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LITERATURE OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH.

influence upon his contemporaries and sowed in many souls the seeds of true religion.[1]

Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785-1872) was from 1813 until a few years before his death professor of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and exercised in the capacity of instructor a great influence on the successive generations of students. He accomplished more as a teacher than as an author, though his numerous philosophical works were not without influence on his contemporaries. The most important of his works are: a dissertation "Om Poesie og Kunst," and the Utopian romance, "Meddelelser af Indholdet af et Skrift fra Aaret 2135 (the contents of a manuscript from the year 2135), in which he gives us in a succinct manner his religious and social ideas. In his philosophy he was essentially influenced by Schelling, and he never rose to the production of an independent system. In Sibbern imagination and feeling overbalanced reflection. His poetical compositions, "Udaf Gabrielis Breve til og fra Hjemmet" and "Efterladte Breve af Gabrielis," are of a more solid character than his philosophical works.

Rasmus Nielsen (born 1809), professor of philosophy, following in Kjerkegaard's footsteps, began in 1849 a struggle against theology as a science, a struggle which he has continued to the present time, maintaining that faith and science, though legitimate contrasts, are absolutely irreconcilable. One of his peculiarities is his effort to obtain a thorough knowledge of the sciences in order to bring them into a definite relation to his philosophical system. Instead of losing himself in abstract metaphysical speculations, he turns to the experimental sciences in order to get the means

  1. S. Kjerkegaard: Om Begrebet Ironi, Copenhagen, 1841. Enten—Eller, Copenhagen, 1843. Stadier paa Livets Vei, Copenhagen, 1845. Afsluttende, uvidenskabelig Efterskrift, Copenhagen, 1846. Indövelse i Christendommen, Copenhagen, 1850. Til Selvprövelse, Copenhagen, 1851. Öieblikket, Copenhagen, 1855. A. Bärthold: Noten zu Sören Kjerkegaards Lebensgeschichte, Halle, 1876. Lessing und die objective Wahrheit aus Sören Kjerkegaards Schriften zusammengestellt, Halle, 1877. Die Bedeutung der æsthetischen Schriften Sören Kjerkegaards, Halle, 1879.