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diff --git a/6424.txt b/6424.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6885b70 --- /dev/null +++ b/6424.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10546 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Utopia, by H. G. Wells +#24 in our series by H. G. Wells + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Modern Utopia + +Author: H. G. Wells + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6424] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN UTOPIA *** + + + + +Produced by Andrew Sly + + + + + + +A MODERN UTOPIA + +BY H. G. WELLS + + + +A NOTE TO THE READER + +This book is in all probability the last of a series of writings, +of which--disregarding certain earlier disconnected essays--my +Anticipations was the beginning. Originally I intended Anticipations +to be my sole digression from my art or trade (or what you will) +of an imaginative writer. I wrote that book in order to clear up +the muddle in my own mind about innumerable social and political +questions, questions I could not keep out of my work, which it +distressed me to touch upon in a stupid haphazard way, and which +no one, so far as I knew, had handled in a manner to satisfy my +needs. But Anticipations did not achieve its end. I have a slow +constructive hesitating sort of mind, and when I emerged from that +undertaking I found I had still most of my questions to state and +solve. In Mankind in the Making, therefore, I tried to review +the social organisation in a different way, to consider it as an +educational process instead of dealing with it as a thing with +a future history, and if I made this second book even less +satisfactory from a literary standpoint than the former (and this is +my opinion), I blundered, I think, more edifyingly--at least from +the point of view of my own instruction. I ventured upon several +themes with a greater frankness than I had used in Anticipations, +and came out of that second effort guilty of much rash writing, but +with a considerable development of formed opinion. In many matters I +had shaped out at last a certain personal certitude, upon which I +feel I shall go for the rest of my days. In this present book I have +tried to settle accounts with a number of issues left over or opened +up by its two predecessors, to correct them in some particulars, and +to give the general picture of a Utopia that has grown up in my mind +during the course of these speculations as a state of affairs at +once possible and more desirable than the world in which I live. But +this book has brought me back to imaginative writing again. In its +two predecessors the treatment of social organisation had been +purely objective; here my intention has been a little wider and +deeper, in that I have tried to present not simply an ideal, but an +ideal in reaction with two personalities. Moreover, since this may +be the last book of the kind I shall ever publish, I have written +into it as well as I can the heretical metaphysical scepticism upon +which all my thinking rests, and I have inserted certain sections +reflecting upon the established methods of sociological and economic +science.... + +The last four words will not attract the butterfly reader, I know. +I have done my best to make the whole of this book as lucid and +entertaining as its matter permits, because I want it read by as +many people as possible, but I do not promise anything but rage and +confusion to him who proposes to glance through my pages just to see +if I agree with him, or to begin in the middle, or to read without +a constantly alert attention. If you are not already a little +interested and open-minded with regard to social and political +questions, and a little exercised in self-examination, you will find +neither interest nor pleasure here. If your mind is "made up" upon +such issues your time will be wasted on these pages. And even if you +are a willing reader you may require a little patience for the +peculiar method I have this time adopted. + +That method assumes an air of haphazard, but it is not so careless +as it seems. I believe it to be--even now that I am through with the +book--the best way to a sort of lucid vagueness which has always +been my intention in this matter. I tried over several beginnings of +a Utopian book before I adopted this. I rejected from the outset the +form of the argumentative essay, the form which appeals most readily +to what is called the "serious" reader, the reader who is often no +more than the solemnly impatient parasite of great questions. He +likes everything in hard, heavy lines, black and white, yes and no, +because he does not understand how much there is that cannot be +presented at all in that way; wherever there is any effect of +obliquity, of incommensurables, wherever there is any levity +or humour or difficulty of multiplex presentation, he refuses +attention. Mentally he seems to be built up upon an invincible +assumption that the Spirit of Creation cannot count beyond two, he +deals only in alternatives. Such readers I have resolved not to +attempt to please here. Even if I presented all my tri-clinic +crystals as systems of cubes----! Indeed I felt it would not be +worth doing. But having rejected the "serious" essay as a form, I +was still greatly exercised, I spent some vacillating months, over +the scheme of this book. I tried first a recognised method of +viewing questions from divergent points that has always attracted me +and which I have never succeeded in using, the discussion novel, +after the fashion of Peacock's (and Mr. Mallock's) development of +the ancient dialogue; but this encumbered me with unnecessary +characters and the inevitable complication of intrigue among them, +and I abandoned it. After that I tried to cast the thing into a +shape resembling a little the double personality of Boswell's +Johnson, a sort of interplay between monologue and commentator; but +that too, although it got nearer to the quality I sought, finally +failed. Then I hesitated over what one might call "hard narrative." +It will be evident to the experienced reader that by omitting +certain speculative and metaphysical elements and by elaborating +incident, this book might have been reduced to a straightforward +story. But I did not want to omit as much on this occasion. I do not +see why I should always pander to the vulgar appetite for stark +stories. And in short, I made it this. I explain all this in order +to make it clear to the reader that, however queer this book +appears at the first examination, it is the outcome of trial and +deliberation, it is intended to be as it is. I am aiming throughout +at a sort of shot-silk texture between philosophical discussion on +the one hand and imaginative narrative on the other. + +H. G. WELLS. + + + +CONTENTS + + The Owner of the Voice + Chapter the First--Topographical + Chapter the Second--Concerning Freedoms + Chapter the Third--Utopian Economics + Chapter the Fourth--The Voice of Nature + Chapter the Fifth--Failure in a Modern Utopia + Chapter the Sixth--Women in a Modern Utopia + Chapter the Seventh--A Few Utopian Impressions + Chapter the Eighth--My Utopian Self + Chapter the Ninth--The Samurai + Chapter the Tenth--Race in Utopia + Chapter the Eleventh--The Bubble Bursts + Appendix--Scepticism of the Instrument + + +A MODERN UTOPIA + + +THE OWNER OF THE VOICE + +There are works, and this is one of them, that are best begun with a +portrait of the author. And here, indeed, because of a very natural +misunderstanding this is the only course to take. Throughout these +papers sounds a note, a distinctive and personal note, a note that +tends at times towards stridency; and all that is not, as these +words are, in Italics, is in one Voice. Now, this Voice, and this is +the peculiarity of the matter, is not to be taken as the Voice of +the ostensible author who fathers these pages. You have to clear +your mind of any preconceptions in that respect. The Owner of the +Voice you must figure to yourself as a whitish plump man, a little +under the middle size and age, with such blue eyes as many Irishmen +have, and agile in his movements and with a slight tonsorial +baldness--a penny might cover it--of the crown. His front is convex. +He droops at times like most of us, but for the greater part he +bears himself as valiantly as a sparrow. Occasionally his hand flies +out with a fluttering gesture of illustration. And his Voice (which +is our medium henceforth) is an unattractive tenor that becomes at +times aggressive. Him you must imagine as sitting at a table reading +a manuscript about Utopias, a manuscript he holds in two hands that +are just a little fat at the wrist. The curtain rises upon him so. +But afterwards, if the devices of this declining art of literature +prevail, you will go with him through curious and interesting +experiences. Yet, ever and again, you will find him back at that +little table, the manuscript in his hand, and the expansion of +his ratiocinations about Utopia conscientiously resumed. The +entertainment before you is neither the set drama of the work of +fiction you are accustomed to read, nor the set lecturing of the +essay you are accustomed to evade, but a hybrid of these two. If you +figure this owner of the Voice as sitting, a little nervously, a +little modestly, on a stage, with table, glass of water and all +complete, and myself as the intrusive chairman insisting with a +bland ruthlessness upon his "few words" of introduction before he +recedes into the wings, and if furthermore you figure a sheet behind +our friend on which moving pictures intermittently appear, and if +finally you suppose his subject to be the story of the adventure of +his soul among Utopian inquiries, you will be prepared for some at +least of the difficulties of this unworthy but unusual work. + +But over against this writer here presented, there is also another +earthly person