Out of the ancient religion of dogmas which judges and damns,
Tuft is by these experiences led into a new religion of love, which
values life above faith, and charity above all. The reconciliation of
brother and sister in the last chapter is profoundly moving. The moral
is emphasized in the phrase with which the story closes: "Wherever good
men walk, there are the ways of God."
The charm of this novel is, to me, that it is strong, virile, instinct
with vital thought. There are blemishes in it, too, which no one will be
likely to overlook. Several chapters read like the reports of a clinic
in a medical journal, so extremely minute and circumstantial are the
accounts of Kallem's operations and hypnotic experiments. An excursion
into botany, _a propos_ of Ragni's walk in the woods, is likewise
overloaded with details and teems with scientific terms. But the
greatest blemish is the outbreak in Kallem (who has the author's fullest
sympathy) of a certain barbaric violence which to civilized people is
well-nigh incomprehensible.
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