Never will I condemn
men by the dogmas of old time justice, unless they fit with our
own time's gospel of love. Never, for God's sake! And this
because I believe in Him, the God of Life, and His never
ending revelation in life itself."
Here is a gospel, indeed, one that needs no church for its
promulgation, and no ceremonial for the enhancement of its
impressiveness. It is a gospel, moreover, that is based upon no
foundation of precarious logic, but finds its premises in the
healthy instincts of the natural man. It is no small thing to
have thus found the way, and to have helped others likewise to
find the way, out of the mists of superstition, through the
valleys of doubt and despondency, athwart the thickets of
prejudice and bigotry with all their furtive foemen, up to
these sunlit heights of serenity.
"Mary" is less explicit in its teaching than the two great
novels just summarized, but what it misses in didacticism it
more than gains in art. The radiant creature who gives her
name to the book is one of Bjornson's most exquisite figures.
She is the very embodiment of youthful womanhood, filled with
the joy of life, and bringing sunshine wherever she goes.
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