his flock of children, had become older, and +now perceived that John was also older. They often discussed together +topics of common interest. As regards the Franco-German War they were +both fairly neutral. As Latinised Teutons they did not love the German. +They hated and feared him as a sort of uncle with a right of seniority +against the Swedes, and they did not forget that victorious Prussia had +once been a Swedish province. The Swede had become more French than he +was aware, and now he felt conscious of his relationship to _la grande +nation_. In the evenings when they sat in the garden and the noise of +traffic had ceased, they heard the singing of the Marseillaise from +Blanch's café, and the hurrahs which were soon to be silent. + +In August, when the theatres re-opened, John received the long-desired +news that his play had been accepted for the stage. That was the first +intoxicating success which he had experienced. To have a play accepted +at the Theatre Royal when he was only twenty-one was sufficient +compensation for all his misfortunes. His words would reach the public +from the first stage in the land; his failure as an actor would be +forgotten; his father would see that his son amid all his notorious +fluctuations had chosen right, and all would be well. In autumn, before +the university term began, the piece was performed. It was naive, +pious and full of reverence for art, but had one dramatic scene which +saved it in spite of its slightness--Thorwaldsen about to shatter +the statue of Jason with his hammer. But on the other hand the piece +contained a presumptuous outburst against contemporary rhymers. What +was the author's intention in that? How could a beginner who had so +many forced rhymes himself, cast a stone at another? It was a piece +of temerity which found its own punishment. John stole to the bottom +of the third row of seats to view the performance of his piece from a +standing position. Rejd was already there before him and the curtain +was up. John felt as though he stood under an electric machine. Every +nerve quivered, his legs shook, and his tears ran the whole time from +pure nervousness. Rejd had to hold his hand in order to quiet him. +Now and then there was applause, but John knew that it was mostly from +his relatives and friends, and did not let himself be deceived. Every +stupidity which had inadvertently escaped him now jarred on his ear, +and made him quiver; he saw nothing but crudeness in the piece; he felt +so ashamed that his ears burned; before the curtain fell he rushed away +out into the dark market-place. + +He felt as though annihilated. The attack on the priests was stupid and +unjust; the glorification of poverty and pride seemed to him false, his +description of the relationship between father and son was cynical. How +could he have shown off in this absurd way? It seemed to him as though +he had exposed his nakedness, and shame overpowered every other feeling. + +On the other hand he found the actors good; the _mise en scène_ was +more appropriate than he had expected. Everything was good except the +piece itself. He wandered down to the Norrstrom, and felt inclined +to drown himself. What most annoyed him was that he had so openly +exhibited his feelings. Whence came that? And why should one in general +be ashamed of such exhibitions? Why are the feelings so sacred? Perhaps +because the feelings in general are false, as they only express a +physical sensation, in which personality of the individual does not +fully participate. If it is really so, then John was ashamed as an +ordinary man, to have been untruthful in his writing and to have worn +disguise. + +To be moved at the sight of human suffering is regarded as a mark of +fine feeling and meritorious, but it is said to be only a natural +reflex-movement. One involuntarily transfers the sufferings of the +other to oneself and suffers for one's own sake. Another's tears could +bring one to weep just as another's yawning could make one yawn. That +was all. John felt ashamed that he had lied and caught himself in the +act, though the public had not caught him. + +No one is such a merciless critic as a dramatist who sees his own play +acted. He lets no single word pass through his sieve. He does not lay +the blame on the actors, but generally admires them for rendering his +stupidities with such taste. John found his play stupid. It had lain +by for half a year, and perhaps he had outgrown it. Another piece was +performed after it which lasted for two hours. During the whole time +he wandered about the streets in the darkness, feeling ashamed of +himself. He had made an appointment to drink a glass with some friends +and relatives after the performance in the Hôtel du Nord, but remained +away. He saw they were looking for him but did not wish to meet them. +So they went in again to see the second play. At last it was over. The +spectators streamed out and dispersed through the streets. He hastened +away in order not to hear their comments. + +At last he saw a single group standing under the portico of the +dramatic theatre. They were looking out in all directions and called +him. Finally he came forward as pale and melancholy as a corpse. + +They congratulated him on his success. The play had been applauded and +was very good. They repeated to him the verdicts of other spectators +and quieted him. Then they dragged him to a restaurant and compelled +him to eat and drink. "That will do you good, you old death's-head!" +said a shop-assistant. John was soon pulled down from his imaginative +flight. "What have you got to be melancholy for," he was asked, "when +you have had a play acted by the Theatre Royal?" He could not tell +them. His boldest ambition was fulfilled; but it was probably not +what he wanted. The thought that in any case it was an honour did not +comfort him. + +The next morning he went into a shop, and bought the morning paper +and read a criticism to the effect that the piece was written in +choice language, and (since it was anonymous) probably by a well-known +art-critic who had moved among artistic circles at Rome. That was +pleasant and cheered his spirits. + +At noon he started for Upsala. His father had engaged a room for him +in a boarding-house, kept by the widow of a clergyman, that he might +complete his studies under proper supervision. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TORN TO PIECES + + +John's entrance into the boarding-house secured for him intercourse +with a large and varied circle,--perhaps too varied. There were +students of all ages, of all subjects, and from all districts, from +clergymen who were reading for their last examination to young medical +and law students. There were also ladies in the house, and John was +for the eighth time in love. Again the object of his affections +was unattainable, being engaged to another. The variety of this +social intercourse overloaded his brain with impressions from all +circles; his personality became relaxed and distracted through the +self-adaptation and compromises with other people's views which are +necessary in society. Besides this a great deal of drinking went on +nearly every evening. On one of the first days after his arrival +appeared a criticism of his play in one of the evening papers. It was +very sharp but just, and therefore hit John hard. He felt stripped +and seen through. The critic said that the author had concealed his +insignificant personality behind a great name--Thorwaldsen--but +that the disguise did not avail him and so on. John felt altogether +bankrupt. In such cases one tries to defend oneself, and he compared +his own with other bad plays, which the same severe critic had +praised. He felt treated unjustly, and indeed when compared with others +it was so, but not when he was regarded by himself alone. The fact that +the critic was worse did not make his piece better. + +John became shy and averse to company. This was increased by the +students' club starting a paper in which they made merry over him and +his play. He fancied he saw grimaces and contempt everywhere, and went +preferably by back streets on his walks. + +Then there came a yet severer blow. A friend had, on his own account, +published one of John's first plays,--the _Free-thinker_. While he was +spending an evening with Rejd an acquaintance brought in the hated +evening paper. It contained a scathing article on the play, which was +mocked at and cut to pieces. John was obliged to read the article in +the presence of his friends. He had, against his will, to admit that +the critic was not unjust, but it upset him terribly. + +Why is it so hard to hear the truth from others, while at the same +time one can be so severe against oneself? Probably because the social +masquerade in which we all take part makes every one fear being +unmasked, probably also because responsibility and unpleasantness are +involved in it. One feels oneself overreached and cheated. The critic +who sits at ease and unmasks others would feel himself equally scourged +and exposed if his secrets were betrayed. Social life is honeycombed +with falsity, but who likes to be discovered? That is why at times of +solitude, when the past rises up unescapably, we do not feel remorse +for our faults, but for our follies and necessary cruelties. Mistakes +were necessary and had some use, but follies were merely injurious and +should have been avoided. It is for this reason that men pay greater +honour to intelligence than to morality, for the former is a reality, +the latter an idea. + +Meanwhile John felt the same pains which he imagined a criminal must +feel. He felt impelled to obliterate as soon as possible the impression +made by his stupidity. But he felt also that a kind of injustice +had been done him since he had been criticised simply and solely as +a writer, although his production was a year old, and he himself, +therefore, maturer than it, by a year. But it was not the fault of the +critic that there was an incongruity between the criticism and the +_corpus delicti_. + +He began to compose another tragedy, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_. +This was intended to deal with Christendom in artistic form, and to +handle the same problem and the same questions as his former play. By +"artistic form" at that period was meant the laying of the scene of +the play in a past epoch. John wrote the piece under the influence of +Oehlenschläger and the Icelandic sagas which he had lately read in the +original. + +He had, however, a severe struggle with his conscience, for his father +had exacted a promise from him not to write for the stage till he had +passed his examination. It was, therefore, an act of deceit to take +help from his father and not to fulfil the conditions on which it was +granted. But he silenced his scruples by saying to himself, "Father +will be pleased enough if I have a speedy and great success." In that +he was not far wrong. + +But another element now entered into his life, and had a decided +influence both on his views of things and his work. This was his +acquaintance with two men,--an author and a remarkable personality. +Unfortunately they were both abnormal and therefore had only a +disturbing effect upon his development. + +The author was Kierkegaard,[1] whose book, _Either--Or_, John had +borrowed from a member of the Song Club, and read with fear and +trembling. His friends had also read it as a work of genius, had +admired the style, but not been specialty influenced by it,--a proof +that books have little effect, when they do not find readers in +sympathy with the author. But upon John the book made the impression +intended by the author. He read the first part containing "The +Confessions of an Æsthete." He felt sometimes carried away by it, but +always had an uncomfortable feeling as though present at a sick-bed. +The perusal of the first part left a feeling of emptiness and despair +behind it. The book agitated him. "The Diary of a Seducer" he regarded +as the fancies of an unclean imagination. Things were not like that in +real life. Moreover John was no sybarite, but on the contrary inclined +to asceticism and self-torment. Such egotistic sensuality as that of +the hero of Kierkegaard's work was absurd because the suffering he +caused by the satisfaction of his desires necessarily involved him in +suffering and, therefore, defeated his object. + +The second part of the work containing the philosopher's "Discourse on +Life as a Duty," made a deeper impression on John. It showed him that +he himself was an "æsthete" who had conceived of authorship as a form +of enjoyment. Kierkegaard said that it should be regarded as a calling. +Why? The proof was wanting, and John, who did not know that Kierkegaard +was a Christian, but thought the contrary, not having seen his +_Edifying Discourses_, imbibed unaware the Christian system of ethics +with its doctrine of self-sacrifice and duty Along with these the idea +of sin returned. Enjoyment was a sin, and one had to do one's duty. +Why? Was it for the sake of society to which one was under obligations? +No! merely because it was duty. That was simply Kant's categorical +imperative. When he reached the end of the work _Either--Or_ and found +the moral philosopher also in despair, and that all this teaching about +duty had only produced a Philistine, he felt broken in two. "Then," he +thought, "better be an æsthete." But one cannot be an æsthete if one +has been a Christian for five-sixths of one's life, and one cannot be +moral without Christ. Thus he was tossed to and fro like a ball between +the two, and ended in sheer despair. + +Had he now read Kierkegaard's discourses, he might possibly have +come a step nearer to Christianity--possibly--for it is difficult to +decide that now, but to receive Christianity again seemed to him like +replacing a tooth which had been torn out, and joyfully thrown into the +fire, along with the accompanying toothache. It was also possible that +if he had known that the book _Either--Or_ was intended to scourge one +to the Cross he might have thrown it away as a jesuitical writing and +been saved from his embarrassment. All that he felt now, however, was +a terrible discord. He had to choose and make the jump between ethics +and æsthetics, but choose how? and jump whither? He could not jump +out in space to embrace a paradox or Christ,--that would have been +self-destruction or madness. But Kierkegaard preached madness? Was +it the despair of the over-self-conscious at finding himself always +self-conscious? Was it the longing of one who sees too deeply for the +unconsciousness of intoxication? + +John knew well what the battle between his own will and the will of +others meant. He had given his father trouble enough when he crossed +his plans; but the trouble was mutual; the whole of life consisted of +a web of wills crossing one another. The death of one was life-breath +to another; no one could gain an advantage without hurting the one +he passed by. Life was a perpetual interchange and struggle between +pleasure and pain. His sensuality or desire for enjoyment had not +injured others nor caused them trouble. He had never seduced the +innocent, and had never enjoyed himself without paying the price. He +was moral from habit; from instinct, from fear of the consequences, +from good taste or from education, but the very fact that he did +not feel himself immoral, was a defect and a sin. After reading +_Either--Or_ he felt sinful. The categorical imperative stole on him +under a Latin name and without a cross on its back, and he let himself +be beguiled by it. He did not see that it was a two-thousand-years-old +Christianity in disguise. + +Kierkegaard would not have made so deep an impression on him, if a +number of concurrent circumstances had not contributed to that result. +In the letters of the æsthete, Kierkegaard expounded suffering as +enjoyment. John suffered from public contumely; he suffered from his +hard work; he suffered from unrequited affection; he suffered from +unsatisfied desires; he suffered from drink, for he was intoxicated +nearly every evening; he suffered as an artist from mental struggles +and doubts; he suffered from the ugly scenery of Upsala; he suffered +from the discomfort of his rooms; he suffered from examination-books; +he suffered from a bad conscience because he did not study but wrote +plays. But something else lay at the bottom of all this. He had been +brought up to fulfil hard tasks and duties. Now he lived well amid ease +and enjoyment. Study was an enjoyment; authorship, in spite of all its +pains, was a wonderful enjoyment; the life with his comrades was sheer +festivity and jollity. But his plebeian consciousness awoke and told +him that it was not right to enjoy while others worked; _his_ work was +an enjoyment, for it brought him a good deal of honour, and perhaps +money. This accounted for his persistently uneasy conscience which +persecuted him without a cause. Was it that he felt already the signs +of this awakening consciousness of tremendous guilt as regards the +lower classes, the slaves who toiled, while he enjoyed? Did he already +have a foreboding of that sense of justice, which in our days has laid +so strong a hold on many of the upper classes that they have restored +capital which was not quite honestly earned, have expended time and +toil for the liberation of the lower classes, and have worked from +impulse and instinct against their own interests, in order to do right? +Possibly. + +But Kierkegaard was not the man to resolve the discord. It was reserved +for the evolutionary philosophers to make peace between passion and +reason, between enjoyment and duty. They cancelled the deceptive +_Either_--_Or_, and substituted _Both--And,_ giving both flesh and +spirit their due. The real significance of Kierkegaard became clear +to John many years later. Then he saw in him the simple pietist, the +ultra-Christian who wished to realise in modern society oriental ideals +of two thousand years ago. But Kierkegaard was right in one point: if +we were to have Christianity, we ought to have it thoroughly; but his +_Either--Or_ was only valid for the priests of the church who called +themselves Christians. + +Kierkegaard saw no further, and from him who wrote his book in 1843, +and had a clerical education, one could not expect that he should say: +"Either a Christianity like this, or none!" In that case people would +probably have chosen none. Instead of that Kierkegaard said: "Whether +you are æsthetical or ethical you must cast yourself into the arms +of Christ." His mistake was to oppose ethics and æsthetics to each +other, for they can go very well together. But John did not succeed +in harmonising them till, after endless struggles, at the age of +thirty-seven, he attempted a compromise when he discovered that work +and duty are forms of enjoyment, and that enjoyment itself, well-used, +is a duty. + +But at that time, the book weighed on him like a nightmare. He was +angry when his friends wished to regard it as mere literature. He was +not pacified by their regarding it superior in richness, depth and +style to Goethe's _Faust_, which it certainly did surpass by far. John +could not at that time understand that the pillar-saint Kierkegaard had +himself known what enjoyment was when he wrote the first part, and that +the seducer and Don Juan were the author himself, who satisfied his +desires in imagination. No, he thought it was poetry. + +John had been already predisposed to receive Kierkegaard's influence, +and now came the other acquaintance, which would not have played a +great rôle in his life if circumstances had not prepared him for +that also. His companions merely regarded the person in question as +ludicrous. + +It came about in the following way. Thurs the Jew came one day and told +John that he had made the acquaintance of a genius who wished to join +their Song Club. + +"Ah, a genius!" + +None of the members of the club believed that they were geniuses, not +even John, and it is doubtful whether any poet has really believed +or felt that he was one. One can, when one makes comparisons, find +that one has produced better work than others, and a clever man +will naturally feel that he understands better than others, but +genius,--that is something else. This title is not generally bestowed +on any one till after death and is now dropping out of common use, +since the secret of the evolution of genius has been discovered. + +The novelty aroused attention, and the stranger was elected to the +club under the name of Is. He was not a poet, they were told, but very +learned and a powerful critic. + +One evening when the club-meeting was at Thurs' rooms he came--a +little thin person, without an overcoat, dressed like a labourer on +his holiday. His clothes looked as though they were borrowed, for +their elbows and knees were not in the right places. John, who used +to succeed to his elder brother's clothes, noticed this at once. In +his hand he held a dirty beer-soup-coloured hat, such as is only worn +by organ-grinders. His face looked like that of a southern rat-trap +seller. His black hair hung on his shoulders and a black beard fell on +his breast. + +"Is it possible?" they asked themselves. "Can he be a student?" He +looked forty, but was only thirty. He stood with his hat in his hand +at the door like a beggar, and hardly ventured to come forward. After +Thurs had drawn him into the room and introduced him, the meeting was +declared open. Is began to speak and they listened. His voice was like +a woman's and sank sometimes, without apology, to a whisper, as though +the speaker demanded perfect silence or spoke for his own satisfaction. +It would be difficult to repeat what he spoke of, for his speech ranged +over everything that he had read, and since he had read for ten years +more than the youths of twenty, they found his learning wonderful. + +After that, another member of the club read a poem. Is had to deliver +an opinion on it. He began with Kant, quoted Schopenhauer and +Thackeray, and finished with a lecture on George Sand. No one noticed +that he said nothing about the poem. + +Then they went into a restaurant to eat. Is talked philosophy, +æsthetics and history. He spoke sometimes with a melancholy expression +in his dark unfathomable eyes, which never rested on those present, as +though he sought an unseen audience far in the distance, in unknown +space. The club listened reverently with absorbed attention. + +John was to hear this man's opinion on his work. He, as well as one of +the most poetical members of the club, began to have serious doubts as +to their vocation. Often, when they had drunk a good deal, they asked +whether they still believed--meaning whether each thought the Other +called to be a poet. It was just the same sort of doubt which John had +felt when he had wondered whether he was a child of God. Is was to +read John's drama, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_, and to give his +opinion. + +One morning John went up to his room to hear his verdict. Is spoke +till noon. About what? About everything. But he had now taken hold of +John's soul. Through conversations with Thurs, he know which strings to +pull, and did so, as he chose. He burrowed in John's mind, not out of +sympathy, but from a spider-like curiosity. He did not speak directly +of John's play but suggested the plan of a new one after his own ideas. +He had the effect of a mesmeriser, and John was magnetised. But he +felt in a state of despair when he left him, as though his friend had +taken his soul, picked it to pieces and thrown them away after he had +satisfied his curiosity. + +But John came again, sat on the wise man's sofa, listened to his words +as though they were an oracle, and felt himself completely under his +power. Sometimes he thought it was a ghost who walked on the carpet +when his body disappeared in clouds of tobacco-smoke. The man exercised +what is called a "demonic" influence, _i.e_. inexplicable at first +sight. He had no blood in his veins, no feelings, no will, no desires. +He was a talking head. His standpoint was nothing and all at the same +time. He was a decoction of books, and the type of a book-worm who had +never lived. + +Often when the other members of the club were alone, they talked +about Is. Thurs was already tired of him and wondered whether he +had committed some crime, for he seemed driven about by a constant +restlessness. Then it was reported that he was a poet, but never would +show his poems, for he had such a high idea of the poetic art. They +also wondered why no one ever saw a book in the learned man's rooms. +It was also strange that he should seek the company of these youths, +to whom he was so superior, and whose poetry he must despise. They who +were themselves in the full bloom of romanticism did not detect the +anæmic romantic who had lost his footing on firm ground. They did not +see in his long hair and shabby hat the copy of Murger's Bohemian; they +did not know that this dilapidated condition was a Parisian fashion; +that this hollow wisdom was a web woven out of German metaphysics; that +this experimental psychology was derived from a peep into Kierkegaard; +and that that interesting air of hinting at uncommitted crimes and +secret griefs was Byronic in origin. All this they did not understand. +Therefore Is could play with John's soul and catch him in his snare. +Yes, John was so thoroughly taken by him that in a speech he called +himself Gamaliel, who sat at Paul's Is's feet to learn wisdom. + +The upshot of it all was that Julm, one fine evening, burnt his new +play. It was the work of three months which went up in flames. As he +collected the ashes, he wept. Is, without saying so directly, had shown +him that he was no poet. So everything was a mistake, this also! Then +he felt in despair, because he had deceived his father and could take +no work home to justify his neglect of his wishes. In a fit of remorse, +and in order to be able to point to some definite result, he entered +his name for the written examination in Latin, without, however, having +written any of the requisite preliminary exercises or essays. The Latin +professor saw his name in the list and did not know it. One Sunday +evening, when John had returned to his rooms in good spirits after a +supper, the university bedell appeared to summon him. John went boldly +to the professor and asked what he wanted. + +"You wish to take the written examination in Latin?" + +"Yes." + +"But I do not see your name on my list." + +"I entered myself before for the medical examination." + +"That has nothing to do with this. You must go by the rules." + +"I know no rules about the three essays." + +"I think you are impertinent, sir." + +"It may seem so----" + +"Out with you, sir!--or----" + +The door was opened, and John was ejected. He swore to himself he +would still go up for the written examination, but the next morning he +overslept himself. + +So even that last straw failed. + +Shortly afterwards one morning a friend came and woke him. + +"Do you know that W. is dead?" (W. sat at the same table in the +boarding-house.) + +"No!" + +"Yes! he has cut his throat." + +John started up, dressed himself, and hurried with his friend to the +Jernbrogatan where W. lived. They rushed up the stairs and came to a +dark attic. + +"Is it here?" + +"No, here!" + +John felt for a door; the door gave way and fell upon him. At the same +moment he saw a pool of blood on the ground. He turned round, let go +of the door, and was at the bottom of the stairs before the door fell +on the ground. This scene shook him terribly and woke his memory. Some +days previously John had gone into the Carolina Park to work at his +play in solitude. W. came up, greeted him, and asked whether he might +bear him company or whether he disturbed him. John answered sincerely +that he did disturb him, and W. went away with a melancholy air. Was +it a case of a lonely drowning man who sought a companion and was +repulsed? John felt almost guilty of his death. But he was not intended +for a comforter. Now the dead man seemed to haunt him; he dared not go +to his room, but slept with his friend. One night he slept with Rejd. +The latter had to keep a light burning and was woken several times in +the night by John, who could not sleep. + +One day Rejd found John with a bottle of prussic acid. He apparently +approved the idea of suicide, but first asked him to take a farewell +drink with him. They went to the restaurant and ordered eight glasses +of whisky, which were brought in on a tray. Each of them drank four +glasses in four pulls, with the desired result that John became dead +drunk. He was carried home, but since the house door was locked, he was +carried over an empty piece of ground and thrown over a fence. There he +remained lying in a snow-drift, till he recovered his senses, and crept +up into his room. + +The last night which he spent in Upsala some days later he slept on a +sofa in Thurs' rooms; his friends kept watch over him, and the room +was lighted up. They watched good-naturedly till morning, then they +accompanied him to the station, and put him in the coupé. When the +train had passed Bergsbrunna, John breathed again. He felt as though +he had left something dreadful and weird, like a northern winter night +with thirty degrees of cold, behind him, and registered a vow never +again to settle in this town, where men's souls, banished from life and +society, grew rotten from over-production of thought, were corroded +by stagnant waters which had no outlet, and took fire like millstones +which revolved without having anything to grind. + + +[1] Danish theologian. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IDEALISM AND REALISM + +(1871) + + +When John again reached his parents' house, he felt himself in shelter +like one who has reached land after a stormy sea-passage by night. +Again he had quiet nights in his old tent-bed in the brothers' room. +Here were quiet patient men, who came and went, worked and slept at +stated times without being disturbed by dreams or ambitious designs. +His sisters had grown up into young women and managed the house. All +were at work with the exception of himself. When he compared his +irregular, dissipated life, which knew no rest or peace, with theirs, +he considered them happier and better than himself. They took life +seriously, went about their work and fulfilled their duties without +noise or boasting. + +John now looked up his old acquaintances among the tradespeople, +clerks, and sea-captains, and found intercourse with them novel and +refreshing. They led his thoughts back to reality and he felt firm +ground once more under his feet. At the same time he began to despise +false ideality, and saw that it was vulgar of the students to look down +on the "Philistines." + +He now confessed quite simply and openly to his father, but without +remorse, the wretched life he had led at Upsala, and begged him to let +him stay at home and prepare for his examination there,--otherwise he +would be lost. His father granted permission, and now John prepared his +plan of campaign for the spring term. In the first place he meant to +take lessons in Latin composition with a good teacher in Stockholm, and +then go up in spring, and pass the examination. Furthermore he would +write his disquisition for a certificate in æsthetics and prepare for +the examination in that subject. With these resolutions he began a +quiet and industrious manner of life with the new year. + +But the failure of his play the _Free-thinker_ still weighed upon his +mind, and the questions of his friends as to whether they should soon +see something new from him, stirred him up to re-write, in the form +of a one-act play, the drama he had burnt. He finished it, and then +continued his studies. + +Shortly before April he wrote a test-composition for his teacher, who +declared that he would pass. His father did not disapprove of his plan +when he heard that John felt quite confident, but he suggested that it +would be more practical if he conformed to custom and wrote exercises +for the Upsala professor. "No," said John, "it was now a question of +principle and a matter of honour." So he went to Upsala. + +He called on the professor on his at-home day and waited till his turn +for an interview. When the latter saw him, he grew red in the face and +asked: + +"Are you here again?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you want?" + +"I want to go in for the Latin Composition examination." + +"Without having written a test-composition?" + +"I have done that in Stockholm--and I only want to ask whether the +statutes allow me to go up for the examination." + +"The statutes? Ask the dean about that; I only know what I require." + +John went straight to the dean, who was a young, lively and sympathetic +man. John made known his purpose and described what had passed. + +"Yes," said the dean, "the statutes say nothing about the matter, but +old P. can pluck you without their help." + +"Well, we shall see. Will you allow me, Mr. Dean, to go up for the +written examination, that is the question?" + +"Yes, I can't refuse that. You mean then to have your own way?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Arc you so sure about the matter?" + +"Yes." + +"Very well! Good luck to you!" said the Dean, and clapped him on the +shoulder. + +So John went up for the examination and after a week received a +telegram to say that he had passed. Some ascribed this result to +the professor's generosity and disapproved of John's rebellious +procedure; but John considered his success due to his own diligence +and knowledge, although he could not deny that the professor had acted +honourably in not plucking him when he had the power to do so. + +The examination in æsthetics was fixed for May. Contrary to all usage +John sent his disquisition by post to Upsala with the written request +that he might stand for the examination. + +His essay was entitled "Hakon Jarl," and treated of Idealism and +Realism. Its object was firstly to convince the professor that +the writer was well-read in æsthetics and particularly in Danish +literature, and secondly, to clear up to the writer himself his own +point of view. The essay, in imitation of Kierkegaard, was in the form +of a correspondence between A and B, criticising Oehlenschläger's +_Hakon Jarl_ and Kierkegaard's _Either--Or_. + +At the appointed time John appeared before the professor, who had +the reputation of being liberal-minded, but felt at once that he had +no sympathy with him. With an almost contemptuous air the professor +handed him back his essay and declared that it was best suited for the +female readers of the _Illustrated News_. He further stated that Danish +literature was not a subject of sufficient importance to be taken up as +a special branch of study. + +John felt annoyed, and asserted that Danish literature had greater +interest for Sweden than Boileau and Malesherbes, for example, on whom +students wrote essays. + +His examination then began and took the form of a violent argument. +It was continued in the afternoon and ended by the professor giving +him a certificate which was not so good as he had hoped, and telling +him that university studies could only be properly carried on at the +university. John replied that æsthetic studies could be best carried +on at Stockholm where one had the National Museum, Library, Theatre, +Academy of Music and Artists. + +"No," said the professor, "that is nonsense; one ought to study here." + +John let fall some remarks on college lectures, and they parted, not as +particularly good friends. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A KING'S PROTÉGÉ + +(1871) + + +During the whole of this time, John had been on pleasant terms with his +father, and the old man had shown himself to a certain extent willing +to be educated, but his tactless pride sometimes broke out and annoyed +John. The latter, who was now continually at home, spent many evening +hours with the old man in conversations on all sorts of subjects, and +finally on religion. One day John spoke for half-an-hour about Theodore +Parker, so that his father at last expressed a wish to read some of +him. He kept the book for several days, but said nothing, and John +found it again in his room. His father was too proud to acknowledge +that he liked the book, but John learned through one of his brothers +that he was especially delighted with the famous sermon "On Old Age." + +In the matter of John's opposition to the professor, his father +vacillated. His opinion was that right was always right, but he did +not like the disrespectful way in which John spoke of the professor. +Meanwhile John saw that he had won the game and that his father had a +lively interest in his success. + +But one day in spring John went into the country, telling the servant +that he would be absent for the day. When he returned the next morning +he had an unpleasant reception. + +"You go away without telling me?" + +"I told the servant." + +"I require you to ask permission of me as long as you eat my bread." + +"Ask permission! What nonsense!" + +John departed, borrowed three hundred kronas from a friendly tradesman, +and then with three of his club associates went to one of the islands +near Stockholm, where they hired rooms in a fisher's house at a rent +of thirty kronas per month. No one tried to stop him, and probably +this crisis was occasioned by the fact that John was exercising a +perceptible influence on his father, brothers and sisters in matters +concerning domestic arrangements. The mistress of the house feared that +the power would be taken out of her hands. + +He spent the summer in strenuously working for his examination, for +he had now no hope of receiving further supplies from home. It was +a healthy and ascetic life with innocent amusements. He went about +in dressing-gown, drawers and sea-boots, and the toilette of his +companions was still more scanty. They bathed, sailed, fenced, and +John gave himself over increasingly to a process of decivilisation. +There were almost always spirituous liquors on the table, and John +feared them, for they made him mad. But to this asceticism and industry +succeeded a desire to make converts of others, and a great amount of +self-satisfaction. The latter is always the case, whether the ascetic +feels that in this respect he is better than others, or whether he +makes the sacrifice in order to feel himself better. Therefore he +preached to one brother who drank, and moralised over the others who +did not work, but went to Dalarö to dance or to feast. Kierkegaard's +influence was strong upon him; he wished to be moral, and thundered +against æstheticism. + +He now studied philology, and went through Dante, Shakespeare and +Goethe. The last he hated because he was an æsthete. Behind all, like +a dark background, was the breach with his father. After their life +together during the last winter, he saw him as it were transfigured, +justified him with respect to all that had happened in the past, and +had forgotten all the petty troubles of his childhood. He missed most +of all his brothers and sisters, especially his sisters whom he +had really learnt to know. Toiling with a lexicon and investigating +roots of words had become painful to him, but he enjoyed this pain, +and disciplined his imagination by hard work, looking upon it as his +professional duty. + +Towards the end of the summer he was wild and shy. The clothes, winch +he rummaged out again, were too tight, his collar, which he had not +worn for months, tormented him as though it had been of iron, and his +shoes pinched him. Everything seemed to him constrained, conventional +and unnatural. Once he had been enticed to an evening party at Dalarö +but had immediately returned. He was shy and could not bear frivolity +and laughter. This time it was not the consciousness of belonging +to the lower classes, for he had ceased to regard himself as one of +them. Meanwhile the ascetic life he had been leading increased his +will-power and his activity. When the next term at Upsala commenced, +he took his travelling-bag and journeyed thither, without having more +than a krona to call his own, and without knowing where he would find a +room and something to eat. On his arrival he took up his quarters with +Rejd, and set about working. The first evening, feeling half famished, +he looked up Is, who had remained the whole summer alone in Upsala +and seemed more melancholy than usual. His appearance was that of a +shadow, and solitude had made him still more morbid. He went out with +John and invited him to supper at a restaurant. He spoke in his usual +style and mangled his prey, who, on the other hand, defended himself, +struck back, and attacked the æsthete. Is contemplated his hungry +companion while he ate, and intoxicated himself with the brandy-bottle. +He adopted a maternal air and offered to lend John money. The latter +was touched, thanked him, and borrowed about ten kronas, for, since he +believed he had a future before him, he borrowed without fear. Finally +Is became drunk and raved. He changed his attitude, called John an +egoist, and reproached him for having taken the ten kronas. + +To be suspected of egotism was the worst thing John knew, for Christ +had taught him that the "ego" must be crucified. His individuality had +grown since it had been freed from pressure and attained publicity. +Conspicuous persons obtain a greater individuality through the +attention they receive, or they attract attention for the simple reason +that they have a greater individuality. John felt that he was working +in the right way for his future; he pressed forward with energy and +will and the help of many friends, but not as a charlatan or schemer. +But Is's accusation struck him in the face, as it must all men who +have an "ego." He wished to return the money, but Is drew himself up +proudly, played the "gentleman" and continued to romance. It struck +John that this idealist was a mean fellow who behaved in this fantastic +way in order to conceal his vexation at the temporary loss of the ten +kronas. + +Now the students returned for the term, and all of them with money. +John wandered about with his travelling-bag and his books, and +discovered how soon a welcome is worn out when one lies upon somebody +else's sofa. He borrowed money to hire a room with. It was a real +rats' nest with a camp-bed without sheets or cushions. No candlestick, +nothing. But he lay in bed in his under-clothes and read by the light +of a candle stuck in a bottle. His friends here and there provided him +with meals. But then came the winter. He used to go out after dark and +buy a quantity of wood, which he carried home in his bag. A scientific +friend taught him how to make a charcoal fire. Moreover, the shaft of +a chimney passed through his room and was warm every washing-day. He +stood beside it with his hands behind him and read out of a book which +he had placed on the chest of drawers, dragging the latter close to +him. In the meantime his drama had been played and coldly received. The +subject-matter was religious. It dealt with heathendom and Christendom, +the former being defended as an epoch-making movement, not as a creed. +Christ was placed on one side and the only true God exalted. The drama +also contained a domestic struggle, and, after the fashion of the +time, women were extolled at the expense of the men. In one passage +the author expressed his opinion as to the position of a poet in life. +"Are you a man, Orm?" asks the duke. "I am only a poet," answers Orm. +"Therefore you will never become anything," is the rejoinder. + +In fact, John believed now that the poet's life was a shadow existence, +that he had no individuality, but only lived in that of others. But is +it then so certain that the poet possesses no individuality because +he has more than one? Perhaps he is richer because he possesses more +than the others. And why is it better to have only one "ego," since +in any case a single "ego" is not more one's own than many "egos," +seeing that even one "ego" is a compound product derived from parents, +educators, social intercourse and books? Perhaps it is for this reason +that society, like a machine, demands that the single "egos" shall act +each like a wheel, screw, or separate piece of the machine in a limited +automatic way. But the poet is more than a piece of a machine, since he +is a whole machine in himself. + +In the drama John had incorporated himself in five persons;--in the +Jarl, who is at war with his contemporaries; in the Poet, who looks +over things and looks through them; in the Mother, who is angry and +revengeful but whose thirst for vengeance is counteracted by her +sympathy; in the Daughter, who for the sake of her faith breaks with +her father; in the Lover, whose love is ill-starred. John understood +the motives of all the dramatis personae; and spoke from their varying +points of view. But a drama written for the average man who has +ready-made views on all subjects, must at least take sides with one +of its characters in order to win the excitable and partisan public. +John could not do this, because he believed in no absolute right or +wrong, for the simple reason that all these ideas are relative. One may +be right as regards the future, and wrong as regards the present; one +may be wrong in one year and right in the next; a father may justify +his son while the mother condemns him; a daughter is right in loving +the man she loves, but in her father's view she is wrong in loving a +heathen. There comes in doubt: Why do men hate and despise the doubter? +Because doubt is the seed of development and progress, and the average +man hates development because it disturbs his quiet. Only the stupid +man is certain; only the ignorant one thinks he has found the truth. +Doubt undermines energy, they say. But it is better to act without +considering the consequences. The animal and the savage act blindly, +obeying desire and impulse; in that they resemble our "men of action"! + +When John returned to Upsala, he was again followed by disparaging +criticisms. To some extent they were true, _e.g._ the assertion that +the form of the piece was borrowed from the _Kongsemnerne,_ but only +to some extent, for John had taken the frigid tone and the rough +phraseology direct from the Icelandic sagas, and the views of life he +expressed were original. Scorn followed him, and he was regarded as a +man who was ambitious of being a poet, the worst suspicion under which +any one can fall. + +But in the midst of his toil and needy circumstances, a week after his +overthrow, there came a letter from the chamberlain of the Theatre +Royal at Stockholm, requesting him to go there immediately as the +king wished to see him. Morbidly suspicious he believed that it was a +practical joke, and took the letter to his wise friend--the student of +Natural History. The latter telegraphed in the evening to a well-known +actor of the Theatre Royal requesting him to ask the chamberlain +whether he had written to John. The latter spent a restless night, +tossed to and fro between hope and fear. The next morning the answer +came that it was indeed so and that John should come at once. He set +off forthwith. + +Why did he, a born rebel, accept the royal favour without hesitation? +For the simple reason that he did not belong to the democratic party; +he had never promised his father or mother not to receive a favour from +the king. Furthermore he believed in the aristocracy or the right of +the best to govern, and he considered the upper classes the best, as +he had shown in his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, in which he expressed +contempt for the demagogues. He hated tyrants, but this king was no +tyrant. Therefore there was no reason for hesitation within him or +without him. Accordingly he travelled to Stockholm and was received in +audience by the king. The latter was just now very ill, and looked so +emaciated as to make a painful impression. He stood with a benevolent +aspect, smoking his long tobacco-pipe, and smiled at the young +beardless author, walking awkwardly between the rows of aide-de-camps +and chamberlains. He thanked him for the pleasure which he had derived +from his drama, adding that he himself when young had competed for an +academical prize with a poem on the Vikings, and was fond of the old +Norse legends. He said that he wished to help the young student to take +his doctor's degree, and closed the interview by referring him to the +treasurer, who had been ordered to make him a first payment. Later on +he would receive more, and the king said he supposed there were still +two or three years to elapse before he took his degree. + +John's immediate future was now secure. He felt gratefully moved by +this kindness on the part of a king who had so many things to think +about. On his return to Upsala, he saw for two months how the court +sunshine had turned him into a star. The official who had paid him, +had asked him whether he thought later on of obtaining a post in some +public department or in the Royal Library. His ambition had never +soared so high and did not yet do so. + +The chief object of human existence seems to be, and must indeed be, to +spend one's life till death in the least unpleasant manner possible. +This aim does not exclude solicitude for the good of others, for +happiness includes the consciousness of not having infringed others' +rights unnecessarily. Therefore ill-gotten wealth cannot secure a +pleasant life, nor can any path which leads over the prostrate bodies +of others. Accordingly Utilitarianism, or the philosophy which aims at +the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is not immoral. + +In spite of all his asceticism John could not help feeling happy. +His happiness consisted in the half-consciousness that he could live +his life without the great anxiety which the insecurity of means +of existence causes. He had been threatened by penury and was now +secure; life had been restored to him, and it is a happy thing to be +able to live before one has done growing. His chest, which had been +narrowed by hunger and over-exertion, broadened itself; his back grew +straighter; life no longer seemed so melancholy. He was contented with +his lot; things took on a more cheerful aspect, and he would have been +ungrateful had he still remained among the malcontents. + +But this did not last long. When he saw his old comrades round him in +a position in which _his_ happiness had effected no change, he found +that there was a want of harmony between them. They had been accustomed +to help him as one in need and now he needed their help no longer. +They had liked him, because they protected him and were accustomed +to see him below them. But when he came upwards, near them and above +them, they found him necessarily altered by altered circumstances. The +necessitous man is not so bold in his opinions nor so stiff in the back +as the prosperous one. He was altered for them, but was he therefore +worse? Self-esteem under other circumstances is generally well thought +of. Enough! He annoyed others by the fact that he was fortunate, and +still more because he wished to help others to be so. + +The present he had received entailed obligations, and John gave +himself diligently to study. He passed his examinations in Philology, +Astronomy, and Political Science, but received in none of these +subjects such a good testimonial as he had expected. He had studied too +much in one way and too little in another. + +In examination time he generally had an attack of aphasia. +Physiologists usually ascribe this weakness to an injury in the left +temple. And as a matter of fact John had two scars above his left eye. +One was caused by the blow of an axe, the other by a rock against which +he had struck himself in jumping down the Observatory hill. He was +inclined to trace to this the great difficulty he had in delivering +public addresses and speaking foreign languages. + +Accordingly, during examinations, he would sit there, unable to give +an answer although he knew more than was asked. Then there came over +him a spirit of defiance, of self-torment, of ill-humour, and he felt +tempted to throw up the whole thing. He criticised the text-books and +felt dishonest in learning what he despised. The rôle assigned to him +began to oppress him; he longed to get away from it all to something +else, wherever it might be. It was not that he regarded the king's +present as a benefaction. It was a stipend, a reward for merit, such +as artists at all periods have received for the purpose of carrying +on their self-cultivation. His royal patron was not merely the king +but his personal friend and admirer. Therefore the gift exercised no +kind of restraint upon his rebellious thoughts; he only let himself be +temporarily deceived, and believed that all was right with the world, +because he prospered. His radicalism had been considerably mitigated; +he no longer thought that all which was wrong in the state was the +fault of the monarchy, nor did he believe with the pagans that better +harvests would follow if the king was sacrificed on an idol-altar. His +mother would have wept for joy at his distinction, had she lived, so +strong were her aristocratic leanings. + +All of us, including crown princes, are democrats, inasmuch as we wish +those above us to come down to our level; but when we ascend, we do +not wish to be pulled down. The question is only whether that winch +is "above" us is so in a spiritual sense, and whether it ought to be +there. That was what John began to be doubtful of. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WINDING UP + +(1872) + + +At the beginning of the spring term, John took up his quarters with an +elder comrade in order to continue his studies. But when he had again +the old books before him which he had already studied so long, he felt +a distaste for them. His brain was full of impressions, of collected +literary material, and refused to take in any more; his imagination +and thought were busily at work and would not let memory be alone +active; he had fits of doubt and apathy and often remained the whole +day lying on the sofa. Then the desire would sometimes awake to be +altogether free and to plunge into the life of activity. But the royal +stipend held him fast in fetters and imposed on him obligations. Having +received it, he was bound to go on studying for his doctor's degree, +the course of reading for which he had half completed. So he applied +himself to philosophy, but when he read the history of it, he found all +systems equally valid or invalid, and his mind resisted all new ideas. + +In the literary club there was disunion and lethargy. All their +youthful poems had been read and no one produced any more, so that +they only met together to drink punch. Is had exposed himself, and +after a scene with another member, he had been thrown out. He drew his +knife and got well thrashed. He saved himself from worse by affecting +to treat the affair as a joke, and was now a mere laughing-stock, since +it had been discovered that his wisdom consisted in quotations from the +students' periodicals which the others had not had the wit to utilise. +At the beginning of term an Æsthetic Society had been founded by the +professor of Æsthetics, and this made their own literary society, the +"Runa," superfluous. + +At one of the meetings of the former, John's discontent with classical +authorities broke out. He had been drinking that evening and was +half-intoxicated. In conversation with the professor dangerous ground +was touched upon and John was enticed so far out of his reserve as to +declare Dante without significance for humanity and overestimated. John +had plenty of reasons to allege for his opinion, but could not express +them to advantage when the professor set upon him, and the whole +company gathered round the disputants, who were squeezed into a corner +by the stove. He wanted in the first place to say that the construction +of the _Divine Comedy_ was not original, but a very ordinary form which +had already been employed shortly before in the _Vision of Albericus_. +Furthermore his opinion was that in this poem Dante did not reflect +the culture and thoughts of his period, because he was so uncultured +that he did not even know Greek. He was not a philosopher, for he +hampered thought by the fetters of revelation, and therefore he was no +precursor of the Renaissance or the Reformation. He was no patriot, for +he venerated the German empire as established by God. He was at most a +local patriot of Florence. Nor was he a democrat, for he always dreamt +of a union of the empire and the papacy. He did not attack the papacy, +but only individual popes who lived immoral lives, as he himself +had done in his youth. He was a monk, a truly idiotic child of his +age, for he sent unbaptised children to hell. He was a narrow-minded +royalist who put Brutus next to Satan in the deepest hell. He was +entirely wanting in the power of selfcriticism;--while he reckons +ingratitude to friends and betrayal of one's fatherland among the worst +of crimes, he places his own friend and teacher, Brunetto Latini, in +hell, and supports the German Emperor, Henry VII, against his native +city Florence. He had bad literary taste, for he reckoned as the six +greatest poets of the world Homer, Horace, Lucan, Ovid, Virgil and +himself. How could modern critics who were so severe on all scandalous +literature praise Dante, who in his poem cast dishonour on so many +contemporary persons and families? He even scolds his own dear native +city, exclaiming when he finds five nobly-born Florentines in Hell: +"Rejoice! O Florence! for thy name is not only great over land and +sea, but also in hell. Five of thy citizens are in thieves' company; +my cheeks blush at the sight of them. But one thing I know; punishment +will light upon thee, Florence, and may it happen soon!" + +As is usual in such debates, the attacked and the attacker often +changed their ground. John wished to prove to the professor that from +his point of view the _Commedia_ was a political pamphlet, but then +the professor veered round, adopted the enemy's point of view and said +that _he_ should value it as such. Whereupon John answered that it was +exactly as such that he designated it, but not as a magnificent poem +of everlasting value, which the professor had declared it to be in his +lectures. Again the professor changed his ground, and said that the +poem should be judged by the standard of the period at which it was +composed. + +"Exactly so," answered John, "but you have judged it by the standard +of our time and all succeeding times, and therefore you are wrong. But +even with regard to its own time the work is not an epoch-making one; +it is not in advance of its period, but belongs strictly to it, or +rather lags behind it. It is a linguistic monument for Italy, nothing +more, and should never be read in a Swedish university, because the +language is antiquated, and finally because it is too insignificant to +be regarded as a link in the development of culture." + +The result of the controversy was that John was regarded as shameless +and half-cracked. + +After this explosion he was exhausted and incapable of work. The whole +of the life in a town where he did not feel at home was distasteful +to him. His companions advised him to take a thorough rest, for he +had worked too hard, and so, as a matter of fact, he had. Various +schemes again presented themselves to his mind, but without result. +The grey dirty town vexed him, the scenery around depressed him; he +lay on a sofa and looked at the illustrations in a German newspaper. +Views of foreign scenery had the same effect as music on his mind and +he felt a longing to see green trees and blue seas; he wished to go +into the country but it was still only February, the sky was as grey +as sack-cloth, the streets and roads were muddy. When he felt most +depressed, he went to his friend the natural science student. It +refreshed him to see his herbarium and microscope, his aquarium and +physiological preparations. Most of all he found a pleasure in the +society of the quiet, peaceable atheist, who let the world go its way, +for he knew that he worked better for the future, in his small measure, +than the poet with his excitable outbreaks. He had a little of the +artist left in him and painted in oils. To think that he could call up +as if by enchantment a green landscape amid the mists of this wintry +spring and hang it on his wall! + +"Is painting difficult?" he asked his friend. + +"No, indeed! It is easier than drawing. Try it!" + +John, who had already, with the greatest calm, composed a song with a +guitar-accompaniment, thought it not impossible for him to paint, and +he borrowed an easel, colours, and a paint-brush. Then he went home +and shut himself up in his room. From an illustrated paper he copied a +picture of a ruined castle. When he saw the clear blue of the sky he +felt sentimental, and when he had conjured up green bushes and grass +he felt unspeakably happy as though he had eaten haschish. His first +effort was successful. But now he wished to copy a painting. That was +harder. Everything was green and brown. He could not make his colours +harmonise with the original and felt in despair. + +One day when he had shut himself up he heard a visitor talking with his +friend in the next room. They whispered as though they were near a sick +person. "Now he is actually painting," said his friend in a depressed +tone. + +What did that mean? Did they consider him cracked? Yes. He began to +think about himself, and like all brooders came to the conclusion that +he was cracked. What was to be done? If they shut him up, he would +certainly go quite mad. "Better anticipate them," he thought, and as he +had heard of private asylums in the country, where the patients could +walk about and work in the garden, he wrote to the director of one of +them. After some time he received a friendly answer advising him to be +quiet. His correspondent had received information about John through +his friend and understood his state of mind. He told him it was only a +crisis which all sensitive natures must pass through, etc. + +_That_ danger, then, was over. But he wished to get out into active +life when ever it might be. + +One day he heard that a travelling theatrical company had come to the +town. He wrote a letter to the manager and solicited an engagement, +but he received no answer and did not call on the manager. Thus he +was tossed to and fro, till at last fate intervened and set him +free. Three months had passed and he had received no money from the +court-treasurer. His companions advised him to write and make a polite +inquiry. In reply he was told that it had never been his Majesty's +intention to pay him a regular pension, but only a single donation. +However, in consideration of his needy circumstances, by way of +exception, he had made him a grant of 200 kronas, which would shortly +be sent. + +John at first felt glad, for he was free, but afterwards the turn which +affairs had taken made him uneasy, for the papers had stated that +he was the king's stipendiary, and the king had really promised him +a stipend during the year that he must read for his degree. Besides +this the court-marshal had given him a sort of half promise for the +future which could hardly be considered as adequately fulfilled by +a donation of 200 kronas. Different opinions were expressed on the +matter. Some thought that the king had forgotten, others that the state +of his finances did not allow of a further gift, or that his good +wishes exceeded his powers. No one expressed disapproval, and John was +secretly glad, had he not felt a certain disgrace in the withdrawal +of the stipend, so that he might be suspected of having groundlessly +boasted of it. Those who believed that John was in disfavour at court +ascribed this to the fact that he had omitted to wait upon the king +in person when he was in Stockholm at Christmas and the New Year. +Others attributed it to the fact that he had not formally presented +his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, but had simply sent it to the palace, +instead of going with it, which his sense of independence forbade +him to do. Ten years later he heard quite a new explanation of this +disfavour. He was said to have composed a lampoon on the king. But this +was a pure legend, probably the only one of its obscure fabricator +which would reach posterity. Anyhow facts remained as they were and +his resolve was quickly taken. He would go to Stockholm and become +a literary man, an author if possible, should he prove to possess +sufficient capacity for that calling. + +The student who shared his room undertook to pay his return journey, +and alleged as a pretext that John must wait some time in Stockholm +lest the landlord should be uneasy. Meanwhile he could collect enough +money to pay the rent which was due at the end of the term. + +His friends gave John a farewell feast and John thanked them, +acknowledging the obligations which each owes to those he meets in +social intercourse. Every personality is not developed simply out +of itself, but derives something from each with whom it comes in +contact, just as the bee gathering her honey from a million flowers, +appropriates it and gives it out as her own. + +Thus he stepped into life, abandoning dreams and the past to live in +reality and the present. But he was ill-prepared and the university is +not the proper school for life. He felt also that the decisive hour had +come. In a clumsy speech he called the feast a "svensexa," _i.e_. a +farewell supper for a bachelor on the eve of his marriage, for he was +now to be a man and leave boyhood behind; he was to become a member of +society, a useful citizen and eat his own bread. + +So he believed at the time, but he soon discovered that his education +had unfitted him for society, and as he did not wish to be an outlaw +the doubt awoke in him whether society, of which after all school and +university were a part, was not to blame for his education, and whether +it had not serious defects which needed a remedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + +(1872) + + +When John came to Stockholm, he borrowed money in order to hire a +room near the Ladugärdslandet. Always under the sway of sentiment, he +chose this quarter of the town because he always used to walk there +in his childhood on the 1st of May, and the High Street especially +had something of a holiday air about it. Moreover it soon opened into +the Zoological Gardens, which became his favourite place for walks. +The barracks with their drums and trumpets had something exhilarating +about them, and there were fine views over the sea which was close at +hand. There was plenty of light and air. When he went for his morning +walk he could choose his route according to his mood. If he was sad +and depressed, he went along the Sirishofsvägen; if he was cheerful +he turned off to the level ground of Manilla, where the paradisial +rose-valley exhaled joy and delight; if he was despairing and anxious +to avoid people he went out to Ladugärdsgardet, where no one could +disturb his self-communings and his prayers to God. Sometimes, when his +soul was in a tumult, he remained standing by the cross-ways above the +bridge near the Zoological Gardens, irresolute which way to take. On +such occasion a thousand forces seemed to pull him in all directions. + +His room was very simple and commanded no view. It smelt of poverty, +as the whole house did, in which the only person of standing was the +deputy-landlord, a policeman. John began his active career by painting, +out of a sense of need to give his feelings shape and to express them +in a palpable way, for the little letters huddled together on the paper +were dead and could not express his mind so plainly and simultaneously. +He did not think of being a painter in order to exhibit or sell +pictures. To step to the easel was for him just like sitting down and +singing. At the same time he renewed his acquaintance with his friend +the sculptor, who introduced him to a circle of young painters. These +were all discontent with the Academy and the antiquated methods which +could not express their vague dreams. They still preserved the Bohemian +type, so late did the waves of modern ideas beat on the far coasts of +the North. They wore long hair, slouched hats, brilliant cravats, and +lived like the birds of heaven. They read and quoted Byron and dreamt +of enormous canvases and subjects such as no studio could contain. A +sculptor and a Norwegian had conceived the idea of hewing a statue out +of the Dovre rock; a painter wished to paint the sea not merely as a +level, but with such a wide horizon as to show the convex curve of the +globe. + +This took John's fancy. One should give expression to one's inner +feelings and not depict mere sticks and stones which are meaningless in +themselves till they have passed through the alembic of a percipient +mind. Therefore the artists did not make studies out of doors, but +painted at home from their memory and imagination. John always painted +the sea with a coast in the foreground, some gnarled pine-trees, a +couple of rocky islets in the distance and a white-painted buoy. The +atmosphere was generally gloomy, with a weak or strong light on the +horizon; it was always sunset or moonlight, never clear daylight. + +But he was soon woken out of this dream-life partly by hunger, partly +by recollecting the reality which he had sought in order to save +himself from his dreams. + +Although John knew little of contemporary politics, he knew that the +democracy or peasant-class had arrived at power, that they had declared +war on the official and middle classes, and that they were hated in +Upsala. And now he himself was to enter the ranks of the combatants +and attack the old order of things. The only item of the knowledge +which he had brought with him from Upsala which was likely to be useful +here, was the small amount of political science which he had studied. +Of what use were Astronomy, Philology, Æsthetics, Latin and Chemistry +here? He knew something about the land-laws and communal-laws, but had +no idea of political economy, finance or jurisprudence. When he now +began to look about for a suitable paper to which to attach himself, +it did not occur to him to make use of his old connection with the +_Aftonbladet_, but he wrote for a small evening paper which had lately +appeared, which was regarded as radical and was issued by the New +Liberal Union. The editor held receptions in the La Croix Café, and +here John was introduced into the society of journalists. He felt ill +at ease among them. They did not think as he did, seemed uncultivated, +as indeed they were, and rather gossiped than discussed important +matters. They certainly busied themselves with facts, but these were +rather trifles than great questions. They were full of phrases, but +did not seem to have a proper command of their material. John, though +against his will, was too much of an academic aristocrat to sympathise +with these democrats, who for the most part had not chosen their +career, but been forced into it by the pressure of circumstances. He +found the atmosphere stifling for his idealism, and came no more to the +receptions after he had done his business, and been invited to write +for the paper. + +He made his début as an art-critic. His first criticism concerned +Winge's "Thor with the giants" and Rosen's "Eric XIV and Karin +Monsdotter." The young critic naturally wished to display his learning, +though all he had was what he had picked up in lectures and books. +Therefore his criticism of Winge was a mere eulogy. His remarks chiefly +regarded the subject of the picture as a Norse one and treated in the +grand style. The painters did not like this sort of criticism, as +they considered the only point to be criticised in a work of art was +the execution. "Eric the XIV" he judged from his monomaniacal point +of view, "aristocrat or democrat," and found fault with the incorrect +conception of Göran Persson, whom in his own tragedy _Eric XIV_ +(subsequently burnt) he had represented as an enemy of the nobility and +friend of the people. + +Descended from his own height as a promising student, author and royal +protégé to the then less regarded class of journalists, he felt himself +again one of the lower orders. + +After the editor had struck out his learned flourishes, the articles +were printed. The editor told him they were piquant, but advised him +to employ a more flowing style. He had not yet caught the journalistic +knack. + +Then John planned a series of articles in which, under the title +"Perspective," he treated of social and economic questions. In these he +attacked university life, the divisions of the classes, the injurious +over-reading and the unfortunate position of the students. Since the +labour-question at that time was not a burning one, he ventured on a +comparison between the prospects of a student and that of a workman, +declaring the latter to be far better off. The workman was generally +in good health, could support himself at eighteen and marry at twenty, +while the student could not think of marriage and making a livelihood +before thirty. As a remedy he recommended doing away with the final +examination as Jaabaek had already done in Norway, and the transference +of the university to Stockholm in order that the students might have +a chance of earning something during their course. As an example he +adduced the case of modern students at Athens who learn a trade while +they study. This was all clear to him as early as 1872, yet when he +made similar suggestions twelve years later, he was thought to have +conceived them on the spur of the moment. + +At the same time he took an engagement on a small illustrated ladies' +paper and wrote biographical notices and novelettes. The ladies were +very kind, but let him work too hard, and gave him all kinds of +commissions to execute. After he had spent two or three days in paying +visits, dived into a publisher's place of business, read biographical +romances in three or four volumes, made researches in the library, +run to the printing-office and finally written his columns carefully, +setting each person treated of in a proper historical light, and +analysing his career, he received, for all that work, fifteen kronas. +He calculated that this was less pay per hour than a servant earned. +The bread of the literary man was certainty hardly earned, and that +this is the common lot of authors does not make matters better. But the +profession was also despised, and John felt that in social position he +stood below his brothers who were tradesmen, below the actors, yes, +even below the elementary school-teachers. + +The journalists led a subterranean existence, but they styled +themselves "we" and wrote as though they were sovereigns of God's +appointment; they had men's weal or woe in their hand, since the chief +weapon in the struggle for existence in our civilised days is social +reputation. How was it that society had given these free lances such +terrible power without taking any guarantees? But when one comes +to think, what assurance is there for the capacity and insight of +the law-givers in parliament, in the ministry, on the throne? None +whatever! It is therefore the same all round. There were, however, two +classes of newspapers; the conservative, which wished to preserve the +social condition with all its defects, and the liberal, which wished +to improve it. The former enjoyed a certain respect, the latter, none +at all. John instinctively sided with the last, and at once felt that +he was regarded as every one's enemy. A liberal journalist and a +chronicler of scandals were synonymous terms. At home he had heard the +usual phrase that "no one was honourable whose name had not appeared +in the paper _Fatherland_." In the street they had pointed out to him +a man who looked like a bandit, with the mark of a dagger-stab between +his eyes, and said, "There goes the journalist X." In the Café La Croix +he felt depressed among his new colleagues, but none the less chose to +associate with this unpopular group. Did he choose really? One does not +choose one's impulses, and it is no virtue to be a democrat when one +hates the upper classes and has no pleasure in their company. + +Meanwhile for social intercourse he went to the artists. It was a +strange world in which they lived. There was so much nature among +these men who busied themselves with art. They dressed badly, lived +like beggars--one of them lived in the same room with the servant--and +ate what they could get; they could hardly read, and had no knowledge +of orthography. At the same time they talked like cultivated people, +they looked at things from an independent point of view, were keenly +observant and unfettered by dogmas. One of them four years previously +had minded geese, a second had wielded the smith's hammer, a third +had been a farmer's servant and walked behind the dung-cart, and a +fourth had been a soldier. They ate with knives, used their sleeves as +napkins, had no handkerchiefs and only one coat in winter. However, +John felt at home with them, though of late years he had been +conversant only with cultivated and well-to-do young people. It was not +that he was superior to them, for that they did not acknowledge, nor +was it any use to quote books to them, for they accepted no authority. +His doubts as regards books, especially text-books, began to be +aroused, and he began to suspect that old books may injure a modern +man's thinking powers. This doubt became a certainty when he met one of +the group whom all regarded as a genius. + +He was a painter about thirty years old, formerly a farmer's servant +who had come to the Academy in order to become an artist. After he +had spent some time in the painting school he came to the conclusion +that art was insufficient as a medium for expressing his thoughts, +and he lived now on nothing, while he busied himself by reflecting on +the questions of the time. Badly educated at an elementary school, he +had now flung himself on the most up-to-date books and had a start of +John, since he had begun where the latter had left off. Between John +and him there was the same difference as between a mathematician and +a pilot. The former can calculate in logarithms, the latter can turn +them to practical use. But Måns also was critically disposed and did +not believe in books blindly. He had no ready-made scheme or system +into which to fit his thoughts; he always thought freely, investigated, +sifted and only retained what he recognised as tenable. More free from +passions than John, he could draw more reckless inferences, even when +they went against his own wishes and interests, though with certain +matter-of-course limitations. He was more-over prudent, as indeed he +must have been to have worked himself up from such a low position, +and understood how to be silent as to certain conclusions, which, if +expressed tactlessly and in the wrong place, might have injured him. +As his literary adviser, he had a telegraph-assistant whose knowledge +Mans knew better how to use than its owner himself; the latter had not +a very lively intellect, although in his knowledge of languages he +possessed the key to the three great modern literatures. Passionless +and self-conscious, with a strong control over his impulses, he stood +outside everything, contemplating and smiling at the free play of +thought which he enjoyed as a work of art, with the accompanying +certainly that it was after all only an illusion. + +With both of these John had many friendly disputes. When he drew up +his schemes for the future of men and society he could rouse Måns' +enthusiasm and carry him along with him, but when he had taken his +hearer a certain way with his emotional and passionate descriptions, +the latter took out his microscope, found the weak spot where to +insert his knife, and cut. On such occasions John was impatient and +motioned his opponent away. "You are a pedant," he said, "and fasten +on details." But sometimes it turned out that the "detail" was a +premise the excision of which made the whole grand fabric of inference +collapse. John was always a poet, and had he continued as such +unhindered he might have brought it to something. The poet can speak +to the point like the preacher, and that is an advantageous position. +He can rattle on without being interrupted, and therefore he can +persuade if not convince. It was through these two unlearned men that +John learned a philosophy which was not known at Upsala. In the course +of conversation, his opponents often referred to an authority whom +they called "Buckle." John rejected an authority of whom he had heard +nothing in Upsala. But the name continually recurred and worried him to +such an extent that he at last asked his friends to lend him the book. +The effect of reading it was such that John regarded his acquaintance +with the book as the vestibule of his intellectual life. Here there +was an atmosphere of pure naked truth. So it should be and so it was. +Måns, like all other organised beings, was under the control of natural +laws; all so-called spiritual qualities rest on a material basis, and +chemical affinities are as spiritual as the sympathies of souls. The +whole of speculative philosophy which wished to evolve laws from the +inner consciousness was only a better kind of theology, and what was +worse, an inquisition, which wished to confine the many-sidedness +of the world-process within the limits of an individual system. "No +system" is Buckle's motto. Doubt is the beginning of all wisdom, doubt +means investigation and stimulates intellectual progress. The truth +which one seeks is simply the discovery of natural laws. Knowledge is +the highest, morality is only an accidental form of behaviour, which +depends upon different social conventions. Only knowledge can make men +happy, and the simple-minded or ignorant with their moral strivings, +their benevolence and their philanthropy are only injurious or useless. + +And now he drew the necessary conclusions. Heavenly love and its +result, marriage, is conditioned as to that result by such a prosaic +matter as the price of provisions; the rate of suicide varies with +wages, and religion is conditioned by natural scenery, climate and +soil. His mind was predisposed to receive the new doctrines, and now +they made their triumphant entry. John had always planted his feet +firmly on the earth, and neither the balloon-voyages of poetry nor the +will-o'-the-wisps of German philosophy had found a sincere adherent in +him. He had sat in despair over Kant's _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, +and asked himself with curiosity, whether it was he who was so stupid +or Kant who was so obscure. The study of the history of philosophy, +in which he had seen how each philosopher pointed to his system as +the true one, and championed it against others, had left him amazed. +Now it was clear to him that the idealists who mingle their obscure +perceptions with dear presentations of facts were only savages or +children, and that the realists, who were alone capable of clear +perceptions, were the most highly developed in the scale of creation. +The poets and philosophers are somnambulists, and the religious who +always live in fear of the unknown are like animals in a forest who +fear every rustic in the bushes, or like primitive men who sacrificed +to the thunder instead of erecting lightning rods. + +Now he had a weapon in his hand to wield against the old authorities +and against the schools and universities which were enslaved by +patronage. Buckle himself had run away from school, had never been at +a university, and hated them. Apropos of Locke he remarks, "Were this +deep thinker now alive, he would inveigh against our great universities +and schools, where countless subjects are learnt which no one needs, +and which few take the trouble to remember." + +Accordingly Upsala had been wrong, and John right. He knew that there +were ignorant savants there, and that it was on account of their own +want of culture that the professors of philosophy could teach nothing +but German philosophy. They neither knew English nor French philosophy +for the simple reason that they only understood Latin and German. +Buckle's _History of Civilisation in England_ was written in 1857, but +did not reach Sweden till 1871-72. Even then the soil was not ready for +the seed. The learned critics were unfavourable to Buckle, and the seed +took root only in some young minds who had no authoritative voice. + +"No literature," says Buckle himself, "can be useful to a people, if +they are not prepared to receive it." Thus it was with Buckle and +his work, which preceded that of Darwin (1858) and contained all its +inferences--a proof that evolution in the world of thought is not so +strictly conditioned as has been believed. Buckle did not know Mill or +Spencer, whose thoughts now rule the world, but he said most of what +they said subsequently. + +Now, if John had had a character, _i.e_. if he had been ruled by +a single quiet purpose directed towards one object, he would have +extracted from Buckle all that answered his purpose and left out all +that told against it. But he was a truth-seeker and did not shrink from +looking into the abyss of contradictions, especially as Buckle never +asserted that he had found the truth, and because truth is relative +and it is often found on both sides. Doubt, criticism, inquiry are the +chief matter, and the only useful course to pursue, as they guarantee +liberty. Sermons, programmes, certainty, system, "truth" are various +forms of constraint and stupidity. But it is impossible to be a +consistent doubter when one is crammed full with "complete evidence," +and when one's judgment is swayed by class-prejudice, anxiety for a +living and struggles for a position. John became calm when he learnt +that all that was wrong in the world was wrong in accordance with +necessary law, but he became furious when he made the further discovery +that our social condition, our religion and morality were absurdities. +He wished to understand and pardon his opponents, since in their +actions they were no more free than he was, but he was in duty bound +to strangle them since they hindered the evolution of society towards +universal happiness, and that was the only and greatest crime that +could be committed. But as there were no criminals, how could one get +hold of the crime? + +He was rejoiced that the mistakes had now been discovered, but despair +oppressed him again when he saw that the discovery was premature. +Nothing could be done for many years to come. Social evolution was a +very slow process. Consequently he must lie at anchor in the roadstead +waiting for the tide. But this waiting was too long for him; he heard +an inner voice bidding him speak, for if one does not spread what +light one has, how can popular views be changed? Yes, but a premature +promulgation of new ideas can do no good. Thus he was tossed to and +fro. Everything round him now seemed so old and out of date that he +could not read a newspaper without getting an attack of cramp. _They_ +only had regard to the present moment; no one thought of the future. +His philosophical friend comforted and calmed him, through, among other +sayings, a sentence of La Bruyère, "Don't be angry because men are +stupid and bad, or you will have to be angry because a stone falls; +both are subject to the same laws; one must be stupid and the other +fall." + +"That is all very well," said John, "but think of having to be a +bird and live in a ditch! Air! light! I cannot breathe or see," he +exclaimed; "I suffocate!" + +"Write!" answered his friend. + +"Yes, but what?" + +Where should he begin? Buckle had already written everything, and +yet it was as though it had not been written. The worst thing was +that he felt he lacked the power. Hitherto he had only felt a very +moderate degree of ambition. He did not wish to march at the head, to +be a conqueror and so on. But to go in front with an axe as a simple +pioneer, to fell trees, root up thickets, and let others build bridges +and throw up redoubts, was enough for him. It is often observable that +great ambition is only the sign of great power. John was moderately +ambitious, because he was now only conscious of moderate powers. +Formerly when he was young and strong he had great confidence in +himself. He was a fanatic, _i.e_. his will was supported by powerful +passions, but his awakened insight and healthy doubt had sobered his +self-confidence. The work before him took the form of rock-walls which +must be pulled down, but he was not so simple as to venture on the task. + +Now he began to habituate himself forcibly to doubt in order to be +patient and not to explode. He entrenched himself in doubt as in a +fortress, and as a means of self-preservation he determined to depict +his struggles and doubts in a drama. The subject matter which he had +been turning over in his mind for a year he took from the history of +the Reformation in Sweden. Thus was composed the drama later on known +as _The Apostate_. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE RED ROOM + +(1872) + + +In autumn occurred the death of Charles XV. With the mourning, which +was fairly sincere and widespread, there mingled gloomy anxieties for +the future. One of the young painters who belonged to John's circle of +friends had just received a royal stipend and gone to Norway. He had +now to return quite destitute and without any prospects for the future. +John was accustomed to go with him into the Zoological Gardens in order +to paint, and occupy his mind while he was waiting for an answer from +the theatrical manager to whom he had sent his drama. + +There is indeed no occupation which so absorbs all the thoughts and +emotions so much as painting. John watched and enjoyed the delicate +harmonies of the lines in the branch-formation of the trees, in the +wave-like curves of the ground, but his paint-brush was too coarse to +reproduce the contours as he wished. Then he took his pen and made a +drawing in detail. But when he tried to transfer it to his canvas and +paint it, the whole appeared but a smudge. + +Pelle, on the other hand, was an impressionist and look no notice +of details. He took up the landscape at a stroke, so to speak, and +gave the colours their due value, but the various objects melted into +uncertain silhouettes. John thought Pelle's landscapes more beautiful +than the reality, although he cherished great reverence for the works +of the Creator. After he had wiled away about a month in painting, +he went one evening into the Café La Croix. The first person he met +was his former editor, who said, "I have just heard from X." (a young +author) "that the Theatre Royal has refused _The Apostate_." + +"I know nothing about it," answered John. He did not feel well and left +the company as soon as possible. The next day he went to his former +instructor to find how the matter stood. The latter began first to +praise, and then to criticise it, which is the right method. He said +that the characters of Olaus Petri and Gustav Wasa had been brought +down from their proper level and distorted. John, on the other hand, +held that he had given a realistic representation of them as they +probably were, before their figures had been idealised by patriotic +considerations. His friend replied that that was no good; the public +would never accept a new reading of their characters till critical +inquiry had done its preliminary work. + +That was true, but the blow was a heavy one, although dealt with as +much consideration as possible, and the author was invited to remodel +his drama. He had again been premature in his attempt. There was +nothing left for him but to wait and wile away the time. To think +of remodelling it now was not possible for him, for he saw, when he +read it through again, that it was all cast in one piece and that the +details could not be altered. He could not change it, unless he changed +his thoughts, and therefore he must wait. + +Now he took to reading again. Chance brought into his hand two of +"the best books which one can read." They were De Tocqueville's +_Democracy in America_ and Prévost-Paradol's _The New France._ The +former increased his doubts as to the possibility of democracy in +an uncultivated community. Written with sincere admiration for the +political institutions of America, which the author holds up as a +pattern for Europe, this work points out so sincerely the dangers of +democracy, as to make even a born hater of the aristocracy pause. + +John's theories received terrible blows, but this time his good sense +triumphed over his prejudices. His loss of faith in his own powers, +however, had a demoralising effect upon him, and he was soon ripe +for absolute scepticism. Sentences such as the following admitted +at that time of no contradiction: "The moral power of the majority +is based partly upon the conviction that a number of men have more +understanding, intelligence and wisdom than an individual, and a +great number of lawgivers more than a selection of them. That is the +principle of equality applied to intellectual gifts. This doctrine +attacks the pride of humanity in its innermost citadel." + +An individualist like John did not perceive that this pride can and +must be overcome. Nor did he see that wisdom and intelligence can be +spread by means of good schools among the masses. + +"When a man or a party in the United States suffers injustice, to whom +shall he turn? To public opinion? That is the opinion of the majority. +To the legislative officials? They are nominated by the majority +and obey it blindly. To the executive power? That is chosen by the +majority and serves it as a passive instrument. To the military forces +of the State? They are simply the majority under arms. To juries? +They are formed by a majority which possesses the right to judge." De +Tocqueville goes on to say that the happiness of the majority which +consists in maintaining its rights deserves recognition, and that it is +better for a minority to suffer from pressure than a majority, but the +sufferings which an intelligent minority suffer from an unintelligent +majority are much greater than those which an intelligent minority +inflict upon a majority. On the other hand, the minority understands +much better than the majority what conduces to their own and the +general happiness, and therefore the tyranny of the minority is not to +be compared with that of the majority. + +"Yes, but," thought John, "did not the European peoples generally +suffer from the tyranny of a minority?" The mere fact that there +were upper classes lay like a heavy cloud on the life of the masses. +Nowadays the question may be raised, "Why should a different +class-education result in an intelligent minority and an unintelligent +majority?" But such questions were not raised then. Moreover had such +a state really ever been seen in which an intelligent minority had the +power to "oppress"? No, for sovereigns, ministers and parliaments had +usually the due modicum of intelligence. + +That which more than anything else inclined John to fear the power of +the masses, was the fact noted by De Tocqueville that they tyrannised +over freedom of thought. + +"When one tries to ascertain," he says, "how much freedom of thought +there is in the United States it becomes apparent how much the tyranny +of the masses transcends any despotism known to Europe. I know no +country where there is, generally speaking, less independence of +opinion and real freedom of discussion than America. The majority +draw a terribly narrow circle round all thought. Within that circle +an author may say what he likes, but woe to him if he step across the +limit. He has no _auto-da-fé_ to fear, but he is made the mark for all +kinds of unpleasantness and daily persecutions. Every good quality is +denied him, even honour. Before he published his views, he thought he +had adherents; after he has made them known to all the world he sees +that he no longer has any, for his critics have raised an outcry, +and those who thought as he did, but lacked the courage to express +themselves, are silent and withdraw. He gives way; he finally collapses +under the strain of daily renewed effort, and resumes silence, as +though he regretted having spoken the truth, + +"In democratic republics, tyranny lets the body alone and attacks the +soul. In them the dominant power does not say, 'You must think as I +do, or die;' it says, 'You are free to differ from me in opinion; your +life and property will remain untouched, but from the day that you +express a different view from mine, you will be a stranger among us. +You will retain your rights and privileges as a citizen, but they will +be useless to you. You will remain among men, but be deprived of all +a man's rights. When you approach your equals they will flee you as +though you were a leper; even those who believe in your innocence will +abandon you, lest they should be themselves abandoned. Go in peace! +I grant you life, but a life which shall be harder and bitterer than +death!'" + +That is the true and credible picture which the noble De Tocqueville, +friend of the people and tyrant-hater as he was, has drawn of the +tyranny of the masses, those masses whose feet John had felt trampling +on him at home, at school, in the steamer and the theatre, those +masses whom he had satirised in the play _Sinking Hellas_, and whom +he had described as throwing the first stone at Olaus Petri just at +the moment when he was preaching to them of freedom! If it is thus in +America, how can one expect anything better in Europe. He found himself +in a cul-de-sac. His hereditary disposition prevented his becoming an +aristocrat, nor could he come to terms with the people. Had he not +himself suffered lately from an ignorant theatre-management behind +which stood the uncultivated public, and found the way blocked for +his new and liberal ideas. There was then already a mob-despotism in +Sweden, and the director of the Theatre Royal was only their servant. + +It was all absurdity! And even suppose society were ruled by those who +knew most. Then they would be under professors with their heads full of +antiquarian ideas. Even if the director had put his drama on the stage, +it would have certainly been hissed off by the tradesmen in the stalls, +and no critics could have helped him! + +His thoughts struggled like fishes in a net, and ended by being caught. +It was not worth the trouble of thinking about and he tried to banish +the thought, but could not. He felt a continual trouble and despair +in his mind that the world was going idiotically, majestically and +unalterably to the devil. "Unalterably," he thought, for as yet a large +number of strong minds had not attacked the problem, which was soluble +after all. Ten years later it was provisionally solved, when knowledge +on the subject of this sphinx-riddle had been so widely spread that +even a workman had obtained some insight into it, and in a public +meeting had declared that equality was impossible, for the block-heads +could not be equal to the sharp-sighted, and that the utmost one could +demand was equality of position. This workman was more of an aristocrat +than John dared to be in the year 1872, though he belonged to no party +which claimed the right to muzzle him. + +Prévost-Paradol had dealt with the same theme as Tocqueville, but +he suggested a secret device against the tyranny of the masses--the +cumulative vote or the privilege of writing the same name several times +on the ballot-paper. But John considered this method, which had been +tried in England, doubtful. + +He had set great hopes on his drama, and borrowed money on the strength +of them, and now felt much depressed. The disproportion between his +fancied and his real value galled him. Now he had to adopt a rôle, +learn it, and carry it out. He composed one for himself, consisting +of the sceptic, the materialist and the liar, and found that it +suited him excellently. This was for the simple reason that it was a +sceptical and materialistic period, and because he had unconsciously +developed into a man of his time. But he still believed that his +earlier discarded personality, ruled indeed by wild passions, but +cherishing ideals of a higher calling, love to mankind and similar +imaginations, was his true and better self which he hid from the world. +All men make similar mistakes when they value sickly sentimentality +above strong thought, when they look back to their youth and think +they were purer and more virtuous then, which is certainly untrue. +The world calls the weaker side of men their "better self," because +this weakness is more advantageous for the world and self-interest +seems to dictate its judgment. John found that in his new rôle he was +freed from all possible prejudices--religious, social, political and +moral. He had only one opinion,--that everything was absurd, only +one conviction,--that nothing could be done at present, and only one +hope,--that the time would come when one might effectively intervene, +and when there would be improvement. But from that time he altogether +gave up reading newspapers. To hear stupidity praised, selfish acts +lauded as philanthropic, and reason blasphemed,--that was too much for +a fanatical sceptic. Sometimes, however, he thought that the majority +were right in just being at the point of view where they were, and that +it was unnecessary that some few individuals, because of a specialised +education, should run far ahead of the rest. In quiet moments he +recognised that his mental development which had taken place so +rapidly, without his ever seeing an idea realised, could be a pattern +for such a slowly-working machine as society is. Why did he run so far +ahead? It was not the fault of the school or university, for they had +held him back equally with the majority. + +Yes, but those already out in the world, by their own hearths, had +already reached the stage of Buckle's scepticism as regards the social +order, so that he was not so far ahead after all. The slow rate of +progress was enough to make one despair. What Schiller's Karl Moor +had seen a hundred years previously, what the French Revolution had +actually brought about were now regarded as brand-new ideas. After +the Revolution, social development had gone backwards; religious +superstitions were revived, belief in a better state of things lost, +and economic and industrial progress was accompanied by sweating and +terrible poverty. It was absurd! All minds that were awake at all +had to suffer,--suffer like every living organism when hindered in +growth and pressed backward. The century had been inaugurated by the +destruction of hopes, and nothing has such a paralysing effect on the +soul as disappointed hope, which, as statistics show, is one of the +most frequent causes of madness. Therefore all great spirits were, +vulgarly speaking, mad. Chateaubriand was a hypochondriac, Musset a +lunatic, Victor Hugo a maniac. The automatic pygmies of everyday life +cannot realise what such suffering means, and yet believe themselves +capable of judging in the matter. + +The ancient poet is psychologically correct in representing +Prometheus as having his liver gnawed by a vulture. Prometheus was +the revolutionary who wished to spread mental illumination among +men. Whether he did it from altruistic motives, or from the selfish +one of wishing to breathe a purer mental atmosphere, may be left +undecided. John, who felt akin to this rebel, was aware of a pain which +resembled anxiety, and a perpetual boring "toothache in the liver." Was +Prometheus then a liver-patient who confusedly ascribed his pain to +causes outside himself? Probably not! But he was certainly embittered +when he saw that the world is a lunatic asylum in which the idiots go +about as they like, and the few who preserve reason are watched as +though dangerous to the public safety. Attacks of illness can certainly +colour men's views, and every one well knows how gloomy our thoughts +are when we have attacks of fever. But patients such as Samuel Oedmann +or Olaf Eneroth were neither sulky nor bitter, but, on the contrary, +mild, perhaps languid from want of strength. Voltaire, who was never +well, had an imperturbably good temper. And Musset did not write as he +did because he drank absinthe, but he drank from the same cause that +he wrote in that manner, _i.e_. from despair. Therefore it is not in +good faith that idealists who deny the existence of the body, ascribe +the discontent of many authors to causes such as indigestion, etc., the +supposition of which contradicts their own principles, but it must be +against their better knowledge, or with worse knowledge. Kierkegaard's +gloomy way of writing can be ascribed to an absurd education, +unfortunate family relations, dreary social surroundings, and alongside +of these to some organic defects, but not to the latter alone. + +Discontent with the existing state of things will always assert itself +among those who are in process of development, and discontent has +pushed the world forwards, while content has pushed it back. Content +is a virtue born of necessity, hopelessness or superfluity; it can be +cancelled with impunity. + +Catarrh of the stomach may cause ill temper, but it has never produced +a great politician, _i.e._ a great malcontent. But sickliness may +impart to a malcontent's energy a stronger colour and greater rapidity, +and therefore cannot be denied a certain influence. On the other hand, +a conscious insight into grievances can produce such a degree of mental +annoyance as can result in sickness. The loss of dear friends through +death, may in this way cause consumption, and the loss of a social +position or of property, madness. + +If every modern individual shows a geological stratification of the +stages of development through which his ancestors passed, so in every +European mind are found traces of the primitive Aryan,--class-feeling, +fixed family ideas, religious motives, etc. From the early Christians +we have the idea of equality, love to our neighbour, contempt for mere +earthly life; from the mediæval monks, self-castigation and hopes of +heaven. Besides these, we inherit traits from the sensuous cultured +pagans of the Renaissance, the religious and political fanatics of the +sixteenth century, the sceptics of the "illumination" period, and the +anarchists of the Revolution. Education should therefore consist in the +obliteration of old stains which continually reappear however often we +polish them away. + +John proceeded to obliterate the monk, the fanatic and the +self-tormentor in himself as well as he could, and took as the leading +principle of his provisional life (for it was only provisional till he +struck out a course for himself) the well-understood one of personal +advantage, which is actually, though unconsciously, employed by all, to +whatever creed they belong. + +He did not transgress the ordinary laws, because he did not wish +to appear in a court of justice; he encroached on no one's rights +because he wished his own not to be encroached upon. He met men +sympathetically, for he did not hate them, nor did he study them +critically till they had broken their promises and shown a want of +sympathy to him. He justified them all so long as he could, and when +he could not, well,--he could not, but he tried by working to place +himself in a position to be able to do so. He regarded his talent as a +capital sum, which, although at present it yielded no interest, gave +him the right and imposed on him the duty to live at any price. He was +not the kind of man to force his way into society in order to exploit +it for his own purposes, he was simply a man of capacity conscious of +his own powers, who placed himself at the disposal of society modestly, +and in the first place to be used as a dramatist. The theatre, as a +matter of fact, needed him to contribute to its Swedish repertory. + +After a solitary day's work, it was his habit to go to a café to meet +his acquaintances there. To seek "more elevated" recreations in family +circles such as meaningless gossip, card playing and such like had no +attraction for him. Whenever he entered a family circle he felt himself +surrounded by a musty atmosphere like that exhaled from stagnant +water. Married couples who had been badgering each other, were glad to +welcome him as a sort of lightning conductor, but he had no pleasure +in playing that part. Family life appeared to him as a prison in which +two captives spied on each other, as a place in which children were +tormented, and servant-girls quarrelled. It was something nasty from +which he ran away to the restaurants. In them there was a public room +where no one was guest and no one was host: one enjoyed plenty of +space and light, heard music, saw people and met friends. John and +his friends were accustomed to meet in a back room of Bern's great +restaurant which, because of the colour of the furniture, was called +the "red room." The little club consisted originally of John and a few +artistic and philosophical friends. But their circle was soon enlarged +by old friends whom they met again. They were first of all recruited +by the presentable former scholars of the Clara School,--a postal +clerk who was at the same time a bass singer, pianist and composer; a +secretary of the Court treasurer; and the trump card of the society,--a +lieutenant of artillery. To these were added later, the composer's +indispensable friend, a lithographer, who published his music, and a +notary who sang his compositions. The club was not homogeneous, but +they soon managed to shake down together. + +But since the laymen had no wish to hear discussions on art, literature +and philosophy, their conversations were only on general subjects. +John, who did not wish to discuss any more problems, adopted a +sceptical tone, and baffled all attempts at discussion by a play upon +words, a quibble or a question. His ultimate "why?" behind every +penultimate assertion threw a light on the too-sure conclusions of +stupidity, and let his hearer surmise that behind the usually accepted +commonplaces there were possibilities of truths stretching out in +endless perspective. These views of his must have germinated like seeds +in most of their brains, for in a short time they were all sceptics, +and began to use a special language of their own. This healthy +scepticism in the infallibility of each other's judgments had, as a +natural consequence, a brutal sincerity of speech and thought. It was +of no use to speak of one's feelings as though they were praise worthy, +for one was cut short with "Are you sentimental, poor devil? Take +bi-carbonate." + +If any one complained of toothache, all he received by way of answer +was, "That does not rouse my sympathy at all, for I have never had +toothache, and it has no effect upon my resolve to give a supper." + +They were disciples of Helvetius in believing that one must regard +egotism as the mainspring of all human actions, and therefore it was +no use pretending to finer emotions. To borrow money or to get goods +on credit without being certain of being able to pay, was rightly +regarded as cheating, and so designated. For instance, if a member of +the club appeared in a new overcoat which seemed to have been obtained +on credit, he was asked in a friendly way, "Whom have you cheated about +that coat?" Or on another occasion another would say, "To-day I have +done Samuel out of a new suit." + +Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, both overcoat and suit were +generally paid for, but as the purchaser at the time he took them was +not sure whether he would be able to pay, he regarded himself as a +potential swindler. This was severe morality and stern self-criticism. + +Once during such a conversation the lieutenant got up to go and attend +church-parade with his company. "Where are you going?" he was asked. +"To play the hypocrite," he answered truthfully. + +This tone of sincerity sometimes assumed the character of a deep +understanding of human nature and the nature of society. One day +the company were leaving John's lodgings for the restaurant. It was +winter, and Måns, who was generally ill-dressed, had no overcoat. The +lieutenant, who wore his uniform, was, it is true, somewhat uneasy, but +did not wish to hurt any one's feelings that day. When John opened the +door to go out, Måns said, "Go in front; I will come afterwards; I do +not want Jean to injure his position by going with me." + +John offered to walk with Måns one way while the others should go by +another, but Jean exclaimed, "Ah! don't pretend to be noble-minded! you +feel as embarrassed at going with Måns as I do." + +"True," replied John, "but...." + +"Why, then, do you play the hypocrite?" + +"I did not play the hypocrite; I only wished to try to be free from +prejudice." + +"The deuce! what is the good of being free from prejudice when no one +else is, and it does you harm? It would really show more freedom from +prejudice to tell Måns your mind than to deceive him." + +Måns had already departed, and arrived about the same time at the +restaurant as they did. He took part in the meal without betraying a +trace of ill-humour. "Your health, Måns, because you are a man of +sense," said the lieutenant to cheer him up. + +The habit of speaking out one's inner thoughts without any regard to +current opinion, resulted in the overthrow of all traditional verdicts. +The terrible confusion of thought in which men live, since freedom +of thought has been fettered by compulsory regulations, has made it +possible for antiquated views of men and things to continue. Thus, +to-day a number of works of art are considered unsurpassable in spite +of the great progress made in technique and artistic conception. John +considered that if in the nineteenth century he was to give his views +on Shakespeare, he was not at all bound to give the opinion of the +eighteenth century, but of his own nineteenth, as it had been modified +by new points of view. This aroused a great deal of opposition, perhaps +because people fear being regarded as uncultivated a great deal more +than they fear being regarded as godless. + +Every one attacked Christ, for He was thought to have been overthrown +by learned criticism, but they were afraid of attacking Shakespeare. +John, however, was not. Thoroughly understanding the works of the +poet, whose most important dramas he had read in the original and +whose chief commentators he had studied, he criticised the composition +and meagre character drawing of _Hamlet._ It is noteworthy that the +Swedish Shakespeare-worshipper, Shuck, through an inconsistency due to +the current confusion of thought and compulsory cowardice, made just +as severe criticisms of _Hamlet_ regarded as a work of art, though +he had previously extolled it above the skies. If John had at that +time been able to read the book of Professor Shuck, he would not have +needed courage in order to subscribe such criticisms as the following: +"_Hamlet_ is the most unsatisfactory of all ... the composition is +superficial and incoherent. After the action of the play has reached +its climax, it suddenly breaks off. Hamlet is suddenly sent to England, +but this journey does not in any way arouse the spectator's interest. +Still worse is the management of the catastrophe. It is a mere chance +that Hamlet's revenge is executed at all, and a similar caprice of +chance causes his overthrow. His killing Claudius just before his own +death has more the appearance of revenge for the attempt on his own +life, than that of a judgment executed in the name of injured morality." + +And then the obscurity which envelops the motives of the principal +persons in the play! "The spectator is left in uncertainty regarding +such an important point as Ophelia's and Hamlet's madness. Moreover +in _King Lear_, Edward's treachery is so palpable that not the most +ordinarily intelligent man could have been deceived by it!" + +If then the drama was defective precisely in the chief elements of a +drama, construction and characterisation, how could it be incomparable? +The reverence for what is ancient and celebrated is rooted in the +same instinct which creates gods; and pulling down the ancient has +the same effect as attacking the divine. Why else should a sensible +unprejudiced man fly in a rage when he hears some one express a +different opinion to his own (or what he thinks his own) about some old +classic? It ought to be a matter of indifference to him. The national +and intellectual Pantheon can be as angrily defended by atheists as by +monotheists, perhaps more so. People who are otherwise sincere, cringe +before a well-established reputation, and John had heard a pietistic +clergyman say that Shakespeare was a "pure" writer. In his mouth that +was certainly false. A determinist, on the other hand, would not +have used the words "pure" or "impure" because they would have been +meaningless to him. But the poor Christ-worshipper did not dare to bear +a cross for Shakespeare; he had enough already to bear for his own +Master. + +Meanwhile John's method of judging old things from the modern point of +view seemed to be justified, for it gained him a following. That was +the whole secret of what was so little understood later on by theistic +and atheistic theologians--his irreverent handling of ancient things +and persons; they thought in their simplicity quite innocently that +it was what one calls in children a spirit of contradiction. His aim +rather was to bring people's confused ideas into order, and to teach +them to apply logically their materialistic point of view. If they +were materialists, they should not borrow phrases from Christianity, +nor think like idealists. This gave rise to a catchword, which showed +how what was ancient was despised--"That is old!" As new men, they +must think new thoughts, and new thoughts demanded a new phraseology. +Anecdotes and old jokes were done away with; stereotyped phrases and +borrowed expressions were suppressed. One might be plain-spoken and +call things by their right names, but one might not be vulgar; the +latest opera was not to be quoted, nor jokes from the newest comic +paper repeated. Thereby each became accustomed to produce something +from his own stock of original observation and acquired the faculty of +judging from a fresh point of view. + +John had discovered that men in general were automata. All thought the +same; all judged in the same fashion; and the more learned they were, +the less independence of mind they displayed. This made him doubt the +whole value of book education. The graduates who came from Upsala +had, one and all, the same opinions on Rafael and Schiller, though +the differences in their characters would have led one to expect a +corresponding difference in their judgments. Therefore these men did +not think, although they called themselves free-thinkers, but merely +talked and were merely parrots. + +But John could not perceive that it was not books _quá_ books which had +turned these learned men into automata. He himself and his unlearned +philosophical friends had been aroused to self-consciousness through +books. The danger of the university education was that it was derived +from inferior books published under sanction of the government, and +written by the upper classes in the interest of the upper classes, +_i.e_. with the object of exalting what was old and established, and +therefore of hindering further development. + +Meanwhile John's scepticism had made him sterile. He had perceived +that art had nothing to do with social development, that it was simply +a reflection or phenomena, and was more perfect as art the more it +confined itself to this function. He still preserved the impulse to +re-mould things and it found expression in his painting. His poetic +art, on the other hand, went to pieces since it had to express thoughts +or serve a purpose. + +His failure to have his play accepted had an adverse effect on his +pecuniary circumstances. The friends from whom he had borrowed money +came one evening to John's rooms in order to hear the play read, but +they were so tired after the day's work that, after hearing the first +act, they asked him to put off the rest for another occasion. One of +the audience who had kept more awake than the others thought that there +were too many Biblical quotations in the piece, and that these were not +suitable for the stage. + +John's resources were dried up, and the spectre of want loomed upon +him, unbribeable and stone-deaf. After he had gone without his dinners +for a time, he began to feel weary of life, and looked about him for +the means of subsistence. How should he get bread in the wilderness? +The best means that suggested itself was to seek an engagement in a +provincial theatre. There mere nobodies often played leading roles +in tragedies, made themselves a name, and finished by getting an +appointment at the Theatre Royal. He quickly made his resolve, packed +his travelling bag, borrowed money for his fare, and went to Göteborg. +It was just about the time of the great November storm of 1872. + +Since the environment in which he had been living had had a great +effect on him, he conceived a great dislike to this town. Gloomy, +correct, expensive, proud, reserved it lay, pent in its circle of stone +hills, and depressed the lively native of Upper Sweden, accustomed +to the rich and smiling landscape of Stockholm. It was a copy of the +capital but on a small scale, and John, as one of the upper class, +felt alienated from its inhabitants, who were in a lower stage of +development. But he noticed that there was something here that was +wanting in the capital. When he went down to the harbour he saw ships +which were nearly all destined for foreign parts, and large vessels +kept up continual communication with the continent. The people and +buildings did not look so exclusively Swedish, the papers took more +account of the great movements which were going on in the world. What +a short way it was from here to Copenhagen, Christiania, London, +Hamburg, Havre! Stockholm should have been situated here in a harbour +of the North Sea, whereas it lay in a remote corner of the Baltic. +Here was in truth the nucleus of a new centre, and he now understood +that that position was no longer occupied by Stockholm, but that +Göteborg was about to be the centre of the north. At present, however, +this reflection had no comfort for him since he was only in the +insignificant position of an actor. + +John sought out the theatre-director and introduced himself as a +person who wished to do the theatre a service. The director, however, +considered himself very well served by his present staff. But he +allowed John to give a trial performance in the rôle in which he wished +to make his début. This was Dietrichson's _Workman_, the great success +of the day. John had discovered a certain likeness between Stephenson's +first locomotive and his rejected play; he wished to show how he, like +the engineer, had to face the ridicule of the ignorant crowd, the +apprehensions of the learned, and the fears of a wasted life on the +part of relatives. He gave his trial performance one evening by the +light of a candle and between bare walls. Naturally he felt hampered +and asked to repeat it in costume. But the director said it was not +necessary; he had heard enough. John, in his opinion, possessed talent, +but it was undeveloped. He offered him an engagement at twelve hundred +kronas yearly, to commence from the first of January. John considered: +Should he spend two months idly in Göteborg and then only have a +supernumerary's part in a provincial theatre? No! He would not! What +remained to be done? Nothing except to borrow money and return home, +which he did. + +Thus his efforts had again ended in failure. His friends had given +him a farewell feast, lent him journey money, done all they could to +help him, and now he came back without having settled anything. Again +he had to hear the old too true accusation that he was unstable. To +be unstable in an ordered society is the extreme of unpracticality. +There persistent and exclusive cultivation of some special branch of +industry or knowledge is necessary in order to outstrip competitors. +Every orderly member of society feels a certain discomfort when he sees +some one wandering from his proper place. This discomfort does not +necessarily spring from excessive egotism, but possibly from a feeling +of solidarity and solicitude for others. John saw that his countless +changes of plan disquieted his friends; he felt ashamed and suffered on +account of it, but could not act otherwise. + +So he found himself at home, and spent the long evenings in the "Red +Room," asking himself whether he really could find no place in a +society which for others opened up so many rich possibilities of a +career. + +At Christmas time John travelled again to Upsala, for he had been +invited thither as one of the contributors to a Literary Calendar which +had just appeared. The _Calendar_, which was received with universal +disapprobation, was not without significance as an exponent of the +state of literature. The reader who was desired to wade through these +elegant extracts, might justifiably ask, "What have I got to do with +them?" The poetry they contained, like that of Snoilsky and Björck, +might have been written fifty or a hundred years before. It was of +indifferent quality, and sometimes even bad,--bad because it gave no +sign that the poet had developed any powers of perception, indifferent +because it was not rooted in its own period. The date of the book +was 1872, but it contained no echo of the Jubilee of 1865, no hint +of 1870, not a whiff of the conflagration of 1871. Had these young +versifiers been asleep? Yes, certainly. The great mass of students were +realists, sceptics, mockers, as befitted the children of the time, but +the poets were credulous fools with the ideals of Snoilsky and Björck +in their hearts. Their poetry was that of superannuated idealists in +form and thought, for the new views of things had not reached these +isolated individualists who still lived the Bohemian life of the +Romantics. Their poetry consisted of nothing but echoes. In fact it +was a question whether Swedish poetry had hitherto been anything else, +or could be anything else. Was Tegner's poetry anything but an echo +of Schiller, Oehlenschläger, the Eddas and the old Norse sagas? Was +Atterbom anything else than a musical box pieced together out of Tieck, +Hoffmann, Wieland, Burger? And so on with all the Swedish poets. But +this Literary Calendar was composed of echoes of echoes and dreams of +dreams. Realism, which had already made a premature entry into Sweden +with Kraemer's _Diamonds in Coal_, and had subsequently triumphed +in Snoilsky, had left no trace on these young poets. The poetry of +Snoilsky's school had been the careless expression of a careless time, +but these poems simply displayed the incapacity of their writers. + +John had contributed to the _Calendar_ a free version of "An Basveig's +Saga." In this he had glorified himself as a kind of male Cinderella, +or ugly duckling of the family. He was moved to do this by the contempt +which had been evinced towards him by his patrons and middle-class +friends on account of his failure as an author. The language of the +piece was marked by a certain bluntness of expression and an attempt to +dignify low things, or at least to rub off the dirt from things which +were not really so, but were called so. Since the word Naturalism had +not yet come into fashion, his language was called coarse and vulgar. + +But an acquaintance which John happened to make during his stay in +Upsala was of greater importance than the _Calendar_ or Christmas +dinner. He lodged with a friend on whose writing-table he found one day +a number of the _Svensk Tidskrift_ containing a notice of Hartmann's +_Philosophy of the Unconscious_. It was an exposition of Hartmann's +system by a Finn, A.V. Bolin, and betrayed throughout a half-concealed +admiration of it. But the editor, Hans Forssell, had appended to the +essay a note written in his usual style when he came across something +that his brain could not take in. Hartmann's doctrine was pessimism. +Conscious life is suffering because unconscious will is the motive +power of evolution and consciousness obstructs this unconscious will. +It was the old myth of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It +was the kernel of the Buddhistic faith and the chief doctrine of +Christianity,--"Vanitas, vanitatum vanitas." + +Most of the greatest and conscious minds had been pessimists, and had +seen through and unmasked the illusions of life. Only wild animals, +children, and commonplace people could therefore be happy, because they +were unconscious of the illusion, or because they held their ears when +one wanted to tell them the truth and begged not to be robbed of their +illusions. + +John found all this quite natural, and had no important objection to +make. It was true then, what he had so often dreamt, that everything +was nothing! It was the suspicion of this which had governed his +point of view and made all the great and all greatness appear on a +reduced scale. This consciousness had lurked obscurely in him, when, +as a child, although well-formed, healthy and strong, he wept over +an unknown grief, the cause of which he could not find within him or +without. That was the secret of his life, that he could not admire +anything, could not hold to anything, could not live for anything; that +he was too wide awake to be subject to illusions. Life was a form of +suffering which could only be alleviated by removing as many obstacles +as possible from the path of one's will; his own life in particular +was so extremely painful because his social and economical position +constantly prevented his will from expressing itself. + +When he contemplated life and especially the course of history he saw +only cycles of errors and mistakes repeating themselves.[1] The men of +the present dreamt of a republic, as Greeks and Romans had done two +thousand years before; the civilisation of the Egyptians had decayed +when they perceived its futility; Asia was wrapped in an eternal sleep +after it had been impelled by an unconscious will to conquer the +world; all nations had invented narcotics and intoxicants in order to +quench consciousness; sleep was blessedness and death the greatest +happiness. But why not take the last step and commit suicide? Because +the unconscious Will continually enticed men to live through the +illusion of hope of a better life. Pessimism, regarded as a view of the +world's order, is more consistent than meliorism, which sees in natural +development a tendency which makes for men's happiness. This latter +view seems to be a disguised relic of belief in divine providence. Can +one believe that the mechanical blindly ruling laws of nature have any +regard for the development of human society when they produce glacial +periods, floods, and volcanic outbreaks? Must an intelligent man be +called "conservative" in a contemptuous sense because he has brought +under his yoke and rules the laws of nature as Stuart Mill facetiously +expresses it? Have men devised any certain preventives against +shipwreck, strokes of lightning, economic crises, losses of relatives +by death and sickness? Can men control at pleasure the inclination of +the earth's axis, and do away with cloud-formations which are likely +to injure harvests? In spite of the present advanced state of science, +have men been able to put an end to the grape pest, to stop floods, +eradicate, superstitions, remove despots, prevent war? Is it not +presumptuous or simple-minded to believe that man, himself governed by +chemical, physical, and physiological laws of nature, stands above them +because he understands how to use some of them to his own advantage, as +birds use the wind for their progress or beavers the pressure of the +stream in constructing their dams? Are not the wings of the falcon and +the fly more perfect means of locomotion than railways and steamers? +How can men be so simple as to think that they stand above nature when +they are themselves so subordinate to nature that they cannot will or +think freely? It looks like a residue of our primitive illusions. If +the present development of European society ends in atheism, that has +already been the case with the Buddhists; if in religious freedom, +that has already been witnessed in the early history of China; if in +polygamy, that already exists among the savages of Australia; if in +community of goods, this prevailed among primitive peoples. The fact is +that Europe has been the last of all the great ethnical groups to wake +to consciousness. It is now in the act of waking and turning itself, +not like some oriental nations, to torpid quietism, but to removing as +far as possible the pains and unpleasantnesses of earthly existence, +although the best way of doing so has not been yet discovered. The +mistake of the industrial socialists is that they, according to +the formula of the ambiguous evolution theory, wish to build upon +existing conditions, which they regard as the product of necessity, +and tending to the good of all. But existing conditions rather tend +to the happiness of the few, and are therefore something abnormal to +build on, which means erecting a house on ground from which the water +has not been drained off. Probably the form of society which they +desire, however absurd it is, is a necessary mistake through which men +must pass to reach a better. Both the danger and the hope of progress +consist in the fact that the socialistic system already has its +programme drawn up and consequently works automatically, _i.e_. like a +blind, irresistible mass. If it reconstitutes society after the pattern +of the working-class who are a minority, and makes all men mechanics, +one may venture to doubt, without being regarded as quite mad, whether +that will be happiness. Socialism as a social reform is inevitable, +for Europe in its self-idolatry has not perceived how far backward it +is. Provided with an Asiatic form of government, which interferes in +details, supporting ancient superstitions, living under the terrible +tyranny of capital, which is maintained by force of arms, it sets +on foot political and religious persecutions, it venerates embalmed +monarchs like mummies of the Pharaohs, it civilises savages with waste +goods and Krupp guns; it forgets that its civilisation came from the +east, and was better then than it is now. Hartmann and the pessimists +believe that the social reform which is called socialism will come, but +that afterwards, it will be succeeded by something else. + +The bourgeois is an optimist because he cannot see or think outside +the narrow circle of everyday occurrences. That is his good fortune, +but not his merit, for he has no choice in the matter. Nay, he does not +even understand what pessimism is, but thinks it means the opinion that +this is the worst of all worlds. How could any one have a well-grounded +view on that? Voltaire, who was no pessimist, wrote a whole book to +demonstrate that this world, at any rate, was not the best of worlds +for us, as Leibnitz imagined. It is naturally the best for itself, +although not for us, and the difference between the point of view of +the hypochondriac and the pessimist consists in the fact that the +former believes that the world is the worst possible for him, while +the pessimist disregards what it may be for the individual. Hartmann +is no hypochondriac as people have tried to make out, and he seeks to +alleviate the pain of life as much as possible by placing himself in a +state of unconsciousness. + +The men of the younger generation of to-day are sad, because they +have awoke to consciousness and lost many illusions. But they are not +hypochondriacal, and work at bringing the world forward into the last +stage of illusion or a new social system, as though hoping thereby to +alleviate their pain, and they work the more fanatically, the deeper +they feel it. + +Meanwhile, supposing that Hartmann's philosophy may be a mistake, and a +sceptic must be willing to entertain that possibility, although it has +every probability on its side, since the instinct of self-preservation, +the first condition of life, consists in the removal of pain, which +is the first motive-power,--we must seek to explain historically +how this philosophy has come to the birth and spread. Superficial +observers like the mystic Caro, do not hesitate, inconsistently +enough, to attribute it to bodily ill-health. The socialists, who +wished to arouse the expectation that their teaching was practicable, +explained it as the foreboding of overthrow in a class, of whom +Hartmann was the representative. But Hartmann believes in socialism +and the new social system, although only as transitional forms. He +is not despairing, not even melancholy. He seems to be the first +philosopher who, quite independently of Christianity, European culture +and idealism, tries to explain the world's progress from the purely +materialistic point of view. He states facts and processes exactly as +they are. From unconscious minerals we have developed into globules +of albumen, acquired conscious nerve-centres and finally brains +with ever-increasing self-consciousness. The more highly organised +the life, the greater the capacity for pain and susceptibility to +impressions. Not till our time did the cosmic brain succeed in arriving +at clear perception and, accordingly, at divining the order of the +world. Hartmann can therefore be regarded as one who arrived at the +highest degree of consciousness, and he will be remembered as the +great unmasker before whose keen gaze the bandages fell away. It is +consequently a mistake to call him "the prophet of despair." Idealists +may feel empty and despairing when confronted by the naked truth, but +the meliorist feels an inexpressible calm. Man will be modest when he +takes the measure of his littleness as an atom of the cosmic dust. +He will no longer build his happiness on a future life, but will be +impelled by pessimism to order the only life he has as well as he can +for himself and for others. He will see how useless it is to lament +over the misery of existence; he will accept pain as a fact, and +alleviate it as well as he can. Hartmann is a realist, and the title +"pessimist" in its old significance has been fastened on him out of +malice. He shudders at the misery of the world, but does not even call +it misery. He only shows that life is not so great and beautiful as men +like to make out, and pain in his view is not a mere bodily ailment, +but an impelling motive. His is a sound and healthy view of things in +contrast to which socialism may sometimes look like idealism, since it +wishes to remodel society according to its desires, not according to +the possibilities of the case. + +Meanwhile the review article on Hartmann had a quickening effect on +John. There was then a system in the apparent madness of the universe, +and his consciousness had rightly foreboded that the whole scheme of +things was something very insignificant. But a new philosophic system +is not absorbed by a brain in a day. It only left a certain deposit and +gave a keynote to his thoughts. As a theoretical point of view it was +still obscured by his idealistic education, darkened by his inborn and +acquired hatred of the upper class, and his natural tendency to seek +his point of equilibrium somewhere outside himself. Taken on the large +scale, life was meaningless, but if one wanted to live, one had to come +to grips with reality, and adopt an everyday point of view, which alas! +one very readily did. Enormous difficulties stood in the way of earning +a living or making a name. Honour, viewed absolutely, was nothing, but +in relation to the petty circumstances of life it was something great, +and worth striving for. The Philistines did not understand that, and +derived much amusement, when they saw him, pessimist as he was, toiling +after distinctions. They, with their clock-work brains, thought this +inconsistent, since they did not understand that the term "honour" has +two values, an absolute and a "relative." + + +[1] In his pamphlet "The Conscious Will in the World-history" (1903), +Strindberg takes the opposite view to that expressed here. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + +***** This file should be named 44107-0.txt or 44107-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/44107-0.zip b/old/44107-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..544514a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-0.zip diff --git a/old/44107-8.txt b/old/44107-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de5f74e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6875 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Growth of a Soul + +Author: August Strindberg + +Translator: Claud Field + +Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + + + + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +GROWTH OF A SOUL + +BY + +AUGUST STRINDBERG + + +AUTHOR OF "THE INFERNO," "THE SON OF A SERVANT," ETC. + + +TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD + + + +NEW YORK + +McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY + +1914 + + + + CONTENTS + + I IN THE FORECOURT + II BELOW AND ABOVE + III THE DOCTOR + IV IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + V JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + VI BEHIND THE CURTAIN + VII JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + VIII THE "RUNA" CLUB + IX BOOKS AND THE STAGE + X TORN TO PIECES + XI IDEALISM AND REALISM + XII A KING'S PROTG + XIII THE WINDING UP + XIV AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + XV THE RED ROOM + + + +THE GROWTH OF A SOUL + + + +CHAPTER I + +IN THE FORECOURT + +(1867) + + +The steamer had passed Flottsund and Domstyrken and the university +buildings of Upsala began to appear. "Now begins the real +stone-throwing!" exclaimed one of his companions,--an expression +borrowed from the street-riots of 1864. The hilarity induced by punch +and breakfast abated; one felt that things were now serious and that +the battle of life was beginning. No vows of perpetual friendship were +made, no promises of helping each other. The young men had awakened +from their romantic dreams; they knew that they would part at the +gang-way, new interests would scatter the company which the school-room +had united; competition would break the bonds which had united them and +all else would be forgotten. The "real stone-throwing" was about to +begin. + +John and his friend Fritz hired a room in the Klostergrnden. It +contained two beds, two tables, two chairs and a cupboard. The rent was +30 kronas[1] a term,--15 kronas each. Their midday meal was brought +by the servant for 12 kronas a month,--6 kronas each. For breakfast +and supper they had a glass of milk and some bread and butter. That +was all. They bought wood in the market,--a small bundle for 4 kronas. +John had also received a bottle of petroleum from home as a present, +and he could send his washing to Stockholm. He had 80 kronas in his +table-drawer with which to meet all the expenses of the term. + +It was a new and peculiar society into which he now entered, quite +unlike any other. It had privileges like the old house of peers and a +jurisdiction of its own; but it was a "little Pedlington" and reeked +of rusticity. All the professors were country-born; not a single one +hailed from Stockholm. The houses and streets were like those of +Nykping. And it was here that the head-quarters of culture had been +placed, owing to an inconsistency of the government which certainly +regarded Stockholm as answering to that description. + +The students were regarded as the upper class in the town and the +citizens were stigmatised by the contemptuous epithet of "Philistines." +The students were outside and above the civic law. To smash windows, +break down fences, tussle with the police, disturb the peace of the +streets,--all was allowed to them and went unpunished; at most they +received a reprimand, for the old lock-up in the castle was no more +used. For their militia-service they had a special uniform of their +own which carried privileges with it. Thus they were systematically +educated as aristocrats, a new order of nobility after the fall of the +house of peers. + +What would have been a crime in a citizen was a "practical joke" in a +student. Just at this time the students' spirits were at a high pitch, +as a band of student-singers had gone to Paris, had been successful +there, and were acclaimed as conquerors on their return. + +John now wished to work for his degree but did not possess a single +book. "During the first term one must take one's bearings" was the +saying. John went to the student's club. The constitution of the club +was antiquated,--so much so that the annexed provinces Skne, Halland +and Blekinge were not represented in it. It was well arranged and +divided into classes, not according to merit, but according to age +and certain dubious qualities. In the list the title "nobilis" still +stood after the names of those of high birth. There were several ways +of gaining influence in the club, through an aristocratic name, family +influence, money, talent, pluck and adaptability, but the last quality +by itself was not enough among these intelligent and sceptical youths. +On the first evening in the club John made his observations. There were +several of his old companions from the Clara School present, but he +avoided them as much as possible and they him. He had deserted them and +gone by a short cut through the private school, while they had tramped +along the regular course through the state school. They all seemed +to him somewhat conventional and stunted. Fritz plunged among the +aristocrats and obtained introductions, made acquaintances easily and +got on well. + +As they went home in the evening John asked him who was the "snob" in +the velvet jacket with stirrups painted on his collar. Fritz answered +that he was not a snob, and that it was as stupid to judge people by +fine clothes as by poor ones. John with his democratic ideas did not +understand this and stuck to his opinion. Fritz asserted that the youth +referred to was a very fine fellow and the senior in the club, and +in order to rouse John further, added that he had expressed himself +satisfied with the newcomers' appearance and manners; he was reported +to have said "they had an air about them; formerly the fellows from +Stockholm when they came there, looked like workmen." + +John was ruffled at this information and felt that something had come +in between him and his friend. Fritz's father had been a miller's +servant, but his mother had been of noble birth. He had inherited from +his mother what John had from his. + +The days passed on. Fritz put on his frock coat every morning and went +to pay his respects to the professors. He intended to be a jurist; +that was a proper career, for lawyers were the only ones who obtained +real knowledge which was of use in public life, who tried to obtain +deeper insight into social organisation and to keep in touch with the +practical business of everyday life. They were realists. + +John had no frock coat, no books, no acquaintances. + +"Borrow my coat," said Fritz. + +"No, I will not go and pay court to the professors," said John. + +"You are stupid," answered Fritz, and in that he was right, for the +professors gave real though somewhat hazy information regarding the +courses of study. It was a piece of pride in John that he did not +wish to owe his progress to anything but his own work, and what was +worse, he thought it ignominious to be regarded as a flunkey. Would +not an old professor at once perceive that he was flattering him for +his own purposes? To submit himself to his superiors was, in his mind, +synonymous with grovelling. + +Moreover everything was too indefinite. The university which he had +imagined to be an institution for free investigation, was only one for +tasks and examinations. The professors gave lectures for the sake of +appearances or to maintain their income, but it was useless to go up +for an examination without taking private lessons. John resolved to +attend those lectures for which no fee was necessary. He went to the +Gustavianum to hear a lecture on the history of philosophy. For the +three-quarters of an hour during which the lecture lasted the professor +went through the introduction to Aristotle's Ethics. John calculated +that with three lectures a week he would require forty years to go +through the history of philosophy. "Forty years," he thought, "that is +too long for me." And did not go again. It was the same everywhere. +An assistant-professor expounded Shakespeare's _Henry VIII_ with the +commentary, in English, to an audience of five. John went there a few +times, but reckoned that it would be ten years before _Henry VIII_ was +finished. + +It began to dawn upon him what the requirements of the degree +examination were. The first was to write a Latin essay; therefore he +must learn more Latin, which he did not like. He had chosen sthetics +and modern languages as his chief subject. sthetics comprised the +study of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Literary History and the +various systems of sthetics. That was work enough for a lifetime. The +modern languages were French, German, English, Italian and Spanish, +with comparative grammar. How was he to obtain the requisite books? And +he had not the means of paying for private lessons. + +Meanwhile he set to work at sthetics. He found that one could borrow +books from the club and so he took out the volumes of Atterbom's +_Prophets and Poets_ which happened to be there. These unfortunately +only dealt with Swedenborg and contained Thorild's epistles. Swedenborg +seemed to him crazy, and Thorild's epistles did not interest him. +Swedenborg and Thorild were two arrogant Swedes who had lived in +retirement and fallen a prey to megalomania, the special disease +of solitary people. It is remarkable how often outbreaks of this +hallucination occur in Sweden, owing probably to the isolated position +of the country and to the fact that a sparse population is scattered +over enormous distances. Megalomania is apparent in the imperial +projects of Gustavus Adolphus, in Charles X's ambition of becoming +a great European power, in Charles XII's Attila-like schemes, in +Rudbeck's Atlantic-mania, and in Swedenborg's and Thorild's dreams of +storming heaven and of world-conflagrations. John thought them mad and +threw them aside. Was that the sort of stuff he was expected to read? + +He began to reflect over his situation. What did he expect to do in +Upsala? To support himself for six years on 80 kronas till he took +his degree. And then? his thoughts did not stretch further; he had no +higher plan or ambition than to take his degree--the laurel crown, the +graduate's coat, and then to teach the catechism in the Jakob school +till his death. No, he did not wish to do that. + +Time went on, and Christmas approached. The little stock of money in +his table-drawer diminished slowly but surely. And then? It was not so +easy for students to obtain employment as private teachers since the +railways had made communication easier between remote country places +and the towns where schools were. He felt that he had embarked upon a +foolish undertaking. When he found he could get no more books, he began +to make visits among his fellow-students and discovered companions in +misfortune. Among them were two who had spent the whole term playing +chess and possessed nothing between them but a hymn-book which the +mother of one had placed in his box. They were also asking themselves +the question "What have we to do here?" The way to the degree +examination was not easy; one was compelled to seek out secret ways, +bribe door-keepers, creep through holes, run into debt for books, be +seen at lectures and much more besides. + +In order to fill up the time, he learnt to play the B-cornet in the +band of the students' club by the advice of Fritz who played the +trombone. But the practices were very irregular and began to cause +disputes. John also played backgammon, which Fritz hated, and so he +wandered about to acquaintances with his backgammon board and played +with them. He found it as dull as reading Swedenborg. + +"Why do you not study?" Fritz often asked him. + +"I have no books," answered John. That was a good reason. He could +not visit the restaurants, for he had no money, and lived very +quietly. At the midday meal he drank only water, and when on Sundays +he and Fritz drank half a bottle of beer, they remained sitting at +table half-fuddled and telling each other, perhaps for the hundredth +time, old school adventures. The term crept along intolerably slow, +uneventful and torpid. John perceived that, as one of the lower class, +he could plod on thus far but no further. The economic question brought +his plans to a standstill. Or was it that he was tired of living a +one-sided mental life without muscular exercise? Trifling experiences +for which he ought to have been prepared contributed to embitter him. +One day Fritz entered their room with a young count. He introduced +John to him, and the count tried to remember whether they had not been +comrades at the Clara School. John seemed to remember something of +the kind. The old friends and intimate companions addressed each other +as "count" and "sir." Then John remembered how he and the young count +had once played as boys in a tobacco store on the Sabbatsberg, and how +something had made him prophesy, "In a few years, old fellow, we shall +not know each other any more." The young count had protested strongly +against this and felt hurt. Why did John remember this just then +particularly, since it is quite natural that comrades should become +strangers to each other when intercourse has been so long broken off? +Because at the sight of the noble, he felt the slave blood seethe in +his veins. This kind of feeling has been ascribed to the difference of +races. But that is not so, for then the stronger plebeian race would +feel superior to the weaker aristocratic. It is simply class-hatred. + +The count in question was a pale, tall, slender youth of no striking +appearance. He was very poor and looked half-starved. He was +intelligent, industrious, and not at all proud. Later on in life +John came across him again and found him to be a sociable, pleasant +man, leading an inconspicuous life as an official, amid difficulties +resembling John's own. Why should he hate him? And then they both +laughed at their youthful stupidity. That was possible then, for John +seemed to have "got ahead" as the saying is; otherwise he would not +have laughed at all. "Stand up that I may sit down," this was the +more malicious than luminous way of expressing the aspiration of the +lower orders in those days. But it was a misunderstanding. Formerly +one strove to elbow one's way up to the other; now one would rather +pull the other down to save oneself the trouble of clambering up where +nothing is to be found. "Move a little so that we can both sit" would +now be the proper formula. + +It has been said that those who are "above" are there by a law of +necessity and would be there under all circumstances; competition +is free and each can ascend if he likes, and if the conditions were +changed, the same race would begin again. "Good!" say the lower +classes, "let us race again, but come down here and stand where I +do. You have got a start with privileges and capital, but now let us +be weighed with carriage harness and racing saddle after the modern +fashion. You have got ahead by cheating. The race is therefore declared +null and void and we will run it again, unless we come to an agreement +to do away with all racing, as an antiquated sport of ancient times." + +Fritz saw things from another point of view. He did not wish to pull +those above down, but to become an aristocrat himself, climb up to +them and be like them. He began to lisp and made elegant gestures with +his hands, greeted people as though he were a cabinet minister, and +threw his head back as though he had a private income. But he respected +himself too much to become ridiculous and satirised himself and his +ambition. The fact was that the aristocrats whom he wished to resemble +had simple, easy, unaffected manners,--some of them indeed quite like +the middle class, while Fritz was fashioning himself after an ancient +theatrical pattern which no longer existed. He did not therefore +become what he expected in life though he had dozed away many a summer +in the castles of his friends, and ended in a very modest official +post. He was received as a student in their guest-rooms but came no +further; as a district judge he was not introduced in the salons which +as a student he had entered without introduction. + +The effects of the different circles in which John and Fritz moved +began now to be apparent, first in mutual coldness, then in hostility. +One evening it broke out at the card-table. + +Fritz one day towards the end of the term said to John, "You should not +go about with such bounders as you do." + +"What is the matter with them?" + +"Nothing, but it would be better if you went with me to my friends." + +"They don't suit me." + +"Well, they suit me, but they think you are proud." + +"I?" + +"Yes; and to show you are not, come with me this evening and drink +punch." + +John went though unwillingly. They were a solid-looking set of +law-students who played cards. They discussed the stakes for which they +should play, and John succeeded in reducing them to a minimum, though +they made sour faces. Then a game of "knack" was proposed. John said +that he never played it. + +"On principle?" he was asked. