. Not an
unchristian inculcation, surely; yet for it and for similar earlier
utterances Bjoernson has been held up as Antichrist by the ministers of a
narrow Lutheran orthodoxy, very much as the spokesmen of an antiquated
caste-system of society have esteemed his ideas to be those of the most
ruthless and radical of iconoclasts. But he is a stout fighter, and
attacks of this sort only serve to arouse him to new energy. And so he
toils manfully on for the enlightenment of his people, knowing that his
cause is the cause of civilization itself--of a rational social
organization, an exalted ethical standard, and a purified religion.

Since the period when Bjoernson began to merge the artist in the thinker
and prophet, his work has given a strong impetus to progress in
religious, educational, and political affairs. As regards the first of
these matters, it must be remembered that the sort of intolerance with
which he has had to contend more resembles that of eighteenth-century
New England puritanism than anything we are familiar with in our own
time. As for the second matter, all of his work may in a sense be called
educational, while such a book as 'Det Flager' shows how closely he has
considered the subject of education in its special and even technical
aspects. Finally, as a political thinker, he has identified himself
indissolubly with the movement for the establishment of an independent
Norwegian Republic, although he is not sanguine of the near realization
of this aim. But if time should justify his prophetic attitude and give
birth to a republic in the north of Europe, however remote may be the
event, the name of Bjoernson will be remembered as that of one of the
founders, although as the Mazzini rather than as the Cavour of the Norse
_Risorgimento_. And whatever may be the future of the land that claims
him for her own, his spirit will walk abroad long after he has ceased to
live among men. His large, genial, optimistic personality is of the sort
that cannot fail to stamp itself upon other generations than the one
that actually counts him among its members.

[The following selections are given in translations of my own, excepting
'The Princess,' which was made by Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole, and the last
two, for which I am indebted to the edition of Bjoernson's novels
translated by Professor Rasmus B. Anderson, and published by Messrs.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The extracts from 'Sigurd Slembe' are taken from
my translat