BJÖRNSON, DAUDET, JAMES:

A STUDY IN THE LITERARY TIME-SPIRIT.

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I

is conventional criticism to say that great writers make the Time-spirit. Now and then, perhaps, in the course of the centuries, it is true that dominant figures stand out ahead of their day and seem to shape its thought. Yet even some of the world masters Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes are in many ways creatures of their epoch, moulded by its ideals, expressing the intellectual and spiritual standards of their land and period.

General propositions are dangerous; but I believe it will be found of the majority of leading literary figures of history that, rather than lead their day, they have expressed it, and, moreover, have changed with its change. Possibly it would be more philosophic to say that the age changes with them and because of

them; but analysis reveals the fact that, as a rule, expansion of thought and broadening of knowledge come from a field lying outside of literature; namely, from science. It is the business of literature to reflect this growth. The great creative writers take over this knowledge into the imaginative domain, and make use of it in art. In this sense they are the children of the Time-spirit. This thesis is illustrated by the literary work of three men, Björnson, Daudet, and James, all of whom occupy commanding positions in the letters of their respective lands. It is well to select writers of ripe maturity, since otherwise their careers would not extend through years sufficient to bring them under the altered ideals I have in mind.

The present literary standard and temper are expressed by the convenient, though hackneyed, word realism. Whatever its origin, however justifiable as a revolt from narrow and sentimental untruth in literary art, realism has brought in its train the cult of the grim, the low, the impure, and the horrible. It has also resulted in much that is admirable, and it registers an advance in technique. But the sins of real

ism are heavy. This literary movement is far more than æsthetic. Within its wide boundaries are summed up and expressed the unrest, the doubt, and the agony of a period which, within a half century, has been compelled by the stern teaching of science to reconstruct its attitude towards the eternal, and to behold a new heaven and a new earth. Literature has had to assimilate these changes, and literary workers have expressed it according to individual bias and temperament. The shallow it has not so much affected, save as furnishing a pretext for the pessimistic pose. The weak it has crushed or driven into rebellion, license, and despair. The strongest and deepest have been changed and saddened by it. If our oldest living writers of highest literary repute in the civilized lands were studied for the

sole purpose of observing how they have been spiritual barometers registering the ethic weather, the great gulf which lies between 1850 and 1890 would be realized. A brief scrutiny of Björnson, Daudet, and James will make the point clear.

II

Björnson shares with Ibsen the literary supremacy of Norway. The former is its hero and prophet as the latter is its judge. Through a long, strenuous, athletic life of struggle with forces practical and spiritual, Björnson has shown an intellectual development and a shift of ethical and artistic creed which are remarkable. He has well-nigh boxed the mental compass of opinion. This change is as obvious in his literary work as in his relations to the politics of his native land. He began his literary career by writing simple, exquisite idyls of country life, with little of plot or drama, but having great charm of truthful, sympathetic characterization and picturesque description. Read Synnove Solbakken for a classical example of this genre. The book is a homely, beautiful prose poem in which the Norwegian peasant is revealed in his habit as he lives, by one who knows and loves him. Nor do Arne and The Fisher Maiden, which followed, representing his first decade of authorship, lie outside of this idyllic group. Nor again do his