in the book, who gathers himself together into a +distinct personality only after a preliminary complication with the +reader. This person is spoken of as the botanist, and he is a +leaner, rather taller, graver and much less garrulous man. His face +is weakly handsome and done in tones of grey, he is fairish +and grey-eyed, and you would suspect him of dyspepsia. It is a +justifiable suspicion. Men of this type, the chairman remarks with +a sudden intrusion of exposition, are romantic with a shadow of +meanness, they seek at once to conceal and shape their sensuous +cravings beneath egregious sentimentalities, they get into mighty +tangles and troubles with women, and he has had his troubles. You +will hear of them, for that is the quality of his type. He gets no +personal expression in this book, the Voice is always that other's, +but you gather much of the matter and something of the manner of his +interpolations from the asides and the tenour of the Voice. + +So much by way of portraiture is necessary to present the explorers +of the Modern Utopia, which will unfold itself as a background +to these two enquiring figures. The image of a cinematograph +entertainment is the one to grasp. There will be an effect of these +two people going to and fro in front of the circle of a rather +defective lantern, which sometimes jams and sometimes gets out of +focus, but which does occasionally succeed in displaying on a screen +a momentary moving picture of Utopian conditions. Occasionally the +picture goes out altogether, the Voice argues and argues, and the +footlights return, and then you find yourself listening again to the +rather too plump little man at his table laboriously enunciating +propositions, upon whom the curtain rises now. + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +Topographical + + +Section 1 + +The Utopia of a modern dreamer must needs differ in one fundamental +aspect from the Nowheres and Utopias men planned before Darwin +quickened the thought of the world. Those were all perfect and +static States, a balance of happiness won for ever against the +forces of unrest and disorder that inhere in things. One beheld a +healthy and simple generation enjoying the fruits of the earth in +an atmosphere of virtue and happiness, to be followed by other +virtuous, happy, and entirely similar generations, until the Gods +grew weary. Change and development were dammed back by invincible +dams for ever. But the Modern Utopia must be not static but kinetic, +must shape not as a permanent state but as a hopeful stage, leading +to a long ascent of stages. Nowadays we do not resist and overcome +the great stream of things, but rather float upon it. We build now +not citadels, but ships of state. For one ordered arrangement of +citizens rejoicing in an equality of happiness safe and assured +to them and their children for ever, we have to plan "a flexible +common compromise, in which a perpetually novel succession of +individualities may converge most effectually upon a comprehensive +onward development." That is the first, most generalised difference +between a Utopia based upon modern conceptions and all the Utopias +that were written in the former time. + +Our business here is to be Utopian, to make vivid and credible, +if we can, first this facet and then that, of an imaginary whole +and happy world. Our deliberate intention is to be not, indeed, +impossible, but most distinctly impracticable, by every scale that +reaches only between to-day and to-morrow. We are to turn our backs +for a space upon the insistent examination of the thing that is, +and face towards the freer air, the ampler spaces of the thing +that perhaps might be, to the projection of a State or city "worth +while," to designing upon the sheet of our imaginations the picture +of a life conceivably possible, and yet better worth living than +our own. That is our present enterprise. We are going to lay down +certain necessary starting propositions, and then we shall proceed +to explore the sort of world these propositions give us.... + +It is no doubt an optimistic enterprise. But it is good for awhile +to be free from the carping note that must needs be audible when +we discuss our present imperfections, to release ourselves from +practical difficulties and the tangle of ways and means. It is good +to stop by the track for a space, put aside the knapsack, wipe the +brows, and talk a little of the upper slopes of the mountain we +think we are climbing, would but the trees let us see it. + +There is to be no inquiry here of policy and method. This is to be a +holiday from politics and movements and methods. But for all that, +we must needs define certain limitations. Were we free to have our +untrammelled desire, I suppose we should follow Morris to his +Nowhere, we should change the nature of man and the nature of things +together; we should make the whole race wise, tolerant, noble, +perfect--wave our hands to a splendid anarchy, every man