IBSEN'S PLAYS 745 



mantling of others, and stands horror-smitten before his own motto, 

 "all or nothing." Nominally he throws the choice upon Agnes, but 

 not till he has shown her that there is no choice at all. Brand's awful 

 God seems to pass by in the thick darkness before our very eyes as 

 Agnes lifts her child on high and cries 



"God! the sacrifice thou can'st demand I can lift up towards thy heaven! 

 Guide me through life's horror! " 



When next we see Brand and his wife their child has been lying 

 for months beneath the sod of the churchyard. It is Christmas eve, 

 the children's festival. Brand is not content with having made the 

 sacrifice; he demands that there shall be no repining, no tender 

 idolatries, no cherished memories making the season of rejoicing into 

 a season of mourning. Agnes must not dwell on the contrast be- 

 tween this Christmas and the last; she must not draw the curtain 

 back that the light may stream upon the little grave; she must not 

 even plead for time and beg her husband to have patience with her. 

 And at last when a wild gypsy woman, with her mouth full of pro- 

 fanity and her heart full of defiance, bursts into the house and begs, or 

 rather demands, the little garments that Agnes keeps as sacred relics, 

 that she may wrap them round her own child born among curses and, 

 as it were, baptised in gin, she must part with all her treasure, must 

 not retain even a single relic "all or nothing." Agnes has at one 

 point rebelled like a wild thing driven to bay; but now a serene and 

 perfect joy overspreads her countenance, now she is free and triumph- 

 ant, but as she turns to her husband and thanks him for the strength 

 with which he has uplifted her, and for the awful but now glorious 

 vision of God that he has revealed to her, she bids him remember the 

 old word, " He who sees Jehovah dies." 



Then there sweeps upon Brand the vision of his lonely life and 

 strife when Agnes shall be gone, and he folds round her the arms of a 

 giant and declares that she shall not be taken from him. Nor need 

 she be taken. She tells him that if he will sink her down again into 

 the life from which he raised her, it will hide from her once more the 

 God that he has revealed, if he will bid her return to her idol-house and 

 forget his "all or nothing," she will have no power against him as he 

 unteaches any more than she had as he taught. Then she can live 

 and be his wife. But to see Jehovah is to die ; and unless he takes her 

 back she must pass on and leave him to fight alone. 



"Soul! " cries Brand, "Be steadfast to the last. Tis victory's victory to 

 forfeit all. The sum of loss has framed thy gain, only the lost is our own 

 for ever! " 



Agnes used to say that the " church was too small," but she could 

 give no account of what she meant by it. The truth was that the 

 church with its associations and forms and traditions oppressed her; 



