PREFACE pOR a great many years, the name of Ellen • Key has been a subject of discussion, not only in the public press, but also within family circles. Friends have become enemies for the sake of that name. Why? Because Ellen Key has fearlessly placed a number of problems in clear light. Discussions have been raised about well-nigh all important human relationships as a consequence of something she has said on this or that occasion, speaking never at random, but as a result of slow and quiet observations which have led her to her own clear solutions. She did not want to contribute to the prolongation of the concealed enmity between different classes of society, contending opinions, representatives of the New and the Old. She wished rather to pro- mote frankness and truth. She wanted to clear the air of the noxious mists of hypocrisy and pretence. She forced the battle into the open, and the conflict has become so violent that some have not taken time to think, but