The second influence is upon writers of every nationality--an incentive to produce “a distinguished work of an idealistic tendency,” some book which will prove of “benefit to humanity.” This term, idealistic, is difficult to render in all languages. In the French explanation of the will, it is explicit, “le plus remarquable dans le sens de l’idéalisme.” It is not easy to justify the prizes in literature, in several cases, if one emphasizes the usual meaning of “idealistic.” Occasionally, the award was given for some less recent work, some hitherto unappreciated note of idealism in an earlier writing. Two examples, among many, are Björnson’s tales of peasant life, with interwoven sagas and poetry, _Arne_ and _A Happy Boy_, or Mistral’s _Mireio_, the pastoral poem of Provence which was written more than forty years before the prize was given. In these two cases, as will be noted later, there was appreciation of efforts to rescue a dialect or language from literary desuetude. Upon both writers and readers, the influence of the Nobel awards in literature has been to promote broader interests and sympathies, more earnest study of standards and aspirations in widely separated races. FOOTNOTES: [1] _Westminster Review_, 156, 642. [2] _The Life of John Ericsson_ by William Conant Church, 2 Vols., New York, 1901. [3] Vance Thompson, in _Cosmopolitan_, September, 1906. [4] _Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner; Records of an Eventful Life_, Vol. I, p. 210, New York, 1910. By permission of Ginn & Co. [5] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 438. [6] Nobel Stiftelson, The Nobel Foundation, Code of Statutes given at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on June 29, 1900 (Stockholm, 1901). Objects of the Foundation. From copy in Library of Congress. [7] _Ibid._, section 10. CHAPTER II POETS OF FRANCE AND PROVENCE The prize of 1901 has been awarded: Sully-Prudhomme, René François Armand, member of the French Academy, born 1839, died September 7, 1907: “as an acknowledgment of his excellent merit as an author, and especially of the high idealism, artistic perfection, as well as the unusual combination of qualities of the heart and genius to which his work bears witness.”[8]