doing as +it pleases him, and none pleased to do evil, in a world as good in +its essential nature, as ripe and sunny, as the world before the +Fall. But that golden age, that perfect world, comes out into the +possibilities of space and time. In space and time the pervading +Will to Live sustains for evermore a perpetuity of aggressions. Our +proposal here is upon a more practical plane at least than that. +We are to restrict ourselves first to the limitations of human +possibility as we know them in the men and women of this world +to-day, and then to all the inhumanity, all the insubordination of +nature. We are to shape our state in a world of uncertain seasons, +sudden catastrophes, antagonistic diseases, and inimical beasts and +vermin, out of men and women with like passions, like uncertainties +of mood and desire to our own. And, moreover, we are going to accept +this world of conflict, to adopt no attitude of renunciation towards +it, to face it in no ascetic spirit, but in the mood of the Western +peoples, whose purpose is to survive and overcome. So much we adopt +in common with those who deal not in Utopias, but in the world of +Here and Now. + +Certain liberties, however, following the best Utopian precedents, +we may take with existing fact. We assume that the tone of public +thought may be entirely different from what it is in the present +world. We permit ourselves a free hand with the mental conflict of +life, within the possibilities of the human mind as we know it. We +permit ourselves also a free hand with all the apparatus of +existence that man has, so to speak, made for himself, with houses, +roads, clothing, canals, machinery, with laws, boundaries, +conventions, and traditions, with schools, with literature and +religious organisation, with creeds and customs, with everything, in +fact, that it lies within man's power to alter. That, indeed, is the +cardinal assumption of all Utopian speculations old and new; the +Republic and Laws of Plato, and More's Utopia, Howells' implicit +Altruria, and Bellamy's future Boston, Comte's great Western +Republic, Hertzka's Freeland, Cabet's Icaria, and Campanella's City +of the Sun, are built, just as we shall build, upon that, upon the +hypothesis of the complete emancipation of a community of men from +tradition, from habits, from legal bonds, and that subtler servitude +possessions entail. And much of the essential value of all such +speculations lies in this assumption of emancipation, lies in that +regard towards human freedom, in the undying interest of the human +power of self-escape, the power to resist the causation of the past, +and to evade, initiate, endeavour, and overcome. + + +Section 2 + +There are very definite artistic limitations also. + +There must always be a certain effect of hardness and thinness about +Utopian speculations. Their common fault is to be comprehensively +jejune. That which is the blood and warmth and reality of life is +largely absent; there are no individualities, but only generalised +people. In almost every Utopia--except, perhaps, Morris's "News from +Nowhere"--one sees handsome but characterless buildings, symmetrical +and perfect cultivations, and a multitude of people, healthy, happy, +beautifully dressed, but without any personal distinction whatever. +Too often the prospect resembles the key to one of those large +pictures of coronations, royal weddings, parliaments, conferences, +and gatherings so popular in Victorian times, in which, instead of a +face, each figure bears a neat oval with its index number legibly +inscribed. This burthens us with an incurable effect of unreality, +and I do not see how it is altogether to be escaped. It is a +disadvantage that has to be accepted. Whatever institution has +existed or exists, however irrational, however preposterous, has, by +virtue of its contact with individualities, an effect of realness +and rightness no untried thing may share. It has ripened, it has +been christened with blood, it has been stained and mellowed by +handling, it has been rounded and dented to the softened contours +that we associate with life; it has been salted, maybe, in a brine +of tears. But the thing that is merely proposed, the thing that is +merely suggested, however rational, however necessary, seems strange +and inhuman in its clear, hard, uncompromising lines, its +unqualified angles and surfaces. + +There is no help for it, there it is! The Master suffers with the +last and least of his successors. For all the humanity he wins to, +through his dramatic device of dialogue, I doubt if anyone has ever +been warmed to desire himself a citizen in the Republic of Plato; I +doubt if anyone could stand a month of the relentless publicity of +virtue planned by More.... No one wants to live in any community of +intercourse really, save for the sake of the individualities he +would meet there. The fertilising conflict of individualities is the +ultimate meaning of the personal life, and all