re; the wind blew fresh; and, from above,

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling."

Male voices were singing; voices whose owners, beyond a doubt, had no
idea of clinging to anything. Female voices, too, of clingers, perhaps,
but hardly to a cross. "Why do you do it?"--I began to explain. "For the
same reason that we play deck-quoits and shuffle-board; for the same
reason that we dress for dinner. It's the system." "The system?" "Yes.
What I call Anglicanism. It's a form of idealism. It consists in doing
the proper thing." "But why should the proper thing be done?" "That
question ought not to be asked. Anglicanism is an idealistic creed. It
is anti-utilitarian and anti-rational. It does not ask questions; it has
faith. The proper thing is the proper thing, and because it is the
proper thing it is done." "At least," he said, "you do not pretend that
this is religion?" "No. It has nothing to do with religion. But neither
is it, as you too simply suppose, hypocrisy. Hypocrisy implies that you
know what religion is, and counterfeit it. But these people do not know,
and they are not counterfeiting. When they go to church they are not
thinking of religion. They are thinking of the social system. The
officers and civilians singing up there first learned to sing in the
village church. They walked to the church from the great house; the
great house stood in its park; the park was enclosed by the estate; and
the estate was surrounded by other estates. The service in the village
church stood for all that. And the service in the saloon stands for it
still. At bottom, what that hymn means is not that these men are
Christians, but that they are carrying England to India, to Burma, to
China." "It is a funny thing," the Frenchman mused, "to carry to 300
million Hindus and Mahometans, and 400 million Confucians, Buddhists,
and devil-worshippers. What do they do with it when they get there?"
"They plant it down in little oases all over the country, and live in
it. It is the shell that protects them in those oceans of impropriety.
And from that shell they govern the world." "But how can they govern
what they can't even see?" "They govern all the better. If once they
could see, they would be lost. Doubt would enter in. And it is the
virtue of the Englishman that he never doubts. That is what the system
does for him."

At this moment a voice was borne down the breeze. It was that of my
travelling companion, and