Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/161

 their bearings. That is why I stand here this evening. I am about to make great revelations, my fellow citizens! I am going to announce to you a far-reaching discovery, beside which the trifling fact that our water-works are poisoned, and that our health-resort is built on pestilential ground, sinks into insignificance.

Many Voices.

[Shouting.] Don't speak about the Baths! We won't listen to that! No more of that!

Dr. Stockmann.

I have said I would speak of the great discovery I have made within the last few days—the discovery that all our sources of spiritual life are poisoned, and that our whole society rests upon a pestilential basis of falsehood.

Several Voices.

[In astonishment and half aloud.] What's he saying?

Burgomaster.

Such an insinuation!

Aslaksen.

[With his hand on the bell.] I must call upon the speaker to moderate his expressions.

Dr. Stockmann.

I have loved my native town as dearly as any man can love the home of his childhood. I was young when I left our town, and distance, home-*sickness and memory threw, as it were, a glamour over the place and its people.

[Some applause and cries of approval.