hinks what his superiors think, and
holds the same opinions as they, People who do that are, intellectually
speaking, common people; and, that is why my magnificent brother Peter
is in reality so very far from any distinction--and consequently also
so far from being liberal-minded.

Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman--!

Hovstad. So it is only the distinguished men that are liberal-minded in
this country? We are learning something quite new! (Laughter.)

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that is part of my new discovery too. And another
part of it is that broad-mindedness is almost precisely the same thing
as morality. That is why I maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable
in the "People's Messenger" to proclaim, day in and day out, the false
doctrine that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority, that
have the monopoly of broad-mindedness and morality--and that vice and
corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity are the result of
culture, just as all the filth that is draining into our Baths is the
result of the tanneries up at Molledal! (Uproar and interruptions. DR.
STOCKMANN is undisturbed, and goes on, carried away by his ardour, with
a smile.) And yet this same "People's Messenger" can go on preaching
that the masses ought to be elevated to higher conditions of life! But,
bless my soul, if the "Messenger's" teaching is to be depended upon,
this very raising up the masses would mean nothing more or less than
setting them straightway upon the paths of depravity! Happily the
theory that culture demoralises is only an old falsehood that our
forefathers believed in and we have inherited. No, it is ignorance,
poverty, ugly conditions of life, that do the devil's work! In a house
which does not get aired and swept every day--my wife Katherine
maintains that the floor ought to be scrubbed as well, but that is a
debatable question--in such a house, let me tell you, people will lose
within two or three years the power of thinking or acting in a moral
manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience. And there must be a
plentiful lack of oxygen in very many houses in this town, I should
think, judging from the fact that the whole compact majority can be
unconscientious enough to wish to build the town's prosperity on a
quagmire of falsehood and deceit.

Aslaksen. We cannot allow such a grave accusation to be flung at a
citizen community.

A Citizen. I move that the Chairman direct the speaker to sit down.

Voices (angri