rations have been bred in a gentleman's
house, where they have had the best of food and had the opportunity of
hearing soft voices and music. Do you not think that the poodle's brain
is developed to quite a different degree from that of the cur? Of
course it is. It is puppies of well-bred poodles like that, that
showmen train to do incredibly clever tricks--things that a common cur
could never learn to do even if it stood on its head. (Uproar and
mocking cries.)

A Citizen (calls out). Are you going to make out we are dogs, now?

Another Citizen. We are not animals, Doctor!

Dr. Stockmann. Yes but, bless my soul, we are, my friend! It is true we
are the finest animals anyone could wish for; but, even among us,
exceptionally fine animals are rare. There is a tremendous difference
between poodle-men and cur-men. And the amusing part of it is, that Mr.
Hovstad quite agrees with me as long as it is a question of four-footed
animals--

Hovstad. Yes, it is true enough as far as they are concerned.

Dr. Stockmann. Very well. But as soon as I extend the principle and
apply it to two-legged animals, Mr. Hovstad stops short. He no longer
dares to think independently, or to pursue his ideas to their logical
conclusion; so, he turns the whole theory upside down and proclaims in
the "People's Messenger" that it is the barn-door hens and street curs
that are the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that is always the
way, as long as a man retains the traces of common origin and has not
worked his way up to intellectual distinction.

Hovstad. I lay no claim to any sort of distinction, I am the son of
humble country-folk, and I am proud that the stock I come from is
rooted deep among the common people he insults.

Voices. Bravo, Hovstad! Bravo! Bravo!

Dr. Stockmann. The kind of common people I mean are not only to be
found low down in the social scale; they crawl and swarm all around
us--even in the highest social positions. You have only to look at your
own fine, distinguished Mayor! My brother Peter is every bit as
plebeian as anyone that walks in two shoes-- (laughter and hisses)

Peter Stockmann. I protest against personal allusions of this kind.

Dr. Stockmann (imperturbably).--and that, not because he is like
myself, descended from some old rascal of a pirate from Pomerania or
thereabouts--because that is who we are descended from--

Peter Stockmann. An absurd legend. I deny it!

Dr. Stockmann. --but because he t