THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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Lift thy head and sing it out;

Thou canst not kill the springtime sprout.

Where there is power to burst and grow,

Next year’s spring sun will it show.

At the same time he says, in one of the poems in “ Arne”:

He who was longing for twenty years Over the mountains high and steep,

He who knows that he never will reach,

Feels himself smaller year after year,

Hears a bird on the mountain singing,

As it sits on the birch-tree swinging.

Once I know that it shall go forth ’Way over the mountains high,

Perhaps thy door is opened now.

O Lord, my God, thy home is fair;

Still, for awhile leave thou it shut,

And let me strive in my longings.

It is the never-ceasing thirst of a soul craving for knowledge, for light, in which to solve the problems of life. Before us is an ocean of wisdom, its invisible sources are located in eternity; the life of the oldest human being will only be sufficient for a few draughts.

Though Björnson claims to be intently national in his works as well as in personal inclination, he yet, without realizing it, is compelled to represent internationalism. He intends to say, Norway first and last; but his soul reaches too far, and he could not be a true medium for the spirit of his age, were not internationalism to leave its traces in his work. One of the most beautiful national songs ever written in any language is to be found in his novel, “ The Fisher-girl.”

I shall guard thee, my land;

I shall build up my land;

I shall love it through life in my prayer and my child;

I shall work for its good;

I shall look for its wants,

From its borders and out to the fisherman’s yarn.

We have plenty of sun;

We have plenty of soil;

Only we, only we could have plenty of love.

Here is creating power Through the work of the hour;

We could lift up this land, if we lifted as one.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

This home-land is ours,

And we worship it for

What it was, what it is, what it will be again;

And as love shall grow forth From the soil of our earth,

That shall grow from the seeds of our love, in it laid.

When we get this kind of national hymn instead of boasts about conquering nations, and nonsense about being the first and the only ones, then the first step toward internationalism is taken.

The subjective national hymn, appealing to the will and work of the single individual, to the creating love instead of the contemplating love, is in its nature so wide-reaching, that it, even without realizing it, will sow the seeds of internationalism,