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diff --git a/30432.txt b/30432.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23a02fa --- /dev/null +++ b/30432.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3540 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Symposium, by G. Lowes Dickinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Modern Symposium + +Author: G. Lowes Dickinson + +Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN SYMPOSIUM *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +A MODERN SYMPOSIUM + + +BY + +G. LOWES DICKINSON + + + + + "LIFE LIKE A DOME OF MANY-COLOURED GLASS + STAINS THE WHITE RADIANCE OF ETERNITY" + + + +LONDON + +GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD + +MUSEUM STREET + + + + + FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1905 + REPRINTED 1930 + REPRINTED 1934 + + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY + UNWIN BROTHERS LTD., WOKING + + + + + FRATRUM SOCIETATI + FRATRUM MINIMUS + + + + +THE SPEAKERS + + + LORD CANTILUPE + A TORY + + ALFRED REMENHAM + A LIBERAL + + REUBEN MENDOZA + A CONSERVATIVE + + GEORGE ALLISON + A SOCIALIST + + ANGUS MACCARTHY + AN ANARCHIST + + HENRY MARTIN + A PROFESSOR + + CHARLES WILSON + A MAN OF SCIENCE + + ARTHUR ELLIS + A JOURNALIST + + PHILIP AUDUBON + A MAN OF BUSINESS + + AUBREY CORYAT + A POET + + SIR JOHN HARINGTON + A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE + + WILLIAM WOODMAN + A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS + + GEOFFRY VIVIAN + A MAN OF LETTERS + + + + +A MODERN SYMPOSIUM + +SOME of my readers may have heard of a club known as the Seekers. It +is now extinct; but in its day it was famous, and included a number of +men prominent in politics or in the professions. We used to meet once +a fortnight on the Saturday night, in London during the winter, but in +the summer usually at the country house of one or other of the members, +where we would spend the week-end together. The member in whose house +the meeting was held was chairman for the evening; and after the paper +had been read it was his duty to call upon the members to speak in what +order he thought best. On the occasion of the discussion which I am to +record, the meeting was held in my own house, where I now write, on the +North Downs. The company was an interesting one. There was Remenham, +then Prime Minister, and his great antagonist Mendoza, both of whom +were members of our society. For we aimed at combining the most +opposite elements, and were usually able, by a happy tradition +inherited from our founder, to hold them suspended in a temporary +harmony. Then there was Cantilupe, who had recently retired from +public life, and whose name, perhaps, is already beginning to be +forgotten. Of younger men we had Allison, who, though still engaged in +business, was already active in his socialist propaganda. Angus +MacCarthy, too, was there, a man whose tragic end at Saint Petersburg +is still fresh in our minds. And there were others of less note; +Wilson, the biologist, Professor Martin, Coryat, the poet, and one or +two more who will be mentioned in their place. + +After dinner, the time of year being June, and the weather unusually +warm, we adjourned to the terrace for our coffee and cigars. The air +was so pleasant and the prospect so beautiful, the whole weald of +Sussex lying before us in the evening light, that it was suggested we +should hold our meeting there rather than indoors. This was agreed. +But it then transpired that Cantilupe, who was to have read the paper, +had brought nothing to read. He had forgotten, or he had been too +busy. At this discovery there was a general cry of protest. +Cantilupe's proposition that we should forgo our discussion was +indignantly scouted; and he was pressed to improvise something on the +lines of what he had intended to write. This, however, he steadily +declined to attempt; and it seemed as though the debate would fall +through, until it occurred to me to intervene in my capacity as +chairman. + +"Cantilupe," I said, "certainly ought to be somehow penalized. And +since he declines to improvise a paper, I propose that he improvise a +speech. He is accustomed to doing that; and since he has now retired +from public life, this may be his last opportunity. Let him employ it, +then, in doing penance. And the penance I impose is, that he should +make a personal confession. That he should tell us why he has been a +politician, why he has been, and is, a Tory, and why he is now retiring +in the prime of life. I propose, in a word, that he should give us his +point of view. That will certainly provoke Remenham, on whom I shall +call next. He will provoke someone else. And so we shall all find +ourselves giving our points of view, and we ought to have a very +interesting evening." This suggestion was greeted, if not with +enthusiasm, at least with acquiescence. Cantilupe at first objected +strongly, but yielded to pressure, and on my calling formally upon him +rose reluctantly from his seat. For a minute or two he stood silent, +humping his shoulders and smiling through his thick beard. Then, in +his slow, deliberate way, he began as follows: + +"Why I went into politics? Why did I? I'm sure I don't know. +Certainly I wasn't intended for it. I was intended for a country +gentleman, and I hope for the rest of my life to be one; which, +perhaps, if I were candid, is the real reason of my retirement. But I +was pushed into politics when I was young, as a kind of family duty; +and once in it's very hard to get out again. I'm coming out now +because, among other things, there's no longer any place for me. +Toryism is dead. And I, as you justly describe me, am a Tory. But you +want to know why? Well, I don't know that I can tell you. Perhaps I +ought to be able to. Remenham, I know, can and will give you the +clearest possible account of why he is a Liberal. But then Remenham +has principles; and I have only prejudices. I am a Tory because I was +born one, just as another man is a Radical because he was born one. +But Remenham, I really believe, is a Liberal, because he has convinced +himself that he ought to be one. I admire him for it, but I am quite +unable to understand him. And, for my own part, if I am to defend, or +rather to explain myself, I can only do so by explaining my prejudices. +And really I am glad to have the opportunity of doing so, if only +because it is a satisfaction occasionally to say what one thinks; a +thing which has become impossible in public life. + +"The first of my prejudices is that I believe in inequality. I'm not +at all sure that that is a prejudice confined to myself--most people +seem to act upon it in practice, even in America. But I not only +recognize the fact, I approve the ideal of inequality. I don't want, +myself, to be the equal of Darwin or of the German Emperor; and I don't +see why anybody should want to be my equal. I like a society properly +ordered in ranks and classes. I like my butcher or my gardener to take +off his hat to me, and I like, myself, to stand bareheaded in the +presence of the Queen. I don't know that I'm better or worse than the +village carpenter; but I'm different; and I like him to recognize that +fact, and to recognize it myself. In America, I am told, everyone is +always informing you, in everything they do and say, directly or +indirectly, that they are as good as you are. That isn't true, and if +it were, it isn't good manners to keep saying it. I prefer a society +where people have places and know them. They always do have places in +any possible society; only, in a democratic society, they refuse to +recognize them; and, consequently, social relations are much ruder, +more unpleasant and less humane than they are, or used to be, in +England. That is my first prejudice; and it follows, of course, that I +hate the whole democratic movement. I see no sense in pretending to +make people equal politically when they're unequal in every other +respect. Do what you may, it will always be a few people that will +govern. And the only real result of the extension of the franchise has +been to transfer political power from the landlords to the trading +classes and the wire-pullers. Well, I don't think the change is a good +one. And that brings me to my second prejudice, a prejudice against +trade. I don't mean, of course, that we can do without it. A country +must have wealth, though I think we were a much better country when we +had less than we have now. Nor do I dispute that there are to be found +excellent, honourable, and capable men of business. But I believe that +the pursuit of wealth tends to unfit men for the service of the state. +And I sympathize with the somewhat extreme view of the ancient world +that those who are engaged in trade ought to be excluded from public +functions. I believe in government by gentlemen; and the word +gentleman I understand in the proper, old-fashioned English sense, as a +man of independent means, brought up from his boyhood in the atmosphere +of public life, and destined either for the army, the navy, the Church, +or Parliament. It was that kind of man that made Rome great, and that +made England great in the past; and I don't believe that a country will +ever be great which is governed by merchants and shopkeepers and +artisans. Not because they are not, or may not be, estimable people; +but because their occupations and manner of life unfit them for public +service. + +"Well, that is the kind of feeling--I won't call it a principle--which +determined my conduct in public life. And you will remember that it +seemed to be far more possible to give expression to it when first I +entered politics than it is now. Even after the first Reform +Act--which, in my opinion was conceived upon the wrong lines--the +landed gentry still governed England; and if I could have had my way +they would have continued to do so. It wasn't really parliamentary +reform that was wanted; it was better and more intelligent government. +And such government the then ruling class was capable of supplying, as +is shown by the series of measures passed in the thirties and forties, +the new Poor Law and the Public Health Acts and the rest. Even the +repeal of the Corn Laws shows at least how capable they were of +sacrificing their own interests to the nation; though otherwise I +consider that measure the greatest of their blunders. I don't profess +to be a political economist, and I am ready to take it from those whose +business it is to know that our wealth has been increased by Free +Trade. But no one has ever convinced me, though many people have +tried, that the increase of wealth ought to be the sole object of a +nation's policy. And it is surely as clear as day that the policy of +Free Trade has dislocated the whole structure of our society. It has +substituted a miserable city-proletariat for healthy labourers on the +soil; it has transferred the great bulk of wealth from the +country-gentleman to the traders; and in so doing it has more and more +transferred power from those who had the tradition of using it to those +who have no tradition at all except that of accumulation. The very +thing which I should have thought must be the main business of a +statesman--the determination of the proper relations of classes to one +another--we have handed over to the chances of competition. We have +abandoned the problem in despair, instead of attempting to solve it; +with the result, that our population--so it seems to me--is daily +degenerating before our eyes, in physique, in morals, in taste, in +everything that matters; while we console ourselves with the increasing +aggregate of our wealth. Free Trade, in my opinion, was the first +great betrayal by the governing class of the country and themselves, +and the second was the extension of the franchise. I do not say that I +would not have made any change at all in the parliamentary system that +had been handed down to us. But I would never have admitted, even +implicitly, that every man has a right to vote, still less that all +have an equal right. For society, say what we may, is not composed of +individuals but of classes; and by classes it ought to be represented. +I would have enfranchised peasants, artisans, merchants, manufacturers, +as such, taking as my unit the interest, not the individual, and +assigning to each so much weight as would enable its influence to be +felt, while preserving to the landed gentry their preponderance. That +would have been difficult, no doubt, but it would have been worth +doing; whereas it was, to my mind, as foolish as it was easy simply to +add new batches of electors, till we shall arrive, I do not doubt, at +what, in effect, is universal suffrage, without having ever admitted to +ourselves that we wanted to have it. + +"But what has been done is final and irremediable. Henceforth, +numbers, or rather those who control numbers, will dominate England; +and they will not be the men under whom hitherto she has grown great. +For people like myself there is no longer a place in politics. And +really, so far as I am personally concerned, I am rather glad to know +it. Those who have got us into the mess must get us out of it. +Probably they will do so, in their own way; but they will make, in the +process, a very different England from the one I have known and +understood and loved. We shall have a population of city people, +better fed and housed, I hope, than they are now, clever and quick and +smart, living entirely by their heads, ready to turn out in a moment +for use everything they know, but knowing really very little, and not +knowing it very well. There will be fewer of the kind of people in +whom I take pleasure, whom I like to regard as peculiarly English, and +who are the products of the countryside; fellows who grow like +vegetables, and, without knowing how, put on sense as they put on flesh +by an unconscious process of assimilation; who will stand for an hour +at a time watching a horse or a pig, with stolid moon-faces as +motionless as a pond; the sort of men that visitors from town imagine +to be stupid because they take five minutes to answer a question, and +then probably answer by asking another; but who have stored up in them +a wealth of experience far too extensive and complicated for them ever +to have taken account of it. They live by their instincts not their +brains; but their instincts are the slow deposit of long years of +practical dealings with nature. That is the kind of man I like. And I +like to live among them in the way I do--in a traditional relation +which it never occurs to them to resent, any more than it does to me to +abuse it. That sort of relation you can't create; it has to grow, and +to be handed down from father to son. The new men who come on to the +land never manage to establish it. They bring with them the isolation +which is the product of cities. They have no idea of any tie except +that of wages; the notion of neighbourliness they do not understand. +And that reminds me of a curious thing. People go to town for society; +but I have always found that there is no real society except in the +country. We may be stupid there, but we belong to a scheme of things +which embodies the wisdom of generations. We meet not in +drawing-rooms, but in the hunting-field, on the county-bench, at +dinners of tenants or farmers' associations. Our private business is +intermixed with our public. Our occupation does not involve +competition; and the daily performance of its duties we feel to be +itself a kind of national service. That is an order of things which I +understand and admire, as my fathers understood and admired it before +me. And that is why I am a Tory; not because of any opinions I hold, +but because that is my character. I stood for Toryism while it meant +something; and now that it means nothing, though I stand for it no +longer, still I can't help being it. The England that is will last my +time; the England that is to be does not interest me; and it is as well +that I should have nothing to do with directing it. + +"I don't know whether that is a sufficient account of the question I +was told to answer; but it's the best I can make, and I think it ought +to be sufficient. I always imagine myself saying to God, if He asks me +to give an account of myself: 'Here I am, as you made me. You can take +me or leave me. If I had to live again I would live just so. And if +you want me to live differently, you must make me different.' I have +championed a losing cause, and I am sorry it has lost. But I do not +break my heart about it. I can still live for the rest of my days the +life I respect and enjoy. And I am content to leave the nation in the +hands of Remenham, who, as I see, is all impatience to reply to my +heresies." + +REMENHAM in fact was fidgeting in his chair as though he found it hard +to keep his seat; and I should have felt bound in pity to call upon him +next, even if I had not already determined to do so. He rose with +alacrity; and it was impossible not to be struck by the contrast he +presented to Cantilupe. His elastic upright figure, his firm chin, the +exuberance of his gestures, the clear ring of his voice, expressed +admirably the intellectual and nervous force which he possessed in a +higher degree than any man I have ever come across. He began without +hesitation, and spoke throughout with the trained and facile eloquence +of which he was master. "I shall, I am sure, be believed," he said, +"when I emphatically assert that nothing could be more distressing to +me than the notion--if I should be driven to accept it--that the +liberal measures on which, in my opinion, the prosperity and the true +welfare of the country depends should have, as one of their incidental +concomitants, the withdrawal from public life of such men as our friend +who has just sat down. We need all the intellectual and moral +resources of the country; and among them I count as not the least +valuable and fruitful the stock of our ancient country gentlemen. I +regretted the retirement of Lord Cantilupe on public as well as on +personal grounds; and my regret is only tempered, not altogether +removed, when I see how well, how honourably and how happily he is +employing his well-deserved leisure. But I am glad to know that we +have still, and to believe that we shall continue to have, in the great +Council of the nation, men of his distinguished type and tradition to +form one, and that not the least important, of the balances and +counter-checks in the great and complicated engine of state. + +"When, however, he claims--or perhaps I should rather say desires--for +the distinguished order of which he is a member, an actual and +permanent preponderance in the state, there, I confess, I must part +company with him. Nay, I cannot even accept the theory, to which he +gave expression, of a fixed and stable representation of interests. It +is indeed true that society, by the mysterious dispensation of the +Divine Being, is wonderfully compounded of the most diverse elements +and classes, corresponding to the various needs and requirements of +human life. And it is an ancient theory, supported by the authority of +great names, by Plato, my revered master, the poet-philosopher, by +Aristotle, the founder of political science, that the problem of a +statesman is so to adjust these otherwise discordant elements as to +form once for all in the body-politic a perfect, a final and immutable +harmony. There is, according to this view, one simple chord and one +only, which the great organ of society is adapted to play; and the +business of the legislator is merely to tune the instrument so that it +shall play it correctly. Thus, if Plato could have had his way, his +great common chord, his harmony of producers, soldiers and +philosophers, would still have been droning monotonously down the ages, +wherever men were assembled to dwell together. Doubtless the concord +he conceived was beautiful. But the dissonances he would have +silenced, but which, with ever-augmenting force, peal and crash, from +his day to ours, through the echoing vault of time, embody, as I am apt +to think, a harmony more august than any which even he was able to +imagine, and in their intricate succession weave the plan of a +world-symphony too high to be apprehended save in part by our grosser +sense, but perceived with delight by the pure intelligence of immortal +spirits. It is indeed the fundamental defect of all imaginary +polities--and how much more of such as fossilize, without even +idealizing, the actual!--that even though they be perfect, their +perfection is relative only to a single set of conditions; and that +could they perpetuate themselves they would also perpetuate these, +which should have been but brief and transitory phases in the history +of the race. Had it been possible for Plato to establish over the +habitable globe his golden chain of philosophic cities, he would have +riveted upon the world for ever the institutions of slavery and caste, +would have sealed at the source the springs of science and invention, +and imprisoned in perennial impotence that mighty genius of empire +which alone has been able to co-ordinate to a common and beneficent end +the stubborn and rebellious members of this growing creature Man. And +if the imagination of a Plato, permitted to work its will, would thus +have sterilized the germs of progress, what shall we say of such men as +ourselves imposing on the fecundity of nature the limits and rules of +our imperfect mensuration! Rather should we, in humility, submit +ourselves to her guidance, and so adapt our institutions that they +shall hamper as little as may be the movements and forces operating +within them. For it is by conflict, as we have now learnt, that the +higher emerges from the lower, and nature herself, it would almost +seem, does not direct but looks on, as her world emerges in painful +toil from chaos. We do not find her with precipitate zeal intervening +to arrest at a given point the ferment of creation; stretching her hand +when she sees the gleam of the halcyon or the rose to bid the process +cease that would destroy them; and sacrificing to the completeness of +those lower forms the nobler imperfection of man and of what may lie +beyond him. She looks always to the end; and so in our statesmanship +should we, striving to express, not to limit, by our institutions the +forces with which we have to deal. Our polity should grow, like a +skin, upon the living tissue of society. For who are we that we should +say to this man or that, go plough, keep shop, or govern the state? +That we should say to the merchant, 'thus much power shall be yours,' +and to the farmer, 'thus much yours?' No! rather let us say to each +and to all, Take the place you can, enjoy the authority you can win! +Let our constitution express the balance of forces in our society, and +as they change let the disposition of power change with them! That is +the creed of liberalism, supported by nature herself, and sanctioned, I +would add with reverence, by the Almighty Power, in the disposition and +order of His stupendous creation. + +"But it is not a creed that levels, nor one that destroys. None can +have more regard than I--not Cantilupe himself--for our ancient crown, +our hereditary aristocracy. These, while they deserve it--and long may +they do so!