een; that even then they would be
different. They would spend the remainder of their lives adjusting
themselves to strange conditions. She began to weep softly. She was glad
that at least nothing could change Stark's snore!

* * * * *

One reason why more men do not join the oldest order in the world--the
Brotherhood of Man--is because its constitution and by-laws are neither
secret nor cryptic. Everybody knows what they are, and everybody knows
what they mean. "Love thy neighbour as thyself," "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you," "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For
with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure
ye mete it shall be measured to you again."

There is a whole Book filled with these regulations for the governing of
this ancient order. But it has the largest circulation of any book in
the civilized world, and any one is eligible to membership by some
profession of faith. So you cannot choose your brethren. This is
directly opposed to one of our strongest instincts as social animals:
the instinct of election and selection in this present world. The
Brotherhood does what it can, of course, to segregate the different
classes and caste of men into creeds and missions and saints and
sinners. But it is not successful, and the failure has resulted,
especially among men, in the founding of innumerable secret orders--to
say nothing of adolescent college fraternities, where youths are trained
in snobbishness, and to all the traditions and mysteries which mask
these orders. There is no more virtue in being a Mason, or a Knight of
Pythias, or an Elk, or an Odd Fellow than there is in being a Christian
gentleman, but there is more distinction among men. So they are
complimented to be chosen and elected to one of these goat-riding
organizations.

Women have never been accepted as members of these orders, though they
are sometimes annexed under a separate "star," for example, or as mere
useful "Rebecca" appendages. Enough "Eastern Stars," or "Rebeccas" in a
town will do all the drudgery, bake all the cakes, and get ready
generally for the annual celebration of the real order to which they
have been annexed, you understand. But they never share the inner shrine
privileges with their lords. They do not wear the royal purple, nor the
red-and-gold-lace uniforms of the Knights, nor carry banners. If you see
them at all they will be tacked on to the end