Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/385

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Rörlund.

My dear Consul, you are almost too scrupulous. If you place the affair in the hands of Providence——

Bernick.

Yes; yes, of course; Providence——

Rörlund.

——you can have nothing to reproach yourself with. Go on and prosper with the railway

Bernick.

Yes, but let us take a peculiar case. Let us suppose a blasting has to be made at a dangerous place; and unless it is carried out, the railway will come to a standstill. Suppose the engineer knows that it will cost the life of the workman who fires the fuse; but fired it must be, and it is the engineer's duty to send a workman to do it.

Rörlund.

H'm——

Bernick.

I know what you will say: It would be heroic if the engineer himself took the match and went and fired the fuse. But no one does such things. So he must sacrifice a workman.

Rörlund.

No engineer among us would ever do that.

Bernick

No engineer in the great nations would think twice about doing it.