--will retain their honoured place in the hearts and +affections of the people. Only, alongside of them, I would make room +for all elements and interests that may come into being in the natural +course of the play of social forces. But these will be far too +numerous, far too inextricably interwoven, too rapidly changing in +relative weight and importance, for the intelligence of man to attempt, +by any artificial scheme, to balance and adjust their conflicting +claims. Open to all men equally, within the limits of prudence, the +avenue to political influence, and let them use, as they can and will, +in combined or isolated action, the opportunities thus liberally +bestowed. That is the key-note of the policy which I have consistently +adopted from my entrance into public life, and which I am prepared to +prosecute to the end, though that end should be the universal suffrage +so dreaded by the last speaker. He tells me it is a policy of reckless +abandonment. But abandonment to what? Abandonment to the people! And +the question is, Do we trust the people? I do; he does not! There, I +venture to think, is the real difference between us. + +"Yes, I am not ashamed to say it, I trust the People! What should I +trust, if I could not trust them? What else is a nation but an +assemblage of the talents, the capacities, the virtues of the citizens +of whom it is composed? To utilize those talents, to evoke those +capacities, to offer scope and opportunity to those virtues, must be +the end and purpose of every great and generous policy; and to that +end, up to the measure of my powers, I have striven to minister, not +rashly, I hope, nor with impatience, but in the spirit of a sober and +assured faith. + +"Such is my conception of liberalism. But if liberalism has its +mission at home, not less important are its principles in the region of +international relations. I will not now embark on the troubled sea of +foreign policy. But on one point I will touch, since it was raised by +the last speaker, and that is the question of our foreign trade. In no +department of human activity, I will venture to say, are the intentions +of the Almighty more plainly indicated, than in this of the interchange +of the products of labour. To each part of the habitable globe have +been assigned its special gifts for the use and delectation of Man; to +every nation its peculiar skill, its appropriate opportunities. As the +world was created for labour, so it was created for exchange. Across +the ocean, bridged at last by the indomitable pertinacity of art, the +granaries of the new world call, in their inexhaustible fecundity for +the iron and steel, the implements and engines of the old. The +shepherd-kings of the limitless plains of Australia, the Indian ryot, +the now happily emancipated negro of Georgia and Carolina, feed and are +fed by the factories and looms of Manchester and Bradford. Pall Mall +is made glad with the produce of the vineyards of France and Spain; and +the Italian peasant goes clad in the labours of the Leicester artisan. +The golden chain revolves, the silver buckets rise and fall; and one to +the other passes on, as it fills and overflows, the stream that pours +from Nature's cornucopia! Such is the law ordained by the Power that +presides over the destinies of the world; and not all the interferences +of man with His beneficent purposes can avail altogether to check and +frustrate their happy operation. Yet have the blind cupidity, the +ignorant apprehensions of national zeal dislocated, so far as was +possible, the wheels and cogs of the great machine, hampered its +working and limited its uses. And if there be anything of which this +great nation may justly boast, it is that she has been the first to +tear down the barriers and dams of a perverted ingenuity, and to admit +in unrestricted plenitude to every channel of her verdant meadows the +limpid and fertilizing stream of trade. + +"Verily she has had her reward! Search the records of history, and you +will seek in vain for a prosperity so immense, so continuous, so +progressive, as that which has blessed this country in the last +half-century of her annals. This access of wealth was admitted indeed +by the speaker who preceded me. But he complained that we had taken no +account of the changes which the new system was introducing into the +character and occupations of the people. It is true; and he would be a +rash man who should venture to forecast and to determine the remoter +results of such a policy; or should shrink from the consequences of +liberty on the ground that he cannot anticipate their character. Which +of us would have the courage, even if he had the power, to impose upon +a nation for all time the form of its economic life, the type of its +character, the direction of its enterprise? The possibilities that lie +in the womb of Nature are greater than we can gauge; we can but +facilitate their birth, we may not prescribe their anatomy. The evils +of the day call for the remedies of the day; but none can anticipate +with advantage the necessities of the future. And meantime what cause +is there for misgiving? I confess that I see none. The policy of +freedom has been justified, I contend, by its results. And so +confident am I of this, that the time, I believe, is not far distant, +when other countries will awake at last to their own true interests and +emulate, not more to their advantage than to ours, our fiscal +legislation. I see the time approaching when the nations of the world, +laying aside their political animosities, will be knitted together in +the peaceful rivalry of trade; when those barriers of nationality which +belong to the infancy of the race will melt and dissolve in the +sunshine of science and art; when the roar of the cannon will yield to +the softer murmur of the loom, and the apron of the artisan, the blouse +of the peasant be more honourable than the scarlet of the soldier; when +the cosmopolitan armies of trade will replace the militia of death; +when that which God has joined together will no longer be sundered by +the ignorance, the folly, the wickedness of man; when the labour and +the invention of one will become the heritage of all; and the peoples +of the earth meet no longer on the field of battle, but by their chosen +delegates, as in the vision of our greatest poet, in the 'Parliament of +Man, the Federation of the World.'" + +WITH this peroration Remenham resumed his seat. He had spoken, as +indeed was his habit, rather as if he were addressing a public meeting +than a company of friends. But at least he had set the ball rolling. +To many of those present, as I well knew, his speech and his manner +must have been eminently provocative; and naturally to none more than +to Mendoza. I had, therefore, no hesitation in signalling out the +Conservative chief to give us the opposite point of view. He responded +with deliberation, lifting from his chest his sinister Jewish face, and +slowly unfolding his long body, while a malicious smile played about +his mouth. + +"One," he began, "who has not the privilege of immediate access to the +counsels of the Divine Being cannot but feel himself at a disadvantage +in following a man so favoured as my distinguished friend. The +disadvantage, however, is one to which I have had, perforce, to grow +accustomed during long years of parliamentary strife, I have resigned +myself to creeping where he soars, to guessing where he prophesies. +But there is compensation everywhere. And, perhaps, there are certain +points which may be revealed to babes and sucklings, while they are +concealed from beings more august. The worm, I suppose, must be aware +of excrescences and roughnesses of the soil which escape the more +comprehensive vision of the eagle; and to the worm, at least, these are +of more importance than mountain ranges and oceans which he will never +reach. It is from that humble point of view that I shall offer a few +remarks supplementary to, perhaps even critical of, the eloquent +apostrophe we have been permitted to enjoy. + +"The key-note of my friend's address was liberty. There is no British +heart which does not beat higher at the sound of that word. But while +I listened to his impassioned plea, I could not help wondering why he +did not propose to dispense to us in even larger and more liberal +measure the supreme and precious gift of freedom. True, he has done +much to remove the barriers that separated nation from nation, and man +from man. But how much remains to be accomplished before we can be +truly said to have brought ourselves into line with Nature! Consider, +for example, the policeman! Has my friend ever reflected on all that +is implied in that solemn figure; on all that it symbolizes of +interference with the purposes of a beneficent Creator? The policeman +is a permanent public defiance of Nature. Through him the weak rule +the strong, the few the many, the intelligent the fools. Through him +survive those whom the struggle for existence should have eliminated. +He substitutes the unfit for the fit. He dislocates the economy of the +universe. Under his shelter take root and thrive all monstrous and +parasitic growths. Marriage clings to his skirts, property nestles in +his bosom. And while these flourish, where is liberty? The law of +Nature we all know: + + The good old rule, the ancient plan + That he should take who has the power, + And he should keep who can! + + +"But this, by the witchcraft of property, we have set aside. Our walls +of brick and stone we have manned with invisible guards. We have +thronged with fiery faces and arms the fences of our gardens and parks. +The plate-glass of our windows we have made more impenetrable than +adamant. To our very infants we have given the strength of giants. +Babies surfeit, while strong men starve; and the foetus in the womb +stretches out unformed hands to annex a principality. Is this liberty? +Is this Nature? No! It is a Merlin's prison! Yet, monstrous, it +subsists! Has our friend, then, no power to dissolve the charm? Or, +can it be that he has not the will? + +"Again, can we be said to be free, can we be said to be in harmony with +Nature, while we endure the bonds of matrimony? While we fetter the +happy promiscuity of instinct, and subject our roving fancy to the +dominion of 'one unchanging wife?' Here, indeed, I frankly admit, +Nature has her revenges; and an actual polygamy flourishes even under +the aegis of our law. But the law exists; it is the warp on which, by +the woof of property, we fashion that Nessus-shirt, the Family, in +which, we have swathed the giant energies of mankind. But while that +shirt clings close to every limb, what avails it, in the name of +liberty, to snap, here and there, a button or a lace? A more heroic +work is required of the great protagonist, if, indeed, he will follow +his mistress to the end. He shakes his head. What! Is his service, +then, but half-hearted after all? Or, can it be, that behind the mask +of the goddess he begins to divine the teeth and claws of the brute? +But if nature be no goddess, how can we accept her as sponsor for +liberty? And if liberty be taken on its own merits, how is it to be +distinguished from anarchy? How, but by the due admixture of coercion? +And, that admitted, must we not descend from the mountain-top of +prophecy to the dreary plains of political compromise?" + +Up to this point Mendoza had preserved that tone of elaborate irony +which, it will be remembered, was so disconcerting to English +audiences, and stood so much in the way of his popularity. But now his +manner changed. Becoming more serious, and I fear I must add, more +dull than I had ever heard him before, he gave us what I suppose to be +the most intimate exposition he had ever permitted himself to offer of +the Conservative point of view as he understood it. + +"These," he resumed, "are questions which I must leave my friend to +answer for himself. The ground is too high for me. I have no skill in +the flights of speculation. I take no pleasure in the enunciation of +principles. To my restricted vision, placed as I am upon the earth, +isolated facts obtrude themselves with a capricious particularity which +defies my powers of generalization. And that, perhaps, is the reason +why I attached myself to the party to which I have the honour to +belong. For it is, I think, the party which sees things as they are; +as they are, that is, to mere human vision. Remenham, in his haste, +has called us the party of reaction. I would rather say, we are the +party of realism. We have in view, not Man, but Englishmen; not ideal +polities, but the British Constitution; not Political Economy, but the +actual course of our trade. Through this great forest of fact, this +tangle of old and new, these secular oaks, sturdy shrubs, beautiful +parasitic creepers, we move with a prudent diffidence, following the +old tracks, endeavouring to keep them open, but hesitating to cut new +routes till we are clear as to the goal for which we are asked to +sacrifice our finest timber. Fundamental changes we regard as +exceptional and pathological. Yet, being bound by no theories, when we +are convinced of their necessity, we inaugurate them boldly and carry +them through to the end. And thus it is that having decided that the +time had come to call the people to the councils of the nation, we +struck boldly and once for all by a measure which I will never +admit--and here I regret that Cantilupe is not with me--which I will +never admit to be at variance with the best, and soundest traditions of +conservatism. + +"But such measures are exceptional, and we hope they will be final. We +take no delight in tinkering the constitution. The mechanism of +government we recognize to be only a means; the test of the statesman +is his power to govern. And remaining, as we do, inaccessible to that +gospel of liberty of which our opponents have had a special revelation, +we find in the existing state of England much that appears to us to +need control. We are unable to share the optimism which animates +Remenham and his friends as to the direction and effects of the new +forces of industry. Above the whirr of the spindle and the shaft we +hear the cry of the poor. Behind our flourishing warehouses and shops +we see the hovels of the artisan. We watch along our highroads the +long procession of labourers deserting their ancestral villages for the +cities; we trace them to the slum and the sweater's den; we follow them +to the poorhouse and the prison; we see them disappear engulfed in the +abyss, while others press at their heels to take their place and share +their destiny. And in face of all this we do not think it to be our +duty to fold our arms and invoke the principle of liberty. We feel +that we owe it to the nation to preserve intact its human heritage, the +only source of its greatness and its wealth; and we are prepared, with +such wisdom as we have, to legislate to that end, undeterred by the +fear of incurring the charge of socialism. + +"But while we thus concern ourselves with the condition of these +islands, we have not forgotten that we have relations to the world +outside. If, indeed, we could share the views to which Remenham has +given such eloquent expression, this is a matter which would give us +little anxiety. He beholds, as in a vision, the era of peace and +good-will ushered in by the genius of commerce. By a mysterious +dispensation of Providence he sees cupidity and competition furthering +the ends of charity and peace. But here once more I am unable to +follow his audacious flight. Confined to the sphere of observation, I +cannot but note that in the long and sanguinary course of history there +has been no cause so fruitful of war as the rivalries of trade. Our +own annals at every point are eloquent of this truth; nor do I see +anything in the conditions of the modern world that should limit its +application. We have been told that all nations will adopt our fiscal +policy. Why should they, unless it is to their interest? We adopted +it because we thought it was to ours; and we shall abandon it if we +ever change our opinion. And when I say 'interest' I would not be +understood to mean economic interest in the narrower sense. A nation, +like an individual, I conceive, has a personality to maintain. It must +be its object not to accumulate wealth at all costs, but to develop and +maintain capacity, to be powerful, energetic, many-sided, and above all +independent. Whether the policy we have adopted will continue to +guarantee this result, I am not prophet enough to venture to affirm. +But if it does not, I cannot doubt that we shall be driven to revise +it. Nor can I believe that other nations, not even our own colonies, +will follow us in our present policy, if to do so would be to jeopardy +their rising industries and unduly to narrow the scope of their +economic energies. I do not, then, I confess, look forward with +enthusiasm or with hope to the Crystal Palace millennium that inspired +the eloquence of Remenham. I see the future pregnant with wars and +rumours of wars. And in particular I see this nation, by virtue of its +wealth, its power, its unparalleled success, the target for the envy, +the hatred, the cupidity of all the peoples of Europe. I see them +looking abroad for outlets for their expanding population, only to find +every corner of the habitable globe preoccupied by the English race and +overshadowed by the English flag. But from this, which is our main +danger, I conjure my main hope for the future. England is more than +England. She has grown in her sleep. She has stretched over every +continent huge embryo limbs which wait only for the beat of her heart, +the motion of her spirit, to assume their form and function as members +of one great body of empire. The spirit, I think, begins to stir, the +blood to circulate. Our colonies, I believe, are not destined to drop +from us like ripe fruit; our dependencies will not fall to other +masters. The nation sooner or later will wake to its imperial mission. +The hearts of Englishmen beyond the seas will beat in unison with ours. +And the federation I foresee is not the federation of Mankind, but that +of the British race throughout the world." + +He paused, and in the stillness that followed we became aware of the +gathering dusk. The first stars were appearing, and the young moon was +low in the west. From the shadow below we heard the murmur of a +fountain, and the call of a nightingale sounded in the wood. Something +in the time and the place must have worked on Mendoza's mood; for when +he resumed it was in a different key. + +"Such," he began, "is my vision, if I permit myself to dream. But who +shall say whether it is more than a dream? There is something in the +air to-night which compels candour. And if I am to tell my inmost +thought, I must confess on what a flood of nescience we, who seem to +direct the affairs of nations, are borne along together with those whom +we appear to control. We are permitted, like children, to lay our +hands upon the reins; but it is a dark and unknown genius who drives. +We are his creatures; and it is his ends, not ours, that are furthered +by our contests, our efforts, our ideals. In the arena Remenham and I +must play our part, combat bravely, and be ready to die when the crowd +turn down their thumbs. But here in a moment of withdrawal, I at least +cannot fail to recognize behind the issues that divide us the tie of a +common destiny. We shall pass and a new generation will succeed us; a +generation to whom our ideals will be irrelevant, our catch-words +empty, our controversies unintelligible. + + Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta + Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt. + + +"The dust of oblivion will bury our debates. Something we shall have +achieved, but not what we intended. My dream may, perhaps, be +furthered by Remenham, and his by me, or, it may be, neither his nor +mine by either. The Providence whose purposes he so readily divines is +dark to me. And perhaps, for that reason, I am able to regard him with +more charity than he has always been willing, I suspect, to extend to +me. This, at any rate, is the moment of truce. The great arena is +empty, the silent benches vanish into the night. Under the glimmer of +the moon figures more than mortal haunt the scene of our ephemeral +contests. It is they which stand behind us and deal the blows which +seem to be ours. When we are laid in the dust they will animate other +combatants; when our names are forgotten they will blazon others in +perishable gold. Why, then, should we strive and cry, even now in the +twilight hour? The same sky encompasses us, the same stars are above +us. What are my opinions, what are Remenham's? Froth on the surface! +The current bears all alike along to the destined end. For a moment +let us meet and feel its silent, irresistible force; and in this moment +reach across the table the hand of peace." + +With that he stretched his hand to Remenham, with a kind of pathos of +appeal that the other, though I think he did not altogether like it, +could hardly refuse to entertain. It was theatrical, it was +un-English, but somehow, it was successful. And the whole episode, the +closing words and the incomparable gesture, left me with a sense as +though a curtain had been drawn upon a phase of our history. Mendoza, +somehow, had shut out Remenham, even more than himself, from the field +on which the issues of the future were to be fought. And it was this +feeling that led me, really a little against my inclination, to select +as the next speaker the man who of all who, made up our company, in +opinions was the most opposed to Remenham, and in temperament to +Mendoza. My choice was Allison, more famous now than he was then, but +known even at that time as an unsparing critic of both parties. He +responded readily enough; and as he began a spell seemed to snap. The +night and the hour were forgotten, and we were back on the dusty field +of controversy. + +"THIS is all very touching," he began, "but Mendoza is shaking hands +with the wrong person. He's much nearer to me than he is to Remenham, +and I don't at all despair of converting him. For he does at least +understand that the character of every society depends upon its law of +property; and he even seems to have a suspicion that the law, as we +have it, is not what you would call absolute perfection. It's true +that he shows no particular inclination to alter it. But that may +come; and I'm not without hope of seeing, before I die, a +Tory-Socialist party. Remenham's is a different case, and I fear +there's nothing to be made of him. He does, I believe, really think +that in some extraordinary way the law of property, like the Anglican +Church, is one of the dispensations of Providence; and that if he +removes all other restrictions, leaving that, he will have what he +calls a natural society. But Nature, as Mendoza has pointed out, is +anarchy. Civilization means restriction; and so does socialism. So +far from being anarchy, it is the very antithesis of it. Anarchy is +the goal of liberalism, if liberalism could ever be persuaded to be +logical. So the scarecrow of anarchy, at least, need not frighten away +any would-be convert to socialism. There remains, it is true, the +other scarecrow, revolution; and that, I admit, has more life in it. +Socialism is revolutionary; but so is liberalism, or was, while it was +anything. Revolution does not imply violence. On the contrary, +violence is the abortion of revolution. Do I, for instance, look like +a Marat or a Danton? I ask you, candidly!" + +He certainly did not. On the contrary, with his short squat figure, +pointed beard and spectacles, he presented a curious blend of the +middle-class Englishman and the