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terary beauties as the Swedish, have maintained it among the foremost of poetical productions of its kind.
A correct English translation, therefore, is fraught with difficulties which but few persons can appreciate. It has been my aim to reproduce the poem in the original meter, with the rhymes in their proper places. Of course, care has been taken to preserve the sense, and even the _idioms_ of the original. How far I have been successful it is hardly for me to say. As it is, I give it to the reading public.
The poem has undoubted merits in the original. If the merits are concealed in the translation, the fault is mine.
- W. ALMQVIST.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
Gathered from the files in the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
Johan Olof Wallin, (pronounced Valleen), the author of the "ANGEL OF DEATH," was a native of Sweden, and was born in the parish of Stora Tuna, in the province of Dalarne (Dalecarlia), October 15, 1779. His father was a military man, and some time after Johan's birth became captain of the Dalecarlia regiment. The future poet and preacher was one of a large family, much larger than accorded well with the somewhat restricted means of the captain of a regiment.
At a very early age, young Johan evinced a taste for books, and for study generally; but the circumstances of his family were not such as to encourage the hope of an academic career. As has often happened in such circumstances, the talents of the boy commanded attention; and he was not left without a good primary education. At the early age of thirteen he began to help himself; and, by taking part in the education of others, he contrived to prolong his own studies, and acquired great proficiency in the classics, especially in Latin. When only seventeen years of age, he made his first public appearance at the Gymnasium of Westerås, and by the delivery of a poetical speech in Latin--a speech which is still preserved and which is remarkable