Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 3).djvu/163



To build.

To build?

Why, yes,—the common state To better, and my own to boot. First I will build up the repute I stood in till a recent date:— The elections soon will be on foot:— So I must set some scheme afloat, Some booming enterprise promote; Thus I regain my lost authority, And check the wane of my majority. Now, I've reflected, to compete With wind and tide wins no man's praises; The folk want "lifting," as the phrase is, A work for which I'm all unmeet; I can but set them on their feet; Which can't be done unless they please,— And here all are my enemies! Whence I've resolved since such the case is, After ripe thought, to find a basis For making war with poverty.

You would uproot it?

No, not I! It is a necessary ill In every state: we must endure it; Yet may we, with a little skill, In certain forms confine, secure it, If only we begin in time.