Page:Selected Orations Swedish Academy 1792.djvu/18

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18
AN ORATION BY GUSTAVUS III.

have adorned the Swedish language; by becoming a member of this society, certainly confers upon it more honour than he receives.

The interest of the academy could not have been better consulted, than by intrusting it to his care, who is the sacred depository[1] of my future hope, and that of the nation; whose agreeable manner of communicating knowledge, whose extensive learning, and acquaintance with elegant literature, have gained him the esteem of foreigners, and have introduced him to that high confidential station which he now occupies.

To write history with truth and perspicuity, requires courage as well as learning; to render it elegant and useful, requires intelligence, philosophy, and taste. How extensive then are the claims of that member,<ref<Mr. de Botin, Counsellor to the Exchequer; author os a work entitled A Sketch of the History of the Swedish Nation; and of another On the Swedish Language, considered with regard to Conversation and Writing.</ref> and what assistance may we not expect from his superior talents, who has already so far promoted the object for which the academy is instituted?

On this occasion, it is impossible to forget those two poets; of whom, the one[2] has, with so much elegance, introduced the heroes of Homer and Euripides on the Swedish stage, and who has expressed, with such

  1. Mr. de Rosenstein, Counsellor to the Grand Council of the Royal Chancery, tutor to the Prince Royal.
  2. Mr. Adlerbeth, Secretary to the King; author of the Tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis, with choruses, performed in 1776; and of the Opera of Cora and Alonzo, represented in 1782.
exquisite