Though Sweden, partly in consequence of her scanty population, and the consequent limited sale of books in that country, and partly from the propensity of her writers to imitate the French, which has prevented that originality in her poets and historians that is requisite for acquiring much eminence--though Sweden, for these reasons, has never reached a very high rank in literature; yet the case has been very different in science. She has produced men of the very first eminence, and has contributed more than her full share in almost every department of science, and in none has she shone with greater lustre than in the department of Chemistry. Even in the latter part of the seventeenth century, before chemistry had, properly speaking, assumed the rank of a science, we find Hierne in Sweden, whose name deserves to be mentioned with respect. Moreover, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Brandt, Scheffer, and Wallerius, had distinguished themselves by their writings. Cronstedt, about the middle of the eighteenth century, may be said to have laid the foundation of systematic mineralogy upon chemical principles, by the publication of his System of Mineralogy. But Bergman is entitled to the merit of being the first person who prosecuted chemistry in Sweden on truly philosophical principles, and raised it to that high estimation to which its importance justly entitles it. Torbern Bergman was born at Catherinberg, in West Gothland, on the 20th of March, 1735. His father, Barthold Bergman, was receiver of the revenues of that district, and his mother, Sara Hägg, the daughter of a Gotheborg merchant. A receiver of the revenues was at that time, in Sweden, a post both disagreeable and hazardous. The creatures of a party which had had the ascendancy in one diet, they were exposed to the persecution of the diet next following, in which an opposite party usually had the predominance. This circumstance induced Bergman to advise his son to turn his attention to the professions of law or divinity, which were at that time the most lucrative in Sweden. After having spent the usual time at school, and acquired those branches of learning commonly taught in Sweden, in the public schools and academies to which Bergman was sent, he went to the University of Upsala, in the autumn of 1752, where he was placed under the guidance of a relation, whose province it was to superintend his studies, and direct them to those pursuits that were likely to lead young Bergman to wealth and distinction. Our young student showed at once a decided predilection for mathematics, and those branches of physics which were connected with mathematics, or depended upon them. But these were precisely the branches of study which his relation was anxious to prevent his indulging in. Bergman attempted at once to indulge his own inclination, and to gratify the wishes of his relation. This obliged him to study with a degree of ardour and perseverance which has few examples.