illustration, in a compact form, [1757] of the normal play of
forces and counter-forces. Since the day of Christina, as we saw,
though there have been many evidences of passive unbelief, active
rationalism has been little known in her kingdom down till modern
times, Sweden as a whole having been little touched by the great
ferment of the eighteenth century. The French Revolution, however,
stirred the waters there as elsewhere. Tegnér, the poet-bishop,
author of the once-famous Frithiof's Saga, was notable in his day
for a determined rejection of the evangelical doctrine of salvation;
and his letters contain much criticism of the ruling system. But the
first recognizable champion of freethought in Sweden is the thinker
and historian E. G. Geijer (d. 1847), whose history of his native
land is one of the best European performances of his generation. In
1820 he was prosecuted for his attack upon the dogmas of the Trinity
and redemption--long the special themes of discussion in Sweden--in
his book Thorild; but was acquitted by the jury. Thenceforth Sweden
follows the general development of Europe. In 1841 Strauss's Leben
Jesu was translated in Swedish, and wrought its usual effect. On the
popular side the poet Wilhelm von Braun carried on an anti-Biblical
warfare; and a blacksmith in a provincial town contrived to
print in 1850 a translation of Paine's Age of Reason. Once more
the spirit of persecution blazed forth, and he was prosecuted and
imprisoned. H. B. Palmaer (d. 1854) was likewise prosecuted for his
satire, The Last Judgment in Cocaigne (Kräkwinkel), with the result
that his defence extended his influence. In the same period the
Stockholm curate Nils Ignell (d. 1864) produced a whole series of
critical pamphlets and a naturalistic History of the Development of
Man, besides supplying a preface to the Swedish translation of Renan's
Vie de Jésus. Meantime translations of the works of Theodore Parker,
by V. Pfeiff and A. F. Akerberg, had a large circulation and a wide
influence; and the courage of the gymnasium rector N. J. Cramer
(d. 1893), author of The Farewell to the Church, gave an edge to
the movement. The partly rationalistic doctrine of Victor Rydberg
(d. 1895) was in comparison uncritical, and was proportionally popular.
On another line the books of Dr. Nils Lilja (d. 1870), written for
working people, created a current of rationalism among the masses;
and in the next generation G. J. Leufstedt maintained it by popular
lectures and by the issue of translations of Colenso, Ingersoll,
Büchner, and Renan. Hjalmar Stromer (d. 1886) did similar platform
work. Meantime the followers of Parker and Rydberg founded in 1877
a monthly review, The Truthseeker, which lasted till 1894, and an
association of "Believers in Reason," closely resembling the British
Ethical Societies of our own day. Among its leading adherents has been
K. P. Arnoldson, the well-known peace advocate. Liberal clerics were
now fairly numerous; Positivism, represented by Dr. Anton Nyström's
General History of Civilization, played its part; and the more radical
freethinking movement, nourished by new translations, became specially
active, with the usual effect on orthodox feeling. August Strindberg,
author and lecturer, was prosecuted in 1884 on a charge of ridiculing
the eucharist, but was declared not guilty. The strenuous Victor
Lennstrand, lecturer and journalist, prosecuted in 1888 and later
for his anti-Christian propaganda, was twice fined and imprisoned,
with the result of extending his influence and discrediting his
opponents. "Utilitarian Associations," created by his activity,
were set up in many parts of the country; and his movement survives
his death.