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"How long ago did you make that resolve," asked Fritz sarcastically. + +"Just this minute." + +"Just now, here?" + +"Yes, just now, here!" answered John. + +They exchanged hostile looks and that was the end. They went home +silent; went to bed silent; and got up silent. For five weeks they ate +their dinner at the same table and never spoke to each other. A gulf +had opened between them and their friendship was ended; they had no +more intercourse with each other and there was nothing to bring them +together again. How had that come about? + +These two characters so opposed to each other had held together for +five years through habit, through comradeship in the class-room, +and common interests; they had felt drawn to each other by common +recollections, defeats and victories. It was a compromise between fire +and water which must cease sooner or later and might cease at any +moment. Now they flew asunder as if by an explosion; the masks fell; +they did not become enemies, but simply discovered that they _were_ +born enemies, _i.e._ two oppositely-disposed natures which must go, +each its own way. They did not close accounts with a quarrel or useless +accusations, but simply made an end without more ado. An unnatural +silence prevailed at their midday meal; sometimes in lifting dishes +their hands crossed but their looks avoided each other; now and then +Fritz's lips moved, as though he wished to say something, but his +larynx remained closed. What should he say after all. There was nothing +to say but what the silence expressed: "We have nothing more in common." + +And yet there was something left after all. Sometimes Fritz came home +in the evening, cheerful, and obviously prepared to say, "Come! cheer +up old fellow!" But then he stood still in the middle of the room, +petrified by John's icy manner, and went out again. Sometimes also +it occurred to John, who suffered under the breach of friendship to +say to his friend, "How stupid we are!" But then he felt frozen again +by Fritz's indifferent manner. They had worn out their friendship by +living together. They knew each other by heart, all one another's +secrets and weaknesses, and precisely what answer either would give. +That was the end. Nothing more remained. + +A miserable torpid time followed. Tom away from the common life of +school where he had worked like part of a machine in unison with +others, and abandoned to himself, he ceased to live in the proper sense +of the word. Without books, papers or social intercourse, he remained +empty; for the brain produces of itself very little, perhaps nothing; +in order to make combinations it must be supplied with material from +without. Now nothing came; the channels were stopped, the ways blocked, +and his soul pined away. Sometimes he took Fritz's books and looked +into them; among them he came across Geijer's History for the first +time. Geijer was a great name and known through his "Kolargossen," +"Sista Kampen," "Vikingen" and other poems. John now read his history +of Gustav Vasa. He was astonished to find no illuminating point of +view nor any fresh information. The style, which he had heard praised, +was pedestrian. It was like a mere memorial sketch, this history of a +long-lived king's reign, and cursory also like a text-book. Printed in +small type, and without notes, the history of this important king would +not have been longer than a small pamphlet. One day John asked some of +his friends what they thought of Geijer. + +"He is devilish dull," they answered. + +That was the common opinion before jubilee-commemorations and the +erection of statues prevented people saying plainly what they thought. + +John then looked for a little into law-books, but was alarmed at the +idea of having to study that sort of thing. His home life and religious +education had given him a distaste for everything that concerned the +common interests of people. Through the ceaseless repetition of the +maxim that young men should not interfere with politics, that is to +say, with the common weal, and through Christian individualism and +introspection, John had become a consistent egoist. + +"Let every one mind his own business" was the first command of this +egotistic morality. Therefore he read no papers and troubled little how +things were going on about him, what was happening in the world, how +the destinies of men were being shaped, or what were the thoughts of +the leading minds of the time. Therefore it never occurred to him to +go to the meetings of the club where questions of common interest were +dealt with. "There were enough to look after those things," he thought. + +He was not alone in that opinion, so that the meetings of the club were +managed by a few energetic fellows, who were regarded perhaps wrongly, +as egoists and managed public business in their own interests. John who +let the affairs of the little society go as they liked, was perhaps a +greater egoist, occupied as he was with the affairs of his own soul. +But in his own defence and on behalf of many of his countrymen it must +be said that he and they were shy. This shyness, however, should have +been got rid of at school by practice in public speaking. In this +shyness there was also a degree of cowardice, the fear of opposition +or ridicule, and especially the fear of being thought presumptuous or +wishing to push oneself forward. Every youth who did so, was at once +suppressed, for here the aristocracy of seniority prevailed in a very +high degree. + +When he found the room too stuffy, he went out of the town. But the +depressing landscape with its endless expanse of clay made him sad. He +was no plain-dweller, but had his roots in the undulating scenery of +Stockholm, diversified by water channels. The flat country depressed +him and he suffered from homesickness to such a degree that when he +returned to Stockholm at Christmas and saw again the smiling contours +of the coast of Brunsvik, he was moved to the point of sentimentality. +When he saw once more the gentle curves of the woods of Haga Park he +felt his soul, as it were, attuned again, after having been so long +out of tune. To such a degree were his nerves affected by his natural +surroundings. + +Under other circumstances, the society of a smaller town like Upsala +would have been more congenial to him than that of the great town +which he hated. Had the small town been but a developed form of the +village, preserving the simple rustic appliances for health and +comfort, with fragments of landscape between the houses, it would have +been far preferable to the great town. But now the small town was +merely a shabby pretentious copy of the great town with its mistakes, +and therefore the more offensive. It also reeked with provinciality. +Every one mentioned their birthplace, "My name is Pettersson, from +Ostgothland," "Mine is Andersson, from Smland." There was a keen +rivalry between the members of different provinces. Those from +Stockholm regarded themselves as the first and were therefore envied +and despised by the "peasants." There was much dispute as to whom the +first place really belonged. The Wormlanders boasted of having produced +Geijer whose portrait hung in their hall, while the Smlanders had +Tegner, Berzelius and Linnus. The Stockholm students who had only +Bergfalk and Bellmann were called "gutter-snipes." This was not a very +brilliant piece of wit especially as it emanated from a Kalmar student +who was thereupon asked "whether there were no gutters in Kalmar?" + +There was something pettifogging also in the way in which the +professors fought for advancement by means of pamphlets and newspaper +articles. The election to any particular professorial chair rested in +the last resource with the Chancellor of the University who lived at +Stockholm. + +In 1867 the University had no especially distinguished teachers. Some +of them were merely old decayed tipplers. Others were young immature +dilettantes who had obtained advancement through their wives and the +modicum of talent which they possessed. The only one who enjoyed a +certain reputation was Swedelius. This, however, was rather due to +his bonhomie and the anecdotes which gathered round him, then to his +own talent. His learned activity was confined to the composition in +an austere style of textbooks and memorial addresses. These were not +strictly scientific, but showed traces of original research. + +On the whole all the subjects of study were introduced from abroad, +for the most part from Germany. The textbooks in most departments +were in German or French. Very few were in English which was little +known. Even the Professor of Literary History could not pronounce +English and began his lectures with an apology for not being able +to do so. There was no doubt that he knew the language for he had +published translations of Swedish poems. "But why did he not learn +the pronunciation?" the students asked. Most of the dissertations for +degrees were mere compilations from the German; occasionally they were +direct translations which caused a scandal. + +The fact was that the period had no special feature to characterise +it. There is no such thing as Swedish culture any more than there is +Belgian, Swiss, or Hungarian. Sweden had indeed produced a Linnus and +a Berzelius, but they had had no successors. + +John had no spirit of enterprise. At school his work had been settled +for him; at the university it was all left to him. He was overcome by +lethargy and listlessness and worried by not knowing what to do at the +end of the term. He saw that he must seek for a position in which he +could support himself. A friend had told him that one might become an +elementary teacher in the country without passing any more examinations +and could very well support oneself in such a post. Now it was John's +dream to live in the country. He had a natural dislike to towns though +he had been born in the metropolis. He could not accustom himself +to live without light and air, nor flourish in these streets and +market-places, where the outward signs of a higher or lower position in +the absurd social scale counted for so much, _e.g._ such subordinate +things as dress and manner. He had hostility to culture in his blood +and could never conceive of himself as anything else than a natural +product, which did not wish to be severed from its organic connection +with the earth. He was like a plant vainly feeling with its roots +between the pavement-stones for some soil; like an animal pining for +the forest. + +There is a fish which climbs up trees, and an eel can go on land to +look for a pease-field, but both of them return to the water. Fowls +have been domesticated so long that their ancestral characteristics +have died out, but they preserve the habit of sleeping on a perch which +represents the branch on which the black-cock and the wood-grouse +roost. Geese become restless in autumn, for an instinct in their blood +tells them that it is migrating time. So in spite of accommodation to +new circumstances there is always a tendency to go back. + +Thus is it also with men. The dweller in the north, so long as he +preserves civilised habits, has not been able to acclimatise himself +thoroughly, and is still liable to consumption. His stomach, nerves, +heart and skin were able to accommodate themselves, but not his lungs. +The Eskimo on the other hand, originally a southerner, succeeded in +acclimatising himself but had to give up civilised habits. + +And what is the meaning of the northerner's longing for the south +unless it be the wish to return to his first home, the land of the +sun, the bank of the Ganges where he was cradled? And the dislike +of children to meat, their longing for fruit and love of climbing, +what is it all but "reversion to type?" Therefore civilisation means +a continual strain and struggle to combat this backward tendency. +Education winds up the clock, but when the mainspring is not strong +enough it snaps and the works run down, till quiet ensues. As +civilisation advances the strain is ever greater and the statistics +of insanity show a perpetual increase. One cannot swim against the +stream of civilisation, but one may escape to land. Modern Socialism +which wishes to bring down the upper classes with their worthless +and dangerous motto "Higher!" is a backward movement in a healthy +direction. The strain will decrease as the pressure from above +decreases, and thereby a great deal of superfluous luxury will be got +rid of. In certain parts of German Switzerland there is already a +certain relative quiet. There we find no restless hunting after honours +and distinctions because there are none to be had. A millionaire +lives in a large cottage and laughs at the bedizened townsfolk,--a +good-natured laugh without any envy in it, for he knows that he could +buy up their finery for ready cash, if he chose. But he will not, for +luxury has no value in his neighbours' eyes. + +Men could therefore be happier if competition were not so keen and +they will yet be so, for the chief constituent of happiness is peace +along with less toil and less luxury. It is not the railways which are +to be blamed, but the superabundance of them. In Arcadian Switzerland +railways have ruined whole districts where no freightage is required +and people usually go on foot. To this day distances are reckoned by +pedestrian measures. + +"It is eight hours to Zurich," says some one. + +"Eight! is it possible?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"By the railway?" + +"Oh! by the railway,--that is only an hour and a half." + +In Sweden there is a railway which carries regularly three passengers +in its three classes, a factory-owner, a bailiff and a clerk. We may +live to see them shut up the railway stations for want of coal when +the coal strikes have sent up the price, for want of guards when wages +rise, and for want of freight when wood and oats can no longer be +procured; iron is already too dear to be used for railways, and the old +water-ways ought to be tried. + +It is no use to preach against civilisation,--that one knows well, but +if we observe the currents of the time we shall see that a return to +nature is in process of going on. Turgenieff has already described this +by the word "simplification." That is the mistake of the evolutionists +that in everything which is in motion or course of development they +see a progress towards human happiness, forgetting that a sickness may +develop to death or recovery. + +After all, what a superficial appendage civilisation is! Make a +nobleman drunk and he can become like a savage; let a child loose in +a wood without any one to look after it (provided that it can feed +itself) and it will not learn to speak of itself. Out of a peasant's +son who is generally considered so low in the social scale, one +can make in a single generation a man of science, a minister, an +arch-bishop, or an artist. Here there can be no talk of heredity, for +the peasant-father who stood apparently at such a low level, could not +have inherited anything from cultivated brains. On the other hand, the +children of a genius inherit usually nothing but used-up brains, except +occasionally a skill in their father's line of work, which they have +acquired by daily intercourse with their father. + +The town is the fire-place whither the living fuel from the country is +brought and devoured; it is to keep the present social machinery at +work, it is true, but in the long run the fuel will prove too dear, and +the machine come to a standstill. The society of the future will not +need this machine in order to work or they will be more sparing of the +fuel. But it is a mistake to conjecture the needs of a future state of +society from the present one. + +Our present society is perhaps a natural product, but inorganic; the +future society will be an organic product and a higher one, for it +will not deprive men of the first conditions for an organic existence. +There will be the same difference between these two forms of society as +between paved streets and grass meadows. + +The youth's dream often left artificial society to wander at large +in nature. Society had been formed by men doing violence to natural +laws, just as one may bleach a plant under a flower-pot and produce an +edible salad, but the plant's capacity to live healthily and propagate +itself as a plant is destroyed. Such a plant is the civilised man +made by artificial bleaching useful for an anmic society, but, as +an individual, wretched and unhealthy. Must the process of bleaching +continue in order to insure the existence of this decayed society? +Must the individual remain wretched in order to maintain an unhealthy +society? For how can society be healthy when its individual members +are ailing? A single individual cannot demand that society should be +sacrificed for his sake, but a majority of individuals have a right to +bring about such changes in the society, which they themselves compose, +as may be beneficial to themselves. + +Under the simpler conditions of country life John believed he could +be happy in an obscure post, without feeling that he had sunk in the +social scale. But he could not be so in the town where he would be +continually reminded of the height from which he had fallen. To come +down voluntarily is not painful if the onlookers can be persuaded that +it _is_ voluntarily, but to fall is bitter, especially as a fall always +arouses satisfaction in those standing below. To mount, strive upwards +and better one's position has become a social instinct, and the youth +felt the force of it, though in his view the "upper" was not always +higher. + +John wished now to realise some result,--an active life which should +bring him an income. He looked through many advertisements for teachers +in elementary schools. Positions were advertised to which were attached +salaries of 300 or 600 kronas, a house, a meadow and a garden. He tried +for one of these places after another but obtained no answer. + +When the term was over and his 80 kronas spent, he returned home, not +knowing whither to turn, what he should become, or how he should live. +He had glanced in the forecourt and seen that there was no room in it +for him. + + +[1] A krona = 1s. _2d_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BELOW AND ABOVE + + +"Are you a complete scholar now?" With this and similar questions John +was greeted ironically on his return home. His father took the matter +seriously and strove to frame plans without coming to any result. John +was a student; that was a fact; but what was to follow? + +It was winter, and so the white student cap could not bestow on him +a mild halo of glory or bring any honour to the family. Some one has +asserted that war would cease if uniforms were done away with; and it +is certain there would not be so many students if they had no outward +sign to parade. In Paris where they have none, they disappear in the +crowd, and no one makes a fuss about them; in Berlin on the other hand, +they have a privileged place by the side of officers. Therefore also +Germany is a land of professors and France of the bourgeois. + +John's father now saw that he had educated a good-for-nothing for +society who could not dig, but perhaps was not ashamed to beg. The +world stood open for the youth to starve or to perish in. His father +did not like his idea of becoming an elementary school-teacher. Was +that to be the only result of so much work? His ambitious dreams +received a shock from the idea of such a come-down. An elementary +school-teacher was on a level with a sergeant, oil a plane from which +there was no hope of mounting. Climb one must as long as others did; +one must climb till one broke one's neck, so long as society was +divided into ranks and classes. John had not passed the student's +examination for the sake of knowledge, but of belonging to the upper +class, and now he seemed to be meditating a descent to the lower. + +It became painful for him at home for he felt as though he were eating +the bread of charity when Christmas was over, and he could no longer be +regarded as a Christmas guest. + +One day he accidentally met in the street a school-teacher whom he +knew, and whom he had not seen for a long time. They talked about the +future and John's friend suggested to him a post in the Stockholm +elementary school as suitable for him while reading for his degree. He +would get a thousand kronas salary and have an hour to himself daily. +John objected "Anywhere except in Stockholm." His friend replied that +several students had been teachers in the elementary school, "Really! +then he would have companions in misfortune." Yes, and one had come +from the New Elementary School where he was a teacher. John went, made +an application, and was appointed with a salary of 900 kronas. His +father approved his decision when he heard that it would help him to +read for his degree, and John undertook to live as a boarder at home. +One winter morning at half-past eight, John went down the Nordtullsgata +to the Clara School, exactly as he had done when he was eight years +old. There were the same streets and the same Clara bells, and he was +to teach the lowest class! It was like being put back to learn a lesson +of eleven years ago. Just as afraid as then,--yes, more afraid of +coming too late he entered the large class-room, where together with +two female teachers he was to have the oversight of a hundred children. +There they sat,--children like those in the Jakob School, but younger. +Ugly, stunted, pale, swollen, sickly, with cast-down looks, in coarse +clothes and heavy shoes. Suffering, most probably, suffering from the +consciousness that others were more fortunate, and would always be +so, as one then believed, had impressed on their faces the stamp of +pain, which neither religious resignation nor the hope of heaven could +obliterate. The upper classes avoided them with a bad conscience, built +themselves houses outside the town, and left it to the professional +over-seers of the poor to come in contact with these outcasts. + +A hymn was sung, the Lord's Prayer was read; everything was as before; +no progress had been made except that the forms had been exchanged for +seats and desks, and the room was light and airy. John had to fold his +hands and join in the hymn, thus already being obliged to do violence +to his conscience. Prayers over, the head-master entered. He spoke to +John in a fatherly way and as his superintendent gave him instruction +and advice. This class, he said, was the worst, and the teacher must +be strict. + +So John took his class into a special room to begin the lesson. The +room was exactly like that in the Clara School, and there stood the +dreadful desk with steps, which resembled a scaffold and was painted +red as though stained with blood. A stick was put into his hand with +which he might rap or strike as he chose. He mounted the scaffold. He +felt shy before the thirsty faces of girls and boys opposite who looked +curiously at him, to see if he were going to worry them. + +"What is your lesson?" he asked. + +"The first commandment," the whole class exclaimed. + +"Only one must answer at a time. You, top boy what is your name?" + +"Hallberg," cried the whole class. + +"No, only one at a time,--the one I ask." + +The children giggled. "He is not dangerous," they thought. + +"Well, then, what is the first commandment?" John asked the top boy. + +"Thou shalt have no other gods but Me." He knew that then. + +"What is that?" John asked again, trying to lay as little emphasis +as possible on the "that." Then he asked fifteen children the same +question and a quarter of an hour had passed. John thought this +idiotic. What should he do now? Say what he knew about God? But the +common point of view then was, that nothing was known about Him. John +was a theist, and still believed in a personal God, but could say +nothing more. He would have liked to have attacked the divinity of +Christ, but would have been dismissed had he done so. + +A pause followed. There was an unnatural stillness while he reflected +on his false position and the foolish method of teaching. If he had +now said that nothing was known of God, the whole catechism and Bible +instruction would have been superfluous. They knew that they must not +steal or lie. Why then make such a fuss? He felt a mad wish to make +friends and fellow-sinners of the children. + +"What shall we do now?" he said. + +The whole class looked at each other and giggled. + +"This is a jolly sort of teacher," they thought. + +"What must the teacher do when he has heard the lesson?" he asked the +top boy. + +"Hm! he generally explains it," he and one or two others answered. + +John could certainly explain the origin and growth of the conception of +God, but that would not do. + +"You need not do any more," he said, "but don't make a noise." + +The children looked at him, and he at them mutually smiling. + +"Don't you think this is absurd," he felt inclined to say, but checked +himself and only smiled. But he collected himself when he saw that they +were laughing at him. "This method would not do," he thought. So he +commanded attention and went through the first commandment again till +each child had had a question. After extraordinary exertions on his +part, the clock at last struck nine, and the lesson was over. + +Then the three divisions of the class were assembled in the great +hall to prepare for going into the play-ground to get fresh air. +"Prepare" is the right word for such a simple affair as going into the +play-ground demanded a long preparation. An exact description would +fill a whole printed page, and perhaps be regarded as a caricature; we +will be content with giving a hint. + +In the first place, all the hundred children had to sit motionless, +absolutely motionless, and silent, absolutely silent, in their seats as +though they were to be photographed. From the master's desk the whole +assembly looked like a grey carpet with bright patterns, but the next +moment one of them moved the head; the offender had to rise from his +seat and stand by the wall. The total effect was now disturbed, and +there had to be a good many raps with the cane before two hundred arms +lay parallel on the desks and a hundred heads were at right angles +with their collar-bones. When quiet was in some degree restored a new +rapping began which demanded absolute quiet. But at the very moment +when the absolute was all but attained, some muscle grew tired, some +nerve slackened, some sinew relaxed. Again there was confusion, cries, +blows, and a new attempt to reach the absolute. It generally ended by +the female teacher (the males did not drive it so far) closing one eye +and pretending that the absolute had been reached. + +Then came the important moment, when, at a given signal the whole +hundred must spring from their seats and stand in order, but nothing +more. It was a ticklish moment when slates fell down and rulers +clattered. Then they had to sit down and begin all over again by +keeping perfectly still. + +When they had really got on their legs, they were marched off in +divisions but on tip-toe without exception. Otherwise they had to turn +round and sit down again, get up again and so on. They had to go on +tip-toe in wooden sabots and water-boots. It was a great mistake; it +accustomed the children to stealthiness and gave their whole appearance +something cat-like and deceitful. In the play-ground a teacher had +to arrange those who wanted to drink in a straight line before the +water-tap by the entrance; at the same time the lavatories at the +other end of the play-ground had to be inspected, and games had to be +organised and watched over. Then the children were again drawn up and +marched into school. If it was not done quietly, they had to go out +again. + +Then another lesson began. The children read out of a patriotic +reading-book the principal object of which seemed to be to instil +respect for the upper classes and to represent Sweden as the best +country in Europe, although as regards climate and social economy, +it is one of the worst, its culture is borrowed from abroad, and all +its kings were of foreign origin. They did not venture to give such +teaching to the children of the upper classes in the Clara School and +the Lyceum, but in the Jakob School they had sufficient courage to +make poor children sing a patriotic song about the Duke of Ostgothland. +In this occurred a verse addressed to the crew of the fleet, saying +victory was sure in the battle they wished for "because Prince Oscar +leads us on," or something of the sort. + +Meanwhile the reading-lesson began. But just at that moment the +head-master came in. John wished to stop but the head-master beckoned +to him to go on. The children who had lost their respect for him after +the catechism-lesson were inattentive. John scolded them, but without +result. Then the head-master came forward with a cane; took the book +from John and made a little speech, to the effect that this division +was the worst, but now their teacher should see how to deal with them. +The exercise which followed seemed to have as its object the attainment +of perfect attention. The absolute again seemed to be the standard by +which these children were to be trained in this incomplete world of +relativity. + +The boy who was reading was interrupted, and another name called at +random out of the class. To follow attentively was assumed to be the +easiest thing in the world by this old man who certainly must have +experienced how thoughts wander their own way while the eyes pass +over the printed page. The inattentive one was dragged by his hair or +clothes and caned till he fell howling on the ground. + +Then the head-master departed after recommending John to use the cane +diligently. There remained nothing but to follow this method or to go; +the latter did not suit John's plans, therefore he remained. He made a +speech to the children and referred to the head-master. "Now," he said, +"you know how you must behave if you want to escape a thrashing. He who +gets one, has himself to thank. Don't blame me. Here is the stick, and +there is your lesson. Learn your lesson or you will get the stick,--and +it isn't my fault." + +That was cunningly put, but it was unmerciful, for one ought to have +first ascertained how far the children could do their work. They could +not, for they were the most lively and therefore the most inattentive. +So the cane was kept going all day, accompanied by cries of pain, and +fear on the faces of the innocent. It was terrible! To pay attention +is not in the power of the will, and therefore all this punishment was +mere torture. John felt the absurdity of the part he had to play, but +he had to do his duty. Sometimes he was tired and let things go as they +liked, but then his colleagues, male and female, came and made friendly +representations. Sometimes he found the whole thing so ridiculous +that he could not help smiling with the children while he caned them. +Both sides saw that they were working at something impossible and +unnecessary. + +Ibsen, who does not believe in the aristocracy of birth or of wealth, +has lately (1886) expressed his belief that the industrial class +are the true nobility. But why should they necessarily be so? If to +do no manual labour tends to degeneration, perhaps degeneration is +brought about even more quickly by excessive labour and want. All +these children born of manual labourers looked more sickly, weak and +stupid than the upper-class children which he had seen. One or the +other muscle might be more strongly developed,--a shoulder-blade, a +hand, or a foot,--but they looked anmic under their pale skins. +Many had extraordinarily large heads which seemed to be swollen with +water, their ears and noses ran, their hands were frost-bitten. The +various professional diseases of town-labourers seemed to have been +inherited; one saw in miniature the gas-worker's lungs and blood spoilt +by sulphur-fumes, the smith's shoulders and feet bent out-wards, the +painter's brain atrophied by varnishes and poisonous colours, the +scrofulous eruption of the chimney sweeper, the contracted chest of +the book-binder; here one heard the cough of the workers in metal +and asphalt, smelt the poisons of the paper-stainer, observed the +watch-maker's short-sightedness, in second editions, so to speak. In +truth this was no race to which the future belonged, or on which the +future could build; nor was it a race which could permanently increase, +for the ranks of the workers are continually recruited from the country. + +It was not till about two o'clock that the great school-room was +emptied, for it took them about an hour with blows and raps to get out +of it into the street. The most unpractical part of it was that the +children had to march into the hall in troops to get their overcoats +and cloaks, and then march into the school-room again, instead of +going straight home. When John got into the street, he asked himself +"Is that the celebrated education which they have given to the lower +classes with so much sacrifice?" He could ask, and he was answered, +"Can it be done in any other way?" "No," he was obliged to answer. "If +it is your intention to educate a slavish lower class, always ready to +obey, train them with the stick,--if you mean to bring up a proletariat +to demand nothing of life, tell them lies about heaven. Tell them that +your method of teaching is ridiculous, let them begin to criticise +or get their way in one point and you have taken a step towards the +dissolution of society. But society is built up upon an obedient +conscientious lower class; therefore keep them down from the first; +deprive them of will and reason, and teach them to hope for nothing but +to be content." There was method in this madness. + +As regards the instruction in the elementary school, there was both +a good and bad side to it; the good was that they had introduced +object-teaching after the example of Pestalozzi, Rousseau's disciple; +the bad, that the students who taught in the elementary schools had +introduced "scientific" teaching. The simple learning by heart of the +multiplication table was not enough; it, together with fractions, +had to be understood. Understood? And yet an engineer who has been +through the technical high school cannot explain "why" a fraction +can be diminished by three if the sum of the figures is divisible by +three. On this principle seamen would not be allowed to use logarithm +tables, because they cannot calculate logarithms. To be always +relaying the foundation instead of building on what is already laid is +an educational luxury and leads to the over-multiplication of lessons +in schools. + +Some one may object that John should first have reformed himself +as teacher, before he set about reforming the system of education; +but he could not; he was a passive instrument in the hands of the +superintendent and the school authorities. The best teachers, that is +to say, those who forced the worst (in this case the best) results out +of the pupils were the uneducated ones who came from the Seminary. They +were not sceptical about the methods in use and had no squeamishness +about caning, but the children respected them the most. A great coarse +fellow who had formerly been a carriage-maker had the bigger boys +completely under his thumb. The lower class seem to have really more +fear and respect for those of their own rank than the upper class. +Bailiffs and foremen are more awe-imposing than superintendents and +teachers. Do the lower classes see that the superior who has come out +of their ranks understands their affairs better, and therefore pay him +more respect? The female teachers also enjoyed more respect than the +male. They were pedantic, demanded absolute perfection, and were not at +all soft-hearted, but rather cruel. They were fond of practising the +refined cruelty of blows on the palm of the hand and showed in so doing +a want of intelligence which the most superficial study of physiology +would have remedied. When a child by involuntary reflex action, drew +his fingers back, he was punished all the more for not keeping his +fingers still. As if one could prevent blinking, when something blew +into one's eye! The female teachers had the advantage of knowing very +little about teaching and were plagued with no doubts. It was not true +that they had less pay than the men teachers. They had relatively more; +and if after passing a paltry teacher's examination they had received +more than the students, that would have been unjust. They were treated +with partiality, regarded as miracles, when they were competent, and +received allowances for travelling abroad. + +As comrades, they were friendly and helpful if one was polite and +submissive and let them hold the reins. There was not the slightest +trace of flirtation; the men saw them in anything but becoming +situations, and under an aspect which women do not usually show to +the other sex, viz. that of jailers. They made notes of everything, +prepared themselves for their lessons, were narrow-minded and content, +and saw through nothing. It was a very suitable occupation for them +under existing circumstances. + +When John was thoroughly sick of caning, or could not manage a boy, or +was in despair generally, he sent the black sheep to a female teacher, +who willingly undertook the unpleasant rle of executioner. + +What it is that makes the competent teacher is not clear. Some produced +an effect by their quiet manner, others by their nervousness; some +seemed to magnetise the children, others beat them; some imposed on +them by their age or their manly appearance, etc. The women worked as +women, _i.e._ through a half-forgotten tradition of a past matriarchate. + +John was not competent. He looked too young and was only just nineteen; +he was sceptical about the methods employed and everything else; with +all his seriousness he was playful and boyish. The whole matter to him +was only an employment by the way, for he was ambitious and wished to +advance, but did not know in which direction. + +Moreover he was an aristocrat like his contemporaries. Through +education his habits and senses had been refined, or spoilt, as one may +choose to call it; he found it hard to tolerate unpleasant smells, ugly +objects, distorted bodies, coarse expressions, torn clothes. Life had +given him much, and these daily reminders of poverty plagued him like +an evil conscience. He himself might have been one of the lower class +if his mother had married one of her own position. + +"He was proud" a shop-boy would have said, who had mounted to the +position of editor of a paper and boasted that he was content with his +lot, forgetting that he might well be content since he had risen from +a low position. "He was proud" a master shoemaker would have said, who +would have rather thrown himself into the sea than become an apprentice +again. John _was_ proud, of that there was no doubt, as proud as the +master shoemaker, but not in such a high degree, as he had descended +from the level of the student to the elementary school-teacher. That, +however, was no virtue, but a necessity, and he did not therefore boast +of his step downward, nor give himself the air of being a friend of +the people. One cannot command sympathies and antipathies, and for the +lower class to demand love and self-sacrifice from the upper class is +mere idealism. The lower class is sacrificed for the upper class, but +they have offered themselves willingly. They have the right to take +back their rights, but they should do it themselves. No one gives up +his position willingly, therefore the lower class should not wait for +kings and the upper class to go. "Pull us down! but all together." + +If an intelligent man of the upper class help in such an operation, +those below should be thankful to him especially since such an act is +liable to the imputation of being inspired by impure motives. Therefore +the lower class should not too narrowly inspect the motives of those +who help them; the result is in all eases the same. The aristocrats +seem to have seen this and therefore regard one of themselves who sides +with the proletariat as a traitor. He is a traitor to his class, that +is true; and the lower class should put it to his credit. + +John was not an aristocrat in the sense that he used the word "mob" or +despised the poor. Through his mother he was closely allied to them, +but circumstances had estranged him from them. That was the fault of +class-education. This fault might be done away with for the future, if +elementary schools were reformed by the inclusion of the knowledge of +civil duties in their programme, and by their being made obligatory for +all, without exception, as the militia-schools are. Then it would be no +longer a disgrace to become an elementary school-teacher as it now is, +and made a matter of reproach to a man that he has been one. + +John, in order to keep himself above, applied himself to his future +work. To this end he studied Italian grammar in his spare time at the +school. He could now buy books and did so. He was honest enough not to +construe these efforts at climbing up as an ideal thirst for knowledge +or a striving for the good of humanity. He simply read for his degree. + +But the meagre diet he had lived on in Upsala, his midday meals at 6 +kronas, the milk and the bread had undermined his strength, and he +was now in the pleasure-seeking period of youth. It was tedious at +home, and in the afternoons he went to the caf or the restaurant, +where he met friends. Strong drinks invigorated him and he slept well +after them. The desire for alcohol seems to appear regularly in each +adolescent. All northerners are born of generations of drinkers from +the early heathen times, when beer and mead was drunk, and it is quite +natural that this desire should be felt as a necessity. With John it +was an imperious need the suppression of which resulted in a diminution +of strength. It may be questioned whether abstinence for us may not +involve the same risk, as the giving up of poison for an arsenic-eater. +Probably the otherwise praiseworthy temperance movement will merely +end in demanding moderation; that is a virtue and not a mere exhibition +of will power which results in boasting and self-righteousness. + +John who had hitherto only worn east-off suits, began to wear fine +clothes. His salary seemed to him extraordinarily great and in the +magnifying-glass of his fancy assumed huge proportions, with the result +that he soon ran into debt. Debt which grew and grew and could never be +paid, became the vulture gnawing at his life, the object of his dreams, +the wormwood which poisoned his content. What foolish hopefulness, what +colossal self-deceit it was to incur debts! What did he expect? To gain +an academic dignity. And then? To become a teacher with a salary of 750 +kronas! Less than he had now! Not the least trying part of his work was +to accommodate his brain to the capacity of the children. That meant +to come down to the level of the younger and less intelligent, and to +screw down the hammer so that it might hit the anvil,--an operation +which injured the machine. + +On the other hand he derived real profit from his observations in +the families of the children, whom his duty required him to visit on +Sundays. There was one boy in his class who was the most difficult of +all. He was dirty and ill-dressed, grinned continually, smelt badly, +never knew his lessons and was always being caned. He had a very large +head and staring eyes which rolled and turned about continually. John +had to visit his parents in order to find out the reason of his +irregular attendance at school and bad behaviour. He therefore went +to the Apelbergsgata where they kept a public-house. He found that +the father had gone to work, but the mother was at the counter. The +public-house was dark and evil-smelling, filled with men who looked +threateningly at John as he entered probably taking him for a plain +clothes policeman. He gave his message to the mother and was asked +into a room behind the counter. One glance at it sufficed to explain +everything. The mother blamed her son and excused him alternately and +she had some reason for the latter. The boy was accustomed to "lick the +glasses,"--that was the explanation and that was enough. What could be +done in such a case? A change of dwelling, better food, a nurse to look +after him and so on. All these were questions of money! + +Afterwards he came to the Clara poor-house, which was empty of its +usual occupants and provisionally opened to families because of the +want of houses. In a great hall lay and stood quite a dozen families, +who had divided the floor with strokes of chalk. There stood a +carpenter with his planing-bench, here sat a shoemaker with his board; +round about on both sides of the chalk-line women sat and children +crawled. What could John do there? Send in a report on a matter which +was perfectly well known, distribute wood-tickets and orders for meat +and clothing. + +In Kungsholmsbergen he came across specimens of proud poverty. There he +was shown the door, "God be thanked, we have no need of charity. We +are all right." + +"Indeed! Then you should not let your boy go in torn boots in winter." + +"That is not your business, sir," and the door was slammed. + +Sometimes he saw sad scenes,--a child sick, the room full of sulphur +fumes of coke, and all coughing from the grandmother down to the +youngest. What could he do except feel dispirited and make his escape? +At that period there was no other means of help except charity; writers +who described the state of things, contented themselves with lamenting +it; no one saw any hope. Therefore there was nothing to do except to be +sorry, help temporarily, and fly in order not to despair. + +All this lay like a heavy cloud upon him, and he lost pleasure in +study. He felt there was something wrong here, but nothing could be +done said all the newspapers and books and people. It must be so but +every one is free to climb. You climb too! + +Time went on and spring approached. John's closest acquaintance +was a teacher from the Sljd School. He was a poet, well-versed +in literature, and also musical. They generally walked to the +Stallmastergarden restaurant, discussed literature, and ate their +supper there. While John was paying his attentions to the waitress, +his friend played the piano. Sometimes the latter amused himself by +writing comic verses to girls. John was seized with a craze for writing +verse but could not. The gift must be born with one, he thought, and +inspiration descend all of a sudden, as in the case of conversion. +He was evidently not one of the elect, and felt himself neglected by +nature and maimed. + +One evening when John was sitting and chatting with the girl, she said +quite suddenly to him, "Friday is my birthday; you must write some +verses for me." + +"Yes," answered John, "I will." + +Later on when he met his friend, he told him of his hasty promise. + +"I will write them for you," he said. The next day he brought a poem, +copied out in a fine hand-writing and composed in John's name. It was +piquant and amusing. John dispatched it on the morning of the birthday. + +In the evening of the same day both the friends came to eat their +supper and to congratulate the girl. She did not appear for an hour for +she had to serve guests. The teachers' meal was brought and they began +to eat. + +Then the girl appeared in the doorway and beckoned John. She looked +almost severe. John went to her and they ascended a flight of stairs. +"Have you written the verses?" she asked. + +"No," said John. + +"Ah, I thought so. The lady behind the buffet said she had read them +two years ago when the teacher sent them to Majke who was an ugly girl. +For shame, John!" + +He took his cap and wanted to rush out, but the girl caught hold of him +and tried to keep him back for she saw that he looked deathly pale +and beside himself. But he wrenched himself free and hastened into +the Bellevue Park. He ran into the wood leaving the beaten tracks. +The branches of the bushes flew into his face, stones rolled over his +feet, and frightened birds rose up. He was quite wild with shame, and +instinctively sought the wood in order to hide himself. It is a curious +phenomenon that at the utmost pitch of despair a man runs into the +wood before he plunges into the water. The wood is the penultimate and +the water the ultimate resource. It is related of a famous author, who +had enjoyed a twenty years' popularity quietly and proudly, that he +was suddenly cast down from his position. He was as though struck by a +thunderbolt, went half-mad and sought the shelter of the woods where +he recovered himself. The wood is the original home of the savage and +the enemy of the plough and therefore of culture. When a civilised man +suddenly strips off the garb of civilisation, the artistically woven +fabric of his repute, he becomes in a moment a savage or a wild beast. +When a man becomes mad, he begins to throw off his clothes. What is +madness? A relapse? Yes, many think animals mad. + +It was evening when John entered the wood. In the midst of some +bushes he laid down on a great block of stone. He was ashamed of +himself,--that was the chief impression on his mind. An emotional man +is more severe with himself than others think. He scourged himself +unmercifully. He had wished to shine in borrowed plumage, and so lied; +and in the second place he had insulted an innocent girl. The first +part of the accusation affected him in a very sensitive point,--his +want of poetic capacity. He wished to do more than he could. He was +discontent with the position which nature and society had assigned +him. Yes, but (and now his self-defence began after the evening air +had cooled his blood), in the school one had been always exhorted to +strive upwards; those who did so were praised, and discontent with +the position one might happen to be in, was justified. Yes but (here +the scourge descended!) he had tried to deceive. To deceive! That was +unpardonable. He was ashamed, stripped and unmasked without any means +of retreat. Deception, falsity, cheating! So it was! + +As a quondam Christian, John was most afraid of having a fault, and +as a member of society he feared lest it should be visible. Everybody +knew that one had faults, but to acknowledge them was regarded as a +piece of cynicism, for society always wishes to appear better than it +is. Sometimes, however, society demanded that one should confess one's +fault if one wished for forgiveness, but that was a trick. Society +wished for confession in order to enjoy the punishment, and was very +deceitful. John had confessed his fault, been punished, and still his +conscience was uneasy. + +The second point regarding the girl was also difficult. She had loved +him purely and he had insulted her. How coarse and vulgar! Why should +he think that a waitress could not love innocently? His own mother had +been in the same position as that girl. He had insulted her. Shame +upon him! + +Now he heard shouts in the park, and his name being called. The girl's +voice and his friend's echoed among the trees, but he did not answer +them. For a moment the scourge fell out of his hands; he became sobered +and thought, "I will go back, we will have supper, call Riken and drink +a glass with her, and it will be all over." But no! He was too high up +and one cannot descend all at once. + +The voices became silent. He lay back in a state of semi-stupefaction +and ground his double crime between the mill-stones of rumination. He +had lied and hurt her feelings. + +It began to grow dark. There was a rustling in the bushes; he started +and a sweat broke out upon him. Then he went out and sat upon a seat +till the dew fell. He shivered and felt poorly. Then he got up and went +home. + +Now his head was clear and he could think. What a stupid business it +all was! He did not really mean that she should take him for a poet, +and had been quite ready to explain the whole trick. It was all a joke. +His friend had made a fool of him, but it did not matter. + +When he got home he found his friend sleeping in his bed. He wanted +to rise but John would not let him. He wished to scourge himself once +more. He lay on the floor, put a cigar-box under his head and drew a +volunteer's cloak over him. In the morning when he awoke, John asked in +trembling tones, "How did she take it?" + +"Ah, she laughed; then we drank a glass, and it was over. She liked the +verses." + +"She laughed! Was she not angry?" + +"Not at all." + +"Then she only humbugged me." + +John wished to hear no more. This trifle had kept him on the rack for a +whole dreadful night. He felt ashamed of having asked whether she was +disquieted about him. But since she had laughed and drunk punch she +could not have been. Not even anxious about his life! + +He dressed himself and went down to the school. + +The habit of self-criticism derived from his religious training had +accustomed him to occupy himself with his ego, to fondle and cherish +it, as though it were a separate and beloved personality. So cherished +the ego expanded and kept continually looking within instead of +without upon the world. It was an interesting personal acquaintance, a +friend who must be flattered, but who must also hear the truth and be +corrected. + +It was the mental malady of the time reduced to a system by Fichte, +who taught that everything took place in the ego and through the ego, +without which there was no reality. It was the formula for romanticism +and for subjective idealism. + +"I stood on the shore under the king's castle," "I dwell in the cave +of the mountain," "I, small boy, watch the door," "I think of the +beautiful times,"--all these phrases struck the same note. Was this "I" +really so proud. Was not the poet's "I" more modest than the editor's +royal "we"? + +This absorption in self, or the new malady of culture, of which much +is written nowadays, has been common with all men who have not worked +with their bodies. The brain is only an organ for imparting movement +to the muscles. Now when in a civilised man the brain cannot act upon +the muscles, nor bring its power into play, there results a disturbance +of equilibrium. The brain begins to dream; too full of juices which +cannot be absorbed by muscular activity, it converts them involuntarily +into systems, into thought-combinations, into the hallucinations which +haunt painters, sculptors and poets. If no outlet can be found, there +follows stagnation, violent outbreaks, depression, and at last madness. +Schools which are often vestibules for asylums, have recourse to +gymnastics, but with what result? There is no connection between the +pupil's cerebral activity and the muscular activity called into play by +gymnastics; the latter is only directed by another's will through the +word of command. + +All studious youths are aware of this tendency to congestion of the +brain. It is a good thing that they often go out to improve or to +beautify society, but it would be better if the equilibrium were +restored, and a sound mind dwelt in a sound body. It has been sought to +introduce physical work into schools as a remedy. It would be better +to let elementary knowledge be acquired at home, to make the school +a day-school, and to let every one look after himself. For the rest +the emancipation of the lower classes will compel the higher classes +to undertake some of the physical labour now carried on by domestics +and so the equilibrium will be restored. That such labour does not +blunt the intelligence can be easily seen by observing that some of +the strongest minds of the time have had such daily contact with +reality, _e.g._ Mill the civil service official, Spencer, the civil +engineer, Edison the telegraphist. The student period of life, the most +unwholesome because not under discipline, is also the most dangerous. +The brain continually takes in, without producing anything, not even +anything intellectual, while the whole muscular system is unoccupied. + +John at this time was suffering from an over-production of thought and +imagination. The mechanical school-work continually revolving in the +same circle with the same questions and answers afforded no relief. +It increased on the other hand his stock of observations of children +and teachers. There lay and fermented in his mind a quantity of +experiences, perceptions, criticisms and thoughts without any order. He +therefore sought for society in order to speak his mind out. But it was +not sufficient, and as he did not find any one who was willing to act +as a sounding-board, he took to declaiming poetry. + +In the early sixties declamation was much the fashion. In families they +used to read aloud "The Kings of Salamis." In the numerous volunteer +concerts the same pieces were declaimed over and over again. These +declamations were what the quartette singing had been, an outlet for +all the hope and enthusiasm called forth by the awakening of 1865. +Since Swedes are neither born nor trained orators, they became singers +and reciters, perhaps because their want of originality sought a +ready-made means of expression. They could execute but not create. The +same want of originality showed itself in the bachelor's gatherings +where reciters of anecdotes were much in request. This feeble and +tedious form of amusement was superseded when the new questions of the +day provided food for conversation and discussion. + +One day John came to his friend the elementary school-teacher whom he +found together with another young colleague. When the conversation +began to slacken, his friend produced a volume of Schiller, whose poems +had just then appeared in a cheap edition and were bought mostly for +that reason. They opened "The Robbers" and read round in turn, John +taking the part of Karl Moor. The first scene of the first act took +place between old Moor and Franz. Then came the second scene: John +read, "I am sick of this quill-driving age when I read of great men +in Plutarch." He did not know the play and had never seen bandits. +At first he read absent-mindedly, but his interest was soon aroused. +The play struck a new note. He found his obscure dreams expressed +in words; his rebellious criticisms printed. Here then was another, +a great and famous author who felt the same disgust at the whole +course of education in school and university as he did, who would +rather be Robinson Crusoe or a bandit than be enrolled in this army +which is called society. He read on; his voice shook, his cheeks +glowed, his breast heaved: "They bar out healthy nature with tasteless +conventionalities."... There it stood all in black and white. "And that +is Schiller!" he exclaimed, "the same Schiller who wrote the tedious +history of the Thirty Years' War, and the tame drama "Wallenstein" +which is read in schools!" Yes, it was the same man. Here (in "The +Robbers") he preached revolt, revolt against law, society, morals +and religion. That was in the revolt of 1781 eight years before the +great revolution. That was the anarchists' programme a hundred years +before its time, and Karl Moor was a nihilist. The drama came out with +a lion on the title-page and with the inscription "In Tyrannos." The +author then (1781) aged two-and-twenty had to fly. There was no doubt +therefore about the intention of the piece. There was also another +motto from Hippocrates which showed this intention as plainly; "What is +not cured by medicine must be cured by iron; what is not cured by iron +must be cured by fire." + +That was clear enough! But in the preface the author apologised and +recanted. He disclaimed all sympathy with Franz Moor's sophisms and +said that he wished to exhibit the punishment of wickedness in Karl +Moor. Regarding religion he said, "Just now it is the fashion to make +religion a subject for one's wit to play upon as Voltaire and Frederick +the Great did, and a man is scarcely reckoned a genius unless he can +make the holiest truths the object of his godless satire...." I hope +I have exacted no ordinary revenge for religion and sound morality in +handing over these obstinate despisers of Scripture in the person of +this scoundrelly bandit, to public contumely. Was then Schiller true +when he wrote the drama, and false when he wrote the preface? True in +both cases, for man is a complex creature, and sometimes appears in his +natural sometimes in his artificial character. At his writing-table +in loneliness, when the silent letters were being written down on +paper, Schiller seems like other young authors to have worked under the +influence of a blind natural impulse without regard to mens' opinion, +without thinking of the public, or laws, or constitutions. The veil +was lifted for a moment and the falsity of society seen through in its +whole extent. The silence of the night when literary work--especially +in youth,--is carried on, causes one to forget the noisy artificial +life outside, and darkness hides the heaps of stones over which animals +which are ill-adapted to their environment stumble. Then comes the +morning, the light of day, the street noises, men, friends, police, +clocks striking, and the seer is afraid of his own thoughts. Public +opinion raises its cry, newspapers sound the alarm, friends drop off, +it becomes lonely round one, and an irresistible terror seizes the +attacker of society. "If you will not be with us," society says, "then +go into the woods. If you are an animal ill-adapted to its environment, +or a savage, we will deport you to a lower state of society which +you will suit." And from its own point of view society is right and +always will be right. But the society of the future will celebrate the +revolter, the individual, who has brought about social improvement, and +the revolter is justified long after his death. + +In every intelligent youth's life there comes a moment when he is in +the transition stage between family life and that of society, when +he feels disgusted at artificial civilisation and breaks out. If he +remains in society, he is soon suppressed by the united wet-blankets +of sentiment and anxiety about living; he becomes tired, dazzled, +drops off and leaves other young men to continue the fight. This +unsophisticated glance into things, this outbreak of a healthy nature +which must of necessity take place in an unspoilt youth, has been +stigmatised by a name which is intended to depreciate the idealistic +impulses of youth. It is called "spring fever" by which is meant that +it is only a temporary illness of childhood, a rising of the vernal +sap, which produces stoppage of the circulation and giddiness. But who +knows whether the youth did not see right before society put out his +eyes? And why do they despise him afterwards? + +Schiller had to creep into a public post for the sake of a living and +even eat the bread of charity from a duke's hand. Therefore his writing +degenerated, though perhaps not from an sthetic or subordinate point +of view. But his hatred of tyrants is everywhere manifest. It declares +itself against Philip II of Spain, Dorea of Genoa, Gessler of Austria, +but therefore ceases to be effective. Schiller's rebellion which was in +the first instance directed against society, was afterwards directed +against the monarchy alone. He closes his career with the following +advice to a world reformer (not, however, till he had seen the reaction +which followed the French Revolution). "For rain and dew and for the +welfare of mankind, let heaven care to-day, my friend, as it has always +done." Heaven, the unfortunate old heaven will care for it, just as +well as it has done before. + +Just as a man once does his militia duty at the age of twenty-one, so +Schiller did his. How many have shirked it! + +John did not take the preface to "The Robbers" very seriously or rather +ignored it; but he took Karl Moor literally for he was congenial. He +did not imitate him, for he was so like him that he had no need to do +so. He was just as mutinous, just as wavering, and just as ready at an +alarm to go and deliver himself into the hands of justice. + +His disgust at everything continually increased and he began to make +plans for flight from organised society. Once it occurred to him to +journey to Algiers and enlist in the Foreign Legion. That would be +fine he thought to live in the desert in a tent, to shoot at half-wild +men or perhaps be shot by them. But circumstances occurred at the +right moment, to reconcile him again with his environment. Through the +recommendation of a friend he was offered the post of tutor to two +girls in a rich and cultured family. The children were to be educated +in a new and liberal-minded method and neither to go to a girls' school +nor have a governess. That was an important task to which he was +called and John did not feel himself adequate to it; besides which he +objected that he was only an elementary school-teacher. He was answered +that his future employers knew that, but were liberal-minded. How +liberal-minded people were at that time! + +Now there commenced a new double life for him. From the penal +institution of the elementary school with its compulsory catechism and +Bible, its poverty, wretchedness, and cruelty, he went to dinner at +one o'clock, which he swallowed in a quarter of an hour, and then by +two o'clock was at his post as private tutor. The house was one of the +finest at that time in Stockholm with a porter, Pompeian stair-cases +and painted windows in the hall. In a handsome, large, well-lighted +corner room with flowers, bird-cages and an aquarium he was to give +lessons to two well-dressed, washed and combed little girls, who +looked cheerful and satisfied after their dinner. Here he could give +expression to his own thoughts. The catechism was banished, and only +select Bible stories were to be read together with broad-minded +explanations of the life and teachings of the Ideal Man, for the +children were not to be confirmed, but brought up after a new model. +They read Schiller and were enthusiastic for William Tell and the +fortunate little land of freedom. John taught them all that he knew and +spent more time in talking than in asking questions; he roused in them +the hopes of a better future which he shared himself. + +Here he obtained an insight into a social circle hitherto unknown to +him, that of the rich and cultured. Here he found liberal-mindedness, +courage and the desire for truth. Down below in the elementary school +they were cowardly, conservative and untruthful. Would the parents of +the children be willing to have religious teaching done away with, +even if the school authorities recommended it? Probably not. Must +then illumination come from the upper classes? Certainly, though not +from the highest class of all, but from the republic of truth-seeking +scientists. John saw that one must get an upper place in order to be +heard; therefore he must strive upwards or pull culture down and cast +the sparks of it among all. One needed to be economically independent +in order to be liberally minded; a position was necessary in order to +give one's words weight; thus aristocracy ruled in this sphere also. + +There was at that time a group of young doctors, men of science and +letters, and members of parliament who formed a liberal league without +constituting themselves a formal society. They gave popular lectures, +engaged not to receive any honorary decorations, cherished liberal +views on the subject of the State Church and wrote in the papers. Among +them were Axel Key, Nordenskild, Christian Loven, Harald Wieselgren, +Hedlund, Victor Rydberg, Meijerberg, Jolin, and many less-known names. +These, with one or two exceptions, worked quietly without creating +excitement. After the reaction of 1872 they fell off and became tired; +they could not join any political party which was rather an advantage +than otherwise for the country party had already begun to be corrupted +by yearly visiting Stockholm and attendance at the court. They now all +belong to the moderate or respectable liberal party, except those of +them who have joined the indifferents, a fact not to be wondered at, +after they had for so many years fought uselessly for nothing. + +Through the family of his pupils John came into external touch with +this group, obtained a closer view of them, and heard their speeches at +dinners and suppers. To John they sometimes seemed the very men whom +the time needed, who would first spread enlightenment and then work +for reform. Here he met the superintendent of the elementary school +and was surprised at finding him among the liberals. But he had the +school authorities over him and was as good as powerless. At a cheerful +dinner, when John had plucked up heart, he wished to have an intimate +talk with him and to come to an understanding. "Here," he thought, +"we can play the part of augurs and laugh with each other over our +champagne." But the superintendent did not want to laugh and asked him +to postpone the conversation till they met in the school. No, John did +not want to do that, for in the school both would have other views, and +speak of something else. + +John's debts increased and so did his work. He was in the school from +eight till one; then he ate his dinner and went to give his private +lessons within half-an-hour, arriving out of breath, with food half +digested, and sleepy; then he taught till four o'clock going out +afterwards to give more lessons in the Nordtullsgata; he returned to +his girl pupils in the evening, and then read far into the night for +his examination after ten hours' teaching. That was over-work. The +pupil thinks his work hard, but he is only the carriage while the +teacher is the horse. Teaching is decidedly harder than standing by a +screw or the crane of a machine, and equally monotonous. + +His brain, dulled by work and disturbed digestion, needed to be roused, +and his strength needed replenishing. He chose the shortest and best +method by going into a caf, drinking a glass of wine, and sitting for +a while. It was good that there were such places of recreation, where +young men could meet and fathers of families recruit themselves over a +newspaper and talk of something else than business. + +The following summer he went out to a summer settlement outside the +city. There he read daily for a couple of hours with his girl pupils +and a whole number of children besides them. The summer settlement +afforded rich and varied opportunities of social intercourse. It was +divided into three camps,--the learned, the sthetic and the civic. +John belonged to all three. It has been asserted that loneliness +injures the development of character (into an automaton), and if +has been also asserted that much social intercourse is bad for the +development of character. Everything can be said and can be true; it +all depends upon the point of view. But no doubt for the development +of the soul into a rich and free life much social intercourse is +necessary. The more men one sees and talks with, the more points +of view and experiences one gains. Every one conceals a grain of +originality in himself, every individual has his own history. John got +on equally well with all; he spoke on learned matters with the learned, +discussed art and literature with the sthetes, sang quartettes and +danced with the young people, taught the children and botanised, +sailed, rode and swam with them. But after he had spent some time in +the rush, he withdrew into solitude for a day or two to digest his +impressions. Those who were really happy were the townsmen. They came +from their work in the town, shook off their cares and played in the +evening. Old wholesale merchants played in the ring and sang and danced +like children. The learned and the sthetic on the other hand sat +on chairs, spoke of their work, were worried by their thoughts as by +nightmares and never seemed to be really happy. They could not free +themselves from the tyranny of thought. The tradesmen, however, had +preserved a little green spot in their hearts which neither the thirst +for gain nor speculation nor competition had been able to parch up. +There was something emotional and hearty about them which John was +inclined to call "nature." They could laugh like lunatics, scream like +savages, and be swayed by the emotions of the moment. They wept over +a friend's misfortune or death, embraced each other when delighted +and could be carried out of themselves by a beautiful sunset. The +professors sat in chairs and could not see the landscape because of +their eye-glasses, their looks were directed inwards, and they never +showed their feelings. They talked in syllogisms and formulas; their +laughter was bitter, and all their learning seemed like a puppet play. +Is that then the highest point of view? It is not a defect to have let +a whole region of the soul's life lie fallow? + +It was the third camp with which John was on the most intimate +terms. This was a little clique consisting of a doctor's family and +their friends. There sang the renowned tenor W. while Professor M. +accompanied him; there played and sang the composer J.; there the +old Professor P. talked about his journeys to Rome in the company +of painters of high birth. Here the emotions had full play, but +were under the control of good taste. They enjoyed the sunsets, but +analysed the lights and shades and talked of lines and "values." The +more noisy enjoyments of the tradesmen were regarded as disturbing +and unsthetic. They were enthusiasts for art. John spent some hours +pleasantly with these amiable people, but when he heard the sound of +quartette singing and dance-music from the villa close by, he longed to +be there. That was certainly more lively. + +In hours of solitude he read, and now for the first time, became really +acquainted with Byron. "Don Juan," which he already knew, he had found +merely frivolous. It really dealt with nothing and the descriptions +of scenery were intolerably long. The work seemed merely a string of +adventures and anecdotes. In "Manfred" he renewed acquaintance with +Karl Moor in another dress. Manfred was no hater of men; he hated +himself more, and went to the Alps in order to fly himself, but always +found his guilty self beside him, for John guessed at once that he had +been guilty of incest. Nowadays it is generally believed that Byron +hinted at this crime, which was purely imaginary, in order to make +himself appear interesting. To become interesting as a romanticist at +whatever price would at the present time be called "differentiating +oneself, going beyond and above the others." Crime was regarded as +a sign of strength, therefore it was considered desirable to have a +crime to boast about, but not such a one as could be punished. They did +not want to have anything to do with the police and penal servitude. +There was certainly a spirit of opposition to law and morality in this +boasting of crime. + +Manfred's discontent with heaven and the government of Providence +pleased John. Manfred's denunciations of men were really levelled at +society, though society as we now understand it, had not then been +discovered. Rousseau, Byron and the rest were by no means discontented +misogynists. It was only primitive Christianity which demanded that men +should love men. To say that one was interested in them would be more +modest and truthful. One who has been overreached and thrust aside in +the battle of life may well fear men, but one cannot hate them when +one realises one's solidarity with humanity and that human intercourse +is the greatest pleasure in life. Byron was a spirit who awoke before +the others and might have been expected to hate his contemporaries, but +none the less strove and suffered for the good of all. + +When John saw that the poem was written in blank verse he tried to +translate it, but had not got far, before he discovered that he could +not write verse. He was not "called." Sometimes melancholy, sometimes +frisky, John felt at times an uncontrollable desire to quench the +burning fire of thought in intoxication and bring the working of his +brain to a standstill. Though he was shy, he felt occasionally impelled +to step forward, to make himself impressive, to collect hearers and +appear on a stage. When he had drunk a good deal, he wanted to declaim +poetry in the grand style. But in the middle of the piece, when his +ecstasy was at its highest, he heard his own voice, became nervous and +embarrassed, found himself ridiculous, suddenly dropped into a prosaic +and comic tone and ended with a grimace; he could be pathetic, but +only for a while; then came self-criticism and he laughed at his own +overwrought feelings. The romantic was in his blood, but the realistic +side of him was about to wake up. + +He was also liable to attacks of caprice and self-punishment. Thus he +remained away from a dinner to which he had been invited and lay in his +room hungry till the evening. He excused himself by saying that he had +overslept. + +The summer approached its end and he looked forward to the beginning of +the autumn term in the elementary school with dread. He had now been +in circles where poverty never showed its emaciated face; he had tasted +the enticing wine of culture and did not wish to become sober again. + +His depression increased; he retired into himself and withdrew from the +circle of his friends. But one evening, there was a knock at his door; +the old doctor who had been his most intimate friend and lived in the +same villa, stepped in. + +"How are the moods?" he asked, and sat down with the air of an old +fatherly friend. + +John did not wish to confess. How was he to say that he was +discontented with his position, and acknowledge that he was ambitious +and wished to advance in life? But the doctor had seen and understood +all. "You must be a doctor," he said. "That is a practical vocation +which will suit you, and bring you into touch with real life. You have +a lively imagination which you must hold in check, or it will do harm. +Now are you inclined to this? Have I guessed right?" + +He had. Through his intercourse from afar with these new prophets who +succeeded the priests and confessors, John had come to see in their +practical knowledge of men's lives, the highest pitch of human wisdom. +To become a wise man who could solve the riddles of life,--that was for +a while his dream. For a while, for he did not really wish to enter any +career in which he could be enrolled as a regular member of society. +It was not from dislike of work, for he worked strenuously and was +unhappy when unoccupied, but he had a strong objection to be enrolled. +He did not wish to be a cypher, a cog-wheel, or a screw in the social +machine. He wished to stand outside and contemplate, learn and preach. +A doctor was in a certain sense free; he was not an official, had no +superiors, set in no public office, was not tied by the clock. That was +a fairly enticing prospect, and John was enticed. But how was he to +take a medical degree, which required eight years' study? His friend, +however, had seen a way out of this difficulty. "Live with us and teach +my boys," he said. + +This was certainly a business-like offer which carried with it no sense +of accepting a humiliating favour. But what about his place in the +school? Should he give it up? + +"That is not your place!" the doctor cut him short. "Every one should +work where his talents can have free scope, and yours cannot in the +elementary school, where you have to teach, as prescribed by the school +authorities." + +John found this reasonable, but he had been so imbued with ascetic +teaching that he felt a pang of conscience. He wanted to leave the +school, but a strange feeling of duty and obligation held him back. He +felt quite ashamed of being suspected of such a natural weakness as +ambition. And his place, as the son of a servant, had been assigned to +him below. But his father had literally pulled him up, why should he +sink and strike his roots down there again? + +He fought a short bloody conflict, then accepted the offer thankfully, +and sent in his resignation as a school-teacher. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DOCTOR + +(1868) + + +John now found his new home with the homeless, the Israelites. He +was immediately surrounded by a new atmosphere. Here there was no +recollection of Christianity; one neither plagued oneself or others; +there was no grace at meals, no going to church, no catechism. + +"It is good to be here," thought John. "These are liberal-minded men +who have brought the best of foreign culture home, without being +obliged to take what is bad." Here for the first time, he encountered +foreign influences. The family had journeyed much, had relatives +abroad, spoke all languages, and received foreign guests. Both the +small and great affairs of the country were spoken about, and light +thrown on them by comparison with their originals abroad. By this means +John's mental horizon was widened and he was enabled to estimate his +native country better. + +The patriarchal constitution of the family had not assumed the form of +domestic tyranny. On the contrary the children treated their parents +more as their equals, and the parents were gentle with them without +losing their dignity. Placed in an unfriendly part of the world, +surrounded by half-enemies, the members of the family helped each other +and held together. To be without a native country, which is regarded +as such a hard-ship, has this advantage that it keeps the intelligence +alive and vigorous. Men who are wanderers have to watch unceasingly, +observe continually, and gain new and rich experiences, while those who +sit at home become lazy and lean upon others. + +The children of Israel occupy a peculiar and exceptional position from +a social point of view. They have forgotten the Messianic promise and +do not believe in it. In most European countries they have remained +among the middle classes; to join the lower classes was for the most +part denied them, though not so widely as is generally believed. Nor +could they join the upper classes; therefore they feel related to +neither of the latter. They are aristocrats from habit and inclination, +but have the same interests as the lower classes, _i.e_. they wish to +roll away the stone which lies upon and presses them. But they fear the +proletariat who have no religious sense and who do not love the rich. +Therefore the children of Abraham rather aspire to those above them, +than seek sympathy from those below. + +About this time (1868) the question of Jewish emancipation began to be +raised. All liberals supported it and it was practically a discarding +of Christianity. Baptism, ecclesiastical marriage, confirmation, +church attendance were all declared to be unnecessary conditions for +membership in a Christian community. Such apparently small reforms +make an impression on the state, like the dropping of water on a rock. + +At that time a cheerful tone prevailed in the family, the sons having a +brighter future in prospect than their fathers, whose academic course +had been hindered by State regulations. + +A liberal table was kept in the house; everything was of the best +quality, and there was plenty of it. The servants managed the house +and were allowed a free hand in everything; they were not regarded as +servants. The housemaid was a pietist and allowed to be so, as much +as she pleased. She was good-natured and humorous, and, illogically +enough, adopted the jesting tone of the cheerful paganism which reigned +in the house. On the other hand, no one laughed at her belief. John +himself was treated as an intimate friend and a child alternately and +lived with the boys. His work was easy and he was rather required to +keep the boys company than to give them lessons. Meanwhile he became +somewhat "spoiled" as people, who have the usual idea of keeping youth +in the background, call it. Though only nineteen, he was received +on an equal footing among well-known and mature artists, doctors, +_littrateurs_ and officials. He became accustomed to regard himself as +grown up, and therefore the set-backs he encountered afterwards, were +the harder to bear. + +His medical career began with chemical experiments in the technological +institute. There he obtained a closer view of some of the glories he +had dreamed of in his childhood. But how dry and tedious were the +rudiments of science! To stand and pour acids on salts and to watch the +solution change colour, was not pleasant; to produce salts from two or +more solutions was not very interesting. But later on, when the time +came for analysis, the mysterious part began. To fill a glass about +the size of a punch-bowl with a liquid as clear as water and then to +exhibit in the filter the possibly twenty elements it contained,--this +really seemed like penetrating into nature's secrets. When he was alone +in the laboratory he made small experiments on his own account, and it +was not long before with some danger he had prepared a little phial +of prussic acid. To have death enclosed in a few drops under a glass +stopper was a curiously pleasant feeling. + +At the same time he studied zoology, anatomy, botany, physic and +Latin,--still more Latin! To read and master a subject was congenial to +him, but to learn by heart he hated. His head was already filled with +so many subjects, that it was hard for anything more to enter, but it +was obliged to. + +A worse drawback was that so many other interests began to vie in his +mind with his medical studies. The theatre was only a stone's throw +from the doctor's house and he went there twice a week. He had a +standing place at the end of the third row. From thence he saw elegant +and cheerful French comedies played on a Brussels carpet. The light +Gallic humour, admired by the melancholy Swedes as their missing +complement, completely captivated him. What a mental equilibrium, what +a power of resistance to the blows of fate were possessed by this +race of a southern sunnier land! His thoughts became still more gloomy +as he grew conscious of his Germanic "Weltschmerz" lying like a veil +over everything, which a hundred years of French education could not +have lifted. But he did not know that Parisian theatrical life differs +widely from that of the industrious and thrifty Parisian at the desk +and the counter. French comedies were written for the parvenus of +the Second Empire; politics and religion were subject to the censor, +but not morals. French comedy was aristocratic in tone, but had a +liberating effect on the mind as it was in touch with reality, though +it did not interfere in social questions. It accustomed the public to +sympathise with and feel at home in this superfine world; one came to +forget the lower everyday world, and when one left the theatre it felt +as though one had been at supper with a friendly duke. + +As chance fell out, the doctor's wife possessed a good library in +which all the best literature of the world was represented. It was +indeed a treasure to have all these at one's elbow! Moreover the doctor +possessed a number of pictures by Swedish masters and a valuable +collection of engravings. There was an efflorescence of stheticism +on all sides, even in the schools, where lectures on literature were +delivered. The conversation in the family circle mostly turned on +pictures, dramas, actors, books, authors, and the doctor felt from time +to time impelled to flavour it with details of his practice. + +Now and then John began to read the papers. Political and social life +with their various questions opened up before him, but at first with a +repelling effect, as he was an sthete and domestic egoist. Politics +did not seem to touch him at all; he considered it a special branch of +knowledge like any other. + +He continued his lessons to the girls and his intercourse with +their family. Outside the house he met grown up relatives, who were +tradesmen, and their acquaintances. His circle was therefore widened, +and he saw life from more than one point of view. But this constant +occupation with children had a hampering effect on his development. He +never felt himself older, and he could not treat the young with an air +of superiority. He already noticed that they were in advance of him, +that they were born with new thoughts, and that they built on, where he +had ceased. When later on in life, he met grown-up pupils, he looked up +to them as though they were the older. + +The autumn of 1865 had commenced. There had been so much miscalculation +as to the effects of the new State constitution that there was +widespread discontent. Society was turned topsy-turvy. The peasant +threatened the civilised town-dwellers and there was a general feeling +of bitterness. + +Has the last word regarding the agrarian party yet been said? Probably +not. It began with a democratic and reforming programme and its attack +on the Civil List was the boldest stroke which had yet been seen. It +was a legal attempt to overthrow the monarchy. If the vote of supply +was screwed down to the lowest possible, the king would go. It was a +simple and at the same time a clever stroke. + +At a period which proclaims the right of the majority, one would not +have expected the peasants' cause would encounter resistance. Sweden +was a kingdom of peasants, for the country population numbered four +millions, which in a population of four and a half millions, is +certainly the majority. Should then the half million rule the four or +vice versa? The latter course seemed the fairer. Now naturally the +townsmen talk of the egotism and tyranny of the peasants, but have the +labour party in the town a single item in their programme to improve +the condition of the peasants and cottagers? It is so stupid to talk +of egotism when every one now sees that he profits the whole, in +proportion as he profits himself. + +Meanwhile, in 1868, the malcontents discovered a party which could be +opposed to the constitutional majority and whose programme contained +all kinds of thorough-going reforms. That was the new liberal party, +consisting for the most part of authors, some artisans, a professor, +etc. By means of this handful of people who had none of the weighty +interests which landed property involves, and whose social position +was so insecure that a single unfavourable harvest could turn them +into members of the proletariat, it was proposed to remodel society. +What did the artisans know about society? How did they wish it to be +constituted? Did they wish it to be remodelled in their interest, +although the peasantry should be ruined? But that meant cutting off +their own legs, for Sweden is not a land of exporting industries. +Therefore the four million consumers in the land, as soon as their +purchasing power was diminished, would involuntarily ruin the +industries and leave the artisans stranded. That the artisans should +advance is a necessity, but to wish to make all men industrial workers +as the industrial socialists do, is much more unreasonable than to make +them all peasants as the agrarian socialists purpose doing. Capital, +which the labour party now attack, is the foundation of industry and if +that is touched, industry is overthrown, and then the workmen must go +back whence they came and still daily come,--to the country. + +Meanwhile, the agrarian party was not yet corrupted by intercourse with +aristocrats; it was neither conservative nor did it make compromises. +The war seemed to be between the country and the town. The atmosphere +was electric and the smallest cause might produce a thunderstorm. + +In the capital there prevailed a general desire to erect a statue to +Charles XII. Why? Was this last knight of the Middle Ages the ideal +of the age? Bid the character of the idol of Gustav IV, Adolf, and +Charles XV suitably express the spirit of the new peaceful period +which now commenced? Or did the idea originate, as so often is the +case in the sculptor's studio? Who knows? The statue was ready and the +unveiling was to take place. Stands were erected for the spectators, +but so unskilfully that the ceremony could not be witnessed by the +general public, and the space railed off could only contain the +invited guests, the singers and those who paid for their seats. But +the subscription had been national and all believed they had a right +to see. The arrangements were obnoxious to the people. Petitions were +made to have the stands removed, but without success. The crowd began +to make attempts to tear them down, but the military intervened. The +doctor that day was giving a dinner to the Italian Opera Company. They +had just risen from dessert when a noise was heard from the street; it +was at first like rain falling on an iron roof, but then cries were +distinctly audible. John listened, but for the moment nothing more was +to be heard. The wine-glasses clinked amid Italian and French phrases +which flew hither and thither over the table; there was such a noise of +jests and laughter that those at the table could hardly hear themselves +speak. But now there came a roar from the street, followed immediately +by the tramp of horses, the rattle of weapons and harness. There was +silence in the room for a moment, and one and another turned pale. + +"What is it?" asked the prima donna. + +"The mob making a noise," answered a professor. + +John stood up from the table, went into his room, took his hat and +stick and hurried out. "The mob!"--the words rang in his ear while +he went down the street. "The mob!" They were his mother's former +associates, his own school-mates and afterwards his pupils; they formed +the dark background against which the society he had just quitted, +stood out like a brilliant picture. He felt again as though he were a +deserter, and had done wrong in working his way up. But he must get +above if he was to do anything for those below. Yes many had said +that, but when once they did get above, they found it so pleasant, +that they forgot those below. These cavalrymen, for instance, whose +origin was of the humblest, what airs they gave themselves! With what +unmixed pleasure they cut down their former comrades, though it must +be confessed they would have even more enjoyed cutting down the "black +hats." + +He went on and came to the market-place. The stands for the spectators +stood out against the November sky like gigantic market booths, and +the space below swarmed with men. From the opening of the Arsenal +street the tramp of horses was heard only a short way off. Then they +came riding forth, the blue guardsmen, the support of society, on whom +the upper class relied. John was seized with a wild desire to dash +against this mass of horses, men and sabres, as though he saw in them +oppression incarnate. That was the enemy! very well--at them! The troop +rode on and John stationed himself in the middle of the street. Whence +had he derived this hatred against the supporters of law and order, who +some day would protect him and his rights after he had clambered up, +and was in a position to oppress others? If the mob with whom he now +felt his solidarity had had their hands free, they would probably have +thrown the first stone through the window, behind which he had sat with +four wine-glasses in front of him. Certainly, but that did not prevent +his taking their side just as the upper class often, inconsistently +enough, takes sides against the police. This mania for freedom in the +abstract is probably the natural man's small revolt against society. + +He was going against the cavalry with a vague idea of striking them +all to the ground or something of the sort, when fortunately some one +seized him by the arm firmly but in a friendly way. He was brought back +to the doctor's who had sent out to seek for him. After he had given +his word of honour not to go out again he sank on a sofa, and lay all +the evening in fever. + +On the day of the unveiling of Charles XII's statue, he was one of the +student singers, therefore among the elect, the "upper ten thousand," +and had no reason to be discontented with his lot. When the ceremony +was over, the people rushed forward. The police forced them back, and +then they began to throw stones. The mounted police drew their sabres +and struck, arresting some and assaulting others. + +John had entered the market in front of the Jakob's church when he saw +a policeman lay hold of a man, under a shower of stones which knocked +off the constables' helmets. Without hesitation he sprang on the +policeman, seized him by the collar, shook him and shouted, "Let the +fellow go!" + +The policeman looked at his assailant in astonishment. + +"Who are you?" he asked irresolutely. + +"I am Satan, and I will take you, if you don't let him go." + +He actually did let him go and tried to seize John. At the same instant +a stone knocked off his three-cornered hat. John tore himself loose; +the crowd were now driven back by bayonets towards the guard-house in +the Gustaf Adolf market. After them followed a swarm of well-dressed +men, obviously members of the upper classes, shouting wildly, and as it +seemed, resolved to free the prisoners. John ran with them; it was as +though they were all impelled by a storm-wind. Men who had not been +molested or oppressed at all, who had high positions in society, rushed +blindly forward, risking their position, their domestic happiness, +their living, everything. John felt a hand grasp his. He returned the +pressure, and saw close beside him a middle-aged man, well-dressed, +with distorted features. They did not know each other, nor did they +speak together, but ran hand in hand, as if seized by one impulse. +They came across a third in whom John recognised an old school-fellow, +subsequently a civil service official, son of the head of a department. +This young man had never sided with the opposition party in school, +but on the contrary, was looked upon as a re-actionary with a future +in front of him. He was now as white as a corpse, his cheeks were +bloodless, the muscles of his forehead swollen, and his face resembled +a skull in which two eyes were burning. They could not speak, but +took each other's hands and ran on against the guards whom they were +attacking. The human waves advanced till they were met by the bayonets, +and then as always, dispersed in foam. Half-an-hour later John was +discussing a beefsteak with some students in the Opera restaurant. He +spoke of his adventure as though it were something which had happened +independently of him and his will. Nay, he even jested at it. That +may have been fear of public opinion, but also it may have been the +case that he regarded his outbreak objectively and now quietly judged +it as a member of society. The trap-door had opened for a moment, the +prisoner had put his head out, and then it had closed again. + +His unknown fellow-criminal, as he discovered later, was a pronounced +conservative, a wholesale tradesman. He always avoided meeting John's +eye, when they met after this. One time they met on a narrow pavement, +and had to look at each other, but did not smile. + +While they were sitting in the restaurant, came the news of the death +of Blanche. The students took it fairly coolly, the artists and middle +class citizens more warmly, but the lower classes talked of murder. +They knew that he had personally besought Charles XV to have the +spectators' stands taken down; they knew also, that though he was +very prosperous himself, he had always thought of them and they were +thankful. Stupid people objected, as is usual in such cases, that it +required no great skill on his part to speak on behalf of the poor, +when he was rich and celebrated. Did it not? It required the greatest. + +It is remarkable that the chief outbreak of discontent was directed, +not as elsewhere against the King, but against the governor and the +police. Charles XV was a _persona grata_; he could do as he liked +without becoming unpopular. He was neither condescending nor democratic +in his tastes, but rather proud. Stories were told of some of his +favourites having fallen into disgrace for want of respect on some +mirthful occasion. He could put tobacco into his soldiers' mouths, +but he scolded officers who did not at once fall in with his moods. +He could box people's ears at a fire, and did not laugh when he was +caricatured in a comic paper, as was supposed. He was a ruler and +believed he was also a warrior and a statesman; he interfered in the +government and could snub specialists with a "You don't understand +that!" But he was popular and remained so. Swedes, who do not like to +see a man's will slackening, admired this will and bowed before it. +It was also strange, that they forgave his irregular life; perhaps it +was because he made no secret of it. He had laid down a standard of +morality for himself and lived according to it. Therefore he lived at +harmony with himself, and harmony is always pleasant to contemplate. + +People might be revolters by instinct, but they did not believe in the +transition form to a better social constitution, _i.e_. a republic. +They had seen how two French republics had been followed by new +monarchies. There were secret anarchists, but no republicans, and they +had persuaded themselves that the monarchy offered no barrier to the +progress of liberty. + +These were the ideas of the younger men. The elder men with Blanche +thought a republic the only means of social salvation and therefore in +our days the old liberal school has become conservative-republican. + + * * * * * + +When the doctor saw that his wife's literary books threatened to +encroach upon John's medical studies, he resolved to give him a +glimpse into the secrets of his profession, and to allow him such a +foretaste of real work as should entice him to overcome the tedious +preliminary studies which he himself thought too extensive. John now +knew more chemistry and physics than the doctor, and the latter thought +it was merely malicious to hinder a rival's course by imposing too +hard preliminary studies. Why should he not, as in America, commence +dissection, which was a special branch of study? Now after the +theoretical study of anatomy, he could begin practice as an assistant. +That was a new life full of variety and reality. One went for instance +into a dark alley and came into a porter's room, where a woman lay, +sick of fever, surrounded by poor children, the grandmother and other +relations, who stole about on tip-toe, awaiting the doctor's verdict. +The malodorous ragged bed-cover would be lifted, a sunken heaving chest +exposed to view, and a prescription written. Then one went to the +Tvdgrdsgatan and was conducted over soft carpets through splendid +rooms into a bed-chamber which looked liked a temple; one lifted a +blue silk coverlet and put in splints the leg of an angelic-looking +child, dressed in lace. On the way out one looked at a collection of +paintings, and talked about artists. This was something novel and +interesting, but what connection had it with Titus Livius and the +history of philosophy? + +But then came the details of surgery. One was roused at seven o'clock +in the morning, came into the doctor's dark room, and manually assisted +at the cauterising of a syphilitic sore. The room reeked of human +flesh, and was repugnant to an empty stomach. Or he had to hold a +patient's head and felt it twitch with pain while the doctor with a +fork extracted glands from his throat. + +"One soon gets accustomed to that," said the doctor, and that was true, +but John's thoughts were busy with Goethe's Faust, Wieland's Epicurean +romances, George Sand's social phantasies, Chateaubriand's soliloquies +with nature, and Lessing's common-sense theories. His imagination +was set in motion and his memory refused to work; the reality of +cauterisations and flowing blood was ugly; stheticism had laid hold +of him, and actual life seemed to him tedious and repulsive. His +intercourse with artists had opened his eyes to a new world, a free +society within Society. They would come to a well-spread table where +cultivated people were sitting with badly-fitting clothes, black nails, +and dirty linen, as if they were not merely equal, but superior to the +rest,--in what? + +They could scarcely write their names, they borrowed money without +repaying it, and their talk was coarse. Everything was permitted to +them, which was not permitted to others. Why? They could paint. They +studied at the Academy, and the Academy did not ask whether all who +enrolled themselves as students were geniuses. How was it known that +they were geniuses? Was painting greater than knowledge and science? + +They also had, as was well recognised, a peculiar morality of their +own. They opened studios, hired models, and boasted of their paramours, +while other men were ashamed of theirs and incurred disapproval on +account of them. They laughed at what were very serious matters for +other men, nay, it seemed to be part of an artist's equipment to be a +"scoundrel," as any one else would be called for similar conduct. + +"That was a glad free world," thought John, and one in which he could +thrive, without conventional fetters or social obligations, and above +all, without contact with banal realities. But he was not a genius? +How should he get the entre to it? Should he learn to paint and so be +initiated? No! that would not do; he had never thought of painting; +that demanded a special vocation, he thought, and painting would not +express all he had to say, when once he began to speak. If he _had_ +to find a medium for self-expression it would be the theatre. An actor +could step forward, and say all kinds of truths, however bitter they +might be, without being brought to book for them. That was certainly a +tempting career. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +John's proposal to transfer the university from Upsala to Stockholm was +destined to have consequences, and his comrades had warned him of them. +When he went up early in spring in order to write the obligatory Latin +essay he had sent the professor by post the three test-essays and the +15 krona fee. So he could carry out his purpose unhindered and enrolled +himself. + +But now in May he wished to go and pass the preliminary examination in +chemistry. In order to be well prepared, he had himself tested by the +assistant-professor at the technological institute. The latter did so +and declared that he already knew more than was needed for the medical +examination. Thus prepared, he went up to Upsala. His first visit was +to a comrade, who had already passed the preliminary examination in +chemistry, and knew the "tips" for it. + +John began: "I can do synthesis and analysis, and have studied organic +chemistry." + +"That is very well, for we only need synthesis; however, it is no use +for you have not studied in the professor's laboratory." + +"That is true; but the course at the Institute is much better." + +"No matter,--it is not his." + +"We shall see," said John, "whether knowledge does not tell in any +ease." + +"If you are so sure, then try, but consider first what I say. You must +first go to the assistant-professor and get a 'tip'." + +"What do you mean?" + +"For a krona he will give you an hour's polishing, and ask you all the +important questions which the professor has put during the past year. +Just now he is in the habit of asking whether matches can be made out +of his carcase and ammonia from your old boots. But that you will +learn from the assistant. Secondly, you must not go to be examined +in a frock coat and white tie; least of all, dressed as well as you +are now. Therefore you must borrow my riding-coat, which is green in +the shoulders and red in the seams, and my top-boots, for he does not +like elastic boots." + +John followed his friend's instructions and went first to the +assistant-professor who gave him the questions which had been last +asked. In return John promised that under all circumstances he would +return and tell him the questions which he himself had been asked, as a +means of enlarging his catechism. + +The next day John went to his friend to array himself. His trousers +were drawn up so that the tops of the boots should be seen and his +loose collar turned on one side, so that the skin should show between +the tie and the collar. Thus equipped, he went up for his first trial. + +The professor of chemistry had formerly been a fortification officer, +and had received in his time a not very cordial welcome from the +learned staff in Upsala. He was a soldier, not academically cultivated, +and thus a kind of "Philistine." This had galled him and made him +bilious. In order to efface the effect of his laymen-like exterior, he +affected the airs of an over-read and blunt professor. He went about +ill-dressed and behaved eccentrically. Though many hundreds besides +himself had been pupils of Berzelius, he was fond of mentioning the +fact; it was his trump card. Berzelius, among other things, went about +in shabby trousers, therefore a hole in one's clothes was the sign of a +learned chemist, and so on. Hence all these peculiarities. + +John presented himself, was regarded with suspicion and bidden to come +again in a week. He replied that he had come from Stockholm and was +too poor to support himself for a week in the town. He managed to get +permission to present himself the next day. "It would be soon over," +said the old man. + +The next day he sat on a seat opposite the professor. It was a sunny +afternoon in May, and the old man seemed to have digested his dinner +badly. He looked grim as he threw out his first question from his +rocking-chair. The answers were correct at the beginning. Then the +questions became more tortuous like snakes. + +"If I have an estate, where I suspect the presence of saltpetre, how +shall I begin to construct a saltpetre factory?" + +John suggested a saltpetre analysis. + +"No." + +"Well, then, I don't know anything else." + +There was silence and the flies buzzed,--a long and terrible silence. +"Now will come the question about the boots or the matches," thought +John, "and there I shall shine." He coughed by way of rousing the +professor, but the silence continued. John wondered whether he had been +seen through and whether the old man recognised the "examination coat." + +Then came a new question which was unanswered, and then another. + +"You have come too soon," said the old man, and rose up. + +"Yes, but I have worked a whole year in the laboratory, and can do +chemical analysis." + +"Yes, you know how to make up prescriptions, but you have not digested +your knowledge. In the Institute only manual dexterity is necessary, +but here scientific knowledge is required." + +As a matter of fact the case was exactly the reverse for the medical +students in Upsala complained that they had to stand like cooks and +make up mixtures and salts, without having time to look at an analysis, +which last was just what a doctor ought to do while synthesis was the +apothecary's work. But now the proposal made some years before whether +the university had not better be transferred to Stockholm had roused a +feeling in Upsala against the capital. Moreover the laboratory of the +newly-built technological institute was as famous for its excellent +equipment, as that of Upsala was notorious for its poor one. Here, +therefore, petty prejudices were at work and John felt the unfairness +of it. "I do not then get a certificate?" he asked. + +"No, sir, not this year; but come again next year." + +The professor was ashamed to say, "Go to my only soul-saving +laboratory." + +John went out furious. Here then again neither diligence nor knowledge +prevailed, but only cash and cringing! Had he tried short cuts? No, +on the contrary, he had been obliged to travel by painful circuitous +paths, while others had gone the direct road, and the directest is the +shortest. + +He went to the Carolina Park, as angry as an irritated bee. He did +not wish to return at once to the town, but sat down on a seat. If he +could only set this devil's hole on fire! Another year? No, never! Why +read so much unnecessary stuff, which would only be forgotten, and be +of no practical use? And slave in order to enter this dirty profession +where one had to analyse urine, pick about in vomit, poke about in all +the recesses of the body? Faugh! Just as he was sitting there, a group +of cheerful-looking people came by, and stood laughing outside the +Carolina library. They looked up to the window's, through which long +rows of books were visible, shelf after shelf. They laughed,--the men +and women laughed at the books. He thought he recognised them. Yes, +they were Levasseur's French actors, whom he had seen in Stockholm and +who were now visiting Upsala. They laughed at the books! Lucky people +who could be importers of genius and culture without books. Perhaps +every soul had something to give which was not in books, but would be +there some day. Yes, certainly it was so. He himself possessed stories +of experience and thoughts, which could enrich anthropology, and were +ready to be throw out. + +Again there stole upon him the thought of entering this privileged +profession, which stood outside and above petty social conventions +which ignored distinctions of rank, and in which one need never be +conscious of belonging to the lower classes. There one could appeal to +the universal judgment, and work in full publicity instead of being +hung up here in a remote dark hole, without a verdict, examination, or +witnesses. + +Strengthened by this new idea, he stood up, east a glance at the books +above, and went down to the town resolved to go home and seek for an +engagement in the Theatre Royal. + +Every townsman has probably felt once in his life the wish to appear +as an actor. This is probably due to the impulse of the cultivated +man to magnify and make himself something, to identify himself with +great and celebrated personalities. John, who was a romanticist, had +also the desire to step forward and harangue the public. He believed +that he could choose his proper rle, and he knew beforehand which it +would be. The fact that he, like all others, believed that he had the +capacity to become an actor, sprang from the superfluity of unused +force, produced by a want of sufficient physical exercise, and from the +tendency to megalomania connected with mental over-exertion. He saw no +difficulties in the profession itself, but expected opposition from +another quarter. + +To attribute his being stage-struck to hereditary tendencies would +perhaps be hasty, since we have just remarked that it is an almost +universal impulse. But his paternal grandfather, a Stockholm citizen, +had written dramatic pieces for an amateur theatre, and a young +distant relative still lived as a warning example. The latter had been +an engineer, had been through a course of instruction in the Motala +iron-works, and had a post on the Kping-Hult railway. He therefore had +fine prospects in front of him, but suddenly threw them up, and became +an actor. This step of his was an incessant trouble to his family. Up +to this time the young man had become nothing but was still travelling +about with an obscure theatrical company. The danger of becoming like +him was the difficult point. "Yes," said John to himself, "but I shall +have luck." Why? Because he believed it; and he believed it because he +wished it. + +Some might be inclined to derive this strong impulse on John's part +from the fact that he loved to play, as a child, with a toy theatre, +but that is not sufficient, as all children do the same and he had got +the taste from seeing them do it. The theatre was an unreal better +world which enticed one out of the tedious real one. The latter would +not have seemed so tedious if his education had been more harmonious +and realistic and not given him such a strong tendency to romance. +Enough; his resolution was taken; and without saying anything to any +one, he went to the director of the Theatrical Academy the dramaturgist +of the Theatre Royal. + +When he heard the sound of his own words "I want to be an actor," +he shuddered. He felt as though he tore down the veil of his inborn +modesty, and did violence to his own nature. + +The director asked what he was doing at present. + +"Studying medicine." + +"And you want to give up such a career, for one that is the hardest and +the worst of all?" + +"Yes." + +All actors called their profession the "hardest and the worst" though +they had such a good time of it. That was in order to frighten away +aspirants. + +John asked for private lessons in order that he might make his dbut. +The director replied that he was now going to the country for the +theatrical season was at an end, but he told John to come again on the +1st of September when the theatre opened, and the board of management +came again to the town. That was a definite appointment and he saw his +way clear. + +When he went down the street, he walked with his eyes wide open, as +though he gazed into a brilliant future; victory was already his; he +felt its intoxicating eating fumes, and hurried, though with unsteady +steps, down the street. + +He said nothing to the doctor nor to any one else. He had still three +months in front of him in which to train and prepare himself, but in +secret, for he was shy and timid. He was afraid of annoying his father +and the doctor, afraid of the whole town knowing that he thought +himself capable of being an actor, afraid of his relatives' scorn, his +friends' grimaces and efforts to dissuade him. This was the fruit of +his education, the fear,--"What will people say?" His imagination made +the act seem like a crime. It was certainly an interference with other +people's peace of mind for relations and friends feel a shock, when +they see a link torn out of the social chain. He felt it himself, and +had to shake off the scruples of conscience. + +For his dbut he had chosen the rles of Karl Moor and Wijkander's +Lucidor. This was no mere chance but perfectly logical. In both of +these characters he had found the expression of his inner experience, +and therefore he wished to speak with their tongues. He conceived of +Lucidor as a higher nature undermined and ruined by poverty. A higher +nature of course! In his enthusiasm for the theatre he felt again what +he had felt when he had preached, and when he had revolted against the +school prayers,[1] something of the proclaimer, the prophet, and the +soothsayer. + +What most of all elevated his ideas of the great significance of the +theatre was the perusal of Schiller's essay, "The theatre regarded +as an instrument of moral education." Sentences like the following +show how lofty was the goal at which Schiller aimed. "The stage is +the chief channel through which the light of wisdom descends from +the better, thinking portion of the populace in order to spread its +beneficent light over the whole state." "In this world of art we +dream ourselves away from the real one, we find ourselves again, our +feelings are roused, wholesome emotions stir our slumbering nature and +drive our blood in swift currents. The unhappy here forget their own +sorrows in watching those of others, the happy become sober, and the +self-confident, reflective. The effeminate weakling is hardened into a +man, the coarse and callous here begin to feel. And then finally,--what +a triumph for thee O Nature, so often trodden down and so often +re-arisen,--when men of all climates and conditions, casting away all +fetters of convention and fashion, set free from the iron hand of fate, +fraternising in one all-embracing sympathy, dissolved into _one_ race, +forget themselves and the world, and approach their heavenly origin. +Each individual enjoys the delight of all, which is mirrored back to +him strengthened and beautified from a hundred eyes, and his breast has +only room for one aspiration,--to be a man!" + +Thus wrote the young Schiller at twenty-five, and the youth of twenty +subscribed it. + +The theatre is certainly still a means of culture for young people and +the middle class who can still feel the illusion of actors and painted +canvas. For older and cultivated people it is a recreation in which the +actor's art is the chief object of attention. Therefore old critics +are almost invariably discontent and crabbed. They have lost their +illusions and do not pass over any mistake in the acting. + +Modern times have overprised the theatre, especially the actor's art in +an exaggerated degree, and a re-action has followed. Actors have tried +to ply their art independently of the dramatist, believing that they +could stand on their own legs. Therefore particular "stars" become the +objects of homage and therefore also opposition has been aroused. In +Paris, where people had gone to the greatest lengths, a reaction first +showed itself. The _Figaro_ called the heroes of the Thtre-Franais +to order, and reminded them that they were only the author's puppets. + +The decay of all the great European theatres shows that the actor's +art has lost its interest. Cultivated people no more go to the +theatre because their sense for reality has been developed, and +their imagination which is a relic of the savage has diminished; the +uncultivated lack the time, and the money to go. The future seems to +belong to the variety theatre, which amuses without instructing, for it +is mere play and recreation. All important writers choose another, more +suitable form in which to handle important questions. Ibsen's dramas +have always produced their effect in book form before they were played; +and when they are played, the spectators' interest is generally +concentrated on the _manner_ of their performance; consequently it is a +secondary interest. + +John committed the usual mistake of youth, _i.e._ of confusing the +actor with the author; the actor is the mere enunciator of the +sentiments for which the author who stands behind him, is responsible. + +In the spring John resigned his post as tutor to the two girls, and +now he had leisure during the summer to study his art in secret, +and on his own responsibility. He had scoffed at books, and now the +first things he sought were books. They contained the thoughts and +experiences of men with whom, though most of them were dead, he could +converse familiarly, without being betrayed. He had heard that in the +castle there was a library which belonged to the State, and from which +one could borrow books. He obtained a surety and went there. It was a +solemn place with small rooms full of books where grey-haired silent +old men sat and read. He got his books and went shyly and happily home. + +He wished to study the matter thoroughly in all its aspects, as was his +custom. In Schiller he found the assurance that the theatre was of deep +significance; in Goethe he found a whole treatise on the histrionic +art with directions how one should walk and stand, behave oneself, sit +down, come in and go out; in Lessing's _Hamburgische Dramaturgie_ he +found a whole volume of theatrical critiques filled with the closest +observations. Lessing especially roused his hopes, for he went so far +as to declare that the theatre had come down owing to the inferiority +of the actors, and said that it would be better to employ amateurs +from the cultivated classes who would play better than the drilled and +often uncultured actors. He also read Raymond de St. Albin, whose often +quoted observations on the actor's art are of great value. + +At the same time he exercised himself practically. At the doctor's he +arranged a stage when the boys were out. He practised entrances and +exits; he arranged the stage for "The Robbers," dressed himself like +Karl Moor, and played that part. He went to the National Museum and +studied gestures of antique sculptures and gave up using his walking +stick in order to accustom himself to walk freely. He did violence +to his shyness, which had almost produced in him "agoraphobia," or +the dread of crossing open places, and accustomed himself to walk +across Karl XIII's square where great crowds used to be found. He did +gymnastics every day at home, and fenced with his pupils. He gave +attention to every movement of the muscles; practised walking with head +erect and chest expanded, with arms hanging free and hands loosely +clenched, as Goethe directs. + +The chief difficulty he found was in the cultivation of his voice, +for he was overheard when he declaimed in the house. Then it occurred +to him to go outside the town. The only place where he could be +undisturbed was the Ladugrdsgrdet. There he could look over the plain +for a great distance and see whether any one was coming; there sounds +died away so quickly that it cost him an effort to hear himself. This +strengthened his voice. + +Every day he went out there, and declaimed against heaven and earth. +The town whose church tower rose opposite Ladugrdsgrdet symbolised +society, while he stood out here alone with Nature. He shook his fist +at the castle, the churches, and the barracks, and stormed at the +troops who during their manoeuvres often came too close to him. There +was something fanatical in his work and he spared himself no pains in +order to make his unwilling muscles obedient. + + +[1] _Vide_ the _Son of a Servant_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + +(1869) + + +Among those who frequented the doctor's house was a young man who +studied sculpture. He had come from the lower strata of society, had +been a smith's apprentice, and had now entered the Academy, where he +was a probationary student. He was happy and always cheerful, believed +himself called by providence to his new career, and narrated how he +had been aroused and impelled by the spirit to work in the service +of the Beautiful. John liked him because he was not introspective or +self-critical and quite free from self-consciousness. Moreover he was a +fellow culprit, who was making the same daring attempt as John to work +his way out of the lower class, but entirely lacked the consciousness +of guilt which persecuted the latter. + +One day this friend, whose name was Albert, came to him and said +that he was going to Copenhagen to visit Thorwaldsen's Museum. An +enterprising speculator had arranged a trip there through the canal +and back by sea for a very small fare. "You come too," he said, and it +was soon settled that John should accompany him with one of the boys. +The occasion of the expedition was the crown princess's entry into +Copenhagen, but that was a secondary object in the eyes of the pilgrims +to Thorwaldsen's tomb. + +On an August evening John sat on the poop of the steamer with the +sculptor, one of the boys and a school friend of his. In the twilight +which had already fallen one saw ladies and gentlemen coming on board. +The society seemed to be first-class. Stout fathers of families with +field-glasses and tourist knapsacks, ladies in summer dresses and hats +of the latest fashion. There was a bustle and stir, as each sought a +sleeping-place which was guaranteed to all. John and his companions sat +quietly waiting. They had their provisions and rugs and feared nothing. +When the steamer had started and the confusion had ceased, John said, +"Now we will have some bread and butter before we lie down." + +They looked for their knapsacks and the provision basket, but they were +not to be found. They discovered that they had not come with them. This +was a hard blow, for they had only a little cash and they had counted +on the excellent provisions which the doctor's wife had put up for +them. Accordingly they had to eat from the sculptor's box, which only +contained poor dry victuals. + +Then they wanted to lie down. On all sides people were asking for +sleeping-places, but could not find any. The passengers were in an +uproar and there was a storm of curses. They had therefore to sit on +deck; there were inquiries for the organiser of the expedition, but he +was not on board. John lay down on the bare deck and the boys drew a +tarpaulin over themselves, for the dew was falling and it was bitterly +cold. They awoke at Sdertelje, freezing, for the sailors had taken +away the tarpaulin. + +On the canal bank there now appeared the organiser of the excursion, +who was an upholsterer. The passengers rushed at him, drew him on +board, and loaded him with reproaches. He defended himself and tried +to land again, but in vain. A court martial was held; they resolved +to continue their journey, but detained the upholsterer as a hostage. +The steamer went on through the canal, but as it was passing through a +lock, the man-swung himself up on the dam and disappeared amid a hail +of curses. + +The journey was continued and by midday they were in the Gotha canal. +Dinner was laid on the poop. John and his companions ensconced +themselves in the lifeboat which hung there and ate a simple meal out +of the sculptor's box. The sculptor, who had slept on a bale do mu in +the luggage-hold, was in a good humour and knew all the passengers' +characters and names. + +The dinner-table was now crowded. It was presided over by a master +chimney-sweep with his family. Then there came pawnbrokers, +public-house keepers, cabmen, butchers, waiters, with their families, +a number of young shop boys and some girls. John suffered when he saw +stewed perch and strawberries together with claret and sherry, for he +had been so spoilt by luxury that simple food made him poorly. This +was the "upper class" among the passengers. The master chimney-sweep +played the grand gentleman, he made a grimace at the claret and scolded +the waitress who said that the restaurant-keeper was responsible. The +porter from the Record Office affected the learned man, and as an +official seemed to look down on the "Philistines." + +While the sherry circulated, speeches were made. The lower class +from the fore-deck hung on the gunwales and hand-rails and listened. +The pariahs in the lifeboat were ignored. People knew that they were +there, but did not see them. They may very likely have wished the +"white cap" away, for there were two eyes under its peak, which saw +that they were no better than himself. John felt that. He had just +emerged from this class to which he belonged by birth, but he had no +food and was nothing. He felt his inferiority and his superiority; and +their superiority. They had worked; therefore they ate. Yes, but he +had worked as much as they, though not in the same way. He had derived +honour from his work, while they took the good eating and dispensed +with the honour. One could not have both. + +The people sat there satisfied and happy, drank their coffee and +liqueurs, and occupied the whole poop. They now became bold and made +remarks over those in the lifeboat, who could only suffer in silence, +because the others were in the majority and the upper class, for they +were consumers. + +John felt himself in an element which was not his. There was an +atmosphere of hostility about him, and he felt depressed. There were +no police on board to help him, no arbitration to appeal to, and if +there were a quarrel, all would condemn him. There only needed a sharp +retort on his part, and he would be struck. "The deuce!" he thought, +"it would be better to obey officers and officials; they would never +be such tyrants as these democrats." Later on, at Albert's advice, he +sought to approach them, but they were inaccessible. + +Further on during the voyage between Venersborg and Gteborg the +explosion came. John and his companions' hunger increased so much that +one day they determined to go down to the dining-saloon and eat some +bread and butter. It was so full of people eating and drinking that +they could hardly find room. John's pupil, according to the custom of +his class, kept his hat on. The master chimney-sweep noticed this. +"Hullo!" he said, "is the ceiling too high for you?" + +The boy seemed not to understand him. + +"Take your hat off, boy!" he shouted again. + +The hat remained as it was. A shop assistant knocked it off. The boy +picked up the hat, and put it again on his head. Then the storm burst. +They all rushed on him like one man and knocked the hat off. Then they +went for John, "And such a young devil has a tutor who cannot teach +boys to know their proper place! We know well enough who _you_ are." +Then they rained abuse on his parents. John tried to inform them that +in the social circles to which the boy belonged, it was the custom to +keep one's hat on in public places, and that he had not intended any +expression of contempt by it. But his explanation was ill-received. +What did he mean by "those circles"? What nonsense he talked! Did he +want to teach them manners? And so on. + +Yes, he could; for it was precisely from these circles that they had +learnt five-and-twenty years ago to take their hats off, which was no +longer the custom, and he could have told them that in twenty-five +years more they would keep their hats on as soon as they got wind that +_that_ was the fashion. But they had not discovered it yet. + +John and his friends went again on deck. "One cannot argue with these +people," he said. + +His nerves were shaken by the scene just witnessed. He had seen an +outbreak of class-hatred and the flashing eyes of people whom he had +not injured; he had felt the foot of the upper class of the future upon +his breast. They had become his enemies; the bridge between him and +them was broken down; but the tie of blood remained and he cherished +the same hatred towards aristocratic society, and its unjust ascendency +as they did; he felt the same grudge against the conventions before +which they all had to bow; yes, he had Karl Moor's replies in his mind, +but those who had just defeated him were all Spiegelbergers.[1] If they +got the upper hand they would trample on all,--great and small; if he +got the upper hand, he would only trample on the great. That was the +difference between them. It was, however, education which had made him +more democratic than they; he would therefore side with the educated. +They would work for those below, but from a distance, and from above. +One could not handle this raw uncouth mass. + +The stay on board was now intolerable. An outbreak might take place at +any moment. And it came. + +They were now in the Kattegat, and John was sitting on the upper deck +when he heard a loud noise beneath him of voices and cries. He thought +he recognised his pupil's voice, and rushed down. On the middle deck +stood the accused surrounded by a crowd. A pawnbroker waved his arms +about and shouted. John asked what the matter was. + +"He has stolen my cap," shouted the pawnbroker. + +"I don't believe it possible," said John. + +"Yes, I saw it; he has put it in this clothes bag." + +It was John's bag. "That is mine," said John. "You can look into it +yourself." He opened the bag and there lay the pawnbroker's cap! There +was general excitement. John stood convicted and a storm was on the +point of breaking out against the two thieves. A student who stole! +That was a bonne bouche. How had it happened? Now John remembered. He +had a grey cap similar to the pawnbroker's which he used to sleep in +at night. He had told the boy to put it in his bag; the boy had taken +the wrong one. John turned to the foredeck passengers: "Gentlemen," he +began, "do you think it likely that a rich man's son would go and take +a greasy cap when he has a perfectly new one? Do you not see that there +has been a mistake?" + +"Yes," said the plebeians, "there has." + +Only the pawnbroker was obstinate and stuck to his statement. + +"Then it only remains for me to beg this gentleman's pardon for the +mistake, and I ask my pupil to do the same." + +The latter did so, though unwillingly. There was general satisfaction +and a murmured opinion that he had "spoken like a gentleman." The +matter was fortunately settled. + +"You see," said John to the boy, "the people are open to reason after +all!" + +"Bah! That was only because they felt flattered at being called +gentlemen,--the cursed rabble!" + +"Perhaps," answered John, who felt that he had been sufficiently +humiliated for such a trifle. + +At last they reached Copenhagen. Hungry, freezing, and in the worst of +humours they sat in the rain outside the Thorwaldsen Museum, which was +closed on account of the festivities. But Albert swore he would get +in. After they had waited for an hour with the master chimney-sweep, +the public-house keeper, and all the other passengers there came an +old man who looked learned and wished to enter. Albert rushed after +him, mentioned the name of Molins, the Swedish sculptor, and they got +in, leaving the other passengers outside. Albert was delighted, and +could not help making a face at the master chimney-sweep who remained +outside. But the one who enjoyed it most was the young sinner, who +hated the mob. + +"Now we are gentlemen," he said. + +John was not in the mood to enjoy Thorwaldsen's works. He regarded +him as an average artist talented enough to win fame. Albert found +the antiques too elaborate, but did not dare to criticise them. +They did not witness the royal entry, but sat on the tower of the +Fruekirke and looked at the view. At nightfall, when they felt tired +and exhausted, they wanted to go down to the steamer to sleep, but it +had gone to Malm. They stood in the street in the rain. They could +not go to an hotel, for they had no money. Albert resolved to go to a +public-house and ask for a night's lodging. They found a sailors' inn +near the public-house. The landlord said it was only for seamen, but +they answered that they must have shelter. They were taken into a back +room where there were two camp-beds, but a basin was not to be seen. +The walls were unpapered and looked shabby. In one of the beds lay a +sailor. Who was to be his bed-fellow? Albert undertook that, and slept +with the stranger, who was a Dutchman. So they all went to sleep, John +cursing the whole adventure, for the bed-clothes were malodorous. + +The return voyage home by sea was one long penance. Without provisions +and hardly any money they had to sustain life on raw eggs which they +bought in the small towns they touched at. These along with stale +bread and brandy, composed their diet for three days. Albert alone +was cheerful and enjoyed himself. He slept on the poop with the +passengers and amused them with stories; he was akin to them, and knew +their language. He drank with them and got hot food; he even went into +the kitchen sometimes and begged himself a plate of soup. "How easily +he takes life!" thought John. "He does not miss luxuries, for he has +never known them; he will never be expelled as an intruder when he +approaches people; he feasts while others starve, and sees only friends +everywhere. But his day will come when he will no longer be one of the +lower class, when luxury and refined habits will make him as helpless +and unfortunate as me." + +When he got home he was furious. So it was everywhere. Those who were +above trampled on those below, and those who were below tried to +pull one back when one tried to mount. What was the meaning of all +this talk about aristocrats and democrats? The lower class spoke of +their democratic way of thinking, as though it were a virtue. What +virtue is there in hating those who are above? What is the meaning of +"aristocrat"? [Greek: Aristos] means the best, and [Greek: krateo] "I +rule." Therefore an aristocrat is one who wishes that the best should +rule and a democrat one who wishes that the worst should do so. But +then comes the question: Who are really the best? Are a low social +position, poverty and ignorance things that make men better? No, for +then one would not try to do away with poverty and ignorance. Into +whose hands then should men commit political power, with the knowledge +that it would be in the hands of the least mischievous? Into the hands +of those who knew most? Then one would have professorial government, +and Upsala would be--no, not the professors! To whom then should power +be given? He could not answer, but certainly not to the chimney-sweep +and cab-owner who were on the steamer. + +On this occasion he did not go deeper into the matter, for the question +had not yet been raised whether the same culture could not be imparted +to every one, or whether there need be any governing body at all. + +He had come across the worst aristocracy of all, the upper stratum +of the lower class, or, to name them by their usual ugly title, "the +Philistines." They were a bad copy of the aristocracy; they sided with +the powerful, aped the habits of their superiors, grew rich by others' +labours, quoted authorities and hated opposition with the exception of +their silent opposition to those above them. The master chimney-sweep +made money through the toil of the abjectly poor, the cab-owner through +the wretched cabbies and hacks, the pawnbroker wrung unrighteous +gain from the need of the poverty-stricken, and so on, everywhere. +A teacher, on the other hand, a doctor, an artist, could not depute +slaves to his work; he must do it himself, and was therefore not such +a shark as those below. If, then, culture brought men happiness and +made them better, then the aristocracy were justified and beneficent, +and could regard themselves as better than those below. Yes, but one +could buy culture for money, could beg or borrow the means for it, +as so many students did, and there was no virtue in that at any rate. +Yet one could not help feeling superior to others when one knew more +and observed the laws of social life so as to injure no one. All that +remained for the real democracy was to reduce everything to a dead +level, so that no one need feel themselves below, and no one could +think they were above. + + +[1] _Vide_ Schiller's "Robbers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BEHIND THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +The Swedish theatre was at this time exposed to many attacks, and when +is a theatre not in that condition? The theatre is a miniature society +within society, with a monarch, ministers, officials, and a whole +number of classes, ranged above one another in ranks. Is it any wonder +that this society is always exposed to the attacks of the malcontents? +But at this period the attacks had a more practical object. A former +provincial actor had written a pamphlet against the Theatre Royal, of +little real importance, but with the result that the author was invited +to a seat on the board of directors. This aroused imitators, and many +published treatises in order to attain the same result. + +As a matter of fact, the Theatre Royal was neither better nor worse +than it had been before. "But," it was asked, "if the theatre is +an institution supported by subscriptions for forwarding culture, +why set an uncultivated person at the head of it?" To this it was +answered, "We have just had one of the most learned men in the country +as director, and how did that answer? Although he had the advantage +of plebeian birth he was worried to death by the democratic press, +which incessantly carped at him." At last, in our time, the utopia of +self-government has been realised, the theatre has a man from the lower +classes at its head, and there is general satisfaction. + +On the day fixed, John went to the theatre in order to announce his +intention of making his dbut. After some delay, he was sent for and +asked his business. + +"I want to make my dbut." + +"Oh! have you studied any special character?" + +"Karl Moor in 'The Robbers,'" he answered more defiantly than was +necessary. + +They looked at each other and smiled. "But one must have three rles; +have you got no other to suggest?" + +"Lucidor!" + +There was a consultation, and John was informed that these dramas were +not now in the repertory of the theatre. He objected that this was not +a sufficient reason for his not undertaking those rles, but received +the perfectly fair answer, that the theatre could not stage such +important dramas and disarrange its programme for untried dbutants. +Then the director proposed to John that he should take the rle of the +"Warrior of Ravenna." But after the great success which had attended +the last actor of that part, he dared not. They finally suggested that +he should have a talk with the literary manager. Then began a battle +which was probably not the first or the last which had taken place in +that room. + +"Be reasonable, sir; one must study this profession like all others. No +one becomes an adept all of a sudden. Creep before you walk. Undertake +at first a minor rle." + +"No, the rle must be great enough to sustain me. In a minor rle one +must be a great artist in order to attract attention." + +"Yes, but listen to me, sir; I have experience." + +"Yes, but others have made their dbut in leading parts, without having +been on the stage before." + +"But you will break your neck." + +"Very well, then! I will!" + +"Yes, but the board of directors will not give the best stage in the +country to the first chance aspirant to make experiments on." + +That seemed reasonable. He therefore consented to undertake a minor +rle. He was given the part of Hrved Boson in Hedberg's _Marriage of +Ulfosa_. + +John read over the part at home, and was astonished. It was quite +insignificant. He only had a few quarrels with his brother-in-law and +then embraced his wife. But he had to undertake the part, as he had +agreed to do. + +The rehearsals began. To have to shout out empty words without meaning +was repugnant to him. + +After some trials the teacher declared that he had no more time and +recommended John to take lessons in the Dramatic Academy. + +"But I won't be a pupil," he said. + +"No, of course." + +They talked of the Dramatic Academy, as of an elementary or Sunday +School; all kinds of pupils were accepted whether they had any +education or not. John did not intend to become a pupil, but went +just to listen. He went there reluctantly. Accustomed to be a teacher +himself, he was received as a sort of honorary guest, and sat down, but +attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention. The hour was passed in +reciting "Vintergatan," which he knew by heart, and some other pieces +of verse. + +"But one can't learn anything for the stage here," he ventured to say +to the teacher. + +"Well! come on the stage, and try before the footlights." + +"How can I do that?" + +"As a supernumerary actor." + +"Supernumerary! H'm! That is like going downhill before beginning," +thought John. But he determined to go through with it. One morning he +received an invitation to try a part in Bjrnson's _Maria Stuart_. +The theatre messenger gave him a little blue note-book on which was +written, "A nobleman," and inside, on a white sheet of paper, "The +Lords have sent an intermediary with a challenge to Count Both well." +That was the whole part! Such was to be his dbut! + +At the appointed time he went up the little back stairs, passed the +door-keeper and came on the stage. It was the first time that he was +behind the scenes, and saw the reverse of the medal. The stage looked +like a great warehouse with black walls; a cracked and dirty floor like +that of a hay loft, and grey linen screens mounted on rough wood. + +It was here that he had seen represented majestic scenes from the +world's history; here Masaniello had shouted "Death to Tyrants" while +John stood trembling at the end of the fourth row among the audience; +here Hamlet had given vent to his scorn and suffered his sorrows, and +from here Karl Moor had defied society and the whole world. John felt +alarmed. How could one preserve the illusion hero in sight of the +unpainted wood and the grey canvas? Everything looked dusty and dirty; +the workmen were poor melancholy devils, and the actors and actresses +looked insignificant in their ordinary clothes. + +He was led into the lobby where they were going to dance for +half-an-hour the gavotte, which introduced the play. It was broad +daylight. The old music teacher sat on a chair and played the viol. The +ballet-master shouted, struck his hands together and arranged them in +their places. "I didn't bargain for this," thought John, but it was too +late. So he found himself in the midst of a complicated dance which he +did not know, and was pushed about and scolded. "No, I am not going to +do this," he thought, but he could not get out of it. + +A feeling of shame came over him. Dancing in the day-time was not a +seemly occupation. And then to descend from teacher to pupil, and be +the last here; he had never before gone back so far. + +The bell rang for the rehearsal, and they were driven on the stage. +Then they were arranged for the gavotte. By the footlights stood the +chief actors who had the important rles; and behind them the rest in +two lines occupied the background. + +The orchestra struck up and the dance began in slow solemn rhythm. From +the footlights were heard the deep voices of the two Puritans lamenting +the depravity of the court. + +_Lindsay_. "Look! the dancing lines wind like snakes in the sun. +Listen! the music plays with the flames of hell! The devil's roar of +laughter is in it." + +_Andrew Kerr_. "Hush, hush; the penalty will overwhelm them as the sea +overwhelmed Pharaoh's army." + +_Lindsay_. "Look, how they whisper! The infecting breath of sin! See +their voluptuous smiles; see the ladies' frivolous gowns." + +_Citizen_. "All that Knox preaches is wasted on this court." + +_Lindsay_. "He is as the prophet in Israel, he does not speak in vain; +for the Lord Himself shall perform His word upon the ungodly race." + +The piece had an arresting effect, and John felt it. The men actors had +their hats, overcoats and sticks, and the women their cloaks and muffs, +but still the drama was impressive in its simple greatness. He stood in +the wings and listened to the whole of it; Mary Stuart did not please +him; she was cruel and coquettish; Bothwell was too rough and strong; +his favourite was Darnley, the weak, Hamlet-like man whose love to this +woman continued to burn in spite of unfaithfulness, scorn, malice and +everything. Knox was as hard as stone with his Puritanism and gloomy +Christianity. + +It was after all something to step forward and enact a piece of history +in the garb of such persons. There was something solemn about it as he +had felt before in the church. After he had gone on the stage and made +his speech he went away firmly resolved to bear all on behalf of sacred +art. + +He had thus taken the decisive step. To his father he had written a +high-flown letter, and declared that he would either become something +great in the career which he had now entered or would retire from it +altogether; he had resolved not to go home till he had succeeded. The +doctor was sorry but made no fuss, for he saw it was impossible to +stop him. But he had other secret plans for saving him which he now +began to set in motion. In the first place he induced John to translate +one or two medical pamphlets for which he had found a publisher. Now +he came with a proposal that they should together write articles for +the _Aftonbladet (Evening New's_). John for his part had translated +Schiller's essay, _The Theatre Regarded as a Moral Institution_, and as +the subject of the theatre had now conic up in the Reichstag the doctor +wrote an introduction to it in which he seriously expostulated with +the Agrarian party on their indifference to culture. The whole article +was inserted. Another day the doctor came with a member of the medical +journal, the _Lancet_, which treated of the question whether women were +fit for a medical career. Without hesitation and instinctively John +decided against it. He had an indescribable reverence for women as +woman, mother and wife, but as a matter of fact, society was founded +upon the man regarded as provider for the family, and upon the woman +as wife and mother; thus man had a full right to his work-market and +all the duties involved in it. Every occupation taken from the man +would mean a marriage less or one more overworked family-provider, for +the impulse to marry was so strong in men that they would not cease +to marry, however great the difficulties in which they might become +involved. Moreover women had abundant opportunities of work; they +could become servants, house-keepers, governesses, teachers, midwives, +seamstresses, actresses, artists, authoresses, queens, empresses, +besides wives and mothers. Many of these vocations were also open to +the unmarried. Anything more than this was an encroachment on the man's +territory. If the woman did that, the man should be free from the cares +of providing for the family, and inquiries after paternity should not +be made. But society would not consent to that. On the contrary it +began to persecute the prostitutes by way of forcing men to marry. Once +caught in the snares of the married women's property law, they would +sink to the level of domestic slaves. + +John instinctively took sides in this complicated problem, which was +destined to take many years to solve, and wrote against the women's +movement, which he saw would involve, if victorious, man's overthrow. +The movement for the emancipation of women had during the fifties, +assumed the wildest forms, and the war-cry, "No lords! No lords!" had +shown the true nature of the movement, which had also been ridiculed +by Rudolf Wall in his comedy, _Miss Garibaldi_. But while years went +on, the women had worked in silence. + +Great therefore was the surprise of the doctor and John when they found +their article in the _Aftonbladet_ so altered that it seemed in favour +of the movement. "The editor is under the thumbs of women," said the +doctor, and thereby the matter was explained. + +Meanwhile John's theatrical career approached a crisis. He had been +sent into a green room where brandy was drunk and everything was dirty, +to put on his clothes with the supernumeraries. "They want to humiliate +me," he thought, "but patience!" + +Now he was simply appointed as supernumerary in one opera after the +other. He declared that he feared neither the footlights nor the +public after having preached in church, but it was no good. The worst +was, having to lounge about at the rehearsals for hours together with +nothing to do. If he read a book, he was told he had no interest in the +play, and if he went away, an outcry was raised. + +In the Theatrical Academy roles were merely learnt by heart. Children +who had only gone through an elementary school, began to read Goethe's +_Faust_, naturally without understanding anything of it. But curiously +enough, their very boldness saved them; they got on so well that one +was inclined to think there was no need for an actor to understand +anything, if only he could say his piece fluently. After a few +months John was sick of it all. It was all mechanical. The greatest +actors were blas and indifferent, never spoke of art, but only of +engagements and honorariums. There was no trace of the gay life behind +the scenes, of which so much had been written. They sat silent waiting +for their turns to come; the dancers and actresses in their costumes, +sewing and stitching. In the lobby the actors went about on tip-toe, +looked at the clock and put on their false beards, without speaking a +word. + +One evening, when _Maria Stuart_ was being acted, John sat alone in +the lobby reading a paper. The actor Dahlqvist, who was taking the +part of John Knox, came in. John, who cherished a deep admiration +for the great actor, stood up and bowed. If he could only speak with +such a man. He trembled at the very thought. Knox, with his venerable +long white hair, his black dress, and his great eyes half-sunk in his +powerful deeply-lined face, sat down at the table. He yawned. "What is +the time?" he asked in a sepulchral tone. John answered that it was +half-past ten, unbuttoning his Burgundian velvet jacket to look for the +watch which was not there. + +"The time is going devilish slow this evening," said Knox and yawned +again. Then he began to retail bits of gossip. He was only a ruin of +his former greatness when his acting of Karl Moor had cast all his +rivals into the shade. He too had seen through everything and was weary +of it all. And yet he had once thought so highly of his art. + +Since John had now the right of free entrance into the theatre he +tried to study acting from the auditorium. But behold! the illusion +was gone! There was Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, there was the +background for _Quentin Durward_, there sat Hgfelt, and there behind +the scenes, stood Boberg. There was no further possibility of illusion. + +He was sick of the wretched rle which he had to repeat continually. +But he also felt remorse and feared that he could not retire from the +game honourably. At last he plucked up courage and demanded a leading +part. The piece in which it occurred had already been performed fifty +times, and the chief actors were tired of it, but they had to come. The +rehearsal took place without costumes or scenery. John was accustomed +to the declamatory manner usual then, and shouted like a preacher. It +was a failure. After the rehearsal the head of the theatrical academy +pronounced his verdict and advised John to enter it for a course of +training, but he would not. He wept for rage, went home and took an +opium pill which he had long kept by him, but without effect; then a +friend took him out and he got intoxicated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + +(1869) + + +The next morning he felt in a state of complete collapse. His nerves +still trembled and his body felt the fever of shame and intoxication. +What should he do? He must save his honour. He must still hold out +for two or three months and try again. That day he remained at home +and read _The Stories of a Barber-Surgeon_. As he read it seemed +to him that they recorded his own experience; they were about the +reconciliation of a step-son to his step-mother. The breach in +his domestic life had always weighed upon him like a sin, and he +longed for reconciliation and peace. That day this longing took an +unusually melancholy form, and as he lay on the sofa, his brain began +to evolve various plans for smoothing away the domestic discord. A +woman-worshipper as he then was, and under the influence of the book he +had been reading, he thought that only a woman could reconcile him with +his father. This noble rle he assigned to his step-mother. + +While thus tying on the sofa he felt an unusual degree of fever, +during which his brain seemed to work at arranging memories of the +past, cutting out some scenes, and adding others. New minor characters +entered; he saw them mixing in the action, and heard them speaking, +just as he had done on the stage. After one or two hours had passed, +he had a comedy in two acts ready in his head. This was both a painful +and pleasurable form of work if it could be called a work; for it went +forward of itself, without his will or co-operation. + +But now he had to write it. In four days the piece was ready. He kept +on going from the writing-table to the sofa and back; and in the +intervals of his work, he collapsed like a rag. When the work was +finished, he drew a deep sigh of relief, as though years of pain were +over, as though a tumour had been cut out. He was so glad, that he felt +as though some one was singing within him. Now he would offer his piece +to the theatre;--that was the way of salvation. The same evening he +sat down to write a note of congratulation to a relative who had found +a situation. When he had written the first line, it seemed to him to +read like a verse. Then he added the second line which rhymed with the +first. Was it no harder than that? Then with a single effort he wrote a +four-page letter in rhyme and discovered that he could write verse. Was +it no harder than that? Only a few months before he had asked a friend +to help him with some verses for a special occasion. He had, however, +received a negative but complimentary answer, in being told not to +drive in a hired carriage, when he had one of his own. + +One was not then born to write verses, he said to himself, nor did one +learn it, though all kinds of verse-measures were taught in school, +but it came,--or did not come. It seemed to him like the working of +the Holy Spirit. Had the psychical convulsion, which he had felt at +his defeat as an actor, been so strong that it had turned upside down +all the strata of his memories and impressions, and had the violent +impulse set his imagination to work? There had doubtless been a long +preparation going on. Was it not his imagination, which had conjured up +pictures, when as a child he had been afraid of the dark? Had he not +written essays in school and letters for years? Had he not formed his +style through reading, translating and writing for the papers? Yes, he +had, but it was not till now that he noticed in himself the so-called +creative power of the artist. + +The art of the actor was therefore not the one suited to his powers; +his having thought so was a mistake which could easily be rectified. +Meanwhile he must keep his authorship fairly secret and remain at the +theatre till the end of the season, so that his failure as an actor +might not be known, or at any rate till his piece was accepted, as it +naturally would be, for he thought it good. + +But he wished to make sure of it, and for that purpose invited two +of his learned friends outside the theatrical circle. In the evening +before they came, he arranged the lumber-room which he had hired in +the doctor's house. He tidied it up, lighted two candles instead of +the study lamp, covered the table with a clean cloth and set on it a +punch-bowl with glass, ash-trays and matches. This was the first time +he had entertained guests, and the experience was novel and strange. + +The work of an author has often been compared to childbirth, and the +comparison has something to justify it. He felt a kind of peace like +that which follows parturition; something or some one seemed to be +there which, or who, was not there before; there had been suffering and +crying and now there was silence and peace. He felt in a festival mood +as he used to do in the old times at home; the children were in their +Sunday best, and their father in his black frock coat cast a last look +round on the arrangements before the guests came. + +His friends arrived and he read the piece through in silence till the +end. They gave their verdict, and John was greeted by his elders as an +author. + +When they had gone, he fell on his knees on the floor, and thanked +God for having delivered him from difficulty and bestowed on him the +gift of poetry. His communion with God had been very irregular; it +was a curious fact, that in cases of great necessity he rallied his +powers within himself and did not cry to the Lord at all; but on joyful +occasions, on the other hand, he involuntarily felt the need of at once +thanking the Giver of all good. It was just the contrary to what it had +been in his childhood, and that was natural since his idea of God had +developed into that of the Author and Giver of all good things, whereas +the God of his childhood had been a God of terror whose hand was full +of misfortunes. + +At last he had found his calling, his true rle in life and his +wavering character began to develop a backbone. He had a pretty good +idea now of what he wanted, and this gave him at least a rudder to +steer by. Now he pushed off from land to go for a long voyage, but +always ready to tack when he encountered too strong a head wind,--not, +however, to fall to leeward, but the next moment to luff his ship up to +the wind with bellying sails. + +By writing this comedy, he had now relieved himself of his domestic +troubles. He next described the religious conflicts he remembered so +vividly in a three-act play. This lightened the ship considerably. + +His creative energy during this period was immense. He had the writing +fever daily; within two months he composed two comedies and a rhymed +tragedy, besides occasional verses. The tragedy was his first real +"work of art," as the phrase is, for it did not deal with any of his +subjective experiences. "Sinking Hellas" was the not inconsiderable +theme. The composition was finished and clear, but the situations were +somewhat threadbare, and there was a good deal of declamation. The +only original elements in it were an austere moral tone and contempt +for uncultured demagogues. Thus, for instance, he introduced an old +man inveighing against the immorality and want of patriotism of the +youth of the time. He made Demosthenes speak disparagingly of a +demagogue, and express something of what he had felt towards the master +chimney-sweep and pawnbroker on the journey to Copenhagen. The head +of the Theatrical Academy also got a rap over the knuckles because +he had often lamented over John's "lack of culture." The piece was +aristocratic in tone, and the freedom celebrated in it was that which +was the object of aspiration in the sixties,--national freedom. + +Meanwhile he had sent his domestic comedy anonymously to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. While it was under consideration, he +went on cheerfully with his work as supernumerary actor. "Just you +wait!" he said to himself, "then my turn will come and I shall have a +word to say in the matter." He was now quite cool on the stage, and +felt, even when dressed as a peasant youth in _Wilhelm Tell_, like a +prince in disguise. "I am certainly no swineherd, though you may think +so," he hummed to himself. + +He had to wait long for an answer about his piece. At last he lost +patience and revealed himself as the author to the head of the +Theatrical Academy. The latter had read the piece and found talent in +it, but said it could not be played. This was not a great blow for him, +for he still had the tragedy in reserve. That was better received, but +he was told it needed remodelling here and there. + +One evening when the Academy closed, the head instructor expressed a +wish to speak with John. "Now we see what you are good for," he said. +"You have a fine career in front of you; why should you choose an +inferior one? You can become an actor probably if you work for some +years, but why toil at this thankless task? Go back to Upsala and take +your degree if you can. Then become an author, for one must first have +experiences in order to write well." + +To become an author,--that John agreed with, and also with the +suggestion that he should give up the theatre; but as for returning to +Upsala,--no! He hated the university, and did not see how the useless +things one learnt there could help him as an author; he rather needed +to study life at first hand. But then he began to reflect, and when +he considered that, at present, he could get no piece of his accepted +so as to serve as a plank to save himself by, he grasped at the other +straw,--Upsala. There was no disgrace in becoming a student again, and +at the theatre they knew that he was not only an unsuccessful dbutant, +but also an author. + +At the same time he learnt that there was a legacy due to him from his +mother of a few hundred kronas. With them he could support himself for +a half-year at the university. He went to his father, not as a prodigal +son, but as a promising author, and as a creditor. There was a vehement +dispute between them which ended in John receiving his legacy. He had +now conceived the plan of a tragedy with the startling title "Jesus of +Nazareth." It dealt in dramatic form with the life of Christ, and was +intended, with one blow and once for all, to shatter the divine image +and eradicate Christianity. But when he had completed some scenes, he +saw that the subject-matter was too great and would demand prolonged +and tedious study. + +The theatrical season now approached its end. The Theatrical Academy +gave their customary stage performance. John had received no rle in +it, but undertook the task of prompter. And his career as an actor +closed in the prompter's box. To this was reduced his ambition of +acting Karl Moor on the stage of the Great Theatre! Did he deserve this +fate? Was he worse equipped for acting than the rest? That was probably +not so, but the question was never decided. + +In the evening after the performance, a dinner was given to the +Academy pupils. John was invited and made a speech in verse in order +to make his exit seem as little like a fiasco as possible. He became +intoxicated, as usual, behaved foolishly and disappeared from the +scene. