Bjoernson, though he is an evolutionist, is far removed from the
philosophic temper in his dealings with the obsolete or obsolescent
remnants in political and religious creeds. He has the healthful
intolerance of strong conviction. He is too good a partisan to admit
that there may be another side to the question which might be worth
considering. With magnificent ruthlessness he plunges ahead, and with a
truly old Norse pugnacity he stands in the thick of the fight, rejoicing
in battle. Only combat arouses his Titanic energy and calls all his
splendid faculties into play.
Even apart from his political propaganda the years 1870-74 were a period
of labor and ferment to Bjoernson. The mightier the man, the mightier the
powers enlisted in his conversion, and the mightier the struggle. A
tremendous wrench was required to change his point of view from that of
a childlike, wondering believer to that of a critical sceptic and
thinker. In a certain sense Bjoernson never took this step; for when the
struggle was over, and he had readjusted his vision of life to the
theory of evolution, he became as ardent an adherent of it as he had
ever been of the _naive_ Grundtvigian miracle-faith.
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