It is because Ibsen has not yielded to this weakness, because he has not the conceit to lay down the law on questions outside his own province, but simply aspires to be a dramatist, that Nordau complains so bitterly of Ibsen’s omission to express a distinct opinion on all sorts of subjects on which Nordau burns to break a lance with him. He tilts against the opinions expressed by Ibsen’s characters with the wasted fury of Don Quixote attacking windmills. We are at a loss to account for the contradictions of which Nordau appears to be guilty. Much of what he says in the latter part of his essay on Ibsen is in direct contradiction to what he says in the earlier part, where his praise of Ibsen’s talents and abilities is conspicuous. We will give an example of what we mean. He says at the beginning of his chapter: “Each of the terse words which suffice him [Ibsen] has something of the nature of a peep-hole, through which limitless vistas are obtained.” Towards the end of it he says: “Thus Ibsen’s drama is like a kaleidoscope in a sixpenny bazaar. When one looks through the peep-hole, one sees at each shaking of the cardboard tube new and parti-coloured combinations. Children are amused at this toy, but adults know that it contains only splinters of coloured glass, always the same, inserted haphazard and united into mystical figures by three bits of looking-glass, and they soon tire of the expressionless arabesque.” Can this contradiction be the result of his great trust in authorities, and has he made use of two that clash, or does he write for writing’s sake, differently each day according to the mood he happens to be in? When Ibsen’s characters give expression to their yearnings for greater personal liberty, for a revolt against social traditions which threaten to wreck their lives, and which they have beheld wrecking the lives of hundreds around them, they are intended by the dramatist to show what is going on in modern society. Nordau of course concludes that Ibsen is an egomaniac who resents any bonds on his worst instincts. Supposing that Ibsen shares personally that same longing for more individual freedom which Nordau so warmly deprecates, it is evident that they differ simply because Nordau starts from the supposition that men’s instincts are necessarily bad, and Ibsen from the supposition that they are good.