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "RUNA" CLUB + +(1870) + + +The Upsala of the sixties showed signs of the end and dissolution of a +period which might be called the Bostrmic.[1] In what relation does +the philosophic system which prevails in a given period stand to the +period itself? The system seems like a collection of the thoughts of +the period at a particular point of time. The philosopher does not +make the period, but the period makes the philosopher. He collects all +the thoughts of his period and thereby exercises an influence on it, +and with the close of the period his influence ends. The Bostrmic +philosophy had three defects; it wished to be definitely Swedish; +it came too late; and it wished to outlive its period. To attempt +to construct a purely Swedish philosophy was absurd, for that meant +trying to break loose from the connection with the great mother-stem +which grows on the Continent and only sends out seeds towards the +Northern peninsula. The attempt came too late, for time is necessary to +construct a system, and before the system was constructed, the period +had passed. Bostrm, as a philosopher, was not, as it were, shot out +of a cannon. All knowledge is collecting-work, and is coloured by +the personality of the collector. Bostrm was a branch grown out of +Kant and Hegel, watered by Biberg and Grubbe, and finally producing +some offshoots of his own. That was all. He seems to have derived +his fundamental principle from Krause's Pantheism, which itself was +an attempt to unite the philosophy of Kant and Fichte with that of +Schelling and Hegel. This eclecticism had been already attempted by +Grubbe. Bostrm first studied theology, and this seemed to have a +hampering effect on his mind when he wrote about speculative theology. +His moral philosophy he derived from Kant. To call him an original +philosopher is provincial patriotism. His influence did not reach +beyond the frontiers of Sweden, nor did it outlast the sixties. His +political system was already antiquated in 1865, when the students out +of reverence for the philosopher, had still to declare, conformably to +his textbook, that the representation of the four estates was the only +reasonable one--a doctrine which was subsequently contradicted in the +college lectures. + +How did Bostrm come by such an idea? Can one draw an inference from +the accidental circumstance that he, a poor man's son from Norrland, +came into too close touch with King John and his court, in his capacity +of tutor to the princes? Could the philosopher escape the common lot +of generalising in _certain_ respects, from his own predilections and +current time-sanctioned ideas? Probably not. Bostrm as an idealist +was subjective--so subjective that he denied reality an independent +existence, declaring that, "to be is to be perceived (by men)." The +world of phenomena therefore, according to him, exists only in and +through our perceptions. The error of the deduction was overlooked, and +it was a double one. The system rested on an unproved assumption, and +had to be corrected; it is true that the phenomenal world only exists +for its through our perception, but that does not prevent its existing +for itself without our perception. In fact science has demonstrated +that the earth already existed with a very high degree of organic life, +before any one was there to perceive it. + +Bostrm broke with ecclesiastical Christianity, but, like Kant and +the later evolutionist philosophers, retained Christian morality. +Kant had been arrested in the bold progress of his thought by a want +of psychological knowledge, and had simply laid down as axioms the +categorical imperative and the practical postulate. The moral law, +which depends on the epoch and changes with it, received in his system +quite a Christian colouring as God's command. Bostrm was still +"under the law"; he judged the moral worth or baseness of an action +simply by its motives; according to him the only satisfactory motive +is that regard for the spiritual nature of duty which is revealed in +conscience. But there are as many consciences as there are religions +and races; therefore his moral system was quite sterile. + +Bostrm's importance for theological development only consisted in +his coming forward against Bishop Beckman in the discussion regarding +the doctrine of hell (1864), although that doctrine had recently been +rejected by the cultivated with the assistance of the rationalists. +On the other hand Bostrm was obstructive in his pamphlets _The +Irresponsibility and Divine Right of the King_ and _Are the Estates of +the Realm Justified in Resolving on and Carrying Out the Change in the +So-called (!) Representation of the People_? (1865). + +In his capacity as an idealist, Bostrm is, for the present generation, +not only without significance, but positively reactionary. He is +nothing but a necessary link in the worthless reactionary philosophy +which followed with such fatal obscurantism the "illuminative" +philosophy of the eighteenth century. He has lived and is dead. Peace +to his ashes! + +Literature ought to be another barometer for testing the atmosphere of +any given period. And in order to be that, it must be free to deal with +the questions of that period; but this, the then prevailing sthetic +theories forbade. + +Poetry ought to be and was (according to Bostrm) a recreation like the +other fine arts. Under such a theory and influenced by the prevalent +idolatry of the "ego," poetry became merely lyrical, expressing +the poet's small personal feelings and inclination, and reflecting +therefore only some of the features of the period, and those perhaps, +not the most important. Only two names in the poetry of the sixties +were of importance--Snoilsky and Bjrck. Snoilsky was "awake," to use +a pietistic expression, Bjrck was dead. Both were born poets, as the +saying is; that is to say, their talents showed themselves earlier +than usual. Both attained distinction while still at school, early won +honour and renown, and by birth and position were enabled to view life +from its sunny heights. Snoilsky, without knowing it, was under the +power of the spirit of the new age. Freed from the fear of hell and +monkish morality, experiencing the retrenchment of his privileges as a +nobleman, he gave free play both to mind and body. In his first poems +he was a revolutionary and praised the cap of liberty; he preached the +emancipation of the flesh and had a certain dislike to over-culture as +a conventional restraint. But as a poet, he did not escape the poet's +tragic destiny--not to be taken seriously. Poetry in the eyes of the +public, was simply poetry, and Snoilsky was a poet. Bjrck had a mind +which was not capable of receiving strong impressions. At peace with +himself, languid, complete from the beginning, he lived his life sunk +in his own reflections or noticed only the trifling events of the +outer world and described them neatly and correctly. In the opinion of +the great majority who live the peaceful life of automata his poetry +shows a remarkable degree of philanthropy. But why does not this +philanthropy extend itself further to large circles of men, and to +humanity at large? In the writer's opinion Bjrck's philanthropy does +not extend beyond the limits of the personal quiet which the individual +attains when he ignores the duties of social life. He is satisfied +with the world because the world has been kind to him; he avoids +strife because it disturbs his own serenity. Bjrck is an example of +the fortunate man whose life is not in conflict with his upbringing, +but who rather builds up stone by stone, on the foundation already +laid; everything proceeds in a workmanlike way by level and rule; the +house is finished, as it was designed, without the plan undergoing any +alteration. Stunted by domestic tyranny, tasting early the sweets +of homage and reverence, he ceased to grow. He accepted Bostrm's +compromise with Christianity without examining it, and in doing so, he +had finished his life-work. His poetry is especially praised for its +purity and spiritual character. What is this "purity" which in our +days is so sharply contrasted with the sensual? The secret is, that he +did not get her; just as Dante's heavenly love for Beatrice was due to +the same involuntary cause. Bjrck therefore sang of the unattainable +with the quiet melancholy of unsatisfied love. But that, however, is no +virtue, and purity should be a virtue. + +In short, Bjrck and Snoilsky sang of water and drank wine, and in this +were just the opposite to the poets of our time, who are said to sing +of wine and drink water. A poet's life always seems to be at variance +with his teachings. Why? Is it that, in composing, he wishes to escape +from his own personality, and find another? Is it a wish to disguise +himself? Or is it modesty, the fear of giving himself away, and of +self-exposure? This is a weighty problem for future psychologists to +unravel. + +Bjrck composed poems both for the reformation of the constitution +in 1865, and for the restoration to power of the King. He saw harmony +everywhere, and when he celebrated the restored union between Sweden +and Norway in 1864, he was extremely melodious. He also praised +Abraham Lincoln; negro-emancipation and white slavery--that is the +ideal of freedom of the Holy Alliance! Revolution certainly, but legal +revolution by the will of God! Well, he knew no better, and few did at +that time. Therefore we do not judge the man but only his work, the +motives inspiring which are a matter of indifference to posterity. + +Young men read these poets, many of them with great edification. +They proclaimed no new era, but prophesied after the event that +now the millennium was come, the ideal realised, and lines of +demarcation obliterated once for all. They looked with satisfaction +on their creations, rubbed their hands, and found them all good. An +atmosphere of peace had spread itself over the whole of Upsala and +its neighbourhood; now one might sleep till Doomsday was the belief +of old and young. But then discordant sounds began to be heard, and +in the days of universal peace fire-beacons began to be seen on the +neighbouring mountain-tops. From Norway open water was signalled +and the revolving lights were kindled. Rome captured Greece, but +Greece re-captured Rome. Sweden had captured Norway, but now Norway +re-captured Sweden. Lorenz Dietrichson was appointed as professor +at the university of Upsala in 1861, and he was the forerunner of +Norwegian influence. He made Sweden acquainted with Danish and +Norwegian literature, then almost unknown, and founded the literary +society which produced poets like Snoilsky and Bjrck. + +After Norway had broken loose from the Danish monarchy and had ceased +to be a branch of the head office in Copenhagen, it was not grafted +into Sweden but retreated into itself. At the same time it opened +direct communication with the continent. Its awakening to independence +was coincident with a strong stream of foreign influence. It was +Bjrnson who first roused Norway to self-consciousness; but when this +degenerated into a narrow patriotism, Ibsen came with the pruning +shears. + +As the strife became fiercer and Christiania would not lend itself +to be a field of battle, the conflict was transferred to hospitable +Sweden. The Norwegian wine was well adapted for exportation; pamphlets +grew in size as they travelled and in Sweden became literature. +Thoughts came to the top and personalities settled at the bottom of +the vessel. Ibsen and Bjrnson broke into Sweden; Tidemand and Gude +took prizes in the art exhibition of 1866; Kierulf and Nordraak were +authorities in singing and music. Then came Ibsen's _Brand_. This had +appeared in 1866, but John did not see it till 1869. It made a deep +impression on the primitive Christian side of him, but it was gloomy +and severe. The final utterance in it regarding "Deus caritatis" was +not satisfying, and the poet seemed to have had too much sympathy with +his hero to have described his overthrow with cold irony. + +_Brand_ gave John a good deal of trouble. He (Brand) had dropped +Christianity but kept its stern ascetic morality; he demanded obedience +for his old doctrines though they were no more practicable; he despised +the tendency of the time towards humanity and compromise, but ended by +recommending the God of compromise. Brand was a fanatic, a pietist, +who dared to believe himself right against the whole world, and John +felt himself related to this terrible egoist who was wrong besides. No +half-measures! go straight on; break down everything that stands in the +way, for you only are right! John's tender conscience, which suffered +at every step he took lest it should vex his father or friends, was +stupefied by Brand. All ties of consideration and of love should be +torn asunder for the sake of "the cause." That John was no longer a +pietist was a piece of good fortune, otherwise he too would have been +overwhelmed by the avalanche.[2] But Brand gave him a belief in a +conscience which was purer than that which education had given him, and +a law which was higher than conventional law. And he needed this iron +backbone in his weak back, for he had long periods during which by +fits and starts and out of mildness he thought himself wrong, and the +first who came, right; therefore, he was also very easily misled. Brand +was the last Christian who followed an old ideal, therefore he could be +110 pattern for one who felt a vague inclination to revolt against all +old ideals. + +_Brand_ after all was a fine plant, but without any roots in its own +period; and, therefore, it belonged to the herbarium. Then came +_Peer Gynt_. This was rather obscure than deep and had its value as +an antidote against the national self-love. The fact that Ibsen was +neither banished nor persecuted after having said such bitter things +against the proud Norwegians, shows that in Norway they were more +honourable fighters than the Swedes afterwards showed themselves to be. + +Ibsen was at that time regarded as a misanthrope and as an enemy and +envier of Bjrnson. People were divided into two camps, and the dispute +as to which of the two was the greater was endless, for it concerned an +artistic problem--"contents or form." + +The influence of Norwegian on Swedish poetry has been great and partly +beneficent, but there was a peculiarly Norwegian element in it, which +was not adaptable to Sweden, a land with quite another development. +In the sequestered valleys of Norway there lived a people who, under +the pressure of need and poverty, found ready to their hand in the +Christian doctrine of renunciation an ascetic philosophy which promised +heaven as a compensation for earth's hardships. Nature in her most +gloomy and parsimonious aspect, a damp climate, long winters, great +distances between the villages,--all co-operated to preserve an +austere medival type of Christianity. There is something which may +be said to resemble insanity in the Norwegian character, of the same +kind as the English "spleen;" and possibly the intimate relations of +Norway with the hypochondriacal islanders may have impressed traces +on its civilisation. In Jonas Lie's _Clair-voyant_ this melancholy +is depleted, and in it one finds the same weird atmosphere as in the +Icelandic sagas, and the theme also is similar,--the struggle of the +spirit against physical darkness and cold. There we have depicted +the tragic lot of the Norseman banished from sunny lands to gloomy +wildernesses, and seeking relief by emigration, the ethnographical +significance of which has been overlooked in view of its economical +aspect. The Norwegian character is the result of many hundred years of +tyranny, of injustice, of hard struggling for a livelihood, of want of +gladness. + +Swedish literature should have avoided absorbing these national +peculiarities, but they have made it half-Norwegian. Brand still haunts +Swedish literature with his ideal demands, with which the romanticised +and cheerful Swede cannot sincerely sympathise. Therefore this foreign +garb suits him so badly; therefore modern Swedish music sounds so +unharmonious, like an echo of the violins of Hardanger, tuned over +again by Grieg; therefore the talk of greater moral purity sounds +discordant in the mouth of the vivacious Swede. He has not suffered +from long oppression and does not need to seek himself in the past; +melancholy has not so beset him in his open flat land of lakes and +rivers, and therefore a sour mien becomes him ill. + +When the Swedes received great and novel ideas by way of Norway or +direct from the Continent through Ibsen and Bjrnson, they should have +kept the kernel and thrown away the Norwegian husk. Even the _Doll's +House_ is Norwegian. Nora is related to the Icelandic women who wished +to set up a matriarchate; she belongs to the weird imperious women in +_Hrmnnen_ who again are pure Norse. In them the emotions have become +frozen or distorted by centuries of cognate marriages. + +The whole Swedish literature of feminism is ultra-Norwegian; it +contains the same immodest demands on the man and petting of the spoilt +woman. Several young authors have introduced the Norwegian style into +Swedish; one authoress has placed the scene of her book in Norway, and +made her hero talk Norwegian! Further one could not go! + +Let us welcome foreign influence which is cosmopolitan; but not +Norwegian, for that is provincial, and we have plenty of the same kind +ourselves. + + * * * * * + +So John found himself again in Upsala,--the same Upsala from which he +had fled nine months before, and to which he most unwillingly returned. +To be compelled to a course which he did not wish always made him feel +as though he were encountering a personal foe, who cajoled him out of +his wishes and antipathies, and forced him to bend. Since he still +believed himself under God's personal providence, he accepted that as +though it were for his best. Later on he had a feeling that there was +a malignant power; this developed into the belief that there were two +ruling powers, one good, one evil, which divided the empery, or ruled +alternately. + +He asked himself again, "What have you to do here?" To take his degree, +but especially to cover his retreat from the theatre. Privately he +wished to write a play, and, under the screen of its success, wriggle +out of the examination. + +At first he was not at all comfortable in his lonely attic. He had +become accustomed to luxury, a large room, a good table, attendance +and society. After having been habituated to be treated as a man and +to have intercourse with older and cultivated people, he found himself +again in a state of pupilage as a student. But he cast himself into +the crowd and soon found himself on social terms with three distinct +circles. The first consisted of friends whom he met by day, who were +students of medicine and natural history and atheists. From them he +heard for the first time the name of Darwin; but it passed by him like +a doctrine for which he was not yet ripe. His evening society consisted +of a priest and a lawyer with whom he played cards till deep in the +night. He considered himself now in Upsala merely to grow and get +older, and that it was a matter of indifference what he did, as long as +he killed the time. He drew up the scheme of a new tragedy, Eric XIV, +but found it poor, and burnt it, for his faculty of self-criticism had +awakened and was severer in its demands. + +Later on in the term he entered a third society, which formed his +special circle during the whole of his time at Upsala and for a long +while afterwards. One evening he chanced to meet a young companion +with whom he had been a pupil at the private school. They discussed +literature, and over a glass of toddy made the plan of forming some +young poets into a club for literary work. The plan was carried out. +Besides John and the other founder of the club, four young students +were elected to it. They were fine young fellows of an idealist turn of +mind, as the saying is, with high purposes and enthusiastic for vague +ideals. They had not yet come into contact with the hard realities of +life; they had all well-to-do parents, no cares, and knew nothing at +all of the struggle for a subsistence. John, on the other hand, had +just left the most unpleasant surroundings; he had seen people who +were always ready to quarrel, conceited, empty-headed pupils of the +Theatrical Academy. Here he found himself transplanted into an entirely +new world. There were these happy youths going to their well-supplied +tables, smoking fine cigars, taking walks, and poetising beautifully +over the beauty of life which they knew nothing of. + +Rules were drawn up for the club, which received the name "Runa," +_i.e_. "song." The choice of this title was probably due to the +Northern renaissance which came in with the Scandinavian movement. +Its chief ornaments were Karl XV in poetry, Winge and Malmstrm in +painting, and Molin in sculpture. Recently it had been quickened by +Bjrnson's and Ibsen's dramas on subjects from the old Norse life. +The study of Icelandic, which had been newly introduced into the +university, also lent strength to this movement. + +The number of members of the club was not to exceed nine; each of +them was known by a Runic sign. John was called "Fr" and the other +founder of the club, "Ur." Every variety of opinion was represented. +Ur was a great patriot and venerated Sweden with its memories. In his +opinion it had the most brilliant history in Europe, and had always +been free. For the rest he was a practically minded man with a special +faculty for statistics, politics, and biography; he was a severe and +clever critic, and also managed the affairs of the club. He was a +reliable friend, good company, helpful and hearty. Secondly, there +was a full-blooded romanticist who read Heine and drank absinthe--a +sensitive youth enthusiastic for all old ideals, but especially for +Heine. There was also a seraph who sang of the indescribably little, +especially the happiness of childhood; fourthly, a silent worshipper of +nature, and, lastly, an eclectic philosopher and improvisator, who had +an extraordinary faculty for improvising in any style whatever, when +requested. Two minutes after he had been asked, he would stand up and +speak or sing on the spur of the moment in the character of Anacreon, +Horace, the Edda, or any one else, and even in foreign languages. + +The first meeting of the club was at Thurs', who was lodged the most +comfortably in two rooms and had the best pipes. As one of the founders +of the club John first of all read his prologue, which, according +to the rules of the society, had to be in verse. It began by asking +after the ancient bard Brage and his harp which was now silent. Brage +represented the new Norse element, the resuscitation of which was +believed necessary. The whole programme of the idealists was called +"a trivial striving." All the great efforts of their contemporaries +after reality and for the improvement of the conditions of life was +"trivial." The spirit was taken prisoner in matter, and therefore +all that was material was to be regarded as the enemy. Such was the +teaching of the romanticists, and of John's prologue. Then the poet +went out into nature, listened to the bells of the cathedral, the +wind, the pines, and the singing of the birds in order to ask the very +natural question: "Nature sings; why should I then be silent?" He +resolved to be no longer silent but to sing,--about the joyous youthful +spring-time of life, its autumn, and about love to one's native soil. +Then (he said) came the wise man with the frozen heart, took his song, +dissected it and found that it was all nonsense. Thus the song was +killed by "overwiseness." + +It is not easy to say exactly now what John meant by "overwiseness" +in 1870. He probably had simply forebodings of future critics, and +the "wise man" was no other than the reviewer. Then he inveighed +against the wretched mercenary souls who worship the golden calf but +do not love songs. This had no connection with contemporary matters, +for the sixties were remarkable for bad harvests and consequently +for want of gold. The swindles by company-promoters began with the +seventies. But it was the custom of the contemporary poets to attack +money and the golden calf, and therefore John did so in his prologue. +Now began a life of poetic idleness. Every evening they met either in +a restaurant, or in each other's rooms. But the time was not wasted +in view of his future authorship. John could borrow books from the +well-stocked libraries of his friends, and the interchange of opinions +accustomed him to look at literature from different points of view. But +for them real life, public interests, contemporary politics did not +exist; they lived in dreams. Sometimes his lower-class consciousness +awoke, and he asked himself what he had to do among these rich youths. +But he soon stilled these scruples by drink and talk, and encouraged +himself to go forward and demand something of life, for he had in his +companions' opinion a good chance. + +His room was a wretched one; the rain came through the roof, and he had +no proper bed, but only a plank-bed, which in the day-time served as a +sofa. When time hung heavily on his hands and he grew weary of poetical +discussions he looked up his old school-fellow, the natural history +student. There he looked through the microscope, and heard of Darwin +and the new scientific views. His friend gave him well-meant practical +advice and recommended him to get out of his difficulties by writing a +one-act play in verse for the Theatre Royal. + +John objected that his dramatic talent had not scope enough in one act, +and said that he would rather write a tragedy in five. + +"Yes, but it is harder to get that accepted," replied his friend. +Finally he let himself be persuaded and determined to carry out a +small idea he had of a short play based on Thorwaldson's first visit +to Rome. His friend lent him books on Italy and John set to work. In +fourteen days the piece was ready. + +"That will be acted," said his friend. "It has dramatic points, you +see." + +Since it was still a long time to the next meeting of the club, John +hastened in the evening to Thurs and Rejd and read the piece to them. +They were both of the same opinion as the natural history student, +that the piece would be performed. They had a champagne supper, and +kept drinking till the morning, and then went to sleep on the floor of +Rejd's room with the punch-glasses by them. In a couple of hours they +awoke, finished their half-empty glasses at sunrise and went out to +continue the celebration of the occasion. + +The sympathy of John's friends was hearty, unselfish and warm, without +a trace of envy. He always remembered with pleasure this first success +as one of the brightest recollections of his youth. The enthusiastic, +devoted Rejd increased Hohn's debt of gratitude by copying out the +piece in his graceful hand-writing. Then it was sent to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. Spring arrived and they spent the +month of May in a continual carouse. The club had a small room in the +restaurant Lilia Frderfvet for their evening suppers. There they +talked, made speeches, and drank enormously. At last the term ended and +they had to part, but they arranged to meet once more at Stockholm, +and celebrate the festival day of the club by an excursion into the +country. + +At six o'clock one June morning the four members of the club met at +Skeppsholm, where they had hired a rowing-boat. The chest of the club, +a card-board box containing documents, was stowed away with baskets of +provisions and bottles of wine. After Os and Rejd had taken the oars, +they steered the boat to the canal leading through the Zoological +Gardens, in order to reach the place they had appointed, a promontory +of Liding Island. Thurs played airs on the flute to Bellmann's songs, +and Fr (John) accompanied him on a guitar which he had learnt to play +at Upsala. + +As soon as they landed, breakfast was laid in a meadow by the shore. +The club-chest adorned with leaves and flowers was set in the middle +of the table-cloth, and on it were set the brandy-bottles and glasses. +John, who had studied antiquities for his play, _Sinking Hellas_, +arranged the meal in the Greek style, so that they wore garlands, and +ate reclining. A fire was lit between some stones and coffee was made. +At nine o'clock in the morning they drank brandy and punch. + +John read his drama, _The Free-thinker_, which was duly criticised. +Then they gave full course to their eloquence. Thurs was the best +speaker; he could express emotions and thoughts rhythmically. Poems +were read and received with applause. John sang folk-songs to the +accompaniment of his guitar, some on sentimental subjects, and some on +improper ones. At noon they were still in high spirits but inclined to +be sleepy. + +In the afternoon when the sun was over Lilia Vrtan they had a short +sleep, and then the carouse passed into a new phase. Thurs, the +Israelite, had recited a poem on the greatness of the North, and called +on the old gods of Scandinavia. Ur, the patriot, denied him the right +to appropriate other people's gods. The Jewish question came up; they +took fire and nearly quarrelled, but ended by embracing. + +Then began the sentimental stage. They had to weep, for alcohol has +this effect on the membranes of the stomach and the lachrymal duets. +Ur first felt this and unconsciously sought for a melancholy subject. +He burst into tears. When asked why, he did not know, but said at last +that he had been treated as a buffoon, which he always was. He declared +that he had a very serious nature and that he also had great troubles +which no one knew about, but now he unburdened his heart and told us a +domestic story. After he had done so, he became cheerful again. + +But the evening was long and they began to wish to go home. Their +brains were empty; they were tired of each other, and weary of play +and drinking. They began to reflect and examine the philosophy of +intoxication. From whence do men derive this desire to make themselves +senseless? What lies behind it? Is it the southern exile's longing +for a lost sunny existence in northern lands? There must be some felt +necessity underlying intoxication, for a vice like this would not +have laid hold of all mankind without reason. Is it that the member +of society in a state of intoxication throws away all the lies of +society? For the laws of social intercourse involuntarily forbid one to +speak out all one's thoughts. Otherwise whence comes the saying, _In +vino veritas_? Why did the Greeks honour Bacchus as one who improved +men and manners? Why did Dionysus love peace, and why was he said +to increase riches? Has wine, which is chiefly drunk by men, some +influence on the development of man's intelligence and activity, so +that he becomes superior to woman? And why do the Muhammadans who drink +no wine stand on what is regarded as a lower level of civilisation? +As salt is used as a daily nutrient to replace the salts which their +hunting forefathers found in the blood of beasts of the chase, does not +wine compensate for some lost nutritive matter belonging to earlier +stages, and, if so, which? Some idea or necessity must underlie so +singular a custom. + +Perhaps the need of losing consciousness justifies the axiom of the +pessimists that consciousness is the beginning of suffering. Wine makes +one naive and unconscious as a child; or even as an animal. Is it +the lost paradise which one wishes to recover? But the remorse which +follows it? Remorse and acidity of the stomach have the same symptoms. +Is there then a confusion, and are sensations called "remorse" which +are only heart-burn? Or does the drinker returned to consciousness +regret that he has exposed himself by daylight and betrayed his +secrets? There is something to feel remorse for in that! He is ashamed +that he has been taken by surprise, he feels afraid because he has +exposed himself and given away his weapons. Remorse and fear are close +neighbours. + +Yet once more the members of the club drowned their consciousness in +drink and then got into the boat to proceed home. John and Thurs began +a dispute about Bellmann[3] which lasted till they reached Skeppsholm, +and closed with sharp remarks on both sides. + +John had an old grudge against this poet. Once as a child, he had been +ill for a whole summer, and had by chance taken Bellmann's _Fredman's +Epistles_ out of his father's book-case. The book seemed to him silly, +but he was too young to form a well-grounded opinion on it. Later on, +it sometimes happened that his father sat at the piano, and hummed +Bellmann's songs. The boy found it incomprehensible that his father and +uncle admired them so much. Subsequently one Christmas he saw a violent +controversy break out between his mother and his uncle on the subject +of Bellmann. The latter set the poet above everything--Bible, sermons +and all. There were depths, he said, in Bellmann. Depths indeed! +Probably Atterbom's romanticist one-sided criticism had filtered +through the daily papers to the middle classes. As a school-boy and +student, John had sung "Up, Amaryllis" and other idylls of Bellmann's, +naturally without understanding them or thinking of the meaning of the +words. He sang in a quartette, or choir, for it sounded well. Finally, +in 1867, he read Ljunggren's lectures and a light broke upon him, but +not one of Ljunggren's kindling. He thought the latter mad. Bellmann +was a ballad-singer, that was true, but a great poet, the greatest poet +of the North?--impossible! + +Bellmann had sung his songs composed on the French model for the +Court and his own friends, but not for the common people, who would +not have understood "Amaryllis," "Eol," "The Tritons," "Frja" and +all the rococo stock-in-trade. He died and was forgotten. Why had +he been disinterred by Atterbom? Because the pugnacious romantic +school required an embodiment of irregularity to set up against the +classicists, as they had nothing of their own to boast of. Thus the +romantic school gained the day; and when one considers how cowardly +most people are in the face of public opinion, and the tendency of the +middle-class to ape its superiors and reverence authority, one ceases +to be surprised at the elevation of Bellmann. Ljunggren and Eichhorn +outstripped Atterbom in finding beauty and genius in his writings they +were reinforced by the clerical element, and thus the idol was set up +for worship. Bystrom, the sculptor, had already magnified the little +lottery-secretary and court-poet into a Dionysus and lent him the +features of an antique bust of Bacchus. + +Bellmann's idylls are careless, extemporised compositions with forced +rhymes, and as disconnected as the thoughts in the brain of a drunkard. +One does not know whether it is day or night, the thunder rolls in the +sunshine, and the weaves beat while the boat is floating calmly on the +waters. They simply provide a text for music, and for that purpose +one might use a book of addresses. The meaning of the words does not +matter, as long as they sound well. + +According to his custom Thurs took the matter personally. It was an +attack on his good taste and on his honour, for John said that his +admiration of Bellmann was mere humbug; that he had read himself into +it, and that it was not genuine. Thurs on the other hand declared John +to be presumptuous, because he wished to criticise the greatest Swedish +poet. + +"Prove that he is the greatest," said John. + +"Tegner and Atterbom say so." + +"That is no proof." + +"Simply because you have a spirit of contradiction." + +"Doubt is the beginning of certainty, and absurd assertions must arouse +opposition in a healthy brain." + +And so on. + +Although there is no such thing as a judgment which holds good +universally, since every judgment is individualistic, there are, on the +other hand, judgments of a majority and of a party. By means of these +John was suppressed and kept silence on the subject of Bellmann for +many years. Only when later on the old historian Fryxell proved that +Bellmann was not the apostle of sobriety which Eichhorn and Ljunggren +had made him out to be, and also no god, but a mediocre ballad-singer, +did John see a gleam of hope that his individual opinion might become +some day the opinion of the majority. But he already saw the question +from another point of view; Sweden would have been neither unhappier +nor worse, if Bellmann had never lived. He would like to have said to +the patriots and democrats, "Bellmann was a poet of Stockholm and of +the Court, who jested very cruelly with poor people." He would like +to have said to the Good Templars who sang Bellmann's songs, "You are +singing drinking songs which were written during fits of intoxication +and celebrate drink." For his own part, John held that Bellmann's +songs were pleasant to sing because of the light French melodies which +accompanied them, and as for their French morality it did not vex him +at all--quite the contrary. But earlier, at the age of twenty-one, he +was vexed by it, for he was an idealist and desired purity in poetry, +just as the surviving idealists and admirers of Bellmann do at the +present time. + +These have used the word "humour" to save themselves and their +morality. But what do they mean by "humour"? Is it jest or earnest? +What is jest? The reluctance of the cowardly to speak out his mind? +Humour reflects the double nature of man,--the indifference of the +natural man to conventional morality, and the Christian's sigh over +immorality which is after all so enticing and seductive. Humour speaks +with two tongues,--one of the satyr, the other of the monk. The +humorist lets the mnad loose, but for old unsound reasons thinks that +he ought to flog her with rods. This is a transitional form of humour +which is passing away, and already at the last gasp. The greatest +modern writers have thrown away the rod, and play the hypocrite +no longer, but speak their minds plainly out. The old tippler's +sentimentality can no longer count for "a good heart," for it has been +discovered to be merely bad nerves. + +After arguing till they were weary, the members of the club landed in +Stockholm harbour. + +[1] Bostrm: Swedish Philosopher (1797-1866). + +[2] _Vide_ the end of _Brand_. + +[3] Famous Swedish poet. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BOOKS AND THE STAGE + + +The history of the development of a soul can be sometimes written by +giving a simple bibliography; for a man who lives in a narrow circle +and never meets great men personally, seeks to make their acquaintance +through books. The fact that the same books do not make the same +impression, nor have the same effect upon all, shows their relative +powerlessness to convert anybody. For example, we call the criticism +with which we agree good; the criticism which contradicts our views is +bad. Thus we seem to be educated with preconceived views, and the book +which strengthens, expresses and develops these makes an impression +on us. The danger of a one-sided education through books is that most +books, especially those composed at the end of an era, and at the +university, are antiquated. The youth who has received old ideals from +his parents and teachers is accordingly necessarily out of date before +his education is completed. When he enters manhood, he is generally +obliged to fling away his whole stock of old ideas, and be born again, +as it were. Time has gone by him, while he was reading the old books, +and he finds himself a stranger among his contemporaries. + +John had spent his youth in accumulating antiquarian lore. He knew all +about Marathon and Cannae, the war of the Spanish succession and the +Thirty Years' War, the Middle Ages and antiquity; but when the war +between France and Germany broke out, he did not know the cause of it. +He read about it as he would have read a play, and was interested to +see what the result of it would be. + +In Kristineberg, where he spent the summer with his parents, he lay +out on the grass in the park and read Oehlenschlger. For his degree +examination, he had, besides his chief subject--sthetics,--to +choose a special one, and, enticed by Dietrichson's lectures, he had +chosen Danish literature. In Oehlenschlger he had found the summit +of Northern poetry. That was for him the quintessence of poetry,--the +directness which he admired perhaps for the very reason that he had +not got it. The Danish language perhaps also contributed to this +result; it seemed to him an idealised Swedish, and sounded like his +mother-speech from the lips of a woman worshipped from afar. When he +read Oehlenschlger's _Helge_, Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_ seemed to him +petty; he found it unwieldy, prosaic, clerical, unpoetic. + +Oehlenschlger's dramas were a book which had an influence on John by +way of a supplementary contrast. Perhaps the romantic element in them +found an echo in the youth's mind, which had now awoken* to poetic +activity, and looked upon poetry and romance as identical. Other +contributory circumstances were his liking for Norse antiquities which +Oehlenschlger had just discovered, and the unrequited love he had +just then for a blond maiden who was engaged to a lieutenant. But the +impression made by Oehlenschlger was only fleeting, and hardly lasted +a year; it was a light spring breeze which passed by. + +It fared worse with John's study of sthetics as expounded by +Ljunggren in two closely printed volumes, containing the views of all +philosophers on the Beautiful, but giving no satisfactory definition of +it. + +John had studied the antique in the National Museum, and asked himself +how the pot-house scenes of the Dutch genre painters which, when +they occurred in reality, were called ugly, could be reckoned among +beautiful pictures, although they were in no way idealised. To this the +sthetic philosophers gave no answer. They shirked the question and +set up one theory after another, but the only excuse they could find +for the admission of ugliness was that it acted as a foil, and provided +a comic element. But a strong suspicion had been aroused in John that +the "Beautiful" was not always beautiful. + +Furthermore, he was troubled by doubts whether it was possible to +have independent standards of taste. In the newly-founded paper, the +_Schwedische Zeitschrift_, he had read discussions about works of +art, and seen how disputants on both sides defended their position +with equally strong arguments. One sought beauty in form, another in +subject, and a third in the harmony between the two. Accordingly a +well-painted subject from still life can rank higher than the Niobe, +for this group of statuary is not beautiful in its outlines, the +arrangement of the drapery of the principal figure being especially +tasteless although the judgment of the majority regards the work as +sublime. Therefore the sublime does not necessarily consist in beauty +of form. + +Victor Hugo's romances had found a fertile soil in John's mind. The +revolt against society; the reverence paid to Nature by the poet living +on a lonely island; the scorn for the ever-prevalent stupidity; the +indignation against formal religion and the enthusiasm for God as the +Creator of all,--all that was germinating in the young man's mind began +to grow, but was stifled by the autumn leaf-drifts of old books. + +John's life in the domestic circle was now a quiet one. The storms +had subsided; his brothers and sisters were grown up. His father, who +still always sat over his account-ledgers, calculating the ways and +means of providing for his flock of children, had become older, and +now perceived that John was also older. They often discussed together +topics of common interest. As regards the Franco-German War they were +both fairly neutral. As Latinised Teutons they did not love the German. +They hated and feared him as a sort of uncle with a right of seniority +against the Swedes, and they did not forget that victorious Prussia had +once been a Swedish province. The Swede had become more French than he +was aware, and now he felt conscious of his relationship to _la grande +nation_. In the evenings when they sat in the garden and the noise of +traffic had ceased, they heard the singing of the Marseillaise from +Blanch's caf, and the hurrahs which were soon to be silent. + +In August, when the theatres re-opened, John received the long-desired +news that his play had been accepted for the stage. That was the first +intoxicating success which he had experienced. To have a play accepted +at the Theatre Royal when he was only twenty-one was sufficient +compensation for all his misfortunes. His words would reach the public +from the first stage in the land; his failure as an actor would be +forgotten; his father would see that his son amid all his notorious +fluctuations had chosen right, and all would be well. In autumn, before +the university term began, the piece was performed. It was naive, +pious and full of reverence for art, but had one dramatic scene which +saved it in spite of its slightness--Thorwaldsen about to shatter +the statue of Jason with his hammer. But on the other hand the piece +contained a presumptuous outburst against contemporary rhymers. What +was the author's intention in that? How could a beginner who had so +many forced rhymes himself, cast a stone at another? It was a piece +of temerity which found its own punishment. John stole to the bottom +of the third row of seats to view the performance of his piece from a +standing position. Rejd was already there before him and the curtain +was up. John felt as though he stood under an electric machine. Every +nerve quivered, his legs shook, and his tears ran the whole time from +pure nervousness. Rejd had to hold his hand in order to quiet him. +Now and then there was applause, but John knew that it was mostly from +his relatives and friends, and did not let himself be deceived. Every +stupidity which had inadvertently escaped him now jarred on his ear, +and made him quiver; he saw nothing but crudeness in the piece; he felt +so ashamed that his ears burned; before the curtain fell he rushed away +out into the dark market-place. + +He felt as though annihilated. The attack on the priests was stupid and +unjust; the glorification of poverty and pride seemed to him false, his +description of the relationship between father and son was cynical. How +could he have shown off in this absurd way? It seemed to him as though +he had exposed his nakedness, and shame overpowered every other feeling. + +On the other hand he found the actors good; the _mise en scne_ was +more appropriate than he had expected. Everything was good except the +piece itself. He wandered down to the Norrstrom, and felt inclined +to drown himself. What most annoyed him was that he had so openly +exhibited his feelings. Whence came that? And why should one in general +be ashamed of such exhibitions? Why are the feelings so sacred? Perhaps +because the feelings in general are false, as they only express a +physical sensation, in which personality of the individual does not +fully participate. If it is really so, then John was ashamed as an +ordinary man, to have been untruthful in his writing and to have worn +disguise. + +To be moved at the sight of human suffering is regarded as a mark of +fine feeling and meritorious, but it is said to be only a natural +reflex-movement. One involuntarily transfers the sufferings of the +other to oneself and suffers for one's own sake. Another's tears could +bring one to weep just as another's yawning could make one yawn. That +was all. John felt ashamed that he had lied and caught himself in the +act, though the public had not caught him. + +No one is such a merciless critic as a dramatist who sees his own play +acted. He lets no single word pass through his sieve. He does not lay +the blame on the actors, but generally admires them for rendering his +stupidities with such taste. John found his play stupid. It had lain +by for half a year, and perhaps he had outgrown it. Another piece was +performed after it which lasted for two hours. During the whole time +he wandered about the streets in the darkness, feeling ashamed of +himself. He had made an appointment to drink a glass with some friends +and relatives after the performance in the Htel du Nord, but remained +away. He saw they were looking for him but did not wish to meet them. +So they went in again to see the second play. At last it was over. The +spectators streamed out and dispersed through the streets. He hastened +away in order not to hear their comments. + +At last he saw a single group standing under the portico of the +dramatic theatre. They were looking out in all directions and called +him. Finally he came forward as pale and melancholy as a corpse. + +They congratulated him on his success. The play had been applauded and +was very good. They repeated to him the verdicts of other spectators +and quieted him. Then they dragged him to a restaurant and compelled +him to eat and drink. "That will do you good, you old death's-head!" +said a shop-assistant. John was soon pulled down from his imaginative +flight. "What have you got to be melancholy for," he was asked, "when +you have had a play acted by the Theatre Royal?" He could not tell +them. His boldest ambition was fulfilled; but it was probably not +what he wanted. The thought that in any case it was an honour did not +comfort him. + +The next morning he went into a shop, and bought the morning paper +and read a criticism to the effect that the piece was written in +choice language, and (since it was anonymous) probably by a well-known +art-critic who had moved among artistic circles at Rome. That was +pleasant and cheered his spirits. + +At noon he started for Upsala. His father had engaged a room for him +in a boarding-house, kept by the widow of a clergyman, that he might +complete his studies under proper supervision. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TORN TO PIECES + + +John's entrance into the boarding-house secured for him intercourse +with a large and varied circle,--perhaps too varied. There were +students of all ages, of all subjects, and from all districts, from +clergymen who were reading for their last examination to young medical +and law students. There were also ladies in the house, and John was +for the eighth time in love. Again the object of his affections +was unattainable, being engaged to another. The variety of this +social intercourse overloaded his brain with impressions from all +circles; his personality became relaxed and distracted through the +self-adaptation and compromises with other people's views which are +necessary in society. Besides this a great deal of drinking went on +nearly every evening. On one of the first days after his arrival +appeared a criticism of his play in one of the evening papers. It was +very sharp but just, and therefore hit John hard. He felt stripped +and seen through. The critic said that the author had concealed his +insignificant personality behind a great name--Thorwaldsen--but +that the disguise did not avail him and so on. John felt altogether +bankrupt. In such cases one tries to defend oneself, and he compared +his own with other bad plays, which the same severe critic had +praised. He felt treated unjustly, and indeed when compared with others +it was so, but not when he was regarded by himself alone. The fact that +the critic was worse did not make his piece better. + +John became shy and averse to company. This was increased by the +students' club starting a paper in which they made merry over him and +his play. He fancied he saw grimaces and contempt everywhere, and went +preferably by back streets on his walks. + +Then there came a yet severer blow. A friend had, on his own account, +published one of John's first plays,--the _Free-thinker_. While he was +spending an evening with Rejd an acquaintance brought in the hated +evening paper. It contained a scathing article on the play, which was +mocked at and cut to pieces. John was obliged to read the article in +the presence of his friends. He had, against his will, to admit that +the critic was not unjust, but it upset him terribly. + +Why is it so hard to hear the truth from others, while at the same +time one can be so severe against oneself? Probably because the social +masquerade in which we all take part makes every one fear being +unmasked, probably also because responsibility and unpleasantness are +involved in it. One feels oneself overreached and cheated. The critic +who sits at ease and unmasks others would feel himself equally scourged +and exposed if his secrets were betrayed. Social life is honeycombed +with falsity, but who likes to be discovered? That is why at times of +solitude, when the past rises up unescapably, we do not feel remorse +for our faults, but for our follies and necessary cruelties. Mistakes +were necessary and had some use, but follies were merely injurious and +should have been avoided. It is for this reason that men pay greater +honour to intelligence than to morality, for the former is a reality, +the latter an idea. + +Meanwhile John felt the same pains which he imagined a criminal must +feel. He felt impelled to obliterate as soon as possible the impression +made by his stupidity. But he felt also that a kind of injustice +had been done him since he had been criticised simply and solely as +a writer, although his production was a year old, and he himself, +therefore, maturer than it, by a year. But it was not the fault of the +critic that there was an incongruity between the criticism and the +_corpus delicti_. + +He began to compose another tragedy, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_. +This was intended to deal with Christendom in artistic form, and to +handle the same problem and the same questions as his former play. By +"artistic form" at that period was meant the laying of the scene of +the play in a past epoch. John wrote the piece under the influence of +Oehlenschlger and the Icelandic sagas which he had lately read in the +original. + +He had, however, a severe struggle with his conscience, for his father +had exacted a promise from him not to write for the stage till he had +passed his examination. It was, therefore, an act of deceit to take +help from his father and not to fulfil the conditions on which it was +granted. But he silenced his scruples by saying to himself, "Father +will be pleased enough if I have a speedy and great success." In that +he was not far wrong. + +But another element now entered into his life, and had a decided +influence both on his views of things and his work. This was his +acquaintance with two men,--an author and a remarkable personality. +Unfortunately they were both abnormal and therefore had only a +disturbing effect upon his development. + +The author was Kierkegaard,[1] whose book, _Either--Or_, John had +borrowed from a member of the Song Club, and read with fear and +trembling. His friends had also read it as a work of genius, had +admired the style, but not been specialty influenced by it,--a proof +that books have little effect, when they do not find readers in +sympathy with the author. But upon John the book made the impression +intended by the author. He read the first part containing "The +Confessions of an sthete." He felt sometimes carried away by it, but +always had an uncomfortable feeling as though present at a sick-bed. +The perusal of the first part left a feeling of emptiness and despair +behind it. The book agitated him. "The Diary of a Seducer" he regarded +as the fancies of an unclean imagination. Things were not like that in +real life. Moreover John was no sybarite, but on the contrary inclined +to asceticism and self-torment. Such egotistic sensuality as that of +the hero of Kierkegaard's work was absurd because the suffering he +caused by the satisfaction of his desires necessarily involved him in +suffering and, therefore, defeated his object. + +The second part of the work containing the philosopher's "Discourse on +Life as a Duty," made a deeper impression on John. It showed him that +he himself was an "sthete" who had conceived of authorship as a form +of enjoyment. Kierkegaard said that it should be regarded as a calling. +Why? The proof was wanting, and John, who did not know that Kierkegaard +was a Christian, but thought the contrary, not having seen his +_Edifying Discourses_, imbibed unaware the Christian system of ethics +with its doctrine of self-sacrifice and duty Along with these the idea +of sin returned. Enjoyment was a sin, and one had to do one's duty. +Why? Was it for the sake of society to which one was under obligations? +No! merely because it was duty. That was simply Kant's categorical +imperative. When he reached the end of the work _Either--Or_ and found +the moral philosopher also in despair, and that all this teaching about +duty had only produced a Philistine, he felt broken in two. "Then," he +thought, "better be an sthete." But one cannot be an sthete if one +has been a Christian for five-sixths of one's life, and one cannot be +moral without Christ. Thus he was tossed to and fro like a ball between +the two, and ended in sheer despair. + +Had he now read Kierkegaard's discourses, he might possibly have +come a step nearer to Christianity--possibly--for it is difficult to +decide that now, but to receive Christianity again seemed to him like +replacing a tooth which had been torn out, and joyfully thrown into the +fire, along with the accompanying toothache. It was also possible that +if he had known that the book _Either--Or_ was intended to scourge one +to the Cross he might have thrown it away as a jesuitical writing and +been saved from his embarrassment. All that he felt now, however, was +a terrible discord. He had to choose and make the jump between ethics +and sthetics, but choose how? and jump whither? He could not jump +out in space to embrace a paradox or Christ,--that would have been +self-destruction or madness. But Kierkegaard preached madness? Was +it the despair of the over-self-conscious at finding himself always +self-conscious? Was it the longing of one who sees too deeply for the +unconsciousness of intoxication? + +John knew well what the battle between his own will and the will of +others meant. He had given his father trouble enough when he crossed +his plans; but the trouble was mutual; the whole of life consisted of +a web of wills crossing one another. The death of one was life-breath +to another; no one could gain an advantage without hurting the one +he passed by. Life was a perpetual interchange and struggle between +pleasure and pain. His sensuality or desire for enjoyment had not +injured others nor caused them trouble. He had never seduced the +innocent, and had never enjoyed himself without paying the price. He +was moral from habit; from instinct, from fear of the consequences, +from good taste or from education, but the very fact that he did +not feel himself immoral, was a defect and a sin. After reading +_Either--Or_ he felt sinful. The categorical imperative stole on him +under a Latin name and without a cross on its back, and he let himself +be beguiled by it. He did not see that it was a two-thousand-years-old +Christianity in disguise. + +Kierkegaard would not have made so deep an impression on him, if a +number of concurrent circumstances had not contributed to that result. +In the letters of the sthete, Kierkegaard expounded suffering as +enjoyment. John suffered from public contumely; he suffered from his +hard work; he suffered from unrequited affection; he suffered from +unsatisfied desires; he suffered from drink, for he was intoxicated +nearly every evening; he suffered as an artist from mental struggles +and doubts; he suffered from the ugly scenery of Upsala; he suffered +from the discomfort of his rooms; he suffered from examination-books; +he suffered from a bad conscience because he did not study but wrote +plays. But something else lay at the bottom of all this. He had been +brought up to fulfil hard tasks and duties. Now he lived well amid ease +and enjoyment. Study was an enjoyment; authorship, in spite of all its +pains, was a wonderful enjoyment; the life with his comrades was sheer +festivity and jollity. But his plebeian consciousness awoke and told +him that it was not right to enjoy while others worked; _his_ work was +an enjoyment, for it brought him a good deal of honour, and perhaps +money. This accounted for his persistently uneasy conscience which +persecuted him without a cause. Was it that he felt already the signs +of this awakening consciousness of tremendous guilt as regards the +lower classes, the slaves who toiled, while he enjoyed? Did he already +have a foreboding of that sense of justice, which in our days has laid +so strong a hold on many of the upper classes that they have restored +capital which was not quite honestly earned, have expended time and +toil for the liberation of the lower classes, and have worked from +impulse and instinct against their own interests, in order to do right? +Possibly. + +But Kierkegaard was not the man to resolve the discord. It was reserved +for the evolutionary philosophers to make peace between passion and +reason, between enjoyment and duty. They cancelled the deceptive +_Either_--_Or_, and substituted _Both--And,_ giving both flesh and +spirit their due. The real significance of Kierkegaard became clear +to John many years later. Then he saw in him the simple pietist, the +ultra-Christian who wished to realise in modern society oriental ideals +of two thousand years ago. But Kierkegaard was right in one point: if +we were to have Christianity, we ought to have it thoroughly; but his +_Either--Or_ was only valid for the priests of the church who called +themselves Christians. + +Kierkegaard saw no further, and from him who wrote his book in 1843, +and had a clerical education, one could not expect that he should say: +"Either a Christianity like this, or none!" In that case people would +probably have chosen none. Instead of that Kierkegaard said: "Whether +you are sthetical or ethical you must cast yourself into the arms +of Christ." His mistake was to oppose ethics and sthetics to each +other, for they can go very well together. But John did not succeed +in harmonising them till, after endless struggles, at the age of +thirty-seven, he attempted a compromise when he discovered that work +and duty are forms of enjoyment, and that enjoyment itself, well-used, +is a duty. + +But at that time, the book weighed on him like a nightmare. He was +angry when his friends wished to regard it as mere literature. He was +not pacified by their regarding it superior in richness, depth and +style to Goethe's _Faust_, which it certainly did surpass by far. John +could not at that time understand that the pillar-saint Kierkegaard had +himself known what enjoyment was when he wrote the first part, and that +the seducer and Don Juan were the author himself, who satisfied his +desires in imagination. No, he thought it was poetry. + +John had been already predisposed to receive Kierkegaard's influence, +and now came the other acquaintance, which would not have played a +great rle in his life if circumstances had not prepared him for +that also. His companions merely regarded the person in question as +ludicrous. + +It came about in the following way. Thurs the Jew came one day and told +John that he had made the acquaintance of a genius who wished to join +their Song Club. + +"Ah, a genius!" + +None of the members of the club believed that they were geniuses, not +even John, and it is doubtful whether any poet has really believed +or felt that he was one. One can, when one makes comparisons, find +that one has produced better work than others, and a clever man +will naturally feel that he understands better than others, but +genius,--that is something else. This title is not generally bestowed +on any one till after death and is now dropping out of common use, +since the secret of the evolution of genius has been discovered. + +The novelty aroused attention, and the stranger was elected to the +club under the name of Is. He was not a poet, they were told, but very +learned and a powerful critic. + +One evening when the club-meeting was at Thurs' rooms he came--a +little thin person, without an overcoat, dressed like a labourer on +his holiday. His clothes looked as though they were borrowed, for +their elbows and knees were not in the right places. John, who used +to succeed to his elder brother's clothes, noticed this at once. In +his hand he held a dirty beer-soup-coloured hat, such as is only worn +by organ-grinders. His face looked like that of a southern rat-trap +seller. His black hair hung on his shoulders and a black beard fell on +his breast. + +"Is it possible?" they asked themselves. "Can he be a student?" He +looked forty, but was only thirty. He stood with his hat in his hand +at the door like a beggar, and hardly ventured to come forward. After +Thurs had drawn him into the room and introduced him, the meeting was +declared open. Is began to speak and they listened. His voice was like +a woman's and sank sometimes, without apology, to a whisper, as though +the speaker demanded perfect silence or spoke for his own satisfaction. +It would be difficult to repeat what he spoke of, for his speech ranged +over everything that he had read, and since he had read for ten years +more than the youths of twenty, they found his learning wonderful. + +After that, another member of the club read a poem. Is had to deliver +an opinion on it. He began with Kant, quoted Schopenhauer and +Thackeray, and finished with a lecture on George Sand. No one noticed +that he said nothing about the poem. + +Then they went into a restaurant to eat. Is talked philosophy, +sthetics and history. He spoke sometimes with a melancholy expression +in his dark unfathomable eyes, which never rested on those present, as +though he sought an unseen audience far in the distance, in unknown +space. The club listened reverently with absorbed attention. + +John was to hear this man's opinion on his work. He, as well as one of +the most poetical members of the club, began to have serious doubts as +to their vocation. Often, when they had drunk a good deal, they asked +whether they still believed--meaning whether each thought the Other +called to be a poet. It was just the same sort of doubt which John had +felt when he had wondered whether he was a child of God. Is was to +read John's drama, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_, and to give his +opinion. + +One morning John went up to his room to hear his verdict. Is spoke +till noon. About what? About everything. But he had now taken hold of +John's soul. Through conversations with Thurs, he know which strings to +pull, and did so, as he chose. He burrowed in John's mind, not out of +sympathy, but from a spider-like curiosity. He did not speak directly +of John's play but suggested the plan of a new one after his own ideas. +He had the effect of a mesmeriser, and John was magnetised. But he +felt in a state of despair when he left him, as though his friend had +taken his soul, picked it to pieces and thrown them away after he had +satisfied his curiosity. + +But John came again, sat on the wise man's sofa, listened to his words +as though they were an oracle, and felt himself completely under his +power. Sometimes he thought it was a ghost who walked on the carpet +when his body disappeared in clouds of tobacco-smoke. The man exercised +what is called a "demonic" influence, _i.e_. inexplicable at first +sight. He had no blood in his veins, no feelings, no will, no desires. +He was a talking head. His standpoint was nothing and all at the same +time. He was a decoction of books, and the type of a book-worm who had +never lived. + +Often when the other members of the club were alone, they talked +about Is. Thurs was already tired of him and wondered whether he +had committed some crime, for he seemed driven about by a constant +restlessness. Then it was reported that he was a poet, but never would +show his poems, for he had such a high idea of the poetic art. They +also wondered why no one ever saw a book in the learned man's rooms. +It was also strange that he should seek the company of these youths, +to whom he was so superior, and whose poetry he must despise. They who +were themselves in the full bloom of romanticism did not detect the +anmic romantic who had lost his footing on firm ground. They did not +see in his long hair and shabby hat the copy of Murger's Bohemian; they +did not know that this dilapidated condition was a Parisian fashion; +that this hollow wisdom was a web woven out of German metaphysics; that +this experimental psychology was derived from a peep into Kierkegaard; +and that that interesting air of hinting at uncommitted crimes and +secret griefs was Byronic in origin. All this they did not understand. +Therefore Is could play with John's soul and catch him in his snare. +Yes, John was so thoroughly taken by him that in a speech he called +himself Gamaliel, who sat at Paul's Is's feet to learn wisdom. + +The upshot of it all was that Julm, one fine evening, burnt his new +play. It was the work of three months which went up in flames. As he +collected the ashes, he wept. Is, without saying so directly, had shown +him that he was no poet. So everything was a mistake, this also! Then +he felt in despair, because he had deceived his father and could take +no work home to justify his neglect of his wishes. In a fit of remorse, +and in order to be able to point to some definite result, he entered +his name for the written examination in Latin, without, however, having +written any of the requisite preliminary exercises or essays. The Latin +professor saw his name in the list and did not know it. One Sunday +evening, when John had returned to his rooms in good spirits after a +supper, the university bedell appeared to summon him. John went boldly +to the professor and asked what he wanted. + +"You wish to take the written examination in Latin?" + +"Yes." + +"But I do not see your name on my list." + +"I entered myself before for the medical examination." + +"That has nothing to do with this. You must go by the rules." + +"I know no rules about the three essays." + +"I think you are impertinent, sir." + +"It may seem so----" + +"Out with you, sir!--or----" + +The door was opened, and John was ejected. He swore to himself he +would still go up for the written examination, but the next morning he +overslept himself. + +So even that last straw failed. + +Shortly afterwards one morning a friend came and woke him. + +"Do you know that W. is dead?" (W. sat at the same table in the +boarding-house.) + +"No!" + +"Yes! he has cut his throat." + +John started up, dressed himself, and hurried with his friend to the +Jernbrogatan where W. lived. They rushed up the stairs and came to a +dark attic. + +"Is it here?" + +"No, here!" + +John felt for a door; the door gave way and fell upon him. At the same +moment he saw a pool of blood on the ground. He turned round, let go +of the door, and was at the bottom of the stairs before the door fell +on the ground. This scene shook him terribly and woke his memory. Some +days previously John had gone into the Carolina Park to work at his +play in solitude. W. came up, greeted him, and asked whether he might +bear him company or whether he disturbed him. John answered sincerely +that he did disturb him, and W. went away with a melancholy air. Was +it a case of a lonely drowning man who sought a companion and was +repulsed? John felt almost guilty of his death. But he was not intended +for a comforter. Now the dead man seemed to haunt him; he dared not go +to his room, but slept with his friend. One night he slept with Rejd. +The latter had to keep a light burning and was woken several times in +the night by John, who could not sleep. + +One day Rejd found John with a bottle of prussic acid. He apparently +approved the idea of suicide, but first asked him to take a farewell +drink with him. They went to the restaurant and ordered eight glasses +of whisky, which were brought in on a tray. Each of them drank four +glasses in four pulls, with the desired result that John became dead +drunk. He was carried home, but since the house door was locked, he was +carried over an empty piece of ground and thrown over a fence. There he +remained lying in a snow-drift, till he recovered his senses, and crept +up into his room. + +The last night which he spent in Upsala some days later he slept on a +sofa in Thurs' rooms; his friends kept watch over him, and the room +was lighted up. They watched good-naturedly till morning, then they +accompanied him to the station, and put him in the coup. When the +train had passed Bergsbrunna, John breathed again. He felt as though +he had left something dreadful and weird, like a northern winter night +with thirty degrees of cold, behind him, and registered a vow never +again to settle in this town, where men's souls, banished from life and +society, grew rotten from over-production of thought, were corroded +by stagnant waters which had no outlet, and took fire like millstones +which revolved without having anything to grind. + + +[1] Danish theologian. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IDEALISM AND REALISM + +(1871) + + +When John again reached his parents' house, he felt himself in shelter +like one who has reached land after a stormy sea-passage by night. +Again he had quiet nights in his old tent-bed in the brothers' room. +Here were quiet patient men, who came and went, worked and slept at +stated times without being disturbed by dreams or ambitious designs. +His sisters had grown up into young women and managed the house. All +were at work with the exception of himself. When he compared his +irregular, dissipated life, which knew no rest or peace, with theirs, +he considered them happier and better than himself. They took life +seriously, went about their work and fulfilled their duties without +noise or boasting. + +John now looked up his old acquaintances among the tradespeople, +clerks, and sea-captains, and found intercourse with them novel and +refreshing. They led his thoughts back to reality and he felt firm +ground once more under his feet. At the same time he began to despise +false ideality, and saw that it was vulgar of the students to look down +on the "Philistines." + +He now confessed quite simply and openly to his father, but without +remorse, the wretched life he had led at Upsala, and begged him to let +him stay at home and prepare for his examination there,--otherwise he +would be lost. His father granted permission, and now John prepared his +plan of campaign for the spring term. In the first place he meant to +take lessons in Latin composition with a good teacher in Stockholm, and +then go up in spring, and pass the examination. Furthermore he would +write his disquisition for a certificate in sthetics and prepare for +the examination in that subject. With these resolutions he began a +quiet and industrious manner of life with the new year. + +But the failure of his play the _Free-thinker_ still weighed upon his +mind, and the questions of his friends as to whether they should soon +see something new from him, stirred him up to re-write, in the form +of a one-act play, the drama he had burnt. He finished it, and then +continued his studies. + +Shortly before April he wrote a test-composition for his teacher, who +declared that he would pass. His father did not disapprove of his plan +when he heard that John felt quite confident, but he suggested that it +would be more practical if he conformed to custom and wrote exercises +for the Upsala professor. "No," said John, "it was now a question of +principle and a matter of honour." So he went to Upsala. + +He called on the professor on his at-home day and waited till his turn +for an interview. When the latter saw him, he grew red in the face and +asked: + +"Are you here again?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you want?" + +"I want to go in for the Latin Composition examination." + +"Without having written a test-composition?" + +"I have done that in Stockholm--and I only want to ask whether the +statutes allow me to go up for the examination." + +"The statutes? Ask the dean about that; I only know what I require." + +John went straight to the dean, who was a young, lively and sympathetic +man. John made known his purpose and described what had passed. + +"Yes," said the dean, "the statutes say nothing about the matter, but +old P. can pluck you without their help." + +"Well, we shall see. Will you allow me, Mr. Dean, to go up for the +written examination, that is the question?" + +"Yes, I can't refuse that. You mean then to have your own way?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Arc you so sure about the matter?" + +"Yes." + +"Very well! Good luck to you!" said the Dean, and clapped him on the +shoulder. + +So John went up for the examination and after a week received a +telegram to say that he had passed. Some ascribed this result to +the professor's generosity and disapproved of John's rebellious +procedure; but John considered his success due to his own diligence +and knowledge, although he could not deny that the professor had acted +honourably in not plucking him when he had the power to do so. + +The examination in sthetics was fixed for May. Contrary to all usage +John sent his disquisition by post to Upsala with the written request +that he might stand for the examination. + +His essay was entitled "Hakon Jarl," and treated of Idealism and +Realism. Its object was firstly to convince the professor that +the writer was well-read in sthetics and particularly in Danish +literature, and secondly, to clear up to the writer himself his own +point of view. The essay, in imitation of Kierkegaard, was in the form +of a correspondence between A and B, criticising Oehlenschlger's +_Hakon Jarl_ and Kierkegaard's _Either--Or_. + +At the appointed time John appeared before the professor, who had +the reputation of being liberal-minded, but felt at once that he had +no sympathy with him. With an almost contemptuous air the professor +handed him back his essay and declared that it was best suited for the +female readers of the _Illustrated News_. He further stated that Danish +literature was not a subject of sufficient importance to be taken up as +a special branch of study. + +John felt annoyed, and asserted that Danish literature had greater +interest for Sweden than Boileau and Malesherbes, for example, on whom +students wrote essays. + +His examination then began and took the form of a violent argument. +It was continued in the afternoon and ended by the professor giving +him a certificate which was not so good as he had hoped, and telling +him that university studies could only be properly carried on at the +university. John replied that sthetic studies could be best carried +on at Stockholm where one had the National Museum, Library, Theatre, +Academy of Music and Artists. + +"No," said the professor, "that is nonsense; one ought to study here." + +John let fall some remarks on college lectures, and they parted, not as +particularly good friends. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A KING'S PROTG + +(1871) + + +During the whole of this time, John had been on pleasant terms with his +father, and the old man had shown himself to a certain extent willing +to be educated, but his tactless pride sometimes broke out and annoyed +John. The latter, who was now continually at home, spent many evening +hours with the old man in conversations on all sorts of subjects, and +finally on religion. One day John spoke for half-an-hour about Theodore +Parker, so that his father at last expressed a wish to read some of +him. He kept the book for several days, but said nothing, and John +found it again in his room. His father was too proud to acknowledge +that he liked the book, but John learned through one of his brothers +that he was especially delighted with the famous sermon "On Old Age." + +In the matter of John's opposition to the professor, his father +vacillated. His opinion was that right was always right, but he did +not like the disrespectful way in which John spoke of the professor. +Meanwhile John saw that he had won the game and that his father had a +lively interest in his success. + +But one day in spring John went into the country, telling the servant +that he would be absent for the day. When he returned the next morning +he had an unpleasant reception. + +"You go away without telling me?" + +"I told the servant." + +"I require you to ask permission of me as long as you eat my bread." + +"Ask permission! What nonsense!" + +John departed, borrowed three hundred kronas from a friendly tradesman, +and then with three of his club associates went to one of the islands +near Stockholm, where they hired rooms in a fisher's house at a rent +of thirty kronas per month. No one tried to stop him, and probably +this crisis was occasioned by the fact that John was exercising a +perceptible influence on his father, brothers and sisters in matters +concerning domestic arrangements. The mistress of the house feared that +the power would be taken out of her hands. + +He spent the summer in strenuously working for his examination, for +he had now no hope of receiving further supplies from home. It was +a healthy and ascetic life with innocent amusements. He went about +in dressing-gown, drawers and sea-boots, and the toilette of his +companions was still more scanty. They bathed, sailed, fenced, and +John gave himself over increasingly to a process of decivilisation. +There were almost always spirituous liquors on the table, and John +feared them, for they made him mad. But to this asceticism and industry +succeeded a desire to make converts of others, and a great amount of +self-satisfaction. The latter is always the case, whether the ascetic +feels that in this respect he is better than others, or whether he +makes the sacrifice in order to feel himself better. Therefore he +preached to one brother who drank, and moralised over the others who +did not work, but went to Dalar to dance or to feast. Kierkegaard's +influence was strong upon him; he wished to be moral, and thundered +against stheticism. + +He now studied philology, and went through Dante, Shakespeare and +Goethe. The last he hated because he was an sthete. Behind all, like +a dark background, was the breach with his father. After their life +together during the last winter, he saw him as it were transfigured, +justified him with respect to all that had happened in the past, and +had forgotten all the petty troubles of his childhood. He missed most +of all his brothers and sisters, especially his sisters whom he +had really learnt to know. Toiling with a lexicon and investigating +roots of words had become painful to him, but he enjoyed this pain, +and disciplined his imagination by hard work, looking upon it as his +professional duty. + +Towards the end of the summer he was wild and shy. The clothes, winch +he rummaged out again, were too tight, his collar, which he had not +worn for months, tormented him as though it had been of iron, and his +shoes pinched him. Everything seemed to him constrained, conventional +and unnatural. Once he had been enticed to an evening party at Dalar +but had immediately returned. He was shy and could not bear frivolity +and laughter. This time it was not the consciousness of belonging +to the lower classes, for he had ceased to regard himself as one of +them. Meanwhile the ascetic life he had been leading increased his +will-power and his activity. When the next term at Upsala commenced, +he took his travelling-bag and journeyed thither, without having more +than a krona to call his own, and without knowing where he would find a +room and something to eat. On his arrival he took up his quarters with +Rejd, and set about working. The first evening, feeling half famished, +he looked up Is, who had remained the whole summer alone in Upsala +and seemed more melancholy than usual. His appearance was that of a +shadow, and solitude had made him still more morbid. He went out with +John and invited him to supper at a restaurant. He spoke in his usual +style and mangled his prey, who, on the other hand, defended himself, +struck back, and attacked the sthete. Is contemplated his hungry +companion while he ate, and intoxicated himself with the brandy-bottle. +He adopted a maternal air and offered to lend John money. The latter +was touched, thanked him, and borrowed about ten kronas, for, since he +believed he had a future before him, he borrowed without fear. Finally +Is became drunk and raved. He changed his attitude, called John an +egoist, and reproached him for having taken the ten kronas. + +To be suspected of egotism was the worst thing John knew, for Christ +had taught him that the "ego" must be crucified. His individuality had +grown since it had been freed from pressure and attained publicity. +Conspicuous persons obtain a greater individuality through the +attention they receive, or they attract attention for the simple reason +that they have a greater individuality. John felt that he was working +in the right way for his future; he pressed forward with energy and +will and the help of many friends, but not as a charlatan or schemer. +But Is's accusation struck him in the face, as it must all men who +have an "ego." He wished to return the money, but Is drew himself up +proudly, played the "gentleman" and continued to romance. It struck +John that this idealist was a mean fellow who behaved in this fantastic +way in order to conceal his vexation at the temporary loss of the ten +kronas. + +Now the students returned for the term, and all of them with money. +John wandered about with his travelling-bag and his books, and +discovered how soon a welcome is worn out when one lies upon somebody +else's sofa. He borrowed money to hire a room with. It was a real +rats' nest with a camp-bed without sheets or cushions. No candlestick, +nothing. But he lay in bed in his under-clothes and read by the light +of a candle stuck in a bottle. His friends here and there provided him +with meals. But then came the winter. He used to go out after dark and +buy a quantity of wood, which he carried home in his bag. A scientific +friend taught him how to make a charcoal fire. Moreover, the shaft of +a chimney passed through his room and was warm every washing-day. He +stood beside it with his hands behind him and read out of a book which +he had placed on the chest of drawers, dragging the latter close to +him. In the meantime his drama had been played and coldly received. The +subject-matter was religious. It dealt with heathendom and Christendom, +the former being defended as an epoch-making movement, not as a creed. +Christ was placed on one side and the only true God exalted. The drama +also contained a domestic struggle, and, after the fashion of the +time, women were extolled at the expense of the men. In one passage +the author expressed his opinion as to the position of a poet in life. +"Are you a man, Orm?" asks the duke. "I am only a poet," answers Orm. +"Therefore you will never become anything," is the rejoinder. + +In fact, John believed now that the poet's life was a shadow existence, +that he had no individuality, but only lived in that of others. But is +it then so certain that the poet possesses no individuality because +he has more than one? Perhaps he is richer because he possesses more +than the others. And why is it better to have only one "ego," since +in any case a single "ego" is not more one's own than many "egos," +seeing that even one "ego" is a compound product derived from parents, +educators, social intercourse and books? Perhaps it is for this reason +that society, like a machine, demands that the single "egos" shall act +each like a wheel, screw, or separate piece of the machine in a limited +automatic way. But the poet is more than a piece of a machine, since he +is a whole machine in himself. + +In the drama John had incorporated himself in five persons;--in the +Jarl, who is at war with his contemporaries; in the Poet, who looks +over things and looks through them; in the Mother, who is angry and +revengeful but whose thirst for vengeance is counteracted by her +sympathy; in the Daughter, who for the sake of her faith breaks with +her father; in the Lover, whose love is ill-starred. John understood +the motives of all the dramatis personae; and spoke from their varying +points of view. But a drama written for the average man who has +ready-made views on all subjects, must at least take sides with one +of its characters in order to win the excitable and partisan public. +John could not do this, because he believed in no absolute right or +wrong, for the simple reason that all these ideas are relative. One may +be right as regards the future, and wrong as regards the present; one +may be wrong in one year and right in the next; a father may justify +his son while the mother condemns him; a daughter is right in loving +the man she loves, but in her father's view she is wrong in loving a +heathen. There comes in doubt: Why do men hate and despise the doubter? +Because doubt is the seed of development and progress, and the average +man hates development because it disturbs his quiet. Only the stupid +man is certain; only the ignorant one thinks he has found the truth. +Doubt undermines energy, they say. But it is better to act without +considering the consequences. The animal and the savage act blindly, +obeying desire and impulse; in that they resemble our "men of action"! + +When John returned to Upsala, he was again followed by disparaging +criticisms. To some extent they were true, _e.g._ the assertion that +the form of the piece was borrowed from the _Kongsemnerne,_ but only +to some extent, for John had taken the frigid tone and the rough +phraseology direct from the Icelandic sagas, and the views of life he +expressed were original. Scorn followed him, and he was regarded as a +man who was ambitious of being a poet, the worst suspicion under which +any one can fall. + +But in the midst of his toil and needy circumstances, a week after his +overthrow, there came a letter from the chamberlain of the Theatre +Royal at Stockholm, requesting him to go there immediately as the +king wished to see him. Morbidly suspicious he believed that it was a +practical joke, and took the letter to his wise friend--the student of +Natural History. The latter telegraphed in the evening to a well-known +actor of the Theatre Royal requesting him to ask the chamberlain +whether he had written to John. The latter spent a restless night, +tossed to and fro between hope and fear. The next morning the answer +came that it was indeed so and that John should come at once. He set +off forthwith. + +Why did he, a born rebel, accept the royal favour without hesitation? +For the simple reason that he did not belong to the democratic party; +he had never promised his father or mother not to receive a favour from +the king. Furthermore he believed in the aristocracy or the right of +the best to govern, and he considered the upper classes the best, as +he had shown in his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, in which he expressed +contempt for the demagogues. He hated tyrants, but this king was no +tyrant. Therefore there was no reason for hesitation within him or +without him. Accordingly he travelled to Stockholm and was received in +audience by the king. The latter was just now very ill, and looked so +emaciated as to make a painful impression. He stood with a benevolent +aspect, smoking his long tobacco-pipe, and smiled at the young +beardless author, walking awkwardly between the rows of aide-de-camps +and chamberlains. He thanked him for the pleasure which he had derived +from his drama, adding that he himself when young had competed for an +academical prize with a poem on the Vikings, and was fond of the old +Norse legends. He said that he wished to help the young student to take +his doctor's degree, and closed the interview by referring him to the +treasurer, who had been ordered to make him a first payment. Later on +he would receive more, and the king said he supposed there were still +two or three years to elapse before he took his degree. + +John's immediate future was now secure. He felt gratefully moved by +this kindness on the part of a king who had so many things to think +about. On his return to Upsala, he saw for two months how the court +sunshine had turned him into a star. The official who had paid him, +had asked him whether he thought later on of obtaining a post in some +public department or in the Royal Library. His ambition had never +soared so high and did not yet do so. + +The chief object of human existence seems to be, and must indeed be, to +spend one's life till death in the least unpleasant manner possible. +This aim does not exclude solicitude for the good of others, for +happiness includes the consciousness of not having infringed others' +rights unnecessarily. Therefore ill-gotten wealth cannot secure a +pleasant life, nor can any path which leads over the prostrate bodies +of others. Accordingly Utilitarianism, or the philosophy which aims at +the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is not immoral. + +In spite of all his asceticism John could not help feeling happy. +His happiness consisted in the half-consciousness that he could live +his life without the great anxiety which the insecurity of means +of existence causes. He had been threatened by penury and was now +secure; life had been restored to him, and it is a happy thing to be +able to live before one has done growing. His chest, which had been +narrowed by hunger and over-exertion, broadened itself; his back grew +straighter; life no longer seemed so melancholy. He was contented with +his lot; things took on a more cheerful aspect, and he would have been +ungrateful had he still remained among the malcontents. + +But this did not last long. When he saw his old comrades round him in +a position in which _his_ happiness had effected no change, he found +that there was a want of harmony between them. They had been accustomed +to help him as one in need and now he needed their help no longer. +They had liked him, because they protected him and were accustomed +to see him below them. But when he came upwards, near them and above +them, they found him necessarily altered by altered circumstances. The +necessitous man is not so bold in his opinions nor so stiff in the back +as the prosperous one. He was altered for them, but was he therefore +worse? Self-esteem under other circumstances is generally well thought +of. Enough! He annoyed others by the fact that he was fortunate, and +still more because he wished to help others to be so. + +The present he had received entailed obligations, and John gave +himself diligently to study. He passed his examinations in Philology, +Astronomy, and Political Science, but received in none of these +subjects such a good testimonial as he had expected. He had studied too +much in one way and too little in another. + +In examination time he generally had an attack of aphasia. +Physiologists usually ascribe this weakness to an injury in the left +temple. And as a matter of fact John had two scars above his left eye. +One was caused by the blow of an axe, the other by a rock against which +he had struck himself in jumping down the Observatory hill. He was +inclined to trace to this the great difficulty he had in delivering +public addresses and speaking foreign languages. + +Accordingly, during examinations, he would sit there, unable to give +an answer although he knew more than was asked. Then there came over +him a spirit of defiance, of self-torment, of ill-humour, and he felt +tempted to throw up the whole thing. He criticised the text-books and +felt dishonest in learning what he despised. The rle assigned to him +began to oppress him; he longed to get away from it all to something +else, wherever it might be. It was not that he regarded the king's +present as a benefaction. It was a stipend, a reward for merit, such +as artists at all periods have received for the purpose of carrying +on their self-cultivation. His royal patron was not merely the king +but his personal friend and admirer. Therefore the gift exercised no +kind of restraint upon his rebellious thoughts; he only let himself be +temporarily deceived, and believed that all was right with the world, +because he prospered. His radicalism had been considerably mitigated; +he no longer thought that all which was wrong in the state was the +fault of the monarchy, nor did he believe with the pagans that better +harvests would follow if the king was sacrificed on an idol-altar. His +mother would have wept for joy at his distinction, had she lived, so +strong were her aristocratic leanings. + +All of us, including crown princes, are democrats, inasmuch as we wish +those above us to come down to our level; but when we ascend, we do +not wish to be pulled down. The question is only whether that winch +is "above" us is so in a spiritual sense, and whether it ought to be +there. That was what John began to be doubtful of. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WINDING UP + +(1872) + + +At the beginning of the spring term, John took up his quarters with an +elder comrade in order to continue his studies. But when he had again +the old books before him which he had already studied so long, he felt +a distaste for them. His brain was full of impressions, of collected +literary material, and refused to take in any more; his imagination +and thought were busily at work and would not let memory be alone +active; he had fits of doubt and apathy and often remained the whole +day lying on the sofa. Then the desire would sometimes awake to be +altogether free and to plunge into the life of activity. But the royal +stipend held him fast in fetters and imposed on him obligations. Having +received it, he was bound to go on studying for his doctor's degree, +the course of reading for which he had half completed. So he applied +himself to philosophy, but when he read the history of it, he found all +systems equally valid or invalid, and his mind resisted all new ideas. + +In the literary club there was disunion and lethargy. All their +youthful poems had been read and no one produced any more, so that +they only met together to drink punch. Is had exposed himself, and +after a scene with another member, he had been thrown out. He drew his +knife and got well thrashed. He saved himself from worse by affecting +to treat the affair as a joke, and was now a mere laughing-stock, since +it had been discovered that his wisdom consisted in quotations from the +students' periodicals which the others had not had the wit to utilise. +At the beginning of term an sthetic Society had been founded by the +professor of sthetics, and this made their own literary society, the +"Runa," superfluous. + +At one of the meetings of the former, John's discontent with classical +authorities broke out. He had been drinking that evening and was +half-intoxicated. In conversation with the professor dangerous ground +was touched upon and John was enticed so far out of his reserve as to +declare Dante without significance for humanity and overestimated. John +had plenty of reasons to allege for his opinion, but could not express +them to advantage when the professor set upon him, and the whole +company gathered round the disputants, who were squeezed into a corner +by the stove. He wanted in the first place to say that the construction +of the _Divine Comedy_ was not original, but a very ordinary form which +had already been employed shortly before in the _Vision of Albericus_. +Furthermore his opinion was that in this poem Dante did not reflect +the culture and thoughts of his period, because he was so uncultured +that he did not even know Greek. He was not a philosopher, for he +hampered thought by the fetters of revelation, and therefore he was no +precursor of the Renaissance or the Reformation. He was no patriot, for +he venerated the German empire as established by God. He was at most a +local patriot of Florence. Nor was he a democrat, for he always dreamt +of a union of the empire and the papacy. He did not attack the papacy, +but only individual popes who lived immoral lives, as he himself +had done in his youth. He was a monk, a truly idiotic child of his +age, for he sent unbaptised children to hell. He was a narrow-minded +royalist who put Brutus next to Satan in the deepest hell. He was +entirely wanting in the power of selfcriticism;--while he reckons +ingratitude to friends and betrayal of one's fatherland among the worst +of crimes, he places his own friend and teacher, Brunetto Latini, in +hell, and supports the German Emperor, Henry VII, against his native +city Florence. He had bad literary taste, for he reckoned as the six +greatest poets of the world Homer, Horace, Lucan, Ovid, Virgil and +himself. How could modern critics who were so severe on all scandalous +literature praise Dante, who in his poem cast dishonour on so many +contemporary persons and families? He even scolds his own dear native +city, exclaiming when he finds five nobly-born Florentines in Hell: +"Rejoice! O Florence! for thy name is not only great over land and +sea, but also in hell. Five of thy citizens are in thieves' company; +my cheeks blush at the sight of them. But one thing I know; punishment +will light upon thee, Florence, and may it happen soon!" + +As is usual in such debates, the attacked and the attacker often +changed their ground. John wished to prove to the professor that from +his point of view the _Commedia_ was a political pamphlet, but then +the professor veered round, adopted the enemy's point of view and said +that _he_ should value it as such. Whereupon John answered that it was +exactly as such that he designated it, but not as a magnificent poem +of everlasting value, which the professor had declared it to be in his +lectures. Again the professor changed his ground, and said that the +poem should be judged by the standard of the period at which it was +composed. + +"Exactly so," answered John, "but you have judged it by the standard +of our time and all succeeding times, and therefore you are wrong. But +even with regard to its own time the work is not an epoch-making one; +it is not in advance of its period, but belongs strictly to it, or +rather lags behind it. It is a linguistic monument for Italy, nothing +more, and should never be read in a Swedish university, because the +language is antiquated, and finally because it is too insignificant to +be regarded as a link in the development of culture." + +The result of the controversy was that John was regarded as shameless +and half-cracked. + +After this explosion he was exhausted and incapable of work. The whole +of the life in a town where he did not feel at home was distasteful +to him. His companions advised him to take a thorough rest, for he +had worked too hard, and so, as a matter of fact, he had. Various +schemes again presented themselves to his mind, but without result. +The grey dirty town vexed him, the scenery around depressed him; he +lay on a sofa and looked at the illustrations in a German newspaper. +Views of foreign scenery had the same effect as music on his mind and +he felt a longing to see green trees and blue seas; he wished to go +into the country but it was still only February, the sky was as grey +as sack-cloth, the streets and roads were muddy. When he felt most +depressed, he went to his friend the natural science student. It +refreshed him to see his herbarium and microscope, his aquarium and +physiological preparations. Most of all he found a pleasure in the +society of the quiet, peaceable atheist, who let the world go its way, +for he knew that he worked better for the future, in his small measure, +than the poet with his excitable outbreaks. He had a little of the +artist left in him and painted in oils. To think that he could call up +as if by enchantment a green landscape amid the mists of this wintry +spring and hang it on his wall! + +"Is painting difficult?" he asked his friend. + +"No, indeed! It is easier than drawing. Try it!" + +John, who had already, with the greatest calm, composed a song with a +guitar-accompaniment, thought it not impossible for him to paint, and +he borrowed an easel, colours, and a paint-brush. Then he went home +and shut himself up in his room. From an illustrated paper he copied a +picture of a ruined castle. When he saw the clear blue of the sky he +felt sentimental, and when he had conjured up green bushes and grass +he felt unspeakably happy as though he had eaten haschish. His first +effort was successful. But now he wished to copy a painting. That was +harder. Everything was green and brown. He could not make his colours +harmonise with the original and felt in despair. + +One day when he had shut himself up he heard a visitor talking with his +friend in the next room. They whispered as though they were near a sick +person. "Now he is actually painting," said his friend in a depressed +tone. + +What did that mean? Did they consider him cracked? Yes. He began to +think about himself, and like all brooders came to the conclusion that +he was cracked. What was to be done? If they shut him up, he would +certainly go quite mad. "Better anticipate them," he thought, and as he +had heard of private asylums in the country, where the patients could +walk about and work in the garden, he wrote to the director of one of +them. After some time he received a friendly answer advising him to be +quiet. His correspondent had received information about John through +his friend and understood his state of mind. He told him it was only a +crisis which all sensitive natures must pass through, etc. + +_That_ danger, then, was over. But he wished to get out into active +life when ever it might be. + +One day he heard that a travelling theatrical company had come to the +town. He wrote a letter to the manager and solicited an engagement, +but he received no answer and did not call on the manager. Thus he +was tossed to and fro, till at last fate intervened and set him +free. Three months had passed and he had received no money from the +court-treasurer. His companions advised him to write and make a polite +inquiry. In reply he was told that it had never been his Majesty's +intention to pay him a regular pension, but only a single donation. +However, in consideration of his needy circumstances, by way of +exception, he had made him a grant of 200 kronas, which would shortly +be sent. + +John at first felt glad, for he was free, but afterwards the turn which +affairs had taken made him uneasy, for the papers had stated that +he was the king's stipendiary, and the king had really promised him +a stipend during the year that he must read for his degree. Besides +this the court-marshal had given him a sort of half promise for the +future which could hardly be considered as adequately fulfilled by +a donation of 200 kronas. Different opinions were expressed on the +matter. Some thought that the king had forgotten, others that the state +of his finances did not allow of a further gift, or that his good +wishes exceeded his powers. No one expressed disapproval, and John was +secretly glad, had he not felt a certain disgrace in the withdrawal +of the stipend, so that he might be suspected of having groundlessly +boasted of it. Those who believed that John was in disfavour at court +ascribed this to the fact that he had omitted to wait upon the king +in person when he was in Stockholm at Christmas and the New Year. +Others attributed it to the fact that he had not formally presented +his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, but had simply sent it to the palace, +instead of going with it, which his sense of independence forbade +him to do. Ten years later he heard quite a new explanation of this +disfavour. He was said to have composed a lampoon on the king. But this +was a pure legend, probably the only one of its obscure fabricator +which would reach posterity. Anyhow facts remained as they were and +his resolve was quickly taken. He would go to Stockholm and become +a literary man, an author if possible, should he prove to possess +sufficient capacity for that calling. + +The student who shared his room undertook to pay his return journey, +and alleged as a pretext that John must wait some time in Stockholm +lest the landlord should be uneasy. Meanwhile he could collect enough +money to pay the rent which was due at the end of the term. + +His friends gave John a farewell feast and John thanked them, +acknowledging the obligations which each owes to those he meets in +social intercourse. Every personality is not developed simply out +of itself, but derives something from each with whom it comes in +contact, just as the bee gathering her honey from a million flowers, +appropriates it and gives it out as her own. + +Thus he stepped into life, abandoning dreams and the past to live in +reality and the present. But he was ill-prepared and the university is +not the proper school for life. He felt also that the decisive hour had +come. In a clumsy speech he called the feast a "svensexa," _i.e_. a +farewell supper for a bachelor on the eve of his marriage, for he was +now to be a man and leave boyhood behind; he was to become a member of +society, a useful citizen and eat his own bread. + +So he believed at the time, but he soon discovered that his education +had unfitted him for society, and as he did not wish to be an outlaw +the doubt awoke in him whether society, of which after all school and +university were a part, was not to blame for his education, and whether +it had not serious defects which needed a remedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + +(1872) + + +When John came to Stockholm, he borrowed money in order to hire a +room near the Ladugrdslandet. Always under the sway of sentiment, he +chose this quarter of the town because he always used to walk there +in his childhood on the 1st of May, and the High Street especially +had something of a holiday air about it. Moreover it soon opened into +the Zoological Gardens, which became his favourite place for walks. +The barracks with their drums and trumpets had something exhilarating +about them, and there were fine views over the sea which was close at +hand. There was plenty of light and air. When he went for his morning +walk he could choose his route according to his mood. If he was sad +and depressed, he went along the Sirishofsvgen; if he was cheerful +he turned off to the level ground of Manilla, where the paradisial +rose-valley exhaled joy and delight; if he was despairing and anxious +to avoid people he went out to Ladugrdsgardet, where no one could +disturb his self-communings and his prayers to God. Sometimes, when his +soul was in a tumult, he remained standing by the cross-ways above the +bridge near the Zoological Gardens, irresolute which way to take. On +such occasion a thousand forces seemed to pull him in all directions. + +His room was very simple and commanded no view. It smelt of poverty, +as the whole house did, in which the only person of standing was the +deputy-landlord, a policeman. John began his active career by painting, +out of a sense of need to give his feelings shape and to express them +in a palpable way, for the little letters huddled together on the paper +were dead and could not express his mind so plainly and simultaneously. +He did not think of being a painter in order to exhibit or sell +pictures. To step to the easel was for him just like sitting down and +singing. At the same time he renewed his acquaintance with his friend +the sculptor, who introduced him to a circle of young painters. These +were all discontent with the Academy and the antiquated methods which +could not express their vague dreams. They still preserved the Bohemian +type, so late did the waves of modern ideas beat on the far coasts of +the North. They wore long hair, slouched hats, brilliant cravats, and +lived like the birds of heaven. They read and quoted Byron and dreamt +of enormous canvases and subjects such as no studio could contain. A +sculptor and a Norwegian had conceived the idea of hewing a statue out +of the Dovre rock; a painter wished to paint the sea not merely as a +level, but with such a wide horizon as to show the convex curve of the +globe. + +This took John's fancy. One should give expression to one's inner +feelings and not depict mere sticks and stones which are meaningless in +themselves till they have passed through the alembic of a percipient +mind. Therefore the artists did not make studies out of doors, but +painted at home from their memory and imagination. John always painted +the sea with a coast in the foreground, some gnarled pine-trees, a +couple of rocky islets in the distance and a white-painted buoy. The +atmosphere was generally gloomy, with a weak or strong light on the +horizon; it was always sunset or moonlight, never clear daylight. + +But he was soon woken out of this dream-life partly by hunger, partly +by recollecting the reality which he had sought in order to save +himself from his dreams. + +Although John knew little of contemporary politics, he knew that the +democracy or peasant-class had arrived at power, that they had declared +war on the official and middle classes, and that they were hated in +Upsala. And now he himself was to enter the ranks of the combatants +and attack the old order of things. The only item of the knowledge +which he had brought with him from Upsala which was likely to be useful +here, was the small amount of political science which he had studied. +Of what use were Astronomy, Philology, sthetics, Latin and Chemistry +here? He knew something about the land-laws and communal-laws, but had +no idea of political economy, finance or jurisprudence. When he now +began to look about for a suitable paper to which to attach himself, +it did not occur to him to make use of his old connection with the +_Aftonbladet_, but he wrote for a small evening paper which had lately +appeared, which was regarded as radical and was issued by the New +Liberal Union. The editor held receptions in the La Croix Caf, and +here John was introduced into the society of journalists. He felt ill +at ease among them. They did not think as he did, seemed uncultivated, +as indeed they were, and rather gossiped than discussed important +matters. They certainly busied themselves with facts, but these were +rather trifles than great questions. They were full of phrases, but +did not seem to have a proper command of their material. John, though +against his will, was too much of an academic aristocrat to sympathise +with these democrats, who for the most part had not chosen their +career, but been forced into it by the pressure of circumstances. He +found the atmosphere stifling for his idealism, and came no more to the +receptions after he had done his business, and been invited to write +for the paper. + +He made his dbut as an art-critic. His first criticism concerned +Winge's "Thor with the giants" and Rosen's "Eric XIV and Karin +Monsdotter." The young critic naturally wished to display his learning, +though all he had was what he had picked up in lectures and books. +Therefore his criticism of Winge was a mere eulogy. His remarks chiefly +regarded the subject of the picture as a Norse one and treated in the +grand style. The painters did not like this sort of criticism, as +they considered the only point to be criticised in a work of art was +the execution. "Eric the XIV" he judged from his monomaniacal point +of view, "aristocrat or democrat," and found fault with the incorrect +conception of Gran Persson, whom in his own tragedy _Eric XIV_ +(subsequently burnt) he had represented as an enemy of the nobility and +friend of the people. + +Descended from his own height as a promising student, author and royal +protg to the then less regarded class of journalists, he felt himself +again one of the lower orders. + +After the editor had struck out his learned flourishes, the articles +were printed. The editor told him they were piquant, but advised him +to employ a more flowing style. He had not yet caught the journalistic +knack. + +Then John planned a series of articles in which, under the title +"Perspective," he treated of social and economic questions. In these he +attacked university life, the divisions of the classes, the injurious +over-reading and the unfortunate position of the students. Since the +labour-question at that time was not a burning one, he ventured on a +comparison between the prospects of a student and that of a workman, +declaring the latter to be far better off. The workman was generally +in good health, could support himself at eighteen and marry at twenty, +while the student could not think of marriage and making a livelihood +before thirty. As a remedy he recommended doing away with the final +examination as Jaabaek had already done in Norway, and the transference +of the university to Stockholm in order that the students might have +a chance of earning something during their course. As an example he +adduced the case of modern students at Athens who learn a trade while +they study. This was all clear to him as early as 1872, yet when he +made similar suggestions twelve years later, he was thought to have +conceived them on the spur of the moment. + +At the same time he took an engagement on a small illustrated ladies' +paper and wrote biographical notices and novelettes. The ladies were +very kind, but let him work too hard, and gave him all kinds of +commissions to execute. After he had spent two or three days in paying +visits, dived into a publisher's place of business, read biographical +romances in three or four volumes, made researches in the library, +run to the printing-office and finally written his columns carefully, +setting each person treated of in a proper historical light, and +analysing his career, he received, for all that work, fifteen kronas. +He calculated that this was less pay per hour than a servant earned. +The bread of the literary man was certainty hardly earned, and that +this is the common lot of authors does not make matters better. But the +profession was also despised, and John felt that in social position he +stood below his brothers who were tradesmen, below the actors, yes, +even below the elementary school-teachers. + +The journalists led a subterranean existence, but they styled +themselves "we" and wrote as though they were sovereigns of God's +appointment; they had men's weal or woe in their hand, since the chief +weapon in the struggle for existence in our civilised days is social +reputation. How was it that society had given these free lances such +terrible power without taking any guarantees? But when one comes +to think, what assurance is there for the capacity and insight of +the law-givers in parliament, in the ministry, on the throne? None +whatever! It is therefore the same all round. There were, however, two +classes of newspapers; the conservative, which wished to preserve the +social condition with all its defects, and the liberal, which wished +to improve it. The former enjoyed a certain respect, the latter, none +at all. John instinctively sided with the last, and at once felt that +he was regarded as every one's enemy. A liberal journalist and a +chronicler of scandals were synonymous terms. At home he had heard the +usual phrase that "no one was honourable whose name had not appeared +in the paper _Fatherland_." In the street they had pointed out to him +a man who looked like a bandit, with the mark of a dagger-stab between +his eyes, and said, "There goes the journalist X." In the Caf La Croix +he felt depressed among his new colleagues, but none the less chose to +associate with this unpopular group. Did he choose really? One does not +choose one's impulses, and it is no virtue to be a democrat when one +hates the upper classes and has no pleasure in their company. + +Meanwhile for social intercourse he went to the artists. It was a +strange world in which they lived. There was so much nature among +these men who busied themselves with art. They dressed badly, lived +like beggars--one of them lived in the same room with the servant--and +ate what they could get; they could hardly read, and had no knowledge +of orthography. At the same time they talked like cultivated people, +they looked at things from an independent point of view, were keenly +observant and unfettered by dogmas. One of them four years previously +had minded geese, a second had wielded the smith's hammer, a third +had been a farmer's servant and walked behind the dung-cart, and a +fourth had been a soldier. They ate with knives, used their sleeves as +napkins, had no handkerchiefs and only one coat in winter. However, +John felt at home with them, though of late years he had been +conversant only with cultivated and well-to-do young people. It was not +that he was superior to them, for that they did not acknowledge, nor +was it any use to quote books to them, for they accepted no authority. +His doubts as regards books, especially text-books, began to be +aroused, and he began to suspect that old books may injure a modern +man's thinking powers. This doubt became a certainty when he met one of +the group whom all regarded as a genius. + +He was a painter about thirty years old, formerly a farmer's servant +who had come to the Academy in order to become an artist. After he +had spent some time in the painting school he came to the conclusion +that art was insufficient as a medium for expressing his thoughts, +and he lived now on nothing, while he busied himself by reflecting on +the questions of the time. Badly educated at an elementary school, he +had now flung himself on the most up-to-date books and had a start of +John, since he had begun where the latter had left off. Between John +and him there was the same difference as between a mathematician and +a pilot. The former can calculate in logarithms, the latter can turn +them to practical use. But Mns also was critically disposed and did +not believe in books blindly. He had no ready-made scheme or system +into which to fit his thoughts; he always thought freely, investigated, +sifted and only retained what he recognised as tenable. More free from +passions than John, he could draw more reckless inferences, even when +they went against his own wishes and interests, though with certain +matter-of-course limitations. He was more-over prudent, as indeed he +must have been to have worked himself up from such a low position, +and understood how to be silent as to certain conclusions, which, if +expressed tactlessly and in the wrong place, might have injured him. +As his literary adviser, he had a telegraph-assistant whose knowledge +Mans knew better how to use than its owner himself; the latter had not +a very lively intellect, although in his knowledge of languages he +possessed the key to the three great modern literatures. Passionless +and self-conscious, with a strong control over his impulses, he stood +outside everything, contemplating and smiling at the free play of +thought which he enjoyed as a work of art, with the accompanying +certainly that it was after all only an illusion. + +With both of these John had many friendly disputes. When he drew up +his schemes for the future of men and society he could rouse Mns' +enthusiasm and carry him along with him, but when he had taken his +hearer a certain way with his emotional and passionate descriptions, +the latter took out his microscope, found the weak spot where to +insert his knife, and cut. On such occasions John was impatient and +motioned his opponent away. "You are a pedant," he said, "and fasten +on details." But sometimes it turned out that the "detail" was a +premise the excision of which made the whole grand fabric of inference +collapse. John was always a poet, and had he continued as such +unhindered he might have brought it to something. The poet can speak +to the point like the preacher, and that is an advantageous position. +He can rattle on without being interrupted, and therefore he can +persuade if not convince. It was through these two unlearned men that +John learned a philosophy which was not known at Upsala. In the course +of conversation, his opponents often referred to an authority whom +they called "Buckle." John rejected an authority of whom he had heard +nothing in Upsala. But the name continually recurred and worried him to +such an extent that he at last asked his friends to lend him the book. +The effect of reading it was such that John regarded his acquaintance +with the book as the vestibule of his intellectual life. Here there +was an atmosphere of pure naked truth. So it should be and so it was. +Mns, like all other organised beings, was under the control of natural +laws; all so-called spiritual qualities rest on a material basis, and +chemical affinities are as spiritual as the sympathies of souls. The +whole of speculative philosophy which wished to evolve laws from the +inner consciousness was only a better kind of theology, and what was +worse, an inquisition, which wished to confine the many-sidedness +of the world-process within the limits of an individual system. "No +system" is Buckle's motto. Doubt is the beginning of all wisdom, doubt +means investigation and stimulates intellectual progress. The truth +which one seeks is simply the discovery of natural laws. Knowledge is +the highest, morality is only an accidental form of behaviour, which +depends upon different social conventions. Only knowledge can make men +happy, and the simple-minded or ignorant with their moral strivings, +their benevolence and their philanthropy are only injurious or useless. + +And now he drew the necessary conclusions. Heavenly love and its +result, marriage, is conditioned as to that result by such a prosaic +matter as the price of provisions; the rate of suicide varies with +wages, and religion is conditioned by natural scenery, climate and +soil. His mind was predisposed to receive the new doctrines, and now +they made their triumphant entry. John had always planted his feet +firmly on the earth, and neither the balloon-voyages of poetry nor the +will-o'-the-wisps of German philosophy had found a sincere adherent in +him. He had sat in despair over Kant's _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, +and asked himself with curiosity, whether it was he who was so stupid +or Kant who was so obscure. The study of the history of philosophy, +in which he had seen how each philosopher pointed to his system as +the true one, and championed it against others, had left him amazed. +Now it was clear to him that the idealists who mingle their obscure +perceptions with dear presentations of facts were only savages or +children, and that the realists, who were alone capable of clear +perceptions, were the most highly developed in the scale of creation. +The poets and philosophers are somnambulists, and the religious who +always live in fear of the unknown are like animals in a forest who +fear every rustic in the bushes, or like primitive men who sacrificed +to the thunder instead of erecting lightning rods. + +Now he had a weapon in his hand to wield against the old authorities +and against the schools and universities which were enslaved by +patronage. Buckle himself had run away from school, had never been at +a university, and hated them. Apropos of Locke he remarks, "Were this +deep thinker now alive, he would inveigh against our great universities +and schools, where countless subjects are learnt which no one needs, +and which few take the trouble to remember." + +Accordingly Upsala had been wrong, and John right. He knew that there +were ignorant savants there, and that it was on account of their own +want of culture that the professors of philosophy could teach nothing +but German philosophy. They neither knew English nor French philosophy +for the simple reason that they only understood Latin and German. +Buckle's _History of Civilisation in England_ was written in 1857, but +did not reach Sweden till 1871-72. Even then the soil was not ready for +the seed. The learned critics were unfavourable to Buckle, and the seed +took root only in some young minds who had no authoritative voice. + +"No literature," says Buckle himself, "can be useful to a people, if +they are not prepared to receive it." Thus it was with Buckle and +his work, which preceded that of Darwin (1858) and contained all its +inferences--a proof that evolution in the world of thought is not so +strictly conditioned as has been believed. Buckle did not know Mill or +Spencer, whose thoughts now rule the world, but he said most of what +they said subsequently. + +Now, if John had had a character, _i.e_. if he had been ruled by +a single quiet purpose directed towards one object, he would have +extracted from Buckle all that answered his purpose and left out all +that told against it. But he was a truth-seeker and did not shrink from +looking into the abyss of contradictions, especially as Buckle never +asserted that he had found the truth, and because truth is relative +and it is often found on both sides. Doubt, criticism, inquiry are the +chief matter, and the only useful course to pursue, as they guarantee +liberty. Sermons, programmes, certainty, system, "truth" are various +forms of constraint and stupidity. But it is impossible to be a +consistent doubter when one is crammed full with "complete evidence," +and when one's judgment is swayed by class-prejudice, anxiety for a +living and struggles for a position. John became calm when he learnt +that all that was wrong in the world was wrong in accordance with +necessary law, but he became furious when he made the further discovery +that our social condition, our religion and morality were absurdities. +He wished to understand and pardon his opponents, since in their +actions they were no more free than he was, but he was in duty bound +to strangle them since they hindered the evolution of society towards +universal happiness, and that was the only and greatest crime that +could be committed. But as there were no criminals, how could one get +hold of the crime? + +He was rejoiced that the mistakes had now been discovered, but despair +oppressed him again when he saw that the discovery was premature. +Nothing could be done for many years to come. Social evolution was a +very slow process. Consequently he must lie at anchor in the roadstead +waiting for the tide. But this waiting was too long for him; he heard +an inner voice bidding him speak, for if one does not spread what +light one has, how can popular views be changed? Yes, but a premature +promulgation of new ideas can do no good. Thus he was tossed to and +fro. Everything round him now seemed so old and out of date that he +could not read a newspaper without getting an attack of cramp. _They_ +only had regard to the present moment; no one thought of the future. +His philosophical friend comforted and calmed him, through, among other +sayings, a sentence of La Bruyre, "Don't be angry because men are +stupid and bad, or you will have to be angry because a stone falls; +both are subject to the same laws; one must be stupid and the other +fall." + +"That is all very well," said John, "but think of having to be a +bird and live in a ditch! Air! light! I cannot breathe or see," he +exclaimed; "I suffocate!" + +"Write!" answered his friend. + +"Yes, but what?" + +Where should he begin? Buckle had already written everything, and +yet it was as though it had not been written. The worst thing was +that he felt he lacked the power. Hitherto he had only felt a very +moderate degree of ambition. He did not wish to march at the head, to +be a conqueror and so on. But to go in front with an axe as a simple +pioneer, to fell trees, root up thickets, and let others build bridges +and throw up redoubts, was enough for him. It is often observable that +great ambition is only the sign of great power. John was moderately +ambitious, because he was now only conscious of moderate powers. +Formerly when he was young and strong he had great confidence in +himself. He was a fanatic, _i.e_. his will was supported by powerful +passions, but his awakened insight and healthy doubt had sobered his +self-confidence. The work before him took the form of rock-walls which +must be pulled down, but he was not so simple as to venture on the task. + +Now he began to habituate himself forcibly to doubt in order to be +patient and not to explode. He entrenched himself in doubt as in a +fortress, and as a means of self-preservation he determined to depict +his struggles and doubts in a drama. The subject matter which he had +been turning over in his mind for a year he took from the history of +the Reformation in Sweden. Thus was composed the drama later on known +as _The Apostate_. