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I cannot, however, pass by in silence “The Christ of the
Bible,” a volume that called forth a lively and protracted
controversy between orthodoxy and independent
research into the scriptural sources of the Christian faith,
and which violently stirred up the learned world of
Sweden. In connection with this work of accomplished
scholarship, may also be mentioned “The Magi of the
Mediæval Time” and “The Pre-existence of Man,” in which
Rydberg showed himself a philosopher rarely excelled
in power of thought and clearness of expression.
Foremost among Rydberg’s works as a novelist may
be ranked “The Last Athenian,” which has been
translated into several languages. In this, on the
substratum of a thorough knowledge of the Hellenic race,
literature, and life, and also of the differences and
shades of opinion within the rising Christianity, he
evinces an admirable capacity for seizing the important
features of an epoch, a keen appreciation of character,
a quick sense of nature, and a vivid imagination, by
means of which his pictures rise as realities before us.
When he takes us to the Athens of fifteen hundred
years ago, we feel ourselves at home in the midst of the
every-day life of this wonderful people, rejoicing in the
sunny sky that hangs over this classic soil, and
breathing with delight the balmy breezes from the
Archipelago. When Bulwer wrote “The Last Days of Pompeii,”
he had at least seen the places he described; but when
writing “The Last Athenian,” Rydberg had not yet set
foot beyond the borders of his own country: yet his
knowledge of the remotest corner of the land he
pictures impresses us with the feeling that he must have
been born in this very land of the distant South.
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