religious, with a strong leaning toward pietism, and illness has still
further developed this inborn tendency. He, on the other hand, was
always gay, light-hearted, fond of merriment, and given to many
pleasures and pursuits which his spouse could only look upon as far
too worldly.

Duke Oscar Frederick, as he was known in those early days, found
himself heir to the throne after death had unexpectedly removed the
two claimants with rights prior to his own. And on the succession of
his eldest brother, he became the Crown Prince. It was a delicate
position which imposed on him a reserve foreign to his nature. As it
contrasted sharply with the unceremonious jollity of his brother, King
Charles, he came by degrees to be regarded by those ignorant of his
true character with a distrust bordering on dislike. Thus, when the
succession fell to him in 1872, he found himself little understood and
less loved. It took him years to overcome the prejudice. Perhaps it
was his sanction of the impeachment proceedings by the Norwegian
Radicals against the retiring Conservative ministry which, in the
early '80's, first served to turn the trend of public opinion in his
favor, both in Sweden and Norway. That act was one of the many by
which he showed his ability to submit his own inclinations to the
demands of the people without becoming a mere tool in the hands of
any one political party. About the same time he succeeded in bringing
about a deeply needed and by himself long-cherished reform of the
popular educational system in Sweden. Previously,--it was, in fact,
his first important step after his ascension to the throne,--he had on
his own initiative proclaimed full freedom of worship for persons not
belonging to the established church.

A Scandinavianism of the purely sentimental kind,--the kind that