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE RED ROOM + +(1872) + + +In autumn occurred the death of Charles XV. With the mourning, which +was fairly sincere and widespread, there mingled gloomy anxieties for +the future. One of the young painters who belonged to John's circle of +friends had just received a royal stipend and gone to Norway. He had +now to return quite destitute and without any prospects for the future. +John was accustomed to go with him into the Zoological Gardens in order +to paint, and occupy his mind while he was waiting for an answer from +the theatrical manager to whom he had sent his drama. + +There is indeed no occupation which so absorbs all the thoughts and +emotions so much as painting. John watched and enjoyed the delicate +harmonies of the lines in the branch-formation of the trees, in the +wave-like curves of the ground, but his paint-brush was too coarse to +reproduce the contours as he wished. Then he took his pen and made a +drawing in detail. But when he tried to transfer it to his canvas and +paint it, the whole appeared but a smudge. + +Pelle, on the other hand, was an impressionist and look no notice +of details. He took up the landscape at a stroke, so to speak, and +gave the colours their due value, but the various objects melted into +uncertain silhouettes. John thought Pelle's landscapes more beautiful +than the reality, although he cherished great reverence for the works +of the Creator. After he had wiled away about a month in painting, +he went one evening into the Caf La Croix. The first person he met +was his former editor, who said, "I have just heard from X." (a young +author) "that the Theatre Royal has refused _The Apostate_." + +"I know nothing about it," answered John. He did not feel well and left +the company as soon as possible. The next day he went to his former +instructor to find how the matter stood. The latter began first to +praise, and then to criticise it, which is the right method. He said +that the characters of Olaus Petri and Gustav Wasa had been brought +down from their proper level and distorted. John, on the other hand, +held that he had given a realistic representation of them as they +probably were, before their figures had been idealised by patriotic +considerations. His friend replied that that was no good; the public +would never accept a new reading of their characters till critical +inquiry had done its preliminary work. + +That was true, but the blow was a heavy one, although dealt with as +much consideration as possible, and the author was invited to remodel +his drama. He had again been premature in his attempt. There was +nothing left for him but to wait and wile away the time. To think +of remodelling it now was not possible for him, for he saw, when he +read it through again, that it was all cast in one piece and that the +details could not be altered. He could not change it, unless he changed +his thoughts, and therefore he must wait. + +Now he took to reading again. Chance brought into his hand two of +"the best books which one can read." They were De Tocqueville's +_Democracy in America_ and Prvost-Paradol's _The New France._ The +former increased his doubts as to the possibility of democracy in +an uncultivated community. Written with sincere admiration for the +political institutions of America, which the author holds up as a +pattern for Europe, this work points out so sincerely the dangers of +democracy, as to make even a born hater of the aristocracy pause. + +John's theories received terrible blows, but this time his good sense +triumphed over his prejudices. His loss of faith in his own powers, +however, had a demoralising effect upon him, and he was soon ripe +for absolute scepticism. Sentences such as the following admitted +at that time of no contradiction: "The moral power of the majority +is based partly upon the conviction that a number of men have more +understanding, intelligence and wisdom than an individual, and a +great number of lawgivers more than a selection of them. That is the +principle of equality applied to intellectual gifts. This doctrine +attacks the pride of humanity in its innermost citadel." + +An individualist like John did not perceive that this pride can and +must be overcome. Nor did he see that wisdom and intelligence can be +spread by means of good schools among the masses. + +"When a man or a party in the United States suffers injustice, to whom +shall he turn? To public opinion? That is the opinion of the majority. +To the legislative officials? They are nominated by the majority +and obey it blindly. To the executive power? That is chosen by the +majority and serves it as a passive instrument. To the military forces +of the State? They are simply the majority under arms. To juries? +They are formed by a majority which possesses the right to judge." De +Tocqueville goes on to say that the happiness of the majority which +consists in maintaining its rights deserves recognition, and that it is +better for a minority to suffer from pressure than a majority, but the +sufferings which an intelligent minority suffer from an unintelligent +majority are much greater than those which an intelligent minority +inflict upon a majority. On the other hand, the minority understands +much better than the majority what conduces to their own and the +general happiness, and therefore the tyranny of the minority is not to +be compared with that of the majority. + +"Yes, but," thought John, "did not the European peoples generally +suffer from the tyranny of a minority?" The mere fact that there +were upper classes lay like a heavy cloud on the life of the masses. +Nowadays the question may be raised, "Why should a different +class-education result in an intelligent minority and an unintelligent +majority?" But such questions were not raised then. Moreover had such +a state really ever been seen in which an intelligent minority had the +power to "oppress"? No, for sovereigns, ministers and parliaments had +usually the due modicum of intelligence. + +That which more than anything else inclined John to fear the power of +the masses, was the fact noted by De Tocqueville that they tyrannised +over freedom of thought. + +"When one tries to ascertain," he says, "how much freedom of thought +there is in the United States it becomes apparent how much the tyranny +of the masses transcends any despotism known to Europe. I know no +country where there is, generally speaking, less independence of +opinion and real freedom of discussion than America. The majority +draw a terribly narrow circle round all thought. Within that circle +an author may say what he likes, but woe to him if he step across the +limit. He has no _auto-da-f_ to fear, but he is made the mark for all +kinds of unpleasantness and daily persecutions. Every good quality is +denied him, even honour. Before he published his views, he thought he +had adherents; after he has made them known to all the world he sees +that he no longer has any, for his critics have raised an outcry, +and those who thought as he did, but lacked the courage to express +themselves, are silent and withdraw. He gives way; he finally collapses +under the strain of daily renewed effort, and resumes silence, as +though he regretted having spoken the truth, + +"In democratic republics, tyranny lets the body alone and attacks the +soul. In them the dominant power does not say, 'You must think as I +do, or die;' it says, 'You are free to differ from me in opinion; your +life and property will remain untouched, but from the day that you +express a different view from mine, you will be a stranger among us. +You will retain your rights and privileges as a citizen, but they will +be useless to you. You will remain among men, but be deprived of all +a man's rights. When you approach your equals they will flee you as +though you were a leper; even those who believe in your innocence will +abandon you, lest they should be themselves abandoned. Go in peace! +I grant you life, but a life which shall be harder and bitterer than +death!'" + +That is the true and credible picture which the noble De Tocqueville, +friend of the people and tyrant-hater as he was, has drawn of the +tyranny of the masses, those masses whose feet John had felt trampling +on him at home, at school, in the steamer and the theatre, those +masses whom he had satirised in the play _Sinking Hellas_, and whom +he had described as throwing the first stone at Olaus Petri just at +the moment when he was preaching to them of freedom! If it is thus in +America, how can one expect anything better in Europe. He found himself +in a cul-de-sac. His hereditary disposition prevented his becoming an +aristocrat, nor could he come to terms with the people. Had he not +himself suffered lately from an ignorant theatre-management behind +which stood the uncultivated public, and found the way blocked for +his new and liberal ideas. There was then already a mob-despotism in +Sweden, and the director of the Theatre Royal was only their servant. + +It was all absurdity! And even suppose society were ruled by those who +knew most. Then they would be under professors with their heads full of +antiquarian ideas. Even if the director had put his drama on the stage, +it would have certainly been hissed off by the tradesmen in the stalls, +and no critics could have helped him! + +His thoughts struggled like fishes in a net, and ended by being caught. +It was not worth the trouble of thinking about and he tried to banish +the thought, but could not. He felt a continual trouble and despair +in his mind that the world was going idiotically, majestically and +unalterably to the devil. "Unalterably," he thought, for as yet a large +number of strong minds had not attacked the problem, which was soluble +after all. Ten years later it was provisionally solved, when knowledge +on the subject of this sphinx-riddle had been so widely spread that +even a workman had obtained some insight into it, and in a public +meeting had declared that equality was impossible, for the block-heads +could not be equal to the sharp-sighted, and that the utmost one could +demand was equality of position. This workman was more of an aristocrat +than John dared to be in the year 1872, though he belonged to no party +which claimed the right to muzzle him. + +Prvost-Paradol had dealt with the same theme as Tocqueville, but +he suggested a secret device against the tyranny of the masses--the +cumulative vote or the privilege of writing the same name several times +on the ballot-paper. But John considered this method, which had been +tried in England, doubtful. + +He had set great hopes on his drama, and borrowed money on the strength +of them, and now felt much depressed. The disproportion between his +fancied and his real value galled him. Now he had to adopt a rle, +learn it, and carry it out. He composed one for himself, consisting +of the sceptic, the materialist and the liar, and found that it +suited him excellently. This was for the simple reason that it was a +sceptical and materialistic period, and because he had unconsciously +developed into a man of his time. But he still believed that his +earlier discarded personality, ruled indeed by wild passions, but +cherishing ideals of a higher calling, love to mankind and similar +imaginations, was his true and better self which he hid from the world. +All men make similar mistakes when they value sickly sentimentality +above strong thought, when they look back to their youth and think +they were purer and more virtuous then, which is certainly untrue. +The world calls the weaker side of men their "better self," because +this weakness is more advantageous for the world and self-interest +seems to dictate its judgment. John found that in his new rle he was +freed from all possible prejudices--religious, social, political and +moral. He had only one opinion,--that everything was absurd, only +one conviction,--that nothing could be done at present, and only one +hope,--that the time would come when one might effectively intervene, +and when there would be improvement. But from that time he altogether +gave up reading newspapers. To hear stupidity praised, selfish acts +lauded as philanthropic, and reason blasphemed,--that was too much for +a fanatical sceptic. Sometimes, however, he thought that the majority +were right in just being at the point of view where they were, and that +it was unnecessary that some few individuals, because of a specialised +education, should run far ahead of the rest. In quiet moments he +recognised that his mental development which had taken place so +rapidly, without his ever seeing an idea realised, could be a pattern +for such a slowly-working machine as society is. Why did he run so far +ahead? It was not the fault of the school or university, for they had +held him back equally with the majority. + +Yes, but those already out in the world, by their own hearths, had +already reached the stage of Buckle's scepticism as regards the social +order, so that he was not so far ahead after all. The slow rate of +progress was enough to make one despair. What Schiller's Karl Moor +had seen a hundred years previously, what the French Revolution had +actually brought about were now regarded as brand-new ideas. After +the Revolution, social development had gone backwards; religious +superstitions were revived, belief in a better state of things lost, +and economic and industrial progress was accompanied by sweating and +terrible poverty. It was absurd! All minds that were awake at all +had to suffer,--suffer like every living organism when hindered in +growth and pressed backward. The century had been inaugurated by the +destruction of hopes, and nothing has such a paralysing effect on the +soul as disappointed hope, which, as statistics show, is one of the +most frequent causes of madness. Therefore all great spirits were, +vulgarly speaking, mad. Chateaubriand was a hypochondriac, Musset a +lunatic, Victor Hugo a maniac. The automatic pygmies of everyday life +cannot realise what such suffering means, and yet believe themselves +capable of judging in the matter. + +The ancient poet is psychologically correct in representing +Prometheus as having his liver gnawed by a vulture. Prometheus was +the revolutionary who wished to spread mental illumination among +men. Whether he did it from altruistic motives, or from the selfish +one of wishing to breathe a purer mental atmosphere, may be left +undecided. John, who felt akin to this rebel, was aware of a pain which +resembled anxiety, and a perpetual boring "toothache in the liver." Was +Prometheus then a liver-patient who confusedly ascribed his pain to +causes outside himself? Probably not! But he was certainly embittered +when he saw that the world is a lunatic asylum in which the idiots go +about as they like, and the few who preserve reason are watched as +though dangerous to the public safety. Attacks of illness can certainly +colour men's views, and every one well knows how gloomy our thoughts +are when we have attacks of fever. But patients such as Samuel Oedmann +or Olaf Eneroth were neither sulky nor bitter, but, on the contrary, +mild, perhaps languid from want of strength. Voltaire, who was never +well, had an imperturbably good temper. And Musset did not write as he +did because he drank absinthe, but he drank from the same cause that +he wrote in that manner, _i.e_. from despair. Therefore it is not in +good faith that idealists who deny the existence of the body, ascribe +the discontent of many authors to causes such as indigestion, etc., the +supposition of which contradicts their own principles, but it must be +against their better knowledge, or with worse knowledge. Kierkegaard's +gloomy way of writing can be ascribed to an absurd education, +unfortunate family relations, dreary social surroundings, and alongside +of these to some organic defects, but not to the latter alone. + +Discontent with the existing state of things will always assert itself +among those who are in process of development, and discontent has +pushed the world forwards, while content has pushed it back. Content +is a virtue born of necessity, hopelessness or superfluity; it can be +cancelled with impunity. + +Catarrh of the stomach may cause ill temper, but it has never produced +a great politician, _i.e._ a great malcontent. But sickliness may +impart to a malcontent's energy a stronger colour and greater rapidity, +and therefore cannot be denied a certain influence. On the other hand, +a conscious insight into grievances can produce such a degree of mental +annoyance as can result in sickness. The loss of dear friends through +death, may in this way cause consumption, and the loss of a social +position or of property, madness. + +If every modern individual shows a geological stratification of the +stages of development through which his ancestors passed, so in every +European mind are found traces of the primitive Aryan,--class-feeling, +fixed family ideas, religious motives, etc. From the early Christians +we have the idea of equality, love to our neighbour, contempt for mere +earthly life; from the medival monks, self-castigation and hopes of +heaven. Besides these, we inherit traits from the sensuous cultured +pagans of the Renaissance, the religious and political fanatics of the +sixteenth century, the sceptics of the "illumination" period, and the +anarchists of the Revolution. Education should therefore consist in the +obliteration of old stains which continually reappear however often we +polish them away. + +John proceeded to obliterate the monk, the fanatic and the +self-tormentor in himself as well as he could, and took as the leading +principle of his provisional life (for it was only provisional till he +struck out a course for himself) the well-understood one of personal +advantage, which is actually, though unconsciously, employed by all, to +whatever creed they belong. + +He did not transgress the ordinary laws, because he did not wish +to appear in a court of justice; he encroached on no one's rights +because he wished his own not to be encroached upon. He met men +sympathetically, for he did not hate them, nor did he study them +critically till they had broken their promises and shown a want of +sympathy to him. He justified them all so long as he could, and when +he could not, well,--he could not, but he tried by working to place +himself in a position to be able to do so. He regarded his talent as a +capital sum, which, although at present it yielded no interest, gave +him the right and imposed on him the duty to live at any price. He was +not the kind of man to force his way into society in order to exploit +it for his own purposes, he was simply a man of capacity conscious of +his own powers, who placed himself at the disposal of society modestly, +and in the first place to be used as a dramatist. The theatre, as a +matter of fact, needed him to contribute to its Swedish repertory. + +After a solitary day's work, it was his habit to go to a caf to meet +his acquaintances there. To seek "more elevated" recreations in family +circles such as meaningless gossip, card playing and such like had no +attraction for him. Whenever he entered a family circle he felt himself +surrounded by a musty atmosphere like that exhaled from stagnant +water. Married couples who had been badgering each other, were glad to +welcome him as a sort of lightning conductor, but he had no pleasure +in playing that part. Family life appeared to him as a prison in which +two captives spied on each other, as a place in which children were +tormented, and servant-girls quarrelled. It was something nasty from +which he ran away to the restaurants. In them there was a public room +where no one was guest and no one was host: one enjoyed plenty of +space and light, heard music, saw people and met friends. John and +his friends were accustomed to meet in a back room of Bern's great +restaurant which, because of the colour of the furniture, was called +the "red room." The little club consisted originally of John and a few +artistic and philosophical friends. But their circle was soon enlarged +by old friends whom they met again. They were first of all recruited +by the presentable former scholars of the Clara School,--a postal +clerk who was at the same time a bass singer, pianist and composer; a +secretary of the Court treasurer; and the trump card of the society,--a +lieutenant of artillery. To these were added later, the composer's +indispensable friend, a lithographer, who published his music, and a +notary who sang his compositions. The club was not homogeneous, but +they soon managed to shake down together. + +But since the laymen had no wish to hear discussions on art, literature +and philosophy, their conversations were only on general subjects. +John, who did not wish to discuss any more problems, adopted a +sceptical tone, and baffled all attempts at discussion by a play upon +words, a quibble or a question. His ultimate "why?" behind every +penultimate assertion threw a light on the too-sure conclusions of +stupidity, and let his hearer surmise that behind the usually accepted +commonplaces there were possibilities of truths stretching out in +endless perspective. These views of his must have germinated like seeds +in most of their brains, for in a short time they were all sceptics, +and began to use a special language of their own. This healthy +scepticism in the infallibility of each other's judgments had, as a +natural consequence, a brutal sincerity of speech and thought. It was +of no use to speak of one's feelings as though they were praise worthy, +for one was cut short with "Are you sentimental, poor devil? Take +bi-carbonate." + +If any one complained of toothache, all he received by way of answer +was, "That does not rouse my sympathy at all, for I have never had +toothache, and it has no effect upon my resolve to give a supper." + +They were disciples of Helvetius in believing that one must regard +egotism as the mainspring of all human actions, and therefore it was +no use pretending to finer emotions. To borrow money or to get goods +on credit without being certain of being able to pay, was rightly +regarded as cheating, and so designated. For instance, if a member of +the club appeared in a new overcoat which seemed to have been obtained +on credit, he was asked in a friendly way, "Whom have you cheated about +that coat?" Or on another occasion another would say, "To-day I have +done Samuel out of a new suit." + +Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, both overcoat and suit were +generally paid for, but as the purchaser at the time he took them was +not sure whether he would be able to pay, he regarded himself as a +potential swindler. This was severe morality and stern self-criticism. + +Once during such a conversation the lieutenant got up to go and attend +church-parade with his company. "Where are you going?" he was asked. +"To play the hypocrite," he answered truthfully. + +This tone of sincerity sometimes assumed the character of a deep +understanding of human nature and the nature of society. One day +the company were leaving John's lodgings for the restaurant. It was +winter, and Mns, who was generally ill-dressed, had no overcoat. The +lieutenant, who wore his uniform, was, it is true, somewhat uneasy, but +did not wish to hurt any one's feelings that day. When John opened the +door to go out, Mns said, "Go in front; I will come afterwards; I do +not want Jean to injure his position by going with me." + +John offered to walk with Mns one way while the others should go by +another, but Jean exclaimed, "Ah! don't pretend to be noble-minded! you +feel as embarrassed at going with Mns as I do." + +"True," replied John, "but...." + +"Why, then, do you play the hypocrite?" + +"I did not play the hypocrite; I only wished to try to be free from +prejudice." + +"The deuce! what is the good of being free from prejudice when no one +else is, and it does you harm? It would really show more freedom from +prejudice to tell Mns your mind than to deceive him." + +Mns had already departed, and arrived about the same time at the +restaurant as they did. He took part in the meal without betraying a +trace of ill-humour. "Your health, Mns, because you are a man of +sense," said the lieutenant to cheer him up. + +The habit of speaking out one's inner thoughts without any regard to +current opinion, resulted in the overthrow of all traditional verdicts. +The terrible confusion of thought in which men live, since freedom +of thought has been fettered by compulsory regulations, has made it +possible for antiquated views of men and things to continue. Thus, +to-day a number of works of art are considered unsurpassable in spite +of the great progress made in technique and artistic conception. John +considered that if in the nineteenth century he was to give his views +on Shakespeare, he was not at all bound to give the opinion of the +eighteenth century, but of his own nineteenth, as it had been modified +by new points of view. This aroused a great deal of opposition, perhaps +because people fear being regarded as uncultivated a great deal more +than they fear being regarded as godless. + +Every one attacked Christ, for He was thought to have been overthrown +by learned criticism, but they were afraid of attacking Shakespeare. +John, however, was not. Thoroughly understanding the works of the +poet, whose most important dramas he had read in the original and +whose chief commentators he had studied, he criticised the composition +and meagre character drawing of _Hamlet._ It is noteworthy that the +Swedish Shakespeare-worshipper, Shuck, through an inconsistency due to +the current confusion of thought and compulsory cowardice, made just +as severe criticisms of _Hamlet_ regarded as a work of art, though +he had previously extolled it above the skies. If John had at that +time been able to read the book of Professor Shuck, he would not have +needed courage in order to subscribe such criticisms as the following: +"_Hamlet_ is the most unsatisfactory of all ... the composition is +superficial and incoherent. After the action of the play has reached +its climax, it suddenly breaks off. Hamlet is suddenly sent to England, +but this journey does not in any way arouse the spectator's interest. +Still worse is the management of the catastrophe. It is a mere chance +that Hamlet's revenge is executed at all, and a similar caprice of +chance causes his overthrow. His killing Claudius just before his own +death has more the appearance of revenge for the attempt on his own +life, than that of a judgment executed in the name of injured morality." + +And then the obscurity which envelops the motives of the principal +persons in the play! "The spectator is left in uncertainty regarding +such an important point as Ophelia's and Hamlet's madness. Moreover +in _King Lear_, Edward's treachery is so palpable that not the most +ordinarily intelligent man could have been deceived by it!" + +If then the drama was defective precisely in the chief elements of a +drama, construction and characterisation, how could it be incomparable? +The reverence for what is ancient and celebrated is rooted in the +same instinct which creates gods; and pulling down the ancient has +the same effect as attacking the divine. Why else should a sensible +unprejudiced man fly in a rage when he hears some one express a +different opinion to his own (or what he thinks his own) about some old +classic? It ought to be a matter of indifference to him. The national +and intellectual Pantheon can be as angrily defended by atheists as by +monotheists, perhaps more so. People who are otherwise sincere, cringe +before a well-established reputation, and John had heard a pietistic +clergyman say that Shakespeare was a "pure" writer. In his mouth that +was certainly false. A determinist, on the other hand, would not +have used the words "pure" or "impure" because they would have been +meaningless to him. But the poor Christ-worshipper did not dare to bear +a cross for Shakespeare; he had enough already to bear for his own +Master. + +Meanwhile John's method of judging old things from the modern point of +view seemed to be justified, for it gained him a following. That was +the whole secret of what was so little understood later on by theistic +and atheistic theologians--his irreverent handling of ancient things +and persons; they thought in their simplicity quite innocently that +it was what one calls in children a spirit of contradiction. His aim +rather was to bring people's confused ideas into order, and to teach +them to apply logically their materialistic point of view. If they +were materialists, they should not borrow phrases from Christianity, +nor think like idealists. This gave rise to a catchword, which showed +how what was ancient was despised--"That is old!" As new men, they +must think new thoughts, and new thoughts demanded a new phraseology. +Anecdotes and old jokes were done away with; stereotyped phrases and +borrowed expressions were suppressed. One might be plain-spoken and +call things by their right names, but one might not be vulgar; the +latest opera was not to be quoted, nor jokes from the newest comic +paper repeated. Thereby each became accustomed to produce something +from his own stock of original observation and acquired the faculty of +judging from a fresh point of view. + +John had discovered that men in general were automata. All thought the +same; all judged in the same fashion; and the more learned they were, +the less independence of mind they displayed. This made him doubt the +whole value of book education. The graduates who came from Upsala +had, one and all, the same opinions on Rafael and Schiller, though +the differences in their characters would have led one to expect a +corresponding difference in their judgments. Therefore these men did +not think, although they called themselves free-thinkers, but merely +talked and were merely parrots. + +But John could not perceive that it was not books _qu_ books which had +turned these learned men into automata. He himself and his unlearned +philosophical friends had been aroused to self-consciousness through +books. The danger of the university education was that it was derived +from inferior books published under sanction of the government, and +written by the upper classes in the interest of the upper classes, +_i.e_. with the object of exalting what was old and established, and +therefore of hindering further development. + +Meanwhile John's scepticism had made him sterile. He had perceived +that art had nothing to do with social development, that it was simply +a reflection or phenomena, and was more perfect as art the more it +confined itself to this function. He still preserved the impulse to +re-mould things and it found expression in his painting. His poetic +art, on the other hand, went to pieces since it had to express thoughts +or serve a purpose. + +His failure to have his play accepted had an adverse effect on his +pecuniary circumstances. The friends from whom he had borrowed money +came one evening to John's rooms in order to hear the play read, but +they were so tired after the day's work that, after hearing the first +act, they asked him to put off the rest for another occasion. One of +the audience who had kept more awake than the others thought that there +were too many Biblical quotations in the piece, and that these were not +suitable for the stage. + +John's resources were dried up, and the spectre of want loomed upon +him, unbribeable and stone-deaf. After he had gone without his dinners +for a time, he began to feel weary of life, and looked about him for +the means of subsistence. How should he get bread in the wilderness? +The best means that suggested itself was to seek an engagement in a +provincial theatre. There mere nobodies often played leading roles +in tragedies, made themselves a name, and finished by getting an +appointment at the Theatre Royal. He quickly made his resolve, packed +his travelling bag, borrowed money for his fare, and went to Gteborg. +It was just about the time of the great November storm of 1872. + +Since the environment in which he had been living had had a great +effect on him, he conceived a great dislike to this town. Gloomy, +correct, expensive, proud, reserved it lay, pent in its circle of stone +hills, and depressed the lively native of Upper Sweden, accustomed +to the rich and smiling landscape of Stockholm. It was a copy of the +capital but on a small scale, and John, as one of the upper class, +felt alienated from its inhabitants, who were in a lower stage of +development. But he noticed that there was something here that was +wanting in the capital. When he went down to the harbour he saw ships +which were nearly all destined for foreign parts, and large vessels +kept up continual communication with the continent. The people and +buildings did not look so exclusively Swedish, the papers took more +account of the great movements which were going on in the world. What +a short way it was from here to Copenhagen, Christiania, London, +Hamburg, Havre! Stockholm should have been situated here in a harbour +of the North Sea, whereas it lay in a remote corner of the Baltic. +Here was in truth the nucleus of a new centre, and he now understood +that that position was no longer occupied by Stockholm, but that +Gteborg was about to be the centre of the north. At present, however, +this reflection had no comfort for him since he was only in the +insignificant position of an actor. + +John sought out the theatre-director and introduced himself as a +person who wished to do the theatre a service. The director, however, +considered himself very well served by his present staff. But he +allowed John to give a trial performance in the rle in which he wished +to make his dbut. This was Dietrichson's _Workman_, the great success +of the day. John had discovered a certain likeness between Stephenson's +first locomotive and his rejected play; he wished to show how he, like +the engineer, had to face the ridicule of the ignorant crowd, the +apprehensions of the learned, and the fears of a wasted life on the +part of relatives. He gave his trial performance one evening by the +light of a candle and between bare walls. Naturally he felt hampered +and asked to repeat it in costume. But the director said it was not +necessary; he had heard enough. John, in his opinion, possessed talent, +but it was undeveloped. He offered him an engagement at twelve hundred +kronas yearly, to commence from the first of January. John considered: +Should he spend two months idly in Gteborg and then only have a +supernumerary's part in a provincial theatre? No! He would not! What +remained to be done? Nothing except to borrow money and return home, +which he did. + +Thus his efforts had again ended in failure. His friends had given +him a farewell feast, lent him journey money, done all they could to +help him, and now he came back without having settled anything. Again +he had to hear the old too true accusation that he was unstable. To +be unstable in an ordered society is the extreme of unpracticality. +There persistent and exclusive cultivation of some special branch of +industry or knowledge is necessary in order to outstrip competitors. +Every orderly member of society feels a certain discomfort when he sees +some one wandering from his proper place. This discomfort does not +necessarily spring from excessive egotism, but possibly from a feeling +of solidarity and solicitude for others. John saw that his countless +changes of plan disquieted his friends; he felt ashamed and suffered on +account of it, but could not act otherwise. + +So he found himself at home, and spent the long evenings in the "Red +Room," asking himself whether he really could find no place in a +society which for others opened up so many rich possibilities of a +career. + +At Christmas time John travelled again to Upsala, for he had been +invited thither as one of the contributors to a Literary Calendar which +had just appeared. The _Calendar_, which was received with universal +disapprobation, was not without significance as an exponent of the +state of literature. The reader who was desired to wade through these +elegant extracts, might justifiably ask, "What have I got to do with +them?" The poetry they contained, like that of Snoilsky and Bjrck, +might have been written fifty or a hundred years before. It was of +indifferent quality, and sometimes even bad,--bad because it gave no +sign that the poet had developed any powers of perception, indifferent +because it was not rooted in its own period. The date of the book +was 1872, but it contained no echo of the Jubilee of 1865, no hint +of 1870, not a whiff of the conflagration of 1871. Had these young +versifiers been asleep? Yes, certainly. The great mass of students were +realists, sceptics, mockers, as befitted the children of the time, but +the poets were credulous fools with the ideals of Snoilsky and Bjrck +in their hearts. Their poetry was that of superannuated idealists in +form and thought, for the new views of things had not reached these +isolated individualists who still lived the Bohemian life of the +Romantics. Their poetry consisted of nothing but echoes. In fact it +was a question whether Swedish poetry had hitherto been anything else, +or could be anything else. Was Tegner's poetry anything but an echo +of Schiller, Oehlenschlger, the Eddas and the old Norse sagas? Was +Atterbom anything else than a musical box pieced together out of Tieck, +Hoffmann, Wieland, Burger? And so on with all the Swedish poets. But +this Literary Calendar was composed of echoes of echoes and dreams of +dreams. Realism, which had already made a premature entry into Sweden +with Kraemer's _Diamonds in Coal_, and had subsequently triumphed +in Snoilsky, had left no trace on these young poets. The poetry of +Snoilsky's school had been the careless expression of a careless time, +but these poems simply displayed the incapacity of their writers. + +John had contributed to the _Calendar_ a free version of "An Basveig's +Saga." In this he had glorified himself as a kind of male Cinderella, +or ugly duckling of the family. He was moved to do this by the contempt +which had been evinced towards him by his patrons and middle-class +friends on account of his failure as an author. The language of the +piece was marked by a certain bluntness of expression and an attempt to +dignify low things, or at least to rub off the dirt from things which +were not really so, but were called so. Since the word Naturalism had +not yet come into fashion, his language was called coarse and vulgar. + +But an acquaintance which John happened to make during his stay in +Upsala was of greater importance than the _Calendar_ or Christmas +dinner. He lodged with a friend on whose writing-table he found one day +a number of the _Svensk Tidskrift_ containing a notice of Hartmann's +_Philosophy of the Unconscious_. It was an exposition of Hartmann's +system by a Finn, A.V. Bolin, and betrayed throughout a half-concealed +admiration of it. But the editor, Hans Forssell, had appended to the +essay a note written in his usual style when he came across something +that his brain could not take in. Hartmann's doctrine was pessimism. +Conscious life is suffering because unconscious will is the motive +power of evolution and consciousness obstructs this unconscious will. +It was the old myth of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It +was the kernel of the Buddhistic faith and the chief doctrine of +Christianity,--"Vanitas, vanitatum vanitas." + +Most of the greatest and conscious minds had been pessimists, and had +seen through and unmasked the illusions of life. Only wild animals, +children, and commonplace people could therefore be happy, because they +were unconscious of the illusion, or because they held their ears when +one wanted to tell them the truth and begged not to be robbed of their +illusions. + +John found all this quite natural, and had no important objection to +make. It was true then, what he had so often dreamt, that everything +was nothing! It was the suspicion of this which had governed his +point of view and made all the great and all greatness appear on a +reduced scale. This consciousness had lurked obscurely in him, when, +as a child, although well-formed, healthy and strong, he wept over +an unknown grief, the cause of which he could not find within him or +without. That was the secret of his life, that he could not admire +anything, could not hold to anything, could not live for anything; that +he was too wide awake to be subject to illusions. Life was a form of +suffering which could only be alleviated by removing as many obstacles +as possible from the path of one's will; his own life in particular +was so extremely painful because his social and economical position +constantly prevented his will from expressing itself. + +When he contemplated life and especially the course of history he saw +only cycles of errors and mistakes repeating themselves.[1] The men of +the present dreamt of a republic, as Greeks and Romans had done two +thousand years before; the civilisation of the Egyptians had decayed +when they perceived its futility; Asia was wrapped in an eternal sleep +after it had been impelled by an unconscious will to conquer the +world; all nations had invented narcotics and intoxicants in order to +quench consciousness; sleep was blessedness and death the greatest +happiness. But why not take the last step and commit suicide? Because +the unconscious Will continually enticed men to live through the +illusion of hope of a better life. Pessimism, regarded as a view of the +world's order, is more consistent than meliorism, which sees in natural +development a tendency which makes for men's happiness. This latter +view seems to be a disguised relic of belief in divine providence. Can +one believe that the mechanical blindly ruling laws of nature have any +regard for the development of human society when they produce glacial +periods, floods, and volcanic outbreaks? Must an intelligent man be +called "conservative" in a contemptuous sense because he has brought +under his yoke and rules the laws of nature as Stuart Mill facetiously +expresses it? Have men devised any certain preventives against +shipwreck, strokes of lightning, economic crises, losses of relatives +by death and sickness? Can men control at pleasure the inclination of +the earth's axis, and do away with cloud-formations which are likely +to injure harvests? In spite of the present advanced state of science, +have men been able to put an end to the grape pest, to stop floods, +eradicate, superstitions, remove despots, prevent war? Is it not +presumptuous or simple-minded to believe that man, himself governed by +chemical, physical, and physiological laws of nature, stands above them +because he understands how to use some of them to his own advantage, as +birds use the wind for their progress or beavers the pressure of the +stream in constructing their dams? Are not the wings of the falcon and +the fly more perfect means of locomotion than railways and steamers? +How can men be so simple as to think that they stand above nature when +they are themselves so subordinate to nature that they cannot will or +think freely? It looks like a residue of our primitive illusions. If +the present development of European society ends in atheism, that has +already been the case with the Buddhists; if in religious freedom, +that has already been witnessed in the early history of China; if in +polygamy, that already exists among the savages of Australia; if in +community of goods, this prevailed among primitive peoples. The fact is +that Europe has been the last of all the great ethnical groups to wake +to consciousness. It is now in the act of waking and turning itself, +not like some oriental nations, to torpid quietism, but to removing as +far as possible the pains and unpleasantnesses of earthly existence, +although the best way of doing so has not been yet discovered. The +mistake of the industrial socialists is that they, according to +the formula of the ambiguous evolution theory, wish to build upon +existing conditions, which they regard as the product of necessity, +and tending to the good of all. But existing conditions rather tend +to the happiness of the few, and are therefore something abnormal to +build on, which means erecting a house on ground from which the water +has not been drained off. Probably the form of society which they +desire, however absurd it is, is a necessary mistake through which men +must pass to reach a better. Both the danger and the hope of progress +consist in the fact that the socialistic system already has its +programme drawn up and consequently works automatically, _i.e_. like a +blind, irresistible mass. If it reconstitutes society after the pattern +of the working-class who are a minority, and makes all men mechanics, +one may venture to doubt, without being regarded as quite mad, whether +that will be happiness. Socialism as a social reform is inevitable, +for Europe in its self-idolatry has not perceived how far backward it +is. Provided with an Asiatic form of government, which interferes in +details, supporting ancient superstitions, living under the terrible +tyranny of capital, which is maintained by force of arms, it sets +on foot political and religious persecutions, it venerates embalmed +monarchs like mummies of the Pharaohs, it civilises savages with waste +goods and Krupp guns; it forgets that its civilisation came from the +east, and was better then than it is now. Hartmann and the pessimists +believe that the social reform which is called socialism will come, but +that afterwards, it will be succeeded by something else. + +The bourgeois is an optimist because he cannot see or think outside +the narrow circle of everyday occurrences. That is his good fortune, +but not his merit, for he has no choice in the matter. Nay, he does not +even understand what pessimism is, but thinks it means the opinion that +this is the worst of all worlds. How could any one have a well-grounded +view on that? Voltaire, who was no pessimist, wrote a whole book to +demonstrate that this world, at any rate, was not the best of worlds +for us, as Leibnitz imagined. It is naturally the best for itself, +although not for us, and the difference between the point of view of +the hypochondriac and the pessimist consists in the fact that the +former believes that the world is the worst possible for him, while +the pessimist disregards what it may be for the individual. Hartmann +is no hypochondriac as people have tried to make out, and he seeks to +alleviate the pain of life as much as possible by placing himself in a +state of unconsciousness. + +The men of the younger generation of to-day are sad, because they +have awoke to consciousness and lost many illusions. But they are not +hypochondriacal, and work at bringing the world forward into the last +stage of illusion or a new social system, as though hoping thereby to +alleviate their pain, and they work the more fanatically, the deeper +they feel it. + +Meanwhile, supposing that Hartmann's philosophy may be a mistake, and a +sceptic must be willing to entertain that possibility, although it has +every probability on its side, since the instinct of self-preservation, +the first condition of life, consists in the removal of pain, which +is the first motive-power,--we must seek to explain historically +how this philosophy has come to the birth and spread. Superficial +observers like the mystic Caro, do not hesitate, inconsistently +enough, to attribute it to bodily ill-health. The socialists, who +wished to arouse the expectation that their teaching was practicable, +explained it as the foreboding of overthrow in a class, of whom +Hartmann was the representative. But Hartmann believes in socialism +and the new social system, although only as transitional forms. He +is not despairing, not even melancholy. He seems to be the first +philosopher who, quite independently of Christianity, European culture +and idealism, tries to explain the world's progress from the purely +materialistic point of view. He states facts and processes exactly as +they are. From unconscious minerals we have developed into globules +of albumen, acquired conscious nerve-centres and finally brains +with ever-increasing self-consciousness. The more highly organised +the life, the greater the capacity for pain and susceptibility to +impressions. Not till our time did the cosmic brain succeed in arriving +at clear perception and, accordingly, at divining the order of the +world. Hartmann can therefore be regarded as one who arrived at the +highest degree of consciousness, and he will be remembered as the +great unmasker before whose keen gaze the bandages fell away. It is +consequently a mistake to call him "the prophet of despair." Idealists +may feel empty and despairing when confronted by the naked truth, but +the meliorist feels an inexpressible calm. Man will be modest when he +takes the measure of his littleness as an atom of the cosmic dust. +He will no longer build his happiness on a future life, but will be +impelled by pessimism to order the only life he has as well as he can +for himself and for others. He will see how useless it is to lament +over the misery of existence; he will accept pain as a fact, and +alleviate it as well as he can. Hartmann is a realist, and the title +"pessimist" in its old significance has been fastened on him out of +malice. He shudders at the misery of the world, but does not even call +it misery. He only shows that life is not so great and beautiful as men +like to make out, and pain in his view is not a mere bodily ailment, +but an impelling motive. His is a sound and healthy view of things in +contrast to which socialism may sometimes look like idealism, since it +wishes to remodel society according to its desires, not according to +the possibilities of the case. + +Meanwhile the review article on Hartmann had a quickening effect on +John. There was then a system in the apparent madness of the universe, +and his consciousness had rightly foreboded that the whole scheme of +things was something very insignificant. But a new philosophic system +is not absorbed by a brain in a day. It only left a certain deposit and +gave a keynote to his thoughts. As a theoretical point of view it was +still obscured by his idealistic education, darkened by his inborn and +acquired hatred of the upper class, and his natural tendency to seek +his point of equilibrium somewhere outside himself. Taken on the large +scale, life was meaningless, but if one wanted to live, one had to come +to grips with reality, and adopt an everyday point of view, which alas! +one very readily did. Enormous difficulties stood in the way of earning +a living or making a name. Honour, viewed absolutely, was nothing, but +in relation to the petty circumstances of life it was something great, +and worth striving for. The Philistines did not understand that, and +derived much amusement, when they saw him, pessimist as he was, toiling +after distinctions. They, with their clock-work brains, thought this +inconsistent, since they did not understand that the term "honour" has +two values, an absolute and a "relative." + + +[1] In his pamphlet "The Conscious Will in the World-history" (1903), +Strindberg takes the opposite view to that expressed here. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + +***** This file should be named 44107-8.txt or 44107-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/44107-8.zip b/old/44107-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7c7f76 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-8.zip diff --git a/old/44107-h.zip b/old/44107-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f56e12e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-h.zip diff --git a/old/44107-h/44107-h.htm b/old/44107-h/44107-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50d88d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107-h/44107-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7008 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%} +hr.full {width: 95%;} + +hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +hr.r65 {width: 65%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + + .tdl {text-align: left;} + .tdr {text-align: right;} + .tdc {text-align: center;} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Growth of a Soul + +Author: August Strindberg + +Translator: Claud Field + +Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + + + + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>GROWTH OF A SOUL</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>AUGUST STRINDBERG</h2> + + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE INFERNO," "THE SON OF A SERVANT," ETC.</h4> + + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD</h4> + + + +<h5>NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY</h5> + +<h5>1914</h5> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h4>CONTENTS</h4> + +<div class="center" style="font-size: 0.8em;"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">I</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">IN THE FORECOURT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">II</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">BELOW AND ABOVE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">III</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE DOCTOR</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">IV</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">V</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VI</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">BEHIND THE CURTAIN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VII</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VIII</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE "RUNA" CLUB</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">IX</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">BOOKS AND THE STAGE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">X</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">TORN TO PIECES</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XI</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">IDEALISM AND REALISM</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XII</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">A KING'S PROTÉGÉ</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XIII</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE WINDING UP</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XIV</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">AMONG THE MALCONTENTS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XV</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">THE RED ROOM</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h3>THE GROWTH OF A SOUL</h3> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h4> + +<h4>IN THE FORECOURT</h4> + +<h4>(1867)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>The steamer had passed Flottsund and Domstyrken and the university +buildings of Upsala began to appear. "Now begins the real +stone-throwing!" exclaimed one of his companions,—an expression +borrowed from the street-riots of 1864. The hilarity induced by punch +and breakfast abated; one felt that things were now serious and that +the battle of life was beginning. No vows of perpetual friendship were +made, no promises of helping each other. The young men had awakened +from their romantic dreams; they knew that they would part at the +gang-way, new interests would scatter the company which the school-room +had united; competition would break the bonds which had united them and +all else would be forgotten. The "real stone-throwing" was about to +begin.</p> + +<p>John and his friend Fritz hired a room in the Klostergränden. It +contained two beds, two tables, two chairs and a cupboard. The rent was +30 kronas<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> a term,—15 kronas each. Their midday meal was brought +by the servant for 12 kronas a month,—6 kronas each. For breakfast +and supper they had a glass of milk and some bread and butter. That +was all. They bought wood in the market,—a small bundle for 4 kronas. +John had also received a bottle of petroleum from home as a present, +and he could send his washing to Stockholm. He had 80 kronas in his +table-drawer with which to meet all the expenses of the term.</p> + +<p>It was a new and peculiar society into which he now entered, quite +unlike any other. It had privileges like the old house of peers and a +jurisdiction of its own; but it was a "little Pedlington" and reeked +of rusticity. All the professors were country-born; not a single one +hailed from Stockholm. The houses and streets were like those of +Nyköping. And it was here that the head-quarters of culture had been +placed, owing to an inconsistency of the government which certainly +regarded Stockholm as answering to that description.</p> + +<p>The students were regarded as the upper class in the town and the +citizens were stigmatised by the contemptuous epithet of "Philistines." +The students were outside and above the civic law. To smash windows, +break down fences, tussle with the police, disturb the peace of the +streets,—all was allowed to them and went unpunished; at most they +received a reprimand, for the old lock-up in the castle was no more +used. For their militia-service they had a special uniform of their +own which carried privileges with it. Thus they were systematically +educated as aristocrats, a new order of nobility after the fall of the +house of peers.</p> + +<p>What would have been a crime in a citizen was a "practical joke" in a +student. Just at this time the students' spirits were at a high pitch, +as a band of student-singers had gone to Paris, had been successful +there, and were acclaimed as conquerors on their return.</p> + +<p>John now wished to work for his degree but did not possess a single +book. "During the first term one must take one's bearings" was the +saying. John went to the student's club. The constitution of the club +was antiquated,—so much so that the annexed provinces Skåne, Halland +and Blekinge were not represented in it. It was well arranged and +divided into classes, not according to merit, but according to age +and certain dubious qualities. In the list the title "nobilis" still +stood after the names of those of high birth. There were several ways +of gaining influence in the club, through an aristocratic name, family +influence, money, talent, pluck and adaptability, but the last quality +by itself was not enough among these intelligent and sceptical youths. +On the first evening in the club John made his observations. There were +several of his old companions from the Clara School present, but he +avoided them as much as possible and they him. He had deserted them and +gone by a short cut through the private school, while they had tramped +along the regular course through the state school. They all seemed +to him somewhat conventional and stunted. Fritz plunged among the +aristocrats and obtained introductions, made acquaintances easily and +got on well.</p> + +<p>As they went home in the evening John asked him who was the "snob" in +the velvet jacket with stirrups painted on his collar. Fritz answered +that he was not a snob, and that it was as stupid to judge people by +fine clothes as by poor ones. John with his democratic ideas did not +understand this and stuck to his opinion. Fritz asserted that the youth +referred to was a very fine fellow and the senior in the club, and +in order to rouse John further, added that he had expressed himself +satisfied with the newcomers' appearance and manners; he was reported +to have said "they had an air about them; formerly the fellows from +Stockholm when they came there, looked like workmen."</p> + +<p>John was ruffled at this information and felt that something had come +in between him and his friend. Fritz's father had been a miller's +servant, but his mother had been of noble birth. He had inherited from +his mother what John had from his.</p> + +<p>The days passed on. Fritz put on his frock coat every morning and went +to pay his respects to the professors. He intended to be a jurist; +that was a proper career, for lawyers were the only ones who obtained +real knowledge which was of use in public life, who tried to obtain +deeper insight into social organisation and to keep in touch with the +practical business of everyday life. They were realists.</p> + +<p>John had no frock coat, no books, no acquaintances.</p> + +<p>"Borrow my coat," said Fritz.</p> + +<p>"No, I will not go and pay court to the professors," said John.</p> + +<p>"You are stupid," answered Fritz, and in that he was right, for the +professors gave real though somewhat hazy information regarding the +courses of study. It was a piece of pride in John that he did not +wish to owe his progress to anything but his own work, and what was +worse, he thought it ignominious to be regarded as a flunkey. Would +not an old professor at once perceive that he was flattering him for +his own purposes? To submit himself to his superiors was, in his mind, +synonymous with grovelling.</p> + +<p>Moreover everything was too indefinite. The university which he had +imagined to be an institution for free investigation, was only one for +tasks and examinations. The professors gave lectures for the sake of +appearances or to maintain their income, but it was useless to go up +for an examination without taking private lessons. John resolved to +attend those lectures for which no fee was necessary. He went to the +Gustavianum to hear a lecture on the history of philosophy. For the +three-quarters of an hour during which the lecture lasted the professor +went through the introduction to Aristotle's Ethics. John calculated +that with three lectures a week he would require forty years to go +through the history of philosophy. "Forty years," he thought, "that is +too long for me." And did not go again. It was the same everywhere. +An assistant-professor expounded Shakespeare's <i>Henry VIII</i> with the +commentary, in English, to an audience of five. John went there a few +times, but reckoned that it would be ten years before <i>Henry VIII</i> was +finished.</p> + +<p>It began to dawn upon him what the requirements of the degree +examination were. The first was to write a Latin essay; therefore he +must learn more Latin, which he did not like. He had chosen æsthetics +and modern languages as his chief subject. Æsthetics comprised the +study of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Literary History and the +various systems of æsthetics. That was work enough for a lifetime. The +modern languages were French, German, English, Italian and Spanish, +with comparative grammar. How was he to obtain the requisite books? And +he had not the means of paying for private lessons.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he set to work at Æsthetics. He found that one could borrow +books from the club and so he took out the volumes of Atterbom's +<i>Prophets and Poets</i> which happened to be there. These unfortunately +only dealt with Swedenborg and contained Thorild's epistles. Swedenborg +seemed to him crazy, and Thorild's epistles did not interest him. +Swedenborg and Thorild were two arrogant Swedes who had lived in +retirement and fallen a prey to megalomania, the special disease +of solitary people. It is remarkable how often outbreaks of this +hallucination occur in Sweden, owing probably to the isolated position +of the country and to the fact that a sparse population is scattered +over enormous distances. Megalomania is apparent in the imperial +projects of Gustavus Adolphus, in Charles X's ambition of becoming +a great European power, in Charles XII's Attila-like schemes, in +Rudbeck's Atlantic-mania, and in Swedenborg's and Thorild's dreams of +storming heaven and of world-conflagrations. John thought them mad and +threw them aside. Was that the sort of stuff he was expected to read?</p> + +<p>He began to reflect over his situation. What did he expect to do in +Upsala? To support himself for six years on 80 kronas till he took +his degree. And then? his thoughts did not stretch further; he had no +higher plan or ambition than to take his degree—the laurel crown, the +graduate's coat, and then to teach the catechism in the Jakob school +till his death. No, he did not wish to do that.</p> + +<p>Time went on, and Christmas approached. The little stock of money in +his table-drawer diminished slowly but surely. And then? It was not so +easy for students to obtain employment as private teachers since the +railways had made communication easier between remote country places +and the towns where schools were. He felt that he had embarked upon a +foolish undertaking. When he found he could get no more books, he began +to make visits among his fellow-students and discovered companions in +misfortune. Among them were two who had spent the whole term playing +chess and possessed nothing between them but a hymn-book which the +mother of one had placed in his box. They were also asking themselves +the question "What have we to do here?" The way to the degree +examination was not easy; one was compelled to seek out secret ways, +bribe door-keepers, creep through holes, run into debt for books, be +seen at lectures and much more besides.</p> + +<p>In order to fill up the time, he learnt to play the B-cornet in the +band of the students' club by the advice of Fritz who played the +trombone. But the practices were very irregular and began to cause +disputes. John also played backgammon, which Fritz hated, and so he +wandered about to acquaintances with his backgammon board and played +with them. He found it as dull as reading Swedenborg.</p> + +<p>"Why do you not study?" Fritz often asked him.</p> + +<p>"I have no books," answered John. That was a good reason. He could +not visit the restaurants, for he had no money, and lived very +quietly. At the midday meal he drank only water, and when on Sundays +he and Fritz drank half a bottle of beer, they remained sitting at +table half-fuddled and telling each other, perhaps for the hundredth +time, old school adventures. The term crept along intolerably slow, +uneventful and torpid. John perceived that, as one of the lower class, +he could plod on thus far but no further. The economic question brought +his plans to a standstill. Or was it that he was tired of living a +one-sided mental life without muscular exercise? Trifling experiences +for which he ought to have been prepared contributed to embitter him. +One day Fritz entered their room with a young count. He introduced +John to him, and the count tried to remember whether they had not been +comrades at the Clara School. John seemed to remember something of +the kind. The old friends and intimate companions addressed each other +as "count" and "sir." Then John remembered how he and the young count +had once played as boys in a tobacco store on the Sabbatsberg, and how +something had made him prophesy, "In a few years, old fellow, we shall +not know each other any more." The young count had protested strongly +against this and felt hurt. Why did John remember this just then +particularly, since it is quite natural that comrades should become +strangers to each other when intercourse has been so long broken off? +Because at the sight of the noble, he felt the slave blood seethe in +his veins. This kind of feeling has been ascribed to the difference of +races. But that is not so, for then the stronger plebeian race would +feel superior to the weaker aristocratic. It is simply class-hatred.</p> + +<p>The count in question was a pale, tall, slender youth of no striking +appearance. He was very poor and looked half-starved. He was +intelligent, industrious, and not at all proud. Later on in life +John came across him again and found him to be a sociable, pleasant +man, leading an inconspicuous life as an official, amid difficulties +resembling John's own. Why should he hate him? And then they both +laughed at their youthful stupidity. That was possible then, for John +seemed to have "got ahead" as the saying is; otherwise he would not +have laughed at all. "Stand up that I may sit down," this was the +more malicious than luminous way of expressing the aspiration of the +lower orders in those days. But it was a misunderstanding. Formerly +one strove to elbow one's way up to the other; now one would rather +pull the other down to save oneself the trouble of clambering up where +nothing is to be found. "Move a little so that we can both sit" would +now be the proper formula.</p> + +<p>It has been said that those who are "above" are there by a law of +necessity and would be there under all circumstances; competition +is free and each can ascend if he likes, and if the conditions were +changed, the same race would begin again. "Good!" say the lower +classes, "let us race again, but come down here and stand where I +do. You have got a start with privileges and capital, but now let us +be weighed with carriage harness and racing saddle after the modern +fashion. You have got ahead by cheating. The race is therefore declared +null and void and we will run it again, unless we come to an agreement +to do away with all racing, as an antiquated sport of ancient times."</p> + +<p>Fritz saw things from another point of view. He did not wish to pull +those above down, but to become an aristocrat himself, climb up to +them and be like them. He began to lisp and made elegant gestures with +his hands, greeted people as though he were a cabinet minister, and +threw his head back as though he had a private income. But he respected +himself too much to become ridiculous and satirised himself and his +ambition. The fact was that the aristocrats whom he wished to resemble +had simple, easy, unaffected manners,—some of them indeed quite like +the middle class, while Fritz was fashioning himself after an ancient +theatrical pattern which no longer existed. He did not therefore +become what he expected in life though he had dozed away many a summer +in the castles of his friends, and ended in a very modest official +post. He was received as a student in their guest-rooms but came no +further; as a district judge he was not introduced in the salons which +as a student he had entered without introduction.</p> + +<p>The effects of the different circles in which John and Fritz moved +began now to be apparent, first in mutual coldness, then in hostility. +One evening it broke out at the card-table.</p> + +<p>Fritz one day towards the end of the term said to John, "You should not +go about with such bounders as you do."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with them?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, but it would be better if you went with me to my friends."</p> + +<p>"They don't suit me."</p> + +<p>"Well, they suit me, but they think you are proud."</p> + +<p>"I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and to show you are not, come with me this evening and drink +punch."</p> + +<p>John went though unwillingly. They were a solid-looking set of +law-students who played cards. They discussed the stakes for which they +should play, and John succeeded in reducing them to a minimum, though +they made sour faces. Then a game of "knack" was proposed. John said +that he never played it.</p> + +<p>"On principle?" he was asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered.</p> + +<p>"How long ago did you make that resolve," asked Fritz sarcastically.</p> + +<p>"Just this minute."</p> + +<p>"Just now, here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, just now, here!" answered John.</p> + +<p>They exchanged hostile looks and that was the end. They went home +silent; went to bed silent; and got up silent. For five weeks they ate +their dinner at the same table and never spoke to each other. A gulf +had opened between them and their friendship was ended; they had no +more intercourse with each other and there was nothing to bring them +together again. How had that come about?</p> + +<p>These two characters so opposed to each other had held together for +five years through habit, through comradeship in the class-room, +and common interests; they had felt drawn to each other by common +recollections, defeats and victories. It was a compromise between fire +and water which must cease sooner or later and might cease at any +moment. Now they flew asunder as if by an explosion; the masks fell; +they did not become enemies, but simply discovered that they <i>were</i> +born enemies, <i>i.e.</i> two oppositely-disposed natures which must go, +each its own way. They did not close accounts with a quarrel or useless +accusations, but simply made an end without more ado. An unnatural +silence prevailed at their midday meal; sometimes in lifting dishes +their hands crossed but their looks avoided each other; now and then +Fritz's lips moved, as though he wished to say something, but his +larynx remained closed. What should he say after all. There was nothing +to say but what the silence expressed: "We have nothing more in common."</p> + +<p>And yet there was something left after all. Sometimes Fritz came home +in the evening, cheerful, and obviously prepared to say, "Come! cheer +up old fellow!" But then he stood still in the middle of the room, +petrified by John's icy manner, and went out again. Sometimes also +it occurred to John, who suffered under the breach of friendship to +say to his friend, "How stupid we are!" But then he felt frozen again +by Fritz's indifferent manner. They had worn out their friendship by +living together. They knew each other by heart, all one another's +secrets and weaknesses, and precisely what answer either would give. +That was the end. Nothing more remained.</p> + +<p>A miserable torpid time followed. Tom away from the common life of +school where he had worked like part of a machine in unison with +others, and abandoned to himself, he ceased to live in the proper sense +of the word. Without books, papers or social intercourse, he remained +empty; for the brain produces of itself very little, perhaps nothing; +in order to make combinations it must be supplied with material from +without. Now nothing came; the channels were stopped, the ways blocked, +and his soul pined away. Sometimes he took Fritz's books and looked +into them; among them he came across Geijer's History for the first +time. Geijer was a great name and known through his "Kolargossen," +"Sista Kampen," "Vikingen" and other poems. John now read his history +of Gustav Vasa. He was astonished to find no illuminating point of +view nor any fresh information. The style, which he had heard praised, +was pedestrian. It was like a mere memorial sketch, this history of a +long-lived king's reign, and cursory also like a text-book. Printed in +small type, and without notes, the history of this important king would +not have been longer than a small pamphlet. One day John asked some of +his friends what they thought of Geijer.</p> + +<p>"He is devilish dull," they answered.</p> + +<p>That was the common opinion before jubilee-commemorations and the +erection of statues prevented people saying plainly what they thought.</p> + +<p>John then looked for a little into law-books, but was alarmed at the +idea of having to study that sort of thing. His home life and religious +education had given him a distaste for everything that concerned the +common interests of people. Through the ceaseless repetition of the +maxim that young men should not interfere with politics, that is to +say, with the common weal, and through Christian individualism and +introspection, John had become a consistent egoist.</p> + +<p>"Let every one mind his own business" was the first command of this +egotistic morality. Therefore he read no papers and troubled little how +things were going on about him, what was happening in the world, how +the destinies of men were being shaped, or what were the thoughts of +the leading minds of the time. Therefore it never occurred to him to +go to the meetings of the club where questions of common interest were +dealt with. "There were enough to look after those things," he thought.</p> + +<p>He was not alone in that opinion, so that the meetings of the club were +managed by a few energetic fellows, who were regarded perhaps wrongly, +as egoists and managed public business in their own interests. John who +let the affairs of the little society go as they liked, was perhaps a +greater egoist, occupied as he was with the affairs of his own soul. +But in his own defence and on behalf of many of his countrymen it must +be said that he and they were shy. This shyness, however, should have +been got rid of at school by practice in public speaking. In this +shyness there was also a degree of cowardice, the fear of opposition +or ridicule, and especially the fear of being thought presumptuous or +wishing to push oneself forward. Every youth who did so, was at once +suppressed, for here the aristocracy of seniority prevailed in a very +high degree.</p> + +<p>When he found the room too stuffy, he went out of the town. But the +depressing landscape with its endless expanse of clay made him sad. He +was no plain-dweller, but had his roots in the undulating scenery of +Stockholm, diversified by water channels. The flat country depressed +him and he suffered from homesickness to such a degree that when he +returned to Stockholm at Christmas and saw again the smiling contours +of the coast of Brunsvik, he was moved to the point of sentimentality. +When he saw once more the gentle curves of the woods of Haga Park he +felt his soul, as it were, attuned again, after having been so long +out of tune. To such a degree were his nerves affected by his natural +surroundings.</p> + +<p>Under other circumstances, the society of a smaller town like Upsala +would have been more congenial to him than that of the great town +which he hated. Had the small town been but a developed form of the +village, preserving the simple rustic appliances for health and +comfort, with fragments of landscape between the houses, it would have +been far preferable to the great town. But now the small town was +merely a shabby pretentious copy of the great town with its mistakes, +and therefore the more offensive. It also reeked with provinciality. +Every one mentioned their birthplace, "My name is Pettersson, from +Ostgothland," "Mine is Andersson, from Småland." There was a keen +rivalry between the members of different provinces. Those from +Stockholm regarded themselves as the first and were therefore envied +and despised by the "peasants." There was much dispute as to whom the +first place really belonged. The Wormlanders boasted of having produced +Geijer whose portrait hung in their hall, while the Smålanders had +Tegner, Berzelius and Linnæus. The Stockholm students who had only +Bergfalk and Bellmann were called "gutter-snipes." This was not a very +brilliant piece of wit especially as it emanated from a Kalmar student +who was thereupon asked "whether there were no gutters in Kalmar?"</p> + +<p>There was something pettifogging also in the way in which the +professors fought for advancement by means of pamphlets and newspaper +articles. The election to any particular professorial chair rested in +the last resource with the Chancellor of the University who lived at +Stockholm.</p> + +<p>In 1867 the University had no especially distinguished teachers. Some +of them were merely old decayed tipplers. Others were young immature +dilettantes who had obtained advancement through their wives and the +modicum of talent which they possessed. The only one who enjoyed a +certain reputation was Swedelius. This, however, was rather due to +his bonhomie and the anecdotes which gathered round him, then to his +own talent. His learned activity was confined to the composition in +an austere style of textbooks and memorial addresses. These were not +strictly scientific, but showed traces of original research.</p> + +<p>On the whole all the subjects of study were introduced from abroad, +for the most part from Germany. The textbooks in most departments +were in German or French. Very few were in English which was little +known. Even the Professor of Literary History could not pronounce +English and began his lectures with an apology for not being able +to do so. There was no doubt that he knew the language for he had +published translations of Swedish poems. "But why did he not learn +the pronunciation?" the students asked. Most of the dissertations for +degrees were mere compilations from the German; occasionally they were +direct translations which caused a scandal.</p> + +<p>The fact was that the period had no special feature to characterise +it. There is no such thing as Swedish culture any more than there is +Belgian, Swiss, or Hungarian. Sweden had indeed produced a Linnæus and +a Berzelius, but they had had no successors.</p> + +<p>John had no spirit of enterprise. At school his work had been settled +for him; at the university it was all left to him. He was overcome by +lethargy and listlessness and worried by not knowing what to do at the +end of the term. He saw that he must seek for a position in which he +could support himself. A friend had told him that one might become an +elementary teacher in the country without passing any more examinations +and could very well support oneself in such a post. Now it was John's +dream to live in the country. He had a natural dislike to towns though +he had been born in the metropolis. He could not accustom himself +to live without light and air, nor flourish in these streets and +market-places, where the outward signs of a higher or lower position in +the absurd social scale counted for so much, <i>e.g.</i> such subordinate +things as dress and manner. He had hostility to culture in his blood +and could never conceive of himself as anything else than a natural +product, which did not wish to be severed from its organic connection +with the earth. He was like a plant vainly feeling with its roots +between the pavement-stones for some soil; like an animal pining for +the forest.</p> + +<p>There is a fish which climbs up trees, and an eel can go on land to +look for a pease-field, but both of them return to the water. Fowls +have been domesticated so long that their ancestral characteristics +have died out, but they preserve the habit of sleeping on a perch which +represents the branch on which the black-cock and the wood-grouse +roost. Geese become restless in autumn, for an instinct in their blood +tells them that it is migrating time. So in spite of accommodation to +new circumstances there is always a tendency to go back.</p> + +<p>Thus is it also with men. The dweller in the north, so long as he +preserves civilised habits, has not been able to acclimatise himself +thoroughly, and is still liable to consumption. His stomach, nerves, +heart and skin were able to accommodate themselves, but not his lungs. +The Eskimo on the other hand, originally a southerner, succeeded in +acclimatising himself but had to give up civilised habits.</p> + +<p>And what is the meaning of the northerner's longing for the south +unless it be the wish to return to his first home, the land of the +sun, the bank of the Ganges where he was cradled? And the dislike +of children to meat, their longing for fruit and love of climbing, +what is it all but "reversion to type?" Therefore civilisation means +a continual strain and struggle to combat this backward tendency. +Education winds up the clock, but when the mainspring is not strong +enough it snaps and the works run down, till quiet ensues. As +civilisation advances the strain is ever greater and the statistics +of insanity show a perpetual increase. One cannot swim against the +stream of civilisation, but one may escape to land. Modern Socialism +which wishes to bring down the upper classes with their worthless +and dangerous motto "Higher!" is a backward movement in a healthy +direction. The strain will decrease as the pressure from above +decreases, and thereby a great deal of superfluous luxury will be got +rid of. In certain parts of German Switzerland there is already a +certain relative quiet. There we find no restless hunting after honours +and distinctions because there are none to be had. A millionaire +lives in a large cottage and laughs at the bedizened townsfolk,—a +good-natured laugh without any envy in it, for he knows that he could +buy up their finery for ready cash, if he chose. But he will not, for +luxury has no value in his neighbours' eyes.</p> + +<p>Men could therefore be happier if competition were not so keen and +they will yet be so, for the chief constituent of happiness is peace +along with less toil and less luxury. It is not the railways which are +to be blamed, but the superabundance of them. In Arcadian Switzerland +railways have ruined whole districts where no freightage is required +and people usually go on foot. To this day distances are reckoned by +pedestrian measures.</p> + +<p>"It is eight hours to Zurich," says some one.</p> + +<p>"Eight! is it possible?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly."</p> + +<p>"By the railway?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! by the railway,—that is only an hour and a half."</p> + +<p>In Sweden there is a railway which carries regularly three passengers +in its three classes, a factory-owner, a bailiff and a clerk. We may +live to see them shut up the railway stations for want of coal when +the coal strikes have sent up the price, for want of guards when wages +rise, and for want of freight when wood and oats can no longer be +procured; iron is already too dear to be used for railways, and the old +water-ways ought to be tried.</p> + +<p>It is no use to preach against civilisation,—that one knows well, but +if we observe the currents of the time we shall see that a return to +nature is in process of going on. Turgenieff has already described this +by the word "simplification." That is the mistake of the evolutionists +that in everything which is in motion or course of development they +see a progress towards human happiness, forgetting that a sickness may +develop to death or recovery.</p> + +<p>After all, what a superficial appendage civilisation is! Make a +nobleman drunk and he can become like a savage; let a child loose in +a wood without any one to look after it (provided that it can feed +itself) and it will not learn to speak of itself. Out of a peasant's +son who is generally considered so low in the social scale, one +can make in a single generation a man of science, a minister, an +arch-bishop, or an artist. Here there can be no talk of heredity, for +the peasant-father who stood apparently at such a low level, could not +have inherited anything from cultivated brains. On the other hand, the +children of a genius inherit usually nothing but used-up brains, except +occasionally a skill in their father's line of work, which they have +acquired by daily intercourse with their father.</p> + +<p>The town is the fire-place whither the living fuel from the country is +brought and devoured; it is to keep the present social machinery at +work, it is true, but in the long run the fuel will prove too dear, and +the machine come to a standstill. The society of the future will not +need this machine in order to work or they will be more sparing of the +fuel. But it is a mistake to conjecture the needs of a future state of +society from the present one.</p> + +<p>Our present society is perhaps a natural product, but inorganic; the +future society will be an organic product and a higher one, for it +will not deprive men of the first conditions for an organic existence. +There will be the same difference between these two forms of society as +between paved streets and grass meadows.</p> + +<p>The youth's dream often left artificial society to wander at large +in nature. Society had been formed by men doing violence to natural +laws, just as one may bleach a plant under a flower-pot and produce an +edible salad, but the plant's capacity to live healthily and propagate +itself as a plant is destroyed. Such a plant is the civilised man +made by artificial bleaching useful for an anæmic society, but, as +an individual, wretched and unhealthy. Must the process of bleaching +continue in order to insure the existence of this decayed society? +Must the individual remain wretched in order to maintain an unhealthy +society? For how can society be healthy when its individual members +are ailing? A single individual cannot demand that society should be +sacrificed for his sake, but a majority of individuals have a right to +bring about such changes in the society, which they themselves compose, +as may be beneficial to themselves.</p> + +<p>Under the simpler conditions of country life John believed he could +be happy in an obscure post, without feeling that he had sunk in the +social scale. But he could not be so in the town where he would be +continually reminded of the height from which he had fallen. To come +down voluntarily is not painful if the onlookers can be persuaded that +it <i>is</i> voluntarily, but to fall is bitter, especially as a fall always +arouses satisfaction in those standing below. To mount, strive upwards +and better one's position has become a social instinct, and the youth +felt the force of it, though in his view the "upper" was not always +higher.</p> + +<p>John wished now to realise some result,—an active life which should +bring him an income. He looked through many advertisements for teachers +in elementary schools. Positions were advertised to which were attached +salaries of 300 or 600 kronas, a house, a meadow and a garden. He tried +for one of these places after another but obtained no answer.</p> + +<p>When the term was over and his 80 kronas spent, he returned home, not +knowing whither to turn, what he should become, or how he should live. +He had glanced in the forecourt and seen that there was no room in it +for him.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A krona = 1s. <i>2d</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></h4> + +<h4>BELOW AND ABOVE</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>"Are you a complete scholar now?" With this and similar questions John +was greeted ironically on his return home. His father took the matter +seriously and strove to frame plans without coming to any result. John +was a student; that was a fact; but what was to follow?</p> + +<p>It was winter, and so the white student cap could not bestow on him +a mild halo of glory or bring any honour to the family. Some one has +asserted that war would cease if uniforms were done away with; and it +is certain there would not be so many students if they had no outward +sign to parade. In Paris where they have none, they disappear in the +crowd, and no one makes a fuss about them; in Berlin on the other hand, +they have a privileged place by the side of officers. Therefore also +Germany is a land of professors and France of the bourgeois.</p> + +<p>John's father now saw that he had educated a good-for-nothing for +society who could not dig, but perhaps was not ashamed to beg. The +world stood open for the youth to starve or to perish in. His father +did not like his idea of becoming an elementary school-teacher. Was +that to be the only result of so much work? His ambitious dreams +received a shock from the idea of such a come-down. An elementary +school-teacher was on a level with a sergeant, oil a plane from which +there was no hope of mounting. Climb one must as long as others did; +one must climb till one broke one's neck, so long as society was +divided into ranks and classes. John had not passed the student's +examination for the sake of knowledge, but of belonging to the upper +class, and now he seemed to be meditating a descent to the lower.</p> + +<p>It became painful for him at home for he felt as though he were eating +the bread of charity when Christmas was over, and he could no longer be +regarded as a Christmas guest.</p> + +<p>One day he accidentally met in the street a school-teacher whom he +knew, and whom he had not seen for a long time. They talked about the +future and John's friend suggested to him a post in the Stockholm +elementary school as suitable for him while reading for his degree. He +would get a thousand kronas salary and have an hour to himself daily. +John objected "Anywhere except in Stockholm." His friend replied that +several students had been teachers in the elementary school, "Really! +then he would have companions in misfortune." Yes, and one had come +from the New Elementary School where he was a teacher. John went, made +an application, and was appointed with a salary of 900 kronas. His +father approved his decision when he heard that it would help him to +read for his degree, and John undertook to live as a boarder at home. +One winter morning at half-past eight, John went down the Nordtullsgata +to the Clara School, exactly as he had done when he was eight years +old. There were the same streets and the same Clara bells, and he was +to teach the lowest class! It was like being put back to learn a lesson +of eleven years ago. Just as afraid as then,—yes, more afraid of +coming too late he entered the large class-room, where together with +two female teachers he was to have the oversight of a hundred children. +There they sat,—children like those in the Jakob School, but younger. +Ugly, stunted, pale, swollen, sickly, with cast-down looks, in coarse +clothes and heavy shoes. Suffering, most probably, suffering from the +consciousness that others were more fortunate, and would always be +so, as one then believed, had impressed on their faces the stamp of +pain, which neither religious resignation nor the hope of heaven could +obliterate. The upper classes avoided them with a bad conscience, built +themselves houses outside the town, and left it to the professional +over-seers of the poor to come in contact with these outcasts.</p> + +<p>A hymn was sung, the Lord's Prayer was read; everything was as before; +no progress had been made except that the forms had been exchanged for +seats and desks, and the room was light and airy. John had to fold his +hands and join in the hymn, thus already being obliged to do violence +to his conscience. Prayers over, the head-master entered. He spoke to +John in a fatherly way and as his superintendent gave him instruction +and advice. This class, he said, was the worst, and the teacher must +be strict.</p> + +<p>So John took his class into a special room to begin the lesson. The +room was exactly like that in the Clara School, and there stood the +dreadful desk with steps, which resembled a scaffold and was painted +red as though stained with blood. A stick was put into his hand with +which he might rap or strike as he chose. He mounted the scaffold. He +felt shy before the thirsty faces of girls and boys opposite who looked +curiously at him, to see if he were going to worry them.</p> + +<p>"What is your lesson?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The first commandment," the whole class exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Only one must answer at a time. You, top boy what is your name?"</p> + +<p>"Hallberg," cried the whole class.</p> + +<p>"No, only one at a time,—the one I ask."</p> + +<p>The children giggled. "He is not dangerous," they thought.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, what is the first commandment?" John asked the top boy.</p> + +<p>"Thou shalt have no other gods but Me." He knew that then.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" John asked again, trying to lay as little emphasis +as possible on the "that." Then he asked fifteen children the same +question and a quarter of an hour had passed. John thought this +idiotic. What should he do now? Say what he knew about God? But the +common point of view then was, that nothing was known about Him. John +was a theist, and still believed in a personal God, but could say +nothing more. He would have liked to have attacked the divinity of +Christ, but would have been dismissed had he done so.</p> + +<p>A pause followed. There was an unnatural stillness while he reflected +on his false position and the foolish method of teaching. If he had +now said that nothing was known of God, the whole catechism and Bible +instruction would have been superfluous. They knew that they must not +steal or lie. Why then make such a fuss? He felt a mad wish to make +friends and fellow-sinners of the children.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do now?" he said.</p> + +<p>The whole class looked at each other and giggled.</p> + +<p>"This is a jolly sort of teacher," they thought.</p> + +<p>"What must the teacher do when he has heard the lesson?" he asked the +top boy.</p> + +<p>"Hm! he generally explains it," he and one or two others answered.</p> + +<p>John could certainly explain the origin and growth of the conception of +God, but that would not do.</p> + +<p>"You need not do any more," he said, "but don't make a noise."</p> + +<p>The children looked at him, and he at them mutually smiling.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think this is absurd," he felt inclined to say, but checked +himself and only smiled. But he collected himself when he saw that they +were laughing at him. "This method would not do," he thought. So he +commanded attention and went through the first commandment again till +each child had had a question. After extraordinary exertions on his +part, the clock at last struck nine, and the lesson was over.</p> + +<p>Then the three divisions of the class were assembled in the great +hall to prepare for going into the play-ground to get fresh air. +"Prepare" is the right word for such a simple affair as going into the +play-ground demanded a long preparation. An exact description would +fill a whole printed page, and perhaps be regarded as a caricature; we +will be content with giving a hint.</p> + +<p>In the first place, all the hundred children had to sit motionless, +absolutely motionless, and silent, absolutely silent, in their seats as +though they were to be photographed. From the master's desk the whole +assembly looked like a grey carpet with bright patterns, but the next +moment one of them moved the head; the offender had to rise from his +seat and stand by the wall. The total effect was now disturbed, and +there had to be a good many raps with the cane before two hundred arms +lay parallel on the desks and a hundred heads were at right angles +with their collar-bones. When quiet was in some degree restored a new +rapping began which demanded absolute quiet. But at the very moment +when the absolute was all but attained, some muscle grew tired, some +nerve slackened, some sinew relaxed. Again there was confusion, cries, +blows, and a new attempt to reach the absolute. It generally ended by +the female teacher (the males did not drive it so far) closing one eye +and pretending that the absolute had been reached.</p> + +<p>Then came the important moment, when, at a given signal the whole +hundred must spring from their seats and stand in order, but nothing +more. It was a ticklish moment when slates fell down and rulers +clattered. Then they had to sit down and begin all over again by +keeping perfectly still.</p> + +<p>When they had really got on their legs, they were marched off in +divisions but on tip-toe without exception. Otherwise they had to turn +round and sit down again, get up again and so on. They had to go on +tip-toe in wooden sabots and water-boots. It was a great mistake; it +accustomed the children to stealthiness and gave their whole appearance +something cat-like and deceitful. In the play-ground a teacher had +to arrange those who wanted to drink in a straight line before the +water-tap by the entrance; at the same time the lavatories at the +other end of the play-ground had to be inspected, and games had to be +organised and watched over. Then the children were again drawn up and +marched into school. If it was not done quietly, they had to go out +again.</p> + +<p>Then another lesson began. The children read out of a patriotic +reading-book the principal object of which seemed to be to instil +respect for the upper classes and to represent Sweden as the best +country in Europe, although as regards climate and social economy, +it is one of the worst, its culture is borrowed from abroad, and all +its kings were of foreign origin. They did not venture to give such +teaching to the children of the upper classes in the Clara School and +the Lyceum, but in the Jakob School they had sufficient courage to +make poor children sing a patriotic song about the Duke of Ostgothland. +In this occurred a verse addressed to the crew of the fleet, saying +victory was sure in the battle they wished for "because Prince Oscar +leads us on," or something of the sort.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the reading-lesson began. But just at that moment the +head-master came in. John wished to stop but the head-master beckoned +to him to go on. The children who had lost their respect for him after +the catechism-lesson were inattentive. John scolded them, but without +result. Then the head-master came forward with a cane; took the book +from John and made a little speech, to the effect that this division +was the worst, but now their teacher should see how to deal with them. +The exercise which followed seemed to have as its object the attainment +of perfect attention. The absolute again seemed to be the standard by +which these children were to be trained in this incomplete world of +relativity.</p> + +<p>The boy who was reading was interrupted, and another name called at +random out of the class. To follow attentively was assumed to be the +easiest thing in the world by this old man who certainly must have +experienced how thoughts wander their own way while the eyes pass +over the printed page. The inattentive one was dragged by his hair or +clothes and caned till he fell howling on the ground.</p> + +<p>Then the head-master departed after recommending John to use the cane +diligently. There remained nothing but to follow this method or to go; +the latter did not suit John's plans, therefore he remained. He made a +speech to the children and referred to the head-master. "Now," he said, +"you know how you must behave if you want to escape a thrashing. He who +gets one, has himself to thank. Don't blame me. Here is the stick, and +there is your lesson. Learn your lesson or you will get the stick,—and +it isn't my fault."</p> + +<p>That was cunningly put, but it was unmerciful, for one ought to have +first ascertained how far the children could do their work. They could +not, for they were the most lively and therefore the most inattentive. +So the cane was kept going all day, accompanied by cries of pain, and +fear on the faces of the innocent. It was terrible! To pay attention +is not in the power of the will, and therefore all this punishment was +mere torture. John felt the absurdity of the part he had to play, but +he had to do his duty. Sometimes he was tired and let things go as they +liked, but then his colleagues, male and female, came and made friendly +representations. Sometimes he found the whole thing so ridiculous +that he could not help smiling with the children while he caned them. +Both sides saw that they were working at something impossible and +unnecessary.</p> + +<p>Ibsen, who does not believe in the aristocracy of birth or of wealth, +has lately (1886) expressed his belief that the industrial class +are the true nobility. But why should they necessarily be so? If to +do no manual labour tends to degeneration, perhaps degeneration is +brought about even more quickly by excessive labour and want. All +these children born of manual labourers looked more sickly, weak and +stupid than the upper-class children which he had seen. One or the +other muscle might be more strongly developed,—a shoulder-blade, a +hand, or a foot,—but they looked anæmic under their pale skins. +Many had extraordinarily large heads which seemed to be swollen with +water, their ears and noses ran, their hands were frost-bitten. The +various professional diseases of town-labourers seemed to have been +inherited; one saw in miniature the gas-worker's lungs and blood spoilt +by sulphur-fumes, the smith's shoulders and feet bent out-wards, the +painter's brain atrophied by varnishes and poisonous colours, the +scrofulous eruption of the chimney sweeper, the contracted chest of +the book-binder; here one heard the cough of the workers in metal +and asphalt, smelt the poisons of the paper-stainer, observed the +watch-maker's short-sightedness, in second editions, so to speak. In +truth this was no race to which the future belonged, or on which the +future could build; nor was it a race which could permanently increase, +for the ranks of the workers are continually recruited from the country.</p> + +<p>It was not till about two o'clock that the great school-room was +emptied, for it took them about an hour with blows and raps to get out +of it into the street. The most unpractical part of it was that the +children had to march into the hall in troops to get their overcoats +and cloaks, and then march into the school-room again, instead of +going straight home. When John got into the street, he asked himself +"Is that the celebrated education which they have given to the lower +classes with so much sacrifice?" He could ask, and he was answered, +"Can it be done in any other way?" "No," he was obliged to answer. "If +it is your intention to educate a slavish lower class, always ready to +obey, train them with the stick,—if you mean to bring up a proletariat +to demand nothing of life, tell them lies about heaven. Tell them that +your method of teaching is ridiculous, let them begin to criticise +or get their way in one point and you have taken a step towards the +dissolution of society. But society is built up upon an obedient +conscientious lower class; therefore keep them down from the first; +deprive them of will and reason, and teach them to hope for nothing but +to be content." There was method in this madness.</p> + +<p>As regards the instruction in the elementary school, there was both +a good and bad side to it; the good was that they had introduced +object-teaching after the example of Pestalozzi, Rousseau's disciple; +the bad, that the students who taught in the elementary schools had +introduced "scientific" teaching. The simple learning by heart of the +multiplication table was not enough; it, together with fractions, +had to be understood. Understood? And yet an engineer who has been +through the technical high school cannot explain "why" a fraction +can be diminished by three if the sum of the figures is divisible by +three. On this principle seamen would not be allowed to use logarithm +tables, because they cannot calculate logarithms. To be always +relaying the foundation instead of building on what is already laid is +an educational luxury and leads to the over-multiplication of lessons +in schools.</p> + +<p>Some one may object that John should first have reformed himself +as teacher, before he set about reforming the system of education; +but he could not; he was a passive instrument in the hands of the +superintendent and the school authorities. The best teachers, that is +to say, those who forced the worst (in this case the best) results out +of the pupils were the uneducated ones who came from the Seminary. They +were not sceptical about the methods in use and had no squeamishness +about caning, but the children respected them the most. A great coarse +fellow who had formerly been a carriage-maker had the bigger boys +completely under his thumb. The lower class seem to have really more +fear and respect for those of their own rank than the upper class. +Bailiffs and foremen are more awe-imposing than superintendents and +teachers. Do the lower classes see that the superior who has come out +of their ranks understands their affairs better, and therefore pay him +more respect? The female teachers also enjoyed more respect than the +male. They were pedantic, demanded absolute perfection, and were not at +all soft-hearted, but rather cruel. They were fond of practising the +refined cruelty of blows on the palm of the hand and showed in so doing +a want of intelligence which the most superficial study of physiology +would have remedied. When a child by involuntary reflex action, drew +his fingers back, he was punished all the more for not keeping his +fingers still. As if one could prevent blinking, when something blew +into one's eye! The female teachers had the advantage of knowing very +little about teaching and were plagued with no doubts. It was not true +that they had less pay than the men teachers. They had relatively more; +and if after passing a paltry teacher's examination they had received +more than the students, that would have been unjust. They were treated +with partiality, regarded as miracles, when they were competent, and +received allowances for travelling abroad.</p> + +<p>As comrades, they were friendly and helpful if one was polite and +submissive and let them hold the reins. There was not the slightest +trace of flirtation; the men saw them in anything but becoming +situations, and under an aspect which women do not usually show to +the other sex, viz. that of jailers. They made notes of everything, +prepared themselves for their lessons, were narrow-minded and content, +and saw through nothing. It was a very suitable occupation for them +under existing circumstances.</p> + +<p>When John was thoroughly sick of caning, or could not manage a boy, or +was in despair generally, he sent the black sheep to a female teacher, +who willingly undertook the unpleasant rôle of executioner.</p> + +<p>What it is that makes the competent teacher is not clear. Some produced +an effect by their quiet manner, others by their nervousness; some +seemed to magnetise the children, others beat them; some imposed on +them by their age or their manly appearance, etc. The women worked as +women, <i>i.e.</i> through a half-forgotten tradition of a past matriarchate.</p> + +<p>John was not competent. He looked too young and was only just nineteen; +he was sceptical about the methods employed and everything else; with +all his seriousness he was playful and boyish. The whole matter to him +was only an employment by the way, for he was ambitious and wished to +advance, but did not know in which direction.</p> + +<p>Moreover he was an aristocrat like his contemporaries. Through +education his habits and senses had been refined, or spoilt, as one may +choose to call it; he found it hard to tolerate unpleasant smells, ugly +objects, distorted bodies, coarse expressions, torn clothes. Life had +given him much, and these daily reminders of poverty plagued him like +an evil conscience. He himself might have been one of the lower class +if his mother had married one of her own position.</p> + +<p>"He was proud" a shop-boy would have said, who had mounted to the +position of editor of a paper and boasted that he was content with his +lot, forgetting that he might well be content since he had risen from +a low position. "He was proud" a master shoemaker would have said, who +would have rather thrown himself into the sea than become an apprentice +again. John <i>was</i> proud, of that there was no doubt, as proud as the +master shoemaker, but not in such a high degree, as he had descended +from the level of the student to the elementary school-teacher. That, +however, was no virtue, but a necessity, and he did not therefore boast +of his step downward, nor give himself the air of being a friend of +the people. One cannot command sympathies and antipathies, and for the +lower class to demand love and self-sacrifice from the upper class is +mere idealism. The lower class is sacrificed for the upper class, but +they have offered themselves willingly. They have the right to take +back their rights, but they should do it themselves. No one gives up +his position willingly, therefore the lower class should not wait for +kings and the upper class to go. "Pull us down! but all together."</p> + +<p>If an intelligent man of the upper class help in such an operation, +those below should be thankful to him especially since such an act is +liable to the imputation of being inspired by impure motives. Therefore +the lower class should not too narrowly inspect the motives of those +who help them; the result is in all eases the same. The aristocrats +seem to have seen this and therefore regard one of themselves who sides +with the proletariat as a traitor. He is a traitor to his class, that +is true; and the lower class should put it to his credit.</p> + +<p>John was not an aristocrat in the sense that he used the word "mob" or +despised the poor. Through his mother he was closely allied to them, +but circumstances had estranged him from them. That was the fault of +class-education. This fault might be done away with for the future, if +elementary schools were reformed by the inclusion of the knowledge of +civil duties in their programme, and by their being made obligatory for +all, without exception, as the militia-schools are. Then it would be no +longer a disgrace to become an elementary school-teacher as it now is, +and made a matter of reproach to a man that he has been one.</p> + +<p>John, in order to keep himself above, applied himself to his future +work. To this end he studied Italian grammar in his spare time at the +school. He could now buy books and did so. He was honest enough not to +construe these efforts at climbing up as an ideal thirst for knowledge +or a striving for the good of humanity. He simply read for his degree.</p> + +<p>But the meagre diet he had lived on in Upsala, his midday meals at 6 +kronas, the milk and the bread had undermined his strength, and he +was now in the pleasure-seeking period of youth. It was tedious at +home, and in the afternoons he went to the café or the restaurant, +where he met friends. Strong drinks invigorated him and he slept well +after them. The desire for alcohol seems to appear regularly in each +adolescent. All northerners are born of generations of drinkers from +the early heathen times, when beer and mead was drunk, and it is quite +natural that this desire should be felt as a necessity. With John it +was an imperious need the suppression of which resulted in a diminution +of strength. It may be questioned whether abstinence for us may not +involve the same risk, as the giving up of poison for an arsenic-eater. +Probably the otherwise praiseworthy temperance movement will merely +end in demanding moderation; that is a virtue and not a mere exhibition +of will power which results in boasting and self-righteousness.</p> + +<p>John who had hitherto only worn east-off suits, began to wear fine +clothes. His salary seemed to him extraordinarily great and in the +magnifying-glass of his fancy assumed huge proportions, with the result +that he soon ran into debt. Debt which grew and grew and could never be +paid, became the vulture gnawing at his life, the object of his dreams, +the wormwood which poisoned his content. What foolish hopefulness, what +colossal self-deceit it was to incur debts! What did he expect? To gain +an academic dignity. And then? To become a teacher with a salary of 750 +kronas! Less than he had now! Not the least trying part of his work was +to accommodate his brain to the capacity of the children. That meant +to come down to the level of the younger and less intelligent, and to +screw down the hammer so that it might hit the anvil,—an operation +which injured the machine.</p> + +<p>On the other hand he derived real profit from his observations in +the families of the children, whom his duty required him to visit on +Sundays. There was one boy in his class who was the most difficult of +all. He was dirty and ill-dressed, grinned continually, smelt badly, +never knew his lessons and was always being caned. He had a very large +head and staring eyes which rolled and turned about continually. John +had to visit his parents in order to find out the reason of his +irregular attendance at school and bad behaviour. He therefore went +to the Apelbergsgata where they kept a public-house. He found that +the father had gone to work, but the mother was at the counter. The +public-house was dark and evil-smelling, filled with men who looked +threateningly at John as he entered probably taking him for a plain +clothes policeman. He gave his message to the mother and was asked +into a room behind the counter. One glance at it sufficed to explain +everything. The mother blamed her son and excused him alternately and +she had some reason for the latter. The boy was accustomed to "lick the +glasses,"—that was the explanation and that was enough. What could be +done in such a case? A change of dwelling, better food, a nurse to look +after him and so on. All these were questions of money!</p> + +<p>Afterwards he came to the Clara poor-house, which was empty of its +usual occupants and provisionally opened to families because of the +want of houses. In a great hall lay and stood quite a dozen families, +who had divided the floor with strokes of chalk. There stood a +carpenter with his planing-bench, here sat a shoemaker with his board; +round about on both sides of the chalk-line women sat and children +crawled. What could John do there? Send in a report on a matter which +was perfectly well known, distribute wood-tickets and orders for meat +and clothing.</p> + +<p>In Kungsholmsbergen he came across specimens of proud poverty. There he +was shown the door, "God be thanked, we have no need of charity. We +are all right."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Then you should not let your boy go in torn boots in winter."</p> + +<p>"That is not your business, sir," and the door was slammed.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he saw sad scenes,—a child sick, the room full of sulphur +fumes of coke, and all coughing from the grandmother down to the +youngest. What could he do except feel dispirited and make his escape? +At that period there was no other means of help except charity; writers +who described the state of things, contented themselves with lamenting +it; no one saw any hope. Therefore there was nothing to do except to be +sorry, help temporarily, and fly in order not to despair.</p> + +<p>All this lay like a heavy cloud upon him, and he lost pleasure in +study. He felt there was something wrong here, but nothing could be +done said all the newspapers and books and people. It must be so but +every one is free to climb. You climb too!</p> + +<p>Time went on and spring approached. John's closest acquaintance +was a teacher from the Slöjd School. He was a poet, well-versed +in literature, and also musical. They generally walked to the +Stallmastergarden restaurant, discussed literature, and ate their +supper there. While John was paying his attentions to the waitress, +his friend played the piano. Sometimes the latter amused himself by +writing comic verses to girls. John was seized with a craze for writing +verse but could not. The gift must be born with one, he thought, and +inspiration descend all of a sudden, as in the case of conversion. +He was evidently not one of the elect, and felt himself neglected by +nature and maimed.</p> + +<p>One evening when John was sitting and chatting with the girl, she said +quite suddenly to him, "Friday is my birthday; you must write some +verses for me."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered John, "I will."</p> + +<p>Later on when he met his friend, he told him of his hasty promise.</p> + +<p>"I will write them for you," he said. The next day he brought a poem, +copied out in a fine hand-writing and composed in John's name. It was +piquant and amusing. John dispatched it on the morning of the birthday.</p> + +<p>In the evening of the same day both the friends came to eat their +supper and to congratulate the girl. She did not appear for an hour for +she had to serve guests. The teachers' meal was brought and they began +to eat.</p> + +<p>Then the girl appeared in the doorway and beckoned John. She looked +almost severe. John went to her and they ascended a flight of stairs. +"Have you written the verses?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No," said John.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I thought so. The lady behind the buffet said she had read them +two years ago when the teacher sent them to Majke who was an ugly girl. +For shame, John!"</p> + +<p>He took his cap and wanted to rush out, but the girl caught hold of him +and tried to keep him back for she saw that he looked deathly pale +and beside himself. But he wrenched himself free and hastened into +the Bellevue Park. He ran into the wood leaving the beaten tracks. +The branches of the bushes flew into his face, stones rolled over his +feet, and frightened birds rose up. He was quite wild with shame, and +instinctively sought the wood in order to hide himself. It is a curious +phenomenon that at the utmost pitch of despair a man runs into the +wood before he plunges into the water. The wood is the penultimate and +the water the ultimate resource. It is related of a famous author, who +had enjoyed a twenty years' popularity quietly and proudly, that he +was suddenly cast down from his position. He was as though struck by a +thunderbolt, went half-mad and sought the shelter of the woods where +he recovered himself. The wood is the original home of the savage and +the enemy of the plough and therefore of culture. When a civilised man +suddenly strips off the garb of civilisation, the artistically woven +fabric of his repute, he becomes in a moment a savage or a wild beast. +When a man becomes mad, he begins to throw off his clothes. What is +madness? A relapse? Yes, many think animals mad.</p> + +<p>It was evening when John entered the wood. In the midst of some +bushes he laid down on a great block of stone. He was ashamed of +himself,—that was the chief impression on his mind. An emotional man +is more severe with himself than others think. He scourged himself +unmercifully. He had wished to shine in borrowed plumage, and so lied; +and in the second place he had insulted an innocent girl. The first +part of the accusation affected him in a very sensitive point,—his +want of poetic capacity. He wished to do more than he could. He was +discontent with the position which nature and society had assigned +him. Yes, but (and now his self-defence began after the evening air +had cooled his blood), in the school one had been always exhorted to +strive upwards; those who did so were praised, and discontent with +the position one might happen to be in, was justified. Yes but (here +the scourge descended!) he had tried to deceive. To deceive! That was +unpardonable. He was ashamed, stripped and unmasked without any means +of retreat. Deception, falsity, cheating! So it was!</p> + +<p>As a quondam Christian, John was most afraid of having a fault, and +as a member of society he feared lest it should be visible. Everybody +knew that one had faults, but to acknowledge them was regarded as a +piece of cynicism, for society always wishes to appear better than it +is. Sometimes, however, society demanded that one should confess one's +fault if one wished for forgiveness, but that was a trick. Society +wished for confession in order to enjoy the punishment, and was very +deceitful. John had confessed his fault, been punished, and still his +conscience was uneasy.</p> + +<p>The second point regarding the girl was also difficult. She had loved +him purely and he had insulted her. How coarse and vulgar! Why should +he think that a waitress could not love innocently? His own mother had +been in the same position as that girl. He had insulted her. Shame +upon him!</p> + +<p>Now he heard shouts in the park, and his name being called. The girl's +voice and his friend's echoed among the trees, but he did not answer +them. For a moment the scourge fell out of his hands; he became sobered +and thought, "I will go back, we will have supper, call Riken and drink +a glass with her, and it will be all over." But no! He was too high up +and one cannot descend all at once.</p> + +<p>The voices became silent. He lay back in a state of semi-stupefaction +and ground his double crime between the mill-stones of rumination. He +had lied and hurt her feelings.</p> + +<p>It began to grow dark. There was a rustling in the bushes; he started +and a sweat broke out upon him. Then he went out and sat upon a seat +till the dew fell. He shivered and felt poorly. Then he got up and went +home.</p> + +<p>Now his head was clear and he could think. What a stupid business it +all was! He did not really mean that she should take him for a poet, +and had been quite ready to explain the whole trick. It was all a joke. +His friend had made a fool of him, but it did not matter.</p> + +<p>When he got home he found his friend sleeping in his bed. He wanted +to rise but John would not let him. He wished to scourge himself once +more. He lay on the floor, put a cigar-box under his head and drew a +volunteer's cloak over him. In the morning when he awoke, John asked in +trembling tones, "How did she take it?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, she laughed; then we drank a glass, and it was over. She liked the +verses."</p> + +<p>"She laughed! Was she not angry?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all."</p> + +<p>"Then she only humbugged me."</p> + +<p>John wished to hear no more. This trifle had kept him on the rack for a +whole dreadful night. He felt ashamed of having asked whether she was +disquieted about him. But since she had laughed and drunk punch she +could not have been. Not even anxious about his life!</p> + +<p>He dressed himself and went down to the school.</p> + +<p>The habit of self-criticism derived from his religious training had +accustomed him to occupy himself with his ego, to fondle and cherish +it, as though it were a separate and beloved personality. So cherished +the ego expanded and kept continually looking within instead of +without upon the world. It was an interesting personal acquaintance, a +friend who must be flattered, but who must also hear the truth and be +corrected.</p> + +<p>It was the mental malady of the time reduced to a system by Fichte, +who taught that everything took place in the ego and through the ego, +without which there was no reality. It was the formula for romanticism +and for subjective idealism.</p> + +<p>"I stood on the shore under the king's castle," "I dwell in the cave +of the mountain," "I, small boy, watch the door," "I think of the +beautiful times,"—all these phrases struck the same note. Was this "I" +really so proud. Was not the poet's "I" more modest than the editor's +royal "we"?</p> + +<p>This absorption in self, or the new malady of culture, of which much +is written nowadays, has been common with all men who have not worked +with their bodies. The brain is only an organ for imparting movement +to the muscles. Now when in a civilised man the brain cannot act upon +the muscles, nor bring its power into play, there results a disturbance +of equilibrium. The brain begins to dream; too full of juices which +cannot be absorbed by muscular activity, it converts them involuntarily +into systems, into thought-combinations, into the hallucinations which +haunt painters, sculptors and poets. If no outlet can be found, there +follows stagnation, violent outbreaks, depression, and at last madness. +Schools which are often vestibules for asylums, have recourse to +gymnastics, but with what result? There is no connection between the +pupil's cerebral activity and the muscular activity called into play by +gymnastics; the latter is only directed by another's will through the +word of command.</p> + +<p>All studious youths are aware of this tendency to congestion of the +brain. It is a good thing that they often go out to improve or to +beautify society, but it would be better if the equilibrium were +restored, and a sound mind dwelt in a sound body. It has been sought to +introduce physical work into schools as a remedy. It would be better +to let elementary knowledge be acquired at home, to make the school +a day-school, and to let every one look after himself. For the rest +the emancipation of the lower classes will compel the higher classes +to undertake some of the physical labour now carried on by domestics +and so the equilibrium will be restored. That such labour does not +blunt the intelligence can be easily seen by observing that some of +the strongest minds of the time have had such daily contact with +reality, <i>e.g.</i> Mill the civil service official, Spencer, the civil +engineer, Edison the telegraphist. The student period of life, the most +unwholesome because not under discipline, is also the most dangerous. +The brain continually takes in, without producing anything, not even +anything intellectual, while the whole muscular system is unoccupied.</p> + +<p>John at this time was suffering from an over-production of thought and +imagination. The mechanical school-work continually revolving in the +same circle with the same questions and answers afforded no relief. +It increased on the other hand his stock of observations of children +and teachers. There lay and fermented in his mind a quantity of +experiences, perceptions, criticisms and thoughts without any order. He +therefore sought for society in order to speak his mind out. But it was +not sufficient, and as he did not find any one who was willing to act +as a sounding-board, he took to declaiming poetry.</p> + +<p>In the early sixties declamation was much the fashion. In families they +used to read aloud "The Kings of Salamis." In the numerous volunteer +concerts the same pieces were declaimed over and over again. These +declamations were what the quartette singing had been, an outlet for +all the hope and enthusiasm called forth by the awakening of 1865. +Since Swedes are neither born nor trained orators, they became singers +and reciters, perhaps because their want of originality sought a +ready-made means of expression. They could execute but not create. The +same want of originality showed itself in the bachelor's gatherings +where reciters of anecdotes were much in request. This feeble and +tedious form of amusement was superseded when the new questions of the +day provided food for conversation and discussion.</p> + +<p>One day John came to his friend the elementary school-teacher whom he +found together with another young colleague. When the conversation +began to slacken, his friend produced a volume of Schiller, whose poems +had just then appeared in a cheap edition and were bought mostly for +that reason. They opened "The Robbers" and read round in turn, John +taking the part of Karl Moor. The first scene of the first act took +place between old Moor and Franz. Then came the second scene: John +read, "I am sick of this quill-driving age when I read of great men +in Plutarch." He did not know the play and had never seen bandits. +At first he read absent-mindedly, but his interest was soon aroused. +The play struck a new note. He found his obscure dreams expressed +in words; his rebellious criticisms printed. Here then was another, +a great and famous author who felt the same disgust at the whole +course of education in school and university as he did, who would +rather be Robinson Crusoe or a bandit than be enrolled in this army +which is called society. He read on; his voice shook, his cheeks +glowed, his breast heaved: "They bar out healthy nature with tasteless +conventionalities."... There it stood all in black and white. "And that +is Schiller!" he exclaimed, "the same Schiller who wrote the tedious +history of the Thirty Years' War, and the tame drama "Wallenstein" +which is read in schools!" Yes, it was the same man. Here (in "The +Robbers") he preached revolt, revolt against law, society, morals +and religion. That was in the revolt of 1781 eight years before the +great revolution. That was the anarchists' programme a hundred years +before its time, and Karl Moor was a nihilist. The drama came out with +a lion on the title-page and with the inscription "In Tyrannos." The +author then (1781) aged two-and-twenty had to fly. There was no doubt +therefore about the intention of the piece. There was also another +motto from Hippocrates which showed this intention as plainly; "What is +not cured by medicine must be cured by iron; what is not cured by iron +must be cured by fire."</p> + +<p>That was clear enough! But in the preface the author apologised and +recanted. He disclaimed all sympathy with Franz Moor's sophisms and +said that he wished to exhibit the punishment of wickedness in Karl +Moor. Regarding religion he said, "Just now it is the fashion to make +religion a subject for one's wit to play upon as Voltaire and Frederick +the Great did, and a man is scarcely reckoned a genius unless he can +make the holiest truths the object of his godless satire...." I hope +I have exacted no ordinary revenge for religion and sound morality in +handing over these obstinate despisers of Scripture in the person of +this scoundrelly bandit, to public contumely. Was then Schiller true +when he wrote the drama, and false when he wrote the preface? True in +both cases, for man is a complex creature, and sometimes appears in his +natural sometimes in his artificial character. At his writing-table +in loneliness, when the silent letters were being written down on +paper, Schiller seems like other young authors to have worked under the +influence of a blind natural impulse without regard to mens' opinion, +without thinking of the public, or laws, or constitutions. The veil +was lifted for a moment and the falsity of society seen through in its +whole extent. The silence of the night when literary work—especially +in youth,—is carried on, causes one to forget the noisy artificial +life outside, and darkness hides the heaps of stones over which animals +which are ill-adapted to their environment stumble. Then comes the +morning, the light of day, the street noises, men, friends, police, +clocks striking, and the seer is afraid of his own thoughts. Public +opinion raises its cry, newspapers sound the alarm, friends drop off, +it becomes lonely round one, and an irresistible terror seizes the +attacker of society. "If you will not be with us," society says, "then +go into the woods. If you are an animal ill-adapted to its environment, +or a savage, we will deport you to a lower state of society which +you will suit." And from its own point of view society is right and +always will be right. But the society of the future will celebrate the +revolter, the individual, who has brought about social improvement, and +the revolter is justified long after his death.</p> + +<p>In every intelligent youth's life there comes a moment when he is in +the transition stage between family life and that of society, when +he feels disgusted at artificial civilisation and breaks out. If he +remains in society, he is soon suppressed by the united wet-blankets +of sentiment and anxiety about living; he becomes tired, dazzled, +drops off and leaves other young men to continue the fight. This +unsophisticated glance into things, this outbreak of a healthy nature +which must of necessity take place in an unspoilt youth, has been +stigmatised by a name which is intended to depreciate the idealistic +impulses of youth. It is called "spring fever" by which is meant that +it is only a temporary illness of childhood, a rising of the vernal +sap, which produces stoppage of the circulation and giddiness. But who +knows whether the youth did not see right before society put out his +eyes? And why do they despise him afterwards?</p> + +<p>Schiller had to creep into a public post for the sake of a living and +even eat the bread of charity from a duke's hand. Therefore his writing +degenerated, though perhaps not from an æsthetic or subordinate point +of view. But his hatred of tyrants is everywhere manifest. It declares +itself against Philip II of Spain, Dorea of Genoa, Gessler of Austria, +but therefore ceases to be effective. Schiller's rebellion which was in +the first instance directed against society, was afterwards directed +against the monarchy alone. He closes his career with the following +advice to a world reformer (not, however, till he had seen the reaction +which followed the French Revolution). "For rain and dew and for the +welfare of mankind, let heaven care to-day, my friend, as it has always +done." Heaven, the unfortunate old heaven will care for it, just as +well as it has done before.</p> + +<p>Just as a man once does his militia duty at the age of twenty-one, so +Schiller did his. How many have shirked it!</p> + +<p>John did not take the preface to "The Robbers" very seriously or rather +ignored it; but he took Karl Moor literally for he was congenial. He +did not imitate him, for he was so like him that he had no need to do +so. He was just as mutinous, just as wavering, and just as ready at an +alarm to go and deliver himself into the hands of justice.</p> + +<p>His disgust at everything continually increased and he began to make +plans for flight from organised society. Once it occurred to him to +journey to Algiers and enlist in the Foreign Legion. That would be +fine he thought to live in the desert in a tent, to shoot at half-wild +men or perhaps be shot by them. But circumstances occurred at the +right moment, to reconcile him again with his environment. Through the +recommendation of a friend he was offered the post of tutor to two +girls in a rich and cultured family. The children were to be educated +in a new and liberal-minded method and neither to go to a girls' school +nor have a governess. That was an important task to which he was +called and John did not feel himself adequate to it; besides which he +objected that he was only an elementary school-teacher. He was answered +that his future employers knew that, but were liberal-minded. How +liberal-minded people were at that time!</p> + +<p>Now there commenced a new double life for him. From the penal +institution of the elementary school with its compulsory catechism and +Bible, its poverty, wretchedness, and cruelty, he went to dinner at +one o'clock, which he swallowed in a quarter of an hour, and then by +two o'clock was at his post as private tutor. The house was one of the +finest at that time in Stockholm with a porter, Pompeian stair-cases +and painted windows in the hall. In a handsome, large, well-lighted +corner room with flowers, bird-cages and an aquarium he was to give +lessons to two well-dressed, washed and combed little girls, who +looked cheerful and satisfied after their dinner. Here he could give +expression to his own thoughts. The catechism was banished, and only +select Bible stories were to be read together with broad-minded +explanations of the life and teachings of the Ideal Man, for the +children were not to be confirmed, but brought up after a new model. +They read Schiller and were enthusiastic for William Tell and the +fortunate little land of freedom. John taught them all that he knew and +spent more time in talking than in asking questions; he roused in them +the hopes of a better future which he shared himself.</p> + +<p>Here he obtained an insight into a social circle hitherto unknown to +him, that of the rich and cultured. Here he found liberal-mindedness, +courage and the desire for truth. Down below in the elementary school +they were cowardly, conservative and untruthful. Would the parents of +the children be willing to have religious teaching done away with, +even if the school authorities recommended it? Probably not. Must +then illumination come from the upper classes? Certainly, though not +from the highest class of all, but from the republic of truth-seeking +scientists. John saw that one must get an upper place in order to be +heard; therefore he must strive upwards or pull culture down and cast +the sparks of it among all. One needed to be economically independent +in order to be liberally minded; a position was necessary in order to +give one's words weight; thus aristocracy ruled in this sphere also.</p> + +<p>There was at that time a group of young doctors, men of science and +letters, and members of parliament who formed a liberal league without +constituting themselves a formal society. They gave popular lectures, +engaged not to receive any honorary decorations, cherished liberal +views on the subject of the State Church and wrote in the papers. Among +them were Axel Key, Nordenskiöld, Christian Loven, Harald Wieselgren, +Hedlund, Victor Rydberg, Meijerberg, Jolin, and many less-known names. +These, with one or two exceptions, worked quietly without creating +excitement. After the reaction of 1872 they fell off and became tired; +they could not join any political party which was rather an advantage +than otherwise for the country party had already begun to be corrupted +by yearly visiting Stockholm and attendance at the court. They now all +belong to the moderate or respectable liberal party, except those of +them who have joined the indifferents, a fact not to be wondered at, +after they had for so many years fought uselessly for nothing.</p> + +<p>Through the family of his pupils John came into external touch with +this group, obtained a closer view of them, and heard their speeches at +dinners and suppers. To John they sometimes seemed the very men whom +the time needed, who would first spread enlightenment and then work +for reform. Here he met the superintendent of the elementary school +and was surprised at finding him among the liberals. But he had the +school authorities over him and was as good as powerless. At a cheerful +dinner, when John had plucked up heart, he wished to have an intimate +talk with him and to come to an understanding. "Here," he thought, +"we can play the part of augurs and laugh with each other over our +champagne." But the superintendent did not want to laugh and asked him +to postpone the conversation till they met in the school. No, John did +not want to do that, for in the school both would have other views, and +speak of something else.</p> + +<p>John's debts increased and so did his work. He was in the school from +eight till one; then he ate his dinner and went to give his private +lessons within half-an-hour, arriving out of breath, with food half +digested, and sleepy; then he taught till four o'clock going out +afterwards to give more lessons in the Nordtullsgata; he returned to +his girl pupils in the evening, and then read far into the night for +his examination after ten hours' teaching. That was over-work. The +pupil thinks his work hard, but he is only the carriage while the +teacher is the horse. Teaching is decidedly harder than standing by a +screw or the crane of a machine, and equally monotonous.</p> + +<p>His brain, dulled by work and disturbed digestion, needed to be roused, +and his strength needed replenishing. He chose the shortest and best +method by going into a café, drinking a glass of wine, and sitting for +a while. It was good that there were such places of recreation, where +young men could meet and fathers of families recruit themselves over a +newspaper and talk of something else than business.</p> + +<p>The following summer he went out to a summer settlement outside the +city. There he read daily for a couple of hours with his girl pupils +and a whole number of children besides them. The summer settlement +afforded rich and varied opportunities of social intercourse. It was +divided into three camps,—the learned, the æsthetic and the civic. +John belonged to all three. It has been asserted that loneliness +injures the development of character (into an automaton), and if +has been also asserted that much social intercourse is bad for the +development of character. Everything can be said and can be true; it +all depends upon the point of view. But no doubt for the development +of the soul into a rich and free life much social intercourse is +necessary. The more men one sees and talks with, the more points +of view and experiences one gains. Every one conceals a grain of +originality in himself, every individual has his own history. John got +on equally well with all; he spoke on learned matters with the learned, +discussed art and literature with the æsthetes, sang quartettes and +danced with the young people, taught the children and botanised, +sailed, rode and swam with them. But after he had spent some time in +the rush, he withdrew into solitude for a day or two to digest his +impressions. Those who were really happy were the townsmen. They came +from their work in the town, shook off their cares and played in the +evening. Old wholesale merchants played in the ring and sang and danced +like children. The learned and the æsthetic on the other hand sat +on chairs, spoke of their work, were worried by their thoughts as by +nightmares and never seemed to be really happy. They could not free +themselves from the tyranny of thought. The tradesmen, however, had +preserved a little green spot in their hearts which neither the thirst +for gain nor speculation nor competition had been able to parch up. +There was something emotional and hearty about them which John was +inclined to call "nature." They could laugh like lunatics, scream like +savages, and be swayed by the emotions of the moment. They wept over +a friend's misfortune or death, embraced each other when delighted +and could be carried out of themselves by a beautiful sunset. The +professors sat in chairs and could not see the landscape because of +their eye-glasses, their looks were directed inwards, and they never +showed their feelings. They talked in syllogisms and formulas; their +laughter was bitter, and all their learning seemed like a puppet play. +Is that then the highest point of view? It is not a defect to have let +a whole region of the soul's life lie fallow?</p> + +<p>It was the third camp with which John was on the most intimate +terms. This was a little clique consisting of a doctor's family and +their friends. There sang the renowned tenor W. while Professor M. +accompanied him; there played and sang the composer J.; there the +old Professor P. talked about his journeys to Rome in the company +of painters of high birth. Here the emotions had full play, but +were under the control of good taste. They enjoyed the sunsets, but +analysed the lights and shades and talked of lines and "values." The +more noisy enjoyments of the tradesmen were regarded as disturbing +and unæsthetic. They were enthusiasts for art. John spent some hours +pleasantly with these amiable people, but when he heard the sound of +quartette singing and dance-music from the villa close by, he longed to +be there. That was certainly more lively.</p> + +<p>In hours of solitude he read, and now for the first time, became really +acquainted with Byron. "Don Juan," which he already knew, he had found +merely frivolous. It really dealt with nothing and the descriptions +of scenery were intolerably long. The work seemed merely a string of +adventures and anecdotes. In "Manfred" he renewed acquaintance with +Karl Moor in another dress. Manfred was no hater of men; he hated +himself more, and went to the Alps in order to fly himself, but always +found his guilty self beside him, for John guessed at once that he had +been guilty of incest. Nowadays it is generally believed that Byron +hinted at this crime, which was purely imaginary, in order to make +himself appear interesting. To become interesting as a romanticist at +whatever price would at the present time be called "differentiating +oneself, going beyond and above the others." Crime was regarded as +a sign of strength, therefore it was considered desirable to have a +crime to boast about, but not such a one as could be punished. They did +not want to have anything to do with the police and penal servitude. +There was certainly a spirit of opposition to law and morality in this +boasting of crime.</p> + +<p>Manfred's discontent with heaven and the government of Providence +pleased John. Manfred's denunciations of men were really levelled at +society, though society as we now understand it, had not then been +discovered. Rousseau, Byron and the rest were by no means discontented +misogynists. It was only primitive Christianity which demanded that men +should love men. To say that one was interested in them would be more +modest and truthful. One who has been overreached and thrust aside in +the battle of life may well fear men, but one cannot hate them when +one realises one's solidarity with humanity and that human intercourse +is the greatest pleasure in life. Byron was a spirit who awoke before +the others and might have been expected to hate his contemporaries, but +none the less strove and suffered for the good of all.</p> + +<p>When John saw that the poem was written in blank verse he tried to +translate it, but had not got far, before he discovered that he could +not write verse. He was not "called." Sometimes melancholy, sometimes +frisky, John felt at times an uncontrollable desire to quench the +burning fire of thought in intoxication and bring the working of his +brain to a standstill. Though he was shy, he felt occasionally impelled +to step forward, to make himself impressive, to collect hearers and +appear on a stage. When he had drunk a good deal, he wanted to declaim +poetry in the grand style. But in the middle of the piece, when his +ecstasy was at its highest, he heard his own voice, became nervous and +embarrassed, found himself ridiculous, suddenly dropped into a prosaic +and comic tone and ended with a grimace; he could be pathetic, but +only for a while; then came self-criticism and he laughed at his own +overwrought feelings. The romantic was in his blood, but the realistic +side of him was about to wake up.</p> + +<p>He was also liable to attacks of caprice and self-punishment. Thus he +remained away from a dinner to which he had been invited and lay in his +room hungry till the evening. He excused himself by saying that he had +overslept.</p> + +<p>The summer approached its end and he looked forward to the beginning of +the autumn term in the elementary school with dread. He had now been +in circles where poverty never showed its emaciated face; he had tasted +the enticing wine of culture and did not wish to become sober again.</p> + +<p>His depression increased; he retired into himself and withdrew from the +circle of his friends. But one evening, there was a knock at his door; +the old doctor who had been his most intimate friend and lived in the +same villa, stepped in.</p> + +<p>"How are the moods?" he asked, and sat down with the air of an old +fatherly friend.</p> + +<p>John did not wish to confess. How was he to say that he was +discontented with his position, and acknowledge that he was ambitious +and wished to advance in life? But the doctor had seen and understood +all. "You must be a doctor," he said. "That is a practical vocation +which will suit you, and bring you into touch with real life. You have +a lively imagination which you must hold in check, or it will do harm. +Now are you inclined to this? Have I guessed right?"</p> + +<p>He had. Through his intercourse from afar with these new prophets who +succeeded the priests and confessors, John had come to see in their +practical knowledge of men's lives, the highest pitch of human wisdom. +To become a wise man who could solve the riddles of life,—that was for +a while his dream. For a while, for he did not really wish to enter any +career in which he could be enrolled as a regular member of society. +It was not from dislike of work, for he worked strenuously and was +unhappy when unoccupied, but he had a strong objection to be enrolled. +He did not wish to be a cypher, a cog-wheel, or a screw in the social +machine. He wished to stand outside and contemplate, learn and preach. +A doctor was in a certain sense free; he was not an official, had no +superiors, set in no public office, was not tied by the clock. That was +a fairly enticing prospect, and John was enticed. But how was he to +take a medical degree, which required eight years' study? His friend, +however, had seen a way out of this difficulty. "Live with us and teach +my boys," he said.</p> + +<p>This was certainly a business-like offer which carried with it no sense +of accepting a humiliating favour. But what about his place in the +school? Should he give it up?</p> + +<p>"That is not your place!" the doctor cut him short. "Every one should +work where his talents can have free scope, and yours cannot in the +elementary school, where you have to teach, as prescribed by the school +authorities."</p> + +<p>John found this reasonable, but he had been so imbued with ascetic +teaching that he felt a pang of conscience. He wanted to leave the +school, but a strange feeling of duty and obligation held him back. He +felt quite ashamed of being suspected of such a natural weakness as +ambition. And his place, as the son of a servant, had been assigned to +him below. But his father had literally pulled him up, why should he +sink and strike his roots down there again?</p> + +<p>He fought a short bloody conflict, then accepted the offer thankfully, +and sent in his resignation as a school-teacher.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></h4> + +<h4>THE DOCTOR</h4> + +<h4>(1868)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>John now found his new home with the homeless, the Israelites. He +was immediately surrounded by a new atmosphere. Here there was no +recollection of Christianity; one neither plagued oneself or others; +there was no grace at meals, no going to church, no catechism.</p> + +<p>"It is good to be here," thought John. "These are liberal-minded men +who have brought the best of foreign culture home, without being +obliged to take what is bad." Here for the first time, he encountered +foreign influences. The family had journeyed much, had relatives +abroad, spoke all languages, and received foreign guests. Both the +small and great affairs of the country were spoken about, and light +thrown on them by comparison with their originals abroad. By this means +John's mental horizon was widened and he was enabled to estimate his +native country better.</p> + +<p>The patriarchal constitution of the family had not assumed the form of +domestic tyranny. On the contrary the children treated their parents +more as their equals, and the parents were gentle with them without +losing their dignity. Placed in an unfriendly part of the world, +surrounded by half-enemies, the members of the family helped each other +and held together. To be without a native country, which is regarded +as such a hard-ship, has this advantage that it keeps the intelligence +alive and vigorous. Men who are wanderers have to watch unceasingly, +observe continually, and gain new and rich experiences, while those who +sit at home become lazy and lean upon others.</p> + +<p>The children of Israel occupy a peculiar and exceptional position from +a social point of view. They have forgotten the Messianic promise and +do not believe in it. In most European countries they have remained +among the middle classes; to join the lower classes was for the most +part denied them, though not so widely as is generally believed. Nor +could they join the upper classes; therefore they feel related to +neither of the latter. They are aristocrats from habit and inclination, +but have the same interests as the lower classes, <i>i.e</i>. they wish to +roll away the stone which lies upon and presses them. But they fear the +proletariat who have no religious sense and who do not love the rich. +Therefore the children of Abraham rather aspire to those above them, +than seek sympathy from those below.</p> + +<p>About this time (1868) the question of Jewish emancipation began to be +raised. All liberals supported it and it was practically a discarding +of Christianity. Baptism, ecclesiastical marriage, confirmation, +church attendance were all declared to be unnecessary conditions for +membership in a Christian community. Such apparently small reforms +make an impression on the state, like the dropping of water on a rock.</p> + +<p>At that time a cheerful tone prevailed in the family, the sons having a +brighter future in prospect than their fathers, whose academic course +had been hindered by State regulations.</p> + +<p>A liberal table was kept in the house; everything was of the best +quality, and there was plenty of it. The servants managed the house +and were allowed a free hand in everything; they were not regarded as +servants. The housemaid was a pietist and allowed to be so, as much +as she pleased. She was good-natured and humorous, and, illogically +enough, adopted the jesting tone of the cheerful paganism which reigned +in the house. On the other hand, no one laughed at her belief. John +himself was treated as an intimate friend and a child alternately and +lived with the boys. His work was easy and he was rather required to +keep the boys company than to give them lessons. Meanwhile he became +somewhat "spoiled" as people, who have the usual idea of keeping youth +in the background, call it. Though only nineteen, he was received +on an equal footing among well-known and mature artists, doctors, +<i>littérateurs</i> and officials. He became accustomed to regard himself as +grown up, and therefore the set-backs he encountered afterwards, were +the harder to bear.</p> + +<p>His medical career began with chemical experiments in the technological +institute. There he obtained a closer view of some of the glories he +had dreamed of in his childhood. But how dry and tedious were the +rudiments of science! To stand and pour acids on salts and to watch the +solution change colour, was not pleasant; to produce salts from two or +more solutions was not very interesting. But later on, when the time +came for analysis, the mysterious part began. To fill a glass about +the size of a punch-bowl with a liquid as clear as water and then to +exhibit in the filter the possibly twenty elements it contained,—this +really seemed like penetrating into nature's secrets. When he was alone +in the laboratory he made small experiments on his own account, and it +was not long before with some danger he had prepared a little phial +of prussic acid. To have death enclosed in a few drops under a glass +stopper was a curiously pleasant feeling.</p> + +<p>At the same time he studied zoology, anatomy, botany, physic and +Latin,—still more Latin! To read and master a subject was congenial to +him, but to learn by heart he hated. His head was already filled with +so many subjects, that it was hard for anything more to enter, but it +was obliged to.</p> + +<p>A worse drawback was that so many other interests began to vie in his +mind with his medical studies. The theatre was only a stone's throw +from the doctor's house and he went there twice a week. He had a +standing place at the end of the third row. From thence he saw elegant +and cheerful French comedies played on a Brussels carpet. The light +Gallic humour, admired by the melancholy Swedes as their missing +complement, completely captivated him. What a mental equilibrium, what +a power of resistance to the blows of fate were possessed by this +race of a southern sunnier land! His thoughts became still more gloomy +as he grew conscious of his Germanic "Weltschmerz" lying like a veil +over everything, which a hundred years of French education could not +have lifted. But he did not know that Parisian theatrical life differs +widely from that of the industrious and thrifty Parisian at the desk +and the counter. French comedies were written for the parvenus of +the Second Empire; politics and religion were subject to the censor, +but not morals. French comedy was aristocratic in tone, but had a +liberating effect on the mind as it was in touch with reality, though +it did not interfere in social questions. It accustomed the public to +sympathise with and feel at home in this superfine world; one came to +forget the lower everyday world, and when one left the theatre it felt +as though one had been at supper with a friendly duke.</p> + +<p>As chance fell out, the doctor's wife possessed a good library in +which all the best literature of the world was represented. It was +indeed a treasure to have all these at one's elbow! Moreover the doctor +possessed a number of pictures by Swedish masters and a valuable +collection of engravings. There was an efflorescence of æstheticism +on all sides, even in the schools, where lectures on literature were +delivered. The conversation in the family circle mostly turned on +pictures, dramas, actors, books, authors, and the doctor felt from time +to time impelled to flavour it with details of his practice.</p> + +<p>Now and then John began to read the papers. Political and social life +with their various questions opened up before him, but at first with a +repelling effect, as he was an æsthete and domestic egoist. Politics +did not seem to touch him at all; he considered it a special branch of +knowledge like any other.</p> + +<p>He continued his lessons to the girls and his intercourse with +their family. Outside the house he met grown up relatives, who were +tradesmen, and their acquaintances. His circle was therefore widened, +and he saw life from more than one point of view. But this constant +occupation with children had a hampering effect on his development. He +never felt himself older, and he could not treat the young with an air +of superiority. He already noticed that they were in advance of him, +that they were born with new thoughts, and that they built on, where he +had ceased. When later on in life, he met grown-up pupils, he looked up +to them as though they were the older.</p> + +<p>The autumn of 1865 had commenced. There had been so much miscalculation +as to the effects of the new State constitution that there was +widespread discontent. Society was turned topsy-turvy. The peasant +threatened the civilised town-dwellers and there was a general feeling +of bitterness.</p> + +<p>Has the last word regarding the agrarian party yet been said? Probably +not. It began with a democratic and reforming programme and its attack +on the Civil List was the boldest stroke which had yet been seen. It +was a legal attempt to overthrow the monarchy. If the vote of supply +was screwed down to the lowest possible, the king would go. It was a +simple and at the same time a clever stroke.</p> + +<p>At a period which proclaims the right of the majority, one would not +have expected the peasants' cause would encounter resistance. Sweden +was a kingdom of peasants, for the country population numbered four +millions, which in a population of four and a half millions, is +certainly the majority. Should then the half million rule the four or +vice versa? The latter course seemed the fairer. Now naturally the +townsmen talk of the egotism and tyranny of the peasants, but have the +labour party in the town a single item in their programme to improve +the condition of the peasants and cottagers? It is so stupid to talk +of egotism when every one now sees that he profits the whole, in +proportion as he profits himself.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in 1868, the malcontents discovered a party which could be +opposed to the constitutional majority and whose programme contained +all kinds of thorough-going reforms. That was the new liberal party, +consisting for the most part of authors, some artisans, a professor, +etc. By means of this handful of people who had none of the weighty +interests which landed property involves, and whose social position +was so insecure that a single unfavourable harvest could turn them +into members of the proletariat, it was proposed to remodel society. +What did the artisans know about society? How did they wish it to be +constituted? Did they wish it to be remodelled in their interest, +although the peasantry should be ruined? But that meant cutting off +their own legs, for Sweden is not a land of exporting industries. +Therefore the four million consumers in the land, as soon as their +purchasing power was diminished, would involuntarily ruin the +industries and leave the artisans stranded. That the artisans should +advance is a necessity, but to wish to make all men industrial workers +as the industrial socialists do, is much more unreasonable than to make +them all peasants as the agrarian socialists purpose doing. Capital, +which the labour party now attack, is the foundation of industry and if +that is touched, industry is overthrown, and then the workmen must go +back whence they came and still daily come,—to the country.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the agrarian party was not yet corrupted by intercourse with +aristocrats; it was neither conservative nor did it make compromises. +The war seemed to be between the country and the town. The atmosphere +was electric and the smallest cause might produce a thunderstorm.</p> + +<p>In the capital there prevailed a general desire to erect a statue to +Charles XII. Why? Was this last knight of the Middle Ages the ideal +of the age? Bid the character of the idol of Gustav IV, Adolf, and +Charles XV suitably express the spirit of the new peaceful period +which now commenced? Or did the idea originate, as so often is the +case in the sculptor's studio? Who knows? The statue was ready and the +unveiling was to take place. Stands were erected for the spectators, +but so unskilfully that the ceremony could not be witnessed by the +general public, and the space railed off could only contain the +invited guests, the singers and those who paid for their seats. But +the subscription had been national and all believed they had a right +to see. The arrangements were obnoxious to the people. Petitions were +made to have the stands removed, but without success. The crowd began +to make attempts to tear them down, but the military intervened. The +doctor that day was giving a dinner to the Italian Opera Company. They +had just risen from dessert when a noise was heard from the street; it +was at first like rain falling on an iron roof, but then cries were +distinctly audible. John listened, but for the moment nothing more was +to be heard. The wine-glasses clinked amid Italian and French phrases +which flew hither and thither over the table; there was such a noise of +jests and laughter that those at the table could hardly hear themselves +speak. But now there came a roar from the street, followed immediately +by the tramp of horses, the rattle of weapons and harness. There was +silence in the room for a moment, and one and another turned pale.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked the prima donna.</p> + +<p>"The mob making a noise," answered a professor.</p> + +<p>John stood up from the table, went into his room, took his hat and +stick and hurried out. "The mob!"—the words rang in his ear while +he went down the street. "The mob!" They were his mother's former +associates, his own school-mates and afterwards his pupils; they formed +the dark background against which the society he had just quitted, +stood out like a brilliant picture. He felt again as though he were a +deserter, and had done wrong in working his way up. But he must get +above if he was to do anything for those below. Yes many had said +that, but when once they did get above, they found it so pleasant, +that they forgot those below. These cavalrymen, for instance, whose +origin was of the humblest, what airs they gave themselves! With what +unmixed pleasure they cut down their former comrades, though it must +be confessed they would have even more enjoyed cutting down the "black +hats."</p> + +<p>He went on and came to the market-place. The stands for the spectators +stood out against the November sky like gigantic market booths, and +the space below swarmed with men. From the opening of the Arsenal +street the tramp of horses was heard only a short way off. Then they +came riding forth, the blue guardsmen, the support of society, on whom +the upper class relied. John was seized with a wild desire to dash +against this mass of horses, men and sabres, as though he saw in them +oppression incarnate. That was the enemy! very well—at them! The troop +rode on and John stationed himself in the middle of the street. Whence +had he derived this hatred against the supporters of law and order, who +some day would protect him and his rights after he had clambered up, +and was in a position to oppress others? If the mob with whom he now +felt his solidarity had had their hands free, they would probably have +thrown the first stone through the window, behind which he had sat with +four wine-glasses in front of him. Certainly, but that did not prevent +his taking their side just as the upper class often, inconsistently +enough, takes sides against the police. This mania for freedom in the +abstract is probably the natural man's small revolt against society.</p> + +<p>He was going against the cavalry with a vague idea of striking them +all to the ground or something of the sort, when fortunately some one +seized him by the arm firmly but in a friendly way. He was brought back +to the doctor's who had sent out to seek for him. After he had given +his word of honour not to go out again he sank on a sofa, and lay all +the evening in fever.</p> + +<p>On the day of the unveiling of Charles XII's statue, he was one of the +student singers, therefore among the elect, the "upper ten thousand," +and had no reason to be discontented with his lot. When the ceremony +was over, the people rushed forward. The police forced them back, and +then they began to throw stones. The mounted police drew their sabres +and struck, arresting some and assaulting others.</p> + +<p>John had entered the market in front of the Jakob's church when he saw +a policeman lay hold of a man, under a shower of stones which knocked +off the constables' helmets. Without hesitation he sprang on the +policeman, seized him by the collar, shook him and shouted, "Let the +fellow go!"</p> + +<p>The policeman looked at his assailant in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" he asked irresolutely.</p> + +<p>"I am Satan, and I will take you, if you don't let him go."</p> + +<p>He actually did let him go and tried to seize John. At the same instant +a stone knocked off his three-cornered hat. John tore himself loose; +the crowd were now driven back by bayonets towards the guard-house in +the Gustaf Adolf market. After them followed a swarm of well-dressed +men, obviously members of the upper classes, shouting wildly, and as it +seemed, resolved to free the prisoners. John ran with them; it was as +though they were all impelled by a storm-wind. Men who had not been +molested or oppressed at all, who had high positions in society, rushed +blindly forward, risking their position, their domestic happiness, +their living, everything. John felt a hand grasp his. He returned the +pressure, and saw close beside him a middle-aged man, well-dressed, +with distorted features. They did not know each other, nor did they +speak together, but ran hand in hand, as if seized by one impulse. +They came across a third in whom John recognised an old school-fellow, +subsequently a civil service official, son of the head of a department. +This young man had never sided with the opposition party in school, +but on the contrary, was looked upon as a re-actionary with a future +in front of him. He was now as white as a corpse, his cheeks were +bloodless, the muscles of his forehead swollen, and his face resembled +a skull in which two eyes were burning. They could not speak, but +took each other's hands and ran on against the guards whom they were +attacking. The human waves advanced till they were met by the bayonets, +and then as always, dispersed in foam. Half-an-hour later John was +discussing a beefsteak with some students in the Opera restaurant. He +spoke of his adventure as though it were something which had happened +independently of him and his will. Nay, he even jested at it. That +may have been fear of public opinion, but also it may have been the +case that he regarded his outbreak objectively and now quietly judged +it as a member of society. The trap-door had opened for a moment, the +prisoner had put his head out, and then it had closed again.