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COUNT HÖPKEN. 631
year senator or councillor of state, i. e. a member of the Swedish
executive council. Of him it was said, that he rose in the morning
a mere secretary, at noon he became marshal of the court, and at
night-fall he was made a senator. In 1752, he was raised to the
post of President of the Court of Chancery, which is equivalent
to being the Prime Minister of Sweden; this office he resigned, or
rather was compelled to resign, in 1761. In 1753, he proposed the
plan of the Swedish Academy of Belles Lettres ( Vitterhets-Academien ),
of which he was made one of the first directors. In 1760, he was
appointed Chancellor of the University of Upsal, which office he
resigned in 1764; and in 1773 he was again appointed senator or
councillor of state (Riksrådet), and continued in that office until
1780, when the infirmities of old age compelled him to retire from
all active duties.
Count von Höpken was considered one of the finest Swedish
writers. The " Swedish Biographical Lexicon ” says concerning him ,
" It was especially the power of his thought, the force of his expression,
and the purity of his language, which were admired in this statesman.
But although he, the Swedish Tacitus, in the capacity of author,
had fairly reached his Roman model in the pith and force of his
style, and in his grand mode of expressing himself, yet his character
was not marked by the same freedom and decision which distinguished
the Roman. There was a contrast or contradiction between his
literary and his personal character; and the Swedish Prime Minister
lacked the necessary courage and decision, which would have enabled
him either to come out victoriously from fierce storms or to have
succumbed in an illustrious manner." Count Höpken’s biographer
alludes here to his dilatory and irresolute way of shaping the policy
of Sweden during the “Seven Years’ War," when the Council of
State were equally divided as to the policy to be pursued by Sweden,
and when von Höpken, instead of manfully meeting this difficulty,
absented himself from Stockholm , leaving it to his colleagues to
weather the storm and come to a decision as best they could .*
Count Tessin said concerning him , in the Diet of 1760, " Count von
Höpken’s great talents are quite insufficient for our present emergency ;
and are of no more use than if an Axel Oxenstierna should rise
from his grave. He is a dignified speaker, he writes better than
any one in the country, is quick in finding expedients in all unforeseen
matters — yet what is the use of all this ?” The Swedish historian
Geyer describes him thus: “He was more profound than Tessin ,
* See on this subject Documents 195 and 196, containing Swedenborg’s views of this affair ,
which are slightly different from the above version, which is that of the editor of the
" Swedish Biographical Dictionary ."
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