element in the community, have the same right
to pronounce judgment and to, approve, to direct and to govern, as the
isolated, intellectually superior personalities in it.

Billing. Well, damn me if ever I--

Hovstad (at the same time, shouting out). Fellow-citizens, take good
note of that!

A number of voices (angrily). Oho!--we are not the People! Only the
superior folk are to govern, are they!

A Workman. Turn the fellow out for talking such rubbish!

Another. Out with him!

Another (calling out). Blow your horn, Evensen!

(A horn is blown loudly, amidst hisses and an angry uproar.)

Dr. Stockmann (when the noise has somewhat abated). Be reasonable!
Can't you stand hearing the voice of truth for once? I don't in the
least expect you to agree with me all at once; but I must say I did
expect Mr. Hovstad to admit I was right, when he had recovered his
composure a little. He claims to be a freethinker--

Voices (in murmurs of astonishment). Freethinker, did he say? Is
Hovstad a freethinker?

Hovstad (shouting). Prove it, Dr. Stockmann! When have I said so in
print?

Dr. Stockmann (reflecting). No, confound it, you are right!--you have
never had the courage to. Well, I won't put you in a hole, Mr. Hovstad.
Let us say it is I that am the freethinker, then. I am going to prove
to you, scientifically, that the "People's Messenger" leads you by the
nose in a shameful manner when it tells you that you--that the common
people, the crowd, the masses, are the real essence of the People. That
is only a newspaper lie, I tell you! The common people are nothing more
than the raw material of which a People is made. (Groans, laughter and
uproar.) Well, isn't that the case? Isn't there an enormous difference
between a well-bred and an ill-bred strain of animals? Take, for
instance, a common barn-door hen. What sort of eating do you get from a
shrivelled up old scrag of a fowl like that? Not much, do you! And what
sort of eggs does it lay? A fairly good crow or a raven can lay pretty
nearly as good an egg. But take a well-bred Spanish or Japanese hen, or
a good pheasant or a turkey--then you will see the difference. Or take
the case of dogs, with whom we humans are on such intimate terms. Think
first of an ordinary common cur--I mean one of the horrible,
coarse-haired, low-bred curs that do nothing but run about the streets
and befoul the walls of the houses. Compare one of these curs with a
poodle whose sires for many gene