and a
handful there; for, he said, you can never tell what will grow up after
it. There is to me something quite touching in the patriotism which
prompted this act. Bjoernson, too, is in the same sense "a sower who went
forth for to sow." And the golden grain of his thought falls, as in the
parable, in all sorts of places; but, unlike some of the seed in the
parable, it all leaves some trace behind. It stimulates reflection, it
awakens life, it arouses the torpid soul, it shakes the drowsy soul, it
shocks the pious soul, it frightens the timid soul, but it lifts them
all, as it were, by main force, out of themselves, and makes healthful
breezes blow, and refreshing showers fall upon what was formerly a
barren waste. This is Bjoernson's mission; this is, during the second
period of his career, his greatness and his highest significance.

Of course there are many opinions as to the value of the work he has
accomplished in this capacity of political and religious liberator. The
Conservative party of Norway, which runs the errands of the king and
truckles to Sweden, hates him with a bitter and furious hatred; the
clergy denounce him, and the official bureaucracy can scarcely mention
his name without an anathema. But the common people, though he has
frightened many of them away by his heterodoxy, still love him. It is
especially his disrespect to the devil (whom he professes not to believe
in) which has been a sore trial to the Bible-reading, hymn-singing
peasantry. Does not the Bible say that the devil goes about like a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? Nevertheless Bjoernson has the
hardihood to assert that there is no such person. And yet Bjoernson is a
man who can talk most beautifully, and who knows as much as any parson.
It is extremely puzzling.

The fact was, Bjoernson's abolition of the devil, and his declaration of
a war against the orthodox miracle faith, were, as far as the Norwegian
people were concerned, somewhat premature. The peasant needs the old
scriptural devil, and is not yet ready to dispense with him. The devil
is a popular character in the folk-stories and legends, and I have known
some excellent people who declare that they have seen him. Creeds are
like certain ancient tumuli, which now are but graves, but were once the
habitations of living men. The dust, ashes, and bones of defunct life
which they often contain, nourish in the dark the green grass, the fair
flowers, the blooming trees, tha