From The Scottish Review.

THREE FINNISH SCHOLARS.*

Thirty Years' War. Not a few Scottish names are to be found in the land, who got "name and fame" in the same great struggle. Samuel Cockburn, a Scottish colonel in the Polish wars, sleeps here in the cathedral beneath his marble monument.

THE town of Abo, the ancient capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland, on the river Aura, has some things worthy of the attention of the passing traveller. Foremost of these is the ancient cathedral, within which, on the left hand side of the altar, Outside the church, in the open encloshe is shown a memorial window of great ure shaded by trees, we came to a statue, beauty, in which a mother richly appar- the thoughtful attitude of which, as it elled stands holding close to herself, two rests in an academic chair, points to a sons, also in court apparel. The figures later and more peaceful time. It is the recall historical names and events, palpi- effigy of Henrik Gabriel Porthan, protating with passionate life. Eric XIV. of fessor of eloquence in the Finnish univerSweden formed an attachment to a beauti-sity from 1777 to March, 1804. We have ful peasant girl named Karin or Katarina elsewhere said that the Finnish high Monsdotter. Kings usually know few school has filled almost a unique position obstacles to their will in such attachments, in the history of universities, from the and Eric, furious, if not mad by nature, fact that, while successfully feeding the knew less than most men. But he became light of classical culture, it has turned the so passionately attached to the fair young illumination derived from this upon matmaiden, that he resolved, notwithstanding ters connected with the antiquities, the the opposition of the nobles, to make her natural history, the geology, the language, his queen. This purpose he carried out. the folk-poesy, and the wizard lore conShe was solemnly crowned queen, and her nected with the Grand Duchy, as also son Gustavus declared heir to the Swedish upon the practical and economical questhrone; but Eric, being thrown into tions connected with the life and wellprison, mainly at the instigation of his being of its inhabitants. brother, died there with scarcely concealed indications of foul play; and Karin Monsdotter came over to Finland to dree out her widowhood. She received here as her widow's portion the king's garth of Linksiala. Her eldest son had to go into banishment, where he died; the two younger languished in their long imprisonment with their mother, and passed away; a daughter, Sigrid, alone remained. Married to Henry Classon, otherwise Tott, she became the mother of Ake Tott, Gustaf Adolf's famous field-marshal, whose imposing monument is also found in Abo Cathedral — rich in memorials of the

1.

We propose, in what follows, to give an account of the lives and the life-work of three of the most eminent typical men, who have named the Finnish university their Alma Mater, and whose lives were spent in making use of that power which university culture had given them to glorify and enrich the life of their fatherland. Not that they were the men of greatest genius or most varied and original power the Grand Duchy has produced. There are others, such as Runeberg the poet, who is now accepted not only as the greatest poetical genius of Finland, but also of the sister country Sweden. But they are the men who have become typical, not only

Henrik Gabriel Porthan; Tecknad of Gabriel by the possession of great original power, Rein, Helsingfors, 1864.

2. H. G. Porthan's Bref till M. Calonius, Helsingfors, 1866.

3. Nordiska Resor och Forskningar af M. A. Castrin, Helsingfors, 1870.

Band 1, 2. Reseminnen and Reseberättelser. Band

3. Föreläsningar i Finsk Mythologi. 4. Ethnologiska Föreläsningar. 5 and 6. Smärre Afhandlingar och Tillfälliga Uppsatser. Helsingfors, 1870.

4. Elias Lönnrot, Biografi.k Utkast af August

Ahlquist. Helsingfors, 1870.

5. Kalevala, 1862. Kanteletar, etc., etc.

but also by using their powers to the great advantage and exaltation of their country in her historical, literary, and scientific place amongst surrounding peoples. Assuredly the man who, beyond any other, has taken the lead from this point of view; who has been in German parlance the Tonangebender in this direction, was

Henrik Gabriel Porthan.

Born in the interior of the Grand Duchy, I also the author of a variety of economical the son of Sigfrid, clergyman of Wiita- treatises, as also of some treatises on the saari and of Christina Juslenius, youngest topography of Finland. Peter Adrian daughter of the theological professor in the Finnish university, Gabriel Juslenius, he came of people very poor, as regards material wealth, but a good stock with respect to their intellectual gifts and their exertions to promote the welfare of their country.

His father died when Henrik Gabriel was still young, and this would have been indeed an irreparable misfortune, but for his maternal uncle, who took him into his house. After some stay with this gentleman, who was, like his father, a clergyman, he went to reside with another maternal uncle, who was in the legal profession and occupied a position somewhat analogous to that of our Scottish sheriff-substitute. This gentleman pressed forward the young Porthan's education, so that in 1754 in his fifteenth year he was able to enter the Finnish university. The Finnish youth would seem to have emulated our Scottish youth in the early age, when they became members of the university.

