ly a woman's
romantic notion of self-sacrifice.

_Mrs. Linden_: Have you ever found me romantic?

_Krogstad_: Would you really--? Tell me, do you know my past?

_Mrs. Linden_: Yes.

_Krogstad_: And do you know what people say of me?

_Mrs. Linden_: Didn't you say just now that with me you could
have been another man?

_Krogstad_: I am sure of it.

_Mrs. Linden_: Is it too late?

_Krogstad_: Christina, do you know what you are doing? Yes, you
do; I see it in your face. Have you the courage--?

_Mrs. Linden_: I need someone to tend, and your children need a
mother. You need me, and I--I need you. Nils, I believe in your
better self. With you I fear nothing.

Ibsen's hopes of Enfranchised Women.

Again, we are not told if Mrs. Linden's experiment is successful; but
Ibsen certainly gives no hint that she is likely to fail. This was in
1879. In 1885 Ibsen paid a visit to Norway and made a speech to some
workingmen at Drontheim, in which this passage occurred:--

"Democracy by itself cannot solve the social question. We must
introduce an aristocratic element into our life. I am not
referring, of course, to an aristocracy of birth, or of purse, or
even of intellect. I mean an aristocracy of character, of will,
of mind. That alone can make us free. From two classes will this
aristocracy I desire come to us--_from our women and our
workmen_. The social revolution, now preparing in Europe, is
chiefly concerned with the future of the workers and the women.
On this I set all my hopes and expectations...."

I think it would be easy to multiply instances showing that, though
Ibsen may hold that no man can save his brother's soul, he does not
extend this disability to women, but hopes and believes, on the
contrary, that women will redeem mankind. On men he builds little
hope. To speak roughly, men are all in Peer Gynt's case, or Torvald
Helmer's. They are swathed in timid conventions, blindfolded with
selfishness, so that they cannot perceive, and unable with their own
hands to tear off these bandages. They are incapable of the highest
renunciation. "No man," says Torvald Helmer, "sacrifices his honor,
even for one he loves." Those who heard Miss Achurch deliver Nora's
reply will not easily forget it. "Millions of women have done so." The
effect in the theatre was tremendous. This sentence clinched the w