German savant. There was a burst of +laughter at his question, in which he joined himself. But when he +resumed it was in a more serious tone and somewhat in the manner of a +lecturer. It was indeed, at that time, very largely by lectures that +he carried on his propaganda. + +"No," he said, "socialism may roar; but, in England at any rate, it +roars as gently as any sucking-dove. Revolution I admit is the goal; +but the process is substitution. We propose to transform society +almost without anyone knowing it; to work from the foundation upwards +without unduly disturbing the superstructure. By a mere adjustment of +rates and taxes we shall redistribute property; by an extension of the +powers of local bodies we shall nationalize industry. But in all this +there need be no shock, no abrupt transition. On the contrary, it is +essential to our scheme that there should not be. We are men of +science and we realize that the whole structure of society rests upon +habit. With the new organization must therefore grow the new habit +that is to support it. To precipitate organic change is merely to +court reaction. That is the lesson of all revolution; and it is one +which English socialists, at any rate, have learnt. We think, +moreover, that capitalist society is, by its own momentum, travelling +towards the goal which we desire. Every consolidation of business upon +a grand scale implies the development of precisely those talents of +organization without which the socialistic state could not come into +being or maintain itself; while at the same time the substitution of +monopoly for competition removes the only check upon the power of +capital to exploit society, and brings home to every citizen in his +tenderest point--his pocket--the necessity for that public control from +which he might otherwise be inclined to shrink. Capitalist society is +thus preparing its own euthanasia; and we socialists ought to be +regarded not as assassins of the old order, but as midwives to deliver +it of the child with which it is in travail. + +"That child will be a society not of liberty but of regulation. It is +here that we join issue not only with doctrinaire liberals, but with +that large body of ordinary common-sense Englishmen who feel a general +and instinctive distrust of all state interference. That distrust, I +would point out, is really an anachronism. It dates from a time when +the state was at once incompetent and unpopular, from the days of +monarchic or aristocratic government carried on frankly in the +interests of particular classes or persons. But the democratic +revolution and the introduction of bureaucracy has swept all that away; +and governments in every civilized country are now moving towards the +ideal of an expert administration controlled by an alert and +intelligent public opinion. Much, it is true, has yet to be done +before that ideal will be realized. In some countries, notably in the +United States, the necessity of the expert has hardly made itself felt. +In others, such as Germany, popular control is very inadequately +provided for. But the tendency is clear; and nowhere clearer than in +this country. Here at any rate we may hopefully look forward to a +continual extension both of the activity and of the intelligence of +public officials; while at the same time, by an appropriate development +of the representative machinery, we may guard ourselves against the +danger of an irresponsible bureaucracy. The problem of reconciling +administrative efficiency with popular control is no doubt a difficult +one; but I feel confident that it can be solved. This perhaps is +hardly the place to develop my favourite idea of the professional +representative; but I may be permitted to refer to it in passing. By a +professional representative I mean one trained in a scientific and +systematic way to elicit the real opinion of his constituents, and to +embody it in practicable proposals. He will have to study what they +really want, not what they think they want, and to discover for himself +in what way it can be obtained. Such men need not be elected; indeed I +am inclined to think that the plan of popular election has had its day. +The essential is that they should be selected by some test of +efficiency, such as examination or previous record, and that they +should keep themselves in constant touch with their constituents. But +I must not dwell upon details. My main object is to show that when +government is in the hands of expert administrators, controlled by +expert representatives, there need be no anxiety felt in extending +indefinitely the sphere of the state. + +"This extension will of course be primarily economic, for, as is now +generally recognized, the whole character of a society depends upon its +economic organization. Revolution, if it is to be profound, must begin +with the organization of industry; but it does not follow that it will +end there. It is a libel on the socialist ideal to call it +materialistic, to say that it is indifferent or hostile to the higher +activities. No one, to begin with, is more conscious than a true +socialist of the importance of science. Not only is the sociology on +which his position is based a branch of science; but it is a +fundamental part of his creed that the progress of man depends upon his +mastery of Nature, and that for acquiring that mastery science is his +only weapon. Again, it is absurd to accuse us of indifference to +ethics. Our standards, indeed, may not be the same as those of +bourgeois society; if they were, that would be their condemnation; for +a new economic regime necessarily postulates a new ethic. But every +regime requires and produces its appropriate standards; and the +socialist regime will be no exception. Our feeling upon that subject +is simply that we need not trouble about the ethic because it will +follow of itself upon the economic revolution. For, as we read +history, the economic factor determines all the others. 'Man ist was +er isst,' as the German said; and morals, art, religion, all the +so-called 'ideal activities,' are just allotropic forms of bread and +meat. They will come by themselves if they are wanted; and in the +socialist state they will be better not worse provided for than under +the present competitive system. For here again the principle of the +expert will come in. It will be the business of the state, if it +determines that such activities ought to be encouraged, to devise a +machinery for selecting and educating men of genius, in proportion to +the demand, and assigning to them their appropriate sphere of activity +and their sufficient wage. This will apply, I conceive, equally to the +ministers of religion as to the professors of the various branches of +art. Nor would I suggest that the socialist community should establish +any one form of religion, seeing that we are not in a position to +determine scientifically which, or whether any, are true. I would give +encouragement to all and several, of course under the necessary +restrictions, in the hope that, in course of time, by a process of +natural selection, that one will survive which is the best adapted to +the new environment. But meantime the advantage of the new over the +old organization is apparent. We shall hear no more of genius starving +in a garret; of ill-paid or over-paid ministers of the gospel; of +privileged and unprivileged sects. All will be orderly, regular, and +secure, as it should be in a civilized state; and for the first time in +history society will be in a position to extract the maximum of good +from those strange and irregular human organizations whose subsistence +hitherto has been so precarious and whose output so capricious and +uncertain. A socialist state, if I may say so, will pigeon-hole +religion, literature and art; and if these are really normal and +fruitful functions they cannot fail, like other functions, to profit by +such treatment. + +"I have thus indicated in outline the main features of the socialist +scheme--an economic revolution accomplished by a gradual and peaceful +transition and issuing in a system of collectivism so complete as to +include all the human activities that are really valuable. But what I +should find it hard to convey, except to an audience prepared by years +of study, is the enthusiasm or rather the grounds for the enthusiasm, +that animates us. Whereas all other political parties are groping in +the dark, relying upon partial and outworn formulae, in which even they +themselves have ceased to believe, we alone advance in the broad +daylight, along a road whose course we clearly trace backward and +forward, towards a goal distinctly seen on the horizon. History and +analysis are our guides; history for the first time comprehended, +analysis for the first time scientifically applied. Unlike all the +revolutionists of the past, we derive our inspiration not from our own +intuitions or ideals, but from the ascertained course of the world. We +co-operate with the universe; and hence at once our confidence and our +patience. We can afford to wait because the force of events is bearing +us on of its own accord to the end we desire. Even if we rest on our +oars, none the less we are drifting onwards; or if we are checked for a +moment the eddy in which we are caught is merely local. Alone among +all politicians we have faith; but our faith is built upon science, and +it is therefore a faith which will endure." + +WITH that Allison concluded; and almost before he had done MacCarthy, +without waiting my summons, had leapt to his feet and burst into an +impassioned harangue. With flashing eyes and passionate gestures he +delivered himself as follows, his Irish accent contrasting pleasantly +with that of the last speaker. + +"May God forgive me," he cried, "that ever I have called myself a +socialist, if this is what socialism means! But it does not! I will +rescue the word! I will reclaim it for its ancient nobler +sense--socialism the dream of the world, the light of the grail on the +marsh, the mystic city of Sarras, the vale of Avalon! Socialism the +soul of liberty, the bond of brotherhood, the seal of equality! Who is +he that with sacrilegious hands would seize our Ariel and prison him in +that tree of iniquity the State? Day is not farther from night, nor +Good from Evil, than the socialism of the Revolution from this of the +desk and the stool, from this enemy wearing our uniform and flaunting +our coat of arms. For nigh upon a century we have fought for liberty; +and now they would make us gaolers to bind our own souls. 1789, 1830, +1848--are these dates branded upon our hearts, only to stamp us as +patient sheep in the flock of bureaucracy? No! They are the symbols +of the spirit; and those whom they set apart, outcasts from the +kingdoms of this world and citizens of the kingdom of God, wherever +they wander are living flames to consume institutions and laws, and to +light in the hearts of men the fires of pity and wrath and love. Our +city is not built with Blue books, nor cemented with office dust; nor +is it bonds of red-tape that make and keep it one. No! it is the +attraction, uncompelled, of spirits made free; the shadowing into +outward form of the eternal joy of the soul!" + +He paused and seemed to collect himself; and then in a quieter tone: +"Socialism," he proceeded, "is one with anarchy! I know the terrors of +that word; but they are the terrors of an evil conscience; for it is +only an order founded on iniquity that dreads disorder. Why do you +fear for your property and lives, you who fear anarchy? It is because +you have stolen the one and misdevoted the other; because you have +created by your laws the man you call the criminal; because you have +bred hunger, and hunger has bred rage. For this I do not blame you, +any more than I blame myself. You are yourselves victims of the system +you maintain, and your enemy, no less than mine, if you knew it, is +government. For government means compulsion, exclusion, distinction, +separation; while anarchy is freedom, union and love. Government is +based on egotism and fear, anarchy on fraternity. It is because we +divide ourselves into nations that we endure the oppression of +armaments; because we isolate ourselves as individuals that we invoke +the protection of laws. If I did not take what my brother needs I +should not fear that he would take it from me; if I did not shut myself +off from his want, I should not deem it less urgent than my own. All +governing persons are persons set apart. And therefore it is that +whether they will or no they are oppressors, or, at best, obstructors. +Shut off from the breath of popular instinct, which is the breath of +life, they cannot feel, and therefore cannot think, rightly. And, in +any case, how could they understand, even with the best will in the +world, the multifarious interests they are expected to control? A man +knows nothing but what he practises; and in every branch of work only +those are fitted to direct who are themselves the workers. +Intellectually, as well as morally, government is eternally bankrupt; +and what is called representative government is no better than any +other, for the governors are equally removed in sympathy and knowledge +from the governed. Nay, experience shows, if we would but admit it, +that under no system have the rulers been more incompetent and corrupt +than under this which we call democratic. Is not the very word +'politician' everywhere a term of reproach? Is not a government office +everywhere synonymous with incapacity and sloth? What a miserable +position is that of a Member of Parliament, compelled to give his vote +on innumerable questions of which he does not understand the rudiments, +and giving it at the dictation of party chiefs who themselves are +controlled by the blind and brainless mechanism of the caucus! The +people are the slaves of their representatives, the representatives of +their chiefs, and the chiefs of a conscienceless machine! And that is +the last word of governmental science! Oh, divine spirit of man, in +what chains have you bound yourself, and call it liberty, and clap your +hands! + +"And then comes one and says, 'because you are free, tie yourself +tighter and tighter in your own bonds!' Are these hands not yours that +fasten the knots? Why then do you fear? Here is a limb free; fasten +it quick! Your head still turns; come, fix it in a vice! Now you are +fast! Now you cannot move! How beautiful, how orderly, how secure! +And this, and this is socialism! And it was to accomplish this that +France opened the sluices that have deluged the earth with blood! +What! we have broken the bonds of iron to bind ourselves in tape! We +have discrowned Napoleon to crown ... to crown...." + +He looked across at Allison, and suddenly pulled himself up. Then, +attempting the tone of exposition, "There is only one way out of it," +he resumed, "the extension of free co-operation in every department of +activity, including those which at present are regulated by the State. +You will say that this is impracticable; but why? Already, in all that +you most care about, that is the method you actually adopt. The +activities of men that are freest in the society in which we live are +those of art and science and amusement. And all these are, I will not +say regulated by, but expressed in, voluntary organizations, clubs, +academies, societies, what you will. The Royal Society and the British +Association are types of the right way of organizing; and it is a way +that should and must be applied throughout the whole structure. Every +trade and business should be conducted by a society voluntarily formed +of all those who choose to engage in it, electing and removing their +own officials, determining their own policy, and co-operating by free +arrangement with other similar bodies. A complex interweaving of such +associations, with order everywhere, compulsion nowhere, is the form of +society to which I look forward, and which I see already growing up +within the hard skin of the older organisms. Rules there will be but +not laws, rules gladly obeyed because they will have been freely +adopted, and because there will be no compulsion upon anyone to remain +within the brotherhood that approves and maintains them. Anarchy is +not the absence of order, it is absence of force; it is the free +outflowing of the spirit into the forms in which it delights; and in +such forms alone, as they grow and change, can it find an expression +which is not also a bondage. You will say this is chimerical. But +look at history! Consider the great achievements of the Middle Age! +Were they not the result of just such a movement as I describe? It was +men voluntarily associating in communes and grouping themselves in +guilds that built the towers and churches and adorned them with the +glories of art that dazzles us still in Italy and France. The history +of the growth of the state, of public authority and compulsion, is the +history of the decline from Florence and Nuremberg to London and New +York. As the power of the state grows the energy of the spirit +dwindles; and if ever Allison's ideal should be realized, if ever the +activity of the state should extend through and through to every +department of life, the universal ease and comfort which may thus be +disseminated throughout society will have been purchased dearly at the +price of the soul. The denizens of that city will be fed, housed and +clothed to perfection; only--and it is a serious drawback--only they +will be dead. + +"Oh!" he broke out, "if I could but get you to see that this whole +order under which you live is artificial and unnecessary! But we are +befogged by the systems we impose upon our imagination and call +science. We have been taught to regard history as a necessary process, +until we come to think it must also be a good one; that all that has +ever happened ought to have happened just so and no otherwise. And +thus we justify everything past and present, however palpably in +contradiction with our own intuitions. But these are mere figments of +the brain. History, for the most part, believe me, is one gigantic +error and crime. It ought to have been other than it was; and we ought +to be other than we are. There is no natural and inevitable evolution +towards good; no co-operating with the universe, other than by +connivance at its crimes. That little house the brain builds to +shelter its own weakness must be torn down if we would face the truth +and pursue the good. Then we shall see amid what blinding storms of +wind and rain, what darkness of elements hostile or indifferent, our +road lies across the mountains towards the city of our desire. Then +and then only shall we understand the spirit of revolution. That there +are things so bad that they can only be burnt up by fire; that there +are obstructions so immense that they can only be exploded by dynamite; +that the work of destruction is a necessary preliminary to the work of +creation, for it is the destruction of the prison walls wherein the +spirit is confined; and that in that work the spirit itself is the only +agent, unhelped by powers of nature or powers of a world beyond--that +is the creed--no, I will not say the creed, that is the insight and +vision by which we of the Revolution live. By that I believe we shall +triumph. But whether we triumph or no, our life itself is a victory, +for it is a life lived in the spirit. To shatter material bonds that +we may bind closer the bonds of the soul, to slough dead husks that we +may liberate living forms, to abolish institutions that we may evoke +energies, to put off the material and put on the spiritual body, that, +whether we fight with the tongue or the sword, is the inspiration of +our movement, that, and that only, is the true and inner meaning of +anarchy. + +"Anarchy is identified with violence; and I will not be so hypocritical +and base as to deny that violence must be one of our means of action. +Force is the midwife of society; and never has radical change been +accomplished without it. What came by the sword by the sword must be +destroyed: and only through violence can violence come to an end. Nay, +I will go further and confess, since here if anywhere we are candid, +that it is the way of violence to which I feel called myself, and that +I shall die as I have lived, an active revolutionary. But because +force is a way, is a necessary way, is my way, I do not imagine that +there is no other. Were it not idle to wish, I could rather wish that +I were a poet or a saint, to serve the same Lord by the gentler weapons +of the spirit. There are anarchists who never made a speech and never +carried a rifle, whom we know as our brothers, though perhaps they know +not us. Two I will name who live for ever, Shelley, the first of +poets, were it not that there is one greater than he, the mystic +William Blake. We are thought of as men of blood; we are hounded over +the face of the globe. And who of our persecutors would believe that +the song we bear in our hearts, some of us, I may speak at least for +one, is the most inspired, the most spiritual challenge ever flung to +your obtuse, flatulent, stertorous England: + + Bring me my bow of burning gold, + Bring me my arrows of desire, + Bring me my spear; O clouds unfold! + Bring me my chariot of fire! + + I will not cease from mental fight, + Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, + Till I have built Jerusalem + In England's green and pleasant land. + + +"England! No, not England, but Europe, America, the world! Where is +Man, the new Man, there is our country. But the new Man is buried in +the old; and wherever he struggles in his tomb, wherever he knocks we +are there to help to deliver him. When the guards sleep, in the +silence of the dawn, rises the crucified Christ. And the angel that +sits at the grave is the angel of Anarchy." + +THUS abruptly he brought to a close his extraordinary peroration, to +which I fear the written word has done but poor justice. A long +silence followed; in it there was borne to us from below the murmur of +the hidden fountain, the wail of the nightingale. It was night now; +the moon had set, and the sky was thick with stars. Among them one +planet was blazing red, just opposite where I sat; and I saw the eyes +of my neighbour, Henry Martin, fixed upon it. He was so lost in +thought that he did not hear me at first when I asked him whether he +would care to follow on. But he assented willingly enough as soon as +he understood. And as he rose I could not help admiring, as I had +often done before, the singular beauty of his countenance. His books, +I think, do him injustice; they are cold and academic. But there was +nothing of that in the man himself; never was spirit so alert; and that +alertness was reflected in his person and bearing, his erect figure, +his brilliant eyes, and the tumultuous sweep of his now whitening +beard. He stood for a moment silent, with his eyes still fixed on the +red star; then began to speak as follows: + +"If," he said, "it be true, as certain mystics maintain, that the world +is an effect of the antagonisms of spiritual beings, having their +stations in opposite quarters of the heavens, then, I think, MacCarthy +and myself must represent such a pair of contraries, and move in an +antithetic balance through the cycle of experience. I, perhaps, am the +Urthona of his prophet Blake, and he the Urizen, or vice versa, it may +be, I cannot tell. But our opposition involves, on my part at least, +no hostility; and looking across to his quarter of the sky I can +readily conceive how