Gadd, another professor in the arts fac ulty, labored in the same direction; while the professor of mathematics and physics, Jacob Gadolin, carried forward trigonometrical measurements in the Grand Duchy, and determined more accurately the geographical relations of the country. Another young man of science, Samuel Chydenius, carried forward measures to deepen the navigation of rivers. This widespread activity must have done much to stir the mind of Porthan and give his spirit that peculiarly mixed theoretical and practical direction, which it afterwards took. Porthan gave himself to the study of the classical literature and philosophy. In the last, he adopted Lockian rather than Leibnitzo-Wolffian views, which were then very current on the Continent; and showed the clear, calm, good sense which marked him through life, in avoiding paradoxes and extremes. The leading classical professor was Henrik Hassel, who for a long term of years urged forward with great zeal the study of the Greek and Latin languages, and the culture connected with them. Porthan, one of his more distinguished students, was, after completing his course at the university, elected docent in eloquence, which gave him the opportunity to lecture to the students on Cicero's orations, Virgil and Horace, which lectures soon rendered him very popular. Employed besides in the university li brary, all Porthan's work was marked by the utmost conscientiousness. About this time, his attention was drawn to the traditional literature of Finland, and he was the first to awaken his countrymen to its

Sweden had been previously involved in a great war, from which Finland had specially suffered; and the attention of the leading men in the Grand Duchy was then directed to those practical and economical questions, by which they could hope that prosperity would, in some degree, be restored to their country. The Bishop of Abo and vice-chancellor of the university, Brovallius, was a distinguished naturalist. Mennander, a leading man in the theological faculty, afterwards Archbishop of Upsala, had in the earlier part of his career published a variety of treatises on economical and scientific subjects which brought him into notice as a prac-importance, and to give that direction to tical worker for the advancement of his country. The only medical professor, John Leche, labored with great zeal to establish a dissecting room, a chemical laboratory and a botanical garden, in connection with the university. In the philosophical or arts faculty to which Porthan continued to belong during the whole of his academical career, one of the leading teachers was Peter Kalm, a distinguished disciple of the great Linnæus, who was

university studies in Finland which seems to mark it, as we have seen, above every other land, the application of the light of classical culture to the native and traditional literature and antiquities of the Grand Duchy. Attention had been awakened about this time to such studies in other parts of Europe. In Scotland, the somewhat turgid poems of Ossian by Macpherson, had attracted attention on the Continent; in England, Bishop Percy

points connected with the history of his native country were treated by him; and we have the right to say, that the ideal direction to which we have called attention, the careful study of traditional mythology and literature and history, in the light derived from classical study and culture, was mainly initiated by Porthan, and that so far as it has been carried out, it has been carried out in his spirit.

In such circumstances it was natural that Porthan should think of the ancient songs of the Finnish people, gather them together, and call the attention of his countrymen to their value and beauty. His The position which Porthan held as collection of them appeared in five parts, docent for some twelve or fifteen years, is of which the last was issued in 1778, and one which well deserves consideration. fully accomplished the object which he The docentship is the first step in the adhad in view, to wit, to awaken the atten- vancement from student to professor, and tion of the Finnish people to these native differs but little from the next grade of flowers of poesy, which, like the wild flow- lector or reader, an office nominally reers of the country, had bloomed amid the tained in the English universities. In dark forests, and on the desert heaths of those days, and even to a much later time, their northern land. A subsequent edi- the docent received no salary, and in the tion was projected in Sweden, but was few academical offices, there was scarcely never completed, and it scarcely lay in the much hope for the future. Still, the office nature of things that it should. It was was of great practical importance. It enough for him, however, to call the atten- brought round the ordinary professors a tion of the rising talent amongst the youth staff or school of earnest young men, of the Grand Duchy, to this mine, hitherto eagerly bent upon the furtherance of the unworked, and the end was fully attained. science they represented, and it is not too Two works appeared some years later by much to say that the lack of the docentdifferent authors: one, on the supersti- ship, the lectorship, and the extraordinary tions of Finland; the second, a Finnish professorate is that which reduces our mythological lexicon, which brought for- Scottish universities to the impotent barward the whole circle of native traditional | renness they manifest in the fields of scithought and literature. Both of these authors fully recognized the service done by Porthan in bringing the subject before the Finnish people. In his post of librarian, Porthan also did good service to the Finnish university. He not only brought the stock of literature there accumulated into the best and most available condition, but he made unwearied efforts, and with no smaller amount of success, to increase it. On the death of Professor Hassel in 1779, he was chosen to succeed him, and remained in this post, as professor of eloquence, in reality of classical literature and rhetoric, until his death. His projected history of Finland he did not complete, but left the materials to be wrought up by others. The earlier history had mainly engaged his attention, and to the present day little has been added to his A number of interesting

researches.

