try to rise above the wretched stench of it, which only makes us ill. The
big countries and big circumstances should be our model. Everything grows,
even the small things, unless they're predestined to a Lilliput existence.
A child can learn from another child, of course, but the model is the
adult. Some day the child will be an adult itself. A pretty state of
affairs it would be if an eternal child, a born pygmy, were to be its
model! But that's what all this rubbish about Switzerland really amounts
to. Why on earth should we, of all people, take the smallest and meanest
country as our model? Things are small enough here anyhow. Switzerland is
the serf of Europe. Have you ever heard of a young South American country
of Norway's size trying to be on a level with Switzerland? Why do you
think Sweden is taking such great strides forward now? Not because it
looks to Switzerland, or to Norway, but to Germany! Honor to Sweden for
that! But what about us? We don't want to be a piddling little nation
stuck up in our mountains, a nation that brings forth peace conferences,
ski-runners, and an Ibsen once every thousand years; we have
potentialities for a thousand times more--"

The lawyer had for some time been holding up his hand to indicate that he
wanted to reply; now he shouted at the top of his voice:

"Just a moment!"

The Associate Master stopped.

"Just one question--a small, trifling question," said the lawyer,
preparing his ground well. "Have you ever once set foot in the country you
speak of?"

"I should think I have," replied the Associate Master.