tly that the highest
aim of art should be to teach and elevate, to destroy prejudice and
conventionality, and indicate, in so far as it is possible, the
solution of moral problems through the creative faculty of inspired
productiveness. The wish to inculcate action, the energy that is
born of enthusiasm, the chivalry that is inspired by high ideals and
unselfish motives. Raised thus from the region of mere chronicles of
human passions, of woman's frailty and man's baseness, and exercising
themselves with the political, social, and religious problems of the
day, these works of imagination have become, alongside the Press, a
powerful factor in the development of modern thought.[f]

CHAPTER VII

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

Only for the past three years has Norway had an independent political
life, and so few changes in local government have so far been made
under the new king that it will be profitable, in this chapter, to
take up the government and political life as it existed under the
united Constitutional Monarchy of Norway and Sweden. In fact, it is no
different than at that time, except that each has its separate king.
In internal rule, the two countries were always separate, except in
matters that pertained to the common weal of both. Thus, the Swedish
Minister of Foreign Affairs had charge of the United Kingdoms, and, as
previously stated, this was the rock on which the Union finally split.

The constitution of Norway, like that of the United States, invests
all power in the people, who are represented by their legislature and
their judiciary, with the king as an executive to administer the laws
passed by the one, and enforce the decrees of the other. When the
two houses of Parliament disagree upon a measure, they sit in joint
session, when it requires a vote of two-thirds to enact it, and the
approval of the king is necessary. He is also required to promulgate
all the acts of the legislature. Many Norwegian statesmen assert that
the king has no veto power, but merely temporary authority to
suspend a law pending the action of the people. If three successive
parliaments, after three successive elections, pass a bill in exactly
the same terms, it does not require the sanction of the king when
it is passed the fourth time. Thus the people may exercise their
sovereignty.

All edicts of the executive, all decisions of the court, and all
resolutions of the legislature are proclaimed in the