proud a fate it must be to burn there, so red, so +sumptuous, and so superb. My own light is pale by comparison, a mere +green and blue; yet it is equally essential; and without it there might +be a danger that he would consume the world. I speak in metaphors, +that I may effect as gently as possible the necessary transition, so +cold and abrupt, from the prophet to the critic. But you, sir, in +calling upon me, knew what you were doing. You knew well that you were +inviting Aquarius to empty his watering-pot on Mars. And Mars, I am +sure, will pardon me if I obey. Unlike all the previous speakers, I +am, by vocation, a sceptic; and the vocation I hold to be a noble one. +There are people who think, perhaps, indeed, there is almost nobody who +does not think, that action is the sole end of life. Criticism, they +hold, is a kind of disease to which some people are subject, and which, +in extreme cases, may easily be fatal. The healthy state, on the other +hand, they think, is that of the enthusiast; of the man who believes +and never doubts. Now, that such a state is happy I am very ready to +admit; but I cannot hold that it is healthy. How could it be, unless +it were based upon a sound, intellectual foundation? But no such +foundation has been or will be reached except through criticism; and +all criticism implies and engenders doubt. A man who has never +experienced, nay, I will say who is not constantly reiterating, the +process of criticism, is a man who has no right to his enthusiasm. For +he has won it at the cost of drugging his mind with passion; and that I +maintain is a bad and wrong thing. I maintain it to be bad and wrong +in itself, and quite apart from any consequences it may produce; for it +is a primary duty to seek what is true and eschew what is false. But +even from the secondary point of view of consequences, I have the +gravest doubts as to the common assumption that the effects of +enthusiasm are always preponderantly if not wholly good. When I +consider, for example, the history of religion, I find no warrant for +affirming that its services have outweighed its disservices. Jesus +Christ, the greatest and, I think, the sanest of enthusiasts, lit the +fires of the Inquisition and set up the Pope at Rome. Mahomet deluged +the earth with blood, and planted the Turk on the Bosphorus. Saint +Frances created a horde of sturdy beggars. Luther declared the Thirty +Years War. Criticism would have arrested the course of these men; but +would the world have been the worse? I doubt it. There would have +been less heat; but there might have been more light. And, for my +part, I believe in light. It may, indeed, be true that intellect +without passion is barren; but it is certain that passion without +intellect is mischievous. And since these powers, which should be +united, are, in fact, at war in the great duel which runs through +history, I take my stand with the intellect. If I must choose, I would +rather be barren than mischievous. But it is my aim to be fruitful and +to be fruitful through criticism. That means, I fear, that I am bound +to make myself unpleasant to everybody. But I do it, not of malice +prepense, but as in duty bound. You will say, perhaps, that that only +makes the matter worse. Well, so be it! I will apologize no more, but +proceed at once to my disagreeable task. + +"Let me say then first, that in listening to the speakers who have +preceded me, while admiring the beauty and ingenuity of the +superstructures they have raised, I have been busy, according to my +practice, in questioning the foundations. And this is the kind of +result I have arrived at. All political convictions vary between the +two extremes which I will call Collectivism and Anarchy. Each of these +pursues at all costs a certain end--Collectivism, order, and Anarchy, +liberty. Each is held as a faith and propagated as a religion. And +between them lie those various compromises between faith and +experience, idea and fact, which are represented by liberalism, +conservatism, and the like. Now, the degree of enthusiasm which +accompanies a belief, is commonly in direct proportion to its freedom +from empirical elements. Simplicity and immediacy are the +characteristics of all passionate conviction. But a critic like myself +cannot believe that in politics, or anywhere in the field of practical +action, any such simple and immediate beliefs are really and wholly +true. Thus, in the case before us, I would point out that neither +liberty nor order are sufficient ends in themselves, though each, I +think, is part of the end. The liberty that is desirable is that of +good people pursuing Good in order; and the order that is desirable is +that of good people pursuing Good in liberty. This is a correction +which, perhaps, both collectivist and anarchist would accept. What +they want, they would say, is that kind of liberty and that kind of +order which I have described. But as liberty and order, so conceived, +imply one another, the difference between the two positions ceases to +be one of ends and becomes one of means. But every problem of means is +one of extreme complexity which can only be solved, in the most +tentative way, by observation and experiment. And opinions based upon +such a process, though they may be strongly held, cannot be held with +the simplicity and force of a religious or ethical intuition. We +might, conceivably, on this basis adopt the position either of the +collectivist or of the anarchist; but we should do so not as +enthusiasts, but as critics, with a full consciousness that we are +resting not upon an absolute principle, but upon a balance of +probabilities. + +"This, then, is the first point I wished to make, that the whole +question is one to be attacked by criticism, not by intuition. But +now, tested by criticism, both the extreme positions suggest the +gravest possible difficulties and doubts. In the case of anarchy, +especially, these force themselves upon the most superficial view. The +anarchist maintains, in effect, that to bring about his ideal of +ordered liberty all you have to do is to abolish government. But he +can point to no experience that will justify such a belief. It is +based upon a theory of human nature which is contradicted by all the +facts known to us. For if men, were it not for government, might be +living in the garden of Eden, how comes it that they ever emerged from +that paradise? No, it is not government that is the root of our +troubles, it is the niggardliness of Nature and the greed of man. And +both these are primitive facts which would be strengthened, not +destroyed, by anarchy. Can it be believed that the result would be +satisfactory? The anarchist may indeed reply that anything would be +better than what exists. And I can well understand how some generous +and sensitive souls, or some victims of intolerable oppression, may be +driven into such counsels. But they are surely counsels of despair. +Or is it possible really to hold--as MacCarthy apparently does--that on +the eve of a bloody revolution, whereby all owners of property will be +summarily deprived of all they have, the friendly and co-operative +instincts of human nature will immediately come into play without +friction; that the infinitely complex problems of production and +distribution will solve themselves, as it were, of their own accord; +that there will be a place ready for everybody to do exactly the work +he wants; that everybody will want to work at something, and will be +contented with the wage assigned him, that there will be no shortage, +no lack of adaptation of demand to supply; and all this achieved, not +by virtue of any new knowledge or new capacity, but simply by a +rearrangement of existing elements? Does anyone, does MacCarthy +really, in a calm moment, believe all this? And is he prepared to +stake society upon his faith? If he be, he is indeed beyond the reach +of my watering-pot. I leave him, therefore, burning luridly and +unsubdued, and pass on to Allison. + +"Allison's flame is gentler; and I would not wish, even if I could, +altogether to extinguish it. But I am anxious, I confess, to temper +it; for in colour, to my taste, it is a little ghastly; and I fear that +if it increased in intensity, it might even become too hot, though I do +not suggest that that is a present danger. To drop the metaphor, my +objections to collectivism are not as fundamental as my objections to +anarchy, nor are they based upon any lack of appreciation of the +advantages of that more equitable distribution of the opportunities of +life which I take to be at the bottom of the collectivist ideal. I do +not share--no man surely who has reflected could share--the common +prejudice that there is something fundamental, natural, and inevitable +about the existing organization of property. On the contrary, it is +clear to me that it is inequitable; and that the substitution of the +system advocated by collectivists would be an immense improvement, if +it could be successfully carried out, and if it did not endanger other +Goods, which may be even more important than equality of opportunity. +Nor do I hold that in a collectivist state there need be any dangerous +relaxation of that motive of self-interest which every reasonable man +must admit to be, up to a point, the most potent source of all +practical energy. I do not see why the state should not pay its +servants according to merit just as private companies do, and make the +rewards of ambition depend on efficiency. In this purely economic +region there is not, so it seems to me, anything absurd or chimerical +in the socialist ideal. My difficulty here is of a different kind. I +do not see how, by the democratic machinery contemplated, it will be +possible to secure officials sufficiently competent and disinterested +to be entrusted with functions so important and so difficult as those +which would be demanded of them under the socialist regime. In a +democracy the government can hardly rise above--in practice, I think, +it tends to fall below--the average level of honesty and intelligence. +In the United States, for example, it is notorious that the whole +machinery of government, and especially of local government, where the +economic functions are important, is exploited by the more unscrupulous +members of the community; and this tendency must be immensely +accentuated in every society in proportion as the functions of +government become important. A socialist state badly administered +would, I believe, be worse than the state under which we live, to the +same degree in which, when well administered, it would be better. And +I do not, I confess, see what guarantees socialists can offer that the +administration will be good. I have far less confidence than Allison +in mere machinery; and I am sure that no machinery will produce good +results in a society where a large proportion of the citizens have no +other idea than to exploit the powers of government in their own +interest. But such, I believe, is the case in existing societies; and +I do not see by what miracle they are going to be transformed. + +"Such is my first difficulty with regard to collectivism. And though +it would not prevent me from supporting, as in fact I do support, +cautious and tentative experiments in the direction of practical +socialism, it does prevent me from looking to a collectivist future +with anything like the breezy confidence which animates Allison. And I +will go further: I will say that no man who possesses an adequate +intelligence, and does not deliberately stifle it, has a right to any +such confidence. Setting aside, however, for the sake of argument, +this difficulty, and admitting the possibility of an honest and +efficient collectivist state, I am confronted with a further and even +graver cause of hesitation. For while I consider that the distribution +of the opportunities of life is, under the existing system, in the +highest degree capricious and inequitable, yet I would prefer such +inequity to the most equitable arrangement in the world if it afforded +a better guarantee for the realization of certain higher goods than +would be afforded by the improved system. And I am not clear in my own +mind, and I do not see how anyone can be clear, that collectivism gives +as good a security as the present system for the realization of these +higher goods. And this brings me back to the question of liberty. On +this point there is, I am well aware, a great deal of cant talked, and +I have no wish to add to it. Under our present arrangements, I admit, +for the great mass of people, there is no liberty worth the name; +seeing that they are bound and tied all their lives to the meanest +necessities. And yet we see that out of the midst of all this chaos of +wrong, there have emerged and do emerge artists, poets, men of science, +saints. And the appearance of such men seems to me to depend on the +fact that a considerable minority have the power to choose, for good or +for evil, their own life, to follow their bent, even in the face of +tremendous difficulties, and perhaps because of those difficulties, in +the more fortunate cases, to realize, at whatever cost of suffering, +great works and great lives. But under the system sketched by Allison +I have the gravest doubts whether any man of genius would ever emerge. +The very fact that everybody's career will be regulated for him, and +his difficulties smoothed away, that, in a word, the open road will +imply the beaten track, will, I fear, diminish, if not destroy, the +enterprise, the innate spirit of adventure, in the spiritual as in the +physical world, on which depends all that we call, or ought to call, +progress. A collectivist state, it is true, might establish and endow +academies; but would it ever produce a Shakespeare or a Michelangelo? +It might engender and foster religious orthodoxy; but would it have a +place for the reformer or the saint? Should we not have to pay for the +general level of comfort and intelligence, by suppressing the only +thing good in itself, the manifestation of genius? I do not say +dogmatically that it would be so: I do not even say dogmatically that, +even if it were, the argument would be conclusive against the +collectivist state. But the issue is so tremendous that it necessarily +makes me pause, as it must, I contend, any candid man, who is not +prejudiced by a preconceived ideal. + +"Now, it is not for the sake of recommending any opinion of my own that +I have dwelt on these considerations. It is, rather, to illustrate and +drive home the point with which I began, that the intellect has its +rights, that it enters into every creed, and that it undermines, in +every creed, all elements of mere irrational or anti-rational faith; +that this fact can only be disguised by a conscious or unconscious +predetermination, not to let the intellect have its say; and that such +predetermination is a very serious error and vice. It is without shame +and without regret, on the contrary it is with satisfaction and +self-approval, that I find in my own case, my intelligence daily more +and more undermining my instinctive beliefs. If, as some have held, it +were necessary to choose between reason and passion, I would choose +reason. But I find no such necessity; for reason to me herself is a +passion. Men think the life of reason cold. How little do they know +what it is to be responsive to every call, solicited by every impulse, +yet still, like the magnet, vibrate ever to the north, never so tense, +never so aware of the stress and strain of force as when most +irremovably fixed upon that goal. The intensity of life is not to be +measured by the degree of oscillation. It is at the stillest point +that the most tremendous energies meet; and such a point is the +intelligence open to infinity. For such stillness I feel myself to be +destined, if ever I could attain it. But others, I suppose, like +MacCarthy, have a different fate. In the celestial world of souls, the +hierarchy of spirits, there is need of the planet no less than of its +sun. The station and gravity of the one determines the orbit of the +other, and the antagonism that keeps them apart also knits them +together. There is no motion of MacCarthy's but I vibrate to it; and +about my immobility he revolves. But both of us, as I am inclined to +think, are included in a larger system and move together on a remoter +centre. And the very law of our contention, as perhaps one day we may +come to see, is that of a love that by discord achieves harmony." + +THE conclusion of Martin's speech left me somewhat in doubt how to +proceed. All of the company who were primarily interested in politics +had now spoken; and I was afraid there might be a complete break in the +subject of our discourse. Casting about, I could think of nothing +better than to call upon Wilson, the biologist. For though he was a +specialist, he regarded everything as a branch of his specialty; and +would, I knew, be as ready to discourse on society as on anything else. +Although, therefore, I disliked a certain arrogance he was wont to +display, I felt that, since he was to speak, this was the proper place +to introduce him. I asked him accordingly to take up the thread of the +debate; and without pause his aggressive voice began to assail our ears. + +"I don't quite know," he began, "why a mere man of science should be +invited to intervene in a debate on these high subjects. Politics, I +have always understood, is a kind of mystery, only to be grasped by a +favoured few, and then not by any processes of thought, but by some +kind of intuition. But of late years something seems to have happened. +The intuition theory was all very well when the intuitions did not +conflict, or when, at least, those who were possessed by one, never +came into real intellectual contact with those who were possessed by +another. But here, to-night, have we met together upon this terrace, +been confronted with the most opposite principles jostling in the +roughest way, and, as it seems to the outsider, simply annihilating one +another. Whence Martin's plea for criticism; a plea with which I most +heartily sympathize, only that he gave no indication of the basis on +which criticism itself is to rest. And perhaps that is where and why I +come in. I have been watching to-night with curiosity, and I must +confess with a little amusement, one building after another laboriously +raised by each speaker in turn, only to collapse ignominiously at the +first touch administered by his successor. And why? For the ancient +reason, that the structures were built upon the sand. Well, I have +raised no building myself to speak of. But I am one of an obscure +group of people who are working at solid foundations; which is only +another way of saying that I am a man of science. Only a biologist, it +is true; heaven forfend that I should call myself a sociologist! But +biology is one of the disciplines that are building up that general +view of Nature and the world which is gradually revolutionizing all our +social conceptions. The politicians, I am afraid, are hardly aware of +this. And that is why--if I may say so without offence--their +utterances are coming to seem more and more a kind of irrelevant +prattle. The forces that really move the world have passed out of +their control. And it is only where the forces are at work that the +living ideas move upon the waters. Politicians don't study science; +that is the extraordinary fact. And yet every day it becomes clearer +that politics is either an applied science or a charlatanism. Only, +unfortunately, as the most important things are precisely the last to +be known about, and it is exactly where it is most imperative to act +that our ignorance is most complete, the science of politics has hardly +yet even begun to be studied. Hence our forlorn paralysis of doubt +whenever we pause to reflect; and hence the kind of blind desperation +with which earnest people are impelled to rush incontinently into +practice. The position of MacCarthy is very intelligible, however much +it be, to my mind--what shall I say?