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atheism that is a dreary side of Jacobsen’s rich and brilliant
personality. Early in life, he became convinced that human
beings must rid themselves of the idea that any supernatural
power would interfere between themselves and their deeds.
He saw a supreme moral value in the doctrine of evolution
with its principle of a universe governed by laws of cause
and effect. In Niels Lyhne he emphasized again and again the
bitter theory that no one ever added an inch to his height
by dreams, or changed the consequences of good and evil by
wishes and aspirations. Niels tries to instill into himself and
his wife the courage to face life as it is, without taking refuge
from realities in a world of dreams. Further than this,
Jacobsen attacked no sincere faith. It would be interesting to
search out how far, since his day, his principle of the
immutability of law has penetrated religious thought, but that
would be beyond the scope of this sketch.
For eight years, while writing his two novels, Jacobsen
had lived in his little native town in Jutland with occasional
trips to the south. After the completion of Niels Lyhne, he
resumed his place in the literary circles of Copenhagen, which
he had shunned—so he humbly confessed—because he was
ashamed of never getting anything finished. His old
diffidence seemed to have left him; to the sweetness and quiet
whimsicality that had always endeared him to his friends he
added a new poise and assurance. He was deeply gratified
by the reception given Niels Lyhne by people whose opinion
he valued, and when he was told that Ibsen was reading it
aloud to his evening circle, and had pronounced it the best
book of its kind in modern literature, he characteristically
remarked that this was pleasant to hear, even though John
Poulson (Ibsen’s friend and biographer) no doubt
exaggerated a little.
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