To
admire these men is as compromising as to be admired by them.
In the essay on "Martin Luther on Celibacy and Marriage" Dr. Brandes
derides with a satyr-like leer all traditional ideas of chastity,
conjugal fidelity, and marital honor.
Though he pretends to fight behind Luther's shield the deftest thrusts
are not the reformer's, but the essayist's own. Fundamentally, I fancy,
this is an outbreak of that artistic paganism which is so prevalent
among the so-called "advanced" Hebrews. The idea that obedience to law
is degrading; that conformity to traditional morals is soul-crippling
and unworthy of a free spirit; that only by giving sway to passion will
the individual attain that joy which is his right, and that
self-development which should be his highest aim, has found one of its
ablest and most dangerous advocates in Georg Brandes.
ESAIAS TEGNER
The genius of the Scandinavian north has never found a more complete and
brilliant incarnation than the Swedish poet Esaias Tegner. Strong,
cheerful, thoroughly wholesome, with a boyish delight in prowess,
adventure, and daring deeds, he presents a most agreeable contrast to
the moonshine singers and graveyard bards of the phosphoristic school,
who were his contemporaries.
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