The secret of Sweden’s success in solving the stupendous conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, between reaction and progress, rested in the fact that this little country was eminently ready to wage a war for religious liberty. It had been more perfectly rejuvenated by the spirit of Protestantism than had, at the time, any other country. The mediæval state, completed later in Sweden than on the continent, also gave way there sooner and more completely than elsewhere. The yeomanry, never fully suppressed, had preserved its old spirit of independence, fostered and guided by patriotic leaders of the nobility, with or without a crown. The population was suffering, hungering, bleeding, but free, indomitable, and devoted to its once more hereditary kings of Swedish birth and to their new faith, which had made strong in them their old individuality of views and life. When Gustavus Adolphus ascended the throne, the country was in the greatest peril and distress, and had many a lesson to learn before entering the universal conflict of the Thirty Years’ War. Gustavus Adolphus was born, Dec. 9, 1594, at the castle of Stockholm. When six years old, he followed his father to devastated Finland, returning through Norrland, for the settlement and future of which territory great plans were made. At ten, he was ordered to be present at the deliberations of the state council; at thirteen, he received petitions and complaints, rectifying wrongs and soothing suffering. His father said of him, in speaking of the fulfilment of great works, placing his hand on the curly blond head: “_Ille faciet._” The prince received a severe and carefully supervised education, led by Johan Skytte. He acquired knowledge of a considerable number of languages, probably all in a mechanical way, except the Swedish and German, with both of which he was made equally and thoroughly familiar, speaking and writing the latter language with greater ease and perfection than the emperor Ferdinand, or Maximilian of Bavaria. In the sciences of economics and war he was well read, himself inaugurating novel theories in both. In him the best traits of the Vasa dynasty were admirably blended and enlarged. He possessed an acute intellect, far-reaching views of almost prophetic discernment, a mastery and patience in detail, and an indomitable strength of will. To the ceaseless and painstaking care of the welfare of his subjects, characteristic of his father and grandfather, were in him added a harmony of endowment and a gentleness of disposition which made him their superior. In him the turbulent blood of the Vasas was held in noble self-restraint. After his rare outbursts of passion, he made good his faults in a most royal manner. His youth was not without the temptations which beset all richly endowed natures, but they were vanquished as he grew up to the importance of his grand mission. He stood in the paternal attitude to his people so becoming to his grandfather, but lacked the fiery