</p> + +<p>His unknown fellow-criminal, as he discovered later, was a pronounced +conservative, a wholesale tradesman. He always avoided meeting John's +eye, when they met after this. One time they met on a narrow pavement, +and had to look at each other, but did not smile.</p> + +<p>While they were sitting in the restaurant, came the news of the death +of Blanche. The students took it fairly coolly, the artists and middle +class citizens more warmly, but the lower classes talked of murder. +They knew that he had personally besought Charles XV to have the +spectators' stands taken down; they knew also, that though he was +very prosperous himself, he had always thought of them and they were +thankful. Stupid people objected, as is usual in such cases, that it +required no great skill on his part to speak on behalf of the poor, +when he was rich and celebrated. Did it not? It required the greatest.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that the chief outbreak of discontent was directed, +not as elsewhere against the King, but against the governor and the +police. Charles XV was a <i>persona grata</i>; he could do as he liked +without becoming unpopular. He was neither condescending nor democratic +in his tastes, but rather proud. Stories were told of some of his +favourites having fallen into disgrace for want of respect on some +mirthful occasion. He could put tobacco into his soldiers' mouths, +but he scolded officers who did not at once fall in with his moods. +He could box people's ears at a fire, and did not laugh when he was +caricatured in a comic paper, as was supposed. He was a ruler and +believed he was also a warrior and a statesman; he interfered in the +government and could snub specialists with a "You don't understand +that!" But he was popular and remained so. Swedes, who do not like to +see a man's will slackening, admired this will and bowed before it. +It was also strange, that they forgave his irregular life; perhaps it +was because he made no secret of it. He had laid down a standard of +morality for himself and lived according to it. Therefore he lived at +harmony with himself, and harmony is always pleasant to contemplate.</p> + +<p>People might be revolters by instinct, but they did not believe in the +transition form to a better social constitution, <i>i.e</i>. a republic. +They had seen how two French republics had been followed by new +monarchies. There were secret anarchists, but no republicans, and they +had persuaded themselves that the monarchy offered no barrier to the +progress of liberty.</p> + +<p>These were the ideas of the younger men. The elder men with Blanche +thought a republic the only means of social salvation and therefore in +our days the old liberal school has become conservative-republican.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>When the doctor saw that his wife's literary books threatened to +encroach upon John's medical studies, he resolved to give him a +glimpse into the secrets of his profession, and to allow him such a +foretaste of real work as should entice him to overcome the tedious +preliminary studies which he himself thought too extensive. John now +knew more chemistry and physics than the doctor, and the latter thought +it was merely malicious to hinder a rival's course by imposing too +hard preliminary studies. Why should he not, as in America, commence +dissection, which was a special branch of study? Now after the +theoretical study of anatomy, he could begin practice as an assistant. +That was a new life full of variety and reality. One went for instance +into a dark alley and came into a porter's room, where a woman lay, +sick of fever, surrounded by poor children, the grandmother and other +relations, who stole about on tip-toe, awaiting the doctor's verdict. +The malodorous ragged bed-cover would be lifted, a sunken heaving chest +exposed to view, and a prescription written. Then one went to the +Tvädgårdsgatan and was conducted over soft carpets through splendid +rooms into a bed-chamber which looked liked a temple; one lifted a +blue silk coverlet and put in splints the leg of an angelic-looking +child, dressed in lace. On the way out one looked at a collection of +paintings, and talked about artists. This was something novel and +interesting, but what connection had it with Titus Livius and the +history of philosophy?</p> + +<p>But then came the details of surgery. One was roused at seven o'clock +in the morning, came into the doctor's dark room, and manually assisted +at the cauterising of a syphilitic sore. The room reeked of human +flesh, and was repugnant to an empty stomach. Or he had to hold a +patient's head and felt it twitch with pain while the doctor with a +fork extracted glands from his throat.</p> + +<p>"One soon gets accustomed to that," said the doctor, and that was true, +but John's thoughts were busy with Goethe's Faust, Wieland's Epicurean +romances, George Sand's social phantasies, Chateaubriand's soliloquies +with nature, and Lessing's common-sense theories. His imagination +was set in motion and his memory refused to work; the reality of +cauterisations and flowing blood was ugly; æstheticism had laid hold +of him, and actual life seemed to him tedious and repulsive. His +intercourse with artists had opened his eyes to a new world, a free +society within Society. They would come to a well-spread table where +cultivated people were sitting with badly-fitting clothes, black nails, +and dirty linen, as if they were not merely equal, but superior to the +rest,—in what?</p> + +<p>They could scarcely write their names, they borrowed money without +repaying it, and their talk was coarse. Everything was permitted to +them, which was not permitted to others. Why? They could paint. They +studied at the Academy, and the Academy did not ask whether all who +enrolled themselves as students were geniuses. How was it known that +they were geniuses? Was painting greater than knowledge and science?</p> + +<p>They also had, as was well recognised, a peculiar morality of their +own. They opened studios, hired models, and boasted of their paramours, +while other men were ashamed of theirs and incurred disapproval on +account of them. They laughed at what were very serious matters for +other men, nay, it seemed to be part of an artist's equipment to be a +"scoundrel," as any one else would be called for similar conduct.</p> + +<p>"That was a glad free world," thought John, and one in which he could +thrive, without conventional fetters or social obligations, and above +all, without contact with banal realities. But he was not a genius? +How should he get the entrée to it? Should he learn to paint and so be +initiated? No! that would not do; he had never thought of painting; +that demanded a special vocation, he thought, and painting would not +express all he had to say, when once he began to speak. If he <i>had</i> +to find a medium for self-expression it would be the theatre. An actor +could step forward, and say all kinds of truths, however bitter they +might be, without being brought to book for them. That was certainly a +tempting career.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></h4> + +<h4>IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN</h4> + +<h4>(1869)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>John's proposal to transfer the university from Upsala to Stockholm was +destined to have consequences, and his comrades had warned him of them. +When he went up early in spring in order to write the obligatory Latin +essay he had sent the professor by post the three test-essays and the +15 krona fee. So he could carry out his purpose unhindered and enrolled +himself.</p> + +<p>But now in May he wished to go and pass the preliminary examination in +chemistry. In order to be well prepared, he had himself tested by the +assistant-professor at the technological institute. The latter did so +and declared that he already knew more than was needed for the medical +examination. Thus prepared, he went up to Upsala. His first visit was +to a comrade, who had already passed the preliminary examination in +chemistry, and knew the "tips" for it.</p> + +<p>John began: "I can do synthesis and analysis, and have studied organic +chemistry."</p> + +<p>"That is very well, for we only need synthesis; however, it is no use +for you have not studied in the professor's laboratory."</p> + +<p>"That is true; but the course at the Institute is much better."</p> + +<p>"No matter,—it is not his."</p> + +<p>"We shall see," said John, "whether knowledge does not tell in any +ease."</p> + +<p>"If you are so sure, then try, but consider first what I say. You must +first go to the assistant-professor and get a 'tip'."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"For a krona he will give you an hour's polishing, and ask you all the +important questions which the professor has put during the past year. +Just now he is in the habit of asking whether matches can be made out +of his carcase and ammonia from your old boots. But that you will +learn from the assistant. Secondly, you must not go to be examined +in a frock coat and white tie; least of all, dressed as well as you +are now. Therefore you must borrow my riding-coat, which is green in +the shoulders and red in the seams, and my top-boots, for he does not +like elastic boots."</p> + +<p>John followed his friend's instructions and went first to the +assistant-professor who gave him the questions which had been last +asked. In return John promised that under all circumstances he would +return and tell him the questions which he himself had been asked, as a +means of enlarging his catechism.</p> + +<p>The next day John went to his friend to array himself. His trousers +were drawn up so that the tops of the boots should be seen and his +loose collar turned on one side, so that the skin should show between +the tie and the collar. Thus equipped, he went up for his first trial.</p> + +<p>The professor of chemistry had formerly been a fortification officer, +and had received in his time a not very cordial welcome from the +learned staff in Upsala. He was a soldier, not academically cultivated, +and thus a kind of "Philistine." This had galled him and made him +bilious. In order to efface the effect of his laymen-like exterior, he +affected the airs of an over-read and blunt professor. He went about +ill-dressed and behaved eccentrically. Though many hundreds besides +himself had been pupils of Berzelius, he was fond of mentioning the +fact; it was his trump card. Berzelius, among other things, went about +in shabby trousers, therefore a hole in one's clothes was the sign of a +learned chemist, and so on. Hence all these peculiarities.</p> + +<p>John presented himself, was regarded with suspicion and bidden to come +again in a week. He replied that he had come from Stockholm and was +too poor to support himself for a week in the town. He managed to get +permission to present himself the next day. "It would be soon over," +said the old man.</p> + +<p>The next day he sat on a seat opposite the professor. It was a sunny +afternoon in May, and the old man seemed to have digested his dinner +badly. He looked grim as he threw out his first question from his +rocking-chair. The answers were correct at the beginning. Then the +questions became more tortuous like snakes.</p> + +<p>"If I have an estate, where I suspect the presence of saltpetre, how +shall I begin to construct a saltpetre factory?"</p> + +<p>John suggested a saltpetre analysis.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I don't know anything else."</p> + +<p>There was silence and the flies buzzed,—a long and terrible silence. +"Now will come the question about the boots or the matches," thought +John, "and there I shall shine." He coughed by way of rousing the +professor, but the silence continued. John wondered whether he had been +seen through and whether the old man recognised the "examination coat."</p> + +<p>Then came a new question which was unanswered, and then another.</p> + +<p>"You have come too soon," said the old man, and rose up.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I have worked a whole year in the laboratory, and can do +chemical analysis."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you know how to make up prescriptions, but you have not digested +your knowledge. In the Institute only manual dexterity is necessary, +but here scientific knowledge is required."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact the case was exactly the reverse for the medical +students in Upsala complained that they had to stand like cooks and +make up mixtures and salts, without having time to look at an analysis, +which last was just what a doctor ought to do while synthesis was the +apothecary's work. But now the proposal made some years before whether +the university had not better be transferred to Stockholm had roused a +feeling in Upsala against the capital. Moreover the laboratory of the +newly-built technological institute was as famous for its excellent +equipment, as that of Upsala was notorious for its poor one. Here, +therefore, petty prejudices were at work and John felt the unfairness +of it. "I do not then get a certificate?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, not this year; but come again next year."</p> + +<p>The professor was ashamed to say, "Go to my only soul-saving +laboratory."</p> + +<p>John went out furious. Here then again neither diligence nor knowledge +prevailed, but only cash and cringing! Had he tried short cuts? No, +on the contrary, he had been obliged to travel by painful circuitous +paths, while others had gone the direct road, and the directest is the +shortest.</p> + +<p>He went to the Carolina Park, as angry as an irritated bee. He did +not wish to return at once to the town, but sat down on a seat. If he +could only set this devil's hole on fire! Another year? No, never! Why +read so much unnecessary stuff, which would only be forgotten, and be +of no practical use? And slave in order to enter this dirty profession +where one had to analyse urine, pick about in vomit, poke about in all +the recesses of the body? Faugh! Just as he was sitting there, a group +of cheerful-looking people came by, and stood laughing outside the +Carolina library. They looked up to the window's, through which long +rows of books were visible, shelf after shelf. They laughed,—the men +and women laughed at the books. He thought he recognised them. Yes, +they were Levasseur's French actors, whom he had seen in Stockholm and +who were now visiting Upsala. They laughed at the books! Lucky people +who could be importers of genius and culture without books. Perhaps +every soul had something to give which was not in books, but would be +there some day. Yes, certainly it was so. He himself possessed stories +of experience and thoughts, which could enrich anthropology, and were +ready to be throw out.</p> + +<p>Again there stole upon him the thought of entering this privileged +profession, which stood outside and above petty social conventions +which ignored distinctions of rank, and in which one need never be +conscious of belonging to the lower classes. There one could appeal to +the universal judgment, and work in full publicity instead of being +hung up here in a remote dark hole, without a verdict, examination, or +witnesses.</p> + +<p>Strengthened by this new idea, he stood up, east a glance at the books +above, and went down to the town resolved to go home and seek for an +engagement in the Theatre Royal.</p> + +<p>Every townsman has probably felt once in his life the wish to appear +as an actor. This is probably due to the impulse of the cultivated +man to magnify and make himself something, to identify himself with +great and celebrated personalities. John, who was a romanticist, had +also the desire to step forward and harangue the public. He believed +that he could choose his proper rôle, and he knew beforehand which it +would be. The fact that he, like all others, believed that he had the +capacity to become an actor, sprang from the superfluity of unused +force, produced by a want of sufficient physical exercise, and from the +tendency to megalomania connected with mental over-exertion. He saw no +difficulties in the profession itself, but expected opposition from +another quarter.</p> + +<p>To attribute his being stage-struck to hereditary tendencies would +perhaps be hasty, since we have just remarked that it is an almost +universal impulse. But his paternal grandfather, a Stockholm citizen, +had written dramatic pieces for an amateur theatre, and a young +distant relative still lived as a warning example. The latter had been +an engineer, had been through a course of instruction in the Motala +iron-works, and had a post on the Köping-Hult railway. He therefore had +fine prospects in front of him, but suddenly threw them up, and became +an actor. This step of his was an incessant trouble to his family. Up +to this time the young man had become nothing but was still travelling +about with an obscure theatrical company. The danger of becoming like +him was the difficult point. "Yes," said John to himself, "but I shall +have luck." Why? Because he believed it; and he believed it because he +wished it.</p> + +<p>Some might be inclined to derive this strong impulse on John's part +from the fact that he loved to play, as a child, with a toy theatre, +but that is not sufficient, as all children do the same and he had got +the taste from seeing them do it. The theatre was an unreal better +world which enticed one out of the tedious real one. The latter would +not have seemed so tedious if his education had been more harmonious +and realistic and not given him such a strong tendency to romance. +Enough; his resolution was taken; and without saying anything to any +one, he went to the director of the Theatrical Academy the dramaturgist +of the Theatre Royal.</p> + +<p>When he heard the sound of his own words "I want to be an actor," +he shuddered. He felt as though he tore down the veil of his inborn +modesty, and did violence to his own nature.</p> + +<p>The director asked what he was doing at present.</p> + +<p>"Studying medicine."</p> + +<p>"And you want to give up such a career, for one that is the hardest and +the worst of all?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>All actors called their profession the "hardest and the worst" though +they had such a good time of it. That was in order to frighten away +aspirants.</p> + +<p>John asked for private lessons in order that he might make his début. +The director replied that he was now going to the country for the +theatrical season was at an end, but he told John to come again on the +1st of September when the theatre opened, and the board of management +came again to the town. That was a definite appointment and he saw his +way clear.</p> + +<p>When he went down the street, he walked with his eyes wide open, as +though he gazed into a brilliant future; victory was already his; he +felt its intoxicating eating fumes, and hurried, though with unsteady +steps, down the street.</p> + +<p>He said nothing to the doctor nor to any one else. He had still three +months in front of him in which to train and prepare himself, but in +secret, for he was shy and timid. He was afraid of annoying his father +and the doctor, afraid of the whole town knowing that he thought +himself capable of being an actor, afraid of his relatives' scorn, his +friends' grimaces and efforts to dissuade him. This was the fruit of +his education, the fear,—"What will people say?" His imagination made +the act seem like a crime. It was certainly an interference with other +people's peace of mind for relations and friends feel a shock, when +they see a link torn out of the social chain. He felt it himself, and +had to shake off the scruples of conscience.</p> + +<p>For his début he had chosen the rôles of Karl Moor and Wijkander's +Lucidor. This was no mere chance but perfectly logical. In both of +these characters he had found the expression of his inner experience, +and therefore he wished to speak with their tongues. He conceived of +Lucidor as a higher nature undermined and ruined by poverty. A higher +nature of course! In his enthusiasm for the theatre he felt again what +he had felt when he had preached, and when he had revolted against the +school prayers,<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> something of the proclaimer, the prophet, and the +soothsayer.</p> + +<p>What most of all elevated his ideas of the great significance of the +theatre was the perusal of Schiller's essay, "The theatre regarded +as an instrument of moral education." Sentences like the following +show how lofty was the goal at which Schiller aimed. "The stage is +the chief channel through which the light of wisdom descends from +the better, thinking portion of the populace in order to spread its +beneficent light over the whole state." "In this world of art we +dream ourselves away from the real one, we find ourselves again, our +feelings are roused, wholesome emotions stir our slumbering nature and +drive our blood in swift currents. The unhappy here forget their own +sorrows in watching those of others, the happy become sober, and the +self-confident, reflective. The effeminate weakling is hardened into a +man, the coarse and callous here begin to feel. And then finally,—what +a triumph for thee O Nature, so often trodden down and so often +re-arisen,—when men of all climates and conditions, casting away all +fetters of convention and fashion, set free from the iron hand of fate, +fraternising in one all-embracing sympathy, dissolved into <i>one</i> race, +forget themselves and the world, and approach their heavenly origin. +Each individual enjoys the delight of all, which is mirrored back to +him strengthened and beautified from a hundred eyes, and his breast has +only room for one aspiration,—to be a man!"</p> + +<p>Thus wrote the young Schiller at twenty-five, and the youth of twenty +subscribed it.</p> + +<p>The theatre is certainly still a means of culture for young people and +the middle class who can still feel the illusion of actors and painted +canvas. For older and cultivated people it is a recreation in which the +actor's art is the chief object of attention. Therefore old critics +are almost invariably discontent and crabbed. They have lost their +illusions and do not pass over any mistake in the acting.</p> + +<p>Modern times have overprised the theatre, especially the actor's art in +an exaggerated degree, and a re-action has followed. Actors have tried +to ply their art independently of the dramatist, believing that they +could stand on their own legs. Therefore particular "stars" become the +objects of homage and therefore also opposition has been aroused. In +Paris, where people had gone to the greatest lengths, a reaction first +showed itself. The <i>Figaro</i> called the heroes of the Théâtre-Français +to order, and reminded them that they were only the author's puppets.</p> + +<p>The decay of all the great European theatres shows that the actor's +art has lost its interest. Cultivated people no more go to the +theatre because their sense for reality has been developed, and +their imagination which is a relic of the savage has diminished; the +uncultivated lack the time, and the money to go. The future seems to +belong to the variety theatre, which amuses without instructing, for it +is mere play and recreation. All important writers choose another, more +suitable form in which to handle important questions. Ibsen's dramas +have always produced their effect in book form before they were played; +and when they are played, the spectators' interest is generally +concentrated on the <i>manner</i> of their performance; consequently it is a +secondary interest.</p> + +<p>John committed the usual mistake of youth, <i>i.e.</i> of confusing the +actor with the author; the actor is the mere enunciator of the +sentiments for which the author who stands behind him, is responsible.</p> + +<p>In the spring John resigned his post as tutor to the two girls, and +now he had leisure during the summer to study his art in secret, +and on his own responsibility. He had scoffed at books, and now the +first things he sought were books. They contained the thoughts and +experiences of men with whom, though most of them were dead, he could +converse familiarly, without being betrayed. He had heard that in the +castle there was a library which belonged to the State, and from which +one could borrow books. He obtained a surety and went there. It was a +solemn place with small rooms full of books where grey-haired silent +old men sat and read. He got his books and went shyly and happily home.</p> + +<p>He wished to study the matter thoroughly in all its aspects, as was his +custom. In Schiller he found the assurance that the theatre was of deep +significance; in Goethe he found a whole treatise on the histrionic +art with directions how one should walk and stand, behave oneself, sit +down, come in and go out; in Lessing's <i>Hamburgische Dramaturgie</i> he +found a whole volume of theatrical critiques filled with the closest +observations. Lessing especially roused his hopes, for he went so far +as to declare that the theatre had come down owing to the inferiority +of the actors, and said that it would be better to employ amateurs +from the cultivated classes who would play better than the drilled and +often uncultured actors. He also read Raymond de St. Albin, whose often +quoted observations on the actor's art are of great value.</p> + +<p>At the same time he exercised himself practically. At the doctor's he +arranged a stage when the boys were out. He practised entrances and +exits; he arranged the stage for "The Robbers," dressed himself like +Karl Moor, and played that part. He went to the National Museum and +studied gestures of antique sculptures and gave up using his walking +stick in order to accustom himself to walk freely. He did violence +to his shyness, which had almost produced in him "agoraphobia," or +the dread of crossing open places, and accustomed himself to walk +across Karl XIII's square where great crowds used to be found. He did +gymnastics every day at home, and fenced with his pupils. He gave +attention to every movement of the muscles; practised walking with head +erect and chest expanded, with arms hanging free and hands loosely +clenched, as Goethe directs.</p> + +<p>The chief difficulty he found was in the cultivation of his voice, +for he was overheard when he declaimed in the house. Then it occurred +to him to go outside the town. The only place where he could be +undisturbed was the Ladugårdsgärdet. There he could look over the plain +for a great distance and see whether any one was coming; there sounds +died away so quickly that it cost him an effort to hear himself. This +strengthened his voice.</p> + +<p>Every day he went out there, and declaimed against heaven and earth. +The town whose church tower rose opposite Ladugårdsgärdet symbolised +society, while he stood out here alone with Nature. He shook his fist +at the castle, the churches, and the barracks, and stormed at the +troops who during their manoeuvres often came too close to him. There +was something fanatical in his work and he spared himself no pains in +order to make his unwilling muscles obedient.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> the <i>Son of a Servant</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></h4> + +<h4>JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT</h4> + +<h4>(1869)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>Among those who frequented the doctor's house was a young man who +studied sculpture. He had come from the lower strata of society, had +been a smith's apprentice, and had now entered the Academy, where he +was a probationary student. He was happy and always cheerful, believed +himself called by providence to his new career, and narrated how he +had been aroused and impelled by the spirit to work in the service +of the Beautiful. John liked him because he was not introspective or +self-critical and quite free from self-consciousness. Moreover he was a +fellow culprit, who was making the same daring attempt as John to work +his way out of the lower class, but entirely lacked the consciousness +of guilt which persecuted the latter.</p> + +<p>One day this friend, whose name was Albert, came to him and said +that he was going to Copenhagen to visit Thorwaldsen's Museum. An +enterprising speculator had arranged a trip there through the canal +and back by sea for a very small fare. "You come too," he said, and it +was soon settled that John should accompany him with one of the boys. +The occasion of the expedition was the crown princess's entry into +Copenhagen, but that was a secondary object in the eyes of the pilgrims +to Thorwaldsen's tomb.</p> + +<p>On an August evening John sat on the poop of the steamer with the +sculptor, one of the boys and a school friend of his. In the twilight +which had already fallen one saw ladies and gentlemen coming on board. +The society seemed to be first-class. Stout fathers of families with +field-glasses and tourist knapsacks, ladies in summer dresses and hats +of the latest fashion. There was a bustle and stir, as each sought a +sleeping-place which was guaranteed to all. John and his companions sat +quietly waiting. They had their provisions and rugs and feared nothing. +When the steamer had started and the confusion had ceased, John said, +"Now we will have some bread and butter before we lie down."</p> + +<p>They looked for their knapsacks and the provision basket, but they were +not to be found. They discovered that they had not come with them. This +was a hard blow, for they had only a little cash and they had counted +on the excellent provisions which the doctor's wife had put up for +them. Accordingly they had to eat from the sculptor's box, which only +contained poor dry victuals.</p> + +<p>Then they wanted to lie down. On all sides people were asking for +sleeping-places, but could not find any. The passengers were in an +uproar and there was a storm of curses. They had therefore to sit on +deck; there were inquiries for the organiser of the expedition, but he +was not on board. John lay down on the bare deck and the boys drew a +tarpaulin over themselves, for the dew was falling and it was bitterly +cold. They awoke at Södertelje, freezing, for the sailors had taken +away the tarpaulin.</p> + +<p>On the canal bank there now appeared the organiser of the excursion, +who was an upholsterer. The passengers rushed at him, drew him on +board, and loaded him with reproaches. He defended himself and tried +to land again, but in vain. A court martial was held; they resolved +to continue their journey, but detained the upholsterer as a hostage. +The steamer went on through the canal, but as it was passing through a +lock, the man-swung himself up on the dam and disappeared amid a hail +of curses.</p> + +<p>The journey was continued and by midday they were in the Gotha canal. +Dinner was laid on the poop. John and his companions ensconced +themselves in the lifeboat which hung there and ate a simple meal out +of the sculptor's box. The sculptor, who had slept on a bale do mu in +the luggage-hold, was in a good humour and knew all the passengers' +characters and names.</p> + +<p>The dinner-table was now crowded. It was presided over by a master +chimney-sweep with his family. Then there came pawnbrokers, +public-house keepers, cabmen, butchers, waiters, with their families, +a number of young shop boys and some girls. John suffered when he saw +stewed perch and strawberries together with claret and sherry, for he +had been so spoilt by luxury that simple food made him poorly. This +was the "upper class" among the passengers. The master chimney-sweep +played the grand gentleman, he made a grimace at the claret and scolded +the waitress who said that the restaurant-keeper was responsible. The +porter from the Record Office affected the learned man, and as an +official seemed to look down on the "Philistines."</p> + +<p>While the sherry circulated, speeches were made. The lower class +from the fore-deck hung on the gunwales and hand-rails and listened. +The pariahs in the lifeboat were ignored. People knew that they were +there, but did not see them. They may very likely have wished the +"white cap" away, for there were two eyes under its peak, which saw +that they were no better than himself. John felt that. He had just +emerged from this class to which he belonged by birth, but he had no +food and was nothing. He felt his inferiority and his superiority; and +their superiority. They had worked; therefore they ate. Yes, but he +had worked as much as they, though not in the same way. He had derived +honour from his work, while they took the good eating and dispensed +with the honour. One could not have both.</p> + +<p>The people sat there satisfied and happy, drank their coffee and +liqueurs, and occupied the whole poop. They now became bold and made +remarks over those in the lifeboat, who could only suffer in silence, +because the others were in the majority and the upper class, for they +were consumers.</p> + +<p>John felt himself in an element which was not his. There was an +atmosphere of hostility about him, and he felt depressed. There were +no police on board to help him, no arbitration to appeal to, and if +there were a quarrel, all would condemn him. There only needed a sharp +retort on his part, and he would be struck. "The deuce!" he thought, +"it would be better to obey officers and officials; they would never +be such tyrants as these democrats." Later on, at Albert's advice, he +sought to approach them, but they were inaccessible.</p> + +<p>Further on during the voyage between Venersborg and Göteborg the +explosion came. John and his companions' hunger increased so much that +one day they determined to go down to the dining-saloon and eat some +bread and butter. It was so full of people eating and drinking that +they could hardly find room. John's pupil, according to the custom of +his class, kept his hat on. The master chimney-sweep noticed this. +"Hullo!" he said, "is the ceiling too high for you?"</p> + +<p>The boy seemed not to understand him.</p> + +<p>"Take your hat off, boy!" he shouted again.</p> + +<p>The hat remained as it was. A shop assistant knocked it off. The boy +picked up the hat, and put it again on his head. Then the storm burst. +They all rushed on him like one man and knocked the hat off. Then they +went for John, "And such a young devil has a tutor who cannot teach +boys to know their proper place! We know well enough who <i>you</i> are." +Then they rained abuse on his parents. John tried to inform them that +in the social circles to which the boy belonged, it was the custom to +keep one's hat on in public places, and that he had not intended any +expression of contempt by it. But his explanation was ill-received. +What did he mean by "those circles"? What nonsense he talked! Did he +want to teach them manners? And so on.</p> + +<p>Yes, he could; for it was precisely from these circles that they had +learnt five-and-twenty years ago to take their hats off, which was no +longer the custom, and he could have told them that in twenty-five +years more they would keep their hats on as soon as they got wind that +<i>that</i> was the fashion. But they had not discovered it yet.</p> + +<p>John and his friends went again on deck. "One cannot argue with these +people," he said.</p> + +<p>His nerves were shaken by the scene just witnessed. He had seen an +outbreak of class-hatred and the flashing eyes of people whom he had +not injured; he had felt the foot of the upper class of the future upon +his breast. They had become his enemies; the bridge between him and +them was broken down; but the tie of blood remained and he cherished +the same hatred towards aristocratic society, and its unjust ascendency +as they did; he felt the same grudge against the conventions before +which they all had to bow; yes, he had Karl Moor's replies in his mind, +but those who had just defeated him were all Spiegelbergers.<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> If they +got the upper hand they would trample on all,—great and small; if he +got the upper hand, he would only trample on the great. That was the +difference between them. It was, however, education which had made him +more democratic than they; he would therefore side with the educated. +They would work for those below, but from a distance, and from above. +One could not handle this raw uncouth mass.</p> + +<p>The stay on board was now intolerable. An outbreak might take place at +any moment. And it came.</p> + +<p>They were now in the Kattegat, and John was sitting on the upper deck +when he heard a loud noise beneath him of voices and cries. He thought +he recognised his pupil's voice, and rushed down. On the middle deck +stood the accused surrounded by a crowd. A pawnbroker waved his arms +about and shouted. John asked what the matter was.</p> + +<p>"He has stolen my cap," shouted the pawnbroker.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it possible," said John.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I saw it; he has put it in this clothes bag."</p> + +<p>It was John's bag. "That is mine," said John. "You can look into it +yourself." He opened the bag and there lay the pawnbroker's cap! There +was general excitement. John stood convicted and a storm was on the +point of breaking out against the two thieves. A student who stole! +That was a bonne bouche. How had it happened? Now John remembered. He +had a grey cap similar to the pawnbroker's which he used to sleep in +at night. He had told the boy to put it in his bag; the boy had taken +the wrong one. John turned to the foredeck passengers: "Gentlemen," he +began, "do you think it likely that a rich man's son would go and take +a greasy cap when he has a perfectly new one? Do you not see that there +has been a mistake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the plebeians, "there has."</p> + +<p>Only the pawnbroker was obstinate and stuck to his statement.</p> + +<p>"Then it only remains for me to beg this gentleman's pardon for the +mistake, and I ask my pupil to do the same."</p> + +<p>The latter did so, though unwillingly. There was general satisfaction +and a murmured opinion that he had "spoken like a gentleman." The +matter was fortunately settled.</p> + +<p>"You see," said John to the boy, "the people are open to reason after +all!"</p> + +<p>"Bah! That was only because they felt flattered at being called +gentlemen,—the cursed rabble!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," answered John, who felt that he had been sufficiently +humiliated for such a trifle.</p> + +<p>At last they reached Copenhagen. Hungry, freezing, and in the worst of +humours they sat in the rain outside the Thorwaldsen Museum, which was +closed on account of the festivities. But Albert swore he would get +in. After they had waited for an hour with the master chimney-sweep, +the public-house keeper, and all the other passengers there came an +old man who looked learned and wished to enter. Albert rushed after +him, mentioned the name of Molins, the Swedish sculptor, and they got +in, leaving the other passengers outside. Albert was delighted, and +could not help making a face at the master chimney-sweep who remained +outside. But the one who enjoyed it most was the young sinner, who +hated the mob.</p> + +<p>"Now we are gentlemen," he said.</p> + +<p>John was not in the mood to enjoy Thorwaldsen's works. He regarded +him as an average artist talented enough to win fame. Albert found +the antiques too elaborate, but did not dare to criticise them. +They did not witness the royal entry, but sat on the tower of the +Fruekirke and looked at the view. At nightfall, when they felt tired +and exhausted, they wanted to go down to the steamer to sleep, but it +had gone to Malmö. They stood in the street in the rain. They could +not go to an hotel, for they had no money. Albert resolved to go to a +public-house and ask for a night's lodging. They found a sailors' inn +near the public-house. The landlord said it was only for seamen, but +they answered that they must have shelter. They were taken into a back +room where there were two camp-beds, but a basin was not to be seen. +The walls were unpapered and looked shabby. In one of the beds lay a +sailor. Who was to be his bed-fellow? Albert undertook that, and slept +with the stranger, who was a Dutchman. So they all went to sleep, John +cursing the whole adventure, for the bed-clothes were malodorous.</p> + +<p>The return voyage home by sea was one long penance. Without provisions +and hardly any money they had to sustain life on raw eggs which they +bought in the small towns they touched at. These along with stale +bread and brandy, composed their diet for three days. Albert alone +was cheerful and enjoyed himself. He slept on the poop with the +passengers and amused them with stories; he was akin to them, and knew +their language. He drank with them and got hot food; he even went into +the kitchen sometimes and begged himself a plate of soup. "How easily +he takes life!" thought John. "He does not miss luxuries, for he has +never known them; he will never be expelled as an intruder when he +approaches people; he feasts while others starve, and sees only friends +everywhere. But his day will come when he will no longer be one of the +lower class, when luxury and refined habits will make him as helpless +and unfortunate as me."</p> + +<p>When he got home he was furious. So it was everywhere. Those who were +above trampled on those below, and those who were below tried to +pull one back when one tried to mount. What was the meaning of all +this talk about aristocrats and democrats? The lower class spoke of +their democratic way of thinking, as though it were a virtue. What +virtue is there in hating those who are above? What is the meaning of +"aristocrat"? Αριστος means the best, and κρατέω "I rule." Therefore +an aristocrat is one who wishes that the best should rule and a +democrat one who wishes that the worst should do so. But then comes the +question: Who are really the best? Are a low social position, poverty +and ignorance things that make men better? No, for then one would not +try to do away with poverty and ignorance. Into whose hands then should +men commit political power, with the knowledge that it would be in the +hands of the least mischievous? Into the hands of those who knew most? +Then one would have professorial government, and Upsala would be—no, +not the professors! To whom then should power be given? He could not +answer, but certainly not to the chimney-sweep and cab-owner who were +on the steamer.</p> + +<p>On this occasion he did not go deeper into the matter, for the question +had not yet been raised whether the same culture could not be imparted +to every one, or whether there need be any governing body at all.</p> + +<p>He had come across the worst aristocracy of all, the upper stratum +of the lower class, or, to name them by their usual ugly title, "the +Philistines." They were a bad copy of the aristocracy; they sided with +the powerful, aped the habits of their superiors, grew rich by others' +labours, quoted authorities and hated opposition with the exception of +their silent opposition to those above them. The master chimney-sweep +made money through the toil of the abjectly poor, the cab-owner through +the wretched cabbies and hacks, the pawnbroker wrung unrighteous +gain from the need of the poverty-stricken, and so on, everywhere. +A teacher, on the other hand, a doctor, an artist, could not depute +slaves to his work; he must do it himself, and was therefore not such +a shark as those below. If, then, culture brought men happiness and +made them better, then the aristocracy were justified and beneficent, +and could regard themselves as better than those below. Yes, but one +could buy culture for money, could beg or borrow the means for it, +as so many students did, and there was no virtue in that at any rate. +Yet one could not help feeling superior to others when one knew more +and observed the laws of social life so as to injure no one. All that +remained for the real democracy was to reduce everything to a dead +level, so that no one need feel themselves below, and no one could +think they were above.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> Schiller's "Robbers."</p></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></h4> + +<h4>BEHIND THE CURTAIN</h4> + +<h4>(1869)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>The Swedish theatre was at this time exposed to many attacks, and when +is a theatre not in that condition? The theatre is a miniature society +within society, with a monarch, ministers, officials, and a whole +number of classes, ranged above one another in ranks. Is it any wonder +that this society is always exposed to the attacks of the malcontents? +But at this period the attacks had a more practical object. A former +provincial actor had written a pamphlet against the Theatre Royal, of +little real importance, but with the result that the author was invited +to a seat on the board of directors. This aroused imitators, and many +published treatises in order to attain the same result.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the Theatre Royal was neither better nor worse +than it had been before. "But," it was asked, "if the theatre is +an institution supported by subscriptions for forwarding culture, +why set an uncultivated person at the head of it?" To this it was +answered, "We have just had one of the most learned men in the country +as director, and how did that answer? Although he had the advantage +of plebeian birth he was worried to death by the democratic press, +which incessantly carped at him." At last, in our time, the utopia of +self-government has been realised, the theatre has a man from the lower +classes at its head, and there is general satisfaction.</p> + +<p>On the day fixed, John went to the theatre in order to announce his +intention of making his début. After some delay, he was sent for and +asked his business.</p> + +<p>"I want to make my début."</p> + +<p>"Oh! have you studied any special character?"</p> + +<p>"Karl Moor in 'The Robbers,'" he answered more defiantly than was +necessary.</p> + +<p>They looked at each other and smiled. "But one must have three rôles; +have you got no other to suggest?"</p> + +<p>"Lucidor!"</p> + +<p>There was a consultation, and John was informed that these dramas were +not now in the repertory of the theatre. He objected that this was not +a sufficient reason for his not undertaking those rôles, but received +the perfectly fair answer, that the theatre could not stage such +important dramas and disarrange its programme for untried débutants. +Then the director proposed to John that he should take the rôle of the +"Warrior of Ravenna." But after the great success which had attended +the last actor of that part, he dared not. They finally suggested that +he should have a talk with the literary manager. Then began a battle +which was probably not the first or the last which had taken place in +that room.</p> + +<p>"Be reasonable, sir; one must study this profession like all others. No +one becomes an adept all of a sudden. Creep before you walk. Undertake +at first a minor rôle."</p> + +<p>"No, the rôle must be great enough to sustain me. In a minor rôle one +must be a great artist in order to attract attention."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but listen to me, sir; I have experience."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but others have made their début in leading parts, without having +been on the stage before."</p> + +<p>"But you will break your neck."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then! I will!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but the board of directors will not give the best stage in the +country to the first chance aspirant to make experiments on."</p> + +<p>That seemed reasonable. He therefore consented to undertake a minor +rôle. He was given the part of Härved Boson in Hedberg's <i>Marriage of +Ulfosa</i>.</p> + +<p>John read over the part at home, and was astonished. It was quite +insignificant. He only had a few quarrels with his brother-in-law and +then embraced his wife. But he had to undertake the part, as he had +agreed to do.</p> + +<p>The rehearsals began. To have to shout out empty words without meaning +was repugnant to him.</p> + +<p>After some trials the teacher declared that he had no more time and +recommended John to take lessons in the Dramatic Academy.</p> + +<p>"But I won't be a pupil," he said.</p> + +<p>"No, of course."</p> + +<p>They talked of the Dramatic Academy, as of an elementary or Sunday +School; all kinds of pupils were accepted whether they had any +education or not. John did not intend to become a pupil, but went +just to listen. He went there reluctantly. Accustomed to be a teacher +himself, he was received as a sort of honorary guest, and sat down, but +attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention. The hour was passed in +reciting "Vintergatan," which he knew by heart, and some other pieces +of verse.</p> + +<p>"But one can't learn anything for the stage here," he ventured to say +to the teacher.</p> + +<p>"Well! come on the stage, and try before the footlights."</p> + +<p>"How can I do that?"</p> + +<p>"As a supernumerary actor."</p> + +<p>"Supernumerary! H'm! That is like going downhill before beginning," +thought John. But he determined to go through with it. One morning he +received an invitation to try a part in Björnson's <i>Maria Stuart</i>. +The theatre messenger gave him a little blue note-book on which was +written, "A nobleman," and inside, on a white sheet of paper, "The +Lords have sent an intermediary with a challenge to Count Both well." +That was the whole part! Such was to be his début!</p> + +<p>At the appointed time he went up the little back stairs, passed the +door-keeper and came on the stage. It was the first time that he was +behind the scenes, and saw the reverse of the medal. The stage looked +like a great warehouse with black walls; a cracked and dirty floor like +that of a hay loft, and grey linen screens mounted on rough wood.</p> + +<p>It was here that he had seen represented majestic scenes from the +world's history; here Masaniello had shouted "Death to Tyrants" while +John stood trembling at the end of the fourth row among the audience; +here Hamlet had given vent to his scorn and suffered his sorrows, and +from here Karl Moor had defied society and the whole world. John felt +alarmed. How could one preserve the illusion hero in sight of the +unpainted wood and the grey canvas? Everything looked dusty and dirty; +the workmen were poor melancholy devils, and the actors and actresses +looked insignificant in their ordinary clothes.</p> + +<p>He was led into the lobby where they were going to dance for +half-an-hour the gavotte, which introduced the play. It was broad +daylight. The old music teacher sat on a chair and played the viol. The +ballet-master shouted, struck his hands together and arranged them in +their places. "I didn't bargain for this," thought John, but it was too +late. So he found himself in the midst of a complicated dance which he +did not know, and was pushed about and scolded. "No, I am not going to +do this," he thought, but he could not get out of it.</p> + +<p>A feeling of shame came over him. Dancing in the day-time was not a +seemly occupation. And then to descend from teacher to pupil, and be +the last here; he had never before gone back so far.</p> + +<p>The bell rang for the rehearsal, and they were driven on the stage. +Then they were arranged for the gavotte. By the footlights stood the +chief actors who had the important rôles; and behind them the rest in +two lines occupied the background.</p> + +<p>The orchestra struck up and the dance began in slow solemn rhythm. From +the footlights were heard the deep voices of the two Puritans lamenting +the depravity of the court.</p> + +<p><i>Lindsay</i>. "Look! the dancing lines wind like snakes in the sun. +Listen! the music plays with the flames of hell! The devil's roar of +laughter is in it."</p> + +<p><i>Andrew Kerr</i>. "Hush, hush; the penalty will overwhelm them as the sea +overwhelmed Pharaoh's army."</p> + +<p><i>Lindsay</i>. "Look, how they whisper! The infecting breath of sin! See +their voluptuous smiles; see the ladies' frivolous gowns."</p> + +<p><i>Citizen</i>. "All that Knox preaches is wasted on this court."</p> + +<p><i>Lindsay</i>. "He is as the prophet in Israel, he does not speak in vain; +for the Lord Himself shall perform His word upon the ungodly race."</p> + +<p>The piece had an arresting effect, and John felt it. The men actors had +their hats, overcoats and sticks, and the women their cloaks and muffs, +but still the drama was impressive in its simple greatness. He stood in +the wings and listened to the whole of it; Mary Stuart did not please +him; she was cruel and coquettish; Bothwell was too rough and strong; +his favourite was Darnley, the weak, Hamlet-like man whose love to this +woman continued to burn in spite of unfaithfulness, scorn, malice and +everything. Knox was as hard as stone with his Puritanism and gloomy +Christianity.</p> + +<p>It was after all something to step forward and enact a piece of history +in the garb of such persons. There was something solemn about it as he +had felt before in the church. After he had gone on the stage and made +his speech he went away firmly resolved to bear all on behalf of sacred +art.</p> + +<p>He had thus taken the decisive step. To his father he had written a +high-flown letter, and declared that he would either become something +great in the career which he had now entered or would retire from it +altogether; he had resolved not to go home till he had succeeded. The +doctor was sorry but made no fuss, for he saw it was impossible to +stop him. But he had other secret plans for saving him which he now +began to set in motion. In the first place he induced John to translate +one or two medical pamphlets for which he had found a publisher. Now +he came with a proposal that they should together write articles for +the <i>Aftonbladet (Evening New's</i>). John for his part had translated +Schiller's essay, <i>The Theatre Regarded as a Moral Institution</i>, and as +the subject of the theatre had now conic up in the Reichstag the doctor +wrote an introduction to it in which he seriously expostulated with +the Agrarian party on their indifference to culture. The whole article +was inserted. Another day the doctor came with a member of the medical +journal, the <i>Lancet</i>, which treated of the question whether women were +fit for a medical career. Without hesitation and instinctively John +decided against it. He had an indescribable reverence for women as +woman, mother and wife, but as a matter of fact, society was founded +upon the man regarded as provider for the family, and upon the woman +as wife and mother; thus man had a full right to his work-market and +all the duties involved in it. Every occupation taken from the man +would mean a marriage less or one more overworked family-provider, for +the impulse to marry was so strong in men that they would not cease +to marry, however great the difficulties in which they might become +involved. Moreover women had abundant opportunities of work; they +could become servants, house-keepers, governesses, teachers, midwives, +seamstresses, actresses, artists, authoresses, queens, empresses, +besides wives and mothers. Many of these vocations were also open to +the unmarried. Anything more than this was an encroachment on the man's +territory. If the woman did that, the man should be free from the cares +of providing for the family, and inquiries after paternity should not +be made. But society would not consent to that. On the contrary it +began to persecute the prostitutes by way of forcing men to marry. Once +caught in the snares of the married women's property law, they would +sink to the level of domestic slaves.</p> + +<p>John instinctively took sides in this complicated problem, which was +destined to take many years to solve, and wrote against the women's +movement, which he saw would involve, if victorious, man's overthrow. +The movement for the emancipation of women had during the fifties, +assumed the wildest forms, and the war-cry, "No lords! No lords!" had +shown the true nature of the movement, which had also been ridiculed +by Rudolf Wall in his comedy, <i>Miss Garibaldi</i>. But while years went +on, the women had worked in silence.</p> + +<p>Great therefore was the surprise of the doctor and John when they found +their article in the <i>Aftonbladet</i> so altered that it seemed in favour +of the movement. "The editor is under the thumbs of women," said the +doctor, and thereby the matter was explained.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile John's theatrical career approached a crisis. He had been +sent into a green room where brandy was drunk and everything was dirty, +to put on his clothes with the supernumeraries. "They want to humiliate +me," he thought, "but patience!"</p> + +<p>Now he was simply appointed as supernumerary in one opera after the +other. He declared that he feared neither the footlights nor the +public after having preached in church, but it was no good. The worst +was, having to lounge about at the rehearsals for hours together with +nothing to do. If he read a book, he was told he had no interest in the +play, and if he went away, an outcry was raised.</p> + +<p>In the Theatrical Academy roles were merely learnt by heart. Children +who had only gone through an elementary school, began to read Goethe's +<i>Faust</i>, naturally without understanding anything of it. But curiously +enough, their very boldness saved them; they got on so well that one +was inclined to think there was no need for an actor to understand +anything, if only he could say his piece fluently. After a few +months John was sick of it all. It was all mechanical. The greatest +actors were blasé and indifferent, never spoke of art, but only of +engagements and honorariums. There was no trace of the gay life behind +the scenes, of which so much had been written. They sat silent waiting +for their turns to come; the dancers and actresses in their costumes, +sewing and stitching. In the lobby the actors went about on tip-toe, +looked at the clock and put on their false beards, without speaking a +word.</p> + +<p>One evening, when <i>Maria Stuart</i> was being acted, John sat alone in +the lobby reading a paper. The actor Dahlqvist, who was taking the +part of John Knox, came in. John, who cherished a deep admiration +for the great actor, stood up and bowed. If he could only speak with +such a man. He trembled at the very thought. Knox, with his venerable +long white hair, his black dress, and his great eyes half-sunk in his +powerful deeply-lined face, sat down at the table. He yawned. "What is +the time?" he asked in a sepulchral tone. John answered that it was +half-past ten, unbuttoning his Burgundian velvet jacket to look for the +watch which was not there.</p> + +<p>"The time is going devilish slow this evening," said Knox and yawned +again. Then he began to retail bits of gossip. He was only a ruin of +his former greatness when his acting of Karl Moor had cast all his +rivals into the shade. He too had seen through everything and was weary +of it all. And yet he had once thought so highly of his art.</p> + +<p>Since John had now the right of free entrance into the theatre he +tried to study acting from the auditorium. But behold! the illusion +was gone! There was Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, there was the +background for <i>Quentin Durward</i>, there sat Högfelt, and there behind +the scenes, stood Boberg. There was no further possibility of illusion.</p> + +<p>He was sick of the wretched rôle which he had to repeat continually. +But he also felt remorse and feared that he could not retire from the +game honourably. At last he plucked up courage and demanded a leading +part. The piece in which it occurred had already been performed fifty +times, and the chief actors were tired of it, but they had to come. The +rehearsal took place without costumes or scenery. John was accustomed +to the declamatory manner usual then, and shouted like a preacher. It +was a failure. After the rehearsal the head of the theatrical academy +pronounced his verdict and advised John to enter it for a course of +training, but he would not. He wept for rage, went home and took an +opium pill which he had long kept by him, but without effect; then a +friend took him out and he got intoxicated.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></h4> + +<h4>JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR</h4> + +<h4>(1869)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>The next morning he felt in a state of complete collapse. His nerves +still trembled and his body felt the fever of shame and intoxication. +What should he do? He must save his honour. He must still hold out +for two or three months and try again. That day he remained at home +and read <i>The Stories of a Barber-Surgeon</i>. As he read it seemed +to him that they recorded his own experience; they were about the +reconciliation of a step-son to his step-mother. The breach in +his domestic life had always weighed upon him like a sin, and he +longed for reconciliation and peace. That day this longing took an +unusually melancholy form, and as he lay on the sofa, his brain began +to evolve various plans for smoothing away the domestic discord. A +woman-worshipper as he then was, and under the influence of the book he +had been reading, he thought that only a woman could reconcile him with +his father. This noble rôle he assigned to his step-mother.</p> + +<p>While thus tying on the sofa he felt an unusual degree of fever, +during which his brain seemed to work at arranging memories of the +past, cutting out some scenes, and adding others. New minor characters +entered; he saw them mixing in the action, and heard them speaking, +just as he had done on the stage. After one or two hours had passed, +he had a comedy in two acts ready in his head. This was both a painful +and pleasurable form of work if it could be called a work; for it went +forward of itself, without his will or co-operation.</p> + +<p>But now he had to write it. In four days the piece was ready. He kept +on going from the writing-table to the sofa and back; and in the +intervals of his work, he collapsed like a rag. When the work was +finished, he drew a deep sigh of relief, as though years of pain were +over, as though a tumour had been cut out. He was so glad, that he felt +as though some one was singing within him. Now he would offer his piece +to the theatre;—that was the way of salvation. The same evening he +sat down to write a note of congratulation to a relative who had found +a situation. When he had written the first line, it seemed to him to +read like a verse. Then he added the second line which rhymed with the +first. Was it no harder than that? Then with a single effort he wrote a +four-page letter in rhyme and discovered that he could write verse. Was +it no harder than that? Only a few months before he had asked a friend +to help him with some verses for a special occasion. He had, however, +received a negative but complimentary answer, in being told not to +drive in a hired carriage, when he had one of his own.</p> + +<p>One was not then born to write verses, he said to himself, nor did one +learn it, though all kinds of verse-measures were taught in school, +but it came,—or did not come. It seemed to him like the working of +the Holy Spirit. Had the psychical convulsion, which he had felt at +his defeat as an actor, been so strong that it had turned upside down +all the strata of his memories and impressions, and had the violent +impulse set his imagination to work? There had doubtless been a long +preparation going on. Was it not his imagination, which had conjured up +pictures, when as a child he had been afraid of the dark? Had he not +written essays in school and letters for years? Had he not formed his +style through reading, translating and writing for the papers? Yes, he +had, but it was not till now that he noticed in himself the so-called +creative power of the artist.</p> + +<p>The art of the actor was therefore not the one suited to his powers; +his having thought so was a mistake which could easily be rectified. +Meanwhile he must keep his authorship fairly secret and remain at the +theatre till the end of the season, so that his failure as an actor +might not be known, or at any rate till his piece was accepted, as it +naturally would be, for he thought it good.</p> + +<p>But he wished to make sure of it, and for that purpose invited two +of his learned friends outside the theatrical circle. In the evening +before they came, he arranged the lumber-room which he had hired in +the doctor's house. He tidied it up, lighted two candles instead of +the study lamp, covered the table with a clean cloth and set on it a +punch-bowl with glass, ash-trays and matches. This was the first time +he had entertained guests, and the experience was novel and strange.</p> + +<p>The work of an author has often been compared to childbirth, and the +comparison has something to justify it. He felt a kind of peace like +that which follows parturition; something or some one seemed to be +there which, or who, was not there before; there had been suffering and +crying and now there was silence and peace. He felt in a festival mood +as he used to do in the old times at home; the children were in their +Sunday best, and their father in his black frock coat cast a last look +round on the arrangements before the guests came.</p> + +<p>His friends arrived and he read the piece through in silence till the +end. They gave their verdict, and John was greeted by his elders as an +author.</p> + +<p>When they had gone, he fell on his knees on the floor, and thanked +God for having delivered him from difficulty and bestowed on him the +gift of poetry. His communion with God had been very irregular; it +was a curious fact, that in cases of great necessity he rallied his +powers within himself and did not cry to the Lord at all; but on joyful +occasions, on the other hand, he involuntarily felt the need of at once +thanking the Giver of all good. It was just the contrary to what it had +been in his childhood, and that was natural since his idea of God had +developed into that of the Author and Giver of all good things, whereas +the God of his childhood had been a God of terror whose hand was full +of misfortunes.</p> + +<p>At last he had found his calling, his true rôle in life and his +wavering character began to develop a backbone. He had a pretty good +idea now of what he wanted, and this gave him at least a rudder to +steer by. Now he pushed off from land to go for a long voyage, but +always ready to tack when he encountered too strong a head wind,—not, +however, to fall to leeward, but the next moment to luff his ship up to +the wind with bellying sails.</p> + +<p>By writing this comedy, he had now relieved himself of his domestic +troubles. He next described the religious conflicts he remembered so +vividly in a three-act play. This lightened the ship considerably.</p> + +<p>His creative energy during this period was immense. He had the writing +fever daily; within two months he composed two comedies and a rhymed +tragedy, besides occasional verses. The tragedy was his first real +"work of art," as the phrase is, for it did not deal with any of his +subjective experiences. "Sinking Hellas" was the not inconsiderable +theme. The composition was finished and clear, but the situations were +somewhat threadbare, and there was a good deal of declamation. The +only original elements in it were an austere moral tone and contempt +for uncultured demagogues. Thus, for instance, he introduced an old +man inveighing against the immorality and want of patriotism of the +youth of the time. He made Demosthenes speak disparagingly of a +demagogue, and express something of what he had felt towards the master +chimney-sweep and pawnbroker on the journey to Copenhagen. The head +of the Theatrical Academy also got a rap over the knuckles because +he had often lamented over John's "lack of culture." The piece was +aristocratic in tone, and the freedom celebrated in it was that which +was the object of aspiration in the sixties,—national freedom.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he had sent his domestic comedy anonymously to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. While it was under consideration, he +went on cheerfully with his work as supernumerary actor. "Just you +wait!" he said to himself, "then my turn will come and I shall have a +word to say in the matter." He was now quite cool on the stage, and +felt, even when dressed as a peasant youth in <i>Wilhelm Tell</i>, like a +prince in disguise. "I am certainly no swineherd, though you may think +so," he hummed to himself.</p> + +<p>He had to wait long for an answer about his piece. At last he lost +patience and revealed himself as the author to the head of the +Theatrical Academy. The latter had read the piece and found talent in +it, but said it could not be played. This was not a great blow for him, +for he still had the tragedy in reserve. That was better received, but +he was told it needed remodelling here and there.</p> + +<p>One evening when the Academy closed, the head instructor expressed a +wish to speak with John. "Now we see what you are good for," he said. +"You have a fine career in front of you; why should you choose an +inferior one? You can become an actor probably if you work for some +years, but why toil at this thankless task? Go back to Upsala and take +your degree if you can. Then become an author, for one must first have +experiences in order to write well."</p> + +<p>To become an author,—that John agreed with, and also with the +suggestion that he should give up the theatre; but as for returning to +Upsala,—no! He hated the university, and did not see how the useless +things one learnt there could help him as an author; he rather needed +to study life at first hand. But then he began to reflect, and when +he considered that, at present, he could get no piece of his accepted +so as to serve as a plank to save himself by, he grasped at the other +straw,—Upsala. There was no disgrace in becoming a student again, and +at the theatre they knew that he was not only an unsuccessful débutant, +but also an author.</p> + +<p>At the same time he learnt that there was a legacy due to him from his +mother of a few hundred kronas. With them he could support himself for +a half-year at the university. He went to his father, not as a prodigal +son, but as a promising author, and as a creditor. There was a vehement +dispute between them which ended in John receiving his legacy. He had +now conceived the plan of a tragedy with the startling title "Jesus of +Nazareth." It dealt in dramatic form with the life of Christ, and was +intended, with one blow and once for all, to shatter the divine image +and eradicate Christianity. But when he had completed some scenes, he +saw that the subject-matter was too great and would demand prolonged +and tedious study.</p> + +<p>The theatrical season now approached its end. The Theatrical Academy +gave their customary stage performance. John had received no rôle in +it, but undertook the task of prompter. And his career as an actor +closed in the prompter's box. To this was reduced his ambition of +acting Karl Moor on the stage of the Great Theatre! Did he deserve this +fate? Was he worse equipped for acting than the rest? That was probably +not so, but the question was never decided.</p> + +<p>In the evening after the performance, a dinner was given to the +Academy pupils. John was invited and made a speech in verse in order +to make his exit seem as little like a fiasco as possible. He became +intoxicated, as usual, behaved foolishly and disappeared from the +scene.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4> + +<h4>THE "RUNA" CLUB</h4> + +<h4>(1870)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>The Upsala of the sixties showed signs of the end and dissolution of a +period which might be called the Boströmic.<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In what relation does +the philosophic system which prevails in a given period stand to the +period itself? The system seems like a collection of the thoughts of +the period at a particular point of time. The philosopher does not +make the period, but the period makes the philosopher. He collects all +the thoughts of his period and thereby exercises an influence on it, +and with the close of the period his influence ends. The Boströmic +philosophy had three defects; it wished to be definitely Swedish; +it came too late; and it wished to outlive its period. To attempt +to construct a purely Swedish philosophy was absurd, for that meant +trying to break loose from the connection with the great mother-stem +which grows on the Continent and only sends out seeds towards the +Northern peninsula. The attempt came too late, for time is necessary to +construct a system, and before the system was constructed, the period +had passed. Boström, as a philosopher, was not, as it were, shot out +of a cannon. All knowledge is collecting-work, and is coloured by +the personality of the collector. Boström was a branch grown out of +Kant and Hegel, watered by Biberg and Grubbe, and finally producing +some offshoots of his own. That was all. He seems to have derived +his fundamental principle from Krause's Pantheism, which itself was +an attempt to unite the philosophy of Kant and Fichte with that of +Schelling and Hegel. This eclecticism had been already attempted by +Grubbe. Boström first studied theology, and this seemed to have a +hampering effect on his mind when he wrote about speculative theology. +His moral philosophy he derived from Kant. To call him an original +philosopher is provincial patriotism. His influence did not reach +beyond the frontiers of Sweden, nor did it outlast the sixties. His +political system was already antiquated in 1865, when the students out +of reverence for the philosopher, had still to declare, conformably to +his textbook, that the representation of the four estates was the only +reasonable one—a doctrine which was subsequently contradicted in the +college lectures.</p> + +<p>How did Boström come by such an idea? Can one draw an inference from +the accidental circumstance that he, a poor man's son from Norrland, +came into too close touch with King John and his court, in his capacity +of tutor to the princes? Could the philosopher escape the common lot +of generalising in <i>certain</i> respects, from his own predilections and +current time-sanctioned ideas? Probably not. Boström as an idealist +was subjective—so subjective that he denied reality an independent +existence, declaring that, "to be is to be perceived (by men)." The +world of phenomena therefore, according to him, exists only in and +through our perceptions. The error of the deduction was overlooked, and +it was a double one. The system rested on an unproved assumption, and +had to be corrected; it is true that the phenomenal world only exists +for its through our perception, but that does not prevent its existing +for itself without our perception. In fact science has demonstrated +that the earth already existed with a very high degree of organic life, +before any one was there to perceive it.</p> + +<p>Boström broke with ecclesiastical Christianity, but, like Kant and +the later evolutionist philosophers, retained Christian morality. +Kant had been arrested in the bold progress of his thought by a want +of psychological knowledge, and had simply laid down as axioms the +categorical imperative and the practical postulate. The moral law, +which depends on the epoch and changes with it, received in his system +quite a Christian colouring as God's command. Boström was still +"under the law"; he judged the moral worth or baseness of an action +simply by its motives; according to him the only satisfactory motive +is that regard for the spiritual nature of duty which is revealed in +conscience. But there are as many consciences as there are religions +and races; therefore his moral system was quite sterile.</p> + +<p>Boström's importance for theological development only consisted in +his coming forward against Bishop Beckman in the discussion regarding +the doctrine of hell (1864), although that doctrine had recently been +rejected by the cultivated with the assistance of the rationalists. +On the other hand Boström was obstructive in his pamphlets <i>The +Irresponsibility and Divine Right of the King</i> and <i>Are the Estates of +the Realm Justified in Resolving on and Carrying Out the Change in the +So-called (!) Representation of the People</i>? (1865).</p> + +<p>In his capacity as an idealist, Boström is, for the present generation, +not only without significance, but positively reactionary. He is +nothing but a necessary link in the worthless reactionary philosophy +which followed with such fatal obscurantism the "illuminative" +philosophy of the eighteenth century. He has lived and is dead. Peace +to his ashes!</p> + +<p>Literature ought to be another barometer for testing the atmosphere of +any given period. And in order to be that, it must be free to deal with +the questions of that period; but this, the then prevailing æsthetic +theories forbade.</p> + +<p>Poetry ought to be and was (according to Boström) a recreation like the +other fine arts. Under such a theory and influenced by the prevalent +idolatry of the "ego," poetry became merely lyrical, expressing +the poet's small personal feelings and inclination, and reflecting +therefore only some of the features of the period, and those perhaps, +not the most important. Only two names in the poetry of the sixties +were of importance—Snoilsky and Björck. Snoilsky was "awake," to use +a pietistic expression, Björck was dead. Both were born poets, as the +saying is; that is to say, their talents showed themselves earlier +than usual. Both attained distinction while still at school, early won +honour and renown, and by birth and position were enabled to view life +from its sunny heights. Snoilsky, without knowing it, was under the +power of the spirit of the new age. Freed from the fear of hell and +monkish morality, experiencing the retrenchment of his privileges as a +nobleman, he gave free play both to mind and body. In his first poems +he was a revolutionary and praised the cap of liberty; he preached the +emancipation of the flesh and had a certain dislike to over-culture as +a conventional restraint. But as a poet, he did not escape the poet's +tragic destiny—not to be taken seriously. Poetry in the eyes of the +public, was simply poetry, and Snoilsky was a poet. Björck had a mind +which was not capable of receiving strong impressions. At peace with +himself, languid, complete from the beginning, he lived his life sunk +in his own reflections or noticed only the trifling events of the +outer world and described them neatly and correctly. In the opinion of +the great majority who live the peaceful life of automata his poetry +shows a remarkable degree of philanthropy. But why does not this +philanthropy extend itself further to large circles of men, and to +humanity at large? In the writer's opinion Björck's philanthropy does +not extend beyond the limits of the personal quiet which the individual +attains when he ignores the duties of social life. He is satisfied +with the world because the world has been kind to him; he avoids +strife because it disturbs his own serenity. Björck is an example of +the fortunate man whose life is not in conflict with his upbringing, +but who rather builds up stone by stone, on the foundation already +laid; everything proceeds in a workmanlike way by level and rule; the +house is finished, as it was designed, without the plan undergoing any +alteration. Stunted by domestic tyranny, tasting early the sweets +of homage and reverence, he ceased to grow. He accepted Boström's +compromise with Christianity without examining it, and in doing so, he +had finished his life-work. His poetry is especially praised for its +purity and spiritual character. What is this "purity" which in our +days is so sharply contrasted with the sensual? The secret is, that he +did not get her; just as Dante's heavenly love for Beatrice was due to +the same involuntary cause. Björck therefore sang of the unattainable +with the quiet melancholy of unsatisfied love. But that, however, is no +virtue, and purity should be a virtue.</p> + +<p>In short, Björck and Snoilsky sang of water and drank wine, and in this +were just the opposite to the poets of our time, who are said to sing +of wine and drink water. A poet's life always seems to be at variance +with his teachings. Why? Is it that, in composing, he wishes to escape +from his own personality, and find another? Is it a wish to disguise +himself? Or is it modesty, the fear of giving himself away, and of +self-exposure? This is a weighty problem for future psychologists to +unravel.</p> + +<p>Björck composed poems both for the reformation of the constitution +in 1865, and for the restoration to power of the King. He saw harmony +everywhere, and when he celebrated the restored union between Sweden +and Norway in 1864, he was extremely melodious. He also praised +Abraham Lincoln; negro-emancipation and white slavery—that is the +ideal of freedom of the Holy Alliance! Revolution certainly, but legal +revolution by the will of God! Well, he knew no better, and few did at +that time. Therefore we do not judge the man but only his work, the +motives inspiring which are a matter of indifference to posterity.</p> + +<p>Young men read these poets, many of them with great edification. +They proclaimed no new era, but prophesied after the event that +now the millennium was come, the ideal realised, and lines of +demarcation obliterated once for all. They looked with satisfaction +on their creations, rubbed their hands, and found them all good. An +atmosphere of peace had spread itself over the whole of Upsala and +its neighbourhood; now one might sleep till Doomsday was the belief +of old and young. But then discordant sounds began to be heard, and +in the days of universal peace fire-beacons began to be seen on the +neighbouring mountain-tops. From Norway open water was signalled +and the revolving lights were kindled. Rome captured Greece, but +Greece re-captured Rome. Sweden had captured Norway, but now Norway +re-captured Sweden. Lorenz Dietrichson was appointed as professor +at the university of Upsala in 1861, and he was the forerunner of +Norwegian influence. He made Sweden acquainted with Danish and +Norwegian literature, then almost unknown, and founded the literary +society which produced poets like Snoilsky and Björck.</p> + +<p>After Norway had broken loose from the Danish monarchy and had ceased +to be a branch of the head office in Copenhagen, it was not grafted +into Sweden but retreated into itself. At the same time it opened +direct communication with the continent. Its awakening to independence +was coincident with a strong stream of foreign influence. It was +Björnson who first roused Norway to self-consciousness; but when this +degenerated into a narrow patriotism, Ibsen came with the pruning +shears.</p> + +<p>As the strife became fiercer and Christiania would not lend itself +to be a field of battle, the conflict was transferred to hospitable +Sweden. The Norwegian wine was well adapted for exportation; pamphlets +grew in size as they travelled and in Sweden became literature. +Thoughts came to the top and personalities settled at the bottom of +the vessel. Ibsen and Björnson broke into Sweden; Tidemand and Gude +took prizes in the art exhibition of 1866; Kierulf and Nordraak were +authorities in singing and music. Then came Ibsen's <i>Brand</i>. This had +appeared in 1866, but John did not see it till 1869. It made a deep +impression on the primitive Christian side of him, but it was gloomy +and severe. The final utterance in it regarding "Deus caritatis" was +not satisfying, and the poet seemed to have had too much sympathy with +his hero to have described his overthrow with cold irony.</p> + +<p><i>Brand</i> gave John a good deal of trouble. He (Brand) had dropped +Christianity but kept its stern ascetic morality; he demanded obedience +for his old doctrines though they were no more practicable; he despised +the tendency of the time towards humanity and compromise, but ended by +recommending the God of compromise. Brand was a fanatic, a pietist, +who dared to believe himself right against the whole world, and John +felt himself related to this terrible egoist who was wrong besides. No +half-measures! go straight on; break down everything that stands in the +way, for you only are right! John's tender conscience, which suffered +at every step he took lest it should vex his father or friends, was +stupefied by Brand. All ties of consideration and of love should be +torn asunder for the sake of "the cause." That John was no longer a +pietist was a piece of good fortune, otherwise he too would have been +overwhelmed by the avalanche.<a name="FNanchor_2_5" id="FNanchor_2_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_5" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> But Brand gave him a belief in a +conscience which was purer than that which education had given him, and +a law which was higher than conventional law. And he needed this iron +backbone in his weak back, for he had long periods during which by +fits and starts and out of mildness he thought himself wrong, and the +first who came, right; therefore, he was also very easily misled. Brand +was the last Christian who followed an old ideal, therefore he could be +110 pattern for one who felt a vague inclination to revolt against all +old ideals.</p> + +<p><i>Brand</i> after all was a fine plant, but without any roots in its own +period; and, therefore, it belonged to the herbarium. Then came +<i>Peer Gynt</i>. This was rather obscure than deep and had its value as +an antidote against the national self-love. The fact that Ibsen was +neither banished nor persecuted after having said such bitter things +against the proud Norwegians, shows that in Norway they were more +honourable fighters than the Swedes afterwards showed themselves to be.</p> + +<p>Ibsen was at that time regarded as a misanthrope and as an enemy and +envier of Björnson. People were divided into two camps, and the dispute +as to which of the two was the greater was endless, for it concerned an +artistic problem—"contents or form."</p> + +<p>The influence of Norwegian on Swedish poetry has been great and partly +beneficent, but there was a peculiarly Norwegian element in it, which +was not adaptable to Sweden, a land with quite another development. +In the sequestered valleys of Norway there lived a people who, under +the pressure of need and poverty, found ready to their hand in the +Christian doctrine of renunciation an ascetic philosophy which promised +heaven as a compensation for earth's hardships. Nature in her most +gloomy and parsimonious aspect, a damp climate, long winters, great +distances between the villages,—all co-operated to preserve an +austere mediæval type of Christianity. There is something which may +be said to resemble insanity in the Norwegian character, of the same +kind as the English "spleen;" and possibly the intimate relations of +Norway with the hypochondriacal islanders may have impressed traces +on its civilisation. In Jonas Lie's <i>Clair-voyant</i> this melancholy +is depleted, and in it one finds the same weird atmosphere as in the +Icelandic sagas, and the theme also is similar,—the struggle of the +spirit against physical darkness and cold. There we have depicted +the tragic lot of the Norseman banished from sunny lands to gloomy +wildernesses, and seeking relief by emigration, the ethnographical +significance of which has been overlooked in view of its economical +aspect. The Norwegian character is the result of many hundred years of +tyranny, of injustice, of hard struggling for a livelihood, of want of +gladness.</p> + +<p>Swedish literature should have avoided absorbing these national +peculiarities, but they have made it half-Norwegian. Brand still haunts +Swedish literature with his ideal demands, with which the romanticised +and cheerful Swede cannot sincerely sympathise. Therefore this foreign +garb suits him so badly; therefore modern Swedish music sounds so +unharmonious, like an echo of the violins of Hardanger, tuned over +again by Grieg; therefore the talk of greater moral purity sounds +discordant in the mouth of the vivacious Swede. He has not suffered +from long oppression and does not need to seek himself in the past; +melancholy has not so beset him in his open flat land of lakes and +rivers, and therefore a sour mien becomes him ill.</p> + +<p>When the Swedes received great and novel ideas by way of Norway or +direct from the Continent through Ibsen and Björnson, they should have +kept the kernel and thrown away the Norwegian husk. Even the <i>Doll's +House</i> is Norwegian. Nora is related to the Icelandic women who wished +to set up a matriarchate; she belongs to the weird imperious women in +<i>Härmännen</i> who again are pure Norse. In them the emotions have become +frozen or distorted by centuries of cognate marriages.</p> + +<p>The whole Swedish literature of feminism is ultra-Norwegian; it +contains the same immodest demands on the man and petting of the spoilt +woman. Several young authors have introduced the Norwegian style into +Swedish; one authoress has placed the scene of her book in Norway, and +made her hero talk Norwegian! Further one could not go!</p> + +<p>Let us welcome foreign influence which is cosmopolitan; but not +Norwegian, for that is provincial, and we have plenty of the same kind +ourselves.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>So John found himself again in Upsala,—the same Upsala from which he +had fled nine months before, and to which he most unwillingly returned. +To be compelled to a course which he did not wish always made him feel +as though he were encountering a personal foe, who cajoled him out of +his wishes and antipathies, and forced him to bend. Since he still +believed himself under God's personal providence, he accepted that as +though it were for his best. Later on he had a feeling that there was +a malignant power; this developed into the belief that there were two +ruling powers, one good, one evil, which divided the empery, or ruled +alternately.</p> + +<p>He asked himself again, "What have you to do here?" To take his degree, +but especially to cover his retreat from the theatre. Privately he +wished to write a play, and, under the screen of its success, wriggle +out of the examination.</p> + +<p>At first he was not at all comfortable in his lonely attic. He had +become accustomed to luxury, a large room, a good table, attendance +and society. After having been habituated to be treated as a man and +to have intercourse with older and cultivated people, he found himself +again in a state of pupilage as a student. But he cast himself into +the crowd and soon found himself on social terms with three distinct +circles. The first consisted of friends whom he met by day, who were +students of medicine and natural history and atheists. From them he +heard for the first time the name of Darwin; but it passed by him like +a doctrine for which he was not yet ripe. His evening society consisted +of a priest and a lawyer with whom he played cards till deep in the +night. He considered himself now in Upsala merely to grow and get +older, and that it was a matter of indifference what he did, as long as +he killed the time. He drew up the scheme of a new tragedy, Eric XIV, +but found it poor, and burnt it, for his faculty of self-criticism had +awakened and was severer in its demands.</p> + +<p>Later on in the term he entered a third society, which formed his +special circle during the whole of his time at Upsala and for a long +while afterwards. One evening he chanced to meet a young companion +with whom he had been a pupil at the private school. They discussed +literature, and over a glass of toddy made the plan of forming some +young poets into a club for literary work. The plan was carried out. +Besides John and the other founder of the club, four young students +were elected to it. They were fine young fellows of an idealist turn of +mind, as the saying is, with high purposes and enthusiastic for vague +ideals. They had not yet come into contact with the hard realities of +life; they had all well-to-do parents, no cares, and knew nothing at +all of the struggle for a subsistence. John, on the other hand, had +just left the most unpleasant surroundings; he had seen people who +were always ready to quarrel, conceited, empty-headed pupils of the +Theatrical Academy. Here he found himself transplanted into an entirely +new world. There were these happy youths going to their well-supplied +tables, smoking fine cigars, taking walks, and poetising beautifully +over the beauty of life which they knew nothing of.</p> + +<p>Rules were drawn up for the club, which received the name "Runa," +<i>i.e</i>. "song." The choice of this title was probably due to the +Northern renaissance which came in with the Scandinavian movement. +Its chief ornaments were Karl XV in poetry, Winge and Malmström in +painting, and Molin in sculpture. Recently it had been quickened by +Björnson's and Ibsen's dramas on subjects from the old Norse life. +The study of Icelandic, which had been newly introduced into the +university, also lent strength to this movement.</p> + +<p>The number of members of the club was not to exceed nine; each of +them was known by a Runic sign. John was called "Frö" and the other +founder of the club, "Ur." Every variety of opinion was represented. +Ur was a great patriot and venerated Sweden with its memories. In his +opinion it had the most brilliant history in Europe, and had always +been free. For the rest he was a practically minded man with a special +faculty for statistics, politics, and biography; he was a severe and +clever critic, and also managed the affairs of the club. He was a +reliable friend, good company, helpful and hearty. Secondly, there +was a full-blooded romanticist who read Heine and drank absinthe—a +sensitive youth enthusiastic for all old ideals, but especially for +Heine. There was also a seraph who sang of the indescribably little, +especially the happiness of childhood; fourthly, a silent worshipper of +nature, and, lastly, an eclectic philosopher and improvisator, who had +an extraordinary faculty for improvising in any style whatever, when +requested. Two minutes after he had been asked, he would stand up and +speak or sing on the spur of the moment in the character of Anacreon, +Horace, the Edda, or any one else, and even in foreign languages.</p> + +<p>The first meeting of the club was at Thurs', who was lodged the most +comfortably in two rooms and had the best pipes. As one of the founders +of the club John first of all read his prologue, which, according +to the rules of the society, had to be in verse. It began by asking +after the ancient bard Brage and his harp which was now silent. Brage +represented the new Norse element, the resuscitation of which was +believed necessary. The whole programme of the idealists was called +"a trivial striving." All the great efforts of their contemporaries +after reality and for the improvement of the conditions of life was +"trivial." The spirit was taken prisoner in matter, and therefore +all that was material was to be regarded as the enemy. Such was the +teaching of the romanticists, and of John's prologue. Then the poet +went out into nature, listened to the bells of the cathedral, the +wind, the pines, and the singing of the birds in order to ask the very +natural question: "Nature sings; why should I then be silent?" He +resolved to be no longer silent but to sing,—about the joyous youthful +spring-time of life, its autumn, and about love to one's native soil. +Then (he said) came the wise man with the frozen heart, took his song, +dissected it and found that it was all nonsense. Thus the song was +killed by "overwiseness."</p> + +<p>It is not easy to say exactly now what John meant by "overwiseness" +in 1870. He probably had simply forebodings of future critics, and +the "wise man" was no other than the reviewer. Then he inveighed +against the wretched mercenary souls who worship the golden calf but +do not love songs. This had no connection with contemporary matters, +for the sixties were remarkable for bad harvests and consequently +for want of gold. The swindles by company-promoters began with the +seventies. But it was the custom of the contemporary poets to attack +money and the golden calf, and therefore John did so in his prologue. +Now began a life of poetic idleness. Every evening they met either in +a restaurant, or in each other's rooms. But the time was not wasted +in view of his future authorship. John could borrow books from the +well-stocked libraries of his friends, and the interchange of opinions +accustomed him to look at literature from different points of view. But +for them real life, public interests, contemporary politics did not +exist; they lived in dreams. Sometimes his lower-class consciousness +awoke, and he asked himself what he had to do among these rich youths. +But he soon stilled these scruples by drink and talk, and encouraged +himself to go forward and demand something of life, for he had in his +companions' opinion a good chance.</p> + +<p>His room was a wretched one; the rain came through the roof, and he had +no proper bed, but only a plank-bed, which in the day-time served as a +sofa. When time hung heavily on his hands and he grew weary of poetical +discussions he looked up his old school-fellow, the natural history +student. There he looked through the microscope, and heard of Darwin +and the new scientific views. His friend gave him well-meant practical +advice and recommended him to get out of his difficulties by writing a +one-act play in verse for the Theatre Royal.</p> + +<p>John objected that his dramatic talent had not scope enough in one act, +and said that he would rather write a tragedy in five.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it is harder to get that accepted," replied his friend. +Finally he let himself be persuaded and determined to carry out a +small idea he had of a short play based on Thorwaldson's first visit +to Rome. His friend lent him books on Italy and John set to work. In +fourteen days the piece was ready.</p> + +<p>"That will be acted," said his friend. "It has dramatic points, you +see."</p> + +<p>Since it was still a long time to the next meeting of the club, John +hastened in the evening to Thurs and Rejd and read the piece to them. +They were both of the same opinion as the natural history student, +that the piece would be performed. They had a champagne supper, and +kept drinking till the morning, and then went to sleep on the floor of +Rejd's room with the punch-glasses by them. In a couple of hours they +awoke, finished their half-empty glasses at sunrise and went out to +continue the celebration of the occasion.</p> + +<p>The sympathy of John's friends was hearty, unselfish and warm, without +a trace of envy. He always remembered with pleasure this first success +as one of the brightest recollections of his youth. The enthusiastic, +devoted Rejd increased Hohn's debt of gratitude by copying out the +piece in his graceful hand-writing. Then it was sent to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. Spring arrived and they spent the +month of May in a continual carouse. The club had a small room in the +restaurant Lilia Förderfvet for their evening suppers. There they +talked, made speeches, and drank enormously. At last the term ended and +they had to part, but they arranged to meet once more at Stockholm, +and celebrate the festival day of the club by an excursion into the +country.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock one June morning the four members of the club met at +Skeppsholm, where they had hired a rowing-boat. The chest of the club, +a card-board box containing documents, was stowed away with baskets of +provisions and bottles of wine. After Os and Rejd had taken the oars, +they steered the boat to the canal leading through the Zoological +Gardens, in order to reach the place they had appointed, a promontory +of Liding Island. Thurs played airs on the flute to Bellmann's songs, +and Frö (John) accompanied him on a guitar which he had learnt to play +at Upsala.</p> + +<p>As soon as they landed, breakfast was laid in a meadow by the shore. +The club-chest adorned with leaves and flowers was set in the middle +of the table-cloth, and on it were set the brandy-bottles and glasses. +John, who had studied antiquities for his play, <i>Sinking Hellas</i>, +arranged the meal in the Greek style, so that they wore garlands, and +ate reclining. A fire was lit between some stones and coffee was made. +At nine o'clock in the morning they drank brandy and punch.</p> + +<p>John read his drama, <i>The Free-thinker</i>, which was duly criticised. +Then they gave full course to their eloquence. Thurs was the best +speaker; he could express emotions and thoughts rhythmically. Poems +were read and received with applause. John sang folk-songs to the +accompaniment of his guitar, some on sentimental subjects, and some on +improper ones. At noon they were still in high spirits but inclined to +be sleepy.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon when the sun was over Lilia Värtan they had a short +sleep, and then the carouse passed into a new phase. Thurs, the +Israelite, had recited a poem on the greatness of the North, and called +on the old gods of Scandinavia. Ur, the patriot, denied him the right +to appropriate other people's gods. The Jewish question came up; they +took fire and nearly quarrelled, but ended by embracing.</p> + +<p>Then began the sentimental stage. They had to weep, for alcohol has +this effect on the membranes of the stomach and the lachrymal duets. +Ur first felt this and unconsciously sought for a melancholy subject. +He burst into tears. When asked why, he did not know, but said at last +that he had been treated as a buffoon, which he always was. He declared +that he had a very serious nature and that he also had great troubles +which no one knew about, but now he unburdened his heart and told us a +domestic story. After he had done so, he became cheerful again.</p> + +<p>But the evening was long and they began to wish to go home. Their +brains were empty; they were tired of each other, and weary of play +and drinking. They began to reflect and examine the philosophy of +intoxication. From whence do men derive this desire to make themselves +senseless? What lies behind it? Is it the southern exile's longing +for a lost sunny existence in northern lands? There must be some felt +necessity underlying intoxication, for a vice like this would not +have laid hold of all mankind without reason. Is it that the member +of society in a state of intoxication throws away all the lies of +society? For the laws of social intercourse involuntarily forbid one to +speak out all one's thoughts. Otherwise whence comes the saying, <i>In +vino veritas</i>? Why did the Greeks honour Bacchus as one who improved +men and manners? Why did Dionysus love peace, and why was he said +to increase riches? Has wine, which is chiefly drunk by men, some +influence on the development of man's intelligence and activity, so +that he becomes superior to woman? And why do the Muhammadans who drink +no wine stand on what is regarded as a lower level of civilisation? +As salt is used as a daily nutrient to replace the salts which their +hunting forefathers found in the blood of beasts of the chase, does not +wine compensate for some lost nutritive matter belonging to earlier +stages, and, if so, which? Some idea or necessity must underlie so +singular a custom.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the need of losing consciousness justifies the axiom of the +pessimists that consciousness is the beginning of suffering. Wine makes +one naive and unconscious as a child; or even as an animal. Is it +the lost paradise which one wishes to recover? But the remorse which +follows it? Remorse and acidity of the stomach have the same symptoms. +Is there then a confusion, and are sensations called "remorse" which +are only heart-burn? Or does the drinker returned to consciousness +regret that he has exposed himself by daylight and betrayed his +secrets? There is something to feel remorse for in that! He is ashamed +that he has been taken by surprise, he feels afraid because he has +exposed himself and given away his weapons. Remorse and fear are close +neighbours.</p> + +<p>Yet once more the members of the club drowned their consciousness in +drink and then got into the boat to proceed home. John and Thurs began +a dispute about Bellmann<a name="FNanchor_3_6" id="FNanchor_3_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_6" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> which lasted till they reached Skeppsholm, +and closed with sharp remarks on both sides.</p> + +<p>John had an old grudge against this poet. Once as a child, he had been +ill for a whole summer, and had by chance taken Bellmann's <i>Fredman's +Epistles</i> out of his father's book-case. The book seemed to him silly, +but he was too young to form a well-grounded opinion on it. Later on, +it sometimes happened that his father sat at the piano, and hummed +Bellmann's songs. The boy found it incomprehensible that his father and +uncle admired them so much. Subsequently one Christmas he saw a violent +controversy break out between his mother and his uncle on the subject +of Bellmann. The latter set the poet above everything—Bible, sermons +and all. There were depths, he said, in Bellmann. Depths indeed! +Probably Atterbom's romanticist one-sided criticism had filtered +through the daily papers to the middle classes. As a school-boy and +student, John had sung "Up, Amaryllis" and other idylls of Bellmann's, +naturally without understanding them or thinking of the meaning of the +words. He sang in a quartette, or choir, for it sounded well. Finally, +in 1867, he read Ljunggren's lectures and a light broke upon him, but +not one of Ljunggren's kindling. He thought the latter mad. Bellmann +was a ballad-singer, that was true, but a great poet, the greatest poet +of the North?—impossible!</p> + +<p>Bellmann had sung his songs composed on the French model for the +Court and his own friends, but not for the common people, who would +not have understood "Amaryllis," "Eol," "The Tritons," "Fröja" and +all the rococo stock-in-trade. He died and was forgotten. Why had +he been disinterred by Atterbom? Because the pugnacious romantic +school required an embodiment of irregularity to set up against the +classicists, as they had nothing of their own to boast of. Thus the +romantic school gained the day; and when one considers how cowardly +most people are in the face of public opinion, and the tendency of the +middle-class to ape its superiors and reverence authority, one ceases +to be surprised at the elevation of Bellmann. Ljunggren and Eichhorn +outstripped Atterbom in finding beauty and genius in his writings they +were reinforced by the clerical element, and thus the idol was set up +for worship. Bystrom, the sculptor, had already magnified the little +lottery-secretary and court-poet into a Dionysus and lent him the +features of an antique bust of Bacchus.</p> + +<p>Bellmann's idylls are careless, extemporised compositions with forced +rhymes, and as disconnected as the thoughts in the brain of a drunkard. +One does not know whether it is day or night, the thunder rolls in the +sunshine, and the weaves beat while the boat is floating calmly on the +waters. They simply provide a text for music, and for that purpose +one might use a book of addresses. The meaning of the words does not +matter, as long as they sound well.</p> + +<p>According to his custom Thurs took the matter personally. It was an +attack on his good taste and on his honour, for John said that his +admiration of Bellmann was mere humbug; that he had read himself into +it, and that it was not genuine. Thurs on the other hand declared John +to be presumptuous, because he wished to criticise the greatest Swedish +poet.</p> + +<p>"Prove that he is the greatest," said John.</p> + +<p>"Tegner and Atterbom say so."</p> + +<p>"That is no proof."</p> + +<p>"Simply because you have a spirit of contradiction."</p> + +<p>"Doubt is the beginning of certainty, and absurd assertions must arouse +opposition in a healthy brain."</p> + +<p>And so on.</p> + +<p>Although there is no such thing as a judgment which holds good +universally, since every judgment is individualistic, there are, on the +other hand, judgments of a majority and of a party. By means of these +John was suppressed and kept silence on the subject of Bellmann for +many years. Only when later on the old historian Fryxell proved that +Bellmann was not the apostle of sobriety which Eichhorn and Ljunggren +had made him out to be, and also no god, but a mediocre ballad-singer, +did John see a gleam of hope that his individual opinion might become +some day the opinion of the majority. But he already saw the question +from another point of view; Sweden would have been neither unhappier +nor worse, if Bellmann had never lived. He would like to have said to +the patriots and democrats, "Bellmann was a poet of Stockholm and of +the Court, who jested very cruelly with poor people." He would like +to have said to the Good Templars who sang Bellmann's songs, "You are +singing drinking songs which were written during fits of intoxication +and celebrate drink." For his own part, John held that Bellmann's +songs were pleasant to sing because of the light French melodies which +accompanied them, and as for their French morality it did not vex him +at all—quite the contrary. But earlier, at the age of twenty-one, he +was vexed by it, for he was an idealist and desired purity in poetry, +just as the surviving idealists and admirers of Bellmann do at the +present time.</p> + +<p>These have used the word "humour" to save themselves and their +morality. But what do they mean by "humour"? Is it jest or earnest? +What is jest? The reluctance of the cowardly to speak out his mind? +Humour reflects the double nature of man,—the indifference of the +natural man to conventional morality, and the Christian's sigh over +immorality which is after all so enticing and seductive. Humour speaks +with two tongues,—one of the satyr, the other of the monk. The +humorist lets the mænad loose, but for old unsound reasons thinks that +he ought to flog her with rods. This is a transitional form of humour +which is passing away, and already at the last gasp. The greatest +modern writers have thrown away the rod, and play the hypocrite +no longer, but speak their minds plainly out. The old tippler's +sentimentality can no longer count for "a good heart," for it has been +discovered to be merely bad nerves.</p> + +<p>After arguing till they were weary, the members of the club landed in +Stockholm harbour.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Boström: Swedish Philosopher (1797-1866).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2_5" id="Footnote_2_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_5"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Vide</i> the end of <i>Brand</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3_6" id="Footnote_3_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_6"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Famous Swedish poet.</p></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></h4> + +<h4>BOOKS AND THE STAGE</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>The history of the development of a soul can be sometimes written by +giving a simple bibliography; for a man who lives in a narrow circle +and never meets great men personally, seeks to make their acquaintance +through books. The fact that the same books do not make the same +impression, nor have the same effect upon all, shows their relative +powerlessness to convert anybody. For example, we call the criticism +with which we agree good; the criticism which contradicts our views is +bad. Thus we seem to be educated with preconceived views, and the book +which strengthens, expresses and develops these makes an impression +on us. The danger of a one-sided education through books is that most +books, especially those composed at the end of an era, and at the +university, are antiquated. The youth who has received old ideals from +his parents and teachers is accordingly necessarily out of date before +his education is completed. When he enters manhood, he is generally +obliged to fling away his whole stock of old ideas, and be born again, +as it were. Time has gone by him, while he was reading the old books, +and he finds himself a stranger among his contemporaries.</p> + +<p>John had spent his youth in accumulating antiquarian lore. He knew all +about Marathon and Cannae, the war of the Spanish succession and the +Thirty Years' War, the Middle Ages and antiquity; but when the war +between France and Germany broke out, he did not know the cause of it. +He read about it as he would have read a play, and was interested to +see what the result of it would be.</p> + +<p>In Kristineberg, where he spent the summer with his parents, he lay +out on the grass in the park and read Oehlenschläger. For his degree +examination, he had, besides his chief subject—æsthetics,—to +choose a special one, and, enticed by Dietrichson's lectures, he had +chosen Danish literature. In Oehlenschläger he had found the summit +of Northern poetry. That was for him the quintessence of poetry,—the +directness which he admired perhaps for the very reason that he had +not got it. The Danish language perhaps also contributed to this +result; it seemed to him an idealised Swedish, and sounded like his +mother-speech from the lips of a woman worshipped from afar. When he +read Oehlenschläger's <i>Helge</i>, Tegner's <i>Frithiof's Saga</i> seemed to him +petty; he found it unwieldy, prosaic, clerical, unpoetic.</p> + +<p>Oehlenschläger's dramas were a book which had an influence on John by +way of a supplementary contrast. Perhaps the romantic element in them +found an echo in the youth's mind, which had now awoken* to poetic +activity, and looked upon poetry and romance as identical. Other +contributory circumstances were his liking for Norse antiquities which +Oehlenschläger had just discovered, and the unrequited love he had +just then for a blond maiden who was engaged to a lieutenant. But the +impression made by Oehlenschläger was only fleeting, and hardly lasted +a year; it was a light spring breeze which passed by.</p> + +<p>It fared worse with John's study of æsthetics as expounded by +Ljunggren in two closely printed volumes, containing the views of all +philosophers on the Beautiful, but giving no satisfactory definition of +it.</p> + +<p>John had studied the antique in the National Museum, and asked himself +how the pot-house scenes of the Dutch genre painters which, when +they occurred in reality, were called ugly, could be reckoned among +beautiful pictures, although they were in no way idealised. To this the +æsthetic philosophers gave no answer. They shirked the question and +set up one theory after another, but the only excuse they could find +for the admission of ugliness was that it acted as a foil, and provided +a comic element. But a strong suspicion had been aroused in John that +the "Beautiful" was not always beautiful.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, he was troubled by doubts whether it was possible to +have independent standards of taste. In the newly-founded paper, the +<i>Schwedische Zeitschrift</i>, he had read discussions about works of +art, and seen how disputants on both sides defended their position +with equally strong arguments. One sought beauty in form, another in +subject, and a third in the harmony between the two. Accordingly a +well-painted subject from still life can rank higher than the Niobe, +for this group of statuary is not beautiful in its outlines, the +arrangement of the drapery of the principal figure being especially +tasteless although the judgment of the majority regards the work as +sublime. Therefore the sublime does not necessarily consist in beauty +of form.</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo's romances had found a fertile soil in John's mind. The +revolt against society; the reverence paid to Nature by the poet living +on a lonely island; the scorn for the ever-prevalent stupidity; the +indignation against formal religion and the enthusiasm for God as the +Creator of all,—all that was germinating in the young man's mind began +to grow, but was stifled by the autumn leaf-drifts of old books.</p> + +<p>John's life in the domestic circle was now a quiet one. The storms +had subsided; his brothers and sisters were grown up. His father, who +still always sat over his account-ledgers, calculating the ways and +means of providing for his flock of children, had become older, and +now perceived that John was also older. They often discussed together +topics of common interest. As regards the Franco-German War they were +both fairly neutral. As Latinised Teutons they did not love the German. +They hated and feared him as a sort of uncle with a right of seniority +against the Swedes, and they did not forget that victorious Prussia had +once been a Swedish province. The Swede had become more French than he +was aware, and now he felt conscious of his relationship to <i>la grande +nation</i>. In the evenings when they sat in the garden and the noise of +traffic had ceased, they heard the singing of the Marseillaise from +Blanch's café, and the hurrahs which were soon to be silent.</p> + +<p>In August, when the theatres re-opened, John received the long-desired +news that his play had been accepted for the stage. That was the first +intoxicating success which he had experienced. To have a play accepted +at the Theatre Royal when he was only twenty-one was sufficient +compensation for all his misfortunes. His words would reach the public +from the first stage in the land; his failure as an actor would be +forgotten; his father would see that his son amid all his notorious +fluctuations had chosen right, and all would be well. In autumn, before +the university term began, the piece was performed. It was naive, +pious and full of reverence for art, but had one dramatic scene which +saved it in spite of its slightness—Thorwaldsen about to shatter +the statue of Jason with his hammer. But on the other hand the piece +contained a presumptuous outburst against contemporary rhymers. What +was the author's intention in that? How could a beginner who had so +many forced rhymes himself, cast a stone at another? It was a piece +of temerity which found its own punishment. John stole to the bottom +of the third row of seats to view the performance of his piece from a +standing position. Rejd was already there before him and the curtain +was up. John felt as though he stood under an electric machine. Every +nerve quivered, his legs shook, and his tears ran the whole time from +pure nervousness. Rejd had to hold his hand in order to quiet him. +Now and then there was applause, but John knew that it was mostly from +his relatives and friends, and did not let himself be deceived. Every +stupidity which had inadvertently escaped him now jarred on his ear, +and made him quiver; he saw nothing but crudeness in the piece; he felt +so ashamed that his ears burned; before the curtain fell he rushed away +out into the dark market-place.</p> + +<p>He felt as though annihilated. The attack on the priests was stupid and +unjust; the glorification of poverty and pride seemed to him false, his +description of the relationship between father and son was cynical. How +could he have shown off in this absurd way? It seemed to him as though +he had exposed his nakedness, and shame overpowered every other feeling.</p> + +<p>On the other hand he found the actors good; the <i>mise en scène</i> was +more appropriate than he had expected. Everything was good except the +piece itself. He wandered down to the Norrstrom, and felt inclined +to drown himself. What most annoyed him was that he had so openly +exhibited his feelings. Whence came that? And why should one in general +be ashamed of such exhibitions? Why are the feelings so sacred? Perhaps +because the feelings in general are false, as they only express a +physical sensation, in which personality of the individual does not +fully participate. If it is really so, then John was ashamed as an +ordinary man, to have been untruthful in his writing and to have worn +disguise.</p> + +<p>To be moved at the sight of human suffering is regarded as a mark of +fine feeling and meritorious, but it is said to be only a natural +reflex-movement. One involuntarily transfers the sufferings of the +other to oneself and suffers for one's own sake. Another's tears could +bring one to weep just as another's yawning could make one yawn. That +was all. John felt ashamed that he had lied and caught himself in the +act, though the public had not caught him.</p> + +<p>No one is such a merciless critic as a dramatist who sees his own play +acted. He lets no single word pass through his sieve. He does not lay +the blame on the actors, but generally admires them for rendering his +stupidities with such taste. John found his play stupid. It had lain +by for half a year, and perhaps he had outgrown it. Another piece was +performed after it which lasted for two hours. During the whole time +he wandered about the streets in the darkness, feeling ashamed of +himself. He had made an appointment to drink a glass with some friends +and relatives after the performance in the Hôtel du Nord, but remained +away. He saw they were looking for him but did not wish to meet them. +So they went in again to see the second play. At last it was over. The +spectators streamed out and dispersed through the streets. He hastened +away in order not to hear their comments.</p> + +<p>At last he saw a single group standing under the portico of the +dramatic theatre. They were looking out in all directions and called +him. Finally he came forward as pale and melancholy as a corpse.</p> + +<p>They congratulated him on his success. The play had been applauded and +was very good. They repeated to him the verdicts of other spectators +and quieted him. Then they dragged him to a restaurant and compelled +him to eat and drink. "That will do you good, you old death's-head!" +said a shop-assistant. John was soon pulled down from his imaginative +flight. "What have you got to be melancholy for," he was asked, "when +you have had a play acted by the Theatre Royal?" He could not tell +them. His boldest ambition was fulfilled; but it was probably not +what he wanted. The thought that in any case it was an honour did not +comfort him.</p> + +<p>The next morning he went into a shop, and bought the morning paper +and read a criticism to the effect that the piece was written in +choice language, and (since it was anonymous) probably by a well-known +art-critic who had moved among artistic circles at Rome. That was +pleasant and cheered his spirits.</p> + +<p>At noon he started for Upsala. His father had engaged a room for him +in a boarding-house, kept by the widow of a clergyman, that he might +complete his studies under proper supervision.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></h4> + +<h4>TORN TO PIECES</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>John's entrance into the boarding-house secured for him intercourse +with a large and varied circle,—perhaps too varied. There were +students of all ages, of all subjects, and from all districts, from +clergymen who were reading for their last examination to young medical +and law students. There were also ladies in the house, and John was +for the eighth time in love. Again the object of his affections +was unattainable, being engaged to another. The variety of this +social intercourse overloaded his brain with impressions from all +circles; his personality became relaxed and distracted through the +self-adaptation and compromises with other people's views which are +necessary in society. Besides this a great deal of drinking went on +nearly every evening. On one of the first days after his arrival +appeared a criticism of his play in one of the evening papers. It was +very sharp but just, and therefore hit John hard. He felt stripped +and seen through. The critic said that the author had concealed his +insignificant personality behind a great name—Thorwaldsen—but +that the disguise did not avail him and so on. John felt altogether +bankrupt. In such cases one tries to defend oneself, and he compared +his own with other bad plays, which the same severe critic had +praised. He felt treated unjustly, and indeed when compared with others +it was so, but not when he was regarded by himself alone. The fact that +the critic was worse did not make his piece better.</p> + +<p>John became shy and averse to company. This was increased by the +students' club starting a paper in which they made merry over him and +his play. He fancied he saw grimaces and contempt everywhere, and went +preferably by back streets on his walks.</p> + +<p>Then there came a yet severer blow. A friend had, on his own account, +published one of John's first plays,—the <i>Free-thinker</i>. While he was +spending an evening with Rejd an acquaintance brought in the hated +evening paper. It contained a scathing article on the play, which was +mocked at and cut to pieces. John was obliged to read the article in +the presence of his friends. He had, against his will, to admit that +the critic was not unjust, but it upset him terribly.</p> + +<p>Why is it so hard to hear the truth from others, while at the same +time one can be so severe against oneself? Probably because the social +masquerade in which we all take part makes every one fear being +unmasked, probably also because responsibility and unpleasantness are +involved in it. One feels oneself overreached and cheated. The critic +who sits at ease and unmasks others would feel himself equally scourged +and exposed if his secrets were betrayed. Social life is honeycombed +with falsity, but who likes to be discovered? That is why at times of +solitude, when the past rises up unescapably, we do not feel remorse +for our faults, but for our follies and necessary cruelties. Mistakes +were necessary and had some use, but follies were merely injurious and +should have been avoided. It is for this reason that men pay greater +honour to intelligence than to morality, for the former is a reality, +the latter an idea.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile John felt the same pains which he imagined a criminal must +feel. He felt impelled to obliterate as soon as possible the impression +made by his stupidity. But he felt also that a kind of injustice +had been done him since he had been criticised simply and solely as +a writer, although his production was a year old, and he himself, +therefore, maturer than it, by a year. But it was not the fault of the +critic that there was an incongruity between the criticism and the +<i>corpus delicti</i>.</p> + +<p>He began to compose another tragedy, <i>The Assistant at the Sacrifice</i>. +This was intended to deal with Christendom in artistic form, and to +handle the same problem and the same questions as his former play. By +"artistic form" at that period was meant the laying of the scene of +the play in a past epoch. John wrote the piece under the influence of +Oehlenschläger and the Icelandic sagas which he had lately read in the +original.</p> + +<p>He had, however, a severe struggle with his conscience, for his father +had exacted a promise from him not to write for the stage till he had +passed his examination. It was, therefore, an act of deceit to take +help from his father and not to fulfil the conditions on which it was +granted. But he silenced his scruples by saying to himself, "Father +will be pleased enough if I have a speedy and great success." In that +he was not far wrong.</p> + +<p>But another element now entered into his life, and had a decided +influence both on his views of things and his work. This was his +acquaintance with two men,—an author and a remarkable personality. +Unfortunately they were both abnormal and therefore had only a +disturbing effect upon his development.</p> + +<p>The author was Kierkegaard,<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> whose book, <i>Either—Or</i>, John had +borrowed from a member of the Song Club, and read with fear and +trembling. His friends had also read it as a work of genius, had +admired the style, but not been specialty influenced by it,—a proof +that books have little effect, when they do not find readers in +sympathy with the author. But upon John the book made the impression +intended by the author. He read the first part containing "The +Confessions of an Æsthete." He felt sometimes carried away by it, but +always had an uncomfortable feeling as though present at a sick-bed. +The perusal of the first part left a feeling of emptiness and despair +behind it. The book agitated him. "The Diary of a Seducer" he regarded +as the fancies of an unclean imagination. Things were not like that in +real life. Moreover John was no sybarite, but on the contrary inclined +to asceticism and self-torment. Such egotistic sensuality as that of +the hero of Kierkegaard's work was absurd because the suffering he +caused by the satisfaction of his desires necessarily involved him in +suffering and, therefore, defeated his object.</p> + +<p>The second part of the work containing the philosopher's "Discourse on +Life as a Duty," made a deeper impression on John. It showed him that +he himself was an "æsthete" who had conceived of authorship as a form +of enjoyment. Kierkegaard said that it should be regarded as a calling. +Why? The proof was wanting, and John, who did not know that Kierkegaard +was a Christian, but thought the contrary, not having seen his +<i>Edifying Discourses</i>, imbibed unaware the Christian system of ethics +with its doctrine of self-sacrifice and duty Along with these the idea +of sin returned. Enjoyment was a sin, and one had to do one's duty. +Why? Was it for the sake of society to which one was under obligations? +No! merely because it was duty. That was simply Kant's categorical +imperative. When he reached the end of the work <i>Either—Or</i> and found +the moral philosopher also in despair, and that all this teaching about +duty had only produced a Philistine, he felt broken in two. "Then," he +thought, "better be an æsthete." But one cannot be an æsthete if one +has been a Christian for five-sixths of one's life, and one cannot be +moral without Christ. Thus he was tossed to and fro like a ball between +the two, and ended in sheer despair.</p> + +<p>Had he now read Kierkegaard's discourses, he might possibly have +come a step nearer to Christianity—possibly—for it is difficult to +decide that now, but to receive Christianity again seemed to him like +replacing a tooth which had been torn out, and joyfully thrown into the +fire, along with the accompanying toothache. It was also possible that +if he had known that the book <i>Either—Or</i> was intended to scourge one +to the Cross he might have thrown it away as a jesuitical writing and +been saved from his embarrassment. All that he felt now, however, was +a terrible discord. He had to choose and make the jump between ethics +and æsthetics, but choose how? and jump whither? He could not jump +out in space to embrace a paradox or Christ,—that would have been +self-destruction or madness. But Kierkegaard preached madness? Was +it the despair of the over-self-conscious at finding himself always +self-conscious? Was it the longing of one who sees too deeply for the +unconsciousness of intoxication?</p> + +<p>John knew well what the battle between his own will and the will of +others meant. He had given his father trouble enough when he crossed +his plans; but the trouble was mutual; the whole of life consisted of +a web of wills crossing one another. The death of one was life-breath +to another; no one could gain an advantage without hurting the one +he passed by. Life was a perpetual interchange and struggle between +pleasure and pain. His sensuality or desire for enjoyment had not +injured others nor caused them trouble. He had never seduced the +innocent, and had never enjoyed himself without paying the price. He +was moral from habit; from instinct, from fear of the consequences, +from good taste or from education, but the very fact that he did +not feel himself immoral, was a defect and a sin. After reading +<i>Either—Or</i> he felt sinful. The categorical imperative stole on him +under a Latin name and without a cross on its back, and he let himself +be beguiled by it. He did not see that it was a two-thousand-years-old +Christianity in disguise.</p> + +<p>Kierkegaard would not have made so deep an impression on him, if a +number of concurrent circumstances had not contributed to that result. +In the letters of the æsthete, Kierkegaard expounded suffering as +enjoyment. John suffered from public contumely; he suffered from his +hard work; he suffered from unrequited affection; he suffered from +unsatisfied desires; he suffered from drink, for he was intoxicated +nearly every evening; he suffered as an artist from mental struggles +and doubts; he suffered from the ugly scenery of Upsala; he suffered +from the discomfort of his rooms; he suffered from examination-books; +he suffered from a bad conscience because he did not study but wrote +plays. But something else lay at the bottom of all this. He had been +brought up to fulfil hard tasks and duties. Now he lived well amid ease +and enjoyment. Study was an enjoyment; authorship, in spite of all its +pains, was a wonderful enjoyment; the life with his comrades was sheer +festivity and jollity. But his plebeian consciousness awoke and told +him that it was not right to enjoy while others worked; <i>his</i> work was +an enjoyment, for it brought him a good deal of honour, and perhaps +money. This accounted for his persistently uneasy conscience which +persecuted him without a cause. Was it that he felt already the signs +of this awakening consciousness of tremendous guilt as regards the +lower classes, the slaves who toiled, while he enjoyed? Did he already +have a foreboding of that sense of justice, which in our days has laid +so strong a hold on many of the upper classes that they have restored +capital which was not quite honestly earned, have expended time and +toil for the liberation of the lower classes, and have worked from +impulse and instinct against their own interests, in order to do right? +Possibly.</p> + +<p>But Kierkegaard was not the man to resolve the discord. It was reserved +for the evolutionary philosophers to make peace between passion and +reason, between enjoyment and duty. They cancelled the deceptive +<i>Either</i>—<i>Or</i>, and substituted <i>Both—And,</i> giving both flesh and +spirit their due. The real significance of Kierkegaard became clear +to John many years later. Then he saw in him the simple pietist, the +ultra-Christian who wished to realise in modern society oriental ideals +of two thousand years ago. But Kierkegaard was right in one point: if +we were to have Christianity, we ought to have it thoroughly; but his +<i>Either—Or</i> was only valid for the priests of the church who called +themselves Christians.</p> + +<p>Kierkegaard saw no further, and from him who wrote his book in 1843, +and had a clerical education, one could not expect that he should say: +"Either a Christianity like this, or none!" In that case people would +probably have chosen none. Instead of that Kierkegaard said: "Whether +you are æsthetical or ethical you must cast yourself into the arms +of Christ." His mistake was to oppose ethics and æsthetics to each +other, for they can go very well together. But John did not succeed +in harmonising them till, after endless struggles, at the age of +thirty-seven, he attempted a compromise when he discovered that work +and duty are forms of enjoyment, and that enjoyment itself, well-used, +is a duty.</p> + +<p>But at that time, the book weighed on him like a nightmare. He was +angry when his friends wished to regard it as mere literature. He was +not pacified by their regarding it superior in richness, depth and +style to Goethe's <i>Faust</i>, which it certainly did surpass by far. John +could not at that time understand that the pillar-saint Kierkegaard had +himself known what enjoyment was when he wrote the first part, and that +the seducer and Don Juan were the author himself, who satisfied his +desires in imagination. No, he thought it was poetry.</p> + +<p>John had been already predisposed to receive Kierkegaard's influence, +and now came the other acquaintance, which would not have played a +great rôle in his life if circumstances had not prepared him for +that also. His companions merely regarded the person in question as +ludicrous.</p> + +<p>It came about in the following way. Thurs the Jew came one day and told +John that he had made the acquaintance of a genius who wished to join +their Song Club.</p> + +<p>"Ah, a genius!"</p> + +<p>None of the members of the club believed that they were geniuses, not +even John, and it is doubtful whether any poet has really believed +or felt that he was one. One can, when one makes comparisons, find +that one has produced better work than others, and a clever man +will naturally feel that he understands better than others, but +genius,—that is something else. This title is not generally bestowed +on any one till after death and is now dropping out of common use, +since the secret of the evolution of genius has been discovered.</p> + +<p>The novelty aroused attention, and the stranger was elected to the +club under the name of Is. He was not a poet, they were told, but very +learned and a powerful critic.</p> + +<p>One evening when the club-meeting was at Thurs' rooms he came—a +little thin person, without an overcoat, dressed like a labourer on +his holiday. His clothes looked as though they were borrowed, for +their elbows and knees were not in the right places. John, who used +to succeed to his elder brother's clothes, noticed this at once. In +his hand he held a dirty beer-soup-coloured hat, such as is only worn +by organ-grinders. His face looked like that of a southern rat-trap +seller. His black hair hung on his shoulders and a black beard fell on +his breast.</p> + +<p>"Is it possible?" they asked themselves. "Can he be a student?" He +looked forty, but was only thirty. He stood with his hat in his hand +at the door like a beggar, and hardly ventured to come forward. After +Thurs had drawn him into the room and introduced him, the meeting was +declared open. Is began to speak and they listened. His voice was like +a woman's and sank sometimes, without apology, to a whisper, as though +the speaker demanded perfect silence or spoke for his own satisfaction. +It would be difficult to repeat what he spoke of, for his speech ranged +over everything that he had read, and since he had read for ten years +more than the youths of twenty, they found his learning wonderful.</p> + +<p>After that, another member of the club read a poem. Is had to deliver +an opinion on it. He began with Kant, quoted Schopenhauer and +Thackeray, and finished with a lecture on George Sand. No one noticed +that he said nothing about the poem.</p> + +<p>Then they went into a restaurant to eat. Is talked philosophy, +æsthetics and history. He spoke sometimes with a melancholy expression +in his dark unfathomable eyes, which never rested on those present, as +though he sought an unseen audience far in the distance, in unknown +space. The club listened reverently with absorbed attention.</p> + +<p>John was to hear this man's opinion on his work. He, as well as one of +the most poetical members of the club, began to have serious doubts as +to their vocation. Often, when they had drunk a good deal, they asked +whether they still believed—meaning whether each thought the Other +called to be a poet. It was just the same sort of doubt which John had +felt when he had wondered whether he was a child of God. Is was to +read John's drama, <i>The Assistant at the Sacrifice</i>, and to give his +opinion.</p> + +<p>One morning John went up to his room to hear his verdict. Is spoke +till noon. About what? About everything. But he had now taken hold of +John's soul. Through conversations with Thurs, he know which strings to +pull, and did so, as he chose. He burrowed in John's mind, not out of +sympathy, but from a spider-like curiosity. He did not speak directly +of John's play but suggested the plan of a new one after his own ideas. +He had the effect of a mesmeriser, and John was magnetised. But he +felt in a state of despair when he left him, as though his friend had +taken his soul, picked it to pieces and thrown them away after he had +satisfied his curiosity.</p> + +<p>But John came again, sat on the wise man's sofa, listened to his words +as though they were an oracle, and felt himself completely under his +power. Sometimes he thought it was a ghost who walked on the carpet +when his body disappeared in clouds of tobacco-smoke. The man exercised +what is called a "demonic" influence, <i>i.e</i>. inexplicable at first +sight. He had no blood in his veins, no feelings, no will, no desires. +He was a talking head. His standpoint was nothing and all at the same +time. He was a decoction of books, and the type of a book-worm who had +never lived.</p> + +<p>Often when the other members of the club were alone, they talked +about Is. Thurs was already tired of him and wondered whether he +had committed some crime, for he seemed driven about by a constant +restlessness. Then it was reported that he was a poet, but never would +show his poems, for he had such a high idea of the poetic art. They +also wondered why no one ever saw a book in the learned man's rooms. +It was also strange that he should seek the company of these youths, +to whom he was so superior, and whose poetry he must despise. They who +were themselves in the full bloom of romanticism did not detect the +anæmic romantic who had lost his footing on firm ground. They did not +see in his long hair and shabby hat the copy of Murger's Bohemian; they +did not know that this dilapidated condition was a Parisian fashion; +that this hollow wisdom was a web woven out of German metaphysics; that +this experimental psychology was derived from a peep into Kierkegaard; +and that that interesting air of hinting at uncommitted crimes and +secret griefs was Byronic in origin. All this they did not understand. +Therefore Is could play with John's soul and catch him in his snare. +Yes, John was so thoroughly taken by him that in a speech he called +himself Gamaliel, who sat at Paul's Is's feet to learn wisdom.</p> + +<p>The upshot of it all was that Julm, one fine evening, burnt his new +play. It was the work of three months which went up in flames. As he +collected the ashes, he wept. Is, without saying so directly, had shown +him that he was no poet. So everything was a mistake, this also! Then +he felt in despair, because he had deceived his father and could take +no work home to justify his neglect of his wishes. In a fit of remorse, +and in order to be able to point to some definite result, he entered +his name for the written examination in Latin, without, however, having +written any of the requisite preliminary exercises or essays. The Latin +professor saw his name in the list and did not know it. One Sunday +evening, when John had returned to his rooms in good spirits after a +supper, the university bedell appeared to summon him. John went boldly +to the professor and asked what he wanted.</p> + +<p>"You wish to take the written examination in Latin?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But I do not see your name on my list."</p> + +<p>"I entered myself before for the medical examination."</p> + +<p>"That has nothing to do with this. You must go by the rules."</p> + +<p>"I know no rules about the three essays."</p> + +<p>"I think you are impertinent, sir."</p> + +<p>"It may seem so——"</p> + +<p>"Out with you, sir!—or——"</p> + +<p>The door was opened, and John was ejected. He swore to himself he +would still go up for the written examination, but the next morning he +overslept himself.</p> + +<p>So even that last straw failed.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards one morning a friend came and woke him.</p> + +<p>"Do you know that W. is dead?" (W. sat at the same table in the +boarding-house.)</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"Yes! he has cut his throat."</p> + +<p>John started up, dressed himself, and hurried with his friend to the +Jernbrogatan where W. lived. They rushed up the stairs and came to a +dark attic.</p> + +<p>"Is it here?"</p> + +<p>"No, here!"</p> + +<p>John felt for a door; the door gave way and fell upon him. At the same +moment he saw a pool of blood on the ground. He turned round, let go +of the door, and was at the bottom of the stairs before the door fell +on the ground. This scene shook him terribly and woke his memory. Some +days previously John had gone into the Carolina Park to work at his +play in solitude. W. came up, greeted him, and asked whether he might +bear him company or whether he disturbed him. John answered sincerely +that he did disturb him, and W. went away with a melancholy air. Was +it a case of a lonely drowning man who sought a companion and was +repulsed? John felt almost guilty of his death. But he was not intended +for a comforter. Now the dead man seemed to haunt him; he dared not go +to his room, but slept with his friend. One night he slept with Rejd. +The latter had to keep a light burning and was woken several times in +the night by John, who could not sleep.</p> + +<p>One day Rejd found John with a bottle of prussic acid. He apparently +approved the idea of suicide, but first asked him to take a farewell +drink with him. They went to the restaurant and ordered eight glasses +of whisky, which were brought in on a tray. Each of them drank four +glasses in four pulls, with the desired result that John became dead +drunk. He was carried home, but since the house door was locked, he was +carried over an empty piece of ground and thrown over a fence. There he +remained lying in a snow-drift, till he recovered his senses, and crept +up into his room.</p> + +<p>The last night which he spent in Upsala some days later he slept on a +sofa in Thurs' rooms; his friends kept watch over him, and the room +was lighted up. They watched good-naturedly till morning, then they +accompanied him to the station, and put him in the coupé. When the +train had passed Bergsbrunna, John breathed again. He felt as though +he had left something dreadful and weird, like a northern winter night +with thirty degrees of cold, behind him, and registered a vow never +again to settle in this town, where men's souls, banished from life and +society, grew rotten from over-production of thought, were corroded +by stagnant waters which had no outlet, and took fire like millstones +which revolved without having anything to grind.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Danish theologian.</p></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></h4> + +<h4>IDEALISM AND REALISM</h4> + +<h4>(1871)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>When John again reached his parents' house, he felt himself in shelter +like one who has reached land after a stormy sea-passage by night. +Again he had quiet nights in his old tent-bed in the brothers' room. +Here were quiet patient men, who came and went, worked and slept at +stated times without being disturbed by dreams or ambitious designs. +His sisters had grown up into young women and managed the house. All +were at work with the exception of himself. When he compared his +irregular, dissipated life, which knew no rest or peace, with theirs, +he considered them happier and better than himself. They took life +seriously, went about their work and fulfilled their duties without +noise or boasting.</p> + +<p>John now looked up his old acquaintances among the tradespeople, +clerks, and sea-captains, and found intercourse with them novel and +refreshing. They led his thoughts back to reality and he felt firm +ground once more under his feet. At the same time he began to despise +false ideality, and saw that it was vulgar of the students to look down +on the "Philistines."</p> + +<p>He now confessed quite simply and openly to his father, but without +remorse, the wretched life he had led at Upsala, and begged him to let +him stay at home and prepare for his examination there,—otherwise he +would be lost. His father granted permission, and now John prepared his +plan of campaign for the spring term. In the first place he meant to +take lessons in Latin composition with a good teacher in Stockholm, and +then go up in spring, and pass the examination. Furthermore he would +write his disquisition for a certificate in æsthetics and prepare for +the examination in that subject. With these resolutions he began a +quiet and industrious manner of life with the new year.</p> + +<p>But the failure of his play the <i>Free-thinker</i> still weighed upon his +mind, and the questions of his friends as to whether they should soon +see something new from him, stirred him up to re-write, in the form +of a one-act play, the drama he had burnt. He finished it, and then +continued his studies.</p> + +<p>Shortly before April he wrote a test-composition for his teacher, who +declared that he would pass. His father did not disapprove of his plan +when he heard that John felt quite confident, but he suggested that it +would be more practical if he conformed to custom and wrote exercises +for the Upsala professor. "No," said John, "it was now a question of +principle and a matter of honour." So he went to Upsala.</p> + +<p>He called on the professor on his at-home day and waited till his turn +for an interview. When the latter saw him, he grew red in the face and +asked:</p> + +<p>"Are you here again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I want to go in for the Latin Composition examination."</p> + +<p>"Without having written a test-composition?"</p> + +<p>"I have done that in Stockholm—and I only want to ask whether the +statutes allow me to go up for the examination."</p> + +<p>"The statutes? Ask the dean about that; I only know what I require."</p> + +<p>John went straight to the dean, who was a young, lively and sympathetic +man. John made known his purpose and described what had passed.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the dean, "the statutes say nothing about the matter, but +old P. can pluck you without their help."</p> + +<p>"Well, we shall see. Will you allow me, Mr. Dean, to go up for the +written examination, that is the question?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can't refuse that. You mean then to have your own way?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do."</p> + +<p>"Arc you so sure about the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Very well! Good luck to you!" said the Dean, and clapped him on the +shoulder.</p> + +<p>So John went up for the examination and after a week received a +telegram to say that he had passed. Some ascribed this result to +the professor's generosity and disapproved of John's rebellious +procedure; but John considered his success due to his own diligence +and knowledge, although he could not deny that the professor had acted +honourably in not plucking him when he had the power to do so.</p> + +<p>The examination in æsthetics was fixed for May. Contrary to all usage +John sent his disquisition by post to Upsala with the written request +that he might stand for the examination.</p> + +<p>His essay was entitled "Hakon Jarl," and treated of Idealism and +Realism. Its object was firstly to convince the professor that +the writer was well-read in æsthetics and particularly in Danish +literature, and secondly, to clear up to the writer himself his own +point of view. The essay, in imitation of Kierkegaard, was in the form +of a correspondence between A and B, criticising Oehlenschläger's +<i>Hakon Jarl</i> and Kierkegaard's <i>Either—Or</i>.</p> + +<p>At the appointed time John appeared before the professor, who had +the reputation of being liberal-minded, but felt at once that he had +no sympathy with him. With an almost contemptuous air the professor +handed him back his essay and declared that it was best suited for the +female readers of the <i>Illustrated News</i>. He further stated that Danish +literature was not a subject of sufficient importance to be taken up as +a special branch of study.</p> + +<p>John felt annoyed, and asserted that Danish literature had greater +interest for Sweden than Boileau and Malesherbes, for example, on whom +students wrote essays.</p> + +<p>His examination then began and took the form of a violent argument. +It was continued in the afternoon and ended by the professor giving +him a certificate which was not so good as he had hoped, and telling +him that university studies could only be properly carried on at the +university. John replied that æsthetic studies could be best carried +on at Stockholm where one had the National Museum, Library, Theatre, +Academy of Music and Artists.</p> + +<p>"No," said the professor, "that is nonsense; one ought to study here."</p> + +<p>John let fall some remarks on college lectures, and they parted, not as +particularly good friends.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></h4> + +<h4>A KING'S PROTÉGÉ</h4> + +<h4>(1871)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>During the whole of this time, John had been on pleasant terms with his +father, and the old man had shown himself to a certain extent willing +to be educated, but his tactless pride sometimes broke out and annoyed +John. The latter, who was now continually at home, spent many evening +hours with the old man in conversations on all sorts of subjects, and +finally on religion. One day John spoke for half-an-hour about Theodore +Parker, so that his father at last expressed a wish to read some of +him. He kept the book for several days, but said nothing, and John +found it again in his room. His father was too proud to acknowledge +that he liked the book, but John learned through one of his brothers +that he was especially delighted with the famous sermon "On Old Age."</p> + +<p>In the matter of John's opposition to the professor, his father +vacillated. His opinion was that right was always right, but he did +not like the disrespectful way in which John spoke of the professor. +Meanwhile John saw that he had won the game and that his father had a +lively interest in his success.</p> + +<p>But one day in spring John went into the country, telling the servant +that he would be absent for the day. When he returned the next morning +he had an unpleasant reception.</p> + +<p>"You go away without telling me?"</p> + +<p>"I told the servant."</p> + +<p>"I require you to ask permission of me as long as you eat my bread."</p> + +<p>"Ask permission! What nonsense!"</p> + +<p>John departed, borrowed three hundred kronas from a friendly tradesman, +and then with three of his club associates went to one of the islands +near Stockholm, where they hired rooms in a fisher's house at a rent +of thirty kronas per month. No one tried to stop him, and probably +this crisis was occasioned by the fact that John was exercising a +perceptible influence on his father, brothers and sisters in matters +concerning domestic arrangements. The mistress of the house feared that +the power would be taken out of her hands.</p> + +<p>He spent the summer in strenuously working for his examination, for +he had now no hope of receiving further supplies from home. It was +a healthy and ascetic life with innocent amusements. He went about +in dressing-gown, drawers and sea-boots, and the toilette of his +companions was still more scanty. They bathed, sailed, fenced, and +John gave himself over increasingly to a process of decivilisation. +There were almost always spirituous liquors on the table, and John +feared them, for they made him mad. But to this asceticism and industry +succeeded a desire to make converts of others, and a great amount of +self-satisfaction. The latter is always the case, whether the ascetic +feels that in this respect he is better than others, or whether he +makes the sacrifice in order to feel himself better. Therefore he +preached to one brother who drank, and moralised over the others who +did not work, but went to Dalarö to dance or to feast. Kierkegaard's +influence was strong upon him; he wished to be moral, and thundered +against æstheticism.</p> + +<p>He now studied philology, and went through Dante, Shakespeare and +Goethe. The last he hated because he was an æsthete. Behind all, like +a dark background, was the breach with his father. After their life +together during the last winter, he saw him as it were transfigured, +justified him with respect to all that had happened in the past, and +had forgotten all the petty troubles of his childhood. He missed most +of all his brothers and sisters, especially his sisters whom he +had really learnt to know. Toiling with a lexicon and investigating +roots of words had become painful to him, but he enjoyed this pain, +and disciplined his imagination by hard work, looking upon it as his +professional duty.