Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/281

 He liked this retort very much himself, and glanced at Emanuel.

"O yes—of course—I quite admit phenomena have appeared on the political horizon which are to be deplored; but such things can't be helped in stormy times like these. The chief thing is, by wise discretion and strict justice to conduct the lightning … and in our days it is the most important duty of the leading politician. Nor must it be forgotten—with regard to the peasant class—that we have much old injustice to make up to them; and if perhaps, at the moment, there is a disposition to give too much prominence to the peasant, it is merely justice which has been too long deferred. We certainly need to cultivate new social strata for our spiritual nourishment, so as—if I may say so—to turn up fresh virgin soil, from which a Future, strong in vital power, may grow up. I am not at all afraid of the deep digging which is going on just now at our intellectual foundations. I have no doubt that it will bring forth good and sound fruit, when, by degrees, a sufficient admixture of the new and the old has been accomplished. Everyone who contributes to this end, appears to me to do a good deed, both to his fatherland and to his own spiritual development."

The Provst's face took the ashy-grey colour which was habitual to it when his blood was boiling.

These words of the bishop, spoken in the