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 328 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of so many great leaders dying at the verge of the wilderness, in view of the promised land they burned their lives out striving for. German journalism, past and present, can boast no talent such as Horup's.

6. Popular education. While the ability to read and write may not be accepted as a decisive criterion for the diffusion of education among the masses of a people, an entire absence of illiteracy can but be counted to its credit. This is the condition in Denmark today. Elementary education has been free and compulsory since 1814. Her public-school system equals, if it does not excel, that of any other European country, and in cer- tain respects compares favorably with that of the United States.

But the popular demand for knowledge is not satisfied here- with. What are known as " people's high schools " (Folkehojskoler) , to the number of about 150, have been established in all parts of the land. This typically Danish form of secondary schools which has been copied to some extent by Sweden and Norway, but is without counterpart elsewhere in the world originated about the middle of the last century with the prelate-poet- reformer Grundtvig, and is primarily intended for the rural youth ; and here thousands of young men during the winter months, and of women in summer, broaden their education and view of life by popular courses, principally in the natural sciences, history, and literature. Characteristic also is the fact that the Frem, a periodical for popularized science, in the first year of its existence obtained 80,000 subscribers. The educational and philanthropic activities of the Liberal Students' Society of Copen- hagen in leading, free of cost, largely attended classes and publishing, at a nominal price, series of pamphlets for the instruc- tion of workingmen desirous of extending their knowledge along special lines, and in giving free legal advice to, and conducting the cases of, multitudes of poor people have served as models for similar institutions in various parts of Europe.

7. Politics. The Danish farmers are an intelligent, self- reliant, prosperous race, in an eminent sense the bone and sinew of the nation. In social and political development they are fully fifty years ahead of the bulk of their German neigh-