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the summer he was wild and shy. The clothes, winch +he rummaged out again, were too tight, his collar, which he had not +worn for months, tormented him as though it had been of iron, and his +shoes pinched him. Everything seemed to him constrained, conventional +and unnatural. Once he had been enticed to an evening party at Dalarö +but had immediately returned. He was shy and could not bear frivolity +and laughter. This time it was not the consciousness of belonging +to the lower classes, for he had ceased to regard himself as one of +them. Meanwhile the ascetic life he had been leading increased his +will-power and his activity. When the next term at Upsala commenced, +he took his travelling-bag and journeyed thither, without having more +than a krona to call his own, and without knowing where he would find a +room and something to eat. On his arrival he took up his quarters with +Rejd, and set about working. The first evening, feeling half famished, +he looked up Is, who had remained the whole summer alone in Upsala +and seemed more melancholy than usual. His appearance was that of a +shadow, and solitude had made him still more morbid. He went out with +John and invited him to supper at a restaurant. He spoke in his usual +style and mangled his prey, who, on the other hand, defended himself, +struck back, and attacked the æsthete. Is contemplated his hungry +companion while he ate, and intoxicated himself with the brandy-bottle. +He adopted a maternal air and offered to lend John money. The latter +was touched, thanked him, and borrowed about ten kronas, for, since he +believed he had a future before him, he borrowed without fear. Finally +Is became drunk and raved. He changed his attitude, called John an +egoist, and reproached him for having taken the ten kronas.</p> + +<p>To be suspected of egotism was the worst thing John knew, for Christ +had taught him that the "ego" must be crucified. His individuality had +grown since it had been freed from pressure and attained publicity. +Conspicuous persons obtain a greater individuality through the +attention they receive, or they attract attention for the simple reason +that they have a greater individuality. John felt that he was working +in the right way for his future; he pressed forward with energy and +will and the help of many friends, but not as a charlatan or schemer. +But Is's accusation struck him in the face, as it must all men who +have an "ego." He wished to return the money, but Is drew himself up +proudly, played the "gentleman" and continued to romance. It struck +John that this idealist was a mean fellow who behaved in this fantastic +way in order to conceal his vexation at the temporary loss of the ten +kronas.</p> + +<p>Now the students returned for the term, and all of them with money. +John wandered about with his travelling-bag and his books, and +discovered how soon a welcome is worn out when one lies upon somebody +else's sofa. He borrowed money to hire a room with. It was a real +rats' nest with a camp-bed without sheets or cushions. No candlestick, +nothing. But he lay in bed in his under-clothes and read by the light +of a candle stuck in a bottle. His friends here and there provided him +with meals. But then came the winter. He used to go out after dark and +buy a quantity of wood, which he carried home in his bag. A scientific +friend taught him how to make a charcoal fire. Moreover, the shaft of +a chimney passed through his room and was warm every washing-day. He +stood beside it with his hands behind him and read out of a book which +he had placed on the chest of drawers, dragging the latter close to +him. In the meantime his drama had been played and coldly received. The +subject-matter was religious. It dealt with heathendom and Christendom, +the former being defended as an epoch-making movement, not as a creed. +Christ was placed on one side and the only true God exalted. The drama +also contained a domestic struggle, and, after the fashion of the +time, women were extolled at the expense of the men. In one passage +the author expressed his opinion as to the position of a poet in life. +"Are you a man, Orm?" asks the duke. "I am only a poet," answers Orm. +"Therefore you will never become anything," is the rejoinder.</p> + +<p>In fact, John believed now that the poet's life was a shadow existence, +that he had no individuality, but only lived in that of others. But is +it then so certain that the poet possesses no individuality because +he has more than one? Perhaps he is richer because he possesses more +than the others. And why is it better to have only one "ego," since +in any case a single "ego" is not more one's own than many "egos," +seeing that even one "ego" is a compound product derived from parents, +educators, social intercourse and books? Perhaps it is for this reason +that society, like a machine, demands that the single "egos" shall act +each like a wheel, screw, or separate piece of the machine in a limited +automatic way. But the poet is more than a piece of a machine, since he +is a whole machine in himself.</p> + +<p>In the drama John had incorporated himself in five persons;—in the +Jarl, who is at war with his contemporaries; in the Poet, who looks +over things and looks through them; in the Mother, who is angry and +revengeful but whose thirst for vengeance is counteracted by her +sympathy; in the Daughter, who for the sake of her faith breaks with +her father; in the Lover, whose love is ill-starred. John understood +the motives of all the dramatis personae; and spoke from their varying +points of view. But a drama written for the average man who has +ready-made views on all subjects, must at least take sides with one +of its characters in order to win the excitable and partisan public. +John could not do this, because he believed in no absolute right or +wrong, for the simple reason that all these ideas are relative. One may +be right as regards the future, and wrong as regards the present; one +may be wrong in one year and right in the next; a father may justify +his son while the mother condemns him; a daughter is right in loving +the man she loves, but in her father's view she is wrong in loving a +heathen. There comes in doubt: Why do men hate and despise the doubter? +Because doubt is the seed of development and progress, and the average +man hates development because it disturbs his quiet. Only the stupid +man is certain; only the ignorant one thinks he has found the truth. +Doubt undermines energy, they say. But it is better to act without +considering the consequences. The animal and the savage act blindly, +obeying desire and impulse; in that they resemble our "men of action"!</p> + +<p>When John returned to Upsala, he was again followed by disparaging +criticisms. To some extent they were true, <i>e.g</i>. the assertion that +the form of the piece was borrowed from the <i>Kongsemnerne,</i> but only +to some extent, for John had taken the frigid tone and the rough +phraseology direct from the Icelandic sagas, and the views of life he +expressed were original. Scorn followed him, and he was regarded as a +man who was ambitious of being a poet, the worst suspicion under which +any one can fall.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of his toil and needy circumstances, a week after his +overthrow, there came a letter from the chamberlain of the Theatre +Royal at Stockholm, requesting him to go there immediately as the +king wished to see him. Morbidly suspicious he believed that it was a +practical joke, and took the letter to his wise friend—the student of +Natural History. The latter telegraphed in the evening to a well-known +actor of the Theatre Royal requesting him to ask the chamberlain +whether he had written to John. The latter spent a restless night, +tossed to and fro between hope and fear. The next morning the answer +came that it was indeed so and that John should come at once. He set +off forthwith.</p> + +<p>Why did he, a born rebel, accept the royal favour without hesitation? +For the simple reason that he did not belong to the democratic party; +he had never promised his father or mother not to receive a favour from +the king. Furthermore he believed in the aristocracy or the right of +the best to govern, and he considered the upper classes the best, as +he had shown in his tragedy, <i>Sinking Hellas</i>, in which he expressed +contempt for the demagogues. He hated tyrants, but this king was no +tyrant. Therefore there was no reason for hesitation within him or +without him. Accordingly he travelled to Stockholm and was received in +audience by the king. The latter was just now very ill, and looked so +emaciated as to make a painful impression. He stood with a benevolent +aspect, smoking his long tobacco-pipe, and smiled at the young +beardless author, walking awkwardly between the rows of aide-de-camps +and chamberlains. He thanked him for the pleasure which he had derived +from his drama, adding that he himself when young had competed for an +academical prize with a poem on the Vikings, and was fond of the old +Norse legends. He said that he wished to help the young student to take +his doctor's degree, and closed the interview by referring him to the +treasurer, who had been ordered to make him a first payment. Later on +he would receive more, and the king said he supposed there were still +two or three years to elapse before he took his degree.</p> + +<p>John's immediate future was now secure. He felt gratefully moved by +this kindness on the part of a king who had so many things to think +about. On his return to Upsala, he saw for two months how the court +sunshine had turned him into a star. The official who had paid him, +had asked him whether he thought later on of obtaining a post in some +public department or in the Royal Library. His ambition had never +soared so high and did not yet do so.</p> + +<p>The chief object of human existence seems to be, and must indeed be, to +spend one's life till death in the least unpleasant manner possible. +This aim does not exclude solicitude for the good of others, for +happiness includes the consciousness of not having infringed others' +rights unnecessarily. Therefore ill-gotten wealth cannot secure a +pleasant life, nor can any path which leads over the prostrate bodies +of others. Accordingly Utilitarianism, or the philosophy which aims at +the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is not immoral.</p> + +<p>In spite of all his asceticism John could not help feeling happy. +His happiness consisted in the half-consciousness that he could live +his life without the great anxiety which the insecurity of means +of existence causes. He had been threatened by penury and was now +secure; life had been restored to him, and it is a happy thing to be +able to live before one has done growing. His chest, which had been +narrowed by hunger and over-exertion, broadened itself; his back grew +straighter; life no longer seemed so melancholy. He was contented with +his lot; things took on a more cheerful aspect, and he would have been +ungrateful had he still remained among the malcontents.</p> + +<p>But this did not last long. When he saw his old comrades round him in +a position in which <i>his</i> happiness had effected no change, he found +that there was a want of harmony between them. They had been accustomed +to help him as one in need and now he needed their help no longer. +They had liked him, because they protected him and were accustomed +to see him below them. But when he came upwards, near them and above +them, they found him necessarily altered by altered circumstances. The +necessitous man is not so bold in his opinions nor so stiff in the back +as the prosperous one. He was altered for them, but was he therefore +worse? Self-esteem under other circumstances is generally well thought +of. Enough! He annoyed others by the fact that he was fortunate, and +still more because he wished to help others to be so.</p> + +<p>The present he had received entailed obligations, and John gave +himself diligently to study. He passed his examinations in Philology, +Astronomy, and Political Science, but received in none of these +subjects such a good testimonial as he had expected. He had studied too +much in one way and too little in another.</p> + +<p>In examination time he generally had an attack of aphasia. +Physiologists usually ascribe this weakness to an injury in the left +temple. And as a matter of fact John had two scars above his left eye. +One was caused by the blow of an axe, the other by a rock against which +he had struck himself in jumping down the Observatory hill. He was +inclined to trace to this the great difficulty he had in delivering +public addresses and speaking foreign languages.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, during examinations, he would sit there, unable to give +an answer although he knew more than was asked. Then there came over +him a spirit of defiance, of self-torment, of ill-humour, and he felt +tempted to throw up the whole thing. He criticised the text-books and +felt dishonest in learning what he despised. The rôle assigned to him +began to oppress him; he longed to get away from it all to something +else, wherever it might be. It was not that he regarded the king's +present as a benefaction. It was a stipend, a reward for merit, such +as artists at all periods have received for the purpose of carrying +on their self-cultivation. His royal patron was not merely the king +but his personal friend and admirer. Therefore the gift exercised no +kind of restraint upon his rebellious thoughts; he only let himself be +temporarily deceived, and believed that all was right with the world, +because he prospered. His radicalism had been considerably mitigated; +he no longer thought that all which was wrong in the state was the +fault of the monarchy, nor did he believe with the pagans that better +harvests would follow if the king was sacrificed on an idol-altar. His +mother would have wept for joy at his distinction, had she lived, so +strong were her aristocratic leanings.</p> + +<p>All of us, including crown princes, are democrats, inasmuch as we wish +those above us to come down to our level; but when we ascend, we do +not wish to be pulled down. The question is only whether that winch +is "above" us is so in a spiritual sense, and whether it ought to be +there. That was what John began to be doubtful of.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></h4> + +<h4>THE WINDING UP</h4> + +<h4>(1872)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>At the beginning of the spring term, John took up his quarters with an +elder comrade in order to continue his studies. But when he had again +the old books before him which he had already studied so long, he felt +a distaste for them. His brain was full of impressions, of collected +literary material, and refused to take in any more; his imagination +and thought were busily at work and would not let memory be alone +active; he had fits of doubt and apathy and often remained the whole +day lying on the sofa. Then the desire would sometimes awake to be +altogether free and to plunge into the life of activity. But the royal +stipend held him fast in fetters and imposed on him obligations. Having +received it, he was bound to go on studying for his doctor's degree, +the course of reading for which he had half completed. So he applied +himself to philosophy, but when he read the history of it, he found all +systems equally valid or invalid, and his mind resisted all new ideas.</p> + +<p>In the literary club there was disunion and lethargy. All their +youthful poems had been read and no one produced any more, so that +they only met together to drink punch. Is had exposed himself, and +after a scene with another member, he had been thrown out. He drew his +knife and got well thrashed. He saved himself from worse by affecting +to treat the affair as a joke, and was now a mere laughing-stock, since +it had been discovered that his wisdom consisted in quotations from the +students' periodicals which the others had not had the wit to utilise. +At the beginning of term an Æsthetic Society had been founded by the +professor of Æsthetics, and this made their own literary society, the +"Runa," superfluous.</p> + +<p>At one of the meetings of the former, John's discontent with classical +authorities broke out. He had been drinking that evening and was +half-intoxicated. In conversation with the professor dangerous ground +was touched upon and John was enticed so far out of his reserve as to +declare Dante without significance for humanity and overestimated. John +had plenty of reasons to allege for his opinion, but could not express +them to advantage when the professor set upon him, and the whole +company gathered round the disputants, who were squeezed into a corner +by the stove. He wanted in the first place to say that the construction +of the <i>Divine Comedy</i> was not original, but a very ordinary form which +had already been employed shortly before in the <i>Vision of Albericus</i>. +Furthermore his opinion was that in this poem Dante did not reflect +the culture and thoughts of his period, because he was so uncultured +that he did not even know Greek. He was not a philosopher, for he +hampered thought by the fetters of revelation, and therefore he was no +precursor of the Renaissance or the Reformation. He was no patriot, for +he venerated the German empire as established by God. He was at most a +local patriot of Florence. Nor was he a democrat, for he always dreamt +of a union of the empire and the papacy. He did not attack the papacy, +but only individual popes who lived immoral lives, as he himself +had done in his youth. He was a monk, a truly idiotic child of his +age, for he sent unbaptised children to hell. He was a narrow-minded +royalist who put Brutus next to Satan in the deepest hell. He was +entirely wanting in the power of selfcriticism;—while he reckons +ingratitude to friends and betrayal of one's fatherland among the worst +of crimes, he places his own friend and teacher, Brunetto Latini, in +hell, and supports the German Emperor, Henry VII, against his native +city Florence. He had bad literary taste, for he reckoned as the six +greatest poets of the world Homer, Horace, Lucan, Ovid, Virgil and +himself. How could modern critics who were so severe on all scandalous +literature praise Dante, who in his poem cast dishonour on so many +contemporary persons and families? He even scolds his own dear native +city, exclaiming when he finds five nobly-born Florentines in Hell: +"Rejoice! O Florence! for thy name is not only great over land and +sea, but also in hell. Five of thy citizens are in thieves' company; +my cheeks blush at the sight of them. But one thing I know; punishment +will light upon thee, Florence, and may it happen soon!"</p> + +<p>As is usual in such debates, the attacked and the attacker often +changed their ground. John wished to prove to the professor that from +his point of view the <i>Commedia</i> was a political pamphlet, but then +the professor veered round, adopted the enemy's point of view and said +that <i>he</i> should value it as such. Whereupon John answered that it was +exactly as such that he designated it, but not as a magnificent poem +of everlasting value, which the professor had declared it to be in his +lectures. Again the professor changed his ground, and said that the +poem should be judged by the standard of the period at which it was +composed.</p> + +<p>"Exactly so," answered John, "but you have judged it by the standard +of our time and all succeeding times, and therefore you are wrong. But +even with regard to its own time the work is not an epoch-making one; +it is not in advance of its period, but belongs strictly to it, or +rather lags behind it. It is a linguistic monument for Italy, nothing +more, and should never be read in a Swedish university, because the +language is antiquated, and finally because it is too insignificant to +be regarded as a link in the development of culture."</p> + +<p>The result of the controversy was that John was regarded as shameless +and half-cracked.</p> + +<p>After this explosion he was exhausted and incapable of work. The whole +of the life in a town where he did not feel at home was distasteful +to him. His companions advised him to take a thorough rest, for he +had worked too hard, and so, as a matter of fact, he had. Various +schemes again presented themselves to his mind, but without result. +The grey dirty town vexed him, the scenery around depressed him; he +lay on a sofa and looked at the illustrations in a German newspaper. +Views of foreign scenery had the same effect as music on his mind and +he felt a longing to see green trees and blue seas; he wished to go +into the country but it was still only February, the sky was as grey +as sack-cloth, the streets and roads were muddy. When he felt most +depressed, he went to his friend the natural science student. It +refreshed him to see his herbarium and microscope, his aquarium and +physiological preparations. Most of all he found a pleasure in the +society of the quiet, peaceable atheist, who let the world go its way, +for he knew that he worked better for the future, in his small measure, +than the poet with his excitable outbreaks. He had a little of the +artist left in him and painted in oils. To think that he could call up +as if by enchantment a green landscape amid the mists of this wintry +spring and hang it on his wall!</p> + +<p>"Is painting difficult?" he asked his friend.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed! It is easier than drawing. Try it!"</p> + +<p>John, who had already, with the greatest calm, composed a song with a +guitar-accompaniment, thought it not impossible for him to paint, and +he borrowed an easel, colours, and a paint-brush. Then he went home +and shut himself up in his room. From an illustrated paper he copied a +picture of a ruined castle. When he saw the clear blue of the sky he +felt sentimental, and when he had conjured up green bushes and grass +he felt unspeakably happy as though he had eaten haschish. His first +effort was successful. But now he wished to copy a painting. That was +harder. Everything was green and brown. He could not make his colours +harmonise with the original and felt in despair.</p> + +<p>One day when he had shut himself up he heard a visitor talking with his +friend in the next room. They whispered as though they were near a sick +person. "Now he is actually painting," said his friend in a depressed +tone.</p> + +<p>What did that mean? Did they consider him cracked? Yes. He began to +think about himself, and like all brooders came to the conclusion that +he was cracked. What was to be done? If they shut him up, he would +certainly go quite mad. "Better anticipate them," he thought, and as he +had heard of private asylums in the country, where the patients could +walk about and work in the garden, he wrote to the director of one of +them. After some time he received a friendly answer advising him to be +quiet. His correspondent had received information about John through +his friend and understood his state of mind. He told him it was only a +crisis which all sensitive natures must pass through, etc.</p> + +<p><i>That</i> danger, then, was over. But he wished to get out into active +life when ever it might be.</p> + +<p>One day he heard that a travelling theatrical company had come to the +town. He wrote a letter to the manager and solicited an engagement, +but he received no answer and did not call on the manager. Thus he +was tossed to and fro, till at last fate intervened and set him +free. Three months had passed and he had received no money from the +court-treasurer. His companions advised him to write and make a polite +inquiry. In reply he was told that it had never been his Majesty's +intention to pay him a regular pension, but only a single donation. +However, in consideration of his needy circumstances, by way of +exception, he had made him a grant of 200 kronas, which would shortly +be sent.</p> + +<p>John at first felt glad, for he was free, but afterwards the turn which +affairs had taken made him uneasy, for the papers had stated that +he was the king's stipendiary, and the king had really promised him +a stipend during the year that he must read for his degree. Besides +this the court-marshal had given him a sort of half promise for the +future which could hardly be considered as adequately fulfilled by +a donation of 200 kronas. Different opinions were expressed on the +matter. Some thought that the king had forgotten, others that the state +of his finances did not allow of a further gift, or that his good +wishes exceeded his powers. No one expressed disapproval, and John was +secretly glad, had he not felt a certain disgrace in the withdrawal +of the stipend, so that he might be suspected of having groundlessly +boasted of it. Those who believed that John was in disfavour at court +ascribed this to the fact that he had omitted to wait upon the king +in person when he was in Stockholm at Christmas and the New Year. +Others attributed it to the fact that he had not formally presented +his tragedy, <i>Sinking Hellas</i>, but had simply sent it to the palace, +instead of going with it, which his sense of independence forbade +him to do. Ten years later he heard quite a new explanation of this +disfavour. He was said to have composed a lampoon on the king. But this +was a pure legend, probably the only one of its obscure fabricator +which would reach posterity. Anyhow facts remained as they were and +his resolve was quickly taken. He would go to Stockholm and become +a literary man, an author if possible, should he prove to possess +sufficient capacity for that calling.</p> + +<p>The student who shared his room undertook to pay his return journey, +and alleged as a pretext that John must wait some time in Stockholm +lest the landlord should be uneasy. Meanwhile he could collect enough +money to pay the rent which was due at the end of the term.</p> + +<p>His friends gave John a farewell feast and John thanked them, +acknowledging the obligations which each owes to those he meets in +social intercourse. Every personality is not developed simply out +of itself, but derives something from each with whom it comes in +contact, just as the bee gathering her honey from a million flowers, +appropriates it and gives it out as her own.</p> + +<p>Thus he stepped into life, abandoning dreams and the past to live in +reality and the present. But he was ill-prepared and the university is +not the proper school for life. He felt also that the decisive hour had +come. In a clumsy speech he called the feast a "svensexa," <i>i.e</i>. a +farewell supper for a bachelor on the eve of his marriage, for he was +now to be a man and leave boyhood behind; he was to become a member of +society, a useful citizen and eat his own bread.</p> + +<p>So he believed at the time, but he soon discovered that his education +had unfitted him for society, and as he did not wish to be an outlaw +the doubt awoke in him whether society, of which after all school and +university were a part, was not to blame for his education, and whether +it had not serious defects which needed a remedy.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></h4> + +<h4>AMONG THE MALCONTENTS</h4> + +<h4>(1872)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>When John came to Stockholm, he borrowed money in order to hire a +room near the Ladugärdslandet. Always under the sway of sentiment, he +chose this quarter of the town because he always used to walk there +in his childhood on the 1st of May, and the High Street especially +had something of a holiday air about it. Moreover it soon opened into +the Zoological Gardens, which became his favourite place for walks. +The barracks with their drums and trumpets had something exhilarating +about them, and there were fine views over the sea which was close at +hand. There was plenty of light and air. When he went for his morning +walk he could choose his route according to his mood. If he was sad +and depressed, he went along the Sirishofsvägen; if he was cheerful +he turned off to the level ground of Manilla, where the paradisial +rose-valley exhaled joy and delight; if he was despairing and anxious +to avoid people he went out to Ladugärdsgardet, where no one could +disturb his self-communings and his prayers to God. Sometimes, when his +soul was in a tumult, he remained standing by the cross-ways above the +bridge near the Zoological Gardens, irresolute which way to take. On +such occasion a thousand forces seemed to pull him in all directions.</p> + +<p>His room was very simple and commanded no view. It smelt of poverty, +as the whole house did, in which the only person of standing was the +deputy-landlord, a policeman. John began his active career by painting, +out of a sense of need to give his feelings shape and to express them +in a palpable way, for the little letters huddled together on the paper +were dead and could not express his mind so plainly and simultaneously. +He did not think of being a painter in order to exhibit or sell +pictures. To step to the easel was for him just like sitting down and +singing. At the same time he renewed his acquaintance with his friend +the sculptor, who introduced him to a circle of young painters. These +were all discontent with the Academy and the antiquated methods which +could not express their vague dreams. They still preserved the Bohemian +type, so late did the waves of modern ideas beat on the far coasts of +the North. They wore long hair, slouched hats, brilliant cravats, and +lived like the birds of heaven. They read and quoted Byron and dreamt +of enormous canvases and subjects such as no studio could contain. A +sculptor and a Norwegian had conceived the idea of hewing a statue out +of the Dovre rock; a painter wished to paint the sea not merely as a +level, but with such a wide horizon as to show the convex curve of the +globe.</p> + +<p>This took John's fancy. One should give expression to one's inner +feelings and not depict mere sticks and stones which are meaningless in +themselves till they have passed through the alembic of a percipient +mind. Therefore the artists did not make studies out of doors, but +painted at home from their memory and imagination. John always painted +the sea with a coast in the foreground, some gnarled pine-trees, a +couple of rocky islets in the distance and a white-painted buoy. The +atmosphere was generally gloomy, with a weak or strong light on the +horizon; it was always sunset or moonlight, never clear daylight.</p> + +<p>But he was soon woken out of this dream-life partly by hunger, partly +by recollecting the reality which he had sought in order to save +himself from his dreams.</p> + +<p>Although John knew little of contemporary politics, he knew that the +democracy or peasant-class had arrived at power, that they had declared +war on the official and middle classes, and that they were hated in +Upsala. And now he himself was to enter the ranks of the combatants +and attack the old order of things. The only item of the knowledge +which he had brought with him from Upsala which was likely to be useful +here, was the small amount of political science which he had studied. +Of what use were Astronomy, Philology, Æsthetics, Latin and Chemistry +here? He knew something about the land-laws and communal-laws, but had +no idea of political economy, finance or jurisprudence. When he now +began to look about for a suitable paper to which to attach himself, +it did not occur to him to make use of his old connection with the +<i>Aftonbladet</i>, but he wrote for a small evening paper which had lately +appeared, which was regarded as radical and was issued by the New +Liberal Union. The editor held receptions in the La Croix Café, and +here John was introduced into the society of journalists. He felt ill +at ease among them. They did not think as he did, seemed uncultivated, +as indeed they were, and rather gossiped than discussed important +matters. They certainly busied themselves with facts, but these were +rather trifles than great questions. They were full of phrases, but +did not seem to have a proper command of their material. John, though +against his will, was too much of an academic aristocrat to sympathise +with these democrats, who for the most part had not chosen their +career, but been forced into it by the pressure of circumstances. He +found the atmosphere stifling for his idealism, and came no more to the +receptions after he had done his business, and been invited to write +for the paper.</p> + +<p>He made his début as an art-critic. His first criticism concerned +Winge's "Thor with the giants" and Rosen's "Eric XIV and Karin +Monsdotter." The young critic naturally wished to display his learning, +though all he had was what he had picked up in lectures and books. +Therefore his criticism of Winge was a mere eulogy. His remarks chiefly +regarded the subject of the picture as a Norse one and treated in the +grand style. The painters did not like this sort of criticism, as +they considered the only point to be criticised in a work of art was +the execution. "Eric the XIV" he judged from his monomaniacal point +of view, "aristocrat or democrat," and found fault with the incorrect +conception of Göran Persson, whom in his own tragedy <i>Eric XIV</i> +(subsequently burnt) he had represented as an enemy of the nobility and +friend of the people.</p> + +<p>Descended from his own height as a promising student, author and royal +protégé to the then less regarded class of journalists, he felt himself +again one of the lower orders.</p> + +<p>After the editor had struck out his learned flourishes, the articles +were printed. The editor told him they were piquant, but advised him +to employ a more flowing style. He had not yet caught the journalistic +knack.</p> + +<p>Then John planned a series of articles in which, under the title +"Perspective," he treated of social and economic questions. In these he +attacked university life, the divisions of the classes, the injurious +over-reading and the unfortunate position of the students. Since the +labour-question at that time was not a burning one, he ventured on a +comparison between the prospects of a student and that of a workman, +declaring the latter to be far better off. The workman was generally +in good health, could support himself at eighteen and marry at twenty, +while the student could not think of marriage and making a livelihood +before thirty. As a remedy he recommended doing away with the final +examination as Jaabaek had already done in Norway, and the transference +of the university to Stockholm in order that the students might have +a chance of earning something during their course. As an example he +adduced the case of modern students at Athens who learn a trade while +they study. This was all clear to him as early as 1872, yet when he +made similar suggestions twelve years later, he was thought to have +conceived them on the spur of the moment.</p> + +<p>At the same time he took an engagement on a small illustrated ladies' +paper and wrote biographical notices and novelettes. The ladies were +very kind, but let him work too hard, and gave him all kinds of +commissions to execute. After he had spent two or three days in paying +visits, dived into a publisher's place of business, read biographical +romances in three or four volumes, made researches in the library, +run to the printing-office and finally written his columns carefully, +setting each person treated of in a proper historical light, and +analysing his career, he received, for all that work, fifteen kronas. +He calculated that this was less pay per hour than a servant earned. +The bread of the literary man was certainty hardly earned, and that +this is the common lot of authors does not make matters better. But the +profession was also despised, and John felt that in social position he +stood below his brothers who were tradesmen, below the actors, yes, +even below the elementary school-teachers.</p> + +<p>The journalists led a subterranean existence, but they styled +themselves "we" and wrote as though they were sovereigns of God's +appointment; they had men's weal or woe in their hand, since the chief +weapon in the struggle for existence in our civilised days is social +reputation. How was it that society had given these free lances such +terrible power without taking any guarantees? But when one comes +to think, what assurance is there for the capacity and insight of +the law-givers in parliament, in the ministry, on the throne? None +whatever! It is therefore the same all round. There were, however, two +classes of newspapers; the conservative, which wished to preserve the +social condition with all its defects, and the liberal, which wished +to improve it. The former enjoyed a certain respect, the latter, none +at all. John instinctively sided with the last, and at once felt that +he was regarded as every one's enemy. A liberal journalist and a +chronicler of scandals were synonymous terms. At home he had heard the +usual phrase that "no one was honourable whose name had not appeared +in the paper <i>Fatherland</i>." In the street they had pointed out to him +a man who looked like a bandit, with the mark of a dagger-stab between +his eyes, and said, "There goes the journalist X." In the Café La Croix +he felt depressed among his new colleagues, but none the less chose to +associate with this unpopular group. Did he choose really? One does not +choose one's impulses, and it is no virtue to be a democrat when one +hates the upper classes and has no pleasure in their company.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile for social intercourse he went to the artists. It was a +strange world in which they lived. There was so much nature among +these men who busied themselves with art. They dressed badly, lived +like beggars—one of them lived in the same room with the servant—and +ate what they could get; they could hardly read, and had no knowledge +of orthography. At the same time they talked like cultivated people, +they looked at things from an independent point of view, were keenly +observant and unfettered by dogmas. One of them four years previously +had minded geese, a second had wielded the smith's hammer, a third +had been a farmer's servant and walked behind the dung-cart, and a +fourth had been a soldier. They ate with knives, used their sleeves as +napkins, had no handkerchiefs and only one coat in winter. However, +John felt at home with them, though of late years he had been +conversant only with cultivated and well-to-do young people. It was not +that he was superior to them, for that they did not acknowledge, nor +was it any use to quote books to them, for they accepted no authority. +His doubts as regards books, especially text-books, began to be +aroused, and he began to suspect that old books may injure a modern +man's thinking powers. This doubt became a certainty when he met one of +the group whom all regarded as a genius.</p> + +<p>He was a painter about thirty years old, formerly a farmer's servant +who had come to the Academy in order to become an artist. After he +had spent some time in the painting school he came to the conclusion +that art was insufficient as a medium for expressing his thoughts, +and he lived now on nothing, while he busied himself by reflecting on +the questions of the time. Badly educated at an elementary school, he +had now flung himself on the most up-to-date books and had a start of +John, since he had begun where the latter had left off. Between John +and him there was the same difference as between a mathematician and +a pilot. The former can calculate in logarithms, the latter can turn +them to practical use. But Måns also was critically disposed and did +not believe in books blindly. He had no ready-made scheme or system +into which to fit his thoughts; he always thought freely, investigated, +sifted and only retained what he recognised as tenable. More free from +passions than John, he could draw more reckless inferences, even when +they went against his own wishes and interests, though with certain +matter-of-course limitations. He was more-over prudent, as indeed he +must have been to have worked himself up from such a low position, +and understood how to be silent as to certain conclusions, which, if +expressed tactlessly and in the wrong place, might have injured him. +As his literary adviser, he had a telegraph-assistant whose knowledge +Mans knew better how to use than its owner himself; the latter had not +a very lively intellect, although in his knowledge of languages he +possessed the key to the three great modern literatures. Passionless +and self-conscious, with a strong control over his impulses, he stood +outside everything, contemplating and smiling at the free play of +thought which he enjoyed as a work of art, with the accompanying +certainly that it was after all only an illusion.</p> + +<p>With both of these John had many friendly disputes. When he drew up +his schemes for the future of men and society he could rouse Måns' +enthusiasm and carry him along with him, but when he had taken his +hearer a certain way with his emotional and passionate descriptions, +the latter took out his microscope, found the weak spot where to +insert his knife, and cut. On such occasions John was impatient and +motioned his opponent away. "You are a pedant," he said, "and fasten +on details." But sometimes it turned out that the "detail" was a +premise the excision of which made the whole grand fabric of inference +collapse. John was always a poet, and had he continued as such +unhindered he might have brought it to something. The poet can speak +to the point like the preacher, and that is an advantageous position. +He can rattle on without being interrupted, and therefore he can +persuade if not convince. It was through these two unlearned men that +John learned a philosophy which was not known at Upsala. In the course +of conversation, his opponents often referred to an authority whom +they called "Buckle." John rejected an authority of whom he had heard +nothing in Upsala. But the name continually recurred and worried him to +such an extent that he at last asked his friends to lend him the book. +The effect of reading it was such that John regarded his acquaintance +with the book as the vestibule of his intellectual life. Here there +was an atmosphere of pure naked truth. So it should be and so it was. +Måns, like all other organised beings, was under the control of natural +laws; all so-called spiritual qualities rest on a material basis, and +chemical affinities are as spiritual as the sympathies of souls. The +whole of speculative philosophy which wished to evolve laws from the +inner consciousness was only a better kind of theology, and what was +worse, an inquisition, which wished to confine the many-sidedness +of the world-process within the limits of an individual system. "No +system" is Buckle's motto. Doubt is the beginning of all wisdom, doubt +means investigation and stimulates intellectual progress. The truth +which one seeks is simply the discovery of natural laws. Knowledge is +the highest, morality is only an accidental form of behaviour, which +depends upon different social conventions. Only knowledge can make men +happy, and the simple-minded or ignorant with their moral strivings, +their benevolence and their philanthropy are only injurious or useless.</p> + +<p>And now he drew the necessary conclusions. Heavenly love and its +result, marriage, is conditioned as to that result by such a prosaic +matter as the price of provisions; the rate of suicide varies with +wages, and religion is conditioned by natural scenery, climate and +soil. His mind was predisposed to receive the new doctrines, and now +they made their triumphant entry. John had always planted his feet +firmly on the earth, and neither the balloon-voyages of poetry nor the +will-o'-the-wisps of German philosophy had found a sincere adherent in +him. He had sat in despair over Kant's <i>Kritik der reinen Vernunft</i>, +and asked himself with curiosity, whether it was he who was so stupid +or Kant who was so obscure. The study of the history of philosophy, +in which he had seen how each philosopher pointed to his system as +the true one, and championed it against others, had left him amazed. +Now it was clear to him that the idealists who mingle their obscure +perceptions with dear presentations of facts were only savages or +children, and that the realists, who were alone capable of clear +perceptions, were the most highly developed in the scale of creation. +The poets and philosophers are somnambulists, and the religious who +always live in fear of the unknown are like animals in a forest who +fear every rustic in the bushes, or like primitive men who sacrificed +to the thunder instead of erecting lightning rods.</p> + +<p>Now he had a weapon in his hand to wield against the old authorities +and against the schools and universities which were enslaved by +patronage. Buckle himself had run away from school, had never been at +a university, and hated them. Apropos of Locke he remarks, "Were this +deep thinker now alive, he would inveigh against our great universities +and schools, where countless subjects are learnt which no one needs, +and which few take the trouble to remember."</p> + +<p>Accordingly Upsala had been wrong, and John right. He knew that there +were ignorant savants there, and that it was on account of their own +want of culture that the professors of philosophy could teach nothing +but German philosophy. They neither knew English nor French philosophy +for the simple reason that they only understood Latin and German. +Buckle's <i>History of Civilisation in England</i> was written in 1857, but +did not reach Sweden till 1871-72. Even then the soil was not ready for +the seed. The learned critics were unfavourable to Buckle, and the seed +took root only in some young minds who had no authoritative voice.</p> + +<p>"No literature," says Buckle himself, "can be useful to a people, if +they are not prepared to receive it." Thus it was with Buckle and +his work, which preceded that of Darwin (1858) and contained all its +inferences—a proof that evolution in the world of thought is not so +strictly conditioned as has been believed. Buckle did not know Mill or +Spencer, whose thoughts now rule the world, but he said most of what +they said subsequently.</p> + +<p>Now, if John had had a character, <i>i.e</i>. if he had been ruled by +a single quiet purpose directed towards one object, he would have +extracted from Buckle all that answered his purpose and left out all +that told against it. But he was a truth-seeker and did not shrink from +looking into the abyss of contradictions, especially as Buckle never +asserted that he had found the truth, and because truth is relative +and it is often found on both sides. Doubt, criticism, inquiry are the +chief matter, and the only useful course to pursue, as they guarantee +liberty. Sermons, programmes, certainty, system, "truth" are various +forms of constraint and stupidity. But it is impossible to be a +consistent doubter when one is crammed full with "complete evidence," +and when one's judgment is swayed by class-prejudice, anxiety for a +living and struggles for a position. John became calm when he learnt +that all that was wrong in the world was wrong in accordance with +necessary law, but he became furious when he made the further discovery +that our social condition, our religion and morality were absurdities. +He wished to understand and pardon his opponents, since in their +actions they were no more free than he was, but he was in duty bound +to strangle them since they hindered the evolution of society towards +universal happiness, and that was the only and greatest crime that +could be committed. But as there were no criminals, how could one get +hold of the crime?</p> + +<p>He was rejoiced that the mistakes had now been discovered, but despair +oppressed him again when he saw that the discovery was premature. +Nothing could be done for many years to come. Social evolution was a +very slow process. Consequently he must lie at anchor in the roadstead +waiting for the tide. But this waiting was too long for him; he heard +an inner voice bidding him speak, for if one does not spread what +light one has, how can popular views be changed? Yes, but a premature +promulgation of new ideas can do no good. Thus he was tossed to and +fro. Everything round him now seemed so old and out of date that he +could not read a newspaper without getting an attack of cramp. <i>They</i> +only had regard to the present moment; no one thought of the future. +His philosophical friend comforted and calmed him, through, among other +sayings, a sentence of La Bruyère, "Don't be angry because men are +stupid and bad, or you will have to be angry because a stone falls; +both are subject to the same laws; one must be stupid and the other +fall."</p> + +<p>"That is all very well," said John, "but think of having to be a +bird and live in a ditch! Air! light! I cannot breathe or see," he +exclaimed; "I suffocate!"</p> + +<p>"Write!" answered his friend.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but what?"</p> + +<p>Where should he begin? Buckle had already written everything, and +yet it was as though it had not been written. The worst thing was +that he felt he lacked the power. Hitherto he had only felt a very +moderate degree of ambition. He did not wish to march at the head, to +be a conqueror and so on. But to go in front with an axe as a simple +pioneer, to fell trees, root up thickets, and let others build bridges +and throw up redoubts, was enough for him. It is often observable that +great ambition is only the sign of great power. John was moderately +ambitious, because he was now only conscious of moderate powers. +Formerly when he was young and strong he had great confidence in +himself. He was a fanatic, <i>i.e</i>. his will was supported by powerful +passions, but his awakened insight and healthy doubt had sobered his +self-confidence. The work before him took the form of rock-walls which +must be pulled down, but he was not so simple as to venture on the task.</p> + +<p>Now he began to habituate himself forcibly to doubt in order to be +patient and not to explode. He entrenched himself in doubt as in a +fortress, and as a means of self-preservation he determined to depict +his struggles and doubts in a drama. The subject matter which he had +been turning over in his mind for a year he took from the history of +the Reformation in Sweden. Thus was composed the drama later on known +as <i>The Apostate</i>.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> +<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></h4> + +<h4>THE RED ROOM</h4> + +<h4>(1872)</h4> +<hr class="r5" /> + +<p>In autumn occurred the death of Charles XV. With the mourning, which +was fairly sincere and widespread, there mingled gloomy anxieties for +the future. One of the young painters who belonged to John's circle of +friends had just received a royal stipend and gone to Norway. He had +now to return quite destitute and without any prospects for the future. +John was accustomed to go with him into the Zoological Gardens in order +to paint, and occupy his mind while he was waiting for an answer from +the theatrical manager to whom he had sent his drama.</p> + +<p>There is indeed no occupation which so absorbs all the thoughts and +emotions so much as painting. John watched and enjoyed the delicate +harmonies of the lines in the branch-formation of the trees, in the +wave-like curves of the ground, but his paint-brush was too coarse to +reproduce the contours as he wished. Then he took his pen and made a +drawing in detail. But when he tried to transfer it to his canvas and +paint it, the whole appeared but a smudge.</p> + +<p>Pelle, on the other hand, was an impressionist and look no notice +of details. He took up the landscape at a stroke, so to speak, and +gave the colours their due value, but the various objects melted into +uncertain silhouettes. John thought Pelle's landscapes more beautiful +than the reality, although he cherished great reverence for the works +of the Creator. After he had wiled away about a month in painting, +he went one evening into the Café La Croix. The first person he met +was his former editor, who said, "I have just heard from X." (a young +author) "that the Theatre Royal has refused <i>The Apostate</i>."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about it," answered John. He did not feel well and left +the company as soon as possible. The next day he went to his former +instructor to find how the matter stood. The latter began first to +praise, and then to criticise it, which is the right method. He said +that the characters of Olaus Petri and Gustav Wasa had been brought +down from their proper level and distorted. John, on the other hand, +held that he had given a realistic representation of them as they +probably were, before their figures had been idealised by patriotic +considerations. His friend replied that that was no good; the public +would never accept a new reading of their characters till critical +inquiry had done its preliminary work.</p> + +<p>That was true, but the blow was a heavy one, although dealt with as +much consideration as possible, and the author was invited to remodel +his drama. He had again been premature in his attempt. There was +nothing left for him but to wait and wile away the time. To think +of remodelling it now was not possible for him, for he saw, when he +read it through again, that it was all cast in one piece and that the +details could not be altered. He could not change it, unless he changed +his thoughts, and therefore he must wait.</p> + +<p>Now he took to reading again. Chance brought into his hand two of +"the best books which one can read." They were De Tocqueville's +<i>Democracy in America</i> and Prévost-Paradol's <i>The New France.</i> The +former increased his doubts as to the possibility of democracy in +an uncultivated community. Written with sincere admiration for the +political institutions of America, which the author holds up as a +pattern for Europe, this work points out so sincerely the dangers of +democracy, as to make even a born hater of the aristocracy pause.</p> + +<p>John's theories received terrible blows, but this time his good sense +triumphed over his prejudices. His loss of faith in his own powers, +however, had a demoralising effect upon him, and he was soon ripe +for absolute scepticism. Sentences such as the following admitted +at that time of no contradiction: "The moral power of the majority +is based partly upon the conviction that a number of men have more +understanding, intelligence and wisdom than an individual, and a +great number of lawgivers more than a selection of them. That is the +principle of equality applied to intellectual gifts. This doctrine +attacks the pride of humanity in its innermost citadel."</p> + +<p>An individualist like John did not perceive that this pride can and +must be overcome. Nor did he see that wisdom and intelligence can be +spread by means of good schools among the masses.</p> + +<p>"When a man or a party in the United States suffers injustice, to whom +shall he turn? To public opinion? That is the opinion of the majority. +To the legislative officials? They are nominated by the majority +and obey it blindly. To the executive power? That is chosen by the +majority and serves it as a passive instrument. To the military forces +of the State? They are simply the majority under arms. To juries? +They are formed by a majority which possesses the right to judge." De +Tocqueville goes on to say that the happiness of the majority which +consists in maintaining its rights deserves recognition, and that it is +better for a minority to suffer from pressure than a majority, but the +sufferings which an intelligent minority suffer from an unintelligent +majority are much greater than those which an intelligent minority +inflict upon a majority. On the other hand, the minority understands +much better than the majority what conduces to their own and the +general happiness, and therefore the tyranny of the minority is not to +be compared with that of the majority.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but," thought John, "did not the European peoples generally +suffer from the tyranny of a minority?" The mere fact that there +were upper classes lay like a heavy cloud on the life of the masses. +Nowadays the question may be raised, "Why should a different +class-education result in an intelligent minority and an unintelligent +majority?" But such questions were not raised then. Moreover had such +a state really ever been seen in which an intelligent minority had the +power to "oppress"? No, for sovereigns, ministers and parliaments had +usually the due modicum of intelligence.</p> + +<p>That which more than anything else inclined John to fear the power of +the masses, was the fact noted by De Tocqueville that they tyrannised +over freedom of thought.</p> + +<p>"When one tries to ascertain," he says, "how much freedom of thought +there is in the United States it becomes apparent how much the tyranny +of the masses transcends any despotism known to Europe. I know no +country where there is, generally speaking, less independence of +opinion and real freedom of discussion than America. The majority +draw a terribly narrow circle round all thought. Within that circle +an author may say what he likes, but woe to him if he step across the +limit. He has no <i>auto-da-fé</i> to fear, but he is made the mark for all +kinds of unpleasantness and daily persecutions. Every good quality is +denied him, even honour. Before he published his views, he thought he +had adherents; after he has made them known to all the world he sees +that he no longer has any, for his critics have raised an outcry, +and those who thought as he did, but lacked the courage to express +themselves, are silent and withdraw. He gives way; he finally collapses +under the strain of daily renewed effort, and resumes silence, as +though he regretted having spoken the truth,</p> + +<p>"In democratic republics, tyranny lets the body alone and attacks the +soul. In them the dominant power does not say, 'You must think as I +do, or die;' it says, 'You are free to differ from me in opinion; your +life and property will remain untouched, but from the day that you +express a different view from mine, you will be a stranger among us. +You will retain your rights and privileges as a citizen, but they will +be useless to you. You will remain among men, but be deprived of all +a man's rights. When you approach your equals they will flee you as +though you were a leper; even those who believe in your innocence will +abandon you, lest they should be themselves abandoned. Go in peace! +I grant you life, but a life which shall be harder and bitterer than +death!'"</p> + +<p>That is the true and credible picture which the noble De Tocqueville, +friend of the people and tyrant-hater as he was, has drawn of the +tyranny of the masses, those masses whose feet John had felt trampling +on him at home, at school, in the steamer and the theatre, those +masses whom he had satirised in the play <i>Sinking Hellas</i>, and whom +he had described as throwing the first stone at Olaus Petri just at +the moment when he was preaching to them of freedom! If it is thus in +America, how can one expect anything better in Europe. He found himself +in a cul-de-sac. His hereditary disposition prevented his becoming an +aristocrat, nor could he come to terms with the people. Had he not +himself suffered lately from an ignorant theatre-management behind +which stood the uncultivated public, and found the way blocked for +his new and liberal ideas. There was then already a mob-despotism in +Sweden, and the director of the Theatre Royal was only their servant.</p> + +<p>It was all absurdity! And even suppose society were ruled by those who +knew most. Then they would be under professors with their heads full of +antiquarian ideas. Even if the director had put his drama on the stage, +it would have certainly been hissed off by the tradesmen in the stalls, +and no critics could have helped him!</p> + +<p>His thoughts struggled like fishes in a net, and ended by being caught. +It was not worth the trouble of thinking about and he tried to banish +the thought, but could not. He felt a continual trouble and despair +in his mind that the world was going idiotically, majestically and +unalterably to the devil. "Unalterably," he thought, for as yet a large +number of strong minds had not attacked the problem, which was soluble +after all. Ten years later it was provisionally solved, when knowledge +on the subject of this sphinx-riddle had been so widely spread that +even a workman had obtained some insight into it, and in a public +meeting had declared that equality was impossible, for the block-heads +could not be equal to the sharp-sighted, and that the utmost one could +demand was equality of position. This workman was more of an aristocrat +than John dared to be in the year 1872, though he belonged to no party +which claimed the right to muzzle him.</p> + +<p>Prévost-Paradol had dealt with the same theme as Tocqueville, but +he suggested a secret device against the tyranny of the masses—the +cumulative vote or the privilege of writing the same name several times +on the ballot-paper. But John considered this method, which had been +tried in England, doubtful.</p> + +<p>He had set great hopes on his drama, and borrowed money on the strength +of them, and now felt much depressed. The disproportion between his +fancied and his real value galled him. Now he had to adopt a rôle, +learn it, and carry it out. He composed one for himself, consisting +of the sceptic, the materialist and the liar, and found that it +suited him excellently. This was for the simple reason that it was a +sceptical and materialistic period, and because he had unconsciously +developed into a man of his time. But he still believed that his +earlier discarded personality, ruled indeed by wild passions, but +cherishing ideals of a higher calling, love to mankind and similar +imaginations, was his true and better self which he hid from the world. +All men make similar mistakes when they value sickly sentimentality +above strong thought, when they look back to their youth and think +they were purer and more virtuous then, which is certainly untrue. +The world calls the weaker side of men their "better self," because +this weakness is more advantageous for the world and self-interest +seems to dictate its judgment. John found that in his new rôle he was +freed from all possible prejudices—religious, social, political and +moral. He had only one opinion,—that everything was absurd, only +one conviction,—that nothing could be done at present, and only one +hope,—that the time would come when one might effectively intervene, +and when there would be improvement. But from that time he altogether +gave up reading newspapers. To hear stupidity praised, selfish acts +lauded as philanthropic, and reason blasphemed,—that was too much for +a fanatical sceptic. Sometimes, however, he thought that the majority +were right in just being at the point of view where they were, and that +it was unnecessary that some few individuals, because of a specialised +education, should run far ahead of the rest. In quiet moments he +recognised that his mental development which had taken place so +rapidly, without his ever seeing an idea realised, could be a pattern +for such a slowly-working machine as society is. Why did he run so far +ahead? It was not the fault of the school or university, for they had +held him back equally with the majority.</p> + +<p>Yes, but those already out in the world, by their own hearths, had +already reached the stage of Buckle's scepticism as regards the social +order, so that he was not so far ahead after all. The slow rate of +progress was enough to make one despair. What Schiller's Karl Moor +had seen a hundred years previously, what the French Revolution had +actually brought about were now regarded as brand-new ideas. After +the Revolution, social development had gone backwards; religious +superstitions were revived, belief in a better state of things lost, +and economic and industrial progress was accompanied by sweating and +terrible poverty. It was absurd! All minds that were awake at all +had to suffer,—suffer like every living organism when hindered in +growth and pressed backward. The century had been inaugurated by the +destruction of hopes, and nothing has such a paralysing effect on the +soul as disappointed hope, which, as statistics show, is one of the +most frequent causes of madness. Therefore all great spirits were, +vulgarly speaking, mad. Chateaubriand was a hypochondriac, Musset a +lunatic, Victor Hugo a maniac. The automatic pygmies of everyday life +cannot realise what such suffering means, and yet believe themselves +capable of judging in the matter.</p> + +<p>The ancient poet is psychologically correct in representing +Prometheus as having his liver gnawed by a vulture. Prometheus was +the revolutionary who wished to spread mental illumination among +men. Whether he did it from altruistic motives, or from the selfish +one of wishing to breathe a purer mental atmosphere, may be left +undecided. John, who felt akin to this rebel, was aware of a pain which +resembled anxiety, and a perpetual boring "toothache in the liver." Was +Prometheus then a liver-patient who confusedly ascribed his pain to +causes outside himself? Probably not! But he was certainly embittered +when he saw that the world is a lunatic asylum in which the idiots go +about as they like, and the few who preserve reason are watched as +though dangerous to the public safety. Attacks of illness can certainly +colour men's views, and every one well knows how gloomy our thoughts +are when we have attacks of fever. But patients such as Samuel Oedmann +or Olaf Eneroth were neither sulky nor bitter, but, on the contrary, +mild, perhaps languid from want of strength. Voltaire, who was never +well, had an imperturbably good temper. And Musset did not write as he +did because he drank absinthe, but he drank from the same cause that +he wrote in that manner, <i>i.e</i>. from despair. Therefore it is not in +good faith that idealists who deny the existence of the body, ascribe +the discontent of many authors to causes such as indigestion, etc., the +supposition of which contradicts their own principles, but it must be +against their better knowledge, or with worse knowledge. Kierkegaard's +gloomy way of writing can be ascribed to an absurd education, +unfortunate family relations, dreary social surroundings, and alongside +of these to some organic defects, but not to the latter alone.</p> + +<p>Discontent with the existing state of things will always assert itself +among those who are in process of development, and discontent has +pushed the world forwards, while content has pushed it back. Content +is a virtue born of necessity, hopelessness or superfluity; it can be +cancelled with impunity.</p> + +<p>Catarrh of the stomach may cause ill temper, but it has never produced +a great politician, <i>i.e.</i> a great malcontent. But sickliness may +impart to a malcontent's energy a stronger colour and greater rapidity, +and therefore cannot be denied a certain influence. On the other hand, +a conscious insight into grievances can produce such a degree of mental +annoyance as can result in sickness. The loss of dear friends through +death, may in this way cause consumption, and the loss of a social +position or of property, madness.</p> + +<p>If every modern individual shows a geological stratification of the +stages of development through which his ancestors passed, so in every +European mind are found traces of the primitive Aryan,—class-feeling, +fixed family ideas, religious motives, etc. From the early Christians +we have the idea of equality, love to our neighbour, contempt for mere +earthly life; from the mediæval monks, self-castigation and hopes of +heaven. Besides these, we inherit traits from the sensuous cultured +pagans of the Renaissance, the religious and political fanatics of the +sixteenth century, the sceptics of the "illumination" period, and the +anarchists of the Revolution. Education should therefore consist in the +obliteration of old stains which continually reappear however often we +polish them away.</p> + +<p>John proceeded to obliterate the monk, the fanatic and the +self-tormentor in himself as well as he could, and took as the leading +principle of his provisional life (for it was only provisional till he +struck out a course for himself) the well-understood one of personal +advantage, which is actually, though unconsciously, employed by all, to +whatever creed they belong.</p> + +<p>He did not transgress the ordinary laws, because he did not wish +to appear in a court of justice; he encroached on no one's rights +because he wished his own not to be encroached upon. He met men +sympathetically, for he did not hate them, nor did he study them +critically till they had broken their promises and shown a want of +sympathy to him. He justified them all so long as he could, and when +he could not, well,—he could not, but he tried by working to place +himself in a position to be able to do so. He regarded his talent as a +capital sum, which, although at present it yielded no interest, gave +him the right and imposed on him the duty to live at any price. He was +not the kind of man to force his way into society in order to exploit +it for his own purposes, he was simply a man of capacity conscious of +his own powers, who placed himself at the disposal of society modestly, +and in the first place to be used as a dramatist. The theatre, as a +matter of fact, needed him to contribute to its Swedish repertory.</p> + +<p>After a solitary day's work, it was his habit to go to a café to meet +his acquaintances there. To seek "more elevated" recreations in family +circles such as meaningless gossip, card playing and such like had no +attraction for him. Whenever he entered a family circle he felt himself +surrounded by a musty atmosphere like that exhaled from stagnant +water. Married couples who had been badgering each other, were glad to +welcome him as a sort of lightning conductor, but he had no pleasure +in playing that part. Family life appeared to him as a prison in which +two captives spied on each other, as a place in which children were +tormented, and servant-girls quarrelled. It was something nasty from +which he ran away to the restaurants. In them there was a public room +where no one was guest and no one was host: one enjoyed plenty of +space and light, heard music, saw people and met friends. John and +his friends were accustomed to meet in a back room of Bern's great +restaurant which, because of the colour of the furniture, was called +the "red room." The little club consisted originally of John and a few +artistic and philosophical friends. But their circle was soon enlarged +by old friends whom they met again. They were first of all recruited +by the presentable former scholars of the Clara School,—a postal +clerk who was at the same time a bass singer, pianist and composer; a +secretary of the Court treasurer; and the trump card of the society,—a +lieutenant of artillery. To these were added later, the composer's +indispensable friend, a lithographer, who published his music, and a +notary who sang his compositions. The club was not homogeneous, but +they soon managed to shake down together.</p> + +<p>But since the laymen had no wish to hear discussions on art, literature +and philosophy, their conversations were only on general subjects. +John, who did not wish to discuss any more problems, adopted a +sceptical tone, and baffled all attempts at discussion by a play upon +words, a quibble or a question. His ultimate "why?" behind every +penultimate assertion threw a light on the too-sure conclusions of +stupidity, and let his hearer surmise that behind the usually accepted +commonplaces there were possibilities of truths stretching out in +endless perspective. These views of his must have germinated like seeds +in most of their brains, for in a short time they were all sceptics, +and began to use a special language of their own. This healthy +scepticism in the infallibility of each other's judgments had, as a +natural consequence, a brutal sincerity of speech and thought. It was +of no use to speak of one's feelings as though they were praise worthy, +for one was cut short with "Are you sentimental, poor devil? Take +bi-carbonate."</p> + +<p>If any one complained of toothache, all he received by way of answer +was, "That does not rouse my sympathy at all, for I have never had +toothache, and it has no effect upon my resolve to give a supper."</p> + +<p>They were disciples of Helvetius in believing that one must regard +egotism as the mainspring of all human actions, and therefore it was +no use pretending to finer emotions. To borrow money or to get goods +on credit without being certain of being able to pay, was rightly +regarded as cheating, and so designated. For instance, if a member of +the club appeared in a new overcoat which seemed to have been obtained +on credit, he was asked in a friendly way, "Whom have you cheated about +that coat?" Or on another occasion another would say, "To-day I have +done Samuel out of a new suit."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, both overcoat and suit were +generally paid for, but as the purchaser at the time he took them was +not sure whether he would be able to pay, he regarded himself as a +potential swindler. This was severe morality and stern self-criticism.</p> + +<p>Once during such a conversation the lieutenant got up to go and attend +church-parade with his company. "Where are you going?" he was asked. +"To play the hypocrite," he answered truthfully.</p> + +<p>This tone of sincerity sometimes assumed the character of a deep +understanding of human nature and the nature of society. One day +the company were leaving John's lodgings for the restaurant. It was +winter, and Måns, who was generally ill-dressed, had no overcoat. The +lieutenant, who wore his uniform, was, it is true, somewhat uneasy, but +did not wish to hurt any one's feelings that day. When John opened the +door to go out, Måns said, "Go in front; I will come afterwards; I do +not want Jean to injure his position by going with me."</p> + +<p>John offered to walk with Måns one way while the others should go by +another, but Jean exclaimed, "Ah! don't pretend to be noble-minded! you +feel as embarrassed at going with Måns as I do."</p> + +<p>"True," replied John, "but...."</p> + +<p>"Why, then, do you play the hypocrite?"</p> + +<p>"I did not play the hypocrite; I only wished to try to be free from +prejudice."</p> + +<p>"The deuce! what is the good of being free from prejudice when no one +else is, and it does you harm? It would really show more freedom from +prejudice to tell Måns your mind than to deceive him."</p> + +<p>Måns had already departed, and arrived about the same time at the +restaurant as they did. He took part in the meal without betraying a +trace of ill-humour. "Your health, Måns, because you are a man of +sense," said the lieutenant to cheer him up.</p> + +<p>The habit of speaking out one's inner thoughts without any regard to +current opinion, resulted in the overthrow of all traditional verdicts. +The terrible confusion of thought in which men live, since freedom +of thought has been fettered by compulsory regulations, has made it +possible for antiquated views of men and things to continue. Thus, +to-day a number of works of art are considered unsurpassable in spite +of the great progress made in technique and artistic conception. John +considered that if in the nineteenth century he was to give his views +on Shakespeare, he was not at all bound to give the opinion of the +eighteenth century, but of his own nineteenth, as it had been modified +by new points of view. This aroused a great deal of opposition, perhaps +because people fear being regarded as uncultivated a great deal more +than they fear being regarded as godless.</p> + +<p>Every one attacked Christ, for He was thought to have been overthrown +by learned criticism, but they were afraid of attacking Shakespeare. +John, however, was not. Thoroughly understanding the works of the +poet, whose most important dramas he had read in the original and +whose chief commentators he had studied, he criticised the composition +and meagre character drawing of <i>Hamlet.</i> It is noteworthy that the +Swedish Shakespeare-worshipper, Shuck, through an inconsistency due to +the current confusion of thought and compulsory cowardice, made just +as severe criticisms of <i>Hamlet</i> regarded as a work of art, though +he had previously extolled it above the skies. If John had at that +time been able to read the book of Professor Shuck, he would not have +needed courage in order to subscribe such criticisms as the following: +"<i>Hamlet</i> is the most unsatisfactory of all ... the composition is +superficial and incoherent. After the action of the play has reached +its climax, it suddenly breaks off. Hamlet is suddenly sent to England, +but this journey does not in any way arouse the spectator's interest. +Still worse is the management of the catastrophe. It is a mere chance +that Hamlet's revenge is executed at all, and a similar caprice of +chance causes his overthrow. His killing Claudius just before his own +death has more the appearance of revenge for the attempt on his own +life, than that of a judgment executed in the name of injured morality."</p> + +<p>And then the obscurity which envelops the motives of the principal +persons in the play! "The spectator is left in uncertainty regarding +such an important point as Ophelia's and Hamlet's madness. Moreover +in <i>King Lear</i>, Edward's treachery is so palpable that not the most +ordinarily intelligent man could have been deceived by it!"</p> + +<p>If then the drama was defective precisely in the chief elements of a +drama, construction and characterisation, how could it be incomparable? +The reverence for what is ancient and celebrated is rooted in the +same instinct which creates gods; and pulling down the ancient has +the same effect as attacking the divine. Why else should a sensible +unprejudiced man fly in a rage when he hears some one express a +different opinion to his own (or what he thinks his own) about some old +classic? It ought to be a matter of indifference to him. The national +and intellectual Pantheon can be as angrily defended by atheists as by +monotheists, perhaps more so. People who are otherwise sincere, cringe +before a well-established reputation, and John had heard a pietistic +clergyman say that Shakespeare was a "pure" writer. In his mouth that +was certainly false. A determinist, on the other hand, would not +have used the words "pure" or "impure" because they would have been +meaningless to him. But the poor Christ-worshipper did not dare to bear +a cross for Shakespeare; he had enough already to bear for his own +Master.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile John's method of judging old things from the modern point of +view seemed to be justified, for it gained him a following. That was +the whole secret of what was so little understood later on by theistic +and atheistic theologians—his irreverent handling of ancient things +and persons; they thought in their simplicity quite innocently that +it was what one calls in children a spirit of contradiction. His aim +rather was to bring people's confused ideas into order, and to teach +them to apply logically their materialistic point of view. If they +were materialists, they should not borrow phrases from Christianity, +nor think like idealists. This gave rise to a catchword, which showed +how what was ancient was despised—"That is old!" As new men, they +must think new thoughts, and new thoughts demanded a new phraseology. +Anecdotes and old jokes were done away with; stereotyped phrases and +borrowed expressions were suppressed. One might be plain-spoken and +call things by their right names, but one might not be vulgar; the +latest opera was not to be quoted, nor jokes from the newest comic +paper repeated. Thereby each became accustomed to produce something +from his own stock of original observation and acquired the faculty of +judging from a fresh point of view.</p> + +<p>John had discovered that men in general were automata. All thought the +same; all judged in the same fashion; and the more learned they were, +the less independence of mind they displayed. This made him doubt the +whole value of book education. The graduates who came from Upsala +had, one and all, the same opinions on Rafael and Schiller, though +the differences in their characters would have led one to expect a +corresponding difference in their judgments. Therefore these men did +not think, although they called themselves free-thinkers, but merely +talked and were merely parrots.</p> + +<p>But John could not perceive that it was not books <i>quá</i> books which had +turned these learned men into automata. He himself and his unlearned +philosophical friends had been aroused to self-consciousness through +books. The danger of the university education was that it was derived +from inferior books published under sanction of the government, and +written by the upper classes in the interest of the upper classes, +<i>i.e</i>. with the object of exalting what was old and established, and +therefore of hindering further development.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile John's scepticism had made him sterile. He had perceived +that art had nothing to do with social development, that it was simply +a reflection or phenomena, and was more perfect as art the more it +confined itself to this function. He still preserved the impulse to +re-mould things and it found expression in his painting. His poetic +art, on the other hand, went to pieces since it had to express thoughts +or serve a purpose.</p> + +<p>His failure to have his play accepted had an adverse effect on his +pecuniary circumstances. The friends from whom he had borrowed money +came one evening to John's rooms in order to hear the play read, but +they were so tired after the day's work that, after hearing the first +act, they asked him to put off the rest for another occasion. One of +the audience who had kept more awake than the others thought that there +were too many Biblical quotations in the piece, and that these were not +suitable for the stage.</p> + +<p>John's resources were dried up, and the spectre of want loomed upon +him, unbribeable and stone-deaf. After he had gone without his dinners +for a time, he began to feel weary of life, and looked about him for +the means of subsistence. How should he get bread in the wilderness? +The best means that suggested itself was to seek an engagement in a +provincial theatre. There mere nobodies often played leading roles +in tragedies, made themselves a name, and finished by getting an +appointment at the Theatre Royal. He quickly made his resolve, packed +his travelling bag, borrowed money for his fare, and went to Göteborg. +It was just about the time of the great November storm of 1872.</p> + +<p>Since the environment in which he had been living had had a great +effect on him, he conceived a great dislike to this town. Gloomy, +correct, expensive, proud, reserved it lay, pent in its circle of stone +hills, and depressed the lively native of Upper Sweden, accustomed +to the rich and smiling landscape of Stockholm. It was a copy of the +capital but on a small scale, and John, as one of the upper class, +felt alienated from its inhabitants, who were in a lower stage of +development. But he noticed that there was something here that was +wanting in the capital. When he went down to the harbour he saw ships +which were nearly all destined for foreign parts, and large vessels +kept up continual communication with the continent. The people and +buildings did not look so exclusively Swedish, the papers took more +account of the great movements which were going on in the world. What +a short way it was from here to Copenhagen, Christiania, London, +Hamburg, Havre! Stockholm should have been situated here in a harbour +of the North Sea, whereas it lay in a remote corner of the Baltic. +Here was in truth the nucleus of a new centre, and he now understood +that that position was no longer occupied by Stockholm, but that +Göteborg was about to be the centre of the north. At present, however, +this reflection had no comfort for him since he was only in the +insignificant position of an actor.</p> + +<p>John sought out the theatre-director and introduced himself as a +person who wished to do the theatre a service. The director, however, +considered himself very well served by his present staff. But he +allowed John to give a trial performance in the rôle in which he wished +to make his début. This was Dietrichson's <i>Workman</i>, the great success +of the day. John had discovered a certain likeness between Stephenson's +first locomotive and his rejected play; he wished to show how he, like +the engineer, had to face the ridicule of the ignorant crowd, the +apprehensions of the learned, and the fears of a wasted life on the +part of relatives. He gave his trial performance one evening by the +light of a candle and between bare walls. Naturally he felt hampered +and asked to repeat it in costume. But the director said it was not +necessary; he had heard enough. John, in his opinion, possessed talent, +but it was undeveloped. He offered him an engagement at twelve hundred +kronas yearly, to commence from the first of January. John considered: +Should he spend two months idly in Göteborg and then only have a +supernumerary's part in a provincial theatre? No! He would not! What +remained to be done? Nothing except to borrow money and return home, +which he did.</p> + +<p>Thus his efforts had again ended in failure. His friends had given +him a farewell feast, lent him journey money, done all they could to +help him, and now he came back without having settled anything. Again +he had to hear the old too true accusation that he was unstable. To +be unstable in an ordered society is the extreme of unpracticality. +There persistent and exclusive cultivation of some special branch of +industry or knowledge is necessary in order to outstrip competitors. +Every orderly member of society feels a certain discomfort when he sees +some one wandering from his proper place. This discomfort does not +necessarily spring from excessive egotism, but possibly from a feeling +of solidarity and solicitude for others. John saw that his countless +changes of plan disquieted his friends; he felt ashamed and suffered on +account of it, but could not act otherwise.</p> + +<p>So he found himself at home, and spent the long evenings in the "Red +Room," asking himself whether he really could find no place in a +society which for others opened up so many rich possibilities of a +career.</p> + +<p>At Christmas time John travelled again to Upsala, for he had been +invited thither as one of the contributors to a Literary Calendar which +had just appeared. The <i>Calendar</i>, which was received with universal +disapprobation, was not without significance as an exponent of the +state of literature. The reader who was desired to wade through these +elegant extracts, might justifiably ask, "What have I got to do with +them?" The poetry they contained, like that of Snoilsky and Björck, +might have been written fifty or a hundred years before. It was of +indifferent quality, and sometimes even bad,—bad because it gave no +sign that the poet had developed any powers of perception, indifferent +because it was not rooted in its own period. The date of the book +was 1872, but it contained no echo of the Jubilee of 1865, no hint +of 1870, not a whiff of the conflagration of 1871. Had these young +versifiers been asleep? Yes, certainly. The great mass of students were +realists, sceptics, mockers, as befitted the children of the time, but +the poets were credulous fools with the ideals of Snoilsky and Björck +in their hearts. Their poetry was that of superannuated idealists in +form and thought, for the new views of things had not reached these +isolated individualists who still lived the Bohemian life of the +Romantics. Their poetry consisted of nothing but echoes. In fact it +was a question whether Swedish poetry had hitherto been anything else, +or could be anything else. Was Tegner's poetry anything but an echo +of Schiller, Oehlenschläger, the Eddas and the old Norse sagas? Was +Atterbom anything else than a musical box pieced together out of Tieck, +Hoffmann, Wieland, Burger? And so on with all the Swedish poets. But +this Literary Calendar was composed of echoes of echoes and dreams of +dreams. Realism, which had already made a premature entry into Sweden +with Kraemer's <i>Diamonds in Coal</i>, and had subsequently triumphed +in Snoilsky, had left no trace on these young poets. The poetry of +Snoilsky's school had been the careless expression of a careless time, +but these poems simply displayed the incapacity of their writers.</p> + +<p>John had contributed to the <i>Calendar</i> a free version of "An Basveig's +Saga." In this he had glorified himself as a kind of male Cinderella, +or ugly duckling of the family. He was moved to do this by the contempt +which had been evinced towards him by his patrons and middle-class +friends on account of his failure as an author. The language of the +piece was marked by a certain bluntness of expression and an attempt to +dignify low things, or at least to rub off the dirt from things which +were not really so, but were called so. Since the word Naturalism had +not yet come into fashion, his language was called coarse and vulgar.</p> + +<p>But an acquaintance which John happened to make during his stay in +Upsala was of greater importance than the <i>Calendar</i> or Christmas +dinner. He lodged with a friend on whose writing-table he found one day +a number of the <i>Svensk Tidskrift</i> containing a notice of Hartmann's +<i>Philosophy of the Unconscious</i>. It was an exposition of Hartmann's +system by a Finn, A.V. Bolin, and betrayed throughout a half-concealed +admiration of it. But the editor, Hans Forssell, had appended to the +essay a note written in his usual style when he came across something +that his brain could not take in. Hartmann's doctrine was pessimism. +Conscious life is suffering because unconscious will is the motive +power of evolution and consciousness obstructs this unconscious will. +It was the old myth of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It +was the kernel of the Buddhistic faith and the chief doctrine of +Christianity,—"Vanitas, vanitatum vanitas."</p> + +<p>Most of the greatest and conscious minds had been pessimists, and had +seen through and unmasked the illusions of life. Only wild animals, +children, and commonplace people could therefore be happy, because they +were unconscious of the illusion, or because they held their ears when +one wanted to tell them the truth and begged not to be robbed of their +illusions.</p> + +<p>John found all this quite natural, and had no important objection to +make. It was true then, what he had so often dreamt, that everything +was nothing! It was the suspicion of this which had governed his +point of view and made all the great and all greatness appear on a +reduced scale. This consciousness had lurked obscurely in him, when, +as a child, although well-formed, healthy and strong, he wept over +an unknown grief, the cause of which he could not find within him or +without. That was the secret of his life, that he could not admire +anything, could not hold to anything, could not live for anything; that +he was too wide awake to be subject to illusions. Life was a form of +suffering which could only be alleviated by removing as many obstacles +as possible from the path of one's will; his own life in particular +was so extremely painful because his social and economical position +constantly prevented his will from expressing itself.</p> + +<p>When he contemplated life and especially the course of history he saw +only cycles of errors and mistakes repeating themselves.<a name="FNanchor_1_8" id="FNanchor_1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_8" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The men of +the present dreamt of a republic, as Greeks and Romans had done two +thousand years before; the civilisation of the Egyptians had decayed +when they perceived its futility; Asia was wrapped in an eternal sleep +after it had been impelled by an unconscious will to conquer the +world; all nations had invented narcotics and intoxicants in order to +quench consciousness; sleep was blessedness and death the greatest +happiness. But why not take the last step and commit suicide? Because +the unconscious Will continually enticed men to live through the +illusion of hope of a better life. Pessimism, regarded as a view of the +world's order, is more consistent than meliorism, which sees in natural +development a tendency which makes for men's happiness. This latter +view seems to be a disguised relic of belief in divine providence. Can +one believe that the mechanical blindly ruling laws of nature have any +regard for the development of human society when they produce glacial +periods, floods, and volcanic outbreaks? Must an intelligent man be +called "conservative" in a contemptuous sense because he has brought +under his yoke and rules the laws of nature as Stuart Mill facetiously +expresses it? Have men devised any certain preventives against +shipwreck, strokes of lightning, economic crises, losses of relatives +by death and sickness? Can men control at pleasure the inclination of +the earth's axis, and do away with cloud-formations which are likely +to injure harvests? In spite of the present advanced state of science, +have men been able to put an end to the grape pest, to stop floods, +eradicate, superstitions, remove despots, prevent war? Is it not +presumptuous or simple-minded to believe that man, himself governed by +chemical, physical, and physiological laws of nature, stands above them +because he understands how to use some of them to his own advantage, as +birds use the wind for their progress or beavers the pressure of the +stream in constructing their dams? Are not the wings of the falcon and +the fly more perfect means of locomotion than railways and steamers? +How can men be so simple as to think that they stand above nature when +they are themselves so subordinate to nature that they cannot will or +think freely? It looks like a residue of our primitive illusions. If +the present development of European society ends in atheism, that has +already been the case with the Buddhists; if in religious freedom, +that has already been witnessed in the early history of China; if in +polygamy, that already exists among the savages of Australia; if in +community of goods, this prevailed among primitive peoples. The fact is +that Europe has been the last of all the great ethnical groups to wake +to consciousness. It is now in the act of waking and turning itself, +not like some oriental nations, to torpid quietism, but to removing as +far as possible the pains and unpleasantnesses of earthly existence, +although the best way of doing so has not been yet discovered. The +mistake of the industrial socialists is that they, according to +the formula of the ambiguous evolution theory, wish to build upon +existing conditions, which they regard as the product of necessity, +and tending to the good of all. But existing conditions rather tend +to the happiness of the few, and are therefore something abnormal to +build on, which means erecting a house on ground from which the water +has not been drained off. Probably the form of society which they +desire, however absurd it is, is a necessary mistake through which men +must pass to reach a better. Both the danger and the hope of progress +consist in the fact that the socialistic system already has its +programme drawn up and consequently works automatically, <i>i.e</i>. like a +blind, irresistible mass. If it reconstitutes society after the pattern +of the working-class who are a minority, and makes all men mechanics, +one may venture to doubt, without being regarded as quite mad, whether +that will be happiness. Socialism as a social reform is inevitable, +for Europe in its self-idolatry has not perceived how far backward it +is. Provided with an Asiatic form of government, which interferes in +details, supporting ancient superstitions, living under the terrible +tyranny of capital, which is maintained by force of arms, it sets +on foot political and religious persecutions, it venerates embalmed +monarchs like mummies of the Pharaohs, it civilises savages with waste +goods and Krupp guns; it forgets that its civilisation came from the +east, and was better then than it is now. Hartmann and the pessimists +believe that the social reform which is called socialism will come, but +that afterwards, it will be succeeded by something else.</p> + +<p>The bourgeois is an optimist because he cannot see or think outside +the narrow circle of everyday occurrences. That is his good fortune, +but not his merit, for he has no choice in the matter. Nay, he does not +even understand what pessimism is, but thinks it means the opinion that +this is the worst of all worlds. How could any one have a well-grounded +view on that? Voltaire, who was no pessimist, wrote a whole book to +demonstrate that this world, at any rate, was not the best of worlds +for us, as Leibnitz imagined. It is naturally the best for itself, +although not for us, and the difference between the point of view of +the hypochondriac and the pessimist consists in the fact that the +former believes that the world is the worst possible for him, while +the pessimist disregards what it may be for the individual. Hartmann +is no hypochondriac as people have tried to make out, and he seeks to +alleviate the pain of life as much as possible by placing himself in a +state of unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>The men of the younger generation of to-day are sad, because they +have awoke to consciousness and lost many illusions. But they are not +hypochondriacal, and work at bringing the world forward into the last +stage of illusion or a new social system, as though hoping thereby to +alleviate their pain, and they work the more fanatically, the deeper +they feel it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, supposing that Hartmann's philosophy may be a mistake, and a +sceptic must be willing to entertain that possibility, although it has +every probability on its side, since the instinct of self-preservation, +the first condition of life, consists in the removal of pain, which +is the first motive-power,—we must seek to explain historically +how this philosophy has come to the birth and spread. Superficial +observers like the mystic Caro, do not hesitate, inconsistently +enough, to attribute it to bodily ill-health. The socialists, who +wished to arouse the expectation that their teaching was practicable, +explained it as the foreboding of overthrow in a class, of whom +Hartmann was the representative. But Hartmann believes in socialism +and the new social system, although only as transitional forms. He +is not despairing, not even melancholy. He seems to be the first +philosopher who, quite independently of Christianity, European culture +and idealism, tries to explain the world's progress from the purely +materialistic point of view. He states facts and processes exactly as +they are. From unconscious minerals we have developed into globules +of albumen, acquired conscious nerve-centres and finally brains +with ever-increasing self-consciousness. The more highly organised +the life, the greater the capacity for pain and susceptibility to +impressions. Not till our time did the cosmic brain succeed in arriving +at clear perception and, accordingly, at divining the order of the +world. Hartmann can therefore be regarded as one who arrived at the +highest degree of consciousness, and he will be remembered as the +great unmasker before whose keen gaze the bandages fell away. It is +consequently a mistake to call him "the prophet of despair." Idealists +may feel empty and despairing when confronted by the naked truth, but +the meliorist feels an inexpressible calm. Man will be modest when he +takes the measure of his littleness as an atom of the cosmic dust. +He will no longer build his happiness on a future life, but will be +impelled by pessimism to order the only life he has as well as he can +for himself and for others. He will see how useless it is to lament +over the misery of existence; he will accept pain as a fact, and +alleviate it as well as he can. Hartmann is a realist, and the title +"pessimist" in its old significance has been fastened on him out of +malice. He shudders at the misery of the world, but does not even call +it misery. He only shows that life is not so great and beautiful as men +like to make out, and pain in his view is not a mere bodily ailment, +but an impelling motive. His is a sound and healthy view of things in +contrast to which socialism may sometimes look like idealism, since it +wishes to remodel society according to its desires, not according to +the possibilities of the case.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the review article on Hartmann had a quickening effect on +John. There was then a system in the apparent madness of the universe, +and his consciousness had rightly foreboded that the whole scheme of +things was something very insignificant. But a new philosophic system +is not absorbed by a brain in a day. It only left a certain deposit and +gave a keynote to his thoughts. As a theoretical point of view it was +still obscured by his idealistic education, darkened by his inborn and +acquired hatred of the upper class, and his natural tendency to seek +his point of equilibrium somewhere outside himself. Taken on the large +scale, life was meaningless, but if one wanted to live, one had to come +to grips with reality, and adopt an everyday point of view, which alas! +one very readily did. Enormous difficulties stood in the way of earning +a living or making a name. Honour, viewed absolutely, was nothing, but +in relation to the petty circumstances of life it was something great, +and worth striving for. The Philistines did not understand that, and +derived much amusement, when they saw him, pessimist as he was, toiling +after distinctions. They, with their clock-work brains, thought this +inconsistent, since they did not understand that the term "honour" has +two values, an absolute and a "relative."</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_8" id="Footnote_1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_8"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In his pamphlet "The Conscious Will in the +World-history" (1903), Strindberg takes the opposite view to that +expressed here.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + +***** This file should be named 44107-h.htm or 44107-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/44107.txt b/old/44107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e930f22 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6875 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Growth of a Soul + +Author: August Strindberg + +Translator: Claud Field + +Release Date: November 5, 2013 [EBook #44107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + + + + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + + + + +GROWTH OF A SOUL + +BY + +AUGUST STRINDBERG + + +AUTHOR OF "THE INFERNO," "THE SON OF A SERVANT," ETC. + + +TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD + + + +NEW YORK + +McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY + +1914 + + + + CONTENTS + + I IN THE FORECOURT + II BELOW AND ABOVE + III THE DOCTOR + IV IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + V JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + VI BEHIND THE CURTAIN + VII JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + VIII THE "RUNA" CLUB + IX BOOKS AND THE STAGE + X TORN TO PIECES + XI IDEALISM AND REALISM + XII A KING'S PROTEGE + XIII THE WINDING UP + XIV AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + XV THE RED ROOM + + + +THE GROWTH OF A SOUL + + + +CHAPTER I + +IN THE FORECOURT + +(1867) + + +The steamer had passed Flottsund and Domstyrken and the university +buildings of Upsala began to appear. "Now begins the real +stone-throwing!" exclaimed one of his companions,--an expression +borrowed from the street-riots of 1864. The hilarity induced by punch +and breakfast abated; one felt that things were now serious and that +the battle of life was beginning. No vows of perpetual friendship were +made, no promises of helping each other. The young men had awakened +from their romantic dreams; they knew that they would part at the +gang-way, new interests would scatter the company which the school-room +had united; competition would break the bonds which had united them and +all else would be forgotten. The "real stone-throwing" was about to +begin. + +John and his friend Fritz hired a room in the Klostergraenden. It +contained two beds, two tables, two chairs and a cupboard. The rent was +30 kronas[1] a term,--15 kronas each. Their midday meal was brought +by the servant for 12 kronas a month,--6 kronas each. For breakfast +and supper they had a glass of milk and some bread and butter. That +was all. They bought wood in the market,--a small bundle for 4 kronas. +John had also received a bottle of petroleum from home as a present, +and he could send his washing to Stockholm. He had 80 kronas in his +table-drawer with which to meet all the expenses of the term. + +It was a new and peculiar society into which he now entered, quite +unlike any other. It had privileges like the old house of peers and a +jurisdiction of its own; but it was a "little Pedlington" and reeked +of rusticity. All the professors were country-born; not a single one +hailed from Stockholm. The houses and streets were like those of +Nykoeping. And it was here that the head-quarters of culture had been +placed, owing to an inconsistency of the government which certainly +regarded Stockholm as answering to that description. + +The students were regarded as the upper class in the town and the +citizens were stigmatised by the contemptuous epithet of "Philistines." +The students were outside and above the civic law. To smash windows, +break down fences, tussle with the police, disturb the peace of the +streets,--all was allowed to them and went unpunished; at most they +received a reprimand, for the old lock-up in the castle was no more +used. For their militia-service they had a special uniform of their +own which carried privileges with it. Thus they were systematically +educated as aristocrats, a new order of nobility after the fall of the +house of peers. + +What would have been a crime in a citizen was a "practical joke" in a +student. Just at this time the students' spirits were at a high pitch, +as a band of student-singers had gone to Paris, had been successful +there, and were acclaimed as conquerors on their return. + +John now wished to work for his degree but did not possess a single +book. "During the first term one must take one's bearings" was the +saying. John went to the student's club. The constitution of the club +was antiquated,--so much so that the annexed provinces Skane, Halland +and Blekinge were not represented in it. It was well arranged and +divided into classes, not according to merit, but according to age +and certain dubious qualities. In the list the title "nobilis" still +stood after the names of those of high birth. There were several ways +of gaining influence in the club, through an aristocratic name, family +influence, money, talent, pluck and adaptability, but the last quality +by itself was not enough among these intelligent and sceptical youths. +On the first evening in the club John made his observations. There were +several of his old companions from the Clara School present, but he +avoided them as much as possible and they him. He had deserted them and +gone by a short cut through the private school, while they had tramped +along the regular course through the state school. They all seemed +to him somewhat conventional and stunted. Fritz plunged among the +aristocrats and obtained introductions, made acquaintances easily and +got on well. + +As they went home in the evening John asked him who was the "snob" in +the velvet jacket with stirrups painted on his collar. Fritz answered +that he was not a snob, and that it was as stupid to judge people by +fine clothes as by poor ones. John with his democratic ideas did not +understand this and stuck to his opinion. Fritz asserted that the youth +referred to was a very fine fellow and the senior in the club, and +in order to rouse John further, added that he had expressed himself +satisfied with the newcomers' appearance and manners; he was reported +to have said "they had an air about them; formerly the fellows from +Stockholm when they came there, looked like workmen." + +John was ruffled at this information and felt that something had come +in between him and his friend. Fritz's father had been a miller's +servant, but his mother had been of noble birth. He had inherited from +his mother what John had from his. + +The days passed on. Fritz put on his frock coat every morning and went +to pay his respects to the professors. He intended to be a jurist; +that was a proper career, for lawyers were the only ones who obtained +real knowledge which was of use in public life, who tried to obtain +deeper insight into social organisation and to keep in touch with the +practical business of everyday life. They were realists. + +John had no frock coat, no books, no acquaintances. + +"Borrow my coat," said Fritz. + +"No, I will not go and pay court to the professors," said John. + +"You are stupid," answered Fritz, and in that he was right, for the +professors gave real though somewhat hazy information regarding the +courses of study. It was a piece of pride in John that he did not +wish to owe his progress to anything but his own work, and what was +worse, he thought it ignominious to be regarded as a flunkey. Would +not an old professor at once perceive that he was flattering him for +his own purposes? To submit himself to his superiors was, in his mind, +synonymous with grovelling. + +Moreover everything was too indefinite. The university which he had +imagined to be an institution for free investigation, was only one for +tasks and examinations. The professors gave lectures for the sake of +appearances or to maintain their income, but it was useless to go up +for an examination without taking private lessons. John resolved to +attend those lectures for which no fee was necessary. He went to the +Gustavianum to hear a lecture on the history of philosophy. For the +three-quarters of an hour during which the lecture lasted the professor +went through the introduction to Aristotle's Ethics. John calculated +that with three lectures a week he would require forty years to go +through the history of philosophy. "Forty years," he thought, "that is +too long for me." And did not go again. It was the same everywhere. +An assistant-professor expounded Shakespeare's _Henry VIII_ with the +commentary, in English, to an audience of five. John went there a few +times, but reckoned that it would be ten years before _Henry VIII_ was +finished. + +It began to dawn upon him what the requirements of the degree +examination were. The first was to write a Latin essay; therefore he +must learn more Latin, which he did not like. He had chosen aesthetics +and modern languages as his chief subject. AEsthetics comprised the +study of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Literary History and the +various systems of aesthetics. That was work enough for a lifetime. The +modern languages were French, German, English, Italian and Spanish, +with comparative grammar. How was he to obtain the requisite books? And +he had not the means of paying for private lessons. + +Meanwhile he set to work at AEsthetics. He found that one could borrow +books from the club and so he took out the volumes of Atterbom's +_Prophets and Poets_ which happened to be there. These unfortunately +only dealt with Swedenborg and contained Thorild's epistles. Swedenborg +seemed to him crazy, and Thorild's epistles did not interest him. +Swedenborg and Thorild were two arrogant Swedes who had lived in +retirement and fallen a prey to megalomania, the special disease +of solitary people. It is remarkable how often outbreaks of this +hallucination occur in Sweden, owing probably to the isolated position +of the country and to the fact that a sparse population is scattered +over enormous distances. Megalomania is apparent in the imperial +projects of Gustavus Adolphus, in Charles X's ambition of becoming +a great European power, in Charles XII's Attila-like schemes, in +Rudbeck's Atlantic-mania, and in Swedenborg's and Thorild's dreams of +storming heaven and of world-conflagrations. John thought them mad and +threw them aside. Was that the sort of stuff he was expected to read? + +He began to reflect over his situation. What did he expect to do in +Upsala? To support himself for six years on 80 kronas till he took +his degree. And then? his thoughts did not stretch further; he had no +higher plan or ambition than to take his degree--the laurel crown, the +graduate's coat, and then to teach the catechism in the Jakob school +till his death. No, he did not wish to do that. + +Time went on, and Christmas approached. The little stock of money in +his table-drawer diminished slowly but surely. And then? It was not so +easy for students to obtain employment as private teachers since the +railways had made communication easier between remote country places +and the towns where schools were. He felt that he had embarked upon a +foolish undertaking. When he found he could get no more books, he began +to make visits among his fellow-students and discovered companions in +misfortune. Among them were two who had spent the whole term playing +chess and possessed nothing between them but a hymn-book which the +mother of one had placed in his box. They were also asking themselves +the question "What have we to do here?" The way to the degree +examination was not easy; one was compelled to seek out secret ways, +bribe door-keepers, creep through holes, run into debt for books, be +seen at lectures and much more besides. + +In order to fill up the time, he learnt to play the B-cornet in the +band of the students' club by the advice of Fritz who played the +trombone. But the practices were very irregular and began to cause +disputes. John also played backgammon, which Fritz hated, and so he +wandered about to acquaintances with his backgammon board and played +with them. He found it as dull as reading Swedenborg. + +"Why do you not study?" Fritz often asked him. + +"I have no books," answered John. That was a good reason. He could +not visit the restaurants, for he had no money, and lived very +quietly. At the midday meal he drank only water, and when on Sundays +he and Fritz drank half a bottle of beer, they remained sitting at +table half-fuddled and telling each other, perhaps for the hundredth +time, old school adventures. The term crept along intolerably slow, +uneventful and torpid. John perceived that, as one of the lower class, +he could plod on thus far but no further. The economic question brought +his plans to a standstill. Or was it that he was tired of living a +one-sided mental life without muscular exercise? Trifling experiences +for which he ought to have been prepared contributed to embitter him. +One day Fritz entered their room with a young count. He introduced +John to him, and the count tried to remember whether they had not been +comrades at the Clara School. John seemed to remember something of +the kind. The old friends and intimate companions addressed each other +as "count" and "sir." Then John remembered how he and the young count +had once played as boys in a tobacco store on the Sabbatsberg, and how +something had made him prophesy, "In a few years, old fellow, we shall +not know each other any more." The young count had protested strongly +against this and felt hurt. Why did John remember this just then +particularly, since it is quite natural that comrades should become +strangers to each other when intercourse has been so long broken off? +Because at the sight of the noble, he felt the slave blood seethe in +his veins. This kind of feeling has been ascribed to the difference of +races. But that is not so, for then the stronger plebeian race would +feel superior to the weaker aristocratic. It is simply class-hatred. + +The count in question was a pale, tall, slender youth of no striking +appearance. He was very poor and looked half-starved. He was +intelligent, industrious, and not at all proud. Later on in life +John came across him again and found him to be a sociable, pleasant +man, leading an inconspicuous life as an official, amid difficulties +resembling John's own. Why should he hate him? And then they both +laughed at their youthful stupidity. That was possible then, for John +seemed to have "got ahead" as the saying is; otherwise he would not +have laughed at all. "Stand up that I may sit down," this was the +more malicious than luminous way of expressing the aspiration of the +lower orders in those days. But it was a misunderstanding. Formerly +one strove to elbow one's way up to the other; now one would rather +pull the other down to save oneself the trouble of clambering up where +nothing is to be found. "Move a little so that we can both sit" would +now be the proper formula. + +It has been said that those who are "above" are there by a law of +necessity and would be there under all circumstances; competition +is free and each can ascend if he likes, and if the conditions were +changed, the same race would begin again. "Good!" say the lower +classes, "let us race again, but come down here and stand where I +do. You have got a start with privileges and capital, but now let us +be weighed with carriage harness and racing saddle after the modern +fashion. You have got ahead by cheating. The race is therefore declared +null and void and we will run it again, unless we come to an agreement +to do away with all racing, as an antiquated sport of ancient times." + +Fritz saw things from another point of view. He did not wish to pull +those above down, but to become an aristocrat himself, climb up to +them and be like them. He began to lisp and made elegant gestures with +his hands, greeted people as though he were a cabinet minister, and +threw his head back as though he had a private income. But he respected +himself too much to become ridiculous and satirised himself and his +ambition. The fact was that the aristocrats whom he wished to resemble +had simple, easy, unaffected manners,--some of them indeed quite like +the middle class, while Fritz was fashioning himself after an ancient +theatrical pattern which no longer existed. He did not therefore +become what he expected in life though he had dozed away many a summer +in the castles of his friends, and ended in a very modest official +post. He was received as a student in their guest-rooms but came no +further; as a district judge he was not introduced in the salons which +as a student he had entered without introduction. + +The effects of the different circles in which John and Fritz moved +began now to be apparent, first in mutual coldness, then in hostility. +One evening it broke out at the card-table. + +Fritz one day towards the end of the term said to John, "You should not +go about with such bounders as you do." + +"What is the matter with them?" + +"Nothing, but it would be better if you went with me to my friends." + +"They don't suit me." + +"Well, they suit me, but they think you are proud." + +"I?" + +"Yes; and to show you are not, come with me this evening and drink +punch." + +John went though unwillingly. They were a solid-looking set of +law-students who played cards. They discussed the stakes for which they +should play, and John succeeded in reducing them to a minimum, though +they made sour faces. Then a game of "knack" was proposed. John said +that he never played it. + +"On principle?" he was asked. + +"Yes," he answered. + +"How long ago did you make that resolve," asked Fritz sarcastically. + +"Just this minute." + +"Just now, here?" + +"Yes, just now, here!" answered John. + +They exchanged hostile looks and that was the end. They went home +silent; went to bed silent; and got up silent. For five weeks they ate +their dinner at the same table and never spoke to each other. A gulf +had opened between them and their friendship was ended; they had no +more intercourse with each other and there was nothing to bring them +together again. How had that come about? + +These two characters so opposed to each other had held together for +five years through habit, through comradeship in the class-room, +and common interests; they had felt drawn to each other by common +recollections, defeats and victories. It was a compromise between fire +and water which must cease sooner or later and might cease at any +moment. Now they flew asunder as if by an explosion; the masks fell; +they did not become enemies, but simply discovered that they _were_ +born enemies, _i.e._ two oppositely-disposed natures which must go, +each its own way. They did not close accounts with a quarrel or useless +accusations, but simply made an end without more ado. An unnatural +silence prevailed at their midday meal; sometimes in lifting dishes +their hands crossed but their looks avoided each other; now and then +Fritz's lips moved, as though he wished to say something, but his +larynx remained closed. What should he say after all. There was nothing +to say but what the silence expressed: "We have nothing more in common." + +And yet there was something left after all. Sometimes Fritz came home +in the evening, cheerful, and obviously prepared to say, "Come! cheer +up old fellow!" But then he stood still in the middle of the room, +petrified by John's icy manner, and went out again. Sometimes also +it occurred to John, who suffered under the breach of friendship to +say to his friend, "How stupid we are!" But then he felt frozen again +by Fritz's indifferent manner. They had worn out their friendship by +living together. They knew each other by heart, all one another's +secrets and weaknesses, and precisely what answer either would give. +That was the end. Nothing more remained. + +A miserable torpid time followed. Tom away from the common life of +school where he had worked like part of a machine in unison with +others, and abandoned to himself, he ceased to live in the proper sense +of the word. Without books, papers or social intercourse, he remained +empty; for the brain produces of itself very little, perhaps nothing; +in order to make combinations it must be supplied with material from +without. Now nothing came; the channels were stopped, the ways blocked, +and his soul pined away. Sometimes he took Fritz's books and looked +into them; among them he came across Geijer's History for the first +time. Geijer was a great name and known through his "Kolargossen," +"Sista Kampen," "Vikingen" and other poems. John now read his history +of Gustav Vasa. He was astonished to find no illuminating point of +view nor any fresh information. The style, which he had heard praised, +was pedestrian. It was like a mere memorial sketch, this history of a +long-lived king's reign, and cursory also like a text-book. Printed in +small type, and without notes, the history of this important king would +not have been longer than a small pamphlet. One day John asked some of +his friends what they thought of Geijer. + +"He is devilish dull," they answered. + +That was the common opinion before jubilee-commemorations and the +erection of statues prevented people saying plainly what they thought. + +John then looked for a little into law-books, but was alarmed at the +idea of having to study that sort of thing. His home life and religious +education had given him a distaste for everything that concerned the +common interests of people. Through the ceaseless repetition of the +maxim that young men should not interfere with politics, that is to +say, with the common weal, and through Christian individualism and +introspection, John had become a consistent egoist. + +"Let every one mind his own business" was the first command of this +egotistic morality. Therefore he read no papers and troubled little how +things were going on about him, what was happening in the world, how +the destinies of men were being shaped, or what were the thoughts of +the leading minds of the time. Therefore it never occurred to him to +go to the meetings of the club where questions of common interest were +dealt with. "There were enough to look after those things," he thought. + +He was not alone in that opinion, so that the meetings of the club were +managed by a few energetic fellows, who were regarded perhaps wrongly, +as egoists and managed public business in their own interests. John who +let the affairs of the little society go as they liked, was perhaps a +greater egoist, occupied as he was with the affairs of his own soul. +But in his own defence and on behalf of many of his countrymen it must +be said that he and they were shy. This shyness, however, should have +been got rid of at school by practice in public speaking. In this +shyness there was also a degree of cowardice, the fear of opposition +or ridicule, and especially the fear of being thought presumptuous or +wishing to push oneself forward. Every youth who did so, was at once +suppressed, for here the aristocracy of seniority prevailed in a very +high degree. + +When he found the room too stuffy, he went out of the town. But the +depressing landscape with its endless expanse of clay made him sad. He +was no plain-dweller, but had his roots in the undulating scenery of +Stockholm, diversified by water channels. The flat country depressed +him and he suffered from homesickness to such a degree that when he +returned to Stockholm at Christmas and saw again the smiling contours +of the coast of Brunsvik, he was moved to the point of sentimentality. +When he saw once more the gentle curves of the woods of Haga Park he +felt his soul, as it were, attuned again, after having been so long +out of tune. To such a degree were his nerves affected by his natural +surroundings. + +Under other circumstances, the society of a smaller town like Upsala +would have been more congenial to him than that of the great town +which he hated. Had the small town been but a developed form of the +village, preserving the simple rustic appliances for health and +comfort, with fragments of landscape between the houses, it would have +been far preferable to the great town. But now the small town was +merely a shabby pretentious copy of the great town with its mistakes, +and therefore the more offensive. It also reeked with provinciality. +Every one mentioned their birthplace, "My name is Pettersson, from +Ostgothland," "Mine is Andersson, from Smaland." There was a keen +rivalry between the members of different provinces. Those from +Stockholm regarded themselves as the first and were therefore envied +and despised by the "peasants." There was much dispute as to whom the +first place really belonged. The Wormlanders boasted of having produced +Geijer whose portrait hung in their hall, while the Smalanders had +Tegner, Berzelius and Linnaeus. The Stockholm students who had only +Bergfalk and Bellmann were called "gutter-snipes." This was not a very +brilliant piece of wit especially as it emanated from a Kalmar student +who was thereupon asked "whether there were no gutters in Kalmar?" + +There was something pettifogging also in the way in which the +professors fought for advancement by means of pamphlets and newspaper +articles. The election to any particular professorial chair rested in +the last resource with the Chancellor of the University who lived at +Stockholm. + +In 1867 the University had no especially distinguished teachers. Some +of them were merely old decayed tipplers. Others were young immature +dilettantes who had obtained advancement through their wives and the +modicum of talent which they possessed. The only one who enjoyed a +certain reputation was Swedelius. This, however, was rather due to +his bonhomie and the anecdotes which gathered round him, then to his +own talent. His learned activity was confined to the composition in +an austere style of textbooks and memorial addresses. These were not +strictly scientific, but showed traces of original research. + +On the whole all the subjects of study were introduced from abroad, +for the most part from Germany. The textbooks in most departments +were in German or French. Very few were in English which was little +known. Even the Professor of Literary History could not pronounce +English and began his lectures with an apology for not being able +to do so. There was no doubt that he knew the language for he had +published translations of Swedish poems. "But why did he not learn +the pronunciation?" the students asked. Most of the dissertations for +degrees were mere compilations from the German; occasionally they were +direct translations which caused a scandal. + +The fact was that the period had no special feature to characterise +it. There is no such thing as Swedish culture any more than there is +Belgian, Swiss, or Hungarian. Sweden had indeed produced a Linnaeus and +a Berzelius, but they had had no successors. + +John had no spirit of enterprise. At school his work had been settled +for him; at the university it was all left to him. He was overcome by +lethargy and listlessness and worried by not knowing what to do at the +end of the term. He saw that he must seek for a position in which he +could support himself. A friend had told him that one might become an +elementary teacher in the country without passing any more examinations +and could very well support oneself in such a post. Now it was John's +dream to live in the country. He had a natural dislike to towns though +he had been born in the metropolis. He could not accustom himself +to live without light and air, nor flourish in these streets and +market-places, where the outward signs of a higher or lower position in +the absurd social scale counted for so much, _e.g._ such subordinate +things as dress and manner. He had hostility to culture in his blood +and could never conceive of himself as anything else than a natural +product, which did not wish to be severed from its organic connection +with the earth. He was like a plant vainly feeling with its roots +between the pavement-stones for some soil; like an animal pining for +the forest. + +There is a fish which climbs up trees, and an eel can go on land to +look for a pease-field, but both of them return to the water. Fowls +have been domesticated so long that their ancestral characteristics +have died out, but they preserve the habit of sleeping on a perch which +represents the branch on which the black-cock and the wood-grouse +roost. Geese become restless in autumn, for an instinct in their blood +tells them that it is migrating time. So in spite of accommodation to +new circumstances there is always a tendency to go back. + +Thus is it also with men. The dweller in the north, so long as he +preserves civilised habits, has not been able to acclimatise himself +thoroughly, and is still liable to consumption. His stomach, nerves, +heart and skin were able to accommodate themselves, but not his lungs. +The Eskimo on the other hand, originally a southerner, succeeded in +acclimatising himself but had to give up civilised habits. + +And what is the meaning of the northerner's longing for the south +unless it be the wish to return to his first home, the land of the +sun, the bank of the Ganges where he was cradled? And the dislike +of children to meat, their longing for fruit and love of climbing, +what is it all but "reversion to type?" Therefore civilisation means +a continual strain and struggle to combat this backward tendency. +Education winds up the clock, but when the mainspring is not strong +enough it snaps and the works run down, till quiet ensues. As +civilisation advances the strain is ever greater and the statistics +of insanity show a perpetual increase. One cannot swim against the +stream of civilisation, but one may escape to land. Modern Socialism +which wishes to bring down the upper classes with their worthless +and dangerous motto "Higher!" is a backward movement in a healthy +direction. The strain will decrease as the pressure from above +decreases, and thereby a great deal of superfluous luxury will be got +rid of. In certain parts of German Switzerland there is already a +certain relative quiet. There we find no restless hunting after honours +and distinctions because there are none to be had. A millionaire +lives in a large cottage and laughs at the bedizened townsfolk,--a +good-natured laugh without any envy in it, for he knows that he could +buy up their finery for ready cash, if he chose. But he will not, for +luxury has no value in his neighbours' eyes. + +Men could therefore be happier if competition were not so keen and +they will yet be so, for the chief constituent of happiness is peace +along with less toil and less luxury. It is not the railways which are +to be blamed, but the superabundance of them. In Arcadian Switzerland +railways have ruined whole districts where no freightage is required +and people usually go on foot. To this day distances are reckoned by +pedestrian measures. + +"It is eight hours to Zurich," says some one. + +"Eight! is it possible?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"By the railway?" + +"Oh! by the railway,--that is only an hour and a half." + +In Sweden there is a railway which carries regularly three passengers +in its three classes, a factory-owner, a bailiff and a clerk. We may +live to see them shut up the railway stations for want of coal when +the coal strikes have sent up the price, for want of guards when wages +rise, and for want of freight when wood and oats can no longer be +procured; iron is already too dear to be used for railways, and the old +water-ways ought to be tried. + +It is no use to preach against civilisation,--that one knows well, but +if we observe the currents of the time we shall see that a return to +nature is in process of going on. Turgenieff has already described this +by the word "simplification." That is the mistake of the evolutionists +that in everything which is in motion or course of development they +see a progress towards human happiness, forgetting that a sickness may +develop to death or recovery. + +After all, what a superficial appendage civilisation is! Make a +nobleman drunk and he can become like a savage; let a child loose in +a wood without any one to look after it (provided that it can feed +itself) and it will not learn to speak of itself. Out of a peasant's +son who is generally considered so low in the social scale, one +can make in a single generation a man of science, a minister, an +arch-bishop, or an artist. Here there can be no talk of heredity, for +the peasant-father who stood apparently at such a low level, could not +have inherited anything from cultivated brains. On the other hand, the +children of a genius inherit usually nothing but used-up brains, except +occasionally a skill in their father's line of work, which they have +acquired by daily intercourse with their father. + +The town is the fire-place whither the living fuel from the country is +brought and devoured; it is to keep the present social machinery at +work, it is true, but in the long run the fuel will prove too dear, and +the machine come to a standstill. The society of the future will not +need this machine in order to work or they will be more sparing of the +fuel. But it is a mistake to conjecture the needs of a future state of +society from the present one. + +Our present society is perhaps a natural product, but inorganic; the +future society will be an organic product and a higher one, for it +will not deprive men of the first conditions for an organic existence. +There will be the same difference between these two forms of society as +between paved streets and grass meadows. + +The youth's dream often left artificial society to wander at large +in nature. Society had been formed by men doing violence to natural +laws, just as one may bleach a plant under a flower-pot and produce an +edible salad, but the plant's capacity to live healthily and propagate +itself as a plant is destroyed. Such a plant is the civilised man +made by artificial bleaching useful for an anaemic society, but, as +an individual, wretched and unhealthy. Must the process of bleaching +continue in order to insure the existence of this decayed society? +Must the individual remain wretched in order to maintain an unhealthy +society? For how can society be healthy when its individual members +are ailing? A single individual cannot demand that society should be +sacrificed for his sake, but a majority of individuals have a right to +bring about such changes in the society, which they themselves compose, +as may be beneficial to themselves. + +Under the simpler conditions of country life John believed he could +be happy in an obscure post, without feeling that he had sunk in the +social scale. But he could not be so in the town where he would be +continually reminded of the height from which he had fallen. To come +down voluntarily is not painful if the onlookers can be persuaded that +it _is_ voluntarily, but to fall is bitter, especially as a fall always +arouses satisfaction in those standing below. To mount, strive upwards +and better one's position has become a social instinct, and the youth +felt the force of it, though in his view the "upper" was not always +higher. + +John wished now to realise some result,--an active life which should +bring him an income. He looked through many advertisements for teachers +in elementary schools. Positions were advertised to which were attached +salaries of 300 or 600 kronas, a house, a meadow and a garden. He tried +for one of these places after another but obtained no answer. + +When the term was over and his 80 kronas spent, he returned home, not +knowing whither to turn, what he should become, or how he should live. +He had glanced in the forecourt and seen that there was no room in it +for him. + + +[1] A krona = 1s. _2d_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BELOW AND ABOVE + + +"Are you a complete scholar now?" With this and similar questions John +was greeted ironically on his return home. His father took the matter +seriously and strove to frame plans without coming to any result. John +was a student; that was a fact; but what was to follow? + +It was winter, and so the white student cap could not bestow on him +a mild halo of glory or bring any honour to the family. Some one has +asserted that war would cease if uniforms were done away with; and it +is certain there would not be so many students if they had no outward +sign to parade. In Paris where they have none, they disappear in the +crowd, and no one makes a fuss about them; in Berlin on the other hand, +they have a privileged place by the side of officers. Therefore also +Germany is a land of professors and France of the bourgeois. + +John's father now saw that he had educated a good-for-nothing for +society who could not dig, but perhaps was not ashamed to beg. The +world stood open for the youth to starve or to perish in. His father +did not like his idea of becoming an elementary school-teacher. Was +that to be the only result of so much work? His ambitious dreams +received a shock from the idea of such a come-down. An elementary +school-teacher was on a level with a sergeant, oil a plane from which +there was no hope of mounting. Climb one must as long as others did; +one must climb till one broke one's neck, so long as society was +divided into ranks and classes. John had not passed the student's +examination for the sake of knowledge, but of belonging to the upper +class, and now he seemed to be meditating a descent to the lower. + +It became painful for him at home for he felt as though he were eating +the bread of charity when Christmas was over, and he could no longer be +regarded as a Christmas guest. + +One day he accidentally met in the street a school-teacher whom he +knew, and whom he had not seen for a long time. They talked about the +future and John's friend suggested to him a post in the Stockholm +elementary school as suitable for him while reading for his degree. He +would get a thousand kronas salary and have an hour to himself daily. +John objected "Anywhere except in Stockholm." His friend replied that +several students had been teachers in the elementary school, "Really! +then he would have companions in misfortune." Yes, and one had come +from the New Elementary School where he was a teacher. John went, made +an application, and was appointed with a salary of 900 kronas. His +father approved his decision when he heard that it would help him to +read for his degree, and John undertook to live as a boarder at home. +One winter morning at half-past eight, John went down the Nordtullsgata +to the Clara School, exactly as he had done when he was eight years +old. There were the same streets and the same Clara bells, and he was +to teach the lowest class! It was like being put back to learn a lesson +of eleven years ago. Just as afraid as then,--yes, more afraid of +coming too late he entered the large class-room, where together with +two female teachers he was to have the oversight of a hundred children. +There they sat,--children like those in the Jakob School, but younger. +Ugly, stunted, pale, swollen, sickly, with cast-down looks, in coarse +clothes and heavy shoes. Suffering, most probably, suffering from the +consciousness that others were more fortunate, and would always be +so, as one then believed, had impressed on their faces the stamp of +pain, which neither religious resignation nor the hope of heaven could +obliterate. The upper classes avoided them with a bad conscience, built +themselves houses outside the town, and left it to the professional +over-seers of the poor to come in contact with these outcasts. + +A hymn was sung, the Lord's Prayer was read; everything was as before; +no progress had been made except that the forms had been exchanged for +seats and desks, and the room was light and airy. John had to fold his +hands and join in the hymn, thus already being obliged to do violence +to his conscience. Prayers over, the head-master entered. He spoke to +John in a fatherly way and as his superintendent gave him instruction +and advice. This class, he said, was the worst, and the teacher must +be strict. + +So John took his class into a special room to begin the lesson. The +room was exactly like that in the Clara School, and there stood the +dreadful desk with steps, which resembled a scaffold and was painted +red as though stained with blood. A stick was put into his hand with +which he might rap or strike as he chose. He mounted the scaffold. He +felt shy before the thirsty faces of girls and boys opposite who looked +curiously at him, to see if he were going to worry them. + +"What is your lesson?" he asked. + +"The first commandment," the whole class exclaimed. + +"Only one must answer at a time. You, top boy what is your name?" + +"Hallberg," cried the whole class. + +"No, only one at a time,--the one I ask." + +The children giggled. "He is not dangerous," they thought. + +"Well, then, what is the first commandment?" John asked the top boy. + +"Thou shalt have no other gods but Me." He knew that then. + +"What is that?" John asked again, trying to lay as little emphasis +as possible on the "that." Then he asked fifteen children the same +question and a quarter of an hour had passed. John thought this +idiotic. What should he do now? Say what he knew about God? But the +common point of view then was, that nothing was known about Him. John +was a theist, and still believed in a personal God, but could say +nothing more. He would have liked to have attacked the divinity of +Christ, but would have been dismissed had he done so. + +A pause followed. There was an unnatural stillness while he reflected +on his false position and the foolish method of teaching. If he had +now said that nothing was known of God, the whole catechism and Bible +instruction would have been superfluous. They knew that they must not +steal or lie. Why then make such a fuss? He felt a mad wish to make +friends and fellow-sinners of the children. + +"What shall we do now?" he said. + +The whole class looked at each other and giggled. + +"This is a jolly sort of teacher," they thought. + +"What must the teacher do when he has heard the lesson?" he asked the +top boy. + +"Hm! he generally explains it," he and one or two others answered. + +John could certainly explain the origin and growth of the conception of +God, but that would not do. + +"You need not do any more," he said, "but don't make a noise." + +The children looked at him, and he at them mutually smiling. + +"Don't you think this is absurd," he felt inclined to say, but checked +himself and only smiled. But he collected himself when he saw that they +were laughing at him. "This method would not do," he thought. So he +commanded attention and went through the first commandment again till +each child had had a question. After extraordinary exertions on his +part, the clock at last struck nine, and the lesson was over. + +Then the three divisions of the class were assembled in the great +hall to prepare for going into the play-ground to get fresh air. +"Prepare" is the right word for such a simple affair as going into the +play-ground demanded a long preparation. An exact description would +fill a whole printed page, and perhaps be regarded as a caricature; we +will be content with giving a hint. + +In the first place, all the hundred children had to sit motionless, +absolutely motionless, and silent, absolutely silent, in their seats as +though they were to be photographed. From the master's desk the whole +assembly looked like a grey carpet with bright patterns, but the next +moment one of them moved the head; the offender had to rise from his +seat and stand by the wall. The total effect was now disturbed, and +there had to be a good many raps with the cane before two hundred arms +lay parallel on the desks and a hundred heads were at right angles +with their collar-bones. When quiet was in some degree restored a new +rapping began which demanded absolute quiet. But at the very moment +when the absolute was all but attained, some muscle grew tired, some +nerve slackened, some sinew relaxed. Again there was confusion, cries, +blows, and a new attempt to reach the absolute. It generally ended by +the female teacher (the males did not drive it so far) closing one eye +and pretending that the absolute had been reached. + +Then came the important moment, when, at a given signal the whole +hundred must spring from their seats and stand in order, but nothing +more. It was a ticklish moment when slates fell down and rulers +clattered. Then they had to sit down and begin all over again by +keeping perfectly still. + +When they had really got on their legs, they were marched off in +divisions but on tip-toe without exception. Otherwise they had to turn +round and sit down again, get up again and so on. They had to go on +tip-toe in wooden sabots and water-boots. It was a great mistake; it +accustomed the children to stealthiness and gave their whole appearance +something cat-like and deceitful. In the play-ground a teacher had +to arrange those who wanted to drink in a straight line before the +water-tap by the entrance; at the same time the lavatories at the +other end of the play-ground had to be inspected, and games had to be +organised and watched over. Then the children were again drawn up and +marched into school. If it was not done quietly, they had to go out +again. + +Then another lesson began. The children read out of a patriotic +reading-book the principal object of which seemed to be to instil +respect for the upper classes and to represent Sweden as the best +country in Europe, although as regards climate and social economy, +it is one of the worst, its culture is borrowed from abroad, and all +its kings were of foreign origin. They did not venture to give such +teaching to the children of the upper classes in the Clara School and +the Lyceum, but in the Jakob School they had sufficient courage to +make poor children sing a patriotic song about the Duke of Ostgothland. +In this occurred a verse addressed to the crew of the fleet, saying +victory was sure in the battle they wished for "because Prince Oscar +leads us on," or something of the sort. + +Meanwhile the reading-lesson began. But just at that moment the +head-master came in. John wished to stop but the head-master beckoned +to him to go on. The children who had lost their respect for him after +the catechism-lesson were inattentive. John scolded them, but without +result. Then the head-master came forward with a cane; took the book +from John and made a little speech, to the effect that this division +was the worst, but now their teacher should see how to deal with them. +The exercise which followed seemed to have as its object the attainment +of perfect attention. The absolute again seemed to be the standard by +which these children were to be trained in this incomplete world of +relativity. + +The boy who was reading was interrupted, and another name called at +random out of the class. To follow attentively was assumed to be the +easiest thing in the world by this old man who certainly must have +experienced how thoughts wander their own way while the eyes pass +over the printed page. The inattentive one was dragged by his hair or +clothes and caned till he fell howling on the ground. + +Then the head-master departed after recommending John to use the cane +diligently. There remained nothing but to follow this method or to go; +the latter did not suit John's plans, therefore he remained. He made a +speech to the children and referred to the head-master. "Now," he said, +"you know how you must behave if you want to escape a thrashing. He who +gets one, has himself to thank. Don't blame me. Here is the stick, and +there is your lesson. Learn your lesson or you will get the stick,--and +it isn't my fault." + +That was cunningly put, but it was unmerciful, for one ought to have +first ascertained how far the children could do their work. They could +not, for they were the most lively and therefore the most inattentive. +So the cane was kept going all day, accompanied by cries of pain, and +fear on the faces of the innocent. It was terrible! To pay attention +is not in the power of the will, and therefore all this punishment was +mere torture. John felt the absurdity of the part he had to play, but +he had to do his duty. Sometimes he was tired and let things go as they +liked, but then his colleagues, male and female, came and made friendly +representations. Sometimes he found the whole thing so ridiculous +that he could not help smiling with the children while he caned them. +Both sides saw that they were working at something impossible and +unnecessary. + +Ibsen, who does not believe in the aristocracy of birth or of wealth, +has lately (1886) expressed his belief that the industrial class +are the true nobility. But why should they necessarily be so? If to +do no manual labour tends to degeneration, perhaps degeneration is +brought about even more quickly by excessive labour and want. All +these children born of manual labourers looked more sickly, weak and +stupid than the upper-class children which he had seen. One or the +other muscle might be more strongly developed,--a shoulder-blade, a +hand, or a foot,--but they looked anaemic under their pale skins. +Many had extraordinarily large heads which seemed to be swollen with +water, their ears and noses ran, their hands were frost-bitten. The +various professional diseases of town-labourers seemed to have been +inherited; one saw in miniature the gas-worker's lungs and blood spoilt +by sulphur-fumes, the smith's shoulders and feet bent out-wards, the +painter's brain atrophied by varnishes and poisonous colours, the +scrofulous eruption of the chimney sweeper, the contracted chest of +the book-binder; here one heard the cough of the workers in metal +and asphalt, smelt the poisons of the paper-stainer, observed the +watch-maker's short-sightedness, in second editions, so to speak. In +truth this was no race to which the future belonged, or on which the +future could build; nor was it a race which could permanently increase, +for the ranks of the workers are continually recruited from the country. + +It was not till about two o'clock that the great school-room was +emptied, for it took them about an hour with blows and raps to get out +of it into the street. The most unpractical part of it was that the +children had to march into the hall in troops to get their overcoats +and cloaks, and then march into the school-room again, instead of +going straight home. When John got into the street, he asked himself +"Is that the celebrated education which they have given to the lower +classes with so much sacrifice?" He could ask, and he was answered, +"Can it be done in any other way?" "No," he was obliged to answer. "If +it is your intention to educate a slavish lower class, always ready to +obey, train them with the stick,--if you mean to bring up a proletariat +to demand nothing of life, tell them lies about heaven. Tell them that +your method of teaching is ridiculous, let them begin to criticise +or get their way in one point and you have taken a step towards the +dissolution of society. But society is built up upon an obedient +conscientious lower class; therefore keep them down from the first; +deprive them of will and reason, and teach them to hope for nothing but +to be content." There was method in this madness. + +As regards the instruction in the elementary school, there was both +a good and bad side to it; the good was that they had introduced +object-teaching after the example of Pestalozzi, Rousseau's disciple; +the bad, that the students who taught in the elementary schools had +introduced "scientific" teaching. The simple learning by heart of the +multiplication table was not enough; it, together with fractions, +had to be understood. Understood? And yet an engineer who has been +through the technical high school cannot explain "why" a fraction +can be diminished by three if the sum of the figures is divisible by +three. On this principle seamen would not be allowed to use logarithm +tables, because they cannot calculate logarithms. To be always +relaying the foundation instead of building on what is already laid is +an educational luxury and leads to the over-multiplication of lessons +in schools. + +Some one may object that John should first have reformed himself +as teacher, before he set about reforming the system of education; +but he could not; he was a passive instrument in the hands of the +superintendent and the school authorities. The best teachers, that is +to say, those who forced the worst (in this case the best) results out +of the pupils were the uneducated ones who came from the Seminary. They +were not sceptical about the methods in use and had no squeamishness +about caning, but the children respected them the most. A great coarse +fellow who had formerly been a carriage-maker had the bigger boys +completely under his thumb. The lower class seem to have really more +fear and respect for those of their own rank than the upper class. +Bailiffs and foremen are more awe-imposing than superintendents and +teachers. Do the lower classes see that the superior who has come out +of their ranks understands their affairs better, and therefore pay him +more respect? The female teachers also enjoyed more respect than the +male. They were pedantic, demanded absolute perfection, and were not at +all soft-hearted, but rather cruel. They were fond of practising the +refined cruelty of blows on the palm of the hand and showed in so doing +a want of intelligence which the most superficial study of physiology +would have remedied. When a child by involuntary reflex action, drew +his fingers back, he was punished all the more for not keeping his +fingers still. As if one could prevent blinking, when something blew +into one's eye! The female teachers had the advantage of knowing very +little about teaching and were plagued with no doubts. It was not true +that they had less pay than the men teachers. They had relatively more; +and if after passing a paltry teacher's examination they had received +more than the students, that would have been unjust. They were treated +with partiality, regarded as miracles, when they were competent, and +received allowances for travelling abroad. + +As comrades, they were friendly and helpful if one was polite and +submissive and let them hold the reins. There was not the slightest +trace of flirtation; the men saw them in anything but becoming +situations, and under an aspect which women do not usually show to +the other sex, viz. that of jailers. They made notes of everything, +prepared themselves for their lessons, were narrow-minded and content, +and saw through nothing. It was a very suitable occupation for them +under existing circumstances. + +When John was thoroughly sick of caning, or could not manage a boy, or +was in despair generally, he sent the black sheep to a female teacher, +who willingly undertook the unpleasant role of executioner. + +What it is that makes the competent teacher is not clear. Some produced +an effect by their quiet manner, others by their nervousness; some +seemed to magnetise the children, others beat them; some imposed on +them by their age or their manly appearance, etc. The women worked as +women, _i.e._ through a half-forgotten tradition of a past matriarchate. + +John was not competent. He looked too young and was only just nineteen; +he was sceptical about the methods employed and everything else; with +all his seriousness he was playful and boyish. The whole matter to him +was only an employment by the way, for he was ambitious and wished to +advance, but did not know in which direction. + +Moreover he was an aristocrat like his contemporaries. Through +education his habits and senses had been refined, or spoilt, as one may +choose to call it; he found it hard to tolerate unpleasant smells, ugly +objects, distorted bodies, coarse expressions, torn clothes. Life had +given him much, and these daily reminders of poverty plagued him like +an evil conscience. He himself might have been one of the lower class +if his mother had married one of her own position. + +"He was proud" a shop-boy would have said, who had mounted to the +position of editor of a paper and boasted that he was content with his +lot, forgetting that he might well be content since he had risen from +a low position. "He was proud" a master shoemaker would have said, who +would have rather thrown himself into the sea than become an apprentice +again. John _was_ proud, of that there was no doubt, as proud as the +master shoemaker, but not in such a high degree, as he had descended +from the level of the student to the elementary school-teacher. That, +however, was no virtue, but a necessity, and he did not therefore boast +of his step downward, nor give himself the air of being a friend of +the people. One cannot command sympathies and antipathies, and for the +lower class to demand love and self-sacrifice from the upper class is +mere idealism. The lower class is sacrificed for the upper class, but +they have offered themselves willingly. They have the right to take +back their rights, but they should do it themselves. No one gives up +his position willingly, therefore the lower class should not wait for +kings and the upper class to go. "Pull us down! but all together." + +If an intelligent man of the upper class help in such an operation, +those below should be thankful to him especially since such an act is +liable to the imputation of being inspired by impure motives. Therefore +the lower class should not too narrowly inspect the motives of those +who help them; the result is in all eases the same. The aristocrats +seem to have seen this and therefore regard one of themselves who sides +with the proletariat as a traitor. He is a traitor to his class, that +is true; and the lower class should put it to his credit. + +John was not an aristocrat in the sense that he used the word "mob" or +despised the poor. Through his mother he was closely allied to them, +but circumstances had estranged him from them. That was the fault of +class-education. This fault might be done away with for the future, if +elementary schools were reformed by the inclusion of the knowledge of +civil duties in their programme, and by their being made obligatory for +all, without exception, as the militia-schools are. Then it would be no +longer a disgrace to become an elementary school-teacher as it now is, +and made a matter of reproach to a man that he has been one. + +John, in order to keep himself above, applied himself to his future +work. To this end he studied Italian grammar in his spare time at the +school. He could now buy books and did so. He was honest enough not to +construe these efforts at climbing up as an ideal thirst for knowledge +or a striving for the good of humanity. He simply read for his degree. + +But the meagre diet he had lived on in Upsala, his midday meals at 6 +kronas, the milk and the bread had undermined his strength, and he +was now in the pleasure-seeking period of youth. It was tedious at +home, and in the afternoons he went to the cafe or the restaurant, +where he met friends. Strong drinks invigorated him and he slept well +after them. The desire for alcohol seems to appear regularly in each +adolescent. All northerners are born of generations of drinkers from +the early heathen times, when beer and mead was drunk, and it is quite +natural that this desire should be felt as a necessity. With John it +was an imperious need the suppression of which resulted in a diminution +of strength. It may be questioned whether abstinence for us may not +involve the same risk, as the giving up of poison for an arsenic-eater. +Probably the otherwise praiseworthy temperance movement will merely +end in demanding moderation; that is a virtue and not a mere exhibition +of will power which results in boasting and self-righteousness. + +John who had hitherto only worn east-off suits, began to wear fine +clothes. His salary seemed to him extraordinarily great and in the +magnifying-glass of his fancy assumed huge proportions, with the result +that he soon ran into debt. Debt which grew and grew and could never be +paid, became the vulture gnawing at his life, the object of his dreams, +the wormwood which poisoned his content. What foolish hopefulness, what +colossal self-deceit it was to incur debts! What did he expect? To gain +an academic dignity. And then? To become a teacher with a salary of 750 +kronas! Less than he had now! Not the least trying part of his work was +to accommodate his brain to the capacity of the children. That meant +to come down to the level of the younger and less intelligent, and to +screw down the hammer so that it might hit the anvil,--an operation +which injured the machine. + +On the other hand he derived real profit from his observations in +the families of the children, whom his duty required him to visit on +Sundays. There was one boy in his class who was the most difficult of +all. He was dirty and ill-dressed, grinned continually, smelt badly, +never knew his lessons and was always being caned. He had a very large +head and staring eyes which rolled and turned about continually. John +had to visit his parents in order to find out the reason of his +irregular attendance at school and bad behaviour. He therefore went +to the Apelbergsgata where they kept a public-house. He found that +the father had gone to work, but the mother was at the counter. The +public-house was dark and evil-smelling, filled with men who looked +threateningly at John as he entered probably taking him for a plain +clothes policeman. He gave his message to the mother and was asked +into a room behind the counter. One glance at it sufficed to explain +everything. The mother blamed her son and excused him alternately and +she had some reason for the latter. The boy was accustomed to "lick the +glasses,"--that was the explanation and that was enough. What could be +done in such a case? A change of dwelling, better food, a nurse to look +after him and so on. All these were questions of money! + +Afterwards he came to the Clara poor-house, which was empty of its +usual occupants and provisionally opened to families because of the +want of houses. In a great hall lay and stood quite a dozen families, +who had divided the floor with strokes of chalk. There stood a +carpenter with his planing-bench, here sat a shoemaker with his board; +round about on both sides of the chalk-line women sat and children +crawled. What could John do there? Send in a report on a matter which +was perfectly well known, distribute wood-tickets and orders for meat +and clothing. + +In Kungsholmsbergen he came across specimens of proud poverty. There he +was shown the door, "God be thanked, we have no need of charity. We +are all right." + +"Indeed! Then you should not let your boy go in torn boots in winter." + +"That is not your business, sir," and the door was slammed. + +Sometimes he saw sad scenes,--a child sick, the room full of sulphur +fumes of coke, and all coughing from the grandmother down to the +youngest. What could he do except feel dispirited and make his escape? +At that period there was no other means of help except charity; writers +who described the state of things, contented themselves with lamenting +it; no one saw any hope. Therefore there was nothing to do except to be +sorry, help temporarily, and fly in order not to despair. + +All this lay like a heavy cloud upon him, and he lost pleasure in +study. He felt there was something wrong here, but nothing could be +done said all the newspapers and books and people. It must be so but +every one is free to climb. You climb too! + +Time went on and spring approached. John's closest acquaintance +was a teacher from the Sloejd School. He was a poet, well-versed +in literature, and also musical. They generally walked to the +Stallmastergarden restaurant, discussed literature, and ate their +supper there. While John was paying his attentions to the waitress, +his friend played the piano. Sometimes the latter amused himself by +writing comic verses to girls. John was seized with a craze for writing +verse but could not. The gift must be born with one, he thought, and +inspiration descend all of a sudden, as in the case of conversion. +He was evidently not one of the elect, and felt himself neglected by +nature and maimed. + +One evening when John was sitting and chatting with the girl, she said +quite suddenly to him, "Friday is my birthday; you must write some +verses for me." + +"Yes," answered John, "I will." + +Later on when he met his friend, he told him of his hasty promise. + +"I will write them for you," he said. The next day he brought a poem, +copied out in a fine hand-writing and composed in John's name. It was +piquant and amusing. John dispatched it on the morning of the birthday. + +In the evening of the same day both the friends came to eat their +supper and to congratulate the girl. She did not appear for an hour for +she had to serve guests. The teachers' meal was brought and they began +to eat. + +Then the girl appeared in the doorway and beckoned John. She looked +almost severe. John went to her and they ascended a flight of stairs. +"Have you written the verses?" she asked. + +"No," said John. + +"Ah, I thought so. The lady behind the buffet said she had read them +two years ago when the teacher sent them to Majke who was an ugly girl. +For shame, John!" + +He took his cap and wanted to rush out, but the girl caught hold of him +and tried to keep him back for she saw that he looked deathly pale +and beside himself. But he wrenched himself free and hastened into +the Bellevue Park. He ran into the wood leaving the beaten tracks. +The branches of the bushes flew into his face, stones rolled over his +feet, and frightened birds rose up. He was quite wild with shame, and +instinctively sought the wood in order to hide himself. It is a curious +phenomenon that at the utmost pitch of despair a man runs into the +wood before he plunges into the water. The wood is the penultimate and +the water the ultimate resource. It is related of a famous author, who +had enjoyed a twenty years' popularity quietly and proudly, that he +was suddenly cast down from his position. He was as though struck by a +thunderbolt, went half-mad and sought the shelter of the woods where +he recovered himself. The wood is the original home of the savage and +the enemy of the plough and therefore of culture. When a civilised man +suddenly strips off the garb of civilisation, the artistically woven +fabric of his repute, he becomes in a moment a savage or a wild beast. +When a man becomes mad, he begins to throw off his clothes. What is +madness? A relapse? Yes, many think animals mad. + +It was evening when John entered the wood. In the midst of some +bushes he laid down on a great block of stone. He was ashamed of +himself,--that was the chief impression on his mind. An emotional man +is more severe with himself than others think. He scourged himself +unmercifully. He had wished to shine in borrowed plumage, and so lied; +and in the second place he had insulted an innocent girl. The first +part of the accusation affected him in a very sensitive point,--his +want of poetic capacity. He wished to do more than he could. He was +discontent with the position which nature and society had assigned +him. Yes, but (and now his self-defence began after the evening air +had cooled his blood), in the school one had been always exhorted to +strive upwards; those who did so were praised, and discontent with +the position one might happen to be in, was justified. Yes but (here +the scourge descended!) he had tried to deceive. To deceive! That was +unpardonable. He was ashamed, stripped and unmasked without any means +of retreat. Deception, falsity, cheating! So it was! + +As a quondam Christian, John was most afraid of having a fault, and +as a member of society he feared lest it should be visible. Everybody +knew that one had faults, but to acknowledge them was regarded as a +piece of cynicism, for society always wishes to appear better than it +is. Sometimes, however, society demanded that one should confess one's +fault if one wished for forgiveness, but that was a trick. Society +wished for confession in order to enjoy the punishment, and was very +deceitful. John had confessed his fault, been punished, and still his +conscience was uneasy. + +The second point regarding the girl was also difficult. She had loved +him purely and he had insulted her. How coarse and vulgar! Why should +he think that a waitress could not love innocently? His own mother had +been in the same position as that girl. He had insulted her. Shame +upon him! + +Now he heard shouts in the park, and his name being called. The girl's +voice and his friend's echoed among the trees, but he did not answer +them. For a moment the scourge fell out of his hands; he became sobered +and thought, "I will go back, we will have supper, call Riken and drink +a glass with her, and it will be all over." But no! He was too high up +and one cannot descend all at once. + +The voices became silent. He lay back in a state of semi-stupefaction +and ground his double crime between the mill-stones of rumination. He +had lied and hurt her feelings. + +It began to grow dark. There was a rustling in the bushes; he started +and a sweat broke out upon him. Then he went out and sat upon a seat +till the dew fell. He shivered and felt poorly. Then he got up and went +home. + +Now his head was clear and he could think. What a stupid business it +all was! He did not really mean that she should take him for a poet, +and had been quite ready to explain the whole trick. It was all a joke. +His friend had made a fool of him, but it did not matter. + +When he got home he found his friend sleeping in his bed. He wanted +to rise but John would not let him. He wished to scourge himself once +more. He lay on the floor, put a cigar-box under his head and drew a +volunteer's cloak over him. In the morning when he awoke, John asked in +trembling tones, "How did she take it?" + +"Ah, she laughed; then we drank a glass, and it was over. She liked the +verses." + +"She laughed! Was she not angry?" + +"Not at all." + +"Then she only humbugged me." + +John wished to hear no more. This trifle had kept him on the rack for a +whole dreadful night. He felt ashamed of having asked whether she was +disquieted about him. But since she had laughed and drunk punch she +could not have been. Not even anxious about his life! + +He dressed himself and went down to the school. + +The habit of self-criticism derived from his religious training had +accustomed him to occupy himself with his ego, to fondle and cherish +it, as though it were a separate and beloved personality. So cherished +the ego expanded and kept continually looking within instead of +without upon the world. It was an interesting personal acquaintance, a +friend who must be flattered, but who must also hear the truth and be +corrected. + +It was the mental malady of the time reduced to a system by Fichte, +who taught that everything took place in the ego and through the ego, +without which there was no reality. It was the formula for romanticism +and for subjective idealism. + +"I stood on the shore under the king's castle," "I dwell in the cave +of the mountain," "I, small boy, watch the door," "I think of the +beautiful times,"--all these phrases struck the same note. Was this "I" +really so proud. Was not the poet's "I" more modest than the editor's +royal "we"? + +This absorption in self, or the new malady of culture, of which much +is written nowadays, has been common with all men who have not worked +with their bodies. The brain is only an organ for imparting movement +to the muscles. Now when in a civilised man the brain cannot act upon +the muscles, nor bring its power into play, there results a disturbance +of equilibrium. The brain begins to dream; too full of juices which +cannot be absorbed by muscular activity, it converts them involuntarily +into systems, into thought-combinations, into the hallucinations which +haunt painters, sculptors and poets. If no outlet can be found, there +follows stagnation, violent outbreaks, depression, and at last madness. +Schools which are often vestibules for asylums, have recourse to +gymnastics, but with what result? There is no connection between the +pupil's cerebral activity and the muscular activity called into play by +gymnastics; the latter is only directed by another's will through the +word of command. + +All studious youths are aware of this tendency to congestion of the +brain. It is a good thing that they often go out to improve or to +beautify society, but it would be better if the equilibrium were +restored, and a sound mind dwelt in a sound body. It has been sought to +introduce physical work into schools as a remedy. It would be better +to let elementary knowledge be acquired at home, to make the school +a day-school, and to let every one look after himself. For the rest +the emancipation of the lower classes will compel the higher classes +to undertake some of the physical labour now carried on by domestics +and so the equilibrium will be restored. That such labour does not +blunt the intelligence can be easily seen by observing that some of +the strongest minds of the time have had such daily contact with +reality, _e.g._ Mill the civil service official, Spencer, the civil +engineer, Edison the telegraphist. The student period of life, the most +unwholesome because not under discipline, is also the most dangerous. +The brain continually takes in, without producing anything, not even +anything intellectual, while the whole muscular system is unoccupied. + +John at this time was suffering from an over-production of thought and +imagination. The mechanical school-work continually revolving in the +same circle with the same questions and answers afforded no relief. +It increased on the other hand his stock of observations of children +and teachers. There lay and fermented in his mind a quantity of +experiences, perceptions, criticisms and thoughts without any order. He +therefore sought for society in order to speak his mind out. But it was +not sufficient, and as he did not find any one who was willing to act +as a sounding-board, he took to declaiming poetry. + +In the early sixties declamation was much the fashion. In families they +used to read aloud "The Kings of Salamis." In the numerous volunteer +concerts the same pieces were declaimed over and over again. These +declamations were what the quartette singing had been, an outlet for +all the hope and enthusiasm called forth by the awakening of 1865. +Since Swedes are neither born nor trained orators, they became singers +and reciters, perhaps because their want of originality sought a +ready-made means of expression. They could execute but not create. The +same want of originality showed itself in the bachelor's gatherings +where reciters of anecdotes were much in request. This feeble and +tedious form of amusement was superseded when the new questions of the +day provided food for conversation and discussion. + +One day John came to his friend the elementary school-teacher whom he +found together with another young colleague. When the conversation +began to slacken, his friend produced a volume of Schiller, whose poems +had just then appeared in a cheap edition and were bought mostly for +that reason. They opened "The Robbers" and read round in turn, John +taking the part of Karl Moor. The first scene of the first act took +place between old Moor and Franz. Then came the second scene: John +read, "I am sick of this quill-driving age when I read of great men +in Plutarch." He did not know the play and had never seen bandits. +At first he read absent-mindedly, but his interest was soon aroused. +The play struck a new note. He found his obscure dreams expressed +in words; his rebellious criticisms printed. Here then was another, +a great and famous author who felt the same disgust at the whole +course of education in school and university as he did, who would +rather be Robinson Crusoe or a bandit than be enrolled in this army +which is called society. He read on; his voice shook, his cheeks +glowed, his breast heaved: "They bar out healthy nature with tasteless +conventionalities."