Public Activity 131 our liking, if we instead come to have three republics in the north—which is what Bjom- stjeme Bjornson wants—^well, no matter, if only the hearts be one. ..." Few things better illustrate to what degree the ideas for which Ellen Key logically and consistently contended in mature age had already germinated in her mind in youth. The fundamental thought found in these notes recurs in her dealing with this question, as in all questions which she discusses: "Laws which are not form for a content ought not to exist. A union, whether between nations or individuals, which does not rest upon a solid foundation, that of mutual happiness, should be dissolved." In those days of preparation, when many Swedes insisted that a union saved by war was preferable to a union dissolved, when brother-war was advised as a national duty, Ellen Key proclaimed her opinion that each and all would be in their full right to denounce such patriotism as a crime, not alone against Norway, but also against the noble past of our own nation, against the present generation as well as the future. She was harshly judged from many sides for her lack of patriotism, for hostile talk, and this