rning the life
that is, in contempt for it, and in the consciousness of its privileged
position, by dint of its possession of this doubtful culture. We see
pride strengthened; the healthy curiosity, the desire to ask questions,
killed."

We are apt to console ourselves on this side of the ocean with the idea
that these social problems appertain only to the effete monarchies of
Europe, and have no application with us. But, though I readily admit
that the keenest point of this satire is directed against the small
States which, by the tyranny of the dominant mediocrity, cripple much
that is good and great by denying it the conditions of growth and
development, there is yet a deep and abiding lesson in these two novels
which applies to modern civilization in general, exposing glaring
defects which are no less prevalent here than in the Old World.

Besides being the author of some minor comedies and a full-grown drama
("The Professor"), Kielland has published two more novels, _St. John's
Eve_ (1887) and _Snow_. The latter is particularly directed against
the orthodox Lutheran clergy, of which the Rev. Daniel Juerges is an
excellent specimen. He is, in my opinion, not in the least caricatured;
but portrayed with a conscientious desire to do justice to his
sincerity. Mr. Juerges is a worthy type of the Norwegian country pope,
proud and secure in the feeling of his divine authority, passionately
hostile to "the age," because he believes it to be hostile to Christ;
intolerant of dissent; a guide and ruler of men, a shepherd of the
people. The only trouble in Norway, as elsewhere, is that the people
will no longer consent to be shepherded. They refuse to be guided and
ruled. They rebel against spiritual and secular authority, and follow
no longer the bell-wether with the timid gregariousness of servility and
irresolution. To bring the new age into the parsonage of the reverend
obscurantist in the shape of a young girl--the _fiancee_ of the pastor's
son--was an interesting experiment which gives occasion for strong
scenes and, at last, for a drawn battle between the old and the new. The
new, though not acknowledging itself to be beaten, takes to its heels,
and flees in the stormy night through wind and snow. But the snow is
moist and heavy; it is beginning to thaw. There is a vague presentiment
of spring in the air.

This note of promise and suspense with which the book ends is meant to
be symbolic. From Kielland's point of vie