Appendix 183 Professor Verner S6derhielm, Finland's foremost historian of literature, expresses his opinion of Ellen Key as follows: "When I think of Ellen Key the living woman arises before my mind's eye rather than her works, the speaking rather than the writing Ellen Key. And when I read her writings I always seem to hear the sound of her voice with its inimitably tender inflection; and because her writings carry the impress of extempore discourse they have all its im- pulsive enthusiasm, the strong emphasis, the per- suasiveness, the lack of small consideration of possible critical objections. And now when I am to pay tribute to Ellen Key on a day when the thoughts of the sixty years she has lived give us occasion to think over and sum up her work and her person, she stands for me principally as an awakener, a teacher, an inspirer, and any effort to analyse her ideas or her style of presentation of her works seems at this moment farther from me than ever. "Ellen Key possesses certain qualities, rare in con- temporary times, which seem to me to constitute her best characteristics and her greatest strength. While other spiritual labourers isolate themselves or suspi- ciously avoid people she is greatly attracted to them, she has a trust in human beings and a wealth of love for them which on the other hand makes it possible for her to draw and unite them like the fire on the hearth. . . . While in others the sensibility to criticism and polemics is developed to an abnormal degree, she goes forward with a courage, a frankness, and a com- municativeness which radiate the joy of her own enthusiasm. While others so often doubt and hesi- tate she has a blind faith in the power of the indi-