iv Introduction translated into English) which, though their scientific value has been disputed, are in- spired throughout by a fine humanitarian zeal. What Mrs. Nystrom-Hamilton has to tell may thus be received with confidence as coming out of the circle in which Ellen Key has spent the greater part of her active life. If she wisely refrains from any attempt at a final estimate of Ellen Key, she at all events assists us to form our own opinions. Ellen Key has sometimes been called the modem St. Brigitta. That famous saint of the North came out of Sweden six hundred years ago to write her book of Revelations and to attempt the moral reformation of her age. To-day, with a similar spontaneous energy, a similar seh-inspired vocation, Ellen Key comes to us out of Sweden to preach a moral re- formation of a somewhat different kind. Her message has not been the outcome of historical study or of sociological investigation. Not- withstanding the wide and miscellaneous culture which circumstance and an eagerly receptive brain enabled her to acquire, her temperamental activities have throughout been of a rich and impulsive rather than of a scientific and methodical character. Her attitude has been the outcome of deep