[10] July, 1894.
The unpretentious little story "Dust" (_Stoev_, 1882) undertakes to
demonstrate the unwholesomeness of the religious ideas regarding the
life to come usually impressed upon children by parents and teachers. By
dust Bjoernson means all obsolete, lifeless matter in the world of
thought which settles upon, and often impairs, the vitality of the
living growth, or even chokes it outright. "When children are taught
that the life here is nothing compared to the life to come--that to be
visible is nothing compared to being invisible--that to be a man is
nothing compared to being an angel--that to be alive is nothing compared
to being dead--then that is not the way to give them the right view of
life; not the way to teach them to love life; not the way to inspire
them with courage, energy, and patriotism."
In his novel "Flags in City and Harbor" (1884), the English translation
of which is entitled "The Heritage of the Kurts," Bjoernson has attacked
a tremendous problem. He has attempted to illustrate the force of
heredity, and the exact extent to which it may be modified by
environment--to what extent an unfavorable heredity may be counteracted
by a favorable environment.
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