Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/166

 Dr. Stockmann.

Never, Mr. Aslaksen! For it's this very majority that robs me of my freedom, and wants to forbid me to speak the truth.

Hovstad.

The majority always has right on its side.

Billing.

Yes, and truth too, strike me dead!

Dr. Stockmann.

The majority never has right on its side. Never I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against. Who make up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible, overwhelming majority, all the wide world over. But how in the devil's name can it ever be right for the fools to rule over the wise men? [Uproar and yells.

Dr. Stockmann.

Yes, yes, you can shout me down, but you cannot gainsay me. The majority has might—unhappily—but right it has not. It is I, and the few, the individuals, that are in the right. The minority is always right. [Renewed uproar.

Hovstad.

Ha ha! Dr. Stockmann has turned aristocrat since the day before yesterday!

Dr. Stockmann.

I have said that I have no words to waste on the little, narrow-chested, short-winded crew that lie in our wake. Pulsating life has nothing more