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12
I. TH15 NATURAL RESOURCES OF SWEDEN.
forefront in every domain, in the intense rivalry among representatives
of ail the civilized races of the earth.
The Swedes are quite disposed to criticise their own nation severely, and
to show how, in material achievements, it has not attained to such a height
as, e. g., the Germans, the French, or the English. The comparison is
misleading; place a corresponding number of any of these in a land with the
natural resources of Sweden, and the result will in all probability be no
better than that which has been obtained in Sweden. Never in the days
known to history has this land attracted the migratoring peoples. The
only race so far as is known, that ever betook itself to Sweden in any
number, from a still poorer land, was the Finns, in beginning of the
17th century.
It may, therefore, be briefly asserted that the Swedish people have ably
administered that land in which they first settled, and that they have
adopted themselves unusually well to the conditions of nature.
Taking one step further, and enquiring how natural conditions mirror
themselves in the people’s vigour one easily quits the sure ground of
science and swings out into the broad, but insecure, realms of fancy. The
deepest psychology of mankind is so involved, that the reaction of nature
on it has hitherto escaped real scientific analysis. The only thing
gained is conjecture rather than knowledge.
The immense forests where villages have nestled, as in a hole hewn
out of them, and remote from each other, have indelibly stamped the
Swedish character. Many of its weaknesses, where the question is one of
economic rivalry, are perhaps a reflection of the solitary contemplative
life of the forest-dweller; but so are also, possibly, some of its best qualities,
the strong, calm acuteness of the leading sons of Sweden. The climate,
with its cool summers and not too cold winters, has conceivably been among
the most important of those natural factors which, during centuries, have
built up the race, physically and intellectually sound, which now occupies
Sweden; and this — perhaps with greater justice than the Swedes
themselves are ready to acknowledge — is not infrequently pointed to by
foreigners as the country’s greatest natural wealth.
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