X Preface frequently have struck wildly, and in order to end quickly this battle, caused by the opinions she has expressed, her opponents have not hesitated to attack her character. I have waited long in the hope that some other would write of her life and character, but as none has appeared, I have decided, in spite of grave doubts, to make public such facts and memoranda as I have gathered from those closely associated with her, and have received, on request, from herself—concerning origin and outward circumstances,—as well as my own observations during our many years of friendship. "Ellen Key holds a place in our literature, the importance of which ought to be clear to all, undoubted and respected. We have never had many intellectually receptive as well as productive authors, who were able to receive the multitudinous currents of ideas, transfuse them with their own thoughts, colour them with their own personality, and, thus trans- formed, return them to their various and diffuse sources. Our culture, which stands high in many respects, has never possessed a corresponding power of unifying life. Es- pecially in the social field we have weakly submitted to the cleavage between theory