122 Ellen Key at length with the nurture of the soul of which she had already given many stimulat- ing suggestions in Life-Lines, i. Yet it seems that the point referred to above constitutes one of the gravest inconsistencies to be laid at her door. Lije-Lines aroused a more violent contro- versy than any of her other works. We are not blind to its faults. Still it has not altered our opinion of the vital nerve in Ellen Key's writings. It must be evident to every one who cares to acknowledge it, that she steadfastly holds to her ideal view of the relation between man and woman, and the life-line she draws is perfectly logical, from her own evolutionary starting-point. But she has hurt her book by giving place with seeming understanding to certain obnoxious anomalies which are foreign to her own idealism, both that of her nature and of her views; and therein lies the danger. Because if on the one hand the book helps to make the strong stronger, on the other hand it doubtless may make the weak weaker. Life-Lines, ii., contained Ellen Key's philo- sophy of life as a whole. Already in her essay on Rilke in Ord ocJi Bild,' we had caught a ' The foremost Swedish literary magazine, Word and Picture. —Translator's footnote.