SOURCE: "Ellen Key—Idealist," in The Dial, Chicago, Vol. XVI, No. 662, June 16, 1914, pp. 47-8.

In the following essay, Boguslawsky asserts that although many of Key's contentions are idealistic, her ideas regarding parenthood and child care are rooted in practicality.

Always since the Galilean lived his revolutionary message—to reform man and not methods—every step in the world's ethical and moral progress has been inspired by the standard-bearer of a new idealism. With the wane of each century, the idealism which demanded the ascetic renunciation of earthly joys has been more sternly challenged, until a higher conception of true life-values is leading us back to the Greek ideal of beauty and happiness as the basis of a life-giving harmony.

Ellen Key's credo, "the enhancement of life through love, joy, and beauty in things small and great," implies much more than the joy of living. To her, happiness means...