DENMARK AND THE DANES 



although the Lutheran Church in Den- 

 mark is less rigid, less Calvinistic than 

 the same church in Prussia ; but in Schles- 

 wig the Imperial autocrats forbade that 

 the Danish language should be used in 

 the Lutheran churches and schools ; and 

 this, in Danish eyes, in which Lutheran- 

 ism was a national religion, was almost 

 equivalent to the extirpation of their 

 church. 



Until the middle of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury the Danes were brought to the verge 

 of ruin by a stupid system of agriculture, 

 only comparable to that in vogue in some 

 of our cotton-raising States, where the 

 same old crop destroys the nutrition of 

 the soil and the boll-weevil eats its fruits. 

 Scientific agriculture was unknown to 

 them. The growing of grain was a fixed 

 dictum, and rotation of crops a heresy. 



In our practical life we are willing to 

 assume theoretically the preeminence of 

 mind over matter; but, in spite of our 

 constant assertion, we are surprised when 

 we discover that mental axioms, religious 

 precepts put into action, may become the 

 safest foundation for practical progress, 

 in a nation which believes that ideals 

 must rule. 



Denmark's nationality preserved by 

 grundtvig' s educational system 



Denmark was at its lowest in 1870, 

 apparently, though the ideas of Bishop 

 Grundtvig had already begun their semi- 

 nal work. 



Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig 

 was the economic and social savior of 

 Denmark. He was of the prevailing 

 state religion, the Lutheran, but he was 

 entirely out of sympathy with the break- 

 ing of the best traditions of Denmark, 

 which connected it with the Middle Ages, 

 with the times of Bishop Absalon and 

 King Valdemar. 



Religion in Denmark had become too 

 formal. It had little vitality and very 

 little connection with the national life. 

 Again, the system of education, or rather 

 of instruction, which it fostered was, to 

 his mind, inadequate. The church, it 

 seemed to him, was a caste, and it edu- 

 cated and cultivated only the people of 

 the aristocratic classes, among whom Ger- 

 man was the prevailing language. 



They were very much Germanized; 

 they rather despised the glories of Danish 



history and the beauties of its language. 

 The Lutheran Church had been German- 

 ized, too, and Grundtvig, a clergyman 

 himself, determined to save its people 

 through a system of education which 

 would make the poor man self-controlled, 

 practical, patriotic, and able to use his 

 knowledge for the betterment of his 

 country and himself. 



This he slowly accomplished ; and in 

 1880 his design had so much matured 

 that the Danes, through his treatment of 

 their own mentality, were beginning to be 

 a self-respecting, hopeful, and prosperous 

 people. This was about eight years after 

 his death. 



This was largely done through the sys- 

 tem of high schools he founded. There 

 are Danes today who disdain the high- 

 school system, and who seem to think 

 that no bishop — even a bishop disapproved 

 of by his church — could under any cir- 

 cumstances be responsible for the fortu- 

 nate condition in which Denmark finds 

 itself today. 



Although there is no difference in doc- 

 trine between the Lutherans in Den- 

 mark and those in the United States, the 

 churches here are more independent. One 

 reason, perhaps, why there are no bishops 

 in the Danish church here is that the 

 Lutheran ecclesiastics in Denmark are 

 officials of the state, and their jurisdic- 

 tion could hardly be made to extend in 

 this country, and none have been nomi- 

 nated from the American Danish church. 



Denmark is by no means an earthly 

 Eden. Poverty exists, less sordid than in 

 most countries, and industrial unrest ex- 

 ists ; but if there is anything in modern 

 democratic ideals, the Danes have dis- 

 covered that thing and applied it, largely 

 through the impetus given by this re- 

 markably sane, patriotic, and truly re- 

 ligious man. 



In the first place, he realized that every- 

 thing depended on the spirit of the people. 

 Material misfortunes naturally induce 

 pessimism, and the Dane, when deprived 

 of cheerful surroundings or the stimulus 

 of effort, is a very melancholy person ; 

 and during the late autumn and all of the 

 winter the climate in which he lives is one 

 of the most depressing in the world. 



The percentage of suicides in Denmark 

 was at one time very great, and the Dane 

 himself is quick to recognize the fact that 



