t
exercise of their own wills place themselves under subjection to the
unknown guidance! I cannot do so!" He raised his clinched hand, but let
it fall again. "Is it a crime to steer toward a definite goal, and
concentrate one's will, one's responsibility upon its attainment? Look
at yonder insect! It goes straight forward; it has a fixed aim. Now I
crush it to death. See--thus!

"You should have seen my wife," he continued, presently. "She sped
onward through life, with fluttering veil; her eyes, her thoughts
sparkled. What was her goal? Just as she was beginning, with my aid, to
comprehend her faculties, she expired. A meteor!

"I had a friend. What talents, and what aspirations! How handsome he
was! When he was but little over twenty years of age, he fell during the
siege of a Danish fortress, scarcely mentioned, scarcely remembered. A
meteor!

"But what solicitude for existences which neither can nor will be of any
use in the world. That fisherman in Nordland was the only person who was
saved from destruction out of a whole parish. And he lived more than
sixty years as stupid as the codfish he drew out of the sea.

"For the sake of others? For the advancement of one's fellow-creatures?
For the good of posterity? Aye, aye, find consolation in all this, if
you can! Before I shall be able to do so I must see the benefit of it
for myself. The mole's life in the dark, with chance alone for its
guide, is not a life that I could lead, even though I might have a
certificate guarantying that light should dawn on me one day, that is to
say, on the other side of the grave. I admire those who can be content
with such a lot."

"In other words, you despise them!" interposed Roennaug.

Grong looked at her, but made no reply.

Roennaug was anxious to know how it was best to advise Magnhild. Grong
promptly answered,--

"Advise her to go to work."

"Without definite object? Merely for the sake of work?"

He hesitated a moment, and then said,--

"I will tell you one thing, my good lady: Magnhild's misfortune has been
that throughout her whole life she has had every want supplied, every
meal, every garment. Had she been obliged to labor hard, or to bring up
children, she would not have indulged so freely in dreams."

"So, then, work without definite aim?" repeated Roennaug.

"There are so many kinds of aims," said Grong, peevishly,--and then he
was silent. It was evident that he had been all round the circle and had
ret