[With importance.]
The degree of vulgarity our people have reached is incredible.
FRAU LUND. And you have been the "persistent collector" of this
vulgarity?
DR. WASNER. Let me assure you that I took upon myself this task
with loathing.
HAUSER. Herr Professor, in all my life I have never met a man who
for four years voluntarily did something which was loathsome to
him.
DR. WASNER. You have no business to make such a remark.
HAUSER. Have you derived no satisfaction from it at all?
DR. WASNER. Satisfaction--if you mean the satisfaction of
participating in the uplift of our people.
FRAU LUND. Uplift? Our reformers capitalize our national lack of
good taste. Good proof of that are the moral works of art which
you patronize.
DR. WASNER. The matter we are discussing is more serious than
reforming bad taste.
FRAU LUND. There is nothing more serious.
DR. WASNER [knowingly]. If you but knew, Frau Lund!
FRAU LUND. I don't have to call and see your collection. Frankly,
to me, the most obscene picture in your gallery could not be more
disgusting than the talk you carry on in your meetings.
BEERMANN. Oh! Oh!
FRAU LUND. The nudity of the human body is not disgusting. It is
the nudity of your mind. No vice is as repulsive as that virtue of
yours which loudly uncovers itself in public--in market places.
Vice has at least the shame to hide itself.
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