Soren Kierkegaard

of ‘still life’ in which people engaged in aesthetic pursuits, playing at ‘old
Denmark’ and ‘grand old flag.’ ”
Lehmann was no enemy of the people, but he understood that, deep
down, this patriotic self-aggrandizement, “this hullabaloo about Dan-
ishness,” was associated with a national sense of inferiority that was the
parodic opposite of true patriotism. The people needed fresh air if they
were to be freed from philistinism and bilious repression, and this was where
a critical press could help. Despite the cautious concealment demanded by
the times, Lehmann made the optimistic assertion that “we are at the dawn
of a new era in the life and the freedom of the people.”
Six days later, on February 18, 1836, Kierkegaard picked up where Leh-
mann left off. His article “The Morning Observations inKjøbenhavnsposten,
no. 43” appeared inFlyveposten, J. L. Heiberg, editor. This was the most
elegant aesthetic journal of the day, and notwithstanding its rather modest
circulation it was very important in shaping public opinion. From the very
beginning,Flyveposten’s mission was to increase interest in the art of drama,
and Heiberg therefore frequently discussed and reviewed the productions
of the Royal Theater. Although this could have givenFlyvepostena rather
technical character, burdening his readers with learned dissertations lay far
from Heiberg’s journalistic sensibilities. On the contrary, Heiberg’s inten-
tion was to entertain, with the hope that Copenhagen would become a
lively capital like Paris. Among the one hundred forty or so subscribers on a
subscription list dating from 1834 were the young Crown Prince Christian;
Royal Confessor Jakob Peter Mynster; physicist Hans Christian Ørsted and
his brother Anders Sandøe Ørsted, a jurist and future prime minister; the
young August Bournonville, who called himself a dancer and would even-
tually become Denmark’s greatest choreographer; and a certain Councillor
of Justice Terkild Olsen, who had a daughter by the name of Regine. In
addition to all these intellectuals the list of subscribers included Copenhagen
businessmen, shopkeepers and silk merchants, various cafe ́s, and the famous
Danish chocolate manufacturer Kehlet, who kept the journal in his shop
for the delectation of his sweet-toothed customers.Flyveposten, likeThe
Corsairin later years, was one of those journals which everyone wanted to
be able to talk about. It was spicy and interesting; eloquent authors played
peekaboo with one another and loved to mystify curious readers by signing
their contributions with pseudonyms or cryptic symbols. Heiberg himself
published under the symbol “_,” but the merriment took on such propor-
tions that writers who wished to remain incognito eventually used u pall
the uppercase and lowercase letters in both the Latin and Greek alphabets,
and people finally had to resort to using numbers.