lestone, on the contrary, that
it was just a subject you ought to write a book about. You would have so
much to tell,--all your personal experiments, you know; now do.

_Fussle_. Take my advice, Mr Rollestone, and don't. You would have very
few readers, and those who read you would only sneer at what they would
call your crude ideas; and indeed, you will excuse me for saying so, but
I am not sure that they would not be right.

_Lord Fondleton_. I quite disagree with you, Mr Fussle. If Rollestone
would write a book which would put a stop to this "religion of the
future" business, he would earn the gratitude of society. Do you know, I
am getting rather bored with it.

_Fussle_. Not if he introduced instead a latent force, which should
overturn all existing institutions, and revolutionise society--which it
would inevitably have to do if we were all coerced by it into adopting
literally the ethics of Christianity, instead of merely professing them.
Why, the "Sermon on the Mount" alone, practised to the letter, would
produce a general destruction. Church and State, and the whole economic
system upon which society is based, would melt away before it like an
iceberg under a tropical sun. I don't mind discussing the religion of
the future as a subject of interesting speculation; but, depend upon it,
we had better let well alone. It seems to me that we--at least those of
us who are well off--have nothing to complain of. Let us trust to the
silent forces of evolution. See how much they have lately done for us in
the matter of art. What can be pleasanter than this gentle process of
aesthetic development which our higher faculties are undergoing? With
due deference to Mr Rollestone, I think we shall be far better employed
in cultivating our taste, than in probing our own organisms in the hope
of discovering forces which may enable us to apply a perfectly
unpractical system of morality, to a society which has every reason to be
satisfied with the normal progress it is making.

_Mrs Gloring_. Indeed, Mr Rollestone, I agree with you a great deal more
than with Mr Fussle. I should like to call out a higher moral force in
myself--but I should never have the courage to undergo all the ordeals
you say it would involve; I am too weak to try.

_Lord Fondleton_. Of course you are,--don't! You are much nicer as you
are. Why, Rollestone, you would make all the women detestable if you
could have your way.

_Rollestone_.