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AI4 FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN;
titled: Monumenta inedita rerum Germanicarum, &c. ; but whether he ¢hanged his mind, _
or fome other caufe prevented him, M. de Weftphalen died without fulfilling his inten-~
tion, and the printed fheets of the fourth volume of the Atlantica are at prefent as rare
as they were fixty years ago.
Many learned men, principally in Germany and Denmark, fuch as Prefchius, Leib-
nitz, Tentzel, Spener, Locfcher, Keifler, Vachrer, Beyer, Dithmar, Meuller, Sperlingius,
and others, have upbraided Rudbeck with being blinded by an ill-founded zeal for the
glory of his country, and attributing to Sweden prerogatives and advantages of which
it was never in pofleflion. Notwith{tanding this cenfure, many of thefe gentlemen have
followed his fteps and profited by hislabours. ‘The author of the obfervation, de incer-
titudine hiftoricé, which was inferted in the additamenta ad obfervationes Hallenfes, book ui.
p- 156, is not more favourable to Rudbeck; and more recently, to wit, in 1745, a
counfellor in. Pomerania, of the name of Hoefer, formed a fimilar defign of refuting our
antiquary, and fpecially demonftrating in a publication, thatvall which the learned Swede
alleges in favour of his own country, is only fuitable to the provinces in the north of
Germany, along the fhores of the Baltic. Iam ignorant whether this book, adyertifed
in our literary newsas ready for the prefs, has ever come tolight; but I am perfuaded
that if it fhould have been publifhed, it will in no degree have injured the work of Rud-
beck. The celebrated Sperlingius has gone {till farther, and, on account of the A#laz-
tica, has nearly been prompted to condemn the whole Swedifh nation, as may be feen
by reference to fome of his letters to Gi/b. Cuper, printed in the fourth volume of Jo.
Poleni Thefaurus novus antiquitatum, Venet. 1737, in folio.
Two celebrated French writers have examined with more judgment and equity the
work of Mr. Rudbeck. The firft, Mr. Freret,a member of the Royal Academy of In-
{criptions and Belles Lettres, fays: ‘It muft be ‘allowed that Rudbeck frequently goes too.
far through an ambition of rendering his country illuftrious ; neverthelels, not all his
conjectures are on this account undeferving ; fome of them are certainly i ingenious, and
fome far from improbable.” See the Tranfactions of the Academy alluded to,
book ix. p. 340, of the Amfterdam edition. The fecond is the Abbé Banier; he
‘thinks “ that few will follow the fyftem of Rudbeck; a fyftem which after all, addet
he, is fo ftrongly fupported by conjecture, that notwithitanding one may be of a different
way of thinking from the author, one cannot yet refufe him the honour of having eme"
ployed the moft profound erudition for the purpofe of glorifying his country.” This
opinion is given in les Melanges d’ Hiftoire & de Literature, by SS de Vigneul Marville,
book i. p. 5, and following pages; Paris edition,t725, 12mo.: and I attribute it not
to Vigneul Marville, or as that author was properly called, Ds Bondawentine d’ Argonne,
but to the Abbé Banier, on account of the third volume of Jes Melanges being almoft
wholly written by that learned man, according to the Abbe d’ AES Nouveaux Me-
moires a’ Hiftoire, &c. book i. p. 312.
I fhall not repeat the praife which the Ailantiea of Rudbeck has acquired i in Sweden 5
let it fuffice to obferve, that our moft modern hiftorians have given it attention. Birouk
ner is of opinion: cuivis diligenti et frugi antiquario omnind convenire diurnd noclurnéque
verfare mant incomparabilis hujus viri Atlanticam. Mr. Wilde, a competent judge,
efteemed it highly, notwithftanding he differed from him occafionally, particularly with
refpect to ancient geography. M. Dalin, even although he varies {till ‘more than
Mr. Wilde in opinion from Rudbeck, and notwithftanding he follows a fy{tem of chro-
nology perfectly oppofite, yet allows that he throws great licht on different points of hif-,
tory in the early ages, and that none can read the Atlantica without admiration of the
profound genius of the author, his prodigious learning, and keen penetration.
Olaus
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