ly). Hear, hear! Quite right! Make him sit down!

Dr. Stockmann (losing his self-control). Then I will go and shout the
truth at every street corner! I will write it in other towns'
newspapers! The whole country shall know what is going on here!

Hovstad. It almost seems as if Dr. Stockmann's intention were to ruin
the town.

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, my native town is so dear to me that I would rather
ruin it than see it flourishing upon a lie.

Aslaksen. This is really serious. (Uproar and cat-calls MRS. STOCKMANN
coughs, but to no purpose; her husband does not listen to her any
longer.)

Hovstad (shouting above the din). A man must be a public enemy to wish
to ruin a whole community!

Dr. Stockmann (with growing fervor). What does the destruction of a
community matter, if it lives on lies? It ought to be razed to the
ground. I tell you-- All who live by lies ought to be exterminated like
vermin! You will end by infecting the whole country; you will bring
about such a state of things that the whole country will deserve to be
ruined. And if things come to that pass, I shall say from the bottom of
my heart: Let the whole country perish, let all these people be
exterminated!

Voices from the crowd. That is talking like an out-and-out enemy of the
people!

Billing. There sounded the voice of the people, by all that's holy!

The whole crowd (shouting). Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He
hates his country! He hates his own people!

Aslaksen. Both as a citizen and as an individual, I am profoundly
disturbed by what we have had to listen to. Dr. Stockmann has shown
himself in a light I should never have dreamed of. I am unhappily
obliged to subscribe to the opinion which I have just heard my
estimable fellow-citizens utter; and I propose that we should give
expression to that opinion in a resolution. I propose a resolution as
follows: "This meeting declares that it considers Dr. Thomas Stockmann,
Medical Officer of the Baths, to be an enemy of the people." (A storm
of cheers and applause. A number of men surround the DOCTOR and hiss
him. MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA have got up from their seats. MORTEN and
EJLIF are fighting the other schoolboys for hissing; some of their
elders separate them.)

Dr. Stockmann (to the men who are hissing him). Oh, you fools! I tell
you that--

Aslaksen (ringing his bell). We cannot hear you now, Doctor. A formal
vote is about to be taken; but, out of regard for personal feelings,