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

most beautiful league of nations, which rests on a sacred thought, a national unity and
agreement to develop and defend the same idea of freedom.
It lies precisely in the nature of civilization and accordingly in the character of the
most recent times, that the spirit, the idea more and more appears and asserts itself over
the raw power of nature. Not as if the latter should be useless or superfluous; physical
power is necessary precisely to the realization of the idea; but it must more and more
present itself as serving the idea; as ruled by it. Its [power's] actual effect depends more
and more on that it receives from the idea its firm direction and its inner ordering and
economy. The Scandinavian people accordingly will only be able to accomplish anything
significant in the future insofar as they are led by the Scandinavian Idea; only under this
condition can the natural strength and courage inherited from their forefathers have the
right vigor and force and become something other than Thor's prodigious but wasted
accomplishments in Jotunheim.
Therefore let us not disappoint ourselves concerning the nature and significance of
the Scandinavian Idea. It cannot remain standing here as a literary [unity], but must one
day, sooner or later, develop the thought also of political unity, to which it contains the
seed (aspiration). Those for whom it was a consolation that the Scandinavian idea was
only an innocent concern for literature's development, that it only aimed at greater unity
in the bookstore and more rebellion in the literary situation--those who have only dared to
give the idea their approval under this assumption, must be stripped of their delusion, and
the sooner the better. It is better if they desert completely, since the idea is better served
by having the travelers in the middle way and the half-way hucksters as enemies than as
friends. However, it is good that the matter is not carried out precipitately; it will have
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