... There it stood all in black and white. "And that +is Schiller!" he exclaimed, "the same Schiller who wrote the tedious +history of the Thirty Years' War, and the tame drama "Wallenstein" +which is read in schools!" Yes, it was the same man. Here (in "The +Robbers") he preached revolt, revolt against law, society, morals +and religion. That was in the revolt of 1781 eight years before the +great revolution. That was the anarchists' programme a hundred years +before its time, and Karl Moor was a nihilist. The drama came out with +a lion on the title-page and with the inscription "In Tyrannos." The +author then (1781) aged two-and-twenty had to fly. There was no doubt +therefore about the intention of the piece. There was also another +motto from Hippocrates which showed this intention as plainly; "What is +not cured by medicine must be cured by iron; what is not cured by iron +must be cured by fire." + +That was clear enough! But in the preface the author apologised and +recanted. He disclaimed all sympathy with Franz Moor's sophisms and +said that he wished to exhibit the punishment of wickedness in Karl +Moor. Regarding religion he said, "Just now it is the fashion to make +religion a subject for one's wit to play upon as Voltaire and Frederick +the Great did, and a man is scarcely reckoned a genius unless he can +make the holiest truths the object of his godless satire...." I hope +I have exacted no ordinary revenge for religion and sound morality in +handing over these obstinate despisers of Scripture in the person of +this scoundrelly bandit, to public contumely. Was then Schiller true +when he wrote the drama, and false when he wrote the preface? True in +both cases, for man is a complex creature, and sometimes appears in his +natural sometimes in his artificial character. At his writing-table +in loneliness, when the silent letters were being written down on +paper, Schiller seems like other young authors to have worked under the +influence of a blind natural impulse without regard to mens' opinion, +without thinking of the public, or laws, or constitutions. The veil +was lifted for a moment and the falsity of society seen through in its +whole extent. The silence of the night when literary work--especially +in youth,--is carried on, causes one to forget the noisy artificial +life outside, and darkness hides the heaps of stones over which animals +which are ill-adapted to their environment stumble. Then comes the +morning, the light of day, the street noises, men, friends, police, +clocks striking, and the seer is afraid of his own thoughts. Public +opinion raises its cry, newspapers sound the alarm, friends drop off, +it becomes lonely round one, and an irresistible terror seizes the +attacker of society. "If you will not be with us," society says, "then +go into the woods. If you are an animal ill-adapted to its environment, +or a savage, we will deport you to a lower state of society which +you will suit." And from its own point of view society is right and +always will be right. But the society of the future will celebrate the +revolter, the individual, who has brought about social improvement, and +the revolter is justified long after his death. + +In every intelligent youth's life there comes a moment when he is in +the transition stage between family life and that of society, when +he feels disgusted at artificial civilisation and breaks out. If he +remains in society, he is soon suppressed by the united wet-blankets +of sentiment and anxiety about living; he becomes tired, dazzled, +drops off and leaves other young men to continue the fight. This +unsophisticated glance into things, this outbreak of a healthy nature +which must of necessity take place in an unspoilt youth, has been +stigmatised by a name which is intended to depreciate the idealistic +impulses of youth. It is called "spring fever" by which is meant that +it is only a temporary illness of childhood, a rising of the vernal +sap, which produces stoppage of the circulation and giddiness. But who +knows whether the youth did not see right before society put out his +eyes? And why do they despise him afterwards? + +Schiller had to creep into a public post for the sake of a living and +even eat the bread of charity from a duke's hand. Therefore his writing +degenerated, though perhaps not from an aesthetic or subordinate point +of view. But his hatred of tyrants is everywhere manifest. It declares +itself against Philip II of Spain, Dorea of Genoa, Gessler of Austria, +but therefore ceases to be effective. Schiller's rebellion which was in +the first instance directed against society, was afterwards directed +against the monarchy alone. He closes his career with the following +advice to a world reformer (not, however, till he had seen the reaction +which followed the French Revolution). "For rain and dew and for the +welfare of mankind, let heaven care to-day, my friend, as it has always +done." Heaven, the unfortunate old heaven will care for it, just as +well as it has done before. + +Just as a man once does his militia duty at the age of twenty-one, so +Schiller did his. How many have shirked it! + +John did not take the preface to "The Robbers" very seriously or rather +ignored it; but he took Karl Moor literally for he was congenial. He +did not imitate him, for he was so like him that he had no need to do +so. He was just as mutinous, just as wavering, and just as ready at an +alarm to go and deliver himself into the hands of justice. + +His disgust at everything continually increased and he began to make +plans for flight from organised society. Once it occurred to him to +journey to Algiers and enlist in the Foreign Legion. That would be +fine he thought to live in the desert in a tent, to shoot at half-wild +men or perhaps be shot by them. But circumstances occurred at the +right moment, to reconcile him again with his environment. Through the +recommendation of a friend he was offered the post of tutor to two +girls in a rich and cultured family. The children were to be educated +in a new and liberal-minded method and neither to go to a girls' school +nor have a governess. That was an important task to which he was +called and John did not feel himself adequate to it; besides which he +objected that he was only an elementary school-teacher. He was answered +that his future employers knew that, but were liberal-minded. How +liberal-minded people were at that time! + +Now there commenced a new double life for him. From the penal +institution of the elementary school with its compulsory catechism and +Bible, its poverty, wretchedness, and cruelty, he went to dinner at +one o'clock, which he swallowed in a quarter of an hour, and then by +two o'clock was at his post as private tutor. The house was one of the +finest at that time in Stockholm with a porter, Pompeian stair-cases +and painted windows in the hall. In a handsome, large, well-lighted +corner room with flowers, bird-cages and an aquarium he was to give +lessons to two well-dressed, washed and combed little girls, who +looked cheerful and satisfied after their dinner. Here he could give +expression to his own thoughts. The catechism was banished, and only +select Bible stories were to be read together with broad-minded +explanations of the life and teachings of the Ideal Man, for the +children were not to be confirmed, but brought up after a new model. +They read Schiller and were enthusiastic for William Tell and the +fortunate little land of freedom. John taught them all that he knew and +spent more time in talking than in asking questions; he roused in them +the hopes of a better future which he shared himself. + +Here he obtained an insight into a social circle hitherto unknown to +him, that of the rich and cultured. Here he found liberal-mindedness, +courage and the desire for truth. Down below in the elementary school +they were cowardly, conservative and untruthful. Would the parents of +the children be willing to have religious teaching done away with, +even if the school authorities recommended it? Probably not. Must +then illumination come from the upper classes? Certainly, though not +from the highest class of all, but from the republic of truth-seeking +scientists. John saw that one must get an upper place in order to be +heard; therefore he must strive upwards or pull culture down and cast +the sparks of it among all. One needed to be economically independent +in order to be liberally minded; a position was necessary in order to +give one's words weight; thus aristocracy ruled in this sphere also. + +There was at that time a group of young doctors, men of science and +letters, and members of parliament who formed a liberal league without +constituting themselves a formal society. They gave popular lectures, +engaged not to receive any honorary decorations, cherished liberal +views on the subject of the State Church and wrote in the papers. Among +them were Axel Key, Nordenskioeld, Christian Loven, Harald Wieselgren, +Hedlund, Victor Rydberg, Meijerberg, Jolin, and many less-known names. +These, with one or two exceptions, worked quietly without creating +excitement. After the reaction of 1872 they fell off and became tired; +they could not join any political party which was rather an advantage +than otherwise for the country party had already begun to be corrupted +by yearly visiting Stockholm and attendance at the court. They now all +belong to the moderate or respectable liberal party, except those of +them who have joined the indifferents, a fact not to be wondered at, +after they had for so many years fought uselessly for nothing. + +Through the family of his pupils John came into external touch with +this group, obtained a closer view of them, and heard their speeches at +dinners and suppers. To John they sometimes seemed the very men whom +the time needed, who would first spread enlightenment and then work +for reform. Here he met the superintendent of the elementary school +and was surprised at finding him among the liberals. But he had the +school authorities over him and was as good as powerless. At a cheerful +dinner, when John had plucked up heart, he wished to have an intimate +talk with him and to come to an understanding. "Here," he thought, +"we can play the part of augurs and laugh with each other over our +champagne." But the superintendent did not want to laugh and asked him +to postpone the conversation till they met in the school. No, John did +not want to do that, for in the school both would have other views, and +speak of something else. + +John's debts increased and so did his work. He was in the school from +eight till one; then he ate his dinner and went to give his private +lessons within half-an-hour, arriving out of breath, with food half +digested, and sleepy; then he taught till four o'clock going out +afterwards to give more lessons in the Nordtullsgata; he returned to +his girl pupils in the evening, and then read far into the night for +his examination after ten hours' teaching. That was over-work. The +pupil thinks his work hard, but he is only the carriage while the +teacher is the horse. Teaching is decidedly harder than standing by a +screw or the crane of a machine, and equally monotonous. + +His brain, dulled by work and disturbed digestion, needed to be roused, +and his strength needed replenishing. He chose the shortest and best +method by going into a cafe, drinking a glass of wine, and sitting for +a while. It was good that there were such places of recreation, where +young men could meet and fathers of families recruit themselves over a +newspaper and talk of something else than business. + +The following summer he went out to a summer settlement outside the +city. There he read daily for a couple of hours with his girl pupils +and a whole number of children besides them. The summer settlement +afforded rich and varied opportunities of social intercourse. It was +divided into three camps,--the learned, the aesthetic and the civic. +John belonged to all three. It has been asserted that loneliness +injures the development of character (into an automaton), and if +has been also asserted that much social intercourse is bad for the +development of character. Everything can be said and can be true; it +all depends upon the point of view. But no doubt for the development +of the soul into a rich and free life much social intercourse is +necessary. The more men one sees and talks with, the more points +of view and experiences one gains. Every one conceals a grain of +originality in himself, every individual has his own history. John got +on equally well with all; he spoke on learned matters with the learned, +discussed art and literature with the aesthetes, sang quartettes and +danced with the young people, taught the children and botanised, +sailed, rode and swam with them. But after he had spent some time in +the rush, he withdrew into solitude for a day or two to digest his +impressions. Those who were really happy were the townsmen. They came +from their work in the town, shook off their cares and played in the +evening. Old wholesale merchants played in the ring and sang and danced +like children. The learned and the aesthetic on the other hand sat +on chairs, spoke of their work, were worried by their thoughts as by +nightmares and never seemed to be really happy. They could not free +themselves from the tyranny of thought. The tradesmen, however, had +preserved a little green spot in their hearts which neither the thirst +for gain nor speculation nor competition had been able to parch up. +There was something emotional and hearty about them which John was +inclined to call "nature." They could laugh like lunatics, scream like +savages, and be swayed by the emotions of the moment. They wept over +a friend's misfortune or death, embraced each other when delighted +and could be carried out of themselves by a beautiful sunset. The +professors sat in chairs and could not see the landscape because of +their eye-glasses, their looks were directed inwards, and they never +showed their feelings. They talked in syllogisms and formulas; their +laughter was bitter, and all their learning seemed like a puppet play. +Is that then the highest point of view? It is not a defect to have let +a whole region of the soul's life lie fallow? + +It was the third camp with which John was on the most intimate +terms. This was a little clique consisting of a doctor's family and +their friends. There sang the renowned tenor W. while Professor M. +accompanied him; there played and sang the composer J.; there the +old Professor P. talked about his journeys to Rome in the company +of painters of high birth. Here the emotions had full play, but +were under the control of good taste. They enjoyed the sunsets, but +analysed the lights and shades and talked of lines and "values." The +more noisy enjoyments of the tradesmen were regarded as disturbing +and unaesthetic. They were enthusiasts for art. John spent some hours +pleasantly with these amiable people, but when he heard the sound of +quartette singing and dance-music from the villa close by, he longed to +be there. That was certainly more lively. + +In hours of solitude he read, and now for the first time, became really +acquainted with Byron. "Don Juan," which he already knew, he had found +merely frivolous. It really dealt with nothing and the descriptions +of scenery were intolerably long. The work seemed merely a string of +adventures and anecdotes. In "Manfred" he renewed acquaintance with +Karl Moor in another dress. Manfred was no hater of men; he hated +himself more, and went to the Alps in order to fly himself, but always +found his guilty self beside him, for John guessed at once that he had +been guilty of incest. Nowadays it is generally believed that Byron +hinted at this crime, which was purely imaginary, in order to make +himself appear interesting. To become interesting as a romanticist at +whatever price would at the present time be called "differentiating +oneself, going beyond and above the others." Crime was regarded as +a sign of strength, therefore it was considered desirable to have a +crime to boast about, but not such a one as could be punished. They did +not want to have anything to do with the police and penal servitude. +There was certainly a spirit of opposition to law and morality in this +boasting of crime. + +Manfred's discontent with heaven and the government of Providence +pleased John. Manfred's denunciations of men were really levelled at +society, though society as we now understand it, had not then been +discovered. Rousseau, Byron and the rest were by no means discontented +misogynists. It was only primitive Christianity which demanded that men +should love men. To say that one was interested in them would be more +modest and truthful. One who has been overreached and thrust aside in +the battle of life may well fear men, but one cannot hate them when +one realises one's solidarity with humanity and that human intercourse +is the greatest pleasure in life. Byron was a spirit who awoke before +the others and might have been expected to hate his contemporaries, but +none the less strove and suffered for the good of all. + +When John saw that the poem was written in blank verse he tried to +translate it, but had not got far, before he discovered that he could +not write verse. He was not "called." Sometimes melancholy, sometimes +frisky, John felt at times an uncontrollable desire to quench the +burning fire of thought in intoxication and bring the working of his +brain to a standstill. Though he was shy, he felt occasionally impelled +to step forward, to make himself impressive, to collect hearers and +appear on a stage. When he had drunk a good deal, he wanted to declaim +poetry in the grand style. But in the middle of the piece, when his +ecstasy was at its highest, he heard his own voice, became nervous and +embarrassed, found himself ridiculous, suddenly dropped into a prosaic +and comic tone and ended with a grimace; he could be pathetic, but +only for a while; then came self-criticism and he laughed at his own +overwrought feelings. The romantic was in his blood, but the realistic +side of him was about to wake up. + +He was also liable to attacks of caprice and self-punishment. Thus he +remained away from a dinner to which he had been invited and lay in his +room hungry till the evening. He excused himself by saying that he had +overslept. + +The summer approached its end and he looked forward to the beginning of +the autumn term in the elementary school with dread. He had now been +in circles where poverty never showed its emaciated face; he had tasted +the enticing wine of culture and did not wish to become sober again. + +His depression increased; he retired into himself and withdrew from the +circle of his friends. But one evening, there was a knock at his door; +the old doctor who had been his most intimate friend and lived in the +same villa, stepped in. + +"How are the moods?" he asked, and sat down with the air of an old +fatherly friend. + +John did not wish to confess. How was he to say that he was +discontented with his position, and acknowledge that he was ambitious +and wished to advance in life? But the doctor had seen and understood +all. "You must be a doctor," he said. "That is a practical vocation +which will suit you, and bring you into touch with real life. You have +a lively imagination which you must hold in check, or it will do harm. +Now are you inclined to this? Have I guessed right?" + +He had. Through his intercourse from afar with these new prophets who +succeeded the priests and confessors, John had come to see in their +practical knowledge of men's lives, the highest pitch of human wisdom. +To become a wise man who could solve the riddles of life,--that was for +a while his dream. For a while, for he did not really wish to enter any +career in which he could be enrolled as a regular member of society. +It was not from dislike of work, for he worked strenuously and was +unhappy when unoccupied, but he had a strong objection to be enrolled. +He did not wish to be a cypher, a cog-wheel, or a screw in the social +machine. He wished to stand outside and contemplate, learn and preach. +A doctor was in a certain sense free; he was not an official, had no +superiors, set in no public office, was not tied by the clock. That was +a fairly enticing prospect, and John was enticed. But how was he to +take a medical degree, which required eight years' study? His friend, +however, had seen a way out of this difficulty. "Live with us and teach +my boys," he said. + +This was certainly a business-like offer which carried with it no sense +of accepting a humiliating favour. But what about his place in the +school? Should he give it up? + +"That is not your place!" the doctor cut him short. "Every one should +work where his talents can have free scope, and yours cannot in the +elementary school, where you have to teach, as prescribed by the school +authorities." + +John found this reasonable, but he had been so imbued with ascetic +teaching that he felt a pang of conscience. He wanted to leave the +school, but a strange feeling of duty and obligation held him back. He +felt quite ashamed of being suspected of such a natural weakness as +ambition. And his place, as the son of a servant, had been assigned to +him below. But his father had literally pulled him up, why should he +sink and strike his roots down there again? + +He fought a short bloody conflict, then accepted the offer thankfully, +and sent in his resignation as a school-teacher. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DOCTOR + +(1868) + + +John now found his new home with the homeless, the Israelites. He +was immediately surrounded by a new atmosphere. Here there was no +recollection of Christianity; one neither plagued oneself or others; +there was no grace at meals, no going to church, no catechism. + +"It is good to be here," thought John. "These are liberal-minded men +who have brought the best of foreign culture home, without being +obliged to take what is bad." Here for the first time, he encountered +foreign influences. The family had journeyed much, had relatives +abroad, spoke all languages, and received foreign guests. Both the +small and great affairs of the country were spoken about, and light +thrown on them by comparison with their originals abroad. By this means +John's mental horizon was widened and he was enabled to estimate his +native country better. + +The patriarchal constitution of the family had not assumed the form of +domestic tyranny. On the contrary the children treated their parents +more as their equals, and the parents were gentle with them without +losing their dignity. Placed in an unfriendly part of the world, +surrounded by half-enemies, the members of the family helped each other +and held together. To be without a native country, which is regarded +as such a hard-ship, has this advantage that it keeps the intelligence +alive and vigorous. Men who are wanderers have to watch unceasingly, +observe continually, and gain new and rich experiences, while those who +sit at home become lazy and lean upon others. + +The children of Israel occupy a peculiar and exceptional position from +a social point of view. They have forgotten the Messianic promise and +do not believe in it. In most European countries they have remained +among the middle classes; to join the lower classes was for the most +part denied them, though not so widely as is generally believed. Nor +could they join the upper classes; therefore they feel related to +neither of the latter. They are aristocrats from habit and inclination, +but have the same interests as the lower classes, _i.e_. they wish to +roll away the stone which lies upon and presses them. But they fear the +proletariat who have no religious sense and who do not love the rich. +Therefore the children of Abraham rather aspire to those above them, +than seek sympathy from those below. + +About this time (1868) the question of Jewish emancipation began to be +raised. All liberals supported it and it was practically a discarding +of Christianity. Baptism, ecclesiastical marriage, confirmation, +church attendance were all declared to be unnecessary conditions for +membership in a Christian community. Such apparently small reforms +make an impression on the state, like the dropping of water on a rock. + +At that time a cheerful tone prevailed in the family, the sons having a +brighter future in prospect than their fathers, whose academic course +had been hindered by State regulations. + +A liberal table was kept in the house; everything was of the best +quality, and there was plenty of it. The servants managed the house +and were allowed a free hand in everything; they were not regarded as +servants. The housemaid was a pietist and allowed to be so, as much +as she pleased. She was good-natured and humorous, and, illogically +enough, adopted the jesting tone of the cheerful paganism which reigned +in the house. On the other hand, no one laughed at her belief. John +himself was treated as an intimate friend and a child alternately and +lived with the boys. His work was easy and he was rather required to +keep the boys company than to give them lessons. Meanwhile he became +somewhat "spoiled" as people, who have the usual idea of keeping youth +in the background, call it. Though only nineteen, he was received +on an equal footing among well-known and mature artists, doctors, +_litterateurs_ and officials. He became accustomed to regard himself as +grown up, and therefore the set-backs he encountered afterwards, were +the harder to bear. + +His medical career began with chemical experiments in the technological +institute. There he obtained a closer view of some of the glories he +had dreamed of in his childhood. But how dry and tedious were the +rudiments of science! To stand and pour acids on salts and to watch the +solution change colour, was not pleasant; to produce salts from two or +more solutions was not very interesting. But later on, when the time +came for analysis, the mysterious part began. To fill a glass about +the size of a punch-bowl with a liquid as clear as water and then to +exhibit in the filter the possibly twenty elements it contained,--this +really seemed like penetrating into nature's secrets. When he was alone +in the laboratory he made small experiments on his own account, and it +was not long before with some danger he had prepared a little phial +of prussic acid. To have death enclosed in a few drops under a glass +stopper was a curiously pleasant feeling. + +At the same time he studied zoology, anatomy, botany, physic and +Latin,--still more Latin! To read and master a subject was congenial to +him, but to learn by heart he hated. His head was already filled with +so many subjects, that it was hard for anything more to enter, but it +was obliged to. + +A worse drawback was that so many other interests began to vie in his +mind with his medical studies. The theatre was only a stone's throw +from the doctor's house and he went there twice a week. He had a +standing place at the end of the third row. From thence he saw elegant +and cheerful French comedies played on a Brussels carpet. The light +Gallic humour, admired by the melancholy Swedes as their missing +complement, completely captivated him. What a mental equilibrium, what +a power of resistance to the blows of fate were possessed by this +race of a southern sunnier land! His thoughts became still more gloomy +as he grew conscious of his Germanic "Weltschmerz" lying like a veil +over everything, which a hundred years of French education could not +have lifted. But he did not know that Parisian theatrical life differs +widely from that of the industrious and thrifty Parisian at the desk +and the counter. French comedies were written for the parvenus of +the Second Empire; politics and religion were subject to the censor, +but not morals. French comedy was aristocratic in tone, but had a +liberating effect on the mind as it was in touch with reality, though +it did not interfere in social questions. It accustomed the public to +sympathise with and feel at home in this superfine world; one came to +forget the lower everyday world, and when one left the theatre it felt +as though one had been at supper with a friendly duke. + +As chance fell out, the doctor's wife possessed a good library in +which all the best literature of the world was represented. It was +indeed a treasure to have all these at one's elbow! Moreover the doctor +possessed a number of pictures by Swedish masters and a valuable +collection of engravings. There was an efflorescence of aestheticism +on all sides, even in the schools, where lectures on literature were +delivered. The conversation in the family circle mostly turned on +pictures, dramas, actors, books, authors, and the doctor felt from time +to time impelled to flavour it with details of his practice. + +Now and then John began to read the papers. Political and social life +with their various questions opened up before him, but at first with a +repelling effect, as he was an aesthete and domestic egoist. Politics +did not seem to touch him at all; he considered it a special branch of +knowledge like any other. + +He continued his lessons to the girls and his intercourse with +their family. Outside the house he met grown up relatives, who were +tradesmen, and their acquaintances. His circle was therefore widened, +and he saw life from more than one point of view. But this constant +occupation with children had a hampering effect on his development. He +never felt himself older, and he could not treat the young with an air +of superiority. He already noticed that they were in advance of him, +that they were born with new thoughts, and that they built on, where he +had ceased. When later on in life, he met grown-up pupils, he looked up +to them as though they were the older. + +The autumn of 1865 had commenced. There had been so much miscalculation +as to the effects of the new State constitution that there was +widespread discontent. Society was turned topsy-turvy. The peasant +threatened the civilised town-dwellers and there was a general feeling +of bitterness. + +Has the last word regarding the agrarian party yet been said? Probably +not. It began with a democratic and reforming programme and its attack +on the Civil List was the boldest stroke which had yet been seen. It +was a legal attempt to overthrow the monarchy. If the vote of supply +was screwed down to the lowest possible, the king would go. It was a +simple and at the same time a clever stroke. + +At a period which proclaims the right of the majority, one would not +have expected the peasants' cause would encounter resistance. Sweden +was a kingdom of peasants, for the country population numbered four +millions, which in a population of four and a half millions, is +certainly the majority. Should then the half million rule the four or +vice versa? The latter course seemed the fairer. Now naturally the +townsmen talk of the egotism and tyranny of the peasants, but have the +labour party in the town a single item in their programme to improve +the condition of the peasants and cottagers? It is so stupid to talk +of egotism when every one now sees that he profits the whole, in +proportion as he profits himself. + +Meanwhile, in 1868, the malcontents discovered a party which could be +opposed to the constitutional majority and whose programme contained +all kinds of thorough-going reforms. That was the new liberal party, +consisting for the most part of authors, some artisans, a professor, +etc. By means of this handful of people who had none of the weighty +interests which landed property involves, and whose social position +was so insecure that a single unfavourable harvest could turn them +into members of the proletariat, it was proposed to remodel society. +What did the artisans know about society? How did they wish it to be +constituted? Did they wish it to be remodelled in their interest, +although the peasantry should be ruined? But that meant cutting off +their own legs, for Sweden is not a land of exporting industries. +Therefore the four million consumers in the land, as soon as their +purchasing power was diminished, would involuntarily ruin the +industries and leave the artisans stranded. That the artisans should +advance is a necessity, but to wish to make all men industrial workers +as the industrial socialists do, is much more unreasonable than to make +them all peasants as the agrarian socialists purpose doing. Capital, +which the labour party now attack, is the foundation of industry and if +that is touched, industry is overthrown, and then the workmen must go +back whence they came and still daily come,--to the country. + +Meanwhile, the agrarian party was not yet corrupted by intercourse with +aristocrats; it was neither conservative nor did it make compromises. +The war seemed to be between the country and the town. The atmosphere +was electric and the smallest cause might produce a thunderstorm. + +In the capital there prevailed a general desire to erect a statue to +Charles XII. Why? Was this last knight of the Middle Ages the ideal +of the age? Bid the character of the idol of Gustav IV, Adolf, and +Charles XV suitably express the spirit of the new peaceful period +which now commenced? Or did the idea originate, as so often is the +case in the sculptor's studio? Who knows? The statue was ready and the +unveiling was to take place. Stands were erected for the spectators, +but so unskilfully that the ceremony could not be witnessed by the +general public, and the space railed off could only contain the +invited guests, the singers and those who paid for their seats. But +the subscription had been national and all believed they had a right +to see. The arrangements were obnoxious to the people. Petitions were +made to have the stands removed, but without success. The crowd began +to make attempts to tear them down, but the military intervened. The +doctor that day was giving a dinner to the Italian Opera Company. They +had just risen from dessert when a noise was heard from the street; it +was at first like rain falling on an iron roof, but then cries were +distinctly audible. John listened, but for the moment nothing more was +to be heard. The wine-glasses clinked amid Italian and French phrases +which flew hither and thither over the table; there was such a noise of +jests and laughter that those at the table could hardly hear themselves +speak. But now there came a roar from the street, followed immediately +by the tramp of horses, the rattle of weapons and harness. There was +silence in the room for a moment, and one and another turned pale. + +"What is it?" asked the prima donna. + +"The mob making a noise," answered a professor. + +John stood up from the table, went into his room, took his hat and +stick and hurried out. "The mob!"--the words rang in his ear while +he went down the street. "The mob!" They were his mother's former +associates, his own school-mates and afterwards his pupils; they formed +the dark background against which the society he had just quitted, +stood out like a brilliant picture. He felt again as though he were a +deserter, and had done wrong in working his way up. But he must get +above if he was to do anything for those below. Yes many had said +that, but when once they did get above, they found it so pleasant, +that they forgot those below. These cavalrymen, for instance, whose +origin was of the humblest, what airs they gave themselves! With what +unmixed pleasure they cut down their former comrades, though it must +be confessed they would have even more enjoyed cutting down the "black +hats." + +He went on and came to the market-place. The stands for the spectators +stood out against the November sky like gigantic market booths, and +the space below swarmed with men. From the opening of the Arsenal +street the tramp of horses was heard only a short way off. Then they +came riding forth, the blue guardsmen, the support of society, on whom +the upper class relied. John was seized with a wild desire to dash +against this mass of horses, men and sabres, as though he saw in them +oppression incarnate. That was the enemy! very well--at them! The troop +rode on and John stationed himself in the middle of the street. Whence +had he derived this hatred against the supporters of law and order, who +some day would protect him and his rights after he had clambered up, +and was in a position to oppress others? If the mob with whom he now +felt his solidarity had had their hands free, they would probably have +thrown the first stone through the window, behind which he had sat with +four wine-glasses in front of him. Certainly, but that did not prevent +his taking their side just as the upper class often, inconsistently +enough, takes sides against the police. This mania for freedom in the +abstract is probably the natural man's small revolt against society. + +He was going against the cavalry with a vague idea of striking them +all to the ground or something of the sort, when fortunately some one +seized him by the arm firmly but in a friendly way. He was brought back +to the doctor's who had sent out to seek for him. After he had given +his word of honour not to go out again he sank on a sofa, and lay all +the evening in fever. + +On the day of the unveiling of Charles XII's statue, he was one of the +student singers, therefore among the elect, the "upper ten thousand," +and had no reason to be discontented with his lot. When the ceremony +was over, the people rushed forward. The police forced them back, and +then they began to throw stones. The mounted police drew their sabres +and struck, arresting some and assaulting others. + +John had entered the market in front of the Jakob's church when he saw +a policeman lay hold of a man, under a shower of stones which knocked +off the constables' helmets. Without hesitation he sprang on the +policeman, seized him by the collar, shook him and shouted, "Let the +fellow go!" + +The policeman looked at his assailant in astonishment. + +"Who are you?" he asked irresolutely. + +"I am Satan, and I will take you, if you don't let him go." + +He actually did let him go and tried to seize John. At the same instant +a stone knocked off his three-cornered hat. John tore himself loose; +the crowd were now driven back by bayonets towards the guard-house in +the Gustaf Adolf market. After them followed a swarm of well-dressed +men, obviously members of the upper classes, shouting wildly, and as it +seemed, resolved to free the prisoners. John ran with them; it was as +though they were all impelled by a storm-wind. Men who had not been +molested or oppressed at all, who had high positions in society, rushed +blindly forward, risking their position, their domestic happiness, +their living, everything. John felt a hand grasp his. He returned the +pressure, and saw close beside him a middle-aged man, well-dressed, +with distorted features. They did not know each other, nor did they +speak together, but ran hand in hand, as if seized by one impulse. +They came across a third in whom John recognised an old school-fellow, +subsequently a civil service official, son of the head of a department. +This young man had never sided with the opposition party in school, +but on the contrary, was looked upon as a re-actionary with a future +in front of him. He was now as white as a corpse, his cheeks were +bloodless, the muscles of his forehead swollen, and his face resembled +a skull in which two eyes were burning. They could not speak, but +took each other's hands and ran on against the guards whom they were +attacking. The human waves advanced till they were met by the bayonets, +and then as always, dispersed in foam. Half-an-hour later John was +discussing a beefsteak with some students in the Opera restaurant. He +spoke of his adventure as though it were something which had happened +independently of him and his will. Nay, he even jested at it. That +may have been fear of public opinion, but also it may have been the +case that he regarded his outbreak objectively and now quietly judged +it as a member of society. The trap-door had opened for a moment, the +prisoner had put his head out, and then it had closed again. + +His unknown fellow-criminal, as he discovered later, was a pronounced +conservative, a wholesale tradesman. He always avoided meeting John's +eye, when they met after this. One time they met on a narrow pavement, +and had to look at each other, but did not smile. + +While they were sitting in the restaurant, came the news of the death +of Blanche. The students took it fairly coolly, the artists and middle +class citizens more warmly, but the lower classes talked of murder. +They knew that he had personally besought Charles XV to have the +spectators' stands taken down; they knew also, that though he was +very prosperous himself, he had always thought of them and they were +thankful. Stupid people objected, as is usual in such cases, that it +required no great skill on his part to speak on behalf of the poor, +when he was rich and celebrated. Did it not? It required the greatest. + +It is remarkable that the chief outbreak of discontent was directed, +not as elsewhere against the King, but against the governor and the +police. Charles XV was a _persona grata_; he could do as he liked +without becoming unpopular. He was neither condescending nor democratic +in his tastes, but rather proud. Stories were told of some of his +favourites having fallen into disgrace for want of respect on some +mirthful occasion. He could put tobacco into his soldiers' mouths, +but he scolded officers who did not at once fall in with his moods. +He could box people's ears at a fire, and did not laugh when he was +caricatured in a comic paper, as was supposed. He was a ruler and +believed he was also a warrior and a statesman; he interfered in the +government and could snub specialists with a "You don't understand +that!" But he was popular and remained so. Swedes, who do not like to +see a man's will slackening, admired this will and bowed before it. +It was also strange, that they forgave his irregular life; perhaps it +was because he made no secret of it. He had laid down a standard of +morality for himself and lived according to it. Therefore he lived at +harmony with himself, and harmony is always pleasant to contemplate. + +People might be revolters by instinct, but they did not believe in the +transition form to a better social constitution, _i.e_. a republic. +They had seen how two French republics had been followed by new +monarchies. There were secret anarchists, but no republicans, and they +had persuaded themselves that the monarchy offered no barrier to the +progress of liberty. + +These were the ideas of the younger men. The elder men with Blanche +thought a republic the only means of social salvation and therefore in +our days the old liberal school has become conservative-republican. + + * * * * * + +When the doctor saw that his wife's literary books threatened to +encroach upon John's medical studies, he resolved to give him a +glimpse into the secrets of his profession, and to allow him such a +foretaste of real work as should entice him to overcome the tedious +preliminary studies which he himself thought too extensive. John now +knew more chemistry and physics than the doctor, and the latter thought +it was merely malicious to hinder a rival's course by imposing too +hard preliminary studies. Why should he not, as in America, commence +dissection, which was a special branch of study? Now after the +theoretical study of anatomy, he could begin practice as an assistant. +That was a new life full of variety and reality. One went for instance +into a dark alley and came into a porter's room, where a woman lay, +sick of fever, surrounded by poor children, the grandmother and other +relations, who stole about on tip-toe, awaiting the doctor's verdict. +The malodorous ragged bed-cover would be lifted, a sunken heaving chest +exposed to view, and a prescription written. Then one went to the +Tvaedgardsgatan and was conducted over soft carpets through splendid +rooms into a bed-chamber which looked liked a temple; one lifted a +blue silk coverlet and put in splints the leg of an angelic-looking +child, dressed in lace. On the way out one looked at a collection of +paintings, and talked about artists. This was something novel and +interesting, but what connection had it with Titus Livius and the +history of philosophy? + +But then came the details of surgery. One was roused at seven o'clock +in the morning, came into the doctor's dark room, and manually assisted +at the cauterising of a syphilitic sore. The room reeked of human +flesh, and was repugnant to an empty stomach. Or he had to hold a +patient's head and felt it twitch with pain while the doctor with a +fork extracted glands from his throat. + +"One soon gets accustomed to that," said the doctor, and that was true, +but John's thoughts were busy with Goethe's Faust, Wieland's Epicurean +romances, George Sand's social phantasies, Chateaubriand's soliloquies +with nature, and Lessing's common-sense theories. His imagination +was set in motion and his memory refused to work; the reality of +cauterisations and flowing blood was ugly; aestheticism had laid hold +of him, and actual life seemed to him tedious and repulsive. His +intercourse with artists had opened his eyes to a new world, a free +society within Society. They would come to a well-spread table where +cultivated people were sitting with badly-fitting clothes, black nails, +and dirty linen, as if they were not merely equal, but superior to the +rest,--in what? + +They could scarcely write their names, they borrowed money without +repaying it, and their talk was coarse. Everything was permitted to +them, which was not permitted to others. Why? They could paint. They +studied at the Academy, and the Academy did not ask whether all who +enrolled themselves as students were geniuses. How was it known that +they were geniuses? Was painting greater than knowledge and science? + +They also had, as was well recognised, a peculiar morality of their +own. They opened studios, hired models, and boasted of their paramours, +while other men were ashamed of theirs and incurred disapproval on +account of them. They laughed at what were very serious matters for +other men, nay, it seemed to be part of an artist's equipment to be a +"scoundrel," as any one else would be called for similar conduct. + +"That was a glad free world," thought John, and one in which he could +thrive, without conventional fetters or social obligations, and above +all, without contact with banal realities. But he was not a genius? +How should he get the entree to it? Should he learn to paint and so be +initiated? No! that would not do; he had never thought of painting; +that demanded a special vocation, he thought, and painting would not +express all he had to say, when once he began to speak. If he _had_ +to find a medium for self-expression it would be the theatre. An actor +could step forward, and say all kinds of truths, however bitter they +might be, without being brought to book for them. That was certainly a +tempting career. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +John's proposal to transfer the university from Upsala to Stockholm was +destined to have consequences, and his comrades had warned him of them. +When he went up early in spring in order to write the obligatory Latin +essay he had sent the professor by post the three test-essays and the +15 krona fee. So he could carry out his purpose unhindered and enrolled +himself. + +But now in May he wished to go and pass the preliminary examination in +chemistry. In order to be well prepared, he had himself tested by the +assistant-professor at the technological institute. The latter did so +and declared that he already knew more than was needed for the medical +examination. Thus prepared, he went up to Upsala. His first visit was +to a comrade, who had already passed the preliminary examination in +chemistry, and knew the "tips" for it. + +John began: "I can do synthesis and analysis, and have studied organic +chemistry." + +"That is very well, for we only need synthesis; however, it is no use +for you have not studied in the professor's laboratory." + +"That is true; but the course at the Institute is much better." + +"No matter,--it is not his." + +"We shall see," said John, "whether knowledge does not tell in any +ease." + +"If you are so sure, then try, but consider first what I say. You must +first go to the assistant-professor and get a 'tip'." + +"What do you mean?" + +"For a krona he will give you an hour's polishing, and ask you all the +important questions which the professor has put during the past year. +Just now he is in the habit of asking whether matches can be made out +of his carcase and ammonia from your old boots. But that you will +learn from the assistant. Secondly, you must not go to be examined +in a frock coat and white tie; least of all, dressed as well as you +are now. Therefore you must borrow my riding-coat, which is green in +the shoulders and red in the seams, and my top-boots, for he does not +like elastic boots." + +John followed his friend's instructions and went first to the +assistant-professor who gave him the questions which had been last +asked. In return John promised that under all circumstances he would +return and tell him the questions which he himself had been asked, as a +means of enlarging his catechism. + +The next day John went to his friend to array himself. His trousers +were drawn up so that the tops of the boots should be seen and his +loose collar turned on one side, so that the skin should show between +the tie and the collar. Thus equipped, he went up for his first trial. + +The professor of chemistry had formerly been a fortification officer, +and had received in his time a not very cordial welcome from the +learned staff in Upsala. He was a soldier, not academically cultivated, +and thus a kind of "Philistine." This had galled him and made him +bilious. In order to efface the effect of his laymen-like exterior, he +affected the airs of an over-read and blunt professor. He went about +ill-dressed and behaved eccentrically. Though many hundreds besides +himself had been pupils of Berzelius, he was fond of mentioning the +fact; it was his trump card. Berzelius, among other things, went about +in shabby trousers, therefore a hole in one's clothes was the sign of a +learned chemist, and so on. Hence all these peculiarities. + +John presented himself, was regarded with suspicion and bidden to come +again in a week. He replied that he had come from Stockholm and was +too poor to support himself for a week in the town. He managed to get +permission to present himself the next day. "It would be soon over," +said the old man. + +The next day he sat on a seat opposite the professor. It was a sunny +afternoon in May, and the old man seemed to have digested his dinner +badly. He looked grim as he threw out his first question from his +rocking-chair. The answers were correct at the beginning. Then the +questions became more tortuous like snakes. + +"If I have an estate, where I suspect the presence of saltpetre, how +shall I begin to construct a saltpetre factory?" + +John suggested a saltpetre analysis. + +"No." + +"Well, then, I don't know anything else." + +There was silence and the flies buzzed,--a long and terrible silence. +"Now will come the question about the boots or the matches," thought +John, "and there I shall shine." He coughed by way of rousing the +professor, but the silence continued. John wondered whether he had been +seen through and whether the old man recognised the "examination coat." + +Then came a new question which was unanswered, and then another. + +"You have come too soon," said the old man, and rose up. + +"Yes, but I have worked a whole year in the laboratory, and can do +chemical analysis." + +"Yes, you know how to make up prescriptions, but you have not digested +your knowledge. In the Institute only manual dexterity is necessary, +but here scientific knowledge is required." + +As a matter of fact the case was exactly the reverse for the medical +students in Upsala complained that they had to stand like cooks and +make up mixtures and salts, without having time to look at an analysis, +which last was just what a doctor ought to do while synthesis was the +apothecary's work. But now the proposal made some years before whether +the university had not better be transferred to Stockholm had roused a +feeling in Upsala against the capital. Moreover the laboratory of the +newly-built technological institute was as famous for its excellent +equipment, as that of Upsala was notorious for its poor one. Here, +therefore, petty prejudices were at work and John felt the unfairness +of it. "I do not then get a certificate?" he asked. + +"No, sir, not this year; but come again next year." + +The professor was ashamed to say, "Go to my only soul-saving +laboratory." + +John went out furious. Here then again neither diligence nor knowledge +prevailed, but only cash and cringing! Had he tried short cuts? No, +on the contrary, he had been obliged to travel by painful circuitous +paths, while others had gone the direct road, and the directest is the +shortest. + +He went to the Carolina Park, as angry as an irritated bee. He did +not wish to return at once to the town, but sat down on a seat. If he +could only set this devil's hole on fire! Another year? No, never! Why +read so much unnecessary stuff, which would only be forgotten, and be +of no practical use? And slave in order to enter this dirty profession +where one had to analyse urine, pick about in vomit, poke about in all +the recesses of the body? Faugh! Just as he was sitting there, a group +of cheerful-looking people came by, and stood laughing outside the +Carolina library. They looked up to the window's, through which long +rows of books were visible, shelf after shelf. They laughed,--the men +and women laughed at the books. He thought he recognised them. Yes, +they were Levasseur's French actors, whom he had seen in Stockholm and +who were now visiting Upsala. They laughed at the books! Lucky people +who could be importers of genius and culture without books. Perhaps +every soul had something to give which was not in books, but would be +there some day. Yes, certainly it was so. He himself possessed stories +of experience and thoughts, which could enrich anthropology, and were +ready to be throw out. + +Again there stole upon him the thought of entering this privileged +profession, which stood outside and above petty social conventions +which ignored distinctions of rank, and in which one need never be +conscious of belonging to the lower classes. There one could appeal to +the universal judgment, and work in full publicity instead of being +hung up here in a remote dark hole, without a verdict, examination, or +witnesses. + +Strengthened by this new idea, he stood up, east a glance at the books +above, and went down to the town resolved to go home and seek for an +engagement in the Theatre Royal. + +Every townsman has probably felt once in his life the wish to appear +as an actor. This is probably due to the impulse of the cultivated +man to magnify and make himself something, to identify himself with +great and celebrated personalities. John, who was a romanticist, had +also the desire to step forward and harangue the public. He believed +that he could choose his proper role, and he knew beforehand which it +would be. The fact that he, like all others, believed that he had the +capacity to become an actor, sprang from the superfluity of unused +force, produced by a want of sufficient physical exercise, and from the +tendency to megalomania connected with mental over-exertion. He saw no +difficulties in the profession itself, but expected opposition from +another quarter. + +To attribute his being stage-struck to hereditary tendencies would +perhaps be hasty, since we have just remarked that it is an almost +universal impulse. But his paternal grandfather, a Stockholm citizen, +had written dramatic pieces for an amateur theatre, and a young +distant relative still lived as a warning example. The latter had been +an engineer, had been through a course of instruction in the Motala +iron-works, and had a post on the Koeping-Hult railway. He therefore had +fine prospects in front of him, but suddenly threw them up, and became +an actor. This step of his was an incessant trouble to his family. Up +to this time the young man had become nothing but was still travelling +about with an obscure theatrical company. The danger of becoming like +him was the difficult point. "Yes," said John to himself, "but I shall +have luck." Why? Because he believed it; and he believed it because he +wished it. + +Some might be inclined to derive this strong impulse on John's part +from the fact that he loved to play, as a child, with a toy theatre, +but that is not sufficient, as all children do the same and he had got +the taste from seeing them do it. The theatre was an unreal better +world which enticed one out of the tedious real one. The latter would +not have seemed so tedious if his education had been more harmonious +and realistic and not given him such a strong tendency to romance. +Enough; his resolution was taken; and without saying anything to any +one, he went to the director of the Theatrical Academy the dramaturgist +of the Theatre Royal. + +When he heard the sound of his own words "I want to be an actor," +he shuddered. He felt as though he tore down the veil of his inborn +modesty, and did violence to his own nature. + +The director asked what he was doing at present. + +"Studying medicine." + +"And you want to give up such a career, for one that is the hardest and +the worst of all?" + +"Yes." + +All actors called their profession the "hardest and the worst" though +they had such a good time of it. That was in order to frighten away +aspirants. + +John asked for private lessons in order that he might make his debut. +The director replied that he was now going to the country for the +theatrical season was at an end, but he told John to come again on the +1st of September when the theatre opened, and the board of management +came again to the town. That was a definite appointment and he saw his +way clear. + +When he went down the street, he walked with his eyes wide open, as +though he gazed into a brilliant future; victory was already his; he +felt its intoxicating eating fumes, and hurried, though with unsteady +steps, down the street. + +He said nothing to the doctor nor to any one else. He had still three +months in front of him in which to train and prepare himself, but in +secret, for he was shy and timid. He was afraid of annoying his father +and the doctor, afraid of the whole town knowing that he thought +himself capable of being an actor, afraid of his relatives' scorn, his +friends' grimaces and efforts to dissuade him. This was the fruit of +his education, the fear,--"What will people say?" His imagination made +the act seem like a crime. It was certainly an interference with other +people's peace of mind for relations and friends feel a shock, when +they see a link torn out of the social chain. He felt it himself, and +had to shake off the scruples of conscience. + +For his debut he had chosen the roles of Karl Moor and Wijkander's +Lucidor. This was no mere chance but perfectly logical. In both of +these characters he had found the expression of his inner experience, +and therefore he wished to speak with their tongues. He conceived of +Lucidor as a higher nature undermined and ruined by poverty. A higher +nature of course! In his enthusiasm for the theatre he felt again what +he had felt when he had preached, and when he had revolted against the +school prayers,[1] something of the proclaimer, the prophet, and the +soothsayer. + +What most of all elevated his ideas of the great significance of the +theatre was the perusal of Schiller's essay, "The theatre regarded +as an instrument of moral education." Sentences like the following +show how lofty was the goal at which Schiller aimed. "The stage is +the chief channel through which the light of wisdom descends from +the better, thinking portion of the populace in order to spread its +beneficent light over the whole state." "In this world of art we +dream ourselves away from the real one, we find ourselves again, our +feelings are roused, wholesome emotions stir our slumbering nature and +drive our blood in swift currents. The unhappy here forget their own +sorrows in watching those of others, the happy become sober, and the +self-confident, reflective. The effeminate weakling is hardened into a +man, the coarse and callous here begin to feel. And then finally,--what +a triumph for thee O Nature, so often trodden down and so often +re-arisen,--when men of all climates and conditions, casting away all +fetters of convention and fashion, set free from the iron hand of fate, +fraternising in one all-embracing sympathy, dissolved into _one_ race, +forget themselves and the world, and approach their heavenly origin. +Each individual enjoys the delight of all, which is mirrored back to +him strengthened and beautified from a hundred eyes, and his breast has +only room for one aspiration,--to be a man!" + +Thus wrote the young Schiller at twenty-five, and the youth of twenty +subscribed it. + +The theatre is certainly still a means of culture for young people and +the middle class who can still feel the illusion of actors and painted +canvas. For older and cultivated people it is a recreation in which the +actor's art is the chief object of attention. Therefore old critics +are almost invariably discontent and crabbed. They have lost their +illusions and do not pass over any mistake in the acting. + +Modern times have overprised the theatre, especially the actor's art in +an exaggerated degree, and a re-action has followed. Actors have tried +to ply their art independently of the dramatist, believing that they +could stand on their own legs. Therefore particular "stars" become the +objects of homage and therefore also opposition has been aroused. In +Paris, where people had gone to the greatest lengths, a reaction first +showed itself. The _Figaro_ called the heroes of the Theatre-Francais +to order, and reminded them that they were only the author's puppets. + +The decay of all the great European theatres shows that the actor's +art has lost its interest. Cultivated people no more go to the +theatre because their sense for reality has been developed, and +their imagination which is a relic of the savage has diminished; the +uncultivated lack the time, and the money to go. The future seems to +belong to the variety theatre, which amuses without instructing, for it +is mere play and recreation. All important writers choose another, more +suitable form in which to handle important questions. Ibsen's dramas +have always produced their effect in book form before they were played; +and when they are played, the spectators' interest is generally +concentrated on the _manner_ of their performance; consequently it is a +secondary interest. + +John committed the usual mistake of youth, _i.e._ of confusing the +actor with the author; the actor is the mere enunciator of the +sentiments for which the author who stands behind him, is responsible. + +In the spring John resigned his post as tutor to the two girls, and +now he had leisure during the summer to study his art in secret, +and on his own responsibility. He had scoffed at books, and now the +first things he sought were books. They contained the thoughts and +experiences of men with whom, though most of them were dead, he could +converse familiarly, without being betrayed. He had heard that in the +castle there was a library which belonged to the State, and from which +one could borrow books. He obtained a surety and went there. It was a +solemn place with small rooms full of books where grey-haired silent +old men sat and read. He got his books and went shyly and happily home. + +He wished to study the matter thoroughly in all its aspects, as was his +custom. In Schiller he found the assurance that the theatre was of deep +significance; in Goethe he found a whole treatise on the histrionic +art with directions how one should walk and stand, behave oneself, sit +down, come in and go out; in Lessing's _Hamburgische Dramaturgie_ he +found a whole volume of theatrical critiques filled with the closest +observations. Lessing especially roused his hopes, for he went so far +as to declare that the theatre had come down owing to the inferiority +of the actors, and said that it would be better to employ amateurs +from the cultivated classes who would play better than the drilled and +often uncultured actors. He also read Raymond de St. Albin, whose often +quoted observations on the actor's art are of great value. + +At the same time he exercised himself practically. At the doctor's he +arranged a stage when the boys were out. He practised entrances and +exits; he arranged the stage for "The Robbers," dressed himself like +Karl Moor, and played that part. He went to the National Museum and +studied gestures of antique sculptures and gave up using his walking +stick in order to accustom himself to walk freely. He did violence +to his shyness, which had almost produced in him "agoraphobia," or +the dread of crossing open places, and accustomed himself to walk +across Karl XIII's square where great crowds used to be found. He did +gymnastics every day at home, and fenced with his pupils. He gave +attention to every movement of the muscles; practised walking with head +erect and chest expanded, with arms hanging free and hands loosely +clenched, as Goethe directs. + +The chief difficulty he found was in the cultivation of his voice, +for he was overheard when he declaimed in the house. Then it occurred +to him to go outside the town. The only place where he could be +undisturbed was the Ladugardsgaerdet. There he could look over the plain +for a great distance and see whether any one was coming; there sounds +died away so quickly that it cost him an effort to hear himself. This +strengthened his voice. + +Every day he went out there, and declaimed against heaven and earth. +The town whose church tower rose opposite Ladugardsgaerdet symbolised +society, while he stood out here alone with Nature. He shook his fist +at the castle, the churches, and the barracks, and stormed at the +troops who during their manoeuvres often came too close to him. There +was something fanatical in his work and he spared himself no pains in +order to make his unwilling muscles obedient. + + +[1] _Vide_ the _Son of a Servant_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JOHN BECOMES AN ARISTOCRAT + +(1869) + + +Among those who frequented the doctor's house was a young man who +studied sculpture. He had come from the lower strata of society, had +been a smith's apprentice, and had now entered the Academy, where he +was a probationary student. He was happy and always cheerful, believed +himself called by providence to his new career, and narrated how he +had been aroused and impelled by the spirit to work in the service +of the Beautiful. John liked him because he was not introspective or +self-critical and quite free from self-consciousness. Moreover he was a +fellow culprit, who was making the same daring attempt as John to work +his way out of the lower class, but entirely lacked the consciousness +of guilt which persecuted the latter. + +One day this friend, whose name was Albert, came to him and said +that he was going to Copenhagen to visit Thorwaldsen's Museum. An +enterprising speculator had arranged a trip there through the canal +and back by sea for a very small fare. "You come too," he said, and it +was soon settled that John should accompany him with one of the boys. +The occasion of the expedition was the crown princess's entry into +Copenhagen, but that was a secondary object in the eyes of the pilgrims +to Thorwaldsen's tomb. + +On an August evening John sat on the poop of the steamer with the +sculptor, one of the boys and a school friend of his. In the twilight +which had already fallen one saw ladies and gentlemen coming on board. +The society seemed to be first-class. Stout fathers of families with +field-glasses and tourist knapsacks, ladies in summer dresses and hats +of the latest fashion. There was a bustle and stir, as each sought a +sleeping-place which was guaranteed to all. John and his companions sat +quietly waiting. They had their provisions and rugs and feared nothing. +When the steamer had started and the confusion had ceased, John said, +"Now we will have some bread and butter before we lie down." + +They looked for their knapsacks and the provision basket, but they were +not to be found. They discovered that they had not come with them. This +was a hard blow, for they had only a little cash and they had counted +on the excellent provisions which the doctor's wife had put up for +them. Accordingly they had to eat from the sculptor's box, which only +contained poor dry victuals. + +Then they wanted to lie down. On all sides people were asking for +sleeping-places, but could not find any. The passengers were in an +uproar and there was a storm of curses. They had therefore to sit on +deck; there were inquiries for the organiser of the expedition, but he +was not on board. John lay down on the bare deck and the boys drew a +tarpaulin over themselves, for the dew was falling and it was bitterly +cold. They awoke at Soedertelje, freezing, for the sailors had taken +away the tarpaulin. + +On the canal bank there now appeared the organiser of the excursion, +who was an upholsterer. The passengers rushed at him, drew him on +board, and loaded him with reproaches. He defended himself and tried +to land again, but in vain. A court martial was held; they resolved +to continue their journey, but detained the upholsterer as a hostage. +The steamer went on through the canal, but as it was passing through a +lock, the man-swung himself up on the dam and disappeared amid a hail +of curses. + +The journey was continued and by midday they were in the Gotha canal. +Dinner was laid on the poop. John and his companions ensconced +themselves in the lifeboat which hung there and ate a simple meal out +of the sculptor's box. The sculptor, who had slept on a bale do mu in +the luggage-hold, was in a good humour and knew all the passengers' +characters and names. + +The dinner-table was now crowded. It was presided over by a master +chimney-sweep with his family. Then there came pawnbrokers, +public-house keepers, cabmen, butchers, waiters, with their families, +a number of young shop boys and some girls. John suffered when he saw +stewed perch and strawberries together with claret and sherry, for he +had been so spoilt by luxury that simple food made him poorly. This +was the "upper class" among the passengers. The master chimney-sweep +played the grand gentleman, he made a grimace at the claret and scolded +the waitress who said that the restaurant-keeper was responsible. The +porter from the Record Office affected the learned man, and as an +official seemed to look down on the "Philistines." + +While the sherry circulated, speeches were made. The lower class +from the fore-deck hung on the gunwales and hand-rails and listened. +The pariahs in the lifeboat were ignored. People knew that they were +there, but did not see them. They may very likely have wished the +"white cap" away, for there were two eyes under its peak, which saw +that they were no better than himself. John felt that. He had just +emerged from this class to which he belonged by birth, but he had no +food and was nothing. He felt his inferiority and his superiority; and +their superiority. They had worked; therefore they ate. Yes, but he +had worked as much as they, though not in the same way. He had derived +honour from his work, while they took the good eating and dispensed +with the honour. One could not have both. + +The people sat there satisfied and happy, drank their coffee and +liqueurs, and occupied the whole poop. They now became bold and made +remarks over those in the lifeboat, who could only suffer in silence, +because the others were in the majority and the upper class, for they +were consumers. + +John felt himself in an element which was not his. There was an +atmosphere of hostility about him, and he felt depressed. There were +no police on board to help him, no arbitration to appeal to, and if +there were a quarrel, all would condemn him. There only needed a sharp +retort on his part, and he would be struck. "The deuce!" he thought, +"it would be better to obey officers and officials; they would never +be such tyrants as these democrats." Later on, at Albert's advice, he +sought to approach them, but they were inaccessible. + +Further on during the voyage between Venersborg and Goeteborg the +explosion came. John and his companions' hunger increased so much that +one day they determined to go down to the dining-saloon and eat some +bread and butter. It was so full of people eating and drinking that +they could hardly find room. John's pupil, according to the custom of +his class, kept his hat on. The master chimney-sweep noticed this. +"Hullo!" he said, "is the ceiling too high for you?" + +The boy seemed not to understand him. + +"Take your hat off, boy!" he shouted again. + +The hat remained as it was. A shop assistant knocked it off. The boy +picked up the hat, and put it again on his head. Then the storm burst. +They all rushed on him like one man and knocked the hat off. Then they +went for John, "And such a young devil has a tutor who cannot teach +boys to know their proper place! We know well enough who _you_ are." +Then they rained abuse on his parents. John tried to inform them that +in the social circles to which the boy belonged, it was the custom to +keep one's hat on in public places, and that he had not intended any +expression of contempt by it. But his explanation was ill-received. +What did he mean by "those circles"? What nonsense he talked! Did he +want to teach them manners? And so on. + +Yes, he could; for it was precisely from these circles that they had +learnt five-and-twenty years ago to take their hats off, which was no +longer the custom, and he could have told them that in twenty-five +years more they would keep their hats on as soon as they got wind that +_that_ was the fashion. But they had not discovered it yet. + +John and his friends went again on deck. "One cannot argue with these +people," he said. + +His nerves were shaken by the scene just witnessed. He had seen an +outbreak of class-hatred and the flashing eyes of people whom he had +not injured; he had felt the foot of the upper class of the future upon +his breast. They had become his enemies; the bridge between him and +them was broken down; but the tie of blood remained and he cherished +the same hatred towards aristocratic society, and its unjust ascendency +as they did; he felt the same grudge against the conventions before +which they all had to bow; yes, he had Karl Moor's replies in his mind, +but those who had just defeated him were all Spiegelbergers.[1] If they +got the upper hand they would trample on all,--great and small; if he +got the upper hand, he would only trample on the great. That was the +difference between them. It was, however, education which had made him +more democratic than they; he would therefore side with the educated. +They would work for those below, but from a distance, and from above. +One could not handle this raw uncouth mass. + +The stay on board was now intolerable. An outbreak might take place at +any moment. And it came. + +They were now in the Kattegat, and John was sitting on the upper deck +when he heard a loud noise beneath him of voices and cries. He thought +he recognised his pupil's voice, and rushed down. On the middle deck +stood the accused surrounded by a crowd. A pawnbroker waved his arms +about and shouted. John asked what the matter was. + +"He has stolen my cap," shouted the pawnbroker. + +"I don't believe it possible," said John. + +"Yes, I saw it; he has put it in this clothes bag." + +It was John's bag. "That is mine," said John. "You can look into it +yourself." He opened the bag and there lay the pawnbroker's cap! There +was general excitement. John stood convicted and a storm was on the +point of breaking out against the two thieves. A student who stole! +That was a bonne bouche. How had it happened? Now John remembered. He +had a grey cap similar to the pawnbroker's which he used to sleep in +at night. He had told the boy to put it in his bag; the boy had taken +the wrong one. John turned to the foredeck passengers: "Gentlemen," he +began, "do you think it likely that a rich man's son would go and take +a greasy cap when he has a perfectly new one? Do you not see that there +has been a mistake?" + +"Yes," said the plebeians, "there has." + +Only the pawnbroker was obstinate and stuck to his statement. + +"Then it only remains for me to beg this gentleman's pardon for the +mistake, and I ask my pupil to do the same." + +The latter did so, though unwillingly. There was general satisfaction +and a murmured opinion that he had "spoken like a gentleman." The +matter was fortunately settled. + +"You see," said John to the boy, "the people are open to reason after +all!" + +"Bah! That was only because they felt flattered at being called +gentlemen,--the cursed rabble!" + +"Perhaps," answered John, who felt that he had been sufficiently +humiliated for such a trifle. + +At last they reached Copenhagen. Hungry, freezing, and in the worst of +humours they sat in the rain outside the Thorwaldsen Museum, which was +closed on account of the festivities. But Albert swore he would get +in. After they had waited for an hour with the master chimney-sweep, +the public-house keeper, and all the other passengers there came an +old man who looked learned and wished to enter. Albert rushed after +him, mentioned the name of Molins, the Swedish sculptor, and they got +in, leaving the other passengers outside. Albert was delighted, and +could not help making a face at the master chimney-sweep who remained +outside. But the one who enjoyed it most was the young sinner, who +hated the mob. + +"Now we are gentlemen," he said. + +John was not in the mood to enjoy Thorwaldsen's works. He regarded +him as an average artist talented enough to win fame. Albert found +the antiques too elaborate, but did not dare to criticise them. +They did not witness the royal entry, but sat on the tower of the +Fruekirke and looked at the view. At nightfall, when they felt tired +and exhausted, they wanted to go down to the steamer to sleep, but it +had gone to Malmoe. They stood in the street in the rain. They could +not go to an hotel, for they had no money. Albert resolved to go to a +public-house and ask for a night's lodging. They found a sailors' inn +near the public-house. The landlord said it was only for seamen, but +they answered that they must have shelter. They were taken into a back +room where there were two camp-beds, but a basin was not to be seen. +The walls were unpapered and looked shabby. In one of the beds lay a +sailor. Who was to be his bed-fellow? Albert undertook that, and slept +with the stranger, who was a Dutchman. So they all went to sleep, John +cursing the whole adventure, for the bed-clothes were malodorous. + +The return voyage home by sea was one long penance. Without provisions +and hardly any money they had to sustain life on raw eggs which they +bought in the small towns they touched at. These along with stale +bread and brandy, composed their diet for three days. Albert alone +was cheerful and enjoyed himself. He slept on the poop with the +passengers and amused them with stories; he was akin to them, and knew +their language. He drank with them and got hot food; he even went into +the kitchen sometimes and begged himself a plate of soup. "How easily +he takes life!" thought John. "He does not miss luxuries, for he has +never known them; he will never be expelled as an intruder when he +approaches people; he feasts while others starve, and sees only friends +everywhere. But his day will come when he will no longer be one of the +lower class, when luxury and refined habits will make him as helpless +and unfortunate as me." + +When he got home he was furious. So it was everywhere. Those who were +above trampled on those below, and those who were below tried to +pull one back when one tried to mount. What was the meaning of all +this talk about aristocrats and democrats? The lower class spoke of +their democratic way of thinking, as though it were a virtue. What +virtue is there in hating those who are above? What is the meaning of +"aristocrat"? [Greek: Aristos] means the best, and [Greek: krateo] "I +rule." Therefore an aristocrat is one who wishes that the best should +rule and a democrat one who wishes that the worst should do so. But +then comes the question: Who are really the best? Are a low social +position, poverty and ignorance things that make men better? No, for +then one would not try to do away with poverty and ignorance. Into +whose hands then should men commit political power, with the knowledge +that it would be in the hands of the least mischievous? Into the hands +of those who knew most? Then one would have professorial government, +and Upsala would be--no, not the professors! To whom then should power +be given? He could not answer, but certainly not to the chimney-sweep +and cab-owner who were on the steamer. + +On this occasion he did not go deeper into the matter, for the question +had not yet been raised whether the same culture could not be imparted +to every one, or whether there need be any governing body at all. + +He had come across the worst aristocracy of all, the upper stratum +of the lower class, or, to name them by their usual ugly title, "the +Philistines." They were a bad copy of the aristocracy; they sided with +the powerful, aped the habits of their superiors, grew rich by others' +labours, quoted authorities and hated opposition with the exception of +their silent opposition to those above them. The master chimney-sweep +made money through the toil of the abjectly poor, the cab-owner through +the wretched cabbies and hacks, the pawnbroker wrung unrighteous +gain from the need of the poverty-stricken, and so on, everywhere. +A teacher, on the other hand, a doctor, an artist, could not depute +slaves to his work; he must do it himself, and was therefore not such +a shark as those below. If, then, culture brought men happiness and +made them better, then the aristocracy were justified and beneficent, +and could regard themselves as better than those below. Yes, but one +could buy culture for money, could beg or borrow the means for it, +as so many students did, and there was no virtue in that at any rate. +Yet one could not help feeling superior to others when one knew more +and observed the laws of social life so as to injure no one. All that +remained for the real democracy was to reduce everything to a dead +level, so that no one need feel themselves below, and no one could +think they were above. + + +[1] _Vide_ Schiller's "Robbers." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BEHIND THE CURTAIN + +(1869) + + +The Swedish theatre was at this time exposed to many attacks, and when +is a theatre not in that condition? The theatre is a miniature society +within society, with a monarch, ministers, officials, and a whole +number of classes, ranged above one another in ranks. Is it any wonder +that this society is always exposed to the attacks of the malcontents? +But at this period the attacks had a more practical object. A former +provincial actor had written a pamphlet against the Theatre Royal, of +little real importance, but with the result that the author was invited +to a seat on the board of directors. This aroused imitators, and many +published treatises in order to attain the same result. + +As a matter of fact, the Theatre Royal was neither better nor worse +than it had been before. "But," it was asked, "if the theatre is +an institution supported by subscriptions for forwarding culture, +why set an uncultivated person at the head of it?" To this it was +answered, "We have just had one of the most learned men in the country +as director, and how did that answer? Although he had the advantage +of plebeian birth he was worried to death by the democratic press, +which incessantly carped at him." At last, in our time, the utopia of +self-government has been realised, the theatre has a man from the lower +classes at its head, and there is general satisfaction. + +On the day fixed, John went to the theatre in order to announce his +intention of making his debut. After some delay, he was sent for and +asked his business. + +"I want to make my debut." + +"Oh! have you studied any special character?" + +"Karl Moor in 'The Robbers,'" he answered more defiantly than was +necessary. + +They looked at each other and smiled. "But one must have three roles; +have you got no other to suggest?" + +"Lucidor!" + +There was a consultation, and John was informed that these dramas were +not now in the repertory of the theatre. He objected that this was not +a sufficient reason for his not undertaking those roles, but received +the perfectly fair answer, that the theatre could not stage such +important dramas and disarrange its programme for untried debutants. +Then the director proposed to John that he should take the role of the +"Warrior of Ravenna." But after the great success which had attended +the last actor of that part, he dared not. They finally suggested that +he should have a talk with the literary manager. Then began a battle +which was probably not the first or the last which had taken place in +that room. + +"Be reasonable, sir; one must study this profession like all others. No +one becomes an adept all of a sudden. Creep before you walk. Undertake +at first a minor role." + +"No, the role must be great enough to sustain me. In a minor role one +must be a great artist in order to attract attention." + +"Yes, but listen to me, sir; I have experience." + +"Yes, but others have made their debut in leading parts, without having +been on the stage before." + +"But you will break your neck." + +"Very well, then! I will!" + +"Yes, but the board of directors will not give the best stage in the +country to the first chance aspirant to make experiments on." + +That seemed reasonable. He therefore consented to undertake a minor +role. He was given the part of Haerved Boson in Hedberg's _Marriage of +Ulfosa_. + +John read over the part at home, and was astonished. It was quite +insignificant. He only had a few quarrels with his brother-in-law and +then embraced his wife. But he had to undertake the part, as he had +agreed to do. + +The rehearsals began. To have to shout out empty words without meaning +was repugnant to him. + +After some trials the teacher declared that he had no more time and +recommended John to take lessons in the Dramatic Academy. + +"But I won't be a pupil," he said. + +"No, of course." + +They talked of the Dramatic Academy, as of an elementary or Sunday +School; all kinds of pupils were accepted whether they had any +education or not. John did not intend to become a pupil, but went +just to listen. He went there reluctantly. Accustomed to be a teacher +himself, he was received as a sort of honorary guest, and sat down, but +attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention. The hour was passed in +reciting "Vintergatan," which he knew by heart, and some other pieces +of verse. + +"But one can't learn anything for the stage here," he ventured to say +to the teacher. + +"Well! come on the stage, and try before the footlights." + +"How can I do that?" + +"As a supernumerary actor." + +"Supernumerary! H'm! That is like going downhill before beginning," +thought John. But he determined to go through with it. One morning he +received an invitation to try a part in Bjoernson's _Maria Stuart_. +The theatre messenger gave him a little blue note-book on which was +written, "A nobleman," and inside, on a white sheet of paper, "The +Lords have sent an intermediary with a challenge to Count Both well." +That was the whole part! Such was to be his debut! + +At the appointed time he went up the little back stairs, passed the +door-keeper and came on the stage. It was the first time that he was +behind the scenes, and saw the reverse of the medal. The stage looked +like a great warehouse with black walls; a cracked and dirty floor like +that of a hay loft, and grey linen screens mounted on rough wood. + +It was here that he had seen represented majestic scenes from the +world's history; here Masaniello had shouted "Death to Tyrants" while +John stood trembling at the end of the fourth row among the audience; +here Hamlet had given vent to his scorn and suffered his sorrows, and +from here Karl Moor had defied society and the whole world. John felt +alarmed. How could one preserve the illusion hero in sight of the +unpainted wood and the grey canvas? Everything looked dusty and dirty; +the workmen were poor melancholy devils, and the actors and actresses +looked insignificant in their ordinary clothes. + +He was led into the lobby where they were going to dance for +half-an-hour the gavotte, which introduced the play. It was broad +daylight. The old music teacher sat on a chair and played the viol. The +ballet-master shouted, struck his hands together and arranged them in +their places. "I didn't bargain for this," thought John, but it was too +late. So he found himself in the midst of a complicated dance which he +did not know, and was pushed about and scolded. "No, I am not going to +do this," he thought, but he could not get out of it. + +A feeling of shame came over him. Dancing in the day-time was not a +seemly occupation. And then to descend from teacher to pupil, and be +the last here; he had never before gone back so far. + +The bell rang for the rehearsal, and they were driven on the stage. +Then they were arranged for the gavotte. By the footlights stood the +chief actors who had the important roles; and behind them the rest in +two lines occupied the background. + +The orchestra struck up and the dance began in slow solemn rhythm. From +the footlights were heard the deep voices of the two Puritans lamenting +the depravity of the court. + +_Lindsay_. "Look! the dancing lines wind like snakes in the sun. +Listen! the music plays with the flames of hell! The devil's roar of +laughter is in it." + +_Andrew Kerr_. "Hush, hush; the penalty will overwhelm them as the sea +overwhelmed Pharaoh's army." + +_Lindsay_. "Look, how they whisper! The infecting breath of sin! See +their voluptuous smiles; see the ladies' frivolous gowns." + +_Citizen_. "All that Knox preaches is wasted on this court." + +_Lindsay_. "He is as the prophet in Israel, he does not speak in vain; +for the Lord Himself shall perform His word upon the ungodly race." + +The piece had an arresting effect, and John felt it. The men actors had +their hats, overcoats and sticks, and the women their cloaks and muffs, +but still the drama was impressive in its simple greatness. He stood in +the wings and listened to the whole of it; Mary Stuart did not please +him; she was cruel and coquettish; Bothwell was too rough and strong; +his favourite was Darnley, the weak, Hamlet-like man whose love to this +woman continued to burn in spite of unfaithfulness, scorn, malice and +everything. Knox was as hard as stone with his Puritanism and gloomy +Christianity. + +It was after all something to step forward and enact a piece of history +in the garb of such persons. There was something solemn about it as he +had felt before in the church. After he had gone on the stage and made +his speech he went away firmly resolved to bear all on behalf of sacred +art. + +He had thus taken the decisive step. To his father he had written a +high-flown letter, and declared that he would either become something +great in the career which he had now entered or would retire from it +altogether; he had resolved not to go home till he had succeeded. The +doctor was sorry but made no fuss, for he saw it was impossible to +stop him. But he had other secret plans for saving him which he now +began to set in motion. In the first place he induced John to translate +one or two medical pamphlets for which he had found a publisher. Now +he came with a proposal that they should together write articles for +the _Aftonbladet (Evening New's_). John for his part had translated +Schiller's essay, _The Theatre Regarded as a Moral Institution_, and as +the subject of the theatre had now conic up in the Reichstag the doctor +wrote an introduction to it in which he seriously expostulated with +the Agrarian party on their indifference to culture. The whole article +was inserted. Another day the doctor came with a member of the medical +journal, the _Lancet_, which treated of the question whether women were +fit for a medical career. Without hesitation and instinctively John +decided against it. He had an indescribable reverence for women as +woman, mother and wife, but as a matter of fact, society was founded +upon the man regarded as provider for the family, and upon the woman +as wife and mother; thus man had a full right to his work-market and +all the duties involved in it. Every occupation taken from the man +would mean a marriage less or one more overworked family-provider, for +the impulse to marry was so strong in men that they would not cease +to marry, however great the difficulties in which they might become +involved. Moreover women had abundant opportunities of work; they +could become servants, house-keepers, governesses, teachers, midwives, +seamstresses, actresses, artists, authoresses, queens, empresses, +besides wives and mothers. Many of these vocations were also open to +the unmarried. Anything more than this was an encroachment on the man's +territory. If the woman did that, the man should be free from the cares +of providing for the family, and inquiries after paternity should not +be made. But society would not consent to that. On the contrary it +began to persecute the prostitutes by way of forcing men to marry. Once +caught in the snares of the married women's property law, they would +sink to the level of domestic slaves. + +John instinctively took sides in this complicated problem, which was +destined to take many years to solve, and wrote against the women's +movement, which he saw would involve, if victorious, man's overthrow. +The movement for the emancipation of women had during the fifties, +assumed the wildest forms, and the war-cry, "No lords! No lords!" had +shown the true nature of the movement, which had also been ridiculed +by Rudolf Wall in his comedy, _Miss Garibaldi_. But while years went +on, the women had worked in silence. + +Great therefore was the surprise of the doctor and John when they found +their article in the _Aftonbladet_ so altered that it seemed in favour +of the movement. "The editor is under the thumbs of women," said the +doctor, and thereby the matter was explained. + +Meanwhile John's theatrical career approached a crisis. He had been +sent into a green room where brandy was drunk and everything was dirty, +to put on his clothes with the supernumeraries. "They want to humiliate +me," he thought, "but patience!" + +Now he was simply appointed as supernumerary in one opera after the +other. He declared that he feared neither the footlights nor the +public after having preached in church, but it was no good. The worst +was, having to lounge about at the rehearsals for hours together with +nothing to do. If he read a book, he was told he had no interest in the +play, and if he went away, an outcry was raised. + +In the Theatrical Academy roles were merely learnt by heart. Children +who had only gone through an elementary school, began to read Goethe's +_Faust_, naturally without understanding anything of it. But curiously +enough, their very boldness saved them; they got on so well that one +was inclined to think there was no need for an actor to understand +anything, if only he could say his piece fluently. After a few +months John was sick of it all. It was all mechanical. The greatest +actors were blase and indifferent, never spoke of art, but only of +engagements and honorariums. There was no trace of the gay life behind +the scenes, of which so much had been written. They sat silent waiting +for their turns to come; the dancers and actresses in their costumes, +sewing and stitching. In the lobby the actors went about on tip-toe, +looked at the clock and put on their false beards, without speaking a +word. + +One evening, when _Maria Stuart_ was being acted, John sat alone in +the lobby reading a paper. The actor Dahlqvist, who was taking the +part of John Knox, came in. John, who cherished a deep admiration +for the great actor, stood up and bowed. If he could only speak with +such a man. He trembled at the very thought. Knox, with his venerable +long white hair, his black dress, and his great eyes half-sunk in his +powerful deeply-lined face, sat down at the table. He yawned. "What is +the time?" he asked in a sepulchral tone. John answered that it was +half-past ten, unbuttoning his Burgundian velvet jacket to look for the +watch which was not there. + +"The time is going devilish slow this evening," said Knox and yawned +again. Then he began to retail bits of gossip. He was only a ruin of +his former greatness when his acting of Karl Moor had cast all his +rivals into the shade. He too had seen through everything and was weary +of it all. And yet he had once thought so highly of his art. + +Since John had now the right of free entrance into the theatre he +tried to study acting from the auditorium. But behold! the illusion +was gone! There was Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. So-and-so, there was the +background for _Quentin Durward_, there sat Hoegfelt, and there behind +the scenes, stood Boberg. There was no further possibility of illusion. + +He was sick of the wretched role which he had to repeat continually. +But he also felt remorse and feared that he could not retire from the +game honourably. At last he plucked up courage and demanded a leading +part. The piece in which it occurred had already been performed fifty +times, and the chief actors were tired of it, but they had to come. The +rehearsal took place without costumes or scenery. John was accustomed +to the declamatory manner usual then, and shouted like a preacher. It +was a failure. After the rehearsal the head of the theatrical academy +pronounced his verdict and advised John to enter it for a course of +training, but he would not. He wept for rage, went home and took an +opium pill which he had long kept by him, but without effect; then a +friend took him out and he got intoxicated. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOHN BECOMES AN AUTHOR + +(1869) + + +The next morning he felt in a state of complete collapse. His nerves +still trembled and his body felt the fever of shame and intoxication. +What should he do? He must save his honour. He must still hold out +for two or three months and try again. That day he remained at home +and read _The Stories of a Barber-Surgeon_. As he read it seemed +to him that they recorded his own experience; they were about the +reconciliation of a step-son to his step-mother. The breach in +his domestic life had always weighed upon him like a sin, and he +longed for reconciliation and peace. That day this longing took an +unusually melancholy form, and as he lay on the sofa, his brain began +to evolve various plans for smoothing away the domestic discord. A +woman-worshipper as he then was, and under the influence of the book he +had been reading, he thought that only a woman could reconcile him with +his father. This noble role he assigned to his step-mother. + +While thus tying on the sofa he felt an unusual degree of fever, +during which his brain seemed to work at arranging memories of the +past, cutting out some scenes, and adding others. New minor characters +entered; he saw them mixing in the action, and heard them speaking, +just as he had done on the stage. After one or two hours had passed, +he had a comedy in two acts ready in his head. This was both a painful +and pleasurable form of work if it could be called a work; for it went +forward of itself, without his will or co-operation. + +But now he had to write it. In four days the piece was ready. He kept +on going from the writing-table to the sofa and back; and in the +intervals of his work, he collapsed like a rag. When the work was +finished, he drew a deep sigh of relief, as though years of pain were +over, as though a tumour had been cut out. He was so glad, that he felt +as though some one was singing within him. Now he would offer his piece +to the theatre;--that was the way of salvation. The same evening he +sat down to write a note of congratulation to a relative who had found +a situation. When he had written the first line, it seemed to him to +read like a verse. Then he added the second line which rhymed with the +first. Was it no harder than that? Then with a single effort he wrote a +four-page letter in rhyme and discovered that he could write verse. Was +it no harder than that? Only a few months before he had asked a friend +to help him with some verses for a special occasion. He had, however, +received a negative but complimentary answer, in being told not to +drive in a hired carriage, when he had one of his own. + +One was not then born to write verses, he said to himself, nor did one +learn it, though all kinds of verse-measures were taught in school, +but it came,--or did not come. It seemed to him like the working of +the Holy Spirit. Had the psychical convulsion, which he had felt at +his defeat as an actor, been so strong that it had turned upside down +all the strata of his memories and impressions, and had the violent +impulse set his imagination to work? There had doubtless been a long +preparation going on. Was it not his imagination, which had conjured up +pictures, when as a child he had been afraid of the dark? Had he not +written essays in school and letters for years? Had he not formed his +style through reading, translating and writing for the papers? Yes, he +had, but it was not till now that he noticed in himself the so-called +creative power of the artist. + +The art of the actor was therefore not the one suited to his powers; +his having thought so was a mistake which could easily be rectified. +Meanwhile he must keep his authorship fairly secret and remain at the +theatre till the end of the season, so that his failure as an actor +might not be known, or at any rate till his piece was accepted, as it +naturally would be, for he thought it good. + +But he wished to make sure of it, and for that purpose invited two +of his learned friends outside the theatrical circle. In the evening +before they came, he arranged the lumber-room which he had hired in +the doctor's house. He tidied it up, lighted two candles instead of +the study lamp, covered the table with a clean cloth and set on it a +punch-bowl with glass, ash-trays and matches. This was the first time +he had entertained guests, and the experience was novel and strange. + +The work of an author has often been compared to childbirth, and the +comparison has something to justify it. He felt a kind of peace like +that which follows parturition; something or some one seemed to be +there which, or who, was not there before; there had been suffering and +crying and now there was silence and peace. He felt in a festival mood +as he used to do in the old times at home; the children were in their +Sunday best, and their father in his black frock coat cast a last look +round on the arrangements before the guests came. + +His friends arrived and he read the piece through in silence till the +end. They gave their verdict, and John was greeted by his elders as an +author. + +When they had gone, he fell on his knees on the floor, and thanked +God for having delivered him from difficulty and bestowed on him the +gift of poetry. His communion with God had been very irregular; it +was a curious fact, that in cases of great necessity he rallied his +powers within himself and did not cry to the Lord at all; but on joyful +occasions, on the other hand, he involuntarily felt the need of at once +thanking the Giver of all good. It was just the contrary to what it had +been in his childhood, and that was natural since his idea of God had +developed into that of the Author and Giver of all good things, whereas +the God of his childhood had been a God of terror whose hand was full +of misfortunes. + +At last he had found his calling, his true role in life and his +wavering character began to develop a backbone. He had a pretty good +idea now of what he wanted, and this gave him at least a rudder to +steer by. Now he pushed off from land to go for a long voyage, but +always ready to tack when he encountered too strong a head wind,--not, +however, to fall to leeward, but the next moment to luff his ship up to +the wind with bellying sails. + +By writing this comedy, he had now relieved himself of his domestic +troubles. He next described the religious conflicts he remembered so +vividly in a three-act play. This lightened the ship considerably. + +His creative energy during this period was immense. He had the writing +fever daily; within two months he composed two comedies and a rhymed +tragedy, besides occasional verses. The tragedy was his first real +"work of art," as the phrase is, for it did not deal with any of his +subjective experiences. "Sinking Hellas" was the not inconsiderable +theme. The composition was finished and clear, but the situations were +somewhat threadbare, and there was a good deal of declamation. The +only original elements in it were an austere moral tone and contempt +for uncultured demagogues. Thus, for instance, he introduced an old +man inveighing against the immorality and want of patriotism of the +youth of the time. He made Demosthenes speak disparagingly of a +demagogue, and express something of what he had felt towards the master +chimney-sweep and pawnbroker on the journey to Copenhagen. The head +of the Theatrical Academy also got a rap over the knuckles because +he had often lamented over John's "lack of culture." The piece was +aristocratic in tone, and the freedom celebrated in it was that which +was the object of aspiration in the sixties,--national freedom. + +Meanwhile he had sent his domestic comedy anonymously to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. While it was under consideration, he +went on cheerfully with his work as supernumerary actor. "Just you +wait!" he said to himself, "then my turn will come and I shall have a +word to say in the matter." He was now quite cool on the stage, and +felt, even when dressed as a peasant youth in _Wilhelm Tell_, like a +prince in disguise. "I am certainly no swineherd, though you may think +so," he hummed to himself. + +He had to wait long for an answer about his piece. At last he lost +patience and revealed himself as the author to the head of the +Theatrical Academy. The latter had read the piece and found talent in +it, but said it could not be played. This was not a great blow for him, +for he still had the tragedy in reserve. That was better received, but +he was told it needed remodelling here and there. + +One evening when the Academy closed, the head instructor expressed a +wish to speak with John. "Now we see what you are good for," he said. +"You have a fine career in front of you; why should you choose an +inferior one? You can become an actor probably if you work for some +years, but why toil at this thankless task? Go back to Upsala and take +your degree if you can. Then become an author, for one must first have +experiences in order to write well." + +To become an author,--that John agreed with, and also with the +suggestion that he should give up the theatre; but as for returning to +Upsala,--no! He hated the university, and did not see how the useless +things one learnt there could help him as an author; he rather needed +to study life at first hand. But then he began to reflect, and when +he considered that, at present, he could get no piece of his accepted +so as to serve as a plank to save himself by, he grasped at the other +straw,--Upsala. There was no disgrace in becoming a student again, and +at the theatre they knew that he was not only an unsuccessful debutant, +but also an author. + +At the same time he learnt that there was a legacy due to him from his +mother of a few hundred kronas. With them he could support himself for +a half-year at the university. He went to his father, not as a prodigal +son, but as a promising author, and as a creditor. There was a vehement +dispute between them which ended in John receiving his legacy. He had +now conceived the plan of a tragedy with the startling title "Jesus of +Nazareth." It dealt in dramatic form with the life of Christ, and was +intended, with one blow and once for all, to shatter the divine image +and eradicate Christianity. But when he had completed some scenes, he +saw that the subject-matter was too great and would demand prolonged +and tedious study. + +The theatrical season now approached its end. The Theatrical Academy +gave their customary stage performance. John had received no role in +it, but undertook the task of prompter. And his career as an actor +closed in the prompter's box. To this was reduced his ambition of +acting Karl Moor on the stage of the Great Theatre! Did he deserve this +fate? Was he worse equipped for acting than the rest? That was probably +not so, but the question was never decided. + +In the evening after the performance, a dinner was given to the +Academy pupils. John was invited and made a speech in verse in order +to make his exit seem as little like a fiasco as possible. He became +intoxicated, as usual, behaved foolishly and disappeared from the +scene. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "RUNA" CLUB + +(1870) + + +The Upsala of the sixties showed signs of the end and dissolution of a +period which might be called the Bostroemic.[1] In what relation does +the philosophic system which prevails in a given period stand to the +period itself? The system seems like a collection of the thoughts of +the period at a particular point of time. The philosopher does not +make the period, but the period makes the philosopher. He collects all +the thoughts of his period and thereby exercises an influence on it, +and with the close of the period his influence ends. The Bostroemic +philosophy had three defects; it wished to be definitely Swedish; +it came too late; and it wished to outlive its period. To attempt +to construct a purely Swedish philosophy was absurd, for that meant +trying to break loose from the connection with the great mother-stem +which grows on the Continent and only sends out seeds towards the +Northern peninsula. The attempt came too late, for time is necessary to +construct a system, and before the system was constructed, the period +had passed. Bostroem, as a philosopher, was not, as it were, shot out +of a cannon. All knowledge is collecting-work, and is coloured by +the personality of the collector. Bostroem was a branch grown out of +Kant and Hegel, watered by Biberg and Grubbe, and finally producing +some offshoots of his own. That was all. He seems to have derived +his fundamental principle from Krause's Pantheism, which itself was +an attempt to unite the philosophy of Kant and Fichte with that of +Schelling and Hegel. This eclecticism had been already attempted by +Grubbe. Bostroem first studied theology, and this seemed to have a +hampering effect on his mind when he wrote about speculative theology. +His moral philosophy he derived from Kant. To call him an original +philosopher is provincial patriotism. His influence did not reach +beyond the frontiers of Sweden, nor did it outlast the sixties. His +political system was already antiquated in 1865, when the students out +of reverence for the philosopher, had still to declare, conformably to +his textbook, that the representation of the four estates was the only +reasonable one--a doctrine which was subsequently contradicted in the +college lectures. + +How did Bostroem come by such an idea? Can one draw an inference from +the accidental circumstance that he, a poor man's son from Norrland, +came into too close touch with King John and his court, in his capacity +of tutor to the princes? Could the philosopher escape the common lot +of generalising in _certain_ respects, from his own predilections and +current time-sanctioned ideas? Probably not. Bostroem as an idealist +was subjective--so subjective that he denied reality an independent +existence, declaring that, "to be is to be perceived (by men)." The +world of phenomena therefore, according to him, exists only in and +through our perceptions. The error of the deduction was overlooked, and +it was a double one. The system rested on an unproved assumption, and +had to be corrected; it is true that the phenomenal world only exists +for its through our perception, but that does not prevent its existing +for itself without our perception. In fact science has demonstrated +that the earth already existed with a very high degree of organic life, +before any one was there to perceive it. + +Bostroem broke with ecclesiastical Christianity, but, like Kant and +the later evolutionist philosophers, retained Christian morality. +Kant had been arrested in the bold progress of his thought by a want +of psychological knowledge, and had simply laid down as axioms the +categorical imperative and the practical postulate. The moral law, +which depends on the epoch and changes with it, received in his system +quite a Christian colouring as God's command. Bostroem was still +"under the law"; he judged the moral worth or baseness of an action +simply by its motives; according to him the only satisfactory motive +is that regard for the spiritual nature of duty which is revealed in +conscience. But there are as many consciences as there are religions +and races; therefore his moral system was quite sterile. + +Bostroem's importance for theological development only consisted in +his coming forward against Bishop Beckman in the discussion regarding +the doctrine of hell (1864), although that doctrine had recently been +rejected by the cultivated with the assistance of the rationalists. +On the other hand Bostroem was obstructive in his pamphlets _The +Irresponsibility and Divine Right of the King_ and _Are the Estates of +the Realm Justified in Resolving on and Carrying Out the Change in the +So-called (!) Representation of the People_? (1865). + +In his capacity as an idealist, Bostroem is, for the present generation, +not only without significance, but positively reactionary. He is +nothing but a necessary link in the worthless reactionary philosophy +which followed with such fatal obscurantism the "illuminative" +philosophy of the eighteenth century. He has lived and is dead. Peace +to his ashes! + +Literature ought to be another barometer for testing the atmosphere of +any given period. And in order to be that, it must be free to deal with +the questions of that period; but this, the then prevailing aesthetic +theories forbade. + +Poetry ought to be and was (according to Bostroem) a recreation like the +other fine arts. Under such a theory and influenced by the prevalent +idolatry of the "ego," poetry became merely lyrical, expressing +the poet's small personal feelings and inclination, and reflecting +therefore only some of the features of the period, and those perhaps, +not the most important. Only two names in the poetry of the sixties +were of importance--Snoilsky and Bjoerck. Snoilsky was "awake," to use +a pietistic expression, Bjoerck was dead. Both were born poets, as the +saying is; that is to say, their talents showed themselves earlier +than usual. Both attained distinction while still at school, early won +honour and renown, and by birth and position were enabled to view life +from its sunny heights. Snoilsky, without knowing it, was under the +power of the spirit of the new age. Freed from the fear of hell and +monkish morality, experiencing the retrenchment of his privileges as a +nobleman, he gave free play both to mind and body. In his first poems +he was a revolutionary and praised the cap of liberty; he preached the +emancipation of the flesh and had a certain dislike to over-culture as +a conventional restraint. But as a poet, he did not escape the poet's +tragic destiny--not to be taken seriously. Poetry in the eyes of the +public, was simply poetry, and Snoilsky was a poet. Bjoerck had a mind +which was not capable of receiving strong impressions. At peace with +himself, languid, complete from the beginning, he lived his life sunk +in his own reflections or noticed only the trifling events of the +outer world and described them neatly and correctly. In the opinion of +the great majority who live the peaceful life of automata his poetry +shows a remarkable degree of philanthropy. But why does not this +philanthropy extend itself further to large circles of men, and to +humanity at large? In the writer's opinion Bjoerck's philanthropy does +not extend beyond the limits of the personal quiet which the individual +attains when he ignores the duties of social life. He is satisfied +with the world because the world has been kind to him; he avoids +strife because it disturbs his own serenity. Bjoerck is an example of +the fortunate man whose life is not in conflict with his upbringing, +but who rather builds up stone by stone, on the foundation already +laid; everything proceeds in a workmanlike way by level and rule; the +house is finished, as it was designed, without the plan undergoing any +alteration. Stunted by domestic tyranny, tasting early the sweets +of homage and reverence, he ceased to grow. He accepted Bostroem's +compromise with Christianity without examining it, and in doing so, he +had finished his life-work. His poetry is especially praised for its +purity and spiritual character. What is this "purity" which in our +days is so sharply contrasted with the sensual? The secret is, that he +did not get her; just as Dante's heavenly love for Beatrice was due to +the same involuntary cause. Bjoerck therefore sang of the unattainable +with the quiet melancholy of unsatisfied love. But that, however, is no +virtue, and purity should be a virtue. + +In short, Bjoerck and Snoilsky sang of water and drank wine, and in this +were just the opposite to the poets of our time, who are said to sing +of wine and drink water. A poet's life always seems to be at variance +with his teachings. Why? Is it that, in composing, he wishes to escape +from his own personality, and find another? Is it a wish to disguise +himself? Or is it modesty, the fear of giving himself away, and of +self-exposure? This is a weighty problem for future psychologists to +unravel. + +Bjoerck composed poems both for the reformation of the constitution +in 1865, and for the restoration to power of the King. He saw harmony +everywhere, and when he celebrated the restored union between Sweden +and Norway in 1864, he was extremely melodious. He also praised +Abraham Lincoln; negro-emancipation and white slavery--that is the +ideal of freedom of the Holy Alliance! Revolution certainly, but legal +revolution by the will of God! Well, he knew no better, and few did at +that time. Therefore we do not judge the man but only his work, the +motives inspiring which are a matter of indifference to posterity. + +Young men read these poets, many of them with great edification. +They proclaimed no new era, but prophesied after the event that +now the millennium was come, the ideal realised, and lines of +demarcation obliterated once for all. They looked with satisfaction +on their creations, rubbed their hands, and found them all good. An +atmosphere of peace had spread itself over the whole of Upsala and +its neighbourhood; now one might sleep till Doomsday was the belief +of old and young. But then discordant sounds began to be heard, and +in the days of universal peace fire-beacons began to be seen on the +neighbouring mountain-tops. From Norway open water was signalled +and the revolving lights were kindled. Rome captured Greece, but +Greece re-captured Rome. Sweden had captured Norway, but now Norway +re-captured Sweden. Lorenz Dietrichson was appointed as professor +at the university of Upsala in 1861, and he was the forerunner of +Norwegian influence. He made Sweden acquainted with Danish and +Norwegian literature, then almost unknown, and founded the literary +society which produced poets like Snoilsky and Bjoerck. + +After Norway had broken loose from the Danish monarchy and had ceased +to be a branch of the head office in Copenhagen, it was not grafted +into Sweden but retreated into itself. At the same time it opened +direct communication with the continent. Its awakening to independence +was coincident with a strong stream of foreign influence. It was +Bjoernson who first roused Norway to self-consciousness; but when this +degenerated into a narrow patriotism, Ibsen came with the pruning +shears. + +As the strife became fiercer and Christiania would not lend itself +to be a field of battle, the conflict was transferred to hospitable +Sweden. The Norwegian wine was well adapted for exportation; pamphlets +grew in size as they travelled and in Sweden became literature. +Thoughts came to the top and personalities settled at the bottom of +the vessel. Ibsen and Bjoernson broke into Sweden; Tidemand and Gude +took prizes in the art exhibition of 1866; Kierulf and Nordraak were +authorities in singing and music. Then came Ibsen's _Brand_. This had +appeared in 1866, but John did not see it till 1869. It made a deep +impression on the primitive Christian side of him, but it was gloomy +and severe. The final utterance in it regarding "Deus caritatis" was +not satisfying, and the poet seemed to have had too much sympathy with +his hero to have described his overthrow with cold irony. + +_Brand_ gave John a good deal of trouble. He (Brand) had dropped +Christianity but kept its stern ascetic morality; he demanded obedience +for his old doctrines though they were no more practicable; he despised +the tendency of the time towards humanity and compromise, but ended by +recommending the God of compromise. Brand was a fanatic, a pietist, +who dared to believe himself right against the whole world, and John +felt himself related to this terrible egoist who was wrong besides. No +half-measures! go straight on; break down everything that stands in the +way, for you only are right! John's tender conscience, which suffered +at every step he took lest it should vex his father or friends, was +stupefied by Brand. All ties of consideration and of love should be +torn asunder for the sake of "the cause." That John was no longer a +pietist was a piece of good fortune, otherwise he too would have been +overwhelmed by the avalanche.[2] But Brand gave him a belief in a +conscience which was purer than that which education had given him, and +a law which was higher than conventional law. And he needed this iron +backbone in his weak back, for he had long periods during which by +fits and starts and out of mildness he thought himself wrong, and the +first who came, right; therefore, he was also very easily misled. Brand +was the last Christian who followed an old ideal, therefore he could be +110 pattern for one who felt a vague inclination to revolt against all +old ideals. + +_Brand_ after all was a fine plant, but without any roots in its own +period; and, therefore, it belonged to the herbarium. Then came +_Peer Gynt_. This was rather obscure than deep and had its value as +an antidote against the national self-love. The fact that Ibsen was +neither banished nor persecuted after having said such bitter things +against the proud Norwegians, shows that in Norway they were more +honourable fighters than the Swedes afterwards showed themselves to be. + +Ibsen was at that time regarded as a misanthrope and as an enemy and +envier of Bjoernson. People were divided into two camps, and the dispute +as to which of the two was the greater was endless, for it concerned an +artistic problem--"contents or form." + +The influence of Norwegian on Swedish poetry has been great and partly +beneficent, but there was a peculiarly Norwegian element in it, which +was not adaptable to Sweden, a land with quite another development. +In the sequestered valleys of Norway there lived a people who, under +the pressure of need and poverty, found ready to their hand in the +Christian doctrine of renunciation an ascetic philosophy which promised +heaven as a compensation for earth's hardships. Nature in her most +gloomy and parsimonious aspect, a damp climate, long winters, great +distances between the villages,--all co-operated to preserve an +austere mediaeval type of Christianity. There is something which may +be said to resemble insanity in the Norwegian character, of the same +kind as the English "spleen;" and possibly the intimate relations of +Norway with the hypochondriacal islanders may have impressed traces +on its civilisation. In Jonas Lie's _Clair-voyant_ this melancholy +is depleted, and in it one finds the same weird atmosphere as in the +Icelandic sagas, and the theme also is similar,--the struggle of the +spirit against physical darkness and cold. There we have depicted +the tragic lot of the Norseman banished from sunny lands to gloomy +wildernesses, and seeking relief by emigration, the ethnographical +significance of which has been overlooked in view of its economical +aspect. The Norwegian character is the result of many hundred years of +tyranny, of injustice, of hard struggling for a livelihood, of want of +gladness. + +Swedish literature should have avoided absorbing these national +peculiarities, but they have made it half-Norwegian. Brand still haunts +Swedish literature with his ideal demands, with which the romanticised +and cheerful Swede cannot sincerely sympathise. Therefore this foreign +garb suits him so badly; therefore modern Swedish music sounds so +unharmonious, like an echo of the violins of Hardanger, tuned over +again by Grieg; therefore the talk of greater moral purity sounds +discordant in the mouth of the vivacious Swede. He has not suffered +from long oppression and does not need to seek himself in the past; +melancholy has not so beset him in his open flat land of lakes and +rivers, and therefore a sour mien becomes him ill. + +When the Swedes received great and novel ideas by way of Norway or +direct from the Continent through Ibsen and Bjoernson, they should have +kept the kernel and thrown away the Norwegian husk. Even the _Doll's +House_ is Norwegian. Nora is related to the Icelandic women who wished +to set up a matriarchate; she belongs to the weird imperious women in +_Haermaennen_ who again are pure Norse. In them the emotions have become +frozen or distorted by centuries of cognate marriages. + +The whole Swedish literature of feminism is ultra-Norwegian; it +contains the same immodest demands on the man and petting of the spoilt +woman. Several young authors have introduced the Norwegian style into +Swedish; one authoress has placed the scene of her book in Norway, and +made her hero talk Norwegian! Further one could not go! + +Let us welcome foreign influence which is cosmopolitan; but not +Norwegian, for that is provincial, and we have plenty of the same kind +ourselves. + + * * * * * + +So John found himself again in Upsala,--the same Upsala from which he +had fled nine months before, and to which he most unwillingly returned. +To be compelled to a course which he did not wish always made him feel +as though he were encountering a personal foe, who cajoled him out of +his wishes and antipathies, and forced him to bend. Since he still +believed himself under God's personal providence, he accepted that as +though it were for his best. Later on he had a feeling that there was +a malignant power; this developed into the belief that there were two +ruling powers, one good, one evil, which divided the empery, or ruled +alternately. + +He asked himself again, "What have you to do here?" To take his degree, +but especially to cover his retreat from the theatre. Privately he +wished to write a play, and, under the screen of its success, wriggle +out of the examination. + +At first he was not at all comfortable in his lonely attic. He had +become accustomed to luxury, a large room, a good table, attendance +and society. After having been habituated to be treated as a man and +to have intercourse with older and cultivated people, he found himself +again in a state of pupilage as a student. But he cast himself into +the crowd and soon found himself on social terms with three distinct +circles. The first consisted of friends whom he met by day, who were +students of medicine and natural history and atheists. From them he +heard for the first time the name of Darwin; but it passed by him like +a doctrine for which he was not yet ripe. His evening society consisted +of a priest and a lawyer with whom he played cards till deep in the +night. He considered himself now in Upsala merely to grow and get +older, and that it was a matter of indifference what he did, as long as +he killed the time. He drew up the scheme of a new tragedy, Eric XIV, +but found it poor, and burnt it, for his faculty of self-criticism had +awakened and was severer in its demands. + +Later on in the term he entered a third society, which formed his +special circle during the whole of his time at Upsala and for a long +while afterwards. One evening he chanced to meet a young companion +with whom he had been a pupil at the private school. They discussed +literature, and over a glass of toddy made the plan of forming some +young poets into a club for literary work. The plan was carried out. +Besides John and the other founder of the club, four young students +were elected to it. They were fine young fellows of an idealist turn of +mind, as the saying is, with high purposes and enthusiastic for vague +ideals. They had not yet come into contact with the hard realities of +life; they had all well-to-do parents, no cares, and knew nothing at +all of the struggle for a subsistence. John, on the other hand, had +just left the most unpleasant surroundings; he had seen people who +were always ready to quarrel, conceited, empty-headed pupils of the +Theatrical Academy. Here he found himself transplanted into an entirely +new world. There were these happy youths going to their well-supplied +tables, smoking fine cigars, taking walks, and poetising beautifully +over the beauty of life which they knew nothing of. + +Rules were drawn up for the club, which received the name "Runa," +_i.e_. "song." The choice of this title was probably due to the +Northern renaissance which came in with the Scandinavian movement. +Its chief ornaments were Karl XV in poetry, Winge and Malmstroem in +painting, and Molin in sculpture. Recently it had been quickened by +Bjoernson's and Ibsen's dramas on subjects from the old Norse life. +The study of Icelandic, which had been newly introduced into the +university, also lent strength to this movement. + +The number of members of the club was not to exceed nine; each of +them was known by a Runic sign. John was called "Froe" and the other +founder of the club, "Ur." Every variety of opinion was represented. +Ur was a great patriot and venerated Sweden with its memories. In his +opinion it had the most brilliant history in Europe, and had always +been free. For the rest he was a practically minded man with a special +faculty for statistics, politics, and biography; he was a severe and +clever critic, and also managed the affairs of the club. He was a +reliable friend, good company, helpful and hearty. Secondly, there +was a full-blooded romanticist who read Heine and drank absinthe--a +sensitive youth enthusiastic for all old ideals, but especially for +Heine. There was also a seraph who sang of the indescribably little, +especially the happiness of childhood; fourthly, a silent worshipper of +nature, and, lastly, an eclectic philosopher and improvisator, who had +an extraordinary faculty for improvising in any style whatever, when +requested. Two minutes after he had been asked, he would stand up and +speak or sing on the spur of the moment in the character of Anacreon, +Horace, the Edda, or any one else, and even in foreign languages. + +The first meeting of the club was at Thurs', who was lodged the most +comfortably in two rooms and had the best pipes. As one of the founders +of the club John first of all read his prologue, which, according +to the rules of the society, had to be in verse. It began by asking +after the ancient bard Brage and his harp which was now silent. Brage +represented the new Norse element, the resuscitation of which was +believed necessary. The whole programme of the idealists was called +"a trivial striving." All the great efforts of their contemporaries +after reality and for the improvement of the conditions of life was +"trivial." The spirit was taken prisoner in matter, and therefore +all that was material was to be regarded as the enemy. Such was the +teaching of the romanticists, and of John's prologue. Then the poet +went out into nature, listened to the bells of the cathedral, the +wind, the pines, and the singing of the birds in order to ask the very +natural question: "Nature sings; why should I then be silent?" He +resolved to be no longer silent but to sing,--about the joyous youthful +spring-time of life, its autumn, and about love to one's native soil. +Then (he said) came the wise man with the frozen heart, took his song, +dissected it and found that it was all nonsense. Thus the song was +killed by "overwiseness." + +It is not easy to say exactly now what John meant by "overwiseness" +in 1870. He probably had simply forebodings of future critics, and +the "wise man" was no other than the reviewer. Then he inveighed +against the wretched mercenary souls who worship the golden calf but +do not love songs. This had no connection with contemporary matters, +for the sixties were remarkable for bad harvests and consequently +for want of gold. The swindles by company-promoters began with the +seventies. But it was the custom of the contemporary poets to attack +money and the golden calf, and therefore John did so in his prologue. +Now began a life of poetic idleness. Every evening they met either in +a restaurant, or in each other's rooms. But the time was not wasted +in view of his future authorship. John could borrow books from the +well-stocked libraries of his friends, and the interchange of opinions +accustomed him to look at literature from different points of view. But +for them real life, public interests, contemporary politics did not +exist; they lived in dreams. Sometimes his lower-class consciousness +awoke, and he asked himself what he had to do among these rich youths. +But he soon stilled these scruples by drink and talk, and encouraged +himself to go forward and demand something of life, for he had in his +companions' opinion a good chance. + +His room was a wretched one; the rain came through the roof, and he had +no proper bed, but only a plank-bed, which in the day-time served as a +sofa. When time hung heavily on his hands and he grew weary of poetical +discussions he looked up his old school-fellow, the natural history +student. There he looked through the microscope, and heard of Darwin +and the new scientific views. His friend gave him well-meant practical +advice and recommended him to get out of his difficulties by writing a +one-act play in verse for the Theatre Royal. + +John objected that his dramatic talent had not scope enough in one act, +and said that he would rather write a tragedy in five. + +"Yes, but it is harder to get that accepted," replied his friend. +Finally he let himself be persuaded and determined to carry out a +small idea he had of a short play based on Thorwaldson's first visit +to Rome. His friend lent him books on Italy and John set to work. In +fourteen days the piece was ready. + +"That will be acted," said his friend. "It has dramatic points, you +see." + +Since it was still a long time to the next meeting of the club, John +hastened in the evening to Thurs and Rejd and read the piece to them. +They were both of the same opinion as the natural history student, +that the piece would be performed. They had a champagne supper, and +kept drinking till the morning, and then went to sleep on the floor of +Rejd's room with the punch-glasses by them. In a couple of hours they +awoke, finished their half-empty glasses at sunrise and went out to +continue the celebration of the occasion. + +The sympathy of John's friends was hearty, unselfish and warm, without +a trace of envy. He always remembered with pleasure this first success +as one of the brightest recollections of his youth. The enthusiastic, +devoted Rejd increased Hohn's debt of gratitude by copying out the +piece in his graceful hand-writing. Then it was sent to the board of +management of the Theatre Royal. Spring arrived and they spent the +month of May in a continual carouse. The club had a small room in the +restaurant Lilia Foerderfvet for their evening suppers. There they +talked, made speeches, and drank enormously. At last the term ended and +they had to part, but they arranged to meet once more at Stockholm, +and celebrate the festival day of the club by an excursion into the +country. + +At six o'clock one June morning the four members of the club met at +Skeppsholm, where they had hired a rowing-boat. The chest of the club, +a card-board box containing documents, was stowed away with baskets of +provisions and bottles of wine. After Os and Rejd had taken the oars, +they steered the boat to the canal leading through the Zoological +Gardens, in order to reach the place they had appointed, a promontory +of Liding Island. Thurs played airs on the flute to Bellmann's songs, +and Froe (John) accompanied him on a guitar which he had learnt to play +at Upsala. + +As soon as they landed, breakfast was laid in a meadow by the shore. +The club-chest adorned with leaves and flowers was set in the middle +of the table-cloth, and on it were set the brandy-bottles and glasses. +John, who had studied antiquities for his play, _Sinking Hellas_, +arranged the meal in the Greek style, so that they wore garlands, and +ate reclining. A fire was lit between some stones and coffee was made. +At nine o'clock in the morning they drank brandy and punch. + +John read his drama, _The Free-thinker_, which was duly criticised. +Then they gave full course to their eloquence. Thurs was the best +speaker; he could express emotions and thoughts rhythmically. Poems +were read and received with applause. John sang folk-songs to the +accompaniment of his guitar, some on sentimental subjects, and some on +improper ones. At noon they were still in high spirits but inclined to +be sleepy. + +In the afternoon when the sun was over Lilia Vaertan they had a short +sleep, and then the carouse passed into a new phase. Thurs, the +Israelite, had recited a poem on the greatness of the North, and called +on the old gods of Scandinavia. Ur, the patriot, denied him the right +to appropriate other people's gods. The Jewish question came up; they +took fire and nearly quarrelled, but ended by embracing. + +Then began the sentimental stage. They had to weep, for alcohol has +this effect on the membranes of the stomach and the lachrymal duets. +Ur first felt this and unconsciously sought for a melancholy subject. +He burst into tears. When asked why, he did not know, but said at last +that he had been treated as a buffoon, which he always was. He declared +that he had a very serious nature and that he also had great troubles +which no one knew about, but now he unburdened his heart and told us a +domestic story. After he had done so, he became cheerful again. + +But the evening was long and they began to wish to go home. Their +brains were empty; they were tired of each other, and weary of play +and drinking. They began to reflect and examine the philosophy of +intoxication. From whence do men derive this desire to make themselves +senseless? What lies behind it? Is it the southern exile's longing +for a lost sunny existence in northern lands? There must be some felt +necessity underlying intoxication, for a vice like this would not +have laid hold of all mankind without reason. Is it that the member +of society in a state of intoxication throws away all the lies of +society? For the laws of social intercourse involuntarily forbid one to +speak out all one's thoughts. Otherwise whence comes the saying, _In +vino veritas_? Why did the Greeks honour Bacchus as one who improved +men and manners? Why did Dionysus love peace, and why was he said +to increase riches? Has wine, which is chiefly drunk by men, some +influence on the development of man's intelligence and activity, so +that he becomes superior to woman? And why do the Muhammadans who drink +no wine stand on what is regarded as a lower level of civilisation? +As salt is used as a daily nutrient to replace the salts which their +hunting forefathers found in the blood of beasts of the chase, does not +wine compensate for some lost nutritive matter belonging to earlier +stages, and, if so, which? Some idea or necessity must underlie so +singular a custom. + +Perhaps the need of losing consciousness justifies the axiom of the +pessimists that consciousness is the beginning of suffering. Wine makes +one naive and unconscious as a child; or even as an animal. Is it +the lost paradise which one wishes to recover? But the remorse which +follows it? Remorse and acidity of the stomach have the same symptoms. +Is there then a confusion, and are sensations called "remorse" which +are only heart-burn? Or does the drinker returned to consciousness +regret that he has exposed himself by daylight and betrayed his +secrets? There is something to feel remorse for in that! He is ashamed +that he has been taken by surprise, he feels afraid because he has +exposed himself and given away his weapons. Remorse and fear are close +neighbours. + +Yet once more the members of the club drowned their consciousness in +drink and then got into the boat to proceed home. John and Thurs began +a dispute about Bellmann[3] which lasted till they reached Skeppsholm, +and closed with sharp remarks on both sides. + +John had an old grudge against this poet. Once as a child, he had been +ill for a whole summer, and had by chance taken Bellmann's _Fredman's +Epistles_ out of his father's book-case. The book seemed to him silly, +but he was too young to form a well-grounded opinion on it. Later on, +it sometimes happened that his father sat at the piano, and hummed +Bellmann's songs. The boy found it incomprehensible that his father and +uncle admired them so much. Subsequently one Christmas he saw a violent +controversy break out between his mother and his uncle on the subject +of Bellmann. The latter set the poet above everything--Bible, sermons +and all. There were depths, he said, in Bellmann. Depths indeed! +Probably Atterbom's romanticist one-sided criticism had filtered +through the daily papers to the middle classes. As a school-boy and +student, John had sung "Up, Amaryllis" and other idylls of Bellmann's, +naturally without understanding them or thinking of the meaning of the +words. He sang in a quartette, or choir, for it sounded well. Finally, +in 1867, he read Ljunggren's lectures and a light broke upon him, but +not one of Ljunggren's kindling. He thought the latter mad. Bellmann +was a ballad-singer, that was true, but a great poet, the greatest poet +of the North?