whole town.

Aslaksen. In that case we may venture to print it.

Dr. Stockmann. I should think so!

Hovstad. We will put it in tomorrow morning.

Dr. Stockmann. Of course--you must not lose a single day. What I wanted
to ask you, Mr. Aslaksen, was if you would supervise the printing of it
yourself.

Aslaksen. With pleasure.

Dr. Stockmann. Take care of it as if it were a treasure! No
misprints--every word is important. I will look in again a little
later; perhaps you will be able to let me see a proof. I can't tell you
how eager I am to see it in print, and see it burst upon the public--

Billing. Burst upon them--yes, like a flash of lightning!

Dr. Stockmann. --and to have it submitted to the judgment of my
intelligent fellow townsmen. You cannot imagine what I have gone
through today. I have been threatened first with one thing and then
with another; they have tried to rob me of my most elementary rights as
a man--

Billing. What! Your rights as a man!

Dr. Stockmann. --they have tried to degrade me, to make a coward of me,
to force me to put personal interests before my most sacred convictions.

Billing. That is too much--I'm damned if it isn't.

Hovstad. Oh, you mustn't be surprised at anything from that quarter.

Dr. Stockmann. Well, they will get the worst of it with me; they may
assure themselves of that. I shall consider the "People's Messenger" my
sheet-anchor now, and every single day I will bombard them with one
article after another, like bombshells--

Aslaksen. Yes, but

Billing. Hurrah!--it is war, it is war!

Dr. Stockmann. I shall smite them to the ground--I shall crush them--I
shall break down all their defenses, before the eyes of the honest
public! That is what I shall do!

Aslaksen, Yes, but in moderation, Doctor--proceed with moderation.

Billing. Not a bit of it, not a bit of it! Don't spare the dynamite!

Dr. Stockmann. Because it is not merely a question of water-supply and
drains now, you know. No--it is the whole of our social life that we
have got to purify and disinfect--

Billing. Spoken like a deliverer!

Dr. Stockmann. All the incapables must be turned out, you
understand--and that in every walk of life! Endless vistas have opened
themselves to my mind's eye today. I cannot see it all quite clearly
yet, but I shall in time. Young and vigorous standard-bearers--those
are what we need and must seek, my friends; we must have new men in
command at all our outposts.