--regrettable. There is, in fact, +hardly a question that has been raised to-night that is at present +capable of scientific determination. And with that word I ought +perhaps, in my capacity of man of science, to sit down. + +"And so I would, if it were not that there is something else, besides +positive conclusions, that results from a long devotion to science. +There is a certain attitude towards life, a certain sense of what is +important and what is not, a view of what one may call the commonplaces +of existence, that distinguishes, I think, all competent people who +have been trained in that discipline. For we do think about politics, +or rather about society, even we specialists. And between us we are +gradually developing a sort of body of first principles which will be +at the basis of any future sociology. It is these that I feel tempted +to try to indicate. And the more so, because they are so foreign to +much that has been spoken here to-night. I have had a kind of feeling, +to tell the truth, throughout this whole discussion, of dwelling among +the tombs and listening to the voices of the dead. And I feel a kind +of need to speak for the living, for the new generation with which I +believe I am in touch. I want to say how the problems you have raised +look to us, who live in the dry light of physical science. + +"Let me say, then, to begin with, that for us the nineteenth century +marks a breach with the whole past of the world to which there is +nothing comparable in human annals. We have developed wholly new +powers; and, coincidentally and correspondingly, a wholly new attitude +to life. Of the powers I do not intend to speak; the wonders of steam +and electricity are the hackneyed theme of every halfpenny paper. But +the attitude to life, which is even more important, is something that +has hardly yet been formulated. And I shall endeavour to give some +first rough expression to it. + +"The first constituent, then, of the new view is that of continuity. +We of the new generation realize that the present is a mere transition +from the past into the future; that no event and no moment is isolated; +that all things, successive as well as coincident, are bound in a +single system. Of this system the general formula is causation. But, +in human society, the specifically important case of it is the nexus of +successive generations. We do not now, we who reflect, regard man as +an individual, nor even as one of a body of contemporaries; we regard +him as primarily a son and a father. In other words, what we have in +mind is always the race: whereas hitherto the central point has been +the individual or the citizen. But this shifting in the point of view +implies a revolution in ethics and politics. With the ancients, the +maintenance of the existing generation was the main consideration, and +patriotism its formula. To Marcus Aurelius, to the Stoics, as later to +the Christians, the subject of all moral duties was the individual +soul, and personal salvation became for centuries the corner-stone of +the ethical structure. Well, all the speculation, all the doctrine, +all the literature based upon that conception has become irrelevant and +meaningless in the light of the new ideal. We no longer conceive the +individual save as one in a chain of births. Fatherless, he is +inconceivable; sonless, he is abortive. His soul, if he have one, is +inseparable from its derivation from the past and its tradition to the +future. His duty, his happiness, his value, are all bound up with the +fact of paternity; and the same, mutatis mutandis, is true of women. +The new generation in a word has a totally new code of ethics; and that +code is directed to the end of the perfection of the race. For, and +this is the second constituent of the modern view, the series of births +is also the vehicle of progress. It is this discovery that gives to +our outlook on life its exhilaration and zest. The ancients conceived +the Golden Age as lying in the past; the men of the Middle Ages removed +it to an imaginary heaven. Both in effect despaired of this world; and +consequently their characteristic philosophy is that of the tub or the +hermitage. So soon as the first flush of youth was past, pessimism +clouded the civilization of Greece and of Rome; and from this +Christianity escaped only to take refuge in an imaginary bliss beyond +the grave. But we, by means of science, have established progress. We +look to a future, a future assured, and a future in this world. Our +eyes are on the coming generations; in them centres our hope and our +duty. To feed them, to clothe them, to educate them, to make them +better than ourselves, to do for them all that has hitherto been so +scandalously neglected, and in doing it to find our own life and our +own satisfaction--that is our task and our privilege, ours of the new +generation. + +"And this brings me to the third point in our scheme of life. We +believe in progress; but we do not believe that progress is fated. And +here, too, our outlook is essentially new. Hitherto, the conceptions +of Fate and Providence have divided the empire of the world. We of the +new generation accept neither. We believe neither in a good God +directing the course of events; nor in a blind power that controls them +independently and in despite of human will. We know that what we do or +fail to do matters. We know that we have will; that will may be +directed by reason; and that the end to which reason points is the +progress of the race. This much we hold to be established; more than +this we do not need. And it is the acceptance of just this that cuts +us off from the past, that makes its literature, its ethics, its +politics, meaningless and unintelligible to us, that makes us, in a +word, what we are, the first of the new generation. + +"Well, now, assuming this standpoint let us go on to see how some of +the questions look which have been touched upon to-night. Those +questions have been connected mainly with government and property. And +upon these two factors, it would seem, in the opinion of previous +speakers, all the interests of society turn. But from the point where +we now stand we see clearly that there is a third factor to which these +are altogether subordinate--I mean the family. For the family is the +immediate agent in the production and rearing of children; and this, as +we have seen, is the end of society. With the family therefore social +reconstruction should start. And we may lay down as the fundamental +ethical and social axiom that everybody not physically disqualified +ought to marry, and to produce at least four children. The only +question here is whether the state should intervene and endeavour so to +regulate marriages as to bring together those whose union is most +likely to result in good offspring. This is a point on which the +ancients, I am aware, in their light-hearted sciolism laid great +stress. Only, characteristically enough, they ignored the fundamental +difficulty, that nothing is known--nothing even now, and how much less +then!--of the conditions necessary to produce the desired result. If +ever the conditions should come to be understood--and the problem is +pre-eminently one for science; and if ever--what is even more +difficult--we should come to know clearly and exactly for what points +we ought to breed; then, no doubt, it may be desirable for government +to undertake the complete regulation of marriage. Meantime, we must +confine our efforts to the simpler and more manageable task of securing +for the children when they are born the best possible environment, +physical, intellectual and moral. But this may be done, even without a +radical reconstruction of the law of property simply by proceeding +further on the lines on which we are already embarked, by insisting on +a certain standard, and that a high one, of house-room, sanitation, +food, and the like. We could thus ensure from the beginning for every +child at least a sound physical development; and that without +undermining the responsibility of parents. What else the state can do +it must do by education; a thing which, at present, I do not hesitate +to say, does not exist among us. We have an elementary system of cram +and drill directed by the soulless automata it has itself produced; a +secondary system of athletics and dead languages presided over by +gentlemanly amateurs; and a university system which--well, of which I +cannot trust myself to speak. I wish only to indicate that, in the +eyes of the new generation, breeding and education are the two cardinal +pillars of society. All other questions, even those of property and +government, are subordinate; and only as subordinate can they be +fruitfully approached. Take, for example, property. On this point we +have no prejudices, either socialistic or anti-socialistic. Property, +as we view it, is simply a tool for producing and perfecting men. +Whether it will serve that purpose best if controlled by individuals or +by the state, or partly by the one and partly by the other, we regard +as an open question, to be settled by experiment. We see no principle +one way or the other. Property is not a right, nor a duty, nor a +privilege, either of individuals or of the community. It is simply and +solely, like everything else, a function of the chain of births. +Whoever owns it, however it is administered, it has only one object, to +ensure for every child that is born a sufficiency of physical goods, +and for the better-endowed all that they require in the way of training +to enable them to perform efficiently the higher duties of society. + +"And as property is merely a means, so is government. To us of the new +generation nothing is more surprising and more repugnant, than the +importance attached by politicians to formulae which have long since +lost whatever significance they may once have possessed. Democracy, +representation, trust in the people and the rest, all this to us is the +idlest verbiage. It is notorious, even to those who make most play +with these phrases, that the people do not govern themselves, that they +cannot do so, and that they would make a great mess of it if they +could. The truth is, that we are living politically on a tradition +which arose when by government was meant government by a class, when +one man or a few exploited the rest in the name of the state, and when +therefore it was of imperative importance to bring to bear upon those +who were in power the brute and unintelligent weight of the mass. The +whole democratic movement, though it assumed a positive intellectual +form, was in fact negative in its aim and scope. It meant simply, we +will not be exploited. But that end has now been attained. There is +no fear now that government will be oppressive; and the only problem of +the future is, how to make it efficient. But efficiency, it is +certain, can never be secured by democratic machinery. We must, as +Allison rightly maintains, have trained and skilled persons. How these +are to be secured is a matter of detail, though no doubt of important +detail; and it is one that the new generation will have to solve. What +they will want, in any case, is government. MacCarthy's idea of +anarchy is--well, if he will pardon my saying so, it is hardly worthy +of his intelligence. You cannot regulate society, any more than you +can spin cotton, by the light of nature and a good heart. MacCarthy +mistakes the character of government altogether, when he imagines its +essence to be compulsion. Its essence is direction; and direction, +whatever the form of society, is, or should be, reserved for the wise. +It is for wise direction that the coming generations cry; and it is our +business to see that they get it. + +"I have thus indicated briefly the view of social and political +questions which I believe will be that of the future. And my reason +for thinking so is, that that view is based upon science. It is this +that distinguishes the new generation from all others. Hitherto the +affairs of the world have been conducted by passion, interest, +sentiment, religion, anything but reasoned knowledge. The end of that +regime, which has dominated all history, is at hand. The old +influences, it is true, still survive, and even appear to be supreme. +We have had ample evidence to-night of their apparent vitality. But +underneath them is growing up the sturdy plant of science. Already it +has dislodged their roots; and though they still seem to bear flower, +the flower is withering before our eyes. In its place, before long, +will appear the new and splendid blossom whose appearance ends and +begins an epoch of evolution. That is a consummation nothing can +delay. We need not fret or hurry. We have only to work on silently at +the foundations. The city, it is true, seems to be rising apart from +our labours. There, in the distance, are the stately buildings, there +is the noise of the masons, the carpenters, the engineers. But see! +the whole structure shakes and trembles as it grows. Houses fall as +fast as they are erected; foundations sink, towers settle, domes and +pinnacles collapse. All history is the building of a dream-city, +fantastic as that ancient one of the birds, changeful as the sunset +clouds. And no wonder; for it is building on the sand. There is only +one foundation of rock, and that is being laid by science. Only wait! +To us will come sooner or later, the people and the architects. To us +they will submit the great plans they have striven so vainly to +realize. We shall pronounce on their possibility, their suitability, +even their beauty. Caesar and Napoleon will give place to Comte and +Herbert Spencer; and Newton and Darwin sit in judgment on Plato and +Aquinas." + +WITH that he concluded. And as he sat down a note was passed along to +me from Ellis, asking permission to speak next. I assented willingly; +for Ellis, though some of us thought him frivolous, was, at any rate, +never dull. His sunburnt complexion, his fair curly hair, and the +light in his blue eyes made a pleasant impression, as he rose and +looked down upon us from his six feet. + +"This," he began, "is really an extraordinary discovery Wilson has +made, that fathers have children, and children fathers! One wonders +how the world has got on all these centuries in ignorance of it. It +seems so obvious, once it has been stated. But that, of course, is the +nature of great truths; as soon as they are announced they seem to have +been always familiar. It is possible, for that very reason, that many +people may under-estimate the importance of Wilson's pronouncement, +forgetting that it is the privilege of genius to formulate for the +first time what everyone has been dimly feeling. We ought not to be +ungrateful; but perhaps it is our duty to be cautious. For great ideas +naturally suggest practical applications, and it is here that I foresee +difficulties. What Wilson's proposition in fact amounts to, if I +understand him rightly, is that we ought to open as wide as possible +the gates of life, and make those who enter as comfortable as we can. +Now, I think we ought to be very careful about doing anything of the +kind. We know, of course, very little about the conditions of the +unborn. But I think it highly probable that, like labour, as described +by the political economists, they form throughout the universe a single +mobile body, with a tendency to gravitate wherever the access is freest +and the conditions most favourable. And I should be very much afraid +of attracting what we may call, perhaps, the unemployed of the universe +in undue proportions to this planet, by offering them artificially +better terms than are to be obtained elsewhere. For that, as you know, +would defeat our own object. We should merely cause an exodus, as it +were, from the outlying and rural districts. Mars, or the moon, or +whatever the place may be; and the amount of distress and difficulty on +the earth would be greater than ever. At any rate, I should insist, +and I dare say Wilson agrees with me there, on some adequate test. And +I would not advertise too widely what we are doing. After all, other +planets must be responsible for their own unborn; and I don't see why +we should become a kind of dumping-ground of the universe for everyone +who may imagine he can better himself by migrating to the earth. For +that reason, among others, I would not open the gate too wide. And, +perhaps, in view of this consideration, we might still permit some +people not to marry. At any rate, I wouldn't go further, I think, than +a fine for recalcitrant bachelors. Wilson, I dare say, would prefer +imprisonment for a second offence, and in case of contumacy, even +capital punishment. On such a point I am not, I confess, an altogether +impartial judge, as I should certainly incur the greater penalty. +Still, as I have said, in the general interests of society, and in view +of the conditions of the universal market, I would urge caution and +deliberation. And that is all I have to say at present on this very +interesting subject. + +"The other point that interested me in Wilson's remarks was not, +indeed, so novel as the discovery about fathers having children, but it +was, in its way, equally important. I mean, the announcement made with +authority that the human race really does, as has been so often +conjectured, progress. We may take it now, I suppose, that that is +established, or Wilson would not have proclaimed it. And we are, +therefore, in a position roughly to determine in what progress +consists. This is a task which, I believe, I am more competent to +attempt perhaps even than Wilson himself, because I have had unusual +opportunities of travel, and have endeavoured to utilize them to clear +my mind of prejudices. I flatter myself that I can regard with perfect +impartiality the ideals of different countries, and in particular those +of the new world which, I presume, are to dominate the future. In +attempting to estimate what progress means, one could not do better, I +suppose, than describe the civilization of the United States. For in +describing that, one will be describing the whole civilization of the +future, seeing that what America is our colonies are, or will become, +and what our colonies are we, too, may hope to attain, if we make the +proper sacrifices to preserve the unity of the empire. Let us see, +then, what, from an objective point of view, really is the future of +this progressing world of ours. + +"Perhaps, however, before proceeding to analyse the spiritual ideals of +the American people, I had better give some account of their country. +For environment, as we all know now, has an incalculable effect upon +character. Consider, then, the American continent! How simple it is! +How broad! How large! How grand in design! A strip of coast, a range +of mountains, a plain, a second range, a second strip of coast! That +is all! Contrast the complexity of Europe, its lack of symmetry, its +variety, irregularity, disorder and caprice! The geography of the two +continents already foreshadows the differences in their civilizations. +On the one hand simplicity and size; on the other a hole-and-corner +variety; there immense rivers, endless forests, interminable plains, +indefinite repetition of a few broad ideas; here distracting +transitions, novelties, surprises, shocks, distinctions in a word, +already suggesting Distinction. Even in its physical features America +is the land of quantity, while Europe is that of quality. And as with +the land, so with its products. How large are the American fruits! +How tall the trees! How immense the oysters! What has Europe by +comparison! Mere flavour and form, mere beauty, delicacy and grace! +America, one would say, is the latest work of the great artist--we are +told, indeed, by geologists, that it is the youngest of the +continents--conceived at an age when he had begun to repeat himself, +broad, summary, impressionist, audacious in empty space; whereas Europe +would seem to represent his pre-Raphaelite period, in its wealth of +detail, its variety of figure, costume, architecture, landscape, its +crudely contrasted colours and minute precision of individual form. + +"And as with the countries, so with their civilizations. Europe is the +home of class, America of democracy. By democracy I do not mean a mere +form of government--in that respect, of course, America is less +democratic than England: I mean the mental attitude that implies and +engenders Indistinction. Indistinction, I say, rather than equality, +for the word equality is misleading, and might seem to imply, for +example, a social and economic parity of conditions, which no more +exists in America than it does in Europe. Politically, as well as +socially, America is a plutocracy; her democracy is spiritual and +intellectual; and its essence is, the denial of all superiorities save +that of wealth. Such superiorities, in fact, hardly exist across the +Atlantic. All men there are intelligent, all efficient, all energetic; +and as these are the only qualities they possess, so they are the only +ones they feel called upon to admire. How different is the case with +Europe! How innumerable and how confusing the gradations! For +diversities of language and race, indeed, we may not be altogether +responsible; but we have superadded to these, distinctions of manner, +of feeling, of perception, of intellectual grasp and spiritual insight, +unknown to the simpler and vaster consciousness of the West. In +addition, in short, to the obvious and fundamentally natural standard +of wealth, we have invented others impalpable and artificial in their +character; and however rapidly these may be destined to disappear as +the race progresses, and the influence of the West begins to dominate +the East, they do, nevertheless, still persist, and give to our effete +civilization the character of Aristocracy, that is of Caste. In all +this we see, as I have suggested, the influence of environment. The +old-world stock, transplanted across the ocean, imitates the +characteristics of its new home. Sloughing off artificial +distinctions, it manifests itself in bold simplicity, broad as the +plains, turbulent as the rivers, formless as the mountains, crude as +the fruits of its adopted country." + +"Yet while thus forming themselves into the image of the new world, the +Americans have not disdained to make use of such acquisitions of the +Past as might be useful to them in the task that lay before them. They +have rejected our ideals and our standards; but they have borrowed our +capital and our inventions. They have thus been able--a thing unknown +before in the history of the world--to start the battle against Nature +with weapons ready forged. On the material results they have thus been +able to achieve it is the less necessary for me to dilate, that they +keep us so fully informed of them themselves. But it may be +interesting to note an important consequence in their spiritual life, +which has commonly escaped the notice of observers. Thanks to Europe, +America has never been powerless in the face of Nature; therefore has +never felt Fear; therefore never known Reverence; and therefore never +experienced Religion. It may seem paradoxical to make such an +assertion about the descendants of the Puritan Fathers; nor do I forget +the notorious fact that America is the home of the sects, from the +followers of Joseph Smith to those of Mrs. Eddy. But these are the +phenomena that illustrate my point. A nation which knew what religion +was, in the European sense; whose roots were struck in the soil of +spiritual conflict, of temptations and visions in haunted forests or +desert sands by the Nile, of midnight risings, scourgings of the flesh, +dirges in vast cathedrals, and the miracle of the Host solemnly veiled +in a glory of painted light--such a nation would never have accepted +Christian Science as a religion. No! Religion in America is a +parasite without roots. The questions that have occupied Europe from +the dawn of her history, for which she has fought more fiercely than +for empire or liberty, for which she has fasted in deserts, agonized in +cells, suffered on the cross, and at the stake, for which she has +sacrificed wealth, health, ease, intelligence, life, these questions of +the meaning of the world, the origin and destiny of the soul, the life +after death, the existence of God, and His relation to the universe, +for the American people simply do not exist. They are as inaccessible, +as impossible to them, as the Sphere to the dwellers in Flatland. That +whole dimension is unknown to them. Their healthy and robust +intelligence confines itself to the things of this world. Their +religion, if they have one, is what I believe they call +'healthy-mindedness.' It consists in ignoring everything that might +suggest a doubt as to the worth of existence, and so conceivably +paralyse activity. 