cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

labor. The reward which lies in the labor is understood to be the benefit which is joined
to the activity itself without respect to the results of the same, and here then must
especially be included: that the body is strengthened and, as a consequence of that, the
health is maintained, that the mind is encouraged and improved, inasmuch as the thought
is directed towards a useful goal, that the ideas are clarified and a continually wider and
wider field is opened for the inquiring mind, whereby the spiritual activity produces the
consciousness of having made a step forward towards a great goal, perfection, insofar as
it is given to the human race at any time here in life to reach this point.
3. Why should a nation seek to preserve the language and memory of its ancestors?
It is only by the continued influence through the centuries of the traditions of the
past from generation to generation that the distinctive character in conceptions and
perceptions is capable of developing itself, when it appears sharply enough defined,
finally acquiring the name of a people's national character, while the results achieved by
the ancestors are the succeeding generations' possession, and this possession is common
for every individual of the society to which he belongs; but it is precisely in this common
right of acquisition that the reason must be sought for the inner unity and the outer
limitation which alone is capable of maintaining a people's existence, since it is here that
nationality has its root, or perhaps more correctly, this is nationality itself.
But if the bond which knits a nation's individuals to each other must be sought
primarily in the common inheritance of the forefathers' conduct and activity, then it must
naturally be important to the nation to acquire for itself the greatest possible security for
the legitimacy whereby it inherits its past; it must seek to maintain and clarify everything
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