Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
a disappointment to the father that his son showed no
inclination for the clerical profession. Though made a
notary at the Royal Consistory, his chief occupation
continued to be the study of Oriental languages, to which he
added that of Latin metrical art. In Latin verse he soon
reached such perfection that he was considered to rank
with Buchanan, the most famous Latin poet of the day.
Having obtained an annual grant of 300 Thaler, he
continued his researches at Utrecht and Leyden; but his
great wish to write a Commentary on the whole Talmud,
an undertaking which he had proposed to the Bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield, and for which he hoped to
obtain the necessary funds in England, remained unfulfilled,
as the Bishop could not promise him any fixed sum.
This, of course, was a blow to the ardent scholar: his
appointment as “Translator Regni ” at Stockholm could
only partly console him. In the meantime he continued
writing Latin verses, and translated amongst other writings
Scriver’s devotional exercises. All his life he had been
a very absent-minded and untidy man; the older he
grew, the stranger his eccentricities became. No office
which required regularity and self-discipline could hold
him long. He was Secretary here and Secretary there,
but one fine day he would throw it all up and disappear.
At last we find him in England, the land of his hopes.
The weakness of his own mind and body shattered
them all. The only friend he found in London, a
Dr Morton, rendered him the Samaritan service of
procuring him a bed in a hospital. There he died in
*735-
One episode in the life of this nomad-scholar deserves
to be mentioned. In the year 1710 he published some
Latin verses in which he called Charles XII. “Magnæ
Scandinavian Imperator.” This so annoyed Denmark that
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