'Let us eat and drink,' they say, with a hearty and +robust good faith; omitting as irrelevant and morbid the discouraging +appendix, 'for to-morrow we die.' Indeed! What has death to do with +buildings twenty-four stories high, with the fastest trains, the +noisiest cities, the busiest crowds in the world, and generally the +largest, the finest, the most accelerated of everything that exists? +America has sloughed off religion; and as, in the history of Europe, +religion has underlain every other activity, she has sloughed off, +along with it, the whole European system of spiritual life. +Literature, for instance, and Art, do not exist across the Atlantic. I +am aware, of course, that Americans write books and paint pictures. +But their books are not Literature, nor their pictures Art, except in +so far as they represent a faint adumbration of the European tradition. +The true spirit of America has no use for such activities. And even +if, as must occasionally happen in a population of eighty millions, +there is born among them a man of artistic instincts, he is immediately +and inevitably repelled to Europe, whence he derives his training and +his inspiration, and where alone he can live, observe and create. That +this must be so from the nature of the case is obvious when we reflect +that the spirit of Art is disinterested contemplation, while that of +America is cupidous acquisition. Americans, I am aware, believe that +they will produce Literature and Art, as they produce coal and steel +and oil, by the judicious application of intelligence and capital; but +here they do themselves injustice. The qualities that are making them +masters of the world, unfit them for slighter and less serious +pursuits. The Future is for them, the kingdom of elevators, of +telephones, of motor-cars, of flying-machines. Let them not idly hark +back, misled by effete traditions, to the old European dream of the +kingdom of heaven. '_Excudent alii_,' let them say, 'for Europe, +Letters and Art; _tu regere argento populos, Morgane, memento_, let +America rule the world by Syndicates and Trusts!' For such is her true +destiny; and that she conceives it to be such, is evidenced by the +determination with which she has suppressed all irrelevant activities. +Every kind of disinterested intellectual operation she has severely +repudiated. In Europe we take delight in the operations of the mind as +such, we let it play about a subject, merely for the fun of the thing; +we approve knowledge for its own sake; we appreciate irony and wit. +But all this is unknown in America. The most intelligent people in the +world, they severely limit their intelligence to the adaptation of +means to ends. About the ends themselves they never permit themselves +to speculate; and for this reason, though they calculate, they never +think, though they invent, they never discover, and though they talk, +they never converse. For thought implies speculation; discovery, +reflection; conversation, leisure; and all alike imply a +disinterestedness which has no place in the American system. For the +same reason they do not play; they have converted games into battles; +and battles in which every weapon is legitimate so long as it is +victorious. An American football match exhibits in a type the American +spirit, short, sharp, scientific, intense, no loitering by the road, no +enjoyment of the process, no favour, no quarter, but a fight to the +death with victory as the end, and anything and everything as the means. + +"A nation so severely practical could hardly be expected to attach the +same importance to the emotions as has been attributed to them by +Europeans. Feeling, like Intellect, is not regarded, in the West, as +an end in itself. And it is not uninteresting to note that the +Americans are the only great nation that have not produced a single +lyric of love worth recording. Physically, as well as spiritually, +they are a people of cold temperament. Their women, so much and, I do +not doubt, so legitimately admired, are as hard as they are brilliant; +their glitter is the glitter of ice. Thus happily constituted, +Americans are able to avoid the immense waste of time and energy +involved in the formation and maintenance of subtle personal relations. +They marry, of course, they produce children, they propagate the race; +but, I would venture to say, they do not love, as Europeans have loved; +they do not exploit the emotion, analyse and enjoy it, still less +express it in manners, in gesture, in epigram, in verse. And hence the +kind of shudder produced in a cultivated European by the treatment of +emotion in American fiction. The authors are trying to express +something they have never experienced, and to graft the European +tradition on to a civilization which has none of the elements necessary +to nourish and support it. + +"From this brief analysis of the attitude of Americans towards life, +the point with which I started will, I hope, have become clear, that it +is idle to apply to them any of the tests which we apply to a European +civilization. For they have rejected, whether they know it or not, our +whole scheme of values. What, then, is their own? What do they +recognize as an end? This is an interesting point on which I have +reflected much in the course of my travels. Sometimes I have thought +it was wealth, sometimes power, sometimes activity. But a poem, or at +least a production in metre, which I came across in the States, gave me +a new idea upon the subject. On such a point I speak with great +diffidence; but I am inclined to think that my author was right; that +the real end which Americans set before themselves is Acceleration. To +be always moving, and always moving faster, that they think is the +beatific life; and with their happy detachment from philosophy and +speculation, they are not troubled by the question, Whither? If they +are asked by Europeans, as they sometimes are, what is the point of +going so fast? their only feeling is one of genuine astonishment. Why, +they reply, you go fast! And what more can be said? Hence, their +contempt for the leisure so much valued by Europeans. Leisure they +feel, to be a kind of standing still, the unpardonable sin. Hence, +also, their aversion to play, to conversation, to everything that is +not work. I once asked an American who had been describing to me the +scheme of his laborious life, where it was that the fun came in? He +replied, without hesitation and without regret, that it came in +nowhere. How should it? It could only act as a brake; and a brake +upon Acceleration is the last thing tolerable to the American genius. + +"The American genius, I say: but after all, and this is the real point +of my remarks, what America is, Europe is becoming. We, who sit here, +with the exception, of course, of Wilson, represent the Past, not the +Future. Politicians, professors, lawyers, doctors, no matter what our +calling, our judgments are determined by the old scale of values. +Intellect, Beauty, Emotion, these are the things we count precious; to +wealth and to progress we are indifferent, save as conducing to these. +And thus, like the speakers who preceded me, we venture to criticize +and doubt, where the modern man, American or European, simply and +wholeheartedly accepts. For this it would be idle for us to blame +ourselves, idle even to regret; we should simply and objectively note +that we are out of court. All that we say may be true, but it is +irrelevant. 'True,' says the man of the Future, 'we have no religion, +literature, or art; we don't know whence we come, nor whither we go; +but, what is more important, we don't care. What we do know is, that +we are moving faster than any one ever moved before; and that there is +every chance of our moving faster and faster. To inquire "whither" is +the one thing that we recognize as blasphemous. The principle of the +Universe is Acceleration, and we are its exponents; what is not +accelerated will be extinguished; and if we cannot answer ultimate +questions, that is the less to be regretted in that, a few centuries +hence, there will be nobody left to ask them.' + +"Such is the attitude which I believe to be that of the Future, both in +the West and in the East. I do not pretend to sympathize with it; but +my perception of it gives a peculiar piquancy to my own position. I +rejoice that I was born at the end of an epoch; that I stand as it were +at the summit, just before the plunge into the valley below; and +looking back, survey and summarize in a glance the ages that are past. +I rejoice that my friends are Socrates and Plato, Dante, Michelangelo, +Goethe instead of Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Pierpont Morgan. I rejoice that +I belong to an effete country; and that I sit at table with almost the +last representatives of the culture, the learning and the ideals of +centuries of civilization. I prefer the tradition of the Past to that +of the Future; I value it the more for its contrast with that which is +to come; and I am the more at ease inasmuch as I feel myself divested +of all responsibility towards generations whose ideals and standards I +am unable to appreciate. + +"All this shows, of course, merely that I am not one of the people so +aptly described by Wilson as the 'new generation.' But I flatter +myself that my intellectual apprehension is not coloured by the +circumstances of my own case, and that I have given you a clear and +objective picture of what it is that really constitutes progress. And +with that proud consciousness in my mind, I resume my seat." + +THE conclusion of this speech was greeted with a hubbub of laughter, +approval, and protest confusedly mixed; in the midst of which it +occurred to me that I would select Audubon as the next speaker. My +reason was that Ellis, as I thought, under cover of an extravagant fit +of spleen, had made rather a formidable attack on the doctrine of +progress as commonly understood by social reformers. He had given us, +as it were, the first notes of the Negative. But Audubon, I knew, +would play the tune through to the end; and I thought we might as well +have it all, and have it before it should be too late for the possible +correctives of other speakers. Audubon was engaged in some occupation +in the city, and how he came to be a member of our society I cannot +tell; for he professed an uncompromising aversion to all speculation. +He was, however, a regular attendant and spoke well, though always in +the sense that there was nothing worth speaking about. On this +occasion he displayed, as usual, some reluctance to get on to his feet; +and even when he was overruled began, characteristically, with a +protest. + +"I don't see why it should be a rule that everybody must speak. I +believe I have said something of the kind before"--but here he was +interrupted by a general exclamation that he had said it much too +often; whereupon he dropped the subject, but maintained his tone of +protest. "You don't understand," he went on, "what a difficult +position I am in, especially in a discussion of this kind. My +standpoint is radically different from that of the rest of you; and +anything I say is bound to be out of key. You're all playing what you +think to be the game of life, and playing it willingly. But I play +only under compulsion; if you call it playing, when one is hounded out +to field in all weathers without ever having a chance of an innings. +Or, rather, the game's more like tennis than cricket, and we're the +little boys who pick up the balls--and that, in my opinion, is a damned +humiliating occupation. And surely you must all really think so too! +Of course, you don't like to admit it. Nobody does. In the pulpit, in +the press, in conversation, even, there's a conspiracy of silence and +bluff. It's only in rare moments, when a few men get together in the +smoking-room, that the truth comes out. But when it does come out it's +always the same refrain, 'cui bono, cui bono?' I don't take much +account of myself; but, if there is one thing of which I am proud, it +is that I have never let myself be duped. From the earliest days I can +remember I realized what the nature of this world really is. And all +experience has confirmed that first intuition. That other people don't +seem to have it, too, is a source of constant amazement to me. But +really, and without wishing to be arrogant, I believe the reason is +that they choose to be duped and I don't. They intend, at all costs, +to be happy, or interested, or whatever it is that they prefer to call +it. And I don't say they are not wise in their generation. But I'm +not made like that; I just see things as they are; and I see that +they're very bad--a point in which I differ from the Creator. + +"Well, now, to come to to-night's discussion, and my attitude towards +it. You have assumed throughout, as, of course, you were bound to do, +that things are worth while. But if they aren't, what becomes of all +your aims, all your views, all your problems and disputes? The basis +on which you are all agreed, however much you may differ in detail, is +that things can be made better, and that it's worth while to make them +so. But if one denies both propositions, what happens to the +superstructure? And I do deny them; and not only that, but I can't +conceive how anyone ever came to accept them. Surely, if one didn't +approach the question with an irrational bias towards optimism, one +would never imagine that there is such a thing as progress in anything +that really matters. Or are even we here impressed by such silly and +irrelevant facts as telephones and motor-cars? Ellis, I should think, +has said enough to dispel that kind of illusion; and I don't want to +labour a tedious point. If we are to look for progress at all we must +look for it, I suppose, in men. And I have never seen any evidence +that men are generally better than they used to be; on the contrary, I +think there is evidence that they are worse. But anyhow, even granting +that we could make things a bit better, what would be the use of doing +it in a world like this? If the whole structure of the universe is +bad, what's the good of fiddling with the details? You might as well +waste your time in decorating the saloon of a sinking ship. Granting +that you can improve the distribution of property, and raise the +standard of health and intelligence and all the rest of it, granting +you could to-morrow introduce your socialist state, or your liberal +state, or your anarchical co-operation, or whatever the plan may +be--how would you be better off in anything that matters? The main +governing facts would be unaltered. Men, for example, would still be +born, without being asked whether they want it or no. And that alone, +to my mind, is enough to condemn the whole business. I can't think how +it is that people don't resent more than they do the mere insult to +their self-respect involved in such a situation. Nothing can cure it, +nothing can improve it. It's a fundamental condition of life. + +"If that were all it would be bad enough. But that's only the +beginning. For the world into which we are thus ignominiously flung +turns out to be incalculable and irrational. There are, of course, I +know, what are called the laws of nature. But I--to tell the honest +truth--I don't believe in them. I mean, I see no reason to suppose +that the sun will rise to-morrow, or that the seasons will continue to +observe their course, or that any of our most certain expectations will +be fulfilled in the future as they have been in the past. We import +into the universe our own prejudice in favour of order; and the +universe, I admit, up to a point appears to conform to it. But I don't +trust the conformity. Too many evidences abound of frivolous and +incalculable caprice. Why should not the appearance of order be but +one caprice the more, or even a crowning device of calculated malice? +And anyhow, the things that most concern us, tempests, epidemics, +accidents, from the catastrophe of birth to the deliverance of death, +we have no power to foresee or to forestall. Yet, in face of all this, +borne home to us every hour of every day, we cling to the creed of +universal law; and on the flux of chaos write our 'credo quia +impossibile.' + +"Well, that is a heresy of mine I have never found anyone to share. +But no matter. My case is so strong I can afford to give it away point +by point. Granting then, that there were order in the universe, how +does that make it any better? Does it not rather make it worse, if the +order is such as to produce evil? And how great that evil is I need +not insist. For it has been presupposed in everything that has been +said to-night. If it were a satisfactory world you wouldn't all be +wanting to alter it. Still, you may say--people always do--'if there +is evil there is also good.' But it is just the things people call +good, even more than those they admit to be evil, that make me despair +of the world. How anyone with self-respect can accept, and accept +thankfully, the sort of things people do accept is to me a standing +mystery. It is surely the greatest triumph achieved by the Power that +made the universe that every week there gather into the churches +congregations of victims to recite their gratitude for 'their creation, +preservation, and all the blessings of this life.' The blessings! +What are they? Money? Success? Reputation? I don't profess, myself, +to be anything better than a man of the world; but that those things +should be valued as they are by men of the world is a thing that passes +my understanding. 'Well, but,' says the moralist, 'there's always duty +and work.' But what is the value of work if there's nothing worth +working for? 'Ah, but,' says the poet, 'there's beauty and love.' But +the beauty and love he seeks is something he never finds. What he +grasps is the shadow, not the thing. And even the shadow flits past +and eludes him on the stream of time. + +"And just there is the final demonstration of the malignity of the +scheme of things. Time itself works against us. The moments that are +evil it eternalizes; the moments that might be good it hurries to +annihilation. All that is most precious is most precarious. Vainly do +we cry to the moment: 'Verweile doch, du bist so schoen!' Only the +heavy hours are heavy-footed. The winged Psyche, even at the moment of +birth, is sick with the pangs of dissolution. + +"These, surely, are facts, not imaginations. Why, then, is it that men +refuse to look them in the face? Or, if they do, turn at once away to +construct some other kind of world? For that is the most extraordinary +thing of all, that men invent systems, and that those systems are +optimistic. It is as though they said: 'Things must be good. But as +they obviously are not good, they must really be other than they are.' +And hence these extraordinary doctrines, so pitiful, so pathetic, so +absurd, of the eternal good God who made this bad world, of the +Absolute whose only manifestation is the Relative, of the Real which +has so much less reality than the Phenomenal. Or, if all that be +rejected, we transfer our heaven from eternity to time, and project +into the future the perfection we miss in the present or in the past. +'True,' we say, 'a bad world! but then how good it will be!' And with +that illusion generation after generation take up their burden and +march, because beyond the wilderness there must be a Promised Land into +which some day some creatures unknown will enter. As though the evil +of the past could be redeemed by any achievement of the future, or the +perfection of one make up for the irremediable failure of another! + +"Such ideas have only to be stated for their absurdity to be palpable. +Yet none the less they hold men. Why? I cannot tell. I only know +that they do not and cannot hold me; that I look like a stranger from +another world upon the business of this one; that I am among you, but +not of you; that your motives and aims to me are utterly +unintelligible; that you can give no account of them to which I can +attach any sense; that I have no clue to the enigma you seem so lightly +to solve by your religion, your philosophy, your science; that your +hopes are not mine, your ambitions not mine, your principles not mine; +that I am shipwrecked, and see around me none but are shipwrecked too; +yet, that these, as they cling to their spars, call them good ships and +true, speak bravely of the harbour to which they are prosperously +sailing, and even as they are engulfed, with their last breath, cry, +'lo, we are arrived, and our friends are waiting on the quay!' Who, +under these circumstances is mad? Is it I? Is it you? I can only +drift and wait. It may be that beyond these waters there is a harbour +and a shore. But I cannot steer for it, for I have no rudder, no +compass, no chart. You say you have. Go on, then, but do not call to +me. I must sink or swim alone. And the best for which I can hope is +speedily to be lost in the silent gulf of oblivion." + +OFTEN as I had heard Audubon express these sentiments before, I had +never known him to reveal so freely and so passionately the innermost +bitterness of his soul. There was, no doubt, something in the +circumstances of the time and place that prompted him to this personal +note. For it was now the darkest and stillest hour of the night; and +we sat in the dim starlight, hardly seeing one another, so that it +seemed possible to say, as behind a veil, things that otherwise it +would have been natural to suppress. A long silence followed Audubon's +last words. They went home, I dare say to many of us more than we +should have cared to confess. And I felt some difficulty whom to +choose of the few who had not yet spoken, so as to avoid, as far as +possible, a tone that would jar upon our mood. Finally, I selected +Coryat, the poet, knowing he was incapable of a false note, and hoping +he might perhaps begin to pull us, as it were, up out of the pit into +which we had slipped. He responded from the darkness, with the +hesitation and incoherence which, in him, I have always found so +charming. + +"I don't know," he began, "of course--well, yes, it may be all very +bad--at least for some people. But I don't believe it is. And I doubt +whether Audubon really--well, I oughtn't to say that, I suppose. But +anyhow, I'm sure most people don't agree with him. At any rate, for my +part, I find life extraordinarily good, just as it is, not mine only, I +mean, but everybody's; well, except Audubon's, I suppose I ought to +say, and even he, perhaps finds it rather good to be able to find it so +bad. But I'm not going to argue with him, because I know it's no use. +Its all the other people I want to quarrel with--except Ellis, who has +I believe some idea of the things that really count. But I don't think +Allison has, or Wilson, or most of the people who talk about progress. +Because, if you project, so to speak, all your goods into the future, +that shows that you don't appreciate those that belong to life just as +it is and wherever it is. And there must, I am sure, be something +wrong about a view that makes the past and the present merely a means +to the future. It's as though one were to take a bottle and turn it +upside down, emptying the wine out without noticing it; and then plan +how tremendously one will improve the shape of the bottle. Well, I'm +not interested in the shape of bottles. And I am interested in wine. +And--which is the point--I know that the wine is always there. It was +there in the past, it's here in the present, and it will be there in +the future; yes, in spite of you all!" He flung this out with a kind +of defiance that made us laugh. Whereupon he paused, as if he had done +something indiscreet, and then after looking in vain for a bridge to +take him across to his next starting-place, decided, as it seemed, to +jump, and went on as follows: "There's Wilson, for instance, tells us +that the new generation have no use for--I don't know that he used that +dreadful phrase, but that's what he meant--that they have 'no use for' +the Greeks, or the Romans, or the Middle Ages, or the eighteenth +century, or anything but themselves. Well, I can only say I'm very +sorry for them, and very glad I'm not one of them. Why, just think of +the extraordinary obliquity, or rather blindness of it! Because you +don't agree with Plato, or Marcus Aurelius, or Saint Francis, you think +they're only fit for the ash-heap. You might as well say you wouldn't +drink any wine except what was made to-day! The literature and art of +the past can never be dead. It's the flask where the geni of life is +imprisoned; you've only to open it and the life is yours. And what +life! That it's different from ours is just its merit. I don't mean +that it's necessarily better; but it preserves for us the things we +have dropped out. Because we, no more than the men of the past, +exhaust all the possibilities. The whole wonderful drama of life is +unfolded in time, and we of this century are only one scene of it; not +the most passionate either or the most absorbing. As actors, of +course, we're concerned only with this scene. But the curious thing +is, we're spectators, too, or can be if we like. And from the +spectator's point of view, many of the episodes in the past are much +more interesting, if not more important, than those of the present. I +mean, it seems to me so stupid--I oughtn't to say stupid, I suppose, +because of course you aren't exactly----" Whereat we laughed again, +and he pulled himself up. "What I mean is, that to take the philosophy +or the religion of the past and put it into your laboratory and test it +for truth, and throw it away if it doesn't answer the test, is to +misconceive the whole value and meaning of it. The real question is, +What extraordinary, fascinating, tragic or comic life went to produce +this precious specimen? What new revelation does it give of the +possibilities of the world? That's how you look at it, if you have the +sense of life. You feel after life everywhere. You love it when you +touch it. You ask it no questions about being good or bad. It just +is, and you are akin to it. Fancy, for instance, a man being able to +walk through the British Museum and pass the frieze of the Parthenon, +and say he has no use for it! And why? Because, I suppose, we don't +dress like that now, and can't ride horses bareback. Well, so much the +worse for us! But just think. There shrieking from the wall--no, I +ought to say singing with the voice of angels--is the spirit of life in +its loveliest, strongest, divinest incarnation, saying 'love me, +understand me, be like me!' And the new generation passes by with its +nose in the air sniffing, 'No! You're played out! You didn't know +science. And you didn't produce four children a-piece, as we mean to. +And your education was rhetorical, and your philosophy absurd, and your +vices--oh, unmentionable! No, no, young men! Not for us, thank you!' +And so they stalk on, don't you see them, with their rational costume, +and their rational minds, and their hard little hearts, and the empty +place where their imagination ought to be! Dreadful, dreadful! Or +perhaps they go, say, to Assisi, and Saint Francis comes to talk to +them. And 'Look,' he says, 'what a beautiful world, if you'd only get +rid of your encumbrances! Money, houses, clothes, food, it's all so +much obstruction! Come and see the real thing; come and live with the +life of the soul; burn like a flame, blossom like a flower, flow like a +mountain stream!' 