he individual could be simple, generous, kindly,
forgiving, the whole of society would rise into a region where
organisation would be no longer needed. These results cannot be
brought about by legislation; the spirit must leap from heart to heart,
as the flower seeds itself in the pasture."

"Would you be surprised to hear," said Sheldon, smiling, "that I am in
accordance with most of your views? Of course legislation is not the
end; it is only a way of dealing with refractory minorities. The
highest individual freedom is what I aim at. But the mistake you make
is in thinking that the individual effects anything; he is only the
link in the chain. It is all a much larger tide, which is moving
resistlessly in the background. It is this movement that I watch with
the deepest hope and concern. I do not profess to direct or regulate
it, it is much too large a thing for that; I merely desire to remove as
far as I can the obstacles that hinder the incoming flood."

"Well," said Hugh, smiling, "as long as you do not threaten my
individual freedom, I do not very much care."

"Ah," said Sheldon, "now you are talking like the worst kind of
aristocrat, the early-Victorian Whig, the man who has a strong belief
in popular liberty, combined with an equally strong sense of personal
superiority."

"No, indeed!" said Hugh, "I bow most sincerely before the rights of
society. I only claim that as long as I do not interfere with other
people, they will not interfere with me. I recognise to the full the
duty of men to work, but when I have complied with that, I want to
approach the world in my own way. I am aware that reason tells me I am
one of a vast class, and that I have certain limitations, but at the
same time instinct tells me that I am sternly and severely isolated.
No one and nothing can intrude into my mind and self; and I feel
inclined to answer you like Dionysus in the _Frogs of Aristophanes_,
who says to Hercules when he is being hectored, "Don't come pitching
your tent in my mind, you have a house of your own!"--_Secretum meum
mihi_, as St. Francis of Assisi said--identity is the one thing of
which I am absolutely sure. One must go on perceiving, drawing in
impressions, feeling, doubting, suffering; one knows that souls like
one's own are moving in the mist; and if one can discern any ray of
light, any break in the clouds, one must shout one's loudest to one's
comrades; but you seem to me to want to silence my lo