--impossible! + +Bellmann had sung his songs composed on the French model for the +Court and his own friends, but not for the common people, who would +not have understood "Amaryllis," "Eol," "The Tritons," "Froeja" and +all the rococo stock-in-trade. He died and was forgotten. Why had +he been disinterred by Atterbom? Because the pugnacious romantic +school required an embodiment of irregularity to set up against the +classicists, as they had nothing of their own to boast of. Thus the +romantic school gained the day; and when one considers how cowardly +most people are in the face of public opinion, and the tendency of the +middle-class to ape its superiors and reverence authority, one ceases +to be surprised at the elevation of Bellmann. Ljunggren and Eichhorn +outstripped Atterbom in finding beauty and genius in his writings they +were reinforced by the clerical element, and thus the idol was set up +for worship. Bystrom, the sculptor, had already magnified the little +lottery-secretary and court-poet into a Dionysus and lent him the +features of an antique bust of Bacchus. + +Bellmann's idylls are careless, extemporised compositions with forced +rhymes, and as disconnected as the thoughts in the brain of a drunkard. +One does not know whether it is day or night, the thunder rolls in the +sunshine, and the weaves beat while the boat is floating calmly on the +waters. They simply provide a text for music, and for that purpose +one might use a book of addresses. The meaning of the words does not +matter, as long as they sound well. + +According to his custom Thurs took the matter personally. It was an +attack on his good taste and on his honour, for John said that his +admiration of Bellmann was mere humbug; that he had read himself into +it, and that it was not genuine. Thurs on the other hand declared John +to be presumptuous, because he wished to criticise the greatest Swedish +poet. + +"Prove that he is the greatest," said John. + +"Tegner and Atterbom say so." + +"That is no proof." + +"Simply because you have a spirit of contradiction." + +"Doubt is the beginning of certainty, and absurd assertions must arouse +opposition in a healthy brain." + +And so on. + +Although there is no such thing as a judgment which holds good +universally, since every judgment is individualistic, there are, on the +other hand, judgments of a majority and of a party. By means of these +John was suppressed and kept silence on the subject of Bellmann for +many years. Only when later on the old historian Fryxell proved that +Bellmann was not the apostle of sobriety which Eichhorn and Ljunggren +had made him out to be, and also no god, but a mediocre ballad-singer, +did John see a gleam of hope that his individual opinion might become +some day the opinion of the majority. But he already saw the question +from another point of view; Sweden would have been neither unhappier +nor worse, if Bellmann had never lived. He would like to have said to +the patriots and democrats, "Bellmann was a poet of Stockholm and of +the Court, who jested very cruelly with poor people." He would like +to have said to the Good Templars who sang Bellmann's songs, "You are +singing drinking songs which were written during fits of intoxication +and celebrate drink." For his own part, John held that Bellmann's +songs were pleasant to sing because of the light French melodies which +accompanied them, and as for their French morality it did not vex him +at all--quite the contrary. But earlier, at the age of twenty-one, he +was vexed by it, for he was an idealist and desired purity in poetry, +just as the surviving idealists and admirers of Bellmann do at the +present time. + +These have used the word "humour" to save themselves and their +morality. But what do they mean by "humour"? Is it jest or earnest? +What is jest? The reluctance of the cowardly to speak out his mind? +Humour reflects the double nature of man,--the indifference of the +natural man to conventional morality, and the Christian's sigh over +immorality which is after all so enticing and seductive. Humour speaks +with two tongues,--one of the satyr, the other of the monk. The +humorist lets the maenad loose, but for old unsound reasons thinks that +he ought to flog her with rods. This is a transitional form of humour +which is passing away, and already at the last gasp. The greatest +modern writers have thrown away the rod, and play the hypocrite +no longer, but speak their minds plainly out. The old tippler's +sentimentality can no longer count for "a good heart," for it has been +discovered to be merely bad nerves. + +After arguing till they were weary, the members of the club landed in +Stockholm harbour. + +[1] Bostroem: Swedish Philosopher (1797-1866). + +[2] _Vide_ the end of _Brand_. + +[3] Famous Swedish poet. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BOOKS AND THE STAGE + + +The history of the development of a soul can be sometimes written by +giving a simple bibliography; for a man who lives in a narrow circle +and never meets great men personally, seeks to make their acquaintance +through books. The fact that the same books do not make the same +impression, nor have the same effect upon all, shows their relative +powerlessness to convert anybody. For example, we call the criticism +with which we agree good; the criticism which contradicts our views is +bad. Thus we seem to be educated with preconceived views, and the book +which strengthens, expresses and develops these makes an impression +on us. The danger of a one-sided education through books is that most +books, especially those composed at the end of an era, and at the +university, are antiquated. The youth who has received old ideals from +his parents and teachers is accordingly necessarily out of date before +his education is completed. When he enters manhood, he is generally +obliged to fling away his whole stock of old ideas, and be born again, +as it were. Time has gone by him, while he was reading the old books, +and he finds himself a stranger among his contemporaries. + +John had spent his youth in accumulating antiquarian lore. He knew all +about Marathon and Cannae, the war of the Spanish succession and the +Thirty Years' War, the Middle Ages and antiquity; but when the war +between France and Germany broke out, he did not know the cause of it. +He read about it as he would have read a play, and was interested to +see what the result of it would be. + +In Kristineberg, where he spent the summer with his parents, he lay +out on the grass in the park and read Oehlenschlaeger. For his degree +examination, he had, besides his chief subject--aesthetics,--to +choose a special one, and, enticed by Dietrichson's lectures, he had +chosen Danish literature. In Oehlenschlaeger he had found the summit +of Northern poetry. That was for him the quintessence of poetry,--the +directness which he admired perhaps for the very reason that he had +not got it. The Danish language perhaps also contributed to this +result; it seemed to him an idealised Swedish, and sounded like his +mother-speech from the lips of a woman worshipped from afar. When he +read Oehlenschlaeger's _Helge_, Tegner's _Frithiof's Saga_ seemed to him +petty; he found it unwieldy, prosaic, clerical, unpoetic. + +Oehlenschlaeger's dramas were a book which had an influence on John by +way of a supplementary contrast. Perhaps the romantic element in them +found an echo in the youth's mind, which had now awoken* to poetic +activity, and looked upon poetry and romance as identical. Other +contributory circumstances were his liking for Norse antiquities which +Oehlenschlaeger had just discovered, and the unrequited love he had +just then for a blond maiden who was engaged to a lieutenant. But the +impression made by Oehlenschlaeger was only fleeting, and hardly lasted +a year; it was a light spring breeze which passed by. + +It fared worse with John's study of aesthetics as expounded by +Ljunggren in two closely printed volumes, containing the views of all +philosophers on the Beautiful, but giving no satisfactory definition of +it. + +John had studied the antique in the National Museum, and asked himself +how the pot-house scenes of the Dutch genre painters which, when +they occurred in reality, were called ugly, could be reckoned among +beautiful pictures, although they were in no way idealised. To this the +aesthetic philosophers gave no answer. They shirked the question and +set up one theory after another, but the only excuse they could find +for the admission of ugliness was that it acted as a foil, and provided +a comic element. But a strong suspicion had been aroused in John that +the "Beautiful" was not always beautiful. + +Furthermore, he was troubled by doubts whether it was possible to +have independent standards of taste. In the newly-founded paper, the +_Schwedische Zeitschrift_, he had read discussions about works of +art, and seen how disputants on both sides defended their position +with equally strong arguments. One sought beauty in form, another in +subject, and a third in the harmony between the two. Accordingly a +well-painted subject from still life can rank higher than the Niobe, +for this group of statuary is not beautiful in its outlines, the +arrangement of the drapery of the principal figure being especially +tasteless although the judgment of the majority regards the work as +sublime. Therefore the sublime does not necessarily consist in beauty +of form. + +Victor Hugo's romances had found a fertile soil in John's mind. The +revolt against society; the reverence paid to Nature by the poet living +on a lonely island; the scorn for the ever-prevalent stupidity; the +indignation against formal religion and the enthusiasm for God as the +Creator of all,--all that was germinating in the young man's mind began +to grow, but was stifled by the autumn leaf-drifts of old books. + +John's life in the domestic circle was now a quiet one. The storms +had subsided; his brothers and sisters were grown up. His father, who +still always sat over his account-ledgers, calculating the ways and +means of providing for his flock of children, had become older, and +now perceived that John was also older. They often discussed together +topics of common interest. As regards the Franco-German War they were +both fairly neutral. As Latinised Teutons they did not love the German. +They hated and feared him as a sort of uncle with a right of seniority +against the Swedes, and they did not forget that victorious Prussia had +once been a Swedish province. The Swede had become more French than he +was aware, and now he felt conscious of his relationship to _la grande +nation_. In the evenings when they sat in the garden and the noise of +traffic had ceased, they heard the singing of the Marseillaise from +Blanch's cafe, and the hurrahs which were soon to be silent. + +In August, when the theatres re-opened, John received the long-desired +news that his play had been accepted for the stage. That was the first +intoxicating success which he had experienced. To have a play accepted +at the Theatre Royal when he was only twenty-one was sufficient +compensation for all his misfortunes. His words would reach the public +from the first stage in the land; his failure as an actor would be +forgotten; his father would see that his son amid all his notorious +fluctuations had chosen right, and all would be well. In autumn, before +the university term began, the piece was performed. It was naive, +pious and full of reverence for art, but had one dramatic scene which +saved it in spite of its slightness--Thorwaldsen about to shatter +the statue of Jason with his hammer. But on the other hand the piece +contained a presumptuous outburst against contemporary rhymers. What +was the author's intention in that? How could a beginner who had so +many forced rhymes himself, cast a stone at another? It was a piece +of temerity which found its own punishment. John stole to the bottom +of the third row of seats to view the performance of his piece from a +standing position. Rejd was already there before him and the curtain +was up. John felt as though he stood under an electric machine. Every +nerve quivered, his legs shook, and his tears ran the whole time from +pure nervousness. Rejd had to hold his hand in order to quiet him. +Now and then there was applause, but John knew that it was mostly from +his relatives and friends, and did not let himself be deceived. Every +stupidity which had inadvertently escaped him now jarred on his ear, +and made him quiver; he saw nothing but crudeness in the piece; he felt +so ashamed that his ears burned; before the curtain fell he rushed away +out into the dark market-place. + +He felt as though annihilated. The attack on the priests was stupid and +unjust; the glorification of poverty and pride seemed to him false, his +description of the relationship between father and son was cynical. How +could he have shown off in this absurd way? It seemed to him as though +he had exposed his nakedness, and shame overpowered every other feeling. + +On the other hand he found the actors good; the _mise en scene_ was +more appropriate than he had expected. Everything was good except the +piece itself. He wandered down to the Norrstrom, and felt inclined +to drown himself. What most annoyed him was that he had so openly +exhibited his feelings. Whence came that? And why should one in general +be ashamed of such exhibitions? Why are the feelings so sacred? Perhaps +because the feelings in general are false, as they only express a +physical sensation, in which personality of the individual does not +fully participate. If it is really so, then John was ashamed as an +ordinary man, to have been untruthful in his writing and to have worn +disguise. + +To be moved at the sight of human suffering is regarded as a mark of +fine feeling and meritorious, but it is said to be only a natural +reflex-movement. One involuntarily transfers the sufferings of the +other to oneself and suffers for one's own sake. Another's tears could +bring one to weep just as another's yawning could make one yawn. That +was all. John felt ashamed that he had lied and caught himself in the +act, though the public had not caught him. + +No one is such a merciless critic as a dramatist who sees his own play +acted. He lets no single word pass through his sieve. He does not lay +the blame on the actors, but generally admires them for rendering his +stupidities with such taste. John found his play stupid. It had lain +by for half a year, and perhaps he had outgrown it. Another piece was +performed after it which lasted for two hours. During the whole time +he wandered about the streets in the darkness, feeling ashamed of +himself. He had made an appointment to drink a glass with some friends +and relatives after the performance in the Hotel du Nord, but remained +away. He saw they were looking for him but did not wish to meet them. +So they went in again to see the second play. At last it was over. The +spectators streamed out and dispersed through the streets. He hastened +away in order not to hear their comments. + +At last he saw a single group standing under the portico of the +dramatic theatre. They were looking out in all directions and called +him. Finally he came forward as pale and melancholy as a corpse. + +They congratulated him on his success. The play had been applauded and +was very good. They repeated to him the verdicts of other spectators +and quieted him. Then they dragged him to a restaurant and compelled +him to eat and drink. "That will do you good, you old death's-head!" +said a shop-assistant. John was soon pulled down from his imaginative +flight. "What have you got to be melancholy for," he was asked, "when +you have had a play acted by the Theatre Royal?" He could not tell +them. His boldest ambition was fulfilled; but it was probably not +what he wanted. The thought that in any case it was an honour did not +comfort him. + +The next morning he went into a shop, and bought the morning paper +and read a criticism to the effect that the piece was written in +choice language, and (since it was anonymous) probably by a well-known +art-critic who had moved among artistic circles at Rome. That was +pleasant and cheered his spirits. + +At noon he started for Upsala. His father had engaged a room for him +in a boarding-house, kept by the widow of a clergyman, that he might +complete his studies under proper supervision. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TORN TO PIECES + + +John's entrance into the boarding-house secured for him intercourse +with a large and varied circle,--perhaps too varied. There were +students of all ages, of all subjects, and from all districts, from +clergymen who were reading for their last examination to young medical +and law students. There were also ladies in the house, and John was +for the eighth time in love. Again the object of his affections +was unattainable, being engaged to another. The variety of this +social intercourse overloaded his brain with impressions from all +circles; his personality became relaxed and distracted through the +self-adaptation and compromises with other people's views which are +necessary in society. Besides this a great deal of drinking went on +nearly every evening. On one of the first days after his arrival +appeared a criticism of his play in one of the evening papers. It was +very sharp but just, and therefore hit John hard. He felt stripped +and seen through. The critic said that the author had concealed his +insignificant personality behind a great name--Thorwaldsen--but +that the disguise did not avail him and so on. John felt altogether +bankrupt. In such cases one tries to defend oneself, and he compared +his own with other bad plays, which the same severe critic had +praised. He felt treated unjustly, and indeed when compared with others +it was so, but not when he was regarded by himself alone. The fact that +the critic was worse did not make his piece better. + +John became shy and averse to company. This was increased by the +students' club starting a paper in which they made merry over him and +his play. He fancied he saw grimaces and contempt everywhere, and went +preferably by back streets on his walks. + +Then there came a yet severer blow. A friend had, on his own account, +published one of John's first plays,--the _Free-thinker_. While he was +spending an evening with Rejd an acquaintance brought in the hated +evening paper. It contained a scathing article on the play, which was +mocked at and cut to pieces. John was obliged to read the article in +the presence of his friends. He had, against his will, to admit that +the critic was not unjust, but it upset him terribly. + +Why is it so hard to hear the truth from others, while at the same +time one can be so severe against oneself? Probably because the social +masquerade in which we all take part makes every one fear being +unmasked, probably also because responsibility and unpleasantness are +involved in it. One feels oneself overreached and cheated. The critic +who sits at ease and unmasks others would feel himself equally scourged +and exposed if his secrets were betrayed. Social life is honeycombed +with falsity, but who likes to be discovered? That is why at times of +solitude, when the past rises up unescapably, we do not feel remorse +for our faults, but for our follies and necessary cruelties. Mistakes +were necessary and had some use, but follies were merely injurious and +should have been avoided. It is for this reason that men pay greater +honour to intelligence than to morality, for the former is a reality, +the latter an idea. + +Meanwhile John felt the same pains which he imagined a criminal must +feel. He felt impelled to obliterate as soon as possible the impression +made by his stupidity. But he felt also that a kind of injustice +had been done him since he had been criticised simply and solely as +a writer, although his production was a year old, and he himself, +therefore, maturer than it, by a year. But it was not the fault of the +critic that there was an incongruity between the criticism and the +_corpus delicti_. + +He began to compose another tragedy, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_. +This was intended to deal with Christendom in artistic form, and to +handle the same problem and the same questions as his former play. By +"artistic form" at that period was meant the laying of the scene of +the play in a past epoch. John wrote the piece under the influence of +Oehlenschlaeger and the Icelandic sagas which he had lately read in the +original. + +He had, however, a severe struggle with his conscience, for his father +had exacted a promise from him not to write for the stage till he had +passed his examination. It was, therefore, an act of deceit to take +help from his father and not to fulfil the conditions on which it was +granted. But he silenced his scruples by saying to himself, "Father +will be pleased enough if I have a speedy and great success." In that +he was not far wrong. + +But another element now entered into his life, and had a decided +influence both on his views of things and his work. This was his +acquaintance with two men,--an author and a remarkable personality. +Unfortunately they were both abnormal and therefore had only a +disturbing effect upon his development. + +The author was Kierkegaard,[1] whose book, _Either--Or_, John had +borrowed from a member of the Song Club, and read with fear and +trembling. His friends had also read it as a work of genius, had +admired the style, but not been specialty influenced by it,--a proof +that books have little effect, when they do not find readers in +sympathy with the author. But upon John the book made the impression +intended by the author. He read the first part containing "The +Confessions of an AEsthete." He felt sometimes carried away by it, but +always had an uncomfortable feeling as though present at a sick-bed. +The perusal of the first part left a feeling of emptiness and despair +behind it. The book agitated him. "The Diary of a Seducer" he regarded +as the fancies of an unclean imagination. Things were not like that in +real life. Moreover John was no sybarite, but on the contrary inclined +to asceticism and self-torment. Such egotistic sensuality as that of +the hero of Kierkegaard's work was absurd because the suffering he +caused by the satisfaction of his desires necessarily involved him in +suffering and, therefore, defeated his object. + +The second part of the work containing the philosopher's "Discourse on +Life as a Duty," made a deeper impression on John. It showed him that +he himself was an "aesthete" who had conceived of authorship as a form +of enjoyment. Kierkegaard said that it should be regarded as a calling. +Why? The proof was wanting, and John, who did not know that Kierkegaard +was a Christian, but thought the contrary, not having seen his +_Edifying Discourses_, imbibed unaware the Christian system of ethics +with its doctrine of self-sacrifice and duty Along with these the idea +of sin returned. Enjoyment was a sin, and one had to do one's duty. +Why? Was it for the sake of society to which one was under obligations? +No! merely because it was duty. That was simply Kant's categorical +imperative. When he reached the end of the work _Either--Or_ and found +the moral philosopher also in despair, and that all this teaching about +duty had only produced a Philistine, he felt broken in two. "Then," he +thought, "better be an aesthete." But one cannot be an aesthete if one +has been a Christian for five-sixths of one's life, and one cannot be +moral without Christ. Thus he was tossed to and fro like a ball between +the two, and ended in sheer despair. + +Had he now read Kierkegaard's discourses, he might possibly have +come a step nearer to Christianity--possibly--for it is difficult to +decide that now, but to receive Christianity again seemed to him like +replacing a tooth which had been torn out, and joyfully thrown into the +fire, along with the accompanying toothache. It was also possible that +if he had known that the book _Either--Or_ was intended to scourge one +to the Cross he might have thrown it away as a jesuitical writing and +been saved from his embarrassment. All that he felt now, however, was +a terrible discord. He had to choose and make the jump between ethics +and aesthetics, but choose how? and jump whither? He could not jump +out in space to embrace a paradox or Christ,--that would have been +self-destruction or madness. But Kierkegaard preached madness? Was +it the despair of the over-self-conscious at finding himself always +self-conscious? Was it the longing of one who sees too deeply for the +unconsciousness of intoxication? + +John knew well what the battle between his own will and the will of +others meant. He had given his father trouble enough when he crossed +his plans; but the trouble was mutual; the whole of life consisted of +a web of wills crossing one another. The death of one was life-breath +to another; no one could gain an advantage without hurting the one +he passed by. Life was a perpetual interchange and struggle between +pleasure and pain. His sensuality or desire for enjoyment had not +injured others nor caused them trouble. He had never seduced the +innocent, and had never enjoyed himself without paying the price. He +was moral from habit; from instinct, from fear of the consequences, +from good taste or from education, but the very fact that he did +not feel himself immoral, was a defect and a sin. After reading +_Either--Or_ he felt sinful. The categorical imperative stole on him +under a Latin name and without a cross on its back, and he let himself +be beguiled by it. He did not see that it was a two-thousand-years-old +Christianity in disguise. + +Kierkegaard would not have made so deep an impression on him, if a +number of concurrent circumstances had not contributed to that result. +In the letters of the aesthete, Kierkegaard expounded suffering as +enjoyment. John suffered from public contumely; he suffered from his +hard work; he suffered from unrequited affection; he suffered from +unsatisfied desires; he suffered from drink, for he was intoxicated +nearly every evening; he suffered as an artist from mental struggles +and doubts; he suffered from the ugly scenery of Upsala; he suffered +from the discomfort of his rooms; he suffered from examination-books; +he suffered from a bad conscience because he did not study but wrote +plays. But something else lay at the bottom of all this. He had been +brought up to fulfil hard tasks and duties. Now he lived well amid ease +and enjoyment. Study was an enjoyment; authorship, in spite of all its +pains, was a wonderful enjoyment; the life with his comrades was sheer +festivity and jollity. But his plebeian consciousness awoke and told +him that it was not right to enjoy while others worked; _his_ work was +an enjoyment, for it brought him a good deal of honour, and perhaps +money. This accounted for his persistently uneasy conscience which +persecuted him without a cause. Was it that he felt already the signs +of this awakening consciousness of tremendous guilt as regards the +lower classes, the slaves who toiled, while he enjoyed? Did he already +have a foreboding of that sense of justice, which in our days has laid +so strong a hold on many of the upper classes that they have restored +capital which was not quite honestly earned, have expended time and +toil for the liberation of the lower classes, and have worked from +impulse and instinct against their own interests, in order to do right? +Possibly. + +But Kierkegaard was not the man to resolve the discord. It was reserved +for the evolutionary philosophers to make peace between passion and +reason, between enjoyment and duty. They cancelled the deceptive +_Either_--_Or_, and substituted _Both--And,_ giving both flesh and +spirit their due. The real significance of Kierkegaard became clear +to John many years later. Then he saw in him the simple pietist, the +ultra-Christian who wished to realise in modern society oriental ideals +of two thousand years ago. But Kierkegaard was right in one point: if +we were to have Christianity, we ought to have it thoroughly; but his +_Either--Or_ was only valid for the priests of the church who called +themselves Christians. + +Kierkegaard saw no further, and from him who wrote his book in 1843, +and had a clerical education, one could not expect that he should say: +"Either a Christianity like this, or none!" In that case people would +probably have chosen none. Instead of that Kierkegaard said: "Whether +you are aesthetical or ethical you must cast yourself into the arms +of Christ." His mistake was to oppose ethics and aesthetics to each +other, for they can go very well together. But John did not succeed +in harmonising them till, after endless struggles, at the age of +thirty-seven, he attempted a compromise when he discovered that work +and duty are forms of enjoyment, and that enjoyment itself, well-used, +is a duty. + +But at that time, the book weighed on him like a nightmare. He was +angry when his friends wished to regard it as mere literature. He was +not pacified by their regarding it superior in richness, depth and +style to Goethe's _Faust_, which it certainly did surpass by far. John +could not at that time understand that the pillar-saint Kierkegaard had +himself known what enjoyment was when he wrote the first part, and that +the seducer and Don Juan were the author himself, who satisfied his +desires in imagination. No, he thought it was poetry. + +John had been already predisposed to receive Kierkegaard's influence, +and now came the other acquaintance, which would not have played a +great role in his life if circumstances had not prepared him for +that also. His companions merely regarded the person in question as +ludicrous. + +It came about in the following way. Thurs the Jew came one day and told +John that he had made the acquaintance of a genius who wished to join +their Song Club. + +"Ah, a genius!" + +None of the members of the club believed that they were geniuses, not +even John, and it is doubtful whether any poet has really believed +or felt that he was one. One can, when one makes comparisons, find +that one has produced better work than others, and a clever man +will naturally feel that he understands better than others, but +genius,--that is something else. This title is not generally bestowed +on any one till after death and is now dropping out of common use, +since the secret of the evolution of genius has been discovered. + +The novelty aroused attention, and the stranger was elected to the +club under the name of Is. He was not a poet, they were told, but very +learned and a powerful critic. + +One evening when the club-meeting was at Thurs' rooms he came--a +little thin person, without an overcoat, dressed like a labourer on +his holiday. His clothes looked as though they were borrowed, for +their elbows and knees were not in the right places. John, who used +to succeed to his elder brother's clothes, noticed this at once. In +his hand he held a dirty beer-soup-coloured hat, such as is only worn +by organ-grinders. His face looked like that of a southern rat-trap +seller. His black hair hung on his shoulders and a black beard fell on +his breast. + +"Is it possible?" they asked themselves. "Can he be a student?" He +looked forty, but was only thirty. He stood with his hat in his hand +at the door like a beggar, and hardly ventured to come forward. After +Thurs had drawn him into the room and introduced him, the meeting was +declared open. Is began to speak and they listened. His voice was like +a woman's and sank sometimes, without apology, to a whisper, as though +the speaker demanded perfect silence or spoke for his own satisfaction. +It would be difficult to repeat what he spoke of, for his speech ranged +over everything that he had read, and since he had read for ten years +more than the youths of twenty, they found his learning wonderful. + +After that, another member of the club read a poem. Is had to deliver +an opinion on it. He began with Kant, quoted Schopenhauer and +Thackeray, and finished with a lecture on George Sand. No one noticed +that he said nothing about the poem. + +Then they went into a restaurant to eat. Is talked philosophy, +aesthetics and history. He spoke sometimes with a melancholy expression +in his dark unfathomable eyes, which never rested on those present, as +though he sought an unseen audience far in the distance, in unknown +space. The club listened reverently with absorbed attention. + +John was to hear this man's opinion on his work. He, as well as one of +the most poetical members of the club, began to have serious doubts as +to their vocation. Often, when they had drunk a good deal, they asked +whether they still believed--meaning whether each thought the Other +called to be a poet. It was just the same sort of doubt which John had +felt when he had wondered whether he was a child of God. Is was to +read John's drama, _The Assistant at the Sacrifice_, and to give his +opinion. + +One morning John went up to his room to hear his verdict. Is spoke +till noon. About what? About everything. But he had now taken hold of +John's soul. Through conversations with Thurs, he know which strings to +pull, and did so, as he chose. He burrowed in John's mind, not out of +sympathy, but from a spider-like curiosity. He did not speak directly +of John's play but suggested the plan of a new one after his own ideas. +He had the effect of a mesmeriser, and John was magnetised. But he +felt in a state of despair when he left him, as though his friend had +taken his soul, picked it to pieces and thrown them away after he had +satisfied his curiosity. + +But John came again, sat on the wise man's sofa, listened to his words +as though they were an oracle, and felt himself completely under his +power. Sometimes he thought it was a ghost who walked on the carpet +when his body disappeared in clouds of tobacco-smoke. The man exercised +what is called a "demonic" influence, _i.e_. inexplicable at first +sight. He had no blood in his veins, no feelings, no will, no desires. +He was a talking head. His standpoint was nothing and all at the same +time. He was a decoction of books, and the type of a book-worm who had +never lived. + +Often when the other members of the club were alone, they talked +about Is. Thurs was already tired of him and wondered whether he +had committed some crime, for he seemed driven about by a constant +restlessness. Then it was reported that he was a poet, but never would +show his poems, for he had such a high idea of the poetic art. They +also wondered why no one ever saw a book in the learned man's rooms. +It was also strange that he should seek the company of these youths, +to whom he was so superior, and whose poetry he must despise. They who +were themselves in the full bloom of romanticism did not detect the +anaemic romantic who had lost his footing on firm ground. They did not +see in his long hair and shabby hat the copy of Murger's Bohemian; they +did not know that this dilapidated condition was a Parisian fashion; +that this hollow wisdom was a web woven out of German metaphysics; that +this experimental psychology was derived from a peep into Kierkegaard; +and that that interesting air of hinting at uncommitted crimes and +secret griefs was Byronic in origin. All this they did not understand. +Therefore Is could play with John's soul and catch him in his snare. +Yes, John was so thoroughly taken by him that in a speech he called +himself Gamaliel, who sat at Paul's Is's feet to learn wisdom. + +The upshot of it all was that Julm, one fine evening, burnt his new +play. It was the work of three months which went up in flames. As he +collected the ashes, he wept. Is, without saying so directly, had shown +him that he was no poet. So everything was a mistake, this also! Then +he felt in despair, because he had deceived his father and could take +no work home to justify his neglect of his wishes. In a fit of remorse, +and in order to be able to point to some definite result, he entered +his name for the written examination in Latin, without, however, having +written any of the requisite preliminary exercises or essays. The Latin +professor saw his name in the list and did not know it. One Sunday +evening, when John had returned to his rooms in good spirits after a +supper, the university bedell appeared to summon him. John went boldly +to the professor and asked what he wanted. + +"You wish to take the written examination in Latin?" + +"Yes." + +"But I do not see your name on my list." + +"I entered myself before for the medical examination." + +"That has nothing to do with this. You must go by the rules." + +"I know no rules about the three essays." + +"I think you are impertinent, sir." + +"It may seem so----" + +"Out with you, sir!--or----" + +The door was opened, and John was ejected. He swore to himself he +would still go up for the written examination, but the next morning he +overslept himself. + +So even that last straw failed. + +Shortly afterwards one morning a friend came and woke him. + +"Do you know that W. is dead?" (W. sat at the same table in the +boarding-house.) + +"No!" + +"Yes! he has cut his throat." + +John started up, dressed himself, and hurried with his friend to the +Jernbrogatan where W. lived. They rushed up the stairs and came to a +dark attic. + +"Is it here?" + +"No, here!" + +John felt for a door; the door gave way and fell upon him. At the same +moment he saw a pool of blood on the ground. He turned round, let go +of the door, and was at the bottom of the stairs before the door fell +on the ground. This scene shook him terribly and woke his memory. Some +days previously John had gone into the Carolina Park to work at his +play in solitude. W. came up, greeted him, and asked whether he might +bear him company or whether he disturbed him. John answered sincerely +that he did disturb him, and W. went away with a melancholy air. Was +it a case of a lonely drowning man who sought a companion and was +repulsed? John felt almost guilty of his death. But he was not intended +for a comforter. Now the dead man seemed to haunt him; he dared not go +to his room, but slept with his friend. One night he slept with Rejd. +The latter had to keep a light burning and was woken several times in +the night by John, who could not sleep. + +One day Rejd found John with a bottle of prussic acid. He apparently +approved the idea of suicide, but first asked him to take a farewell +drink with him. They went to the restaurant and ordered eight glasses +of whisky, which were brought in on a tray. Each of them drank four +glasses in four pulls, with the desired result that John became dead +drunk. He was carried home, but since the house door was locked, he was +carried over an empty piece of ground and thrown over a fence. There he +remained lying in a snow-drift, till he recovered his senses, and crept +up into his room. + +The last night which he spent in Upsala some days later he slept on a +sofa in Thurs' rooms; his friends kept watch over him, and the room +was lighted up. They watched good-naturedly till morning, then they +accompanied him to the station, and put him in the coupe. When the +train had passed Bergsbrunna, John breathed again. He felt as though +he had left something dreadful and weird, like a northern winter night +with thirty degrees of cold, behind him, and registered a vow never +again to settle in this town, where men's souls, banished from life and +society, grew rotten from over-production of thought, were corroded +by stagnant waters which had no outlet, and took fire like millstones +which revolved without having anything to grind. + + +[1] Danish theologian. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IDEALISM AND REALISM + +(1871) + + +When John again reached his parents' house, he felt himself in shelter +like one who has reached land after a stormy sea-passage by night. +Again he had quiet nights in his old tent-bed in the brothers' room. +Here were quiet patient men, who came and went, worked and slept at +stated times without being disturbed by dreams or ambitious designs. +His sisters had grown up into young women and managed the house. All +were at work with the exception of himself. When he compared his +irregular, dissipated life, which knew no rest or peace, with theirs, +he considered them happier and better than himself. They took life +seriously, went about their work and fulfilled their duties without +noise or boasting. + +John now looked up his old acquaintances among the tradespeople, +clerks, and sea-captains, and found intercourse with them novel and +refreshing. They led his thoughts back to reality and he felt firm +ground once more under his feet. At the same time he began to despise +false ideality, and saw that it was vulgar of the students to look down +on the "Philistines." + +He now confessed quite simply and openly to his father, but without +remorse, the wretched life he had led at Upsala, and begged him to let +him stay at home and prepare for his examination there,--otherwise he +would be lost. His father granted permission, and now John prepared his +plan of campaign for the spring term. In the first place he meant to +take lessons in Latin composition with a good teacher in Stockholm, and +then go up in spring, and pass the examination. Furthermore he would +write his disquisition for a certificate in aesthetics and prepare for +the examination in that subject. With these resolutions he began a +quiet and industrious manner of life with the new year. + +But the failure of his play the _Free-thinker_ still weighed upon his +mind, and the questions of his friends as to whether they should soon +see something new from him, stirred him up to re-write, in the form +of a one-act play, the drama he had burnt. He finished it, and then +continued his studies. + +Shortly before April he wrote a test-composition for his teacher, who +declared that he would pass. His father did not disapprove of his plan +when he heard that John felt quite confident, but he suggested that it +would be more practical if he conformed to custom and wrote exercises +for the Upsala professor. "No," said John, "it was now a question of +principle and a matter of honour." So he went to Upsala. + +He called on the professor on his at-home day and waited till his turn +for an interview. When the latter saw him, he grew red in the face and +asked: + +"Are you here again?" + +"Yes." + +"What do you want?" + +"I want to go in for the Latin Composition examination." + +"Without having written a test-composition?" + +"I have done that in Stockholm--and I only want to ask whether the +statutes allow me to go up for the examination." + +"The statutes? Ask the dean about that; I only know what I require." + +John went straight to the dean, who was a young, lively and sympathetic +man. John made known his purpose and described what had passed. + +"Yes," said the dean, "the statutes say nothing about the matter, but +old P. can pluck you without their help." + +"Well, we shall see. Will you allow me, Mr. Dean, to go up for the +written examination, that is the question?" + +"Yes, I can't refuse that. You mean then to have your own way?" + +"Yes, I do." + +"Arc you so sure about the matter?" + +"Yes." + +"Very well! Good luck to you!" said the Dean, and clapped him on the +shoulder. + +So John went up for the examination and after a week received a +telegram to say that he had passed. Some ascribed this result to +the professor's generosity and disapproved of John's rebellious +procedure; but John considered his success due to his own diligence +and knowledge, although he could not deny that the professor had acted +honourably in not plucking him when he had the power to do so. + +The examination in aesthetics was fixed for May. Contrary to all usage +John sent his disquisition by post to Upsala with the written request +that he might stand for the examination. + +His essay was entitled "Hakon Jarl," and treated of Idealism and +Realism. Its object was firstly to convince the professor that +the writer was well-read in aesthetics and particularly in Danish +literature, and secondly, to clear up to the writer himself his own +point of view. The essay, in imitation of Kierkegaard, was in the form +of a correspondence between A and B, criticising Oehlenschlaeger's +_Hakon Jarl_ and Kierkegaard's _Either--Or_. + +At the appointed time John appeared before the professor, who had +the reputation of being liberal-minded, but felt at once that he had +no sympathy with him. With an almost contemptuous air the professor +handed him back his essay and declared that it was best suited for the +female readers of the _Illustrated News_. He further stated that Danish +literature was not a subject of sufficient importance to be taken up as +a special branch of study. + +John felt annoyed, and asserted that Danish literature had greater +interest for Sweden than Boileau and Malesherbes, for example, on whom +students wrote essays. + +His examination then began and took the form of a violent argument. +It was continued in the afternoon and ended by the professor giving +him a certificate which was not so good as he had hoped, and telling +him that university studies could only be properly carried on at the +university. John replied that aesthetic studies could be best carried +on at Stockholm where one had the National Museum, Library, Theatre, +Academy of Music and Artists. + +"No," said the professor, "that is nonsense; one ought to study here." + +John let fall some remarks on college lectures, and they parted, not as +particularly good friends. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A KING'S PROTEGE + +(1871) + + +During the whole of this time, John had been on pleasant terms with his +father, and the old man had shown himself to a certain extent willing +to be educated, but his tactless pride sometimes broke out and annoyed +John. The latter, who was now continually at home, spent many evening +hours with the old man in conversations on all sorts of subjects, and +finally on religion. One day John spoke for half-an-hour about Theodore +Parker, so that his father at last expressed a wish to read some of +him. He kept the book for several days, but said nothing, and John +found it again in his room. His father was too proud to acknowledge +that he liked the book, but John learned through one of his brothers +that he was especially delighted with the famous sermon "On Old Age." + +In the matter of John's opposition to the professor, his father +vacillated. His opinion was that right was always right, but he did +not like the disrespectful way in which John spoke of the professor. +Meanwhile John saw that he had won the game and that his father had a +lively interest in his success. + +But one day in spring John went into the country, telling the servant +that he would be absent for the day. When he returned the next morning +he had an unpleasant reception. + +"You go away without telling me?" + +"I told the servant." + +"I require you to ask permission of me as long as you eat my bread." + +"Ask permission! What nonsense!" + +John departed, borrowed three hundred kronas from a friendly tradesman, +and then with three of his club associates went to one of the islands +near Stockholm, where they hired rooms in a fisher's house at a rent +of thirty kronas per month. No one tried to stop him, and probably +this crisis was occasioned by the fact that John was exercising a +perceptible influence on his father, brothers and sisters in matters +concerning domestic arrangements. The mistress of the house feared that +the power would be taken out of her hands. + +He spent the summer in strenuously working for his examination, for +he had now no hope of receiving further supplies from home. It was +a healthy and ascetic life with innocent amusements. He went about +in dressing-gown, drawers and sea-boots, and the toilette of his +companions was still more scanty. They bathed, sailed, fenced, and +John gave himself over increasingly to a process of decivilisation. +There were almost always spirituous liquors on the table, and John +feared them, for they made him mad. But to this asceticism and industry +succeeded a desire to make converts of others, and a great amount of +self-satisfaction. The latter is always the case, whether the ascetic +feels that in this respect he is better than others, or whether he +makes the sacrifice in order to feel himself better. Therefore he +preached to one brother who drank, and moralised over the others who +did not work, but went to Dalaroe to dance or to feast. Kierkegaard's +influence was strong upon him; he wished to be moral, and thundered +against aestheticism. + +He now studied philology, and went through Dante, Shakespeare and +Goethe. The last he hated because he was an aesthete. Behind all, like +a dark background, was the breach with his father. After their life +together during the last winter, he saw him as it were transfigured, +justified him with respect to all that had happened in the past, and +had forgotten all the petty troubles of his childhood. He missed most +of all his brothers and sisters, especially his sisters whom he +had really learnt to know. Toiling with a lexicon and investigating +roots of words had become painful to him, but he enjoyed this pain, +and disciplined his imagination by hard work, looking upon it as his +professional duty. + +Towards the end of the summer he was wild and shy. The clothes, winch +he rummaged out again, were too tight, his collar, which he had not +worn for months, tormented him as though it had been of iron, and his +shoes pinched him. Everything seemed to him constrained, conventional +and unnatural. Once he had been enticed to an evening party at Dalaroe +but had immediately returned. He was shy and could not bear frivolity +and laughter. This time it was not the consciousness of belonging +to the lower classes, for he had ceased to regard himself as one of +them. Meanwhile the ascetic life he had been leading increased his +will-power and his activity. When the next term at Upsala commenced, +he took his travelling-bag and journeyed thither, without having more +than a krona to call his own, and without knowing where he would find a +room and something to eat. On his arrival he took up his quarters with +Rejd, and set about working. The first evening, feeling half famished, +he looked up Is, who had remained the whole summer alone in Upsala +and seemed more melancholy than usual. His appearance was that of a +shadow, and solitude had made him still more morbid. He went out with +John and invited him to supper at a restaurant. He spoke in his usual +style and mangled his prey, who, on the other hand, defended himself, +struck back, and attacked the aesthete. Is contemplated his hungry +companion while he ate, and intoxicated himself with the brandy-bottle. +He adopted a maternal air and offered to lend John money. The latter +was touched, thanked him, and borrowed about ten kronas, for, since he +believed he had a future before him, he borrowed without fear. Finally +Is became drunk and raved. He changed his attitude, called John an +egoist, and reproached him for having taken the ten kronas. + +To be suspected of egotism was the worst thing John knew, for Christ +had taught him that the "ego" must be crucified. His individuality had +grown since it had been freed from pressure and attained publicity. +Conspicuous persons obtain a greater individuality through the +attention they receive, or they attract attention for the simple reason +that they have a greater individuality. John felt that he was working +in the right way for his future; he pressed forward with energy and +will and the help of many friends, but not as a charlatan or schemer. +But Is's accusation struck him in the face, as it must all men who +have an "ego." He wished to return the money, but Is drew himself up +proudly, played the "gentleman" and continued to romance. It struck +John that this idealist was a mean fellow who behaved in this fantastic +way in order to conceal his vexation at the temporary loss of the ten +kronas. + +Now the students returned for the term, and all of them with money. +John wandered about with his travelling-bag and his books, and +discovered how soon a welcome is worn out when one lies upon somebody +else's sofa. He borrowed money to hire a room with. It was a real +rats' nest with a camp-bed without sheets or cushions. No candlestick, +nothing. But he lay in bed in his under-clothes and read by the light +of a candle stuck in a bottle. His friends here and there provided him +with meals. But then came the winter. He used to go out after dark and +buy a quantity of wood, which he carried home in his bag. A scientific +friend taught him how to make a charcoal fire. Moreover, the shaft of +a chimney passed through his room and was warm every washing-day. He +stood beside it with his hands behind him and read out of a book which +he had placed on the chest of drawers, dragging the latter close to +him. In the meantime his drama had been played and coldly received. The +subject-matter was religious. It dealt with heathendom and Christendom, +the former being defended as an epoch-making movement, not as a creed. +Christ was placed on one side and the only true God exalted. The drama +also contained a domestic struggle, and, after the fashion of the +time, women were extolled at the expense of the men. In one passage +the author expressed his opinion as to the position of a poet in life. +"Are you a man, Orm?" asks the duke. "I am only a poet," answers Orm. +"Therefore you will never become anything," is the rejoinder. + +In fact, John believed now that the poet's life was a shadow existence, +that he had no individuality, but only lived in that of others. But is +it then so certain that the poet possesses no individuality because +he has more than one? Perhaps he is richer because he possesses more +than the others. And why is it better to have only one "ego," since +in any case a single "ego" is not more one's own than many "egos," +seeing that even one "ego" is a compound product derived from parents, +educators, social intercourse and books? Perhaps it is for this reason +that society, like a machine, demands that the single "egos" shall act +each like a wheel, screw, or separate piece of the machine in a limited +automatic way. But the poet is more than a piece of a machine, since he +is a whole machine in himself. + +In the drama John had incorporated himself in five persons;--in the +Jarl, who is at war with his contemporaries; in the Poet, who looks +over things and looks through them; in the Mother, who is angry and +revengeful but whose thirst for vengeance is counteracted by her +sympathy; in the Daughter, who for the sake of her faith breaks with +her father; in the Lover, whose love is ill-starred. John understood +the motives of all the dramatis personae; and spoke from their varying +points of view. But a drama written for the average man who has +ready-made views on all subjects, must at least take sides with one +of its characters in order to win the excitable and partisan public. +John could not do this, because he believed in no absolute right or +wrong, for the simple reason that all these ideas are relative. One may +be right as regards the future, and wrong as regards the present; one +may be wrong in one year and right in the next; a father may justify +his son while the mother condemns him; a daughter is right in loving +the man she loves, but in her father's view she is wrong in loving a +heathen. There comes in doubt: Why do men hate and despise the doubter? +Because doubt is the seed of development and progress, and the average +man hates development because it disturbs his quiet. Only the stupid +man is certain; only the ignorant one thinks he has found the truth. +Doubt undermines energy, they say. But it is better to act without +considering the consequences. The animal and the savage act blindly, +obeying desire and impulse; in that they resemble our "men of action"! + +When John returned to Upsala, he was again followed by disparaging +criticisms. To some extent they were true, _e.g._ the assertion that +the form of the piece was borrowed from the _Kongsemnerne,_ but only +to some extent, for John had taken the frigid tone and the rough +phraseology direct from the Icelandic sagas, and the views of life he +expressed were original. Scorn followed him, and he was regarded as a +man who was ambitious of being a poet, the worst suspicion under which +any one can fall. + +But in the midst of his toil and needy circumstances, a week after his +overthrow, there came a letter from the chamberlain of the Theatre +Royal at Stockholm, requesting him to go there immediately as the +king wished to see him. Morbidly suspicious he believed that it was a +practical joke, and took the letter to his wise friend--the student of +Natural History. The latter telegraphed in the evening to a well-known +actor of the Theatre Royal requesting him to ask the chamberlain +whether he had written to John. The latter spent a restless night, +tossed to and fro between hope and fear. The next morning the answer +came that it was indeed so and that John should come at once. He set +off forthwith. + +Why did he, a born rebel, accept the royal favour without hesitation? +For the simple reason that he did not belong to the democratic party; +he had never promised his father or mother not to receive a favour from +the king. Furthermore he believed in the aristocracy or the right of +the best to govern, and he considered the upper classes the best, as +he had shown in his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, in which he expressed +contempt for the demagogues. He hated tyrants, but this king was no +tyrant. Therefore there was no reason for hesitation within him or +without him. Accordingly he travelled to Stockholm and was received in +audience by the king. The latter was just now very ill, and looked so +emaciated as to make a painful impression. He stood with a benevolent +aspect, smoking his long tobacco-pipe, and smiled at the young +beardless author, walking awkwardly between the rows of aide-de-camps +and chamberlains. He thanked him for the pleasure which he had derived +from his drama, adding that he himself when young had competed for an +academical prize with a poem on the Vikings, and was fond of the old +Norse legends. He said that he wished to help the young student to take +his doctor's degree, and closed the interview by referring him to the +treasurer, who had been ordered to make him a first payment. Later on +he would receive more, and the king said he supposed there were still +two or three years to elapse before he took his degree. + +John's immediate future was now secure. He felt gratefully moved by +this kindness on the part of a king who had so many things to think +about. On his return to Upsala, he saw for two months how the court +sunshine had turned him into a star. The official who had paid him, +had asked him whether he thought later on of obtaining a post in some +public department or in the Royal Library. His ambition had never +soared so high and did not yet do so. + +The chief object of human existence seems to be, and must indeed be, to +spend one's life till death in the least unpleasant manner possible. +This aim does not exclude solicitude for the good of others, for +happiness includes the consciousness of not having infringed others' +rights unnecessarily. Therefore ill-gotten wealth cannot secure a +pleasant life, nor can any path which leads over the prostrate bodies +of others. Accordingly Utilitarianism, or the philosophy which aims at +the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is not immoral. + +In spite of all his asceticism John could not help feeling happy. +His happiness consisted in the half-consciousness that he could live +his life without the great anxiety which the insecurity of means +of existence causes. He had been threatened by penury and was now +secure; life had been restored to him, and it is a happy thing to be +able to live before one has done growing. His chest, which had been +narrowed by hunger and over-exertion, broadened itself; his back grew +straighter; life no longer seemed so melancholy. He was contented with +his lot; things took on a more cheerful aspect, and he would have been +ungrateful had he still remained among the malcontents. + +But this did not last long. When he saw his old comrades round him in +a position in which _his_ happiness had effected no change, he found +that there was a want of harmony between them. They had been accustomed +to help him as one in need and now he needed their help no longer. +They had liked him, because they protected him and were accustomed +to see him below them. But when he came upwards, near them and above +them, they found him necessarily altered by altered circumstances. The +necessitous man is not so bold in his opinions nor so stiff in the back +as the prosperous one. He was altered for them, but was he therefore +worse? Self-esteem under other circumstances is generally well thought +of. Enough! He annoyed others by the fact that he was fortunate, and +still more because he wished to help others to be so. + +The present he had received entailed obligations, and John gave +himself diligently to study. He passed his examinations in Philology, +Astronomy, and Political Science, but received in none of these +subjects such a good testimonial as he had expected. He had studied too +much in one way and too little in another. + +In examination time he generally had an attack of aphasia. +Physiologists usually ascribe this weakness to an injury in the left +temple. And as a matter of fact John had two scars above his left eye. +One was caused by the blow of an axe, the other by a rock against which +he had struck himself in jumping down the Observatory hill. He was +inclined to trace to this the great difficulty he had in delivering +public addresses and speaking foreign languages. + +Accordingly, during examinations, he would sit there, unable to give +an answer although he knew more than was asked. Then there came over +him a spirit of defiance, of self-torment, of ill-humour, and he felt +tempted to throw up the whole thing. He criticised the text-books and +felt dishonest in learning what he despised. The role assigned to him +began to oppress him; he longed to get away from it all to something +else, wherever it might be. It was not that he regarded the king's +present as a benefaction. It was a stipend, a reward for merit, such +as artists at all periods have received for the purpose of carrying +on their self-cultivation. His royal patron was not merely the king +but his personal friend and admirer. Therefore the gift exercised no +kind of restraint upon his rebellious thoughts; he only let himself be +temporarily deceived, and believed that all was right with the world, +because he prospered. His radicalism had been considerably mitigated; +he no longer thought that all which was wrong in the state was the +fault of the monarchy, nor did he believe with the pagans that better +harvests would follow if the king was sacrificed on an idol-altar. His +mother would have wept for joy at his distinction, had she lived, so +strong were her aristocratic leanings. + +All of us, including crown princes, are democrats, inasmuch as we wish +those above us to come down to our level; but when we ascend, we do +not wish to be pulled down. The question is only whether that winch +is "above" us is so in a spiritual sense, and whether it ought to be +there. That was what John began to be doubtful of. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WINDING UP + +(1872) + + +At the beginning of the spring term, John took up his quarters with an +elder comrade in order to continue his studies. But when he had again +the old books before him which he had already studied so long, he felt +a distaste for them. His brain was full of impressions, of collected +literary material, and refused to take in any more; his imagination +and thought were busily at work and would not let memory be alone +active; he had fits of doubt and apathy and often remained the whole +day lying on the sofa. Then the desire would sometimes awake to be +altogether free and to plunge into the life of activity. But the royal +stipend held him fast in fetters and imposed on him obligations. Having +received it, he was bound to go on studying for his doctor's degree, +the course of reading for which he had half completed. So he applied +himself to philosophy, but when he read the history of it, he found all +systems equally valid or invalid, and his mind resisted all new ideas. + +In the literary club there was disunion and lethargy. All their +youthful poems had been read and no one produced any more, so that +they only met together to drink punch. Is had exposed himself, and +after a scene with another member, he had been thrown out. He drew his +knife and got well thrashed. He saved himself from worse by affecting +to treat the affair as a joke, and was now a mere laughing-stock, since +it had been discovered that his wisdom consisted in quotations from the +students' periodicals which the others had not had the wit to utilise. +At the beginning of term an AEsthetic Society had been founded by the +professor of AEsthetics, and this made their own literary society, the +"Runa," superfluous. + +At one of the meetings of the former, John's discontent with classical +authorities broke out. He had been drinking that evening and was +half-intoxicated. In conversation with the professor dangerous ground +was touched upon and John was enticed so far out of his reserve as to +declare Dante without significance for humanity and overestimated. John +had plenty of reasons to allege for his opinion, but could not express +them to advantage when the professor set upon him, and the whole +company gathered round the disputants, who were squeezed into a corner +by the stove. He wanted in the first place to say that the construction +of the _Divine Comedy_ was not original, but a very ordinary form which +had already been employed shortly before in the _Vision of Albericus_. +Furthermore his opinion was that in this poem Dante did not reflect +the culture and thoughts of his period, because he was so uncultured +that he did not even know Greek. He was not a philosopher, for he +hampered thought by the fetters of revelation, and therefore he was no +precursor of the Renaissance or the Reformation. He was no patriot, for +he venerated the German empire as established by God. He was at most a +local patriot of Florence. Nor was he a democrat, for he always dreamt +of a union of the empire and the papacy. He did not attack the papacy, +but only individual popes who lived immoral lives, as he himself +had done in his youth. He was a monk, a truly idiotic child of his +age, for he sent unbaptised children to hell. He was a narrow-minded +royalist who put Brutus next to Satan in the deepest hell. He was +entirely wanting in the power of selfcriticism;--while he reckons +ingratitude to friends and betrayal of one's fatherland among the worst +of crimes, he places his own friend and teacher, Brunetto Latini, in +hell, and supports the German Emperor, Henry VII, against his native +city Florence. He had bad literary taste, for he reckoned as the six +greatest poets of the world Homer, Horace, Lucan, Ovid, Virgil and +himself. How could modern critics who were so severe on all scandalous +literature praise Dante, who in his poem cast dishonour on so many +contemporary persons and families? He even scolds his own dear native +city, exclaiming when he finds five nobly-born Florentines in Hell: +"Rejoice! O Florence! for thy name is not only great over land and +sea, but also in hell. Five of thy citizens are in thieves' company; +my cheeks blush at the sight of them. But one thing I know; punishment +will light upon thee, Florence, and may it happen soon!" + +As is usual in such debates, the attacked and the attacker often +changed their ground. John wished to prove to the professor that from +his point of view the _Commedia_ was a political pamphlet, but then +the professor veered round, adopted the enemy's point of view and said +that _he_ should value it as such. Whereupon John answered that it was +exactly as such that he designated it, but not as a magnificent poem +of everlasting value, which the professor had declared it to be in his +lectures. Again the professor changed his ground, and said that the +poem should be judged by the standard of the period at which it was +composed. + +"Exactly so," answered John, "but you have judged it by the standard +of our time and all succeeding times, and therefore you are wrong. But +even with regard to its own time the work is not an epoch-making one; +it is not in advance of its period, but belongs strictly to it, or +rather lags behind it. It is a linguistic monument for Italy, nothing +more, and should never be read in a Swedish university, because the +language is antiquated, and finally because it is too insignificant to +be regarded as a link in the development of culture." + +The result of the controversy was that John was regarded as shameless +and half-cracked. + +After this explosion he was exhausted and incapable of work. The whole +of the life in a town where he did not feel at home was distasteful +to him. His companions advised him to take a thorough rest, for he +had worked too hard, and so, as a matter of fact, he had. Various +schemes again presented themselves to his mind, but without result. +The grey dirty town vexed him, the scenery around depressed him; he +lay on a sofa and looked at the illustrations in a German newspaper. +Views of foreign scenery had the same effect as music on his mind and +he felt a longing to see green trees and blue seas; he wished to go +into the country but it was still only February, the sky was as grey +as sack-cloth, the streets and roads were muddy. When he felt most +depressed, he went to his friend the natural science student. It +refreshed him to see his herbarium and microscope, his aquarium and +physiological preparations. Most of all he found a pleasure in the +society of the quiet, peaceable atheist, who let the world go its way, +for he knew that he worked better for the future, in his small measure, +than the poet with his excitable outbreaks. He had a little of the +artist left in him and painted in oils. To think that he could call up +as if by enchantment a green landscape amid the mists of this wintry +spring and hang it on his wall! + +"Is painting difficult?" he asked his friend. + +"No, indeed! It is easier than drawing. Try it!" + +John, who had already, with the greatest calm, composed a song with a +guitar-accompaniment, thought it not impossible for him to paint, and +he borrowed an easel, colours, and a paint-brush. Then he went home +and shut himself up in his room. From an illustrated paper he copied a +picture of a ruined castle. When he saw the clear blue of the sky he +felt sentimental, and when he had conjured up green bushes and grass +he felt unspeakably happy as though he had eaten haschish. His first +effort was successful. But now he wished to copy a painting. That was +harder. Everything was green and brown. He could not make his colours +harmonise with the original and felt in despair. + +One day when he had shut himself up he heard a visitor talking with his +friend in the next room. They whispered as though they were near a sick +person. "Now he is actually painting," said his friend in a depressed +tone. + +What did that mean? Did they consider him cracked? Yes. He began to +think about himself, and like all brooders came to the conclusion that +he was cracked. What was to be done? If they shut him up, he would +certainly go quite mad. "Better anticipate them," he thought, and as he +had heard of private asylums in the country, where the patients could +walk about and work in the garden, he wrote to the director of one of +them. After some time he received a friendly answer advising him to be +quiet. His correspondent had received information about John through +his friend and understood his state of mind. He told him it was only a +crisis which all sensitive natures must pass through, etc. + +_That_ danger, then, was over. But he wished to get out into active +life when ever it might be. + +One day he heard that a travelling theatrical company had come to the +town. He wrote a letter to the manager and solicited an engagement, +but he received no answer and did not call on the manager. Thus he +was tossed to and fro, till at last fate intervened and set him +free. Three months had passed and he had received no money from the +court-treasurer. His companions advised him to write and make a polite +inquiry. In reply he was told that it had never been his Majesty's +intention to pay him a regular pension, but only a single donation. +However, in consideration of his needy circumstances, by way of +exception, he had made him a grant of 200 kronas, which would shortly +be sent. + +John at first felt glad, for he was free, but afterwards the turn which +affairs had taken made him uneasy, for the papers had stated that +he was the king's stipendiary, and the king had really promised him +a stipend during the year that he must read for his degree. Besides +this the court-marshal had given him a sort of half promise for the +future which could hardly be considered as adequately fulfilled by +a donation of 200 kronas. Different opinions were expressed on the +matter. Some thought that the king had forgotten, others that the state +of his finances did not allow of a further gift, or that his good +wishes exceeded his powers. No one expressed disapproval, and John was +secretly glad, had he not felt a certain disgrace in the withdrawal +of the stipend, so that he might be suspected of having groundlessly +boasted of it. Those who believed that John was in disfavour at court +ascribed this to the fact that he had omitted to wait upon the king +in person when he was in Stockholm at Christmas and the New Year. +Others attributed it to the fact that he had not formally presented +his tragedy, _Sinking Hellas_, but had simply sent it to the palace, +instead of going with it, which his sense of independence forbade +him to do. Ten years later he heard quite a new explanation of this +disfavour. He was said to have composed a lampoon on the king. But this +was a pure legend, probably the only one of its obscure fabricator +which would reach posterity. Anyhow facts remained as they were and +his resolve was quickly taken. He would go to Stockholm and become +a literary man, an author if possible, should he prove to possess +sufficient capacity for that calling. + +The student who shared his room undertook to pay his return journey, +and alleged as a pretext that John must wait some time in Stockholm +lest the landlord should be uneasy. Meanwhile he could collect enough +money to pay the rent which was due at the end of the term. + +His friends gave John a farewell feast and John thanked them, +acknowledging the obligations which each owes to those he meets in +social intercourse. Every personality is not developed simply out +of itself, but derives something from each with whom it comes in +contact, just as the bee gathering her honey from a million flowers, +appropriates it and gives it out as her own. + +Thus he stepped into life, abandoning dreams and the past to live in +reality and the present. But he was ill-prepared and the university is +not the proper school for life. He felt also that the decisive hour had +come. In a clumsy speech he called the feast a "svensexa," _i.e_. a +farewell supper for a bachelor on the eve of his marriage, for he was +now to be a man and leave boyhood behind; he was to become a member of +society, a useful citizen and eat his own bread. + +So he believed at the time, but he soon discovered that his education +had unfitted him for society, and as he did not wish to be an outlaw +the doubt awoke in him whether society, of which after all school and +university were a part, was not to blame for his education, and whether +it had not serious defects which needed a remedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AMONG THE MALCONTENTS + +(1872) + + +When John came to Stockholm, he borrowed money in order to hire a +room near the Ladugaerdslandet. Always under the sway of sentiment, he +chose this quarter of the town because he always used to walk there +in his childhood on the 1st of May, and the High Street especially +had something of a holiday air about it. Moreover it soon opened into +the Zoological Gardens, which became his favourite place for walks. +The barracks with their drums and trumpets had something exhilarating +about them, and there were fine views over the sea which was close at +hand. There was plenty of light and air. When he went for his morning +walk he could choose his route according to his mood. If he was sad +and depressed, he went along the Sirishofsvaegen; if he was cheerful +he turned off to the level ground of Manilla, where the paradisial +rose-valley exhaled joy and delight; if he was despairing and anxious +to avoid people he went out to Ladugaerdsgardet, where no one could +disturb his self-communings and his prayers to God. Sometimes, when his +soul was in a tumult, he remained standing by the cross-ways above the +bridge near the Zoological Gardens, irresolute which way to take. On +such occasion a thousand forces seemed to pull him in all directions. + +His room was very simple and commanded no view. It smelt of poverty, +as the whole house did, in which the only person of standing was the +deputy-landlord, a policeman. John began his active career by painting, +out of a sense of need to give his feelings shape and to express them +in a palpable way, for the little letters huddled together on the paper +were dead and could not express his mind so plainly and simultaneously. +He did not think of being a painter in order to exhibit or sell +pictures. To step to the easel was for him just like sitting down and +singing. At the same time he renewed his acquaintance with his friend +the sculptor, who introduced him to a circle of young painters. These +were all discontent with the Academy and the antiquated methods which +could not express their vague dreams. They still preserved the Bohemian +type, so late did the waves of modern ideas beat on the far coasts of +the North. They wore long hair, slouched hats, brilliant cravats, and +lived like the birds of heaven. They read and quoted Byron and dreamt +of enormous canvases and subjects such as no studio could contain. A +sculptor and a Norwegian had conceived the idea of hewing a statue out +of the Dovre rock; a painter wished to paint the sea not merely as a +level, but with such a wide horizon as to show the convex curve of the +globe. + +This took John's fancy. One should give expression to one's inner +feelings and not depict mere sticks and stones which are meaningless in +themselves till they have passed through the alembic of a percipient +mind. Therefore the artists did not make studies out of doors, but +painted at home from their memory and imagination. John always painted +the sea with a coast in the foreground, some gnarled pine-trees, a +couple of rocky islets in the distance and a white-painted buoy. The +atmosphere was generally gloomy, with a weak or strong light on the +horizon; it was always sunset or moonlight, never clear daylight. + +But he was soon woken out of this dream-life partly by hunger, partly +by recollecting the reality which he had sought in order to save +himself from his dreams. + +Although John knew little of contemporary politics, he knew that the +democracy or peasant-class had arrived at power, that they had declared +war on the official and middle classes, and that they were hated in +Upsala. And now he himself was to enter the ranks of the combatants +and attack the old order of things. The only item of the knowledge +which he had brought with him from Upsala which was likely to be useful +here, was the small amount of political science which he had studied. +Of what use were Astronomy, Philology, AEsthetics, Latin and Chemistry +here? He knew something about the land-laws and communal-laws, but had +no idea of political economy, finance or jurisprudence. When he now +began to look about for a suitable paper to which to attach himself, +it did not occur to him to make use of his old connection with the +_Aftonbladet_, but he wrote for a small evening paper which had lately +appeared, which was regarded as radical and was issued by the New +Liberal Union. The editor held receptions in the La Croix Cafe, and +here John was introduced into the society of journalists. He felt ill +at ease among them. They did not think as he did, seemed uncultivated, +as indeed they were, and rather gossiped than discussed important +matters. They certainly busied themselves with facts, but these were +rather trifles than great questions. They were full of phrases, but +did not seem to have a proper command of their material. John, though +against his will, was too much of an academic aristocrat to sympathise +with these democrats, who for the most part had not chosen their +career, but been forced into it by the pressure of circumstances. He +found the atmosphere stifling for his idealism, and came no more to the +receptions after he had done his business, and been invited to write +for the paper. + +He made his debut as an art-critic. His first criticism concerned +Winge's "Thor with the giants" and Rosen's "Eric XIV and Karin +Monsdotter." The young critic naturally wished to display his learning, +though all he had was what he had picked up in lectures and books. +Therefore his criticism of Winge was a mere eulogy. His remarks chiefly +regarded the subject of the picture as a Norse one and treated in the +grand style. The painters did not like this sort of criticism, as +they considered the only point to be criticised in a work of art was +the execution. "Eric the XIV" he judged from his monomaniacal point +of view, "aristocrat or democrat," and found fault with the incorrect +conception of Goeran Persson, whom in his own tragedy _Eric XIV_ +(subsequently burnt) he had represented as an enemy of the nobility and +friend of the people. + +Descended from his own height as a promising student, author and royal +protege to the then less regarded class of journalists, he felt himself +again one of the lower orders. + +After the editor had struck out his learned flourishes, the articles +were printed. The editor told him they were piquant, but advised him +to employ a more flowing style. He had not yet caught the journalistic +knack. + +Then John planned a series of articles in which, under the title +"Perspective," he treated of social and economic questions. In these he +attacked university life, the divisions of the classes, the injurious +over-reading and the unfortunate position of the students. Since the +labour-question at that time was not a burning one, he ventured on a +comparison between the prospects of a student and that of a workman, +declaring the latter to be far better off. The workman was generally +in good health, could support himself at eighteen and marry at twenty, +while the student could not think of marriage and making a livelihood +before thirty. As a remedy he recommended doing away with the final +examination as Jaabaek had already done in Norway, and the transference +of the university to Stockholm in order that the students might have +a chance of earning something during their course. As an example he +adduced the case of modern students at Athens who learn a trade while +they study. This was all clear to him as early as 1872, yet when he +made similar suggestions twelve years later, he was thought to have +conceived them on the spur of the moment. + +At the same time he took an engagement on a small illustrated ladies' +paper and wrote biographical notices and novelettes. The ladies were +very kind, but let him work too hard, and gave him all kinds of +commissions to execute. After he had spent two or three days in paying +visits, dived into a publisher's place of business, read biographical +romances in three or four volumes, made researches in the library, +run to the printing-office and finally written his columns carefully, +setting each person treated of in a proper historical light, and +analysing his career, he received, for all that work, fifteen kronas. +He calculated that this was less pay per hour than a servant earned. +The bread of the literary man was certainty hardly earned, and that +this is the common lot of authors does not make matters better. But the +profession was also despised, and John felt that in social position he +stood below his brothers who were tradesmen, below the actors, yes, +even below the elementary school-teachers. + +The journalists led a subterranean existence, but they styled +themselves "we" and wrote as though they were sovereigns of God's +appointment; they had men's weal or woe in their hand, since the chief +weapon in the struggle for existence in our civilised days is social +reputation. How was it that society had given these free lances such +terrible power without taking any guarantees? But when one comes +to think, what assurance is there for the capacity and insight of +the law-givers in parliament, in the ministry, on the throne? None +whatever! It is therefore the same all round. There were, however, two +classes of newspapers; the conservative, which wished to preserve the +social condition with all its defects, and the liberal, which wished +to improve it. The former enjoyed a certain respect, the latter, none +at all. John instinctively sided with the last, and at once felt that +he was regarded as every one's enemy. A liberal journalist and a +chronicler of scandals were synonymous terms. At home he had heard the +usual phrase that "no one was honourable whose name had not appeared +in the paper _Fatherland_." In the street they had pointed out to him +a man who looked like a bandit, with the mark of a dagger-stab between +his eyes, and said, "There goes the journalist X." In the Cafe La Croix +he felt depressed among his new colleagues, but none the less chose to +associate with this unpopular group. Did he choose really? One does not +choose one's impulses, and it is no virtue to be a democrat when one +hates the upper classes and has no pleasure in their company. + +Meanwhile for social intercourse he went to the artists. It was a +strange world in which they lived. There was so much nature among +these men who busied themselves with art. They dressed badly, lived +like beggars--one of them lived in the same room with the servant--and +ate what they could get; they could hardly read, and had no knowledge +of orthography. At the same time they talked like cultivated people, +they looked at things from an independent point of view, were keenly +observant and unfettered by dogmas. One of them four years previously +had minded geese, a second had wielded the smith's hammer, a third +had been a farmer's servant and walked behind the dung-cart, and a +fourth had been a soldier. They ate with knives, used their sleeves as +napkins, had no handkerchiefs and only one coat in winter. However, +John felt at home with them, though of late years he had been +conversant only with cultivated and well-to-do young people. It was not +that he was superior to them, for that they did not acknowledge, nor +was it any use to quote books to them, for they accepted no authority. +His doubts as regards books, especially text-books, began to be +aroused, and he began to suspect that old books may injure a modern +man's thinking powers. This doubt became a certainty when he met one of +the group whom all regarded as a genius. + +He was a painter about thirty years old, formerly a farmer's servant +who had come to the Academy in order to become an artist. After he +had spent some time in the painting school he came to the conclusion +that art was insufficient as a medium for expressing his thoughts, +and he lived now on nothing, while he busied himself by reflecting on +the questions of the time. Badly educated at an elementary school, he +had now flung himself on the most up-to-date books and had a start of +John, since he had begun where the latter had left off. Between John +and him there was the same difference as between a mathematician and +a pilot. The former can calculate in logarithms, the latter can turn +them to practical use. But Mans also was critically disposed and did +not believe in books blindly. He had no ready-made scheme or system +into which to fit his thoughts; he always thought freely, investigated, +sifted and only retained what he recognised as tenable. More free from +passions than John, he could draw more reckless inferences, even when +they went against his own wishes and interests, though with certain +matter-of-course limitations. He was more-over prudent, as indeed he +must have been to have worked himself up from such a low position, +and understood how to be silent as to certain conclusions, which, if +expressed tactlessly and in the wrong place, might have injured him. +As his literary adviser, he had a telegraph-assistant whose knowledge +Mans knew better how to use than its owner himself; the latter had not +a very lively intellect, although in his knowledge of languages he +possessed the key to the three great modern literatures. Passionless +and self-conscious, with a strong control over his impulses, he stood +outside everything, contemplating and smiling at the free play of +thought which he enjoyed as a work of art, with the accompanying +certainly that it was after all only an illusion. + +With both of these John had many friendly disputes. When he drew up +his schemes for the future of men and society he could rouse Mans' +enthusiasm and carry him along with him, but when he had taken his +hearer a certain way with his emotional and passionate descriptions, +the latter took out his microscope, found the weak spot where to +insert his knife, and cut. On such occasions John was impatient and +motioned his opponent away. "You are a pedant," he said, "and fasten +on details." But sometimes it turned out that the "detail" was a +premise the excision of which made the whole grand fabric of inference +collapse. John was always a poet, and had he continued as such +unhindered he might have brought it to something. The poet can speak +to the point like the preacher, and that is an advantageous position. +He can rattle on without being interrupted, and therefore he can +persuade if not convince. It was through these two unlearned men that +John learned a philosophy which was not known at Upsala. In the course +of conversation, his opponents often referred to an authority whom +they called "Buckle." John rejected an authority of whom he had heard +nothing in Upsala. But the name continually recurred and worried him to +such an extent that he at last asked his friends to lend him the book. +The effect of reading it was such that John regarded his acquaintance +with the book as the vestibule of his intellectual life. Here there +was an atmosphere of pure naked truth. So it should be and so it was. +Mans, like all other organised beings, was under the control of natural +laws; all so-called spiritual qualities rest on a material basis, and +chemical affinities are as spiritual as the sympathies of souls. The +whole of speculative philosophy which wished to evolve laws from the +inner consciousness was only a better kind of theology, and what was +worse, an inquisition, which wished to confine the many-sidedness +of the world-process within the limits of an individual system. "No +system" is Buckle's motto. Doubt is the beginning of all wisdom, doubt +means investigation and stimulates intellectual progress. The truth +which one seeks is simply the discovery of natural laws. Knowledge is +the highest, morality is only an accidental form of behaviour, which +depends upon different social conventions. Only knowledge can make men +happy, and the simple-minded or ignorant with their moral strivings, +their benevolence and their philanthropy are only injurious or useless. + +And now he drew the necessary conclusions. Heavenly love and its +result, marriage, is conditioned as to that result by such a prosaic +matter as the price of provisions; the rate of suicide varies with +wages, and religion is conditioned by natural scenery, climate and +soil. His mind was predisposed to receive the new doctrines, and now +they made their triumphant entry. John had always planted his feet +firmly on the earth, and neither the balloon-voyages of poetry nor the +will-o'-the-wisps of German philosophy had found a sincere adherent in +him. He had sat in despair over Kant's _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, +and asked himself with curiosity, whether it was he who was so stupid +or Kant who was so obscure. The study of the history of philosophy, +in which he had seen how each philosopher pointed to his system as +the true one, and championed it against others, had left him amazed. +Now it was clear to him that the idealists who mingle their obscure +perceptions with dear presentations of facts were only savages or +children, and that the realists, who were alone capable of clear +perceptions, were the most highly developed in the scale of creation. +The poets and philosophers are somnambulists, and the religious who +always live in fear of the unknown are like animals in a forest who +fear every rustic in the bushes, or like primitive men who sacrificed +to the thunder instead of erecting lightning rods. + +Now he had a weapon in his hand to wield against the old authorities +and against the schools and universities which were enslaved by +patronage. Buckle himself had run away from school, had never been at +a university, and hated them. Apropos of Locke he remarks, "Were this +deep thinker now alive, he would inveigh against our great universities +and schools, where countless subjects are learnt which no one needs, +and which few take the trouble to remember." + +Accordingly Upsala had been wrong, and John right. He knew that there +were ignorant savants there, and that it was on account of their own +want of culture that the professors of philosophy could teach nothing +but German philosophy. They neither knew English nor French philosophy +for the simple reason that they only understood Latin and German. +Buckle's _History of Civilisation in England_ was written in 1857, but +did not reach Sweden till 1871-72. Even then the soil was not ready for +the seed. The learned critics were unfavourable to Buckle, and the seed +took root only in some young minds who had no authoritative voice. + +"No literature," says Buckle himself, "can be useful to a people, if +they are not prepared to receive it." Thus it was with Buckle and +his work, which preceded that of Darwin (1858) and contained all its +inferences--a proof that evolution in the world of thought is not so +strictly conditioned as has been believed. Buckle did not know Mill or +Spencer, whose thoughts now rule the world, but he said most of what +they said subsequently. + +Now, if John had had a character, _i.e_. if he had been ruled by +a single quiet purpose directed towards one object, he would have +extracted from Buckle all that answered his purpose and left out all +that told against it. But he was a truth-seeker and did not shrink from +looking into the abyss of contradictions, especially as Buckle never +asserted that he had found the truth, and because truth is relative +and it is often found on both sides. Doubt, criticism, inquiry are the +chief matter, and the only useful course to pursue, as they guarantee +liberty. Sermons, programmes, certainty, system, "truth" are various +forms of constraint and stupidity. But it is impossible to be a +consistent doubter when one is crammed full with "complete evidence," +and when one's judgment is swayed by class-prejudice, anxiety for a +living and struggles for a position. John became calm when he learnt +that all that was wrong in the world was wrong in accordance with +necessary law, but he became furious when he made the further discovery +that our social condition, our religion and morality were absurdities. +He wished to understand and pardon his opponents, since in their +actions they were no more free than he was, but he was in duty bound +to strangle them since they hindered the evolution of society towards +universal happiness, and that was the only and greatest crime that +could be committed. But as there were no criminals, how could one get +hold of the crime? + +He was rejoiced that the mistakes had now been discovered, but despair +oppressed him again when he saw that the discovery was premature. +Nothing could be done for many years to come. Social evolution was a +very slow process. Consequently he must lie at anchor in the roadstead +waiting for the tide. But this waiting was too long for him; he heard +an inner voice bidding him speak, for if one does not spread what +light one has, how can popular views be changed? Yes, but a premature +promulgation of new ideas can do no good. Thus he was tossed to and +fro. Everything round him now seemed so old and out of date that he +could not read a newspaper without getting an attack of cramp. _They_ +only had regard to the present moment; no one thought of the future. +His philosophical friend comforted and calmed him, through, among other +sayings, a sentence of La Bruyere, "Don't be angry because men are +stupid and bad, or you will have to be angry because a stone falls; +both are subject to the same laws; one must be stupid and the other +fall." + +"That is all very well," said John, "but think of having to be a +bird and live in a ditch! Air! light! I cannot breathe or see," he +exclaimed; "I suffocate!" + +"Write!" answered his friend. + +"Yes, but what?" + +Where should he begin? Buckle had already written everything, and +yet it was as though it had not been written. The worst thing was +that he felt he lacked the power. Hitherto he had only felt a very +moderate degree of ambition. He did not wish to march at the head, to +be a conqueror and so on. But to go in front with an axe as a simple +pioneer, to fell trees, root up thickets, and let others build bridges +and throw up redoubts, was enough for him. It is often observable that +great ambition is only the sign of great power. John was moderately +ambitious, because he was now only conscious of moderate powers. +Formerly when he was young and strong he had great confidence in +himself. He was a fanatic, _i.e_. his will was supported by powerful +passions, but his awakened insight and healthy doubt had sobered his +self-confidence. The work before him took the form of rock-walls which +must be pulled down, but he was not so simple as to venture on the task. + +Now he began to habituate himself forcibly to doubt in order to be +patient and not to explode. He entrenched himself in doubt as in a +fortress, and as a means of self-preservation he determined to depict +his struggles and doubts in a drama. The subject matter which he had +been turning over in his mind for a year he took from the history of +the Reformation in Sweden. Thus was composed the drama later on known +as _The Apostate_. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE RED ROOM + +(1872) + + +In autumn occurred the death of Charles XV. With the mourning, which +was fairly sincere and widespread, there mingled gloomy anxieties for +the future. One of the young painters who belonged to John's circle of +friends had just received a royal stipend and gone to Norway. He had +now to return quite destitute and without any prospects for the future. +John was accustomed to go with him into the Zoological Gardens in order +to paint, and occupy his mind while he was waiting for an answer from +the theatrical manager to whom he had sent his drama. + +There is indeed no occupation which so absorbs all the thoughts and +emotions so much as painting. John watched and enjoyed the delicate +harmonies of the lines in the branch-formation of the trees, in the +wave-like curves of the ground, but his paint-brush was too coarse to +reproduce the contours as he wished. Then he took his pen and made a +drawing in detail. But when he tried to transfer it to his canvas and +paint it, the whole appeared but a smudge. + +Pelle, on the other hand, was an impressionist and look no notice +of details. He took up the landscape at a stroke, so to speak, and +gave the colours their due value, but the various objects melted into +uncertain silhouettes. John thought Pelle's landscapes more beautiful +than the reality, although he cherished great reverence for the works +of the Creator. After he had wiled away about a month in painting, +he went one evening into the Cafe La Croix. The first person he met +was his former editor, who said, "I have just heard from X." (a young +author) "that the Theatre Royal has refused _The Apostate_." + +"I know nothing about it," answered John. He did not feel well and left +the company as soon as possible. The next day he went to his former +instructor to find how the matter stood. The latter began first to +praise, and then to criticise it, which is the right method. He said +that the characters of Olaus Petri and Gustav Wasa had been brought +down from their proper level and distorted. John, on the other hand, +held that he had given a realistic representation of them as they +probably were, before their figures had been idealised by patriotic +considerations. His friend replied that that was no good; the public +would never accept a new reading of their characters till critical +inquiry had done its preliminary work. + +That was true, but the blow was a heavy one, although dealt with as +much consideration as possible, and the author was invited to remodel +his drama. He had again been premature in his attempt. There was +nothing left for him but to wait and wile away the time. To think +of remodelling it now was not possible for him, for he saw, when he +read it through again, that it was all cast in one piece and that the +details could not be altered. He could not change it, unless he changed +his thoughts, and therefore he must wait. + +Now he took to reading again. Chance brought into his hand two of +"the best books which one can read." They were De Tocqueville's +_Democracy in America_ and Prevost-Paradol's _The New France._ The +former increased his doubts as to the possibility of democracy in +an uncultivated community. Written with sincere admiration for the +political institutions of America, which the author holds up as a +pattern for Europe, this work points out so sincerely the dangers of +democracy, as to make even a born hater of the aristocracy pause. + +John's theories received terrible blows, but this time his good sense +triumphed over his prejudices. His loss of faith in his own powers, +however, had a demoralising effect upon him, and he was soon ripe +for absolute scepticism. Sentences such as the following admitted +at that time of no contradiction: "The moral power of the majority +is based partly upon the conviction that a number of men have more +understanding, intelligence and wisdom than an individual, and a +great number of lawgivers more than a selection of them. That is the +principle of equality applied to intellectual gifts. This doctrine +attacks the pride of humanity in its innermost citadel." + +An individualist like John did not perceive that this pride can and +must be overcome. Nor did he see that wisdom and intelligence can be +spread by means of good schools among the masses. + +"When a man or a party in the United States suffers injustice, to whom +shall he turn? To public opinion? That is the opinion of the majority. +To the legislative officials? They are nominated by the majority +and obey it blindly. To the executive power? That is chosen by the +majority and serves it as a passive instrument. To the military forces +of the State? They are simply the majority under arms. To juries? +They are formed by a majority which possesses the right to judge." De +Tocqueville goes on to say that the happiness of the majority which +consists in maintaining its rights deserves recognition, and that it is +better for a minority to suffer from pressure than a majority, but the +sufferings which an intelligent minority suffer from an unintelligent +majority are much greater than those which an intelligent minority +inflict upon a majority. On the other hand, the minority understands +much better than the majority what conduces to their own and the +general happiness, and therefore the tyranny of the minority is not to +be compared with that of the majority. + +"Yes, but," thought John, "did not the European peoples generally +suffer from the tyranny of a minority?" The mere fact that there +were upper classes lay like a heavy cloud on the life of the masses. +Nowadays the question may be raised, "Why should a different +class-education result in an intelligent minority and an unintelligent +majority?" But such questions were not raised then. Moreover had such +a state really ever been seen in which an intelligent minority had the +power to "oppress"? No, for sovereigns, ministers and parliaments had +usually the due modicum of intelligence. + +That which more than anything else inclined John to fear the power of +the masses, was the fact noted by De Tocqueville that they tyrannised +over freedom of thought. + +"When one tries to ascertain," he says, "how much freedom of thought +there is in the United States it becomes apparent how much the tyranny +of the masses transcends any despotism known to Europe. I know no +country where there is, generally speaking, less independence of +opinion and real freedom of discussion than America. The majority +draw a terribly narrow circle round all thought. Within that circle +an author may say what he likes, but woe to him if he step across the +limit. He has no _auto-da-fe_ to fear, but he is made the mark for all +kinds of unpleasantness and daily persecutions. Every good quality is +denied him, even honour. Before he published his views, he thought he +had adherents; after he has made them known to all the world he sees +that he no longer has any, for his critics have raised an outcry, +and those who thought as he did, but lacked the courage to express +themselves, are silent and withdraw. He gives way; he finally collapses +under the strain of daily renewed effort, and resumes silence, as +though he regretted having spoken the truth, + +"In democratic republics, tyranny lets the body alone and attacks the +soul. In them the dominant power does not say, 'You must think as I +do, or die;' it says, 'You are free to differ from me in opinion; your +life and property will remain untouched, but from the day that you +express a different view from mine, you will be a stranger among us. +You will retain your rights and privileges as a citizen, but they will +be useless to you. You will remain among men, but be deprived of all +a man's rights. When you approach your equals they will flee you as +though you were a leper; even those who believe in your innocence will +abandon you, lest they should be themselves abandoned. Go in peace! +I grant you life, but a life which shall be harder and bitterer than +death!'" + +That is the true and credible picture which the noble De Tocqueville, +friend of the people and tyrant-hater as he was, has drawn of the +tyranny of the masses, those masses whose feet John had felt trampling +on him at home, at school, in the steamer and the theatre, those +masses whom he had satirised in the play _Sinking Hellas_, and whom +he had described as throwing the first stone at Olaus Petri just at +the moment when he was preaching to them of freedom! If it is thus in +America, how can one expect anything better in Europe. He found himself +in a cul-de-sac. His hereditary disposition prevented his becoming an +aristocrat, nor could he come to terms with the people. Had he not +himself suffered lately from an ignorant theatre-management behind +which stood the uncultivated public, and found the way blocked for +his new and liberal ideas. There was then already a mob-despotism in +Sweden, and the director of the Theatre Royal was only their servant. + +It was all absurdity! And even suppose society were ruled by those who +knew most. Then they would be under professors with their heads full of +antiquarian ideas. Even if the director had put his drama on the stage, +it would have certainly been hissed off by the tradesmen in the stalls, +and no critics could have helped him! + +His thoughts struggled like fishes in a net, and ended by being caught. +It was not worth the trouble of thinking about and he tried to banish +the thought, but could not. He felt a continual trouble and despair +in his mind that the world was going idiotically, majestically and +unalterably to the devil. "Unalterably," he thought, for as yet a large +number of strong minds had not attacked the problem, which was soluble +after all. Ten years later it was provisionally solved, when knowledge +on the subject of this sphinx-riddle had been so widely spread that +even a workman had obtained some insight into it, and in a public +meeting had declared that equality was impossible, for the block-heads +could not be equal to the sharp-sighted, and that the utmost one could +demand was equality of position. This workman was more of an aristocrat +than John dared to be in the year 1872, though he belonged to no party +which claimed the right to muzzle him. + +Prevost-Paradol had dealt with the same theme as Tocqueville, but +he suggested a secret device against the tyranny of the masses--the +cumulative vote or the privilege of writing the same name several times +on the ballot-paper. But John considered this method, which had been +tried in England, doubtful. + +He had set great hopes on his drama, and borrowed money on the strength +of them, and now felt much depressed. The disproportion between his +fancied and his real value galled him. Now he had to adopt a role, +learn it, and carry it out. He composed one for himself, consisting +of the sceptic, the materialist and the liar, and found that it +suited him excellently. This was for the simple reason that it was a +sceptical and materialistic period, and because he had unconsciously +developed into a man of his time. But he still believed that his +earlier discarded personality, ruled indeed by wild passions, but +cherishing ideals of a higher calling, love to mankind and similar +imaginations, was his true and better self which he hid from the world. +All men make similar mistakes when they value sickly sentimentality +above strong thought, when they look back to their youth and think +they were purer and more virtuous then, which is certainly untrue. +The world calls the weaker side of men their "better self," because +this weakness is more advantageous for the world and self-interest +seems to dictate its judgment. John found that in his new role he was +freed from all possible prejudices--religious, social, political and +moral. He had only one opinion,--that everything was absurd, only +one conviction,--that nothing could be done at present, and only one +hope,--that the time would come when one might effectively intervene, +and when there would be improvement. But from that time he altogether +gave up reading newspapers. To hear stupidity praised, selfish acts +lauded as philanthropic, and reason blasphemed,--that was too much for +a fanatical sceptic. Sometimes, however, he thought that the majority +were right in just being at the point of view where they were, and that +it was unnecessary that some few individuals, because of a specialised +education, should run far ahead of the rest. In quiet moments he +recognised that his mental development which had taken place so +rapidly, without his ever seeing an idea realised, could be a pattern +for such a slowly-working machine as society is. Why did he run so far +ahead? It was not the fault of the school or university, for they had +held him back equally with the majority. + +Yes, but those already out in the world, by their own hearths, had +already reached the stage of Buckle's scepticism as regards the social +order, so that he was not so far ahead after all. The slow rate of +progress was enough to make one despair. What Schiller's Karl Moor +had seen a hundred years previously, what the French Revolution had +actually brought about were now regarded as brand-new ideas. After +the Revolution, social development had gone backwards; religious +superstitions were revived, belief in a better state of things lost, +and economic and industrial progress was accompanied by sweating and +terrible poverty. It was absurd! All minds that were awake at all +had to suffer,--suffer like every living organism when hindered in +growth and pressed backward. The century had been inaugurated by the +destruction of hopes, and nothing has such a paralysing effect on the +soul as disappointed hope, which, as statistics show, is one of the +most frequent causes of madness. Therefore all great spirits were, +vulgarly speaking, mad. Chateaubriand was a hypochondriac, Musset a +lunatic, Victor Hugo a maniac. The automatic pygmies of everyday life +cannot realise what such suffering means, and yet believe themselves +capable of judging in the matter. + +The ancient poet is psychologically correct in representing +Prometheus as having his liver gnawed by a vulture. Prometheus was +the revolutionary who wished to spread mental illumination among +men. Whether he did it from altruistic motives, or from the selfish +one of wishing to breathe a purer mental atmosphere, may be left +undecided. John, who felt akin to this rebel, was aware of a pain which +resembled anxiety, and a perpetual boring "toothache in the liver." Was +Prometheus then a liver-patient who confusedly ascribed his pain to +causes outside himself? Probably not! But he was certainly embittered +when he saw that the world is a lunatic asylum in which the idiots go +about as they like, and the few who preserve reason are watched as +though dangerous to the public safety. Attacks of illness can certainly +colour men's views, and every one well knows how gloomy our thoughts +are when we have attacks of fever. But patients such as Samuel Oedmann +or Olaf Eneroth were neither sulky nor bitter, but, on the contrary, +mild, perhaps languid from want of strength. Voltaire, who was never +well, had an imperturbably good temper. And Musset did not write as he +did because he drank absinthe, but he drank from the same cause that +he wrote in that manner, _i.e_. from despair. Therefore it is not in +good faith that idealists who deny the existence of the body, ascribe +the discontent of many authors to causes such as indigestion, etc., the +supposition of which contradicts their own principles, but it must be +against their better knowledge, or with worse knowledge. Kierkegaard's +gloomy way of writing can be ascribed to an absurd education, +unfortunate family relations, dreary social surroundings, and alongside +of these to some organic defects, but not to the latter alone. + +Discontent with the existing state of things will always assert itself +among those who are in process of development, and discontent has +pushed the world forwards, while content has pushed it back. Content +is a virtue born of necessity, hopelessness or superfluity; it can be +cancelled with impunity. + +Catarrh of the stomach may cause ill temper, but it has never produced +a great politician, _i.e._ a great malcontent. But sickliness may +impart to a malcontent's energy a stronger colour and greater rapidity, +and therefore cannot be denied a certain influence. On the other hand, +a conscious insight into grievances can produce such a degree of mental +annoyance as can result in sickness. The loss of dear friends through +death, may in this way cause consumption, and the loss of a social +position or of property, madness. + +If every modern individual shows a geological stratification of the +stages of development through which his ancestors passed, so in every +European mind are found traces of the primitive Aryan,--class-feeling, +fixed family ideas, religious motives, etc. From the early Christians +we have the idea of equality, love to our neighbour, contempt for mere +earthly life; from the mediaeval monks, self-castigation and hopes of +heaven. Besides these, we inherit traits from the sensuous cultured +pagans of the Renaissance, the religious and political fanatics of the +sixteenth century, the sceptics of the "illumination" period, and the +anarchists of the Revolution. Education should therefore consist in the +obliteration of old stains which continually reappear however often we +polish them away. + +John proceeded to obliterate the monk, the fanatic and the +self-tormentor in himself as well as he could, and took as the leading +principle of his provisional life (for it was only provisional till he +struck out a course for himself) the well-understood one of personal +advantage, which is actually, though unconsciously, employed by all, to +whatever creed they belong. + +He did not transgress the ordinary laws, because he did not wish +to appear in a court of justice; he encroached on no one's rights +because he wished his own not to be encroached upon. He met men +sympathetically, for he did not hate them, nor did he study them +critically till they had broken their promises and shown a want of +sympathy to him. He justified them all so long as he could, and when +he could not, well,--he could not, but he tried by working to place +himself in a position to be able to do so. He regarded his talent as a +capital sum, which, although at present it yielded no interest, gave +him the right and imposed on him the duty to live at any price. He was +not the kind of man to force his way into society in order to exploit +it for his own purposes, he was simply a man of capacity conscious of +his own powers, who placed himself at the disposal of society modestly, +and in the first place to be used as a dramatist. The theatre, as a +matter of fact, needed him to contribute to its Swedish repertory. + +After a solitary day's work, it was his habit to go to a cafe to meet +his acquaintances there. To seek "more elevated" recreations in family +circles such as meaningless gossip, card playing and such like had no +attraction for him. Whenever he entered a family circle he felt himself +surrounded by a musty atmosphere like that exhaled from stagnant +water. Married couples who had been badgering each other, were glad to +welcome him as a sort of lightning conductor, but he had no pleasure +in playing that part. Family life appeared to him as a prison in which +two captives spied on each other, as a place in which children were +tormented, and servant-girls quarrelled. It was something nasty from +which he ran away to the restaurants. In them there was a public room +where no one was guest and no one was host: one enjoyed plenty of +space and light, heard music, saw people and met friends. John and +his friends were accustomed to meet in a back room of Bern's great +restaurant which, because of the colour of the furniture, was called +the "red room." The little club consisted originally of John and a few +artistic and philosophical friends. But their circle was soon enlarged +by old friends whom they met again. They were first of all recruited +by the presentable former scholars of the Clara School,--a postal +clerk who was at the same time a bass singer, pianist and composer; a +secretary of the Court treasurer; and the trump card of the society,--a +lieutenant of artillery. To these were added later, the composer's +indispensable friend, a lithographer, who published his music, and a +notary who sang his compositions. The club was not homogeneous, but +they soon managed to shake down together. + +But since the laymen had no wish to hear discussions on art, literature +and philosophy, their conversations were only on general subjects. +John, who did not wish to discuss any more problems, adopted a +sceptical tone, and baffled all attempts at discussion by a play upon +words, a quibble or a question. His ultimate "why?" behind every +penultimate assertion threw a light on the too-sure conclusions of +stupidity, and let his hearer surmise that behind the usually accepted +commonplaces there were possibilities of truths stretching out in +endless perspective. These views of his must have germinated like seeds +in most of their brains, for in a short time they were all sceptics, +and began to use a special language of their own. This healthy +scepticism in the infallibility of each other's judgments had, as a +natural consequence, a brutal sincerity of speech and thought. It was +of no use to speak of one's feelings as though they were praise worthy, +for one was cut short with "Are you sentimental, poor devil? Take +bi-carbonate." + +If any one complained of toothache, all he received by way of answer +was, "That does not rouse my sympathy at all, for I have never had +toothache, and it has no effect upon my resolve to give a supper." + +They were disciples of Helvetius in believing that one must regard +egotism as the mainspring of all human actions, and therefore it was +no use pretending to finer emotions. To borrow money or to get goods +on credit without being certain of being able to pay, was rightly +regarded as cheating, and so designated. For instance, if a member of +the club appeared in a new overcoat which seemed to have been obtained +on credit, he was asked in a friendly way, "Whom have you cheated about +that coat?" Or on another occasion another would say, "To-day I have +done Samuel out of a new suit." + +Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, both overcoat and suit were +generally paid for, but as the purchaser at the time he took them was +not sure whether he would be able to pay, he regarded himself as a +potential swindler. This was severe morality and stern self-criticism. + +Once during such a conversation the lieutenant got up to go and attend +church-parade with his company. "Where are you going?" he was asked. +"To play the hypocrite," he answered truthfully. + +This tone of sincerity sometimes assumed the character of a deep +understanding of human nature and the nature of society. One day +the company were leaving John's lodgings for the restaurant. It was +winter, and Mans, who was generally ill-dressed, had no overcoat. The +lieutenant, who wore his uniform, was, it is true, somewhat uneasy, but +did not wish to hurt any one's feelings that day. When John opened the +door to go out, Mans said, "Go in front; I will come afterwards; I do +not want Jean to injure his position by going with me." + +John offered to walk with Mans one way while the others should go by +another, but Jean exclaimed, "Ah! don't pretend to be noble-minded! you +feel as embarrassed at going with Mans as I do." + +"True," replied John, "but...." + +"Why, then, do you play the hypocrite?" + +"I did not play the hypocrite; I only wished to try to be free from +prejudice." + +"The deuce! what is the good of being free from prejudice when no one +else is, and it does you harm? It would really show more freedom from +prejudice to tell Mans your mind than to deceive him." + +Mans had already departed, and arrived about the same time at the +restaurant as they did. He took part in the meal without betraying a +trace of ill-humour. "Your health, Mans, because you are a man of +sense," said the lieutenant to cheer him up. + +The habit of speaking out one's inner thoughts without any regard to +current opinion, resulted in the overthrow of all traditional verdicts. +The terrible confusion of thought in which men live, since freedom +of thought has been fettered by compulsory regulations, has made it +possible for antiquated views of men and things to continue. Thus, +to-day a number of works of art are considered unsurpassable in spite +of the great progress made in technique and artistic conception. John +considered that if in the nineteenth century he was to give his views +on Shakespeare, he was not at all bound to give the opinion of the +eighteenth century, but of his own nineteenth, as it had been modified +by new points of view. This aroused a great deal of opposition, perhaps +because people fear being regarded as uncultivated a great deal more +than they fear being regarded as godless. + +Every one attacked Christ, for He was thought to have been overthrown +by learned criticism, but they were afraid of attacking Shakespeare. +John, however, was not. Thoroughly understanding the works of the +poet, whose most important dramas he had read in the original and +whose chief commentators he had studied, he criticised the composition +and meagre character drawing of _Hamlet._ It is noteworthy that the +Swedish Shakespeare-worshipper, Shuck, through an inconsistency due to +the current confusion of thought and compulsory cowardice, made just +as severe criticisms of _Hamlet_ regarded as a work of art, though +he had previously extolled it above the skies. If John had at that +time been able to read the book of Professor Shuck, he would not have +needed courage in order to subscribe such criticisms as the following: +"_Hamlet_ is the most unsatisfactory of all ... the composition is +superficial and incoherent. After the action of the play has reached +its climax, it suddenly breaks off. Hamlet is suddenly sent to England, +but this journey does not in any way arouse the spectator's interest. +Still worse is the management of the catastrophe. It is a mere chance +that Hamlet's revenge is executed at all, and a similar caprice of +chance causes his overthrow. His killing Claudius just before his own +death has more the appearance of revenge for the attempt on his own +life, than that of a judgment executed in the name of injured morality." + +And then the obscurity which envelops the motives of the principal +persons in the play! "The spectator is left in uncertainty regarding +such an important point as Ophelia's and Hamlet's madness. Moreover +in _King Lear_, Edward's treachery is so palpable that not the most +ordinarily intelligent man could have been deceived by it!" + +If then the drama was defective precisely in the chief elements of a +drama, construction and characterisation, how could it be incomparable? +The reverence for what is ancient and celebrated is rooted in the +same instinct which creates gods; and pulling down the ancient has +the same effect as attacking the divine. Why else should a sensible +unprejudiced man fly in a rage when he hears some one express a +different opinion to his own (or what he thinks his own) about some old +classic? It ought to be a matter of indifference to him. The national +and intellectual Pantheon can be as angrily defended by atheists as by +monotheists, perhaps more so. People who are otherwise sincere, cringe +before a well-established reputation, and John had heard a pietistic +clergyman say that Shakespeare was a "pure" writer. In his mouth that +was certainly false. A determinist, on the other hand, would not +have used the words "pure" or "impure" because they would have been +meaningless to him. But the poor Christ-worshipper did not dare to bear +a cross for Shakespeare; he had enough already to bear for his own +Master. + +Meanwhile John's method of judging old things from the modern point of +view seemed to be justified, for it gained him a following. That was +the whole secret of what was so little understood later on by theistic +and atheistic theologians--his irreverent handling of ancient things +and persons; they thought in their simplicity quite innocently that +it was what one calls in children a spirit of contradiction. His aim +rather was to bring people's confused ideas into order, and to teach +them to apply logically their materialistic point of view. If they +were materialists, they should not borrow phrases from Christianity, +nor think like idealists. This gave rise to a catchword, which showed +how what was ancient was despised--"That is old!" As new men, they +must think new thoughts, and new thoughts demanded a new phraseology. +Anecdotes and old jokes were done away with; stereotyped phrases and +borrowed expressions were suppressed. One might be plain-spoken and +call things by their right names, but one might not be vulgar; the +latest opera was not to be quoted, nor jokes from the newest comic +paper repeated. Thereby each became accustomed to produce something +from his own stock of original observation and acquired the faculty of +judging from a fresh point of view. + +John had discovered that men in general were automata. All thought the +same; all judged in the same fashion; and the more learned they were, +the less independence of mind they displayed. This made him doubt the +whole value of book education. The graduates who came from Upsala +had, one and all, the same opinions on Rafael and Schiller, though +the differences in their characters would have led one to expect a +corresponding difference in their judgments. Therefore these men did +not think, although they called themselves free-thinkers, but merely +talked and were merely parrots. + +But John could not perceive that it was not books _qua_ books which had +turned these learned men into automata. He himself and his unlearned +philosophical friends had been aroused to self-consciousness through +books. The danger of the university education was that it was derived +from inferior books published under sanction of the government, and +written by the upper classes in the interest of the upper classes, +_i.e_. with the object of exalting what was old and established, and +therefore of hindering further development. + +Meanwhile John's scepticism had made him sterile. He had perceived +that art had nothing to do with social development, that it was simply +a reflection or phenomena, and was more perfect as art the more it +confined itself to this function. He still preserved the impulse to +re-mould things and it found expression in his painting. His poetic +art, on the other hand, went to pieces since it had to express thoughts +or serve a purpose. + +His failure to have his play accepted had an adverse effect on his +pecuniary circumstances. The friends from whom he had borrowed money +came one evening to John's rooms in order to hear the play read, but +they were so tired after the day's work that, after hearing the first +act, they asked him to put off the rest for another occasion. One of +the audience who had kept more awake than the others thought that there +were too many Biblical quotations in the piece, and that these were not +suitable for the stage. + +John's resources were dried up, and the spectre of want loomed upon +him, unbribeable and stone-deaf. After he had gone without his dinners +for a time, he began to feel weary of life, and looked about him for +the means of subsistence. How should he get bread in the wilderness? +The best means that suggested itself was to seek an engagement in a +provincial theatre. There mere nobodies often played leading roles +in tragedies, made themselves a name, and finished by getting an +appointment at the Theatre Royal. He quickly made his resolve, packed +his travelling bag, borrowed money for his fare, and went to Goeteborg. +It was just about the time of the great November storm of 1872. + +Since the environment in which he had been living had had a great +effect on him, he conceived a great dislike to this town. Gloomy, +correct, expensive, proud, reserved it lay, pent in its circle of stone +hills, and depressed the lively native of Upper Sweden, accustomed +to the rich and smiling landscape of Stockholm. It was a copy of the +capital but on a small scale, and John, as one of the upper class, +felt alienated from its inhabitants, who were in a lower stage of +development. But he noticed that there was something here that was +wanting in the capital. When he went down to the harbour he saw ships +which were nearly all destined for foreign parts, and large vessels +kept up continual communication with the continent. The people and +buildings did not look so exclusively Swedish, the papers took more +account of the great movements which were going on in the world. What +a short way it was from here to Copenhagen, Christiania, London, +Hamburg, Havre! Stockholm should have been situated here in a harbour +of the North Sea, whereas it lay in a remote corner of the Baltic. +Here was in truth the nucleus of a new centre, and he now understood +that that position was no longer occupied by Stockholm, but that +Goeteborg was about to be the centre of the north. At present, however, +this reflection had no comfort for him since he was only in the +insignificant position of an actor. + +John sought out the theatre-director and introduced himself as a +person who wished to do the theatre a service. The director, however, +considered himself very well served by his present staff. But he +allowed John to give a trial performance in the role in which he wished +to make his debut. This was Dietrichson's _Workman_, the great success +of the day. John had discovered a certain likeness between Stephenson's +first locomotive and his rejected play; he wished to show how he, like +the engineer, had to face the ridicule of the ignorant crowd, the +apprehensions of the learned, and the fears of a wasted life on the +part of relatives. He gave his trial performance one evening by the +light of a candle and between bare walls. Naturally he felt hampered +and asked to repeat it in costume. But the director said it was not +necessary; he had heard enough. John, in his opinion, possessed talent, +but it was undeveloped. He offered him an engagement at twelve hundred +kronas yearly, to commence from the first of January. John considered: +Should he spend two months idly in Goeteborg and then only have a +supernumerary's part in a provincial theatre? No! He would not! What +remained to be done? Nothing except to borrow money and return home, +which he did. + +Thus his efforts had again ended in failure. His friends had given +him a farewell feast, lent him journey money, done all they could to +help him, and now he came back without having settled anything. Again +he had to hear the old too true accusation that he was unstable. To +be unstable in an ordered society is the extreme of unpracticality. +There persistent and exclusive cultivation of some special branch of +industry or knowledge is necessary in order to outstrip competitors. +Every orderly member of society feels a certain discomfort when he sees +some one wandering from his proper place. This discomfort does not +necessarily spring from excessive egotism, but possibly from a feeling +of solidarity and solicitude for others. John saw that his countless +changes of plan disquieted his friends; he felt ashamed and suffered on +account of it, but could not act otherwise. + +So he found himself at home, and spent the long evenings in the "Red +Room," asking himself whether he really could find no place in a +society which for others opened up so many rich possibilities of a +career. + +At Christmas time John travelled again to Upsala, for he had been +invited thither as one of the contributors to a Literary Calendar which +had just appeared. The _Calendar_, which was received with universal +disapprobation, was not without significance as an exponent of the +state of literature. The reader who was desired to wade through these +elegant extracts, might justifiably ask, "What have I got to do with +them?" The poetry they contained, like that of Snoilsky and Bjoerck, +might have been written fifty or a hundred years before. It was of +indifferent quality, and sometimes even bad,--bad because it gave no +sign that the poet had developed any powers of perception, indifferent +because it was not rooted in its own period. The date of the book +was 1872, but it contained no echo of the Jubilee of 1865, no hint +of 1870, not a whiff of the conflagration of 1871. Had these young +versifiers been asleep? Yes, certainly. The great mass of students were +realists, sceptics, mockers, as befitted the children of the time, but +the poets were credulous fools with the ideals of Snoilsky and Bjoerck +in their hearts. Their poetry was that of superannuated idealists in +form and thought, for the new views of things had not reached these +isolated individualists who still lived the Bohemian life of the +Romantics. Their poetry consisted of nothing but echoes. In fact it +was a question whether Swedish poetry had hitherto been anything else, +or could be anything else. Was Tegner's poetry anything but an echo +of Schiller, Oehlenschlaeger, the Eddas and the old Norse sagas? Was +Atterbom anything else than a musical box pieced together out of Tieck, +Hoffmann, Wieland, Burger? And so on with all the Swedish poets. But +this Literary Calendar was composed of echoes of echoes and dreams of +dreams. Realism, which had already made a premature entry into Sweden +with Kraemer's _Diamonds in Coal_, and had subsequently triumphed +in Snoilsky, had left no trace on these young poets. The poetry of +Snoilsky's school had been the careless expression of a careless time, +but these poems simply displayed the incapacity of their writers. + +John had contributed to the _Calendar_ a free version of "An Basveig's +Saga." In this he had glorified himself as a kind of male Cinderella, +or ugly duckling of the family. He was moved to do this by the contempt +which had been evinced towards him by his patrons and middle-class +friends on account of his failure as an author. The language of the +piece was marked by a certain bluntness of expression and an attempt to +dignify low things, or at least to rub off the dirt from things which +were not really so, but were called so. Since the word Naturalism had +not yet come into fashion, his language was called coarse and vulgar. + +But an acquaintance which John happened to make during his stay in +Upsala was of greater importance than the _Calendar_ or Christmas +dinner. He lodged with a friend on whose writing-table he found one day +a number of the _Svensk Tidskrift_ containing a notice of Hartmann's +_Philosophy of the Unconscious_. It was an exposition of Hartmann's +system by a Finn, A.V. Bolin, and betrayed throughout a half-concealed +admiration of it. But the editor, Hans Forssell, had appended to the +essay a note written in his usual style when he came across something +that his brain could not take in. Hartmann's doctrine was pessimism. +Conscious life is suffering because unconscious will is the motive +power of evolution and consciousness obstructs this unconscious will. +It was the old myth of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It +was the kernel of the Buddhistic faith and the chief doctrine of +Christianity,--"Vanitas, vanitatum vanitas." + +Most of the greatest and conscious minds had been pessimists, and had +seen through and unmasked the illusions of life. Only wild animals, +children, and commonplace people could therefore be happy, because they +were unconscious of the illusion, or because they held their ears when +one wanted to tell them the truth and begged not to be robbed of their +illusions. + +John found all this quite natural, and had no important objection to +make. It was true then, what he had so often dreamt, that everything +was nothing! It was the suspicion of this which had governed his +point of view and made all the great and all greatness appear on a +reduced scale. This consciousness had lurked obscurely in him, when, +as a child, although well-formed, healthy and strong, he wept over +an unknown grief, the cause of which he could not find within him or +without. That was the secret of his life, that he could not admire +anything, could not hold to anything, could not live for anything; that +he was too wide awake to be subject to illusions. Life was a form of +suffering which could only be alleviated by removing as many obstacles +as possible from the path of one's will; his own life in particular +was so extremely painful because his social and economical position +constantly prevented his will from expressing itself. + +When he contemplated life and especially the course of history he saw +only cycles of errors and mistakes repeating themselves.[1] The men of +the present dreamt of a republic, as Greeks and Romans had done two +thousand years before; the civilisation of the Egyptians had decayed +when they perceived its futility; Asia was wrapped in an eternal sleep +after it had been impelled by an unconscious will to conquer the +world; all nations had invented narcotics and intoxicants in order to +quench consciousness; sleep was blessedness and death the greatest +happiness. But why not take the last step and commit suicide? Because +the unconscious Will continually enticed men to live through the +illusion of hope of a better life. Pessimism, regarded as a view of the +world's order, is more consistent than meliorism, which sees in natural +development a tendency which makes for men's happiness. This latter +view seems to be a disguised relic of belief in divine providence. Can +one believe that the mechanical blindly ruling laws of nature have any +regard for the development of human society when they produce glacial +periods, floods, and volcanic outbreaks? Must an intelligent man be +called "conservative" in a contemptuous sense because he has brought +under his yoke and rules the laws of nature as Stuart Mill facetiously +expresses it? Have men devised any certain preventives against +shipwreck, strokes of lightning, economic crises, losses of relatives +by death and sickness? Can men control at pleasure the inclination of +the earth's axis, and do away with cloud-formations which are likely +to injure harvests? In spite of the present advanced state of science, +have men been able to put an end to the grape pest, to stop floods, +eradicate, superstitions, remove despots, prevent war? Is it not +presumptuous or simple-minded to believe that man, himself governed by +chemical, physical, and physiological laws of nature, stands above them +because he understands how to use some of them to his own advantage, as +birds use the wind for their progress or beavers the pressure of the +stream in constructing their dams? Are not the wings of the falcon and +the fly more perfect means of locomotion than railways and steamers? +How can men be so simple as to think that they stand above nature when +they are themselves so subordinate to nature that they cannot will or +think freely? It looks like a residue of our primitive illusions. If +the present development of European society ends in atheism, that has +already been the case with the Buddhists; if in religious freedom, +that has already been witnessed in the early history of China; if in +polygamy, that already exists among the savages of Australia; if in +community of goods, this prevailed among primitive peoples. The fact is +that Europe has been the last of all the great ethnical groups to wake +to consciousness. It is now in the act of waking and turning itself, +not like some oriental nations, to torpid quietism, but to removing as +far as possible the pains and unpleasantnesses of earthly existence, +although the best way of doing so has not been yet discovered. The +mistake of the industrial socialists is that they, according to +the formula of the ambiguous evolution theory, wish to build upon +existing conditions, which they regard as the product of necessity, +and tending to the good of all. But existing conditions rather tend +to the happiness of the few, and are therefore something abnormal to +build on, which means erecting a house on ground from which the water +has not been drained off. Probably the form of society which they +desire, however absurd it is, is a necessary mistake through which men +must pass to reach a better. Both the danger and the hope of progress +consist in the fact that the socialistic system already has its +programme drawn up and consequently works automatically, _i.e_. like a +blind, irresistible mass. If it reconstitutes society after the pattern +of the working-class who are a minority, and makes all men mechanics, +one may venture to doubt, without being regarded as quite mad, whether +that will be happiness. Socialism as a social reform is inevitable, +for Europe in its self-idolatry has not perceived how far backward it +is. Provided with an Asiatic form of government, which interferes in +details, supporting ancient superstitions, living under the terrible +tyranny of capital, which is maintained by force of arms, it sets +on foot political and religious persecutions, it venerates embalmed +monarchs like mummies of the Pharaohs, it civilises savages with waste +goods and Krupp guns; it forgets that its civilisation came from the +east, and was better then than it is now. Hartmann and the pessimists +believe that the social reform which is called socialism will come, but +that afterwards, it will be succeeded by something else. + +The bourgeois is an optimist because he cannot see or think outside +the narrow circle of everyday occurrences. That is his good fortune, +but not his merit, for he has no choice in the matter. Nay, he does not +even understand what pessimism is, but thinks it means the opinion that +this is the worst of all worlds. How could any one have a well-grounded +view on that? Voltaire, who was no pessimist, wrote a whole book to +demonstrate that this world, at any rate, was not the best of worlds +for us, as Leibnitz imagined. It is naturally the best for itself, +although not for us, and the difference between the point of view of +the hypochondriac and the pessimist consists in the fact that the +former believes that the world is the worst possible for him, while +the pessimist disregards what it may be for the individual. Hartmann +is no hypochondriac as people have tried to make out, and he seeks to +alleviate the pain of life as much as possible by placing himself in a +state of unconsciousness. + +The men of the younger generation of to-day are sad, because they +have awoke to consciousness and lost many illusions. But they are not +hypochondriacal, and work at bringing the world forward into the last +stage of illusion or a new social system, as though hoping thereby to +alleviate their pain, and they work the more fanatically, the deeper +they feel it. + +Meanwhile, supposing that Hartmann's philosophy may be a mistake, and a +sceptic must be willing to entertain that possibility, although it has +every probability on its side, since the instinct of self-preservation, +the first condition of life, consists in the removal of pain, which +is the first motive-power,--we must seek to explain historically +how this philosophy has come to the birth and spread. Superficial +observers like the mystic Caro, do not hesitate, inconsistently +enough, to attribute it to bodily ill-health. The socialists, who +wished to arouse the expectation that their teaching was practicable, +explained it as the foreboding of overthrow in a class, of whom +Hartmann was the representative. But Hartmann believes in socialism +and the new social system, although only as transitional forms. He +is not despairing, not even melancholy. He seems to be the first +philosopher who, quite independently of Christianity, European culture +and idealism, tries to explain the world's progress from the purely +materialistic point of view. He states facts and processes exactly as +they are. From unconscious minerals we have developed into globules +of albumen, acquired conscious nerve-centres and finally brains +with ever-increasing self-consciousness. The more highly organised +the life, the greater the capacity for pain and susceptibility to +impressions. Not till our time did the cosmic brain succeed in arriving +at clear perception and, accordingly, at divining the order of the +world. Hartmann can therefore be regarded as one who arrived at the +highest degree of consciousness, and he will be remembered as the +great unmasker before whose keen gaze the bandages fell away. It is +consequently a mistake to call him "the prophet of despair." Idealists +may feel empty and despairing when confronted by the naked truth, but +the meliorist feels an inexpressible calm. Man will be modest when he +takes the measure of his littleness as an atom of the cosmic dust. +He will no longer build his happiness on a future life, but will be +impelled by pessimism to order the only life he has as well as he can +for himself and for others. He will see how useless it is to lament +over the misery of existence; he will accept pain as a fact, and +alleviate it as well as he can. Hartmann is a realist, and the title +"pessimist" in its old significance has been fastened on him out of +malice. He shudders at the misery of the world, but does not even call +it misery. He only shows that life is not so great and beautiful as men +like to make out, and pain in his view is not a mere bodily ailment, +but an impelling motive. His is a sound and healthy view of things in +contrast to which socialism may sometimes look like idealism, since it +wishes to remodel society according to its desires, not according to +the possibilities of the case. + +Meanwhile the review article on Hartmann had a quickening effect on +John. There was then a system in the apparent madness of the universe, +and his consciousness had rightly foreboded that the whole scheme of +things was something very insignificant. But a new philosophic system +is not absorbed by a brain in a day. It only left a certain deposit and +gave a keynote to his thoughts. As a theoretical point of view it was +still obscured by his idealistic education, darkened by his inborn and +acquired hatred of the upper class, and his natural tendency to seek +his point of equilibrium somewhere outside himself. Taken on the large +scale, life was meaningless, but if one wanted to live, one had to come +to grips with reality, and adopt an everyday point of view, which alas! +one very readily did. Enormous difficulties stood in the way of earning +a living or making a name. Honour, viewed absolutely, was nothing, but +in relation to the petty circumstances of life it was something great, +and worth striving for. The Philistines did not understand that, and +derived much amusement, when they saw him, pessimist as he was, toiling +after distinctions. They, with their clock-work brains, thought this +inconsistent, since they did not understand that the term "honour" has +two values, an absolute and a "relative." + + +[1] In his pamphlet "The Conscious Will in the World-history" (1903), +Strindberg takes the opposite view to that expressed here. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Growth of a Soul, by August Strindberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROWTH OF A SOUL *** + +***** This file should be named 44107.txt or 44107.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/0/44107/ + +Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org +(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/44107.zip b/old/44107.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..abf8a49 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44107.zip |