ii8 Ellen Key probably caused by his own carelessness, by reading of all these symptoms of sickness in the marriage relation may imagine himself suffering from some incurable matrimonial ill, and, in weak despair, give up all hope. Ellen Key does not seem to have considered how great a part the eagerness of outsiders to dis- cover bad symptoms in the life of married couples may play. It is not alone the great "Galeotto" but also the best intentioned "soul physicians" who, with their home-cures or operative interventions, may sever as well as unite. Ellen Key has great power of fascination. She fills our imagination with visions of radiant happiness. But she also frightens by vivid descriptions of how faiilts on both sides have killed even the tenderest love. In this way there is apt to arise too much introspec- tion. Most marriages would in general profit more if "husband and wife learned to under- stand that love, like friendship, is a question of forgiveness, and that it consists of a mutual sacrifice of selfish desires, " as Hellen Lindgren beautifully expresses it. Artists of life are rare, and few have advanced so far that they do not stand in need of forgiveness. Ellen Key herself says: "Those who believe in a