Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/326

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LITERATURE OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH.

in any other country. But Norway has also achieved great things in other fields. A most distinguished naturalist was Christopher Hansteen (1784—1873), whose investigations concerning the earth's magnetism have carried his name far beyond the borders of his own country. He also did much for the advancement of the mathematical sciences. Sjurd Aamundsen Sexe (born 1805), Michael Sars (1805-69), Mathias Numsen Blytt (1789-1862), have all achieved splendid results in various departments of natural science. Of important writers on philosophy Norway can only boast Niels Treschow (1751-1833), and Maecus Monrad (born 1816), of whom the latter belongs to Hegel's school, and whose numerous works in various branches of philosophy have by their clear and logical method given considerable impulse to accurate thought. The most prominent theologians of the old school are Stener Johan Steneesen (1789-1838), and Wilhelm Andreas Wexels (1797-1866), while the modern tendency is represented by Cael Poul Caspaei (born 1814). Caspari was born in Anhalt Dessau, is of Jew- ish extraction, and was baptized in 1838. In 1848 he was appointed professor in Christiania, and has since acquired a European reputation by his brilliant and scholarly literary works.

Eilert Sundt (1817-1875) occupies a peculiar position in Norwegian literature. The results of his researches in regard to a great number of social and economical questions—in regard to the "Fante Folk" (a kind of Norwegian gypsies), in regard to the habits and position of the working classes, in regard to public morality, etc., etc,—he has embodied in a series of works, which are chiefly statistic in their character, but the statistics are used in an unusually entertaining manner. He was one of the most zealous members of the society for popular education, and edited for many years the Norwegian periodical "Folkevennen," published