Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/172

 like it or not. But truly there are few enough aristocratic animals among us. Oh, there's a terrible difference between poodle-men and mongrel-men! And the ridiculous part of it is, that Mr. Hovstad quite agrees with me so long as it's four-legged animals we're talking of

Hovstad. Oh, beasts are only beasts.

Dr. Stockmann.

Well and good—but no sooner do I apply the law to two-legged animals, than Mr. Hovstad stops short; then he daren't hold his own opinions, or think out his own thoughts; then he turns the whole principle upside down, and proclaims in the People's Messenger that the barn-door hen and the gutter-mongrel are precisely the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that's always the way, so long as the commonness still lingers in your system, and you haven't worked your way up to spiritual distinction.

Hovstad.

I make no pretence to any sort of distinction. I come of simple peasant folk, and I am proud that my root should lie deep down among the common people, who are here being insulted.

Workmen. Hurrah for Hovstad. Hurrah! hurrah!

Dr. Stockmann.

The sort of common people I am speaking of are not found among the lower classes alone; they crawl and swarm all around us—up to the very