It does not occur to me to see in this attempt to symbolize the origin of the august lady anything more or less than a well-planned, well-expressed compliment. But from the lips of Tegnér it is interesting; for to him this marriage between the son of the general of the Revolution and the daughter of ancient royalty had a profound significance. At the time when he made this speech, he was engaged in writing a poem designed to end with a similar reconciliatory union, in the long-delayed marriage between the son of a peasant, Fridthjof --who, through his deeds of valor, had fought his way up to equal rank with the most renowned of heroes--and the king's daughter, Ingeborg, who traced her origin to the gods of Valhal, and whose brothers, in their princely arrogance, had denied Fridthjof her hand. In "Fridthjof's Saga," the same two principles--that of personal merit and that of the nobility of birth--form the two poles through which passes the axis of the poem. Even in the second canto of this poem, where the friendship between King Bele and Thorstein, Viking's son, is described, the ancient yeoman says:-- "Obey the king. With force and skill Shall one the sceptre sway."[8] and the aged king on the other hand tells of that "Warrior-might which always more Was prized than royal birth."[9] In the last canto the aged priest of Balder exclaims:-- "Thou hatest Bele's sons! but wherefore hate them? Forsooth, because that to a yeoman's child They would not give their sister,--she, descended From Seming's blood, th' illustrious Odin's offspring! Yes, sprung from Valhal's throne is Bele's race,-- Bright genealogy, just source of pride! But birth is chance, is fortune, thou observest, And cannot be a merit. Know, my son, That man still boasts of fortune, not of merit. Say! is't not gen'rous gods who were the givers, Should any noble quality adorn us? With haughty pride thou art thyself inflamed At all thy hero exploits, all thy fierce-nerv'd Resistless strength; but did'st thou give thyself This force?'"[10] The speech on Oscar's wedding-day, and the final chord in "Fridthjof's Saga," mark an epoch in the career of the poet, when his political views of life had found repose in a fitful harmony, for which he had struggled with unwearied persistence. A few years earlier and the Revolutionary fermentation was seething with passionate impatience within his breast; a few years later and his displeasure at the early stages of Swedish liberalism drove him to the opposite extreme; but on the dividing line that separated these two currents, there was vouchsafed to him a bright and inspired moment, with a free poetic horizon on either side. VIII.