of the mind. And that was the spirit it bred--critical and
barren. But these schools of thought are now all we have, and both of
them are bad for us! They have no use for the heart or the imagination;
they do not breed faith or a longing for high achievement. Look at _our_
life! Is our life really our own?

Mrs. Evje. No. You have only to think of our language, our tastes, our
society, our--

The Doctor (interrupting her). Those are the externals of our life,
merely the externals! No, look within--look at such a view of life as
we were talking about, clamouring for "hardening"--is that ours? Can we,
for all our diligence, make as much way in it as, for instance, a born
Parisian journalist?--become like a bar of steel with a point at each
end, a pen-point and a sword-point? _We_ can't do that; the Teutonic
temperament is not fitted for it.

Evje. Oh, we are well on the way towards it. Look at the heartless
intolerance in our politics; it will soon match what you were
describing.

Harald. Everyone that disagrees with you is either an ambitious
scoundrel, or half mad, or a blockhead.

The Doctor (laughing). Yes, and here in the north, in our small
communities, where a man meets all his enemies in the same barber's
shop, we feel it as keenly as if we were digging our knives into each
other! (Seriously.) We may laugh at it, but if we could add up the sum
of suffering that has been caused to families and to individuals--if we
could see the concrete total before us--we should be tempted to believe
that our liberty had been given to us as a curse! For it _is_ a cursed
thing to destroy the humanity that is in us, and make us cruel and hard
to one another.

Harald (getting up, but standing still). But, my good friends, if you
are of the same mind about that, and I with you--what is the next thing
to do?

The Doctor. The next thing to do?

Harald. Naturally, to unite in making an end of it.

Mrs. Evje (as she works). What can _we_ do?

Evje. I am no politician and do not wish to become one.

The Doctor (laughing, and sitting down). No, a politician is a
principle, swathed round with a printed set of directions for use. I
prefer to be allowed to be a human being.

Harald. No one can fairly insist on your taking up any vocation to which
you do not feel you have a calling.

The Doctor. Of course not.

Harald. But one certainly might insist on your not helping to maintain a
condition of affairs that you detest.

A