It will be well, however, to make certain distinctions between the life work of Bjornson and that of the two men whom a common age and common aims bring into inevitable association with him. These distinctions are chiefly two, --one of them is that while Tolstoy and Ibsen grew to be largely cosmopolitan in their outlook, Bjornson has much more closely maintained throughout his career the national, or, at any rate, the racial standpoint.