establish, composed, as it is, of members so respectable? I esteem it no trivial glory, that, under my reign, so many noblemen of distinction, and men of eminence in the world of letters, have concurred in an enterprise, which promises to reflect so much honour on the Swedish language, and from which they will one day derive immortal fame. What may not the present age expect from an institution, illuminated in its origin by such a constellation of genius? But how much more important is the judgment of posterity? that posterity for whom you are to exert your talents; who, neither dazzled by the false glare of partial commendation, nor deceived by the cloud of contemporary censure, will see, with a distinguishing eye, the real value of each man's abilities; of that posterity, who, in the annals of the academy, will perceive the same names, which the records of the kingdom have consigned to the page of history; who will observe, that the first[1] of the Swedish senators, the first among the founders of a learned society, is also the first member of this academy—a place which he occupies not only as an admirer of the liberal arts, but as a most accurate judge of every thing connected with taste and polite literature.
Next to him may justly be mentioned, as a deserving member of a learned society, a senator[2] now absent, who, animated in the career of
- ↑ The senator Count Hopken, one of the first founders of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm in 1739, and first member of that of the Belles Lettres when instituted in 1753.
- ↑ The senator Count C. F. Scheffer.
