Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/427

 community.—And to you, Mr. Vigeland, I have to offer, for the decoration of your domestic sanctum, this book of family devotion, on vellum, and luxuriously bound. Under the ripening influence of years, you have come to view life from a serious standpoint; your activity in the daily affairs of this world has long been purified and ennobled by thoughts of things higher and holier. [Turns towards the Crowd.] And now, my friends, long live Consul Bernick and his fellow workers! Hurrah for the Pillars of Society!

The Whole Crowd.

Long live Consul Bernick! Long live the Pillars of Society! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!

Lona.

I congratulate you, brother-in-law!

[An expectant silence intervenes.

Bernick.

[Begins earnestly and slowly.] My fellow citizens,—your spokesman has said that we stand this evening on the threshold of a new era; and there, I hope, he was right. But in order that it may be so, we must bring home to ourselves the truth—the truth which has, until this evening, been utterly and in all things banished from our community. [Astonishment among the audience.

Bernick.

I must begin by repudiating the panegyric with which you, Dr. Rörlund, according to use and wont on such occasions, have overwhelmed me. I do not deserve it; for until to-day I have not been disinterested in my dealings. If I have not always striven for pecuniary profit, at least I am