'My dear sir,' they reply, 'you're unclean, impudent +and ignorant! Moreover you're encouraging mendicancy and superstition. +Not to-day, thank you!' And off they go to the Charity Organisation +Committee. It's--it's----" He pulled himself up again, and then went +on more quietly. "Well, one oughtn't to get angry, and I dare say I'm +misrepresenting everybody. Besides, I haven't said exactly what I +wanted to say. I wanted to say--what was it? Oh, yes! that this kind +of attitude is bound up with the idea of progress. It comes of taking +all the value out of the past and present, in order to put it into the +future. And then you _don't_ put it there! You can't! It evaporates +somehow, in the process. Where is it then? Well, I believe it's +always there, in life, and in every kind of life. It's there all the +time, in all the things you condemn. Of course the things really are +bad that you say are bad. But they're so good as well! I mean--well, +the other day I read one of those dreadful articles--at least, of +course they're very useful I suppose--about the condition of the +agricultural labourer. Well, then I took a ride in the country, and +saw it all in its setting and complete, with everything the article had +left out; and it wasn't so bad after all. I don't mean to say it was +all good either, but it was just wonderful. There were great horses +with shaggy fetlocks resting in green fields, and cattle wading in +shallow fords, and streams fringed with willows, and little cheeping +birds among the reeds, and larks and cuckoos and thrushes. And there +were orchards white with blossom, and little gardens in the sun, and +shadows of clouds brushing over the plain. And the much-discussed +labourer was in the midst of all this. And he really wasn't an +incarnate grievance! He was thinking about his horses, or his bread +and cheese, or his children squalling in the road, or his pig and his +cocks and hens. Of course I don't suppose he knew how beautiful +everything was; but I'm sure he had a sort of comfortable feeling of +being a part of it all, of being somehow all right. And he wasn't +worrying about his condition, as you all worry for him. I don't mean +you aren't right to worry, in a way; except that no one ought to worry. +But you oughtn't to suppose it's all a dreadful and intolerable thing, +just because you can imagine something better. That, of course, is +only one case; but I believe it's the same everywhere; yes, even in the +big cities, which, to my taste, look from outside much more repulsive +and terrible. There's a quality in the inevitable facts of life, in +making one's living, and marrying and producing children, in the ending +of one and the beginning of another day, in the uncertainties and fears +and hopes, in the tragedies as well as the comedies, something that +arrests and interests and absorbs, even if it doesn't delight. I'm not +saying people are happy; sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. +But anyhow they are interested. And life itself is the interest. And +that interest is perennial, and of all ages and all classes. And if +you leave it out you leave out the only thing that counts. That's why +ideals are so empty; just because, I mean, they don't exist. And I +assure you--now I'm going to confess--that often, when I come away from +some meeting or from reading some dreadful article on social reform, I +feel as if I could embrace everything and everyone I come across, +simply for being so good as to exist--the 'bus-drivers, the cabmen, the +shop-keepers, the slum-landlords, the slum-victims, the prostitutes, +the thieves. There they are, anyhow, in their extraordinary setting, +floating on the great river of life, that was and is and will be, +itself its own justification, through whatever country it may flow. +And if you don't realize that--if you have a whole community that +doesn't realize it--then, however happy and comfortable and equitable +and all the rest of it you make your society, you haven't really done +much for them. Their last state may even be worse than the first, +because they will have lost the natural instinctive acceptance of life, +without learning how to accept it on the higher plane. + +"And that is why--now comes what I really do care about, and what I've +been wanting to say--that is why there is nothing so important for the +future or the present of the world as poetry. Allison, for instance, +and Wilson would be different men if only they would read my works! +I'm not sure even if I may say so, that Remenham himself wouldn't be +the better." Remenham, however, smilingly indicated that he had read +them. Whereat Coryat rather comically remarked, "Oh, well! Yes! +Perhaps then my poetry isn't quite good enough. But there's +Shakespeare, and Milton, and--I don't care who it is, so long as it has +the essential of all great poetry, and that is to make you feel the +worth of things. I don't mean by that the happiness, but just the +extraordinary value, of which all these unsolved questions about Good +and Evil are themselves part. No one, I am sure, ever laid down a +great tragedy--take the most terrible of all, take 'Lear'--without an +overwhelming sense of the value of life; life as it is, life at its +most pitiless and cruel, with all its iniquities, suffering, +perplexity; without feeling he would far rather have lived and had all +that than not have lived at all. But tragedy is an extreme case. In +every simpler and more common case the poet does the same thing for us. +He shows us that the lives he touches have worth, worth of pleasure, of +humour, of patience, of wisdom painfully acquired, of endurance, of +hope, even I will say of failure and despair. He doesn't blink +anything, he looks straight at it all, but he sees it in the true +perspective, under a white light, and seeing all the Evil says +nevertheless with God, 'Behold, it is very good.' You see," he added, +with his charming smile, turning to Audubon, "I agree with God, not +with you. And perhaps if you were to read poetry ... but, you know, +you must not only read it; you've got to feel it." + +"Ah," said Audubon, "but that I'm afraid is the difficulty." + +"I suppose it is. Well--I don't know that I can say any more." + +And without further ado he dropped back into his seat. + +SITTING next to Coryat was a man who had not for a long time been +present at our meetings. His name was Harington. He was a wealthy +man, the head of a very ancient family; and at one time had taken a +prominent part in politics. But, of late, he had resided mainly in +Italy devoting himself to study and to the collection of works of art. +I did not know what his opinions were, for it so happened that I had +never heard him speak or had any talk with him. I had no idea, +therefore, when I called upon him, what he would be likely to say, and +I waited with a good deal of curiosity as he stood a few moments +silent. It was now beginning to get light, and I could see his face, +which was unusually handsome and distinguished. He had indeed the air +of a seventeenth-century nobleman, and might, except for the costume, +have stepped out of a canvas of Van Dyck. Presently he spoke in a rich +mellow voice and with a gravity that harmonized with his bearing. + +"Let me begin with a confession, perhaps I ought even to say an +apology. To be among you again after so many years is a privilege; but +it is one which brings with it elements of embarrassment. I have lived +so long in a foreign land that I feel myself an alien here. I hear +voices familiar of old, but I have forgotten their language; I see +forms once well known, but the atmosphere in which they move seems +strange. I am fresh from Italy; and England comes upon me with a +shock. Even her physical aspect I see as I never saw it before. I +find it lovely, with a loveliness peculiar and unique. But I miss +something to which I have become accustomed in the south; I miss light, +form, greatness, and breadth. Instead, there is grey or golden haze, +blurred outlines, tender skies, lush luxurious greenery. Italy rings +like metal; England is a muffled drum. The one has the ardour of +Beauty; the other the charm of the Picturesque. I dwell upon this +because I seem to see--perhaps I am fanciful--a kindred distinction +between the north and the south in quality of mind. The Greek +intelligence, and the Italian, is pitiless, searching, white as the +Mediterranean sunshine; the English and German is kindly, discreet, +amiably and tenderly confused. The one blazes naked in a brazen sky; +the other is tempered by vapours of sentiment. The English, in +particular, I think, seldom make a serious attempt to face the truth. +Their prejudices and ideals shut them in, like their green hedges; and +they live, even intellectually, in a country of little fields. I do +not deny that this is soothing and restful; but I feel it--shall I +confess--intolerably cooping. I long for the searching light, the wide +prospect; for the vision of things as they really are. I have +consorted too long with Aristotle and Machiavelli to find myself at +home in the country of the Anglican Church and of Herbert Spencer." +Here he paused, and seemed to hesitate, while we wondered what he could +be leading up to. Then, resuming, "This may seem," he went on, "a long +introduction; but it is not irrelevant; though I feel some hesitation +in applying it. But, if the last speaker will permit me to take my +text from him, I would ask him, is it not a curiously indiscriminate +procedure to affirm indifferently value in all life? A poet +surely--and Coryat's practice, if he will allow me to say so, is +sounder than his theory--a poet seeks to render, wherever he can find +it, the exquisite, the choice, the distinguished and the rare. Not +life, but beauty is his quest. He does not reproduce Nature, he +imposes upon her a standard. And so it is with every art, including +the art of life itself. Life as such is neither good nor bad, and, +Audubon's undistinguishing censure is surely as much out of place as +Coryat's undistinguishing approval. Life is raw material for the +artist, whether he be the private man carrying out his own destiny, or +the statesman shaping that of a nation. The end of the artist in +either case is the good life; and on his own conception of that will +depend the value of his work. + +"I recall to your minds these obvious facts, at the risk of being +tedious, because to-night, seeing the turn that our discussion has +taken, we must regard ourselves as statesmen, or as would-be statesmen. +And I, in that capacity, finding myself in disagreement with everybody, +except perhaps Cantilupe, and asking myself the reason why, can only +conclude that I have a different notion of the end to be pursued, and +of the means whereby it can be attained. All of you, I think, except +Cantilupe, have assumed that the good life, whatever it may be, can be +attained by everybody; and that society should be arranged so as to +secure that result. That is, in fact, the democratic postulate, which +is now so generally accepted not only in this company but in the world +at large. But it is that postulate that I dispute. I hold that the +good life must either be the privilege of a few, or not exist at all. +The good life in my view, is the life of a gentleman. That word, I +know, has been degraded; and there is no more ominous sign of the +degradation of the English people. But I use it in its true and noble +sense. I mean by a gentleman a man of responsibility; one who because +he enjoys privileges recognizes duties; a landed proprietor who is +also, and therefore, a soldier and a statesman; a man with a natural +capacity and a hereditary tradition to rule; a member, in a word, of a +governing aristocracy. Not that the good life consists in governing; +but only a governing class and those who centre round them are capable +of the good life. Nobility is a privilege of the nobleman, and +nobility is essential to goodness. We are told indeed, that Good is to +be found in virtue, in knowledge, in art, in love. I will not dispute +it; but we must add that only a noble man can be virtuous greatly, know +wisely, perceive and feel finely. And virtue that is mean, knowledge +that is pedantic, art that is base, love that is sensual are not Goods +at all. A noble man of necessity feels and expresses himself nobly. +His speech is literature, his gesture art, his action drama, his +affections music. About him centres all that is great in literature, +science, art. Magnificent buildings, exquisite pictures, statues, +poems, songs, crowd about his habitation and attend him from the cradle +to the grave. His fine intelligence draws to itself those of like +disposition. He seeks genius, but he shuns pedantry; for his knowledge +is part of his life. All that is great he instinctively apprehends, +because it is akin to himself. And only so can anything be truly +apprehended. For every man and every class can only understand and +practise the virtues appropriate to their occupations. A professor +will never be a hero, however much he reads the classics. A +shop-walker will never be a poet, however much he reads poetry. If you +want virtue, in the ancient sense, the sense of honour, of courage, of +self-reliance, of the instinct to command, you must have a class of +gentlemen. Otherwise virtue will be at best a mere conception in the +head, a figment of the brain, not a character and a force. Why is the +teaching of the classics now discredited among you? Not because it is +not as valuable as ever it was, but because there is no one left to +understand its value. The tradesmen who govern you feel instinctively +that it is not for them, and they are right. It is above and beyond +them. But it was the natural food of gentlemen. And the example may +serve to illustrate the general truth, that you cannot revolutionize +classes and their relations without revolutionizing culture. It is +idle to suppose you can communicate to a democracy the heritage of an +aristocracy. You may give them books, show them pictures, offer them +examples. In vain! The seed cannot grow in the new soil. The masses +will never be educated in the sense that the classes were. You may +rejoice in the fact, or you may regret it; but at least it should be +recognized. For my own part I regret it, and I regret it because I +conceive that the good life is the life of the gentleman. + +"From this it follows that my ideal of a polity is aristocratic. For a +class of gentlemen presupposes classes of workers to support it. And +these, from the ideal point of view, must be regarded as mere means. I +do not say that that is just; I do not say it is what we should choose; +but I am sure it is the law of the world in which we live. Through the +whole realm of nature every kind exists only to be the means of +supporting life in another. Everywhere the higher preys upon the +lower; everywhere the Good is parasitic on the Bad. And as in nature, +so in human society. Read history with an impartial mind, read it in +the white light, and you will see that there has never been a great +civilization that was not based upon iniquity. Those who have eyes to +see have always admitted, and always will, that the greatest +civilization of Europe was that of Greece. And of that civilization +not merely an accompaniment but the essential condition was slavery. +Take away that and you take away Pericles, Phidias, Sophocles, Plato. +Dismiss Greece, if you like. Where then will you turn? To the Middle +Ages? You encounter feudalism and serfdom. To the modern world? You +run against wage-labour. Ah, but, you say, we look to the future. We +shall abolish wage-labour, as we have abolished slavery. We shall have +an equitable society in which everybody will do productive work, and +nobody will live at the cost of others. I do not know whether you can +do this; it is possible you may; but I ask you to count the cost. And +first let me call your attention to what you have actually done during +the course of the past century. You have deposed your aristocracy and +set up in their place men who work for their living, instead of for the +public good, merchants, bankers, shop-keepers, railway directors, +brewers, company-promoters. Whether you are better and more justly +governed I do not pause to enquire. You appear to be satisfied that +you are. But what I see, returning to England only at rare intervals, +and what you perhaps cannot so easily see, is that you are ruining all +your standards. Dignity, manners, nobility, nay, common honesty +itself, is rapidly disappearing from among you. Every time I return I +find you more sordid, more petty, more insular, more ugly and +unperceptive. For the higher things, the real goods, were supported +and sustained among you by your class of gentlemen, while they deserved +the name. But by depriving them of power you have deprived them of +responsibility, which is the salt of privilege; and they are rotting +before your eyes, crumbling away and dropping into the ruck. Whether +the general level of your civilization is rising I do not pronounce. I +do not even think the question of importance; for any rise must be +almost imperceptible. The salient fact is that the pinnacles are +disappearing; that soon there will be nothing left that seeks the +stars. Your middle classes have no doubt many virtues; they are, I +will presume, sensible, capable, industrious, and respectable. But +they have no notion of greatness, nay, they have an instinctive hatred +of it. Whatever else they may have done, they have destroyed all +nobility. In art, in literature, in drama, in the building of palaces +or villas, _nihil tetigerunt quod non faedaverunt_. Such is the result +of entrusting power to men who make their own living, instead of to a +class set apart by hereditary privilege to govern and to realize the +good life. But, you may still urge, this is only a temporary stage. +We still have a parasitic class, the class of capitalists. It is only +when we have got rid of them, that the real equality will begin, and +with it will come all other excellence. Well, I think it possible that +you might establish, I will not say absolute equality, but an equality +far greater than the world has ever seen; that you might exact from +everybody some kind of productive work, in return for the guarantee of +a comfortable livelihood. But there is no presumption that in that way +you will produce the nobility of character which I hold to be the only +thing really good. For such nobility, as all history and experience +clearly shows, if we will interrogate it honestly, is the product of a +class-consciousness. Personal initiative, personal force, a freedom +from sordid cares, a sense of hereditary obligation based on hereditary +privilege, the consciousness of being set apart for high purposes, of +being one's own master and the master of others, all that and much more +goes to the building up of the gentleman; and all that is impossible in +a socialistic state. In the eternal order of this inexorable world it +is prescribed that greatness cannot grow except in the soil of +iniquity, and that justice can produce nothing but mediocrity. That +the masses should choose justice at the cost of greatness is +intelligible, nay it is inevitable; and that choice is the inner +meaning of democracy. But gentlemen should have had the insight to +see, and the courage to affirm, that the price was too great to pay. +They did not; and the penalty is that they are ceasing to exist. They +have sacrificed themselves to the attempt to establish equity. But in +that attempt I can take no interest. The society in which I believe is +an aristocratic one. I hold, with Plato and Aristotle, that the masses +ought to be treated as means, treated kindly, treated justly, so far as +the polity permits, but treated as subordinate always to a higher end. +But your feet are set on the other track. You are determined to +abolish classes; to level down in order to level up; to destroy +superiorities in order to raise the average. I do not say you will not +succeed. But if you do, you will realize comfort at the expense of +greatness, and your society will be one not of men but of ants and bees. + +"For Democracy--note it well--destroys greatness in every kind, of +intellect, of perception, as well as of character. And especially it +destroys art, that reflection of life without which we cannot be said +to live. For the artist is the rarest, the most choice of men. His +senses, his perception, his intelligence have a natural and inborn +fineness and distinction. He belongs to a class, a very small, a very +exclusive one. And he needs a class to appreciate and support him. No +democracy has ever produced or understood art. The case of Athens is +wrongly adduced; for Athens was an aristocracy under the influence of +an aristocrat at the time the Parthenon was built. At all times Art +has been fostered by patrons, never by the people. How should they +foster it? Instinctively they hate it, as they hate all superiorities. +It was not Florence but the Medici and the Pope that employed +Michelangelo; not Milan but Ludovic the Moor that valued Leonardo. It +was the English nobles that patronized Reynolds and Gainsborough; the +darlings of our middle class are Herkomer and Collier. There have been +poets, it is true, who have been born of the people and loved of them; +and I do not despise poetry of that kind. But it is not the great +thing. The great thing is Sophocles and Virgil, a fine culture wedded +to a rich nature. And such a marriage is not accomplished in the +fields or the market-place. The literature loved by democracy is a +literature like themselves; not literature at all, but journalism, +gross, shrieking, sensational, base. So with the drama, so with +architecture, so with every art. Substitute the mass