entific criticism and research. We have said elsewhere that the power and success of the German professor lies in the fact that he is a working specialist, actively engaged in the solution of the problems of the science which he professes, and the student is literally an apprentice to him as specialist for a certain term of years. The fruitfulness of the Continental universities in large measure depends upon this. But the existence of the docent, the lector, or the extraordinary professor by the side of the ordinary professor really establishes a school of research, in which a select number of the best students are actively engaged in checking the results reached by each other and the ordinary professor; while at the same time they are undergoing the very best training for filling the highest posts in the university itself. No doubt the self-contradictory

position of the Scottish universities, as | his activity as docent. Besides the small jumbles of the university, the gymnasium, fees he received as docent, he was emand the elementary school, has a good deal ployed as amanuensis and also in the to do with their low position as schools of science; and by science we do not mean merely physical studies, as seems to be too much taken for granted in Great Britain, but grammatical, mathematical, philological and theological science.

library; while a number of his fellowworkers set up an educational institution in the town of Abo. He also felt the necessity for a literary organ for himself and his fellow-workers. Besides the academical publications, he established a semiscientific newspaper, Aurora, and conducted it for many years.

The lack of an academical literature is another cause of this barrenness and impotence. In this respect, as well as in On his appointment as ordinary prosome others, the English universities are fessor in 1779 to succeed Professor Hassel, little better off, and this accounts for the he was able to carry out what is now proincreasingly poor figure which British vided for by a special university fund. scholars are making in assemblages of He made a journey into central Europe Continental Gelehrten, such as the Orien- to increase his experience and proficiency, tal Congress. A professor or academical and visited Hamburg, Göttingen, Kassell, worker cannot be a working specialist, Gotha, Erfurt, Leipsic, Jena, Wittenberg, without a literary organ, to which he has Halle, Berlin, Greifswald and Copenhagen. access in order to publish the results of During this journey, besides many others, his work. On the Continent this is pro- he made the acquaintance of Heyne, vided by the many technical journals or Gatterer, and particularly the historian collection of treatises published either by Schlözer, to whose journal he supplied a the learned societies or by the universities mass of scientific materials concerning themselves. The multitudinous weekly, Finland. This was indeed the beginning monthly, quarterly, or yearly publications of an extensive literary and historical cor in Germany in classical criticism, philology, theology, and science of every kind, afford to the working specialist the means of publishing his researches; and besides a really extensive literature is published by the universities themselves. The Russian universities, even the more insignificant, issue such acta or collections of treatises. The Finnish Literary Society, with its publications and its printing-press, has rendered the greatest services to Finnish students; while in Sweden and Denmark, yearly collections of treatises are issued by Lund and Upsala, and also by Christiania and Copenhagen. Such journals or treatises are an absolute necessity, and their non-existence in Great Britain, so far as the universities are concerned, is both a cause and an indication of the scientific barrenness which prevails. If a purely theological journal exists at the present time, it is only a very little one; the Classical Review is smaller still, yet we see from the report of the society for the promotion of Hellenic studies for 1889, that American scholars are to be invited to join in it; and it may be hoped that with the two hemispheres room may also be found for Scotland. Where working specialists are to be found in Britain, such as the late Professor Wright of Cambridge, they contribute for the most part to Continental journals.

After this digression, which we hope is not unprofitable, we return to Porthan and

respondence, not only with Germany, but also with Denmark; particularly with such writers as Nyerup and Suhm. In Sweden our professor was sufficiently well known already. On his return the experience he had gained was turned with energy to the working up of his own special Fach. Latin literature, in prose and verse, was expounded as became the special work of his chair, as a chair of eloquence in its æsthetic aspects, so as to contribute to the formation of a classic style, both in poetry and prose. Cicero's philosophical works furnished rich material for a criticism based on philosophical grounds. Nor were the practical results brought to bear only upon the Latin tongue, which Porthan wrote often with classic eloquence; it was carried into the Swedish, then, more than now, the cultivated language of the Grand Duchy. Nor were Porthan's pupils neglectful of his unwearied efforts for their improvement. In many a manse throughout the land, the Old Roman speech was heard as fellowstudents met one another in after life. Nor was he forgetful of the practical work of the orator and teacher, as about to be exercised in the instruction of the common people. His wide circle of knowledge also found application in private courses on logic, metaphysics, psychology, anthropology, and even natural law, ethics, pedagogics, and encyclopædia. When Kant's new system of philosophy was