Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part one - VI
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lower-class, and they should be fought without mercy. If they have
any power with the poor and weak, they frighten and tyrannize
them till they too become the same. If they are poor and weak
themselves, they give up the struggle, and make their way by
begging and flattering — or plundering if they have an
opportunity.
“No, the ideal is a community governed by upper-class
individuals, for they never fight for themselves; they know their
own endless resources, and they give with open hands to those
who are poorer. They endeavour to bring light and air to
every possibility for good and beauty in the inferior souls —
those who are neither this nor that; good when they can afford
it, bad when the proletariat forces them to be so. The power
should be in the hands of those who feel the responsibility for
every good impulse that is killed.”
“You are wrong about Hans Hermann,” said Cesca quietly.
“It was not for his own sake alone that he rebelled against
social injustice. He, too, spoke of the good impulses that were
wasted. When we walked about it the east end and saw the
pale little children, he said he would like to set fire to the ugly,
sad, crowded barracks where they lived.”
“Mere talk. If the rent had been paid to him....”
“For shame, Gunnar!” said Cesca impetuously.
“All the same he would not have been a socialist if he had
been born rich — but still a true proletarian.”
“Are you sure you would have been a socialist yourself,”
said Cesca, “if you had been born a count, for instance?”
“Mr. Heggen is a count,” said Hjerrild, laughing, “of many
airy castles.”
Heggen sat silent for a minute. “I have never felt I was
born poor,” he said, speaking as if to himself.
“As to Hermann’s love for children,” said Hjerrild, “there
was not much of it for his own child. And the way he treated
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