for the patron, +and you eliminate taste. The artist perishes; the charlatan survives +and flourishes. Only in science have you still an aristocracy. For +the crowd sees that there is profit in science, and lets it go its way. +Because of the accident that it can be applied, it may be +disinterestedly pursued. And democracy hitherto, though impatiently, +endures an ideal aim in the hope of degrading its achievement to its +own uses. + +"Such being my view of democratic society I look naturally for elements +that promise not to foster, but to counteract it. I look for the germs +of a new aristocracy. They are hard to discover, and perhaps my +desires override my judgment. But I fancy that it will be the very +land that has suffered most acutely from the disease that will be the +first to discover the remedy. I endorse Ellis's view of American +civilization; but I allow myself to hope that the reaction is already +beginning. I have met in Italy young Americans with a finer sense of +beauty, distinction, and form, than I have been able to find among +Englishmen, still less among Italians. And once there is cast into +that fresh and unencumbered soil the seed of the ideal that made Greece +great, who can prophecy into what forms of beauty and thought it may +not flower? The Plutocracy of the West may yet be transformed into an +Aristocracy; and Europe re-discover from America the secret of its past +greatness. Such, at least, appears to me to be the best hope of the +world; and to the realization of that hope I would have all men of +culture all the world over unite their efforts. For the kingdom of +this earth, like that of heaven, is taken by violence. We must work +not with, but against tendencies, if we would realize anything great; +and the men who are fit to rule must have the courage to assume power, +if ever there is to be once more a civilization. Therefore it is that +I, the last of an old aristocracy, look across the Atlantic for the +first of the new. And beyond socialism, beyond anarchy, across that +weltering sea, I strain my eyes to see, pearl-grey against the dawn, +the new and stately citadel of Power. For Power is the centre of +crystallization for all good; given that, you have morals, art, +religion; without it, you have nothing but appetites and passions. +Power then is the condition of life, even of the life of the mass, in +any sense in which it is worth having. And in the interest of +Democracy itself every good Democrat ought to pray for the advent of +Aristocracy." + +ALL of our company had now spoken except two. One was the author, +Vivian, and him I had decided to leave till the last. The other was +John Woodman, a member of the Society of Friends, and one who was +commonly regarded as a crank, because he lived on a farm in the +country, worked with his hands, and refused to pay taxes on the ground +that they went to maintain the army and navy. If Harington was +handsome, Woodman was beautiful, but with beauty of expression rather +than of features, I had always thought of him as a perfect example of +that rare type, the genuine Christian. And since Harington had just +revealed himself as a typical Pagan, I felt glad of the chance which +brought the two men into such close juxtaposition. My only doubt was, +whether Woodman would consent to speak. For on previous occasions I +had known him to refuse; and he was the only one of us who had always +been able to sustain his refusal, without unpleasantness, but without +yielding. To-night, however, he rose in response to my appeal, and +spoke as follows: + +"All the evening I have been wondering when the lot would fall on me, +and whether, when it did, I should feel, as we Friends say, 'free' to +answer the call. Now that it has come, I am, I think, free; but not, +if you will pardon me, for a long or eloquent speech. What I have to +say I shall say as simply and as briefly as I can; and you, I know, +will listen with your accustomed tolerance, though I shall differ even +more, if possible, from all the other speakers, than they have differed +from one another. For you have all spoken from the point of view of +the world. You have put forward proposals for changing society and +making it better. But you have relied, for the most part, on external +means to accomplish such changes. You have spoken of extending or +limiting the powers of government, of socialism, of anarchy, of +education, of selective breeding. But you have not spoken of the +Spirit and the Life, or not in the sense in which I would wish to speak +of them. MacCarthy, indeed, I remember, used the words 'the life of +the spirit.' But I could not well understand what he meant, except +that he hoped to attain it by violence; and in that way what I would +seek and value cannot be furthered. Coryat, again, and Harington spoke +of the good life. But Coryat seemed to think that any and all life is +good. The line of division which I see everywhere he did not see at +all, the line between the children of God and the children of this +world. I could not say with him that there is a natural goodness in +life as such; only that any honest occupation will be good if it be +practised by a good man. It is not wealth that is needed, nor talents, +nor intellect. These things are gifts that may be given or withheld. +But the one thing needful is the spirit of God, which is given freely +to the poor and the ignorant who seek it. Believing this, I cannot but +disagree, also, with Harington. For the life of which he spoke is the +life of this world. He praises power, and wisdom, and beauty, and the +excellence of the body and the mind. In these things, he says, the +good life consists. And since they are so rare and difficult to +attain, and need for their fostering, natural aptitudes, and leisure +and wealth and great position, he concludes that the good life is +possible only for the few; and that to them the many should be +ministers. And if the goods he speaks of be really such, he is right; +for in the things of the world, what one takes, another must resign. +If there are rulers there must be subjects; if there are rich, there +must be poor; if there are idle men there must be drudges. But the +real Good is not thus exclusive. It is open to all; and the more a man +has of it the more he gives to others. That Good is the love of God, +and through the love of God the love of man. These are old phrases, +but their sense is not old; rather it is always new, for it is eternal. +Now, as of old, in the midst of science, of business, of invention, of +the multifarious confusion and din and hurry of the world, God may be +directly perceived and known. But to know Him is to love Him, and to +love Him is to love His creatures, and most all of our fellow-men, to +whom we are nearest and most akin, and with and by whom we needs must +live. And if that love were really spread abroad among us, the +questions that have been discussed to-night would resolve themselves. +For there would be a rule of life generally observed and followed; and +under it the conditions that make the problems would disappear. Of +such a rule, all men, dimly and at moments, are aware. By it they were +warned that slavery was wrong. And had they but read it more truly, +and followed it more faithfully, they would never have made war to +abolish what they would never have wished to maintain. And the same +rule it is that is warning us now that it is wrong to fight, wrong to +heap up riches, wrong to live by the labour of others. As we come to +heed the warning we shall cease to do these things. But to change +institutions without changing hearts is idle. For it is but to change +the subjects into the rulers, the poor into the rich, the drudges into +the idle men. And, as a result, we should only have idle men more +frivolous, rich men more hard, rulers more incompetent. It is not by +violence or compulsion, open or disguised, that the kingdom of heaven +comes. It is by simple service on the part of those that know the law, +by their following the right in their own lives, and preaching rather +by their conduct than by their words. + +"This would be a hard saying if we had to rely on ourselves. But we +have God to rely on, who gives His help not according to the measure of +our powers. A man cannot by taking thought add a cubit to his stature; +he cannot increase the scope of his mind or the range of his senses; he +cannot, by willing, make himself a philosopher, or a leader of men. +But drawing on the source that is open to the poorest and the weakest +he can become a good man; and then, whatever his powers, he will be +using them for God and man. If men do that, each man for himself, by +the help of God, all else will follow. So true is it that if ye seek +first the kingdom of heaven all these things shall be added unto you. +Yes, that is true. It is eternal truth. It does not change with the +doctrines of Churches nor depend upon them. I would say even it does +not depend on Christianity. For the words would be true, though there +had never been a Christ to speak them. And the proof that they are +true is simply the direct witness of consciousness. We perceive such +truths as we perceive the sun. They carry with them their own +certainty; and on that rests the certainty of God. Therein is the +essence of all religion. I say it because I know. And the rest of +you, so it seems to me, are guessing. Nor is it, as it might seem at +first, a truth irrelevant to your discussion. For it teaches that all +change must proceed from within outward. There is not, there never has +been, a just polity, for there has never been one based on the love of +God and man. All that you condemn--poverty, and wealth, idleness and +excessive labour, squalor, disease, barren marriages, aggression and +war, will continue in spite of all changes in form, until men will to +get rid of them. And that they will not do till they have learnt to +love God and man. Revolution will be vain, evolution will be vain, all +uneasy turnings from side to side will be vain, until that change of +heart be accomplished. And accomplished it will be in its own time. +Everywhere I see it at work, in many ways, in the guise of many +different opinions. I see it at work here to-night among those with +whom I most disagree. I see it in the hope of Allison and Wilson, in +the defiance of MacCarthy, in the doubt of Martin, and most of all in +the despair of Audubon. For he is right to despair of the only life he +knows, the life of the world whose fruits are dust and ashes. He +drifts on a midnight ocean, unlighted by stars, and tossed by the winds +of disappointment, sorrow, sickness, irreparable loss. Ah, but above +him, if he but knew, as now in our eyes and ears, rises into a crystal +sky the first lark of dawn. And the cuckoo sings, and the blackbird, +do you not hear them? And the fountain rises ever in showers of silver +sparks, up to the heaven it will not reach till fire has made it +vapour. And so the whole creation aspires, out of the night of +despair, into the cool freshness of dawn and on to the sun of noon. +Let us be patient and follow each his path, waiting on the word of God +till He be pleased to reveal it. For His way is not hard, it is joy +and peace unutterable. And those who wait in faith He will bless with +the knowledge of Himself." + +As he finished it was light, though the sun had not yet risen. The +first birds were singing in the wood, and the fountain glistened and +sang, and the plain lay before us like a bride waiting for the +bridegroom. We were silent under the spell; and I scarcely know how +long had passed before I had heart to call upon Vivian to conclude. + +I have heard Vivian called a philosopher, but the term is misleading. +Those who know his writings--and they are too few--know that he +concerned himself, directly or indirectly, with philosophic problems. +But he never wrote philosophy; his methods were not those of logic; and +his sympathies were with science and the arts. In the early age of +Greece he might have been Empedocles or Heraclitus; he could never have +been Spinoza or Kant. He sought to interpret life, but not merely in +terms of the intellect. He needed to see and feel in order to think. +And he expressed himself in a style too intellectual for lovers of +poetry, too metaphorical for lovers of philosophy. His Public, +therefore, though devoted, was limited; but we, in our society, always +listened to him with an interest that was rather enhanced than +diminished by an element of perplexity. I have found it hard to +reproduce his manner, in which it was clear that he took a conscious +and artistic pleasure. Still less can I give the impression of his +lean and fine-cut face, and the distinction of his whole personality. +He stood up straight and tall against the whitening sky, and delivered +himself as follows: + +"Man is in the making; but henceforth he must make himself. To that +point Nature has led him, out of the primeval slime. She has given him +limbs, she has given him brain, she has given him the rudiment of a +soul. Now it is for him to make or mar that splendid torso. Let him +look no more to her for aid; for it is her will to create one who has +the power to create himself. If he fail, she fails; back goes the +metal to the pot; and the great process begins anew. If he succeeds, +he succeeds alone. His fate is in his own hands. + +"Of that fate, did he but know it, brain is the lord, to fashion a +palace fit for the soul to inhabit. Yet still, after centuries of +stumbling, reason is no more than the furtive accomplice of habit and +force. Force creates, habit perpetuates, reason the sycophant +sanctions. And so he drifts, not up but down, and Nature watches in +anguish, self-forbidden to intervene, unless it be to annihilate. If +he is to drive, and drive straight, reason must seize the reins; and +the art of her driving is the art of Politics. Of that art, the aim is +perfection, the method selection. Science is its minister, ethics its +lord. It spares no prejudice, respects no habit, honours no tradition. +Institutions are stubble in the fire it kindles. The present and the +past it throws without remorse into the jaws of the future. It is the +angel with the flaming sword swift to dispossess the crone that sits on +her money-bags at Westminster. + +"Or, shall I say, it is Hercules with the Augean stable to cleanse, of +which every city is a stall, heaped with the dung of a century; with +the Hydra to slay, whose hundred writhing heads of false belief, from +old truth rotted into lies, spring inexhaustibly fecund in creeds, +interests, institutions. Of which the chief is Property, most cruel +and blind of all, who devours us, ere we know it, in the guise of +Security and Peace, killing the bodies of some, the souls of most, and +growing ever fresh from the root, in forms that but seem to be new, +until the root itself be cut away by the sword of the spirit. What +that sword shall be called, socialism, anarchy, what you will, is small +matter, so but the hand that wields it be strong, the brain clear, the +soul illumined, passionate and profound. But where shall the champion +be found fit to wield that weapon? + +"He will not be found; he must be made. By Man Man must be sown. Once +he might trust to Nature, while he was laid at her breast. But she has +weaned him; and the promptings she no longer guides, he may not blindly +trust for their issue. While she weeded, it was hers to plant; but she +weeds no more. He of his own will uproots or spares; and of his own +will he must sow, if he would not have his garden a wilderness. Even +now precious plants perish before his eyes, even now weeds grow rank, +while he watches in idle awe, and prates of his own impotence. He has +given the reins to Desire, and she drives him back to the abyss. But +harness her to the car, with reason for charioteer, and she will grow +wings to waft him to his goal. That in him that he calls Love is but +the dragon of the slime. Let him bury it in the grave of Self, and it +will rise a Psyche, with wings too wide to shelter only the home. The +Man that is to be comes at the call of the Man that is. Let him call +then, soberly, not from the fumes of lust. For as is the call, so will +be the answer. + +"But for what should he call? For Pagan? For Christian? For neither, +and for both. Paganism speaks for the men in Man, Christianity for the +Man in men. The fruit that was eaten in Paradise, sown in the soul of +man, bore in Hellas its first and fairest harvest. There rose upon the +world of mind the triple sun of the Ideal. Aphrodite, born of the +foam, flowered on the azure main, Tritons in her train and Nereids, +under the flush of dawn. Apollo, radiant in hoary dew, leapt from the +eastern wave, flamed through the heaven, and cooled his hissing wheels +in the vaporous west. Athene, sprung from the brain of God, armed with +the spear of truth, moved grey-eyed over the earth probing the minds of +men. Love, Beauty, Wisdom, behold the Pagan Trinity! Through whose +grace only men are men, and fit to become Man. Therefore, the gods are +eternal; not they die, but we, when we think them dead. And no man who +does not know them, and knowing, worship and love, is able to be a +member of the body of Man. Thus it is that the sign of a step forward +is a look backward; and Greece stands eternally at the threshold of the +new life. Forget her, and you sink back, if not to the brute, to the +insect. Consider the ant, and beware of her! She is there for a +warning. In universal Anthood there are no ants. From that fate may +men save Man! + +"But the Pagan gods were pitiless; they preyed upon the weak. Their +wisdom was rooted in folly, their beauty in squalor, their love in +oppression. So fostered, those flowers decayed. And out of the +rotting soil rose the strange new blossoms we call Faith, and Hope, and +Charity. For Folly cried, 'I know not, but I believe'; Squalor, 'I am +vile, but I hope'; and the oppressed, 'I am despised, but I love.' +That was the Christian Trinity, the echo of man's frustration, as the +other was the echo of his accomplishment. Yet both he needs. For +because he grows, he is dogged by imperfection. His weakness is mocked +by those shining forms on the mountain-top. But Faith, and Hope, and +Charity walk beside him in the mire, to kindle, to comfort and to help. +And of them justice is born, the plea of the Many against the Few, of +the nation against the class, of mankind against the nation, of the +future against the present. In Christianity men were born into Man. +Yet in Him let not men die! For what profits justice unless it be the +step to the throne of Olympus? What profit Faith and Hope without a +goal? Charity without an object? Vain is the love of emmets, or of +bees and coral-insects. For the worth of love is as the worth of the +lover. It is only in the soil of Paganism that Christianity can come +to maturity. And Faith, Hope, Charity, are but seeds of themselves +till they fall into the womb of Wisdom, Beauty, and Love. Olympus lies +before us, the snow-capped mountain. Let us climb it, together, if you +will, not some on the corpses of the rest; but climb at least, not +fester and swarm on rich meadows of equality. We are not for the +valley, nor for the forests or the pastures. If we be brothers, yet we +are brothers in a quest, needing our foremost to lead. Aphrodite, +Apollo, Athene, are before us, not behind. Majestic forms, they gleam +among the snows. March, then, men in Man! + +"But is it men who attain? Or Man? Or not even he, but God? We do +not know. We know only the impulse and the call. The gleam on the +snow, the upward path, the urgent stress within, that is our certainty, +the rest is doubt. But doubt is a horizon, and on it hangs the star of +hope. By that we live; and the science blinds, the renunciation maims, +that would shut us off from those silver rays. Our eyes must open, as +we march, to every signal from the height. And since the soul has +indeed 'immortal longings in her' we may believe them prophetic of +their fruition. For her claims are august as those of man, and appeal +to the same witness. The witness of either is a dream; but such dreams +come from the gate of horn. They are principles of life, and about +them crystallizes the universe. For will is more than knowledge, since +will creates what knowledge records. Science hangs in a void of +nescience, a planet turning in the dark. But across that void Faith +builds the road that leads to Olympus and the eternal gods." + +By the time he had finished speaking the sun had risen, and the glamour +of dawn was passing into the light of common day. The birds sang loud, +the fountain sparkled, and the trees rustled softly in the early +breeze. Our party broke up quietly. Some went away to bed; others +strolled down the gardens; and Audubon went off by appointment to bathe +with my young nephew, as gay and happy, it would seem, as man could be. +I was left to pace the terrace alone, watching the day grow brighter, +and wondering at the divers fates of men. An early bell rang in the +little church at the park-gate; a motor-car hooted along the highway. +And I thought of Cantilupe and Harington, of Allison and Wilson, and +beyond them of the vision of the dawn and the daybreak, of Woodman, the +soul, and Vivian, the spirit. I paused for a last look down the line +of bright statues that bordered the long walk below me. I fancied them +stretching away to the foot of Olympus; and without elation or +excitement, but with the calm of an assured hope, I prepared to begin +the new day. + + + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + + AFTER TWO THOUSAND YEARS + PLATO AND HIS DIALOGUES + THE MEANING OF GOOD + JUSTICE AND LIBERTY + A POLITICAL DIALOGUE + RELIGION AND IMMORTALITY + RELIGION: A CRITICISM AND A FORECAST + THE GREEK VIEW OF LIFE + LETTERS FROM JOHN CHINAMAN + APPEARANCES: BEING NOTES ON TRAVEL + AN ESSAY ON THE CIVILIZATIONS OF INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN + CONTRIBUTION OF ANCIENT GREECE TO MODERN LIFE + THE INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY, 1904-1914 + EVOLUTION IN RE-ACTION IN MODERN FRANCE 1789-1871 + THE EUROPEAN ANARCHY + WAR: ITS NATURE, CAUSE AND CUBE + CAUSES OF INTERNATIONAL WAR + THE CHOICE BEFORE US + DOCUMENTS AND STATEMENTS RELATING TO PEACE + PROPOSALS AND WAR AIMS, DECEMBER 1916-1918 + + ETC. + + + + +OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR + +Plato and His Dialogues + +La. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + +"A lifetime of friendship with the Greek poet-philosopher inspires this +handbook to the dialogues, a handbook free from dryness or the vices of +the text-book."--_New Statesman_ + + +After Two Thousand Years + +A Dialogue Between Plato and a Modern Young Man + +Cr. 8vo. Second Impression 6s. + +"Packed with ideas of immediate and topical significance."--_Daily +Telegraph_ + + +The International Anarchy, 1904-1914 + +Demy 8vo. 17s. 6d. + +"It is very much the best analysis of the international events leading +to the Great War which has so far appeared."--_The Nation_ + + +The European Anarchy + +Cr. 8vo. Third Impression 3s. 6d. + +"This is one of the shrewdest books on the causes of war that we have +read."--_The Economist_ + + +Documents and Statements Relating to Peace Proposals and War Aims, +December 1916-1918 + +Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. + +"A quite indispensable companion to the history of war."--_The +Challenge_ + + +War: Its Nature, Cause and Cure + +Cr. 8vo. 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