Happy 213th birthday to S.K.

From a recollection by his friend and distant cousin, the philosophy professor Hans Brøchner:

In those days [the 1840s], I occasionally saw S.K. on horseback. He had learned to ride in order to get some exercise and to make short outings without having to depend on coachmen and so forth. He did not cut a particularly good figure on a horse. His posture revealed his lack of confidence about being able to do much to control the horse should it take it into its head to rebel. He sat on the horse stiffly and gave the impression that he was constantly recalling the riding master’s instructions. He can hardly have had much freedom to pursue his thoughts and fantasies on horseback. He soon gave up this sport and preferred to take a carriage when he wanted to visit his favorite spots in the forests around Copenhagen. In the years of his most intense literary activity, these excursions were one of the means he employed to keep fresh and to bring on the mood required for production.