our Utopias no more +than schemes for bettering that interplay. At least, that is how +life shapes itself more and more to modern perceptions. Until you +bring in individualities, nothing comes into being, and a Universe +ceases when you shiver the mirror of the least of individual +minds. + + +Section 3 + +No less than a planet will serve the purpose of a modern Utopia. +Time was when a mountain valley or an island seemed to promise +sufficient isolation for a polity to maintain itself intact from +outward force; the Republic of Plato stood armed ready for defensive +war, and the New Atlantis and the Utopia of More in theory, like +China and Japan through many centuries of effectual practice, held +themselves isolated from intruders. Such late instances as Butler's +satirical "Erewhon," and Mr. Stead's queendom of inverted sexual +conditions in Central Africa, found the Tibetan method of +slaughtering the inquiring visitor a simple, sufficient rule. But +the whole trend of modern thought is against the permanence of any +such enclosures. We are acutely aware nowadays that, however subtly +contrived a State may be, outside your boundary lines the epidemic, +the breeding barbarian or the economic power, will gather its +strength to overcome you. The swift march of invention is all for +the invader. Now, perhaps you might still guard a rocky coast or a +narrow pass; but what of that near to-morrow when the flying machine +soars overhead, free to descend at this point or that? A state +powerful enough to keep isolated under modern conditions would be +powerful enough to rule the world, would be, indeed, if not actively +ruling, yet passively acquiescent in all other human organisations, +and so responsible for them altogether. World-state, therefore, it +must be. + +That leaves no room for a modern Utopia in Central Africa, or in +South America, or round about the pole, those last refuges of +ideality. The floating isle of La Cite Morellyste no longer avails. +We need a planet. Lord Erskine, the author of a Utopia ("Armata") +that might have been inspired by Mr. Hewins, was the first of all +Utopists to perceive this--he joined his twin planets pole to pole +by a sort of umbilical cord. But the modern imagination, obsessed +by physics, must travel further than that. + +Out beyond Sirius, far in the deeps of space, beyond the flight of a +cannon-ball flying for a billion years, beyond the range of unaided +vision, blazes the star that is _our_ Utopia's sun. To those who +know where to look, with a good opera-glass aiding good eyes, it +and three fellows that seem in a cluster with it--though they are +incredible billions of miles nearer--make just the faintest speck +of light. About it go planets, even as our planets, but weaving a +different fate, and in its place among them is Utopia, with its +sister mate, the Moon. It is a planet like our planet, the same +continents, the same islands, the same oceans and seas, another +Fuji-Yama is beautiful there dominating another Yokohama--and +another Matterhorn overlooks the icy disorder of another Theodule. +It is so like our planet that a terrestrial botanist might find his +every species there, even to the meanest pondweed or the remotest +Alpine blossom.... + +Only when he had gathered that last and turned about to find his inn +again, perhaps he would not find his inn! + +Suppose now that two of us were actually to turn about in just that +fashion. Two, I think, for to face a strange planet, even though it +be a wholly civilised one, without some other familiar backing, +dashes the courage overmuch. Suppose that we were indeed so +translated even as we stood. You figure us upon some high pass in +the Alps, and though I--being one easily made giddy by stooping--am +no botanist myself, if my companion were to have a specimen tin +under his arm--so long as it is not painted that abominable popular +Swiss apple green--I would make it no occasion for quarrel! We have +tramped and botanised and come to a rest, and, sitting among rocks, +we have eaten our lunch and finished our bottle of Yvorne, and +fallen into a talk of Utopias, and said such things as I have been +saying. I could figure it myself upon that little neck of the +Lucendro Pass, upon the shoulder of the Piz Lucendro, for there once +I lunched and talked very pleasantly, and we are looking down upon +the Val Bedretto, and Villa and Fontana and Airolo try to hide from +us under the mountain side--three-quarters of a mile they are +vertically below. (Lantern.) With that absurd nearness of effect +one gets in the Alps, we see the little train a dozen miles away, +running down the Biaschina to Italy, and the Lukmanier Pass beyond +Piora left of us, and the San Giacomo right, mere footpaths under +our feet.... + +And behold! in the twinkling of an eye we are in that other +world! + +We should scarcely note the change. Not a cloud would have gone from +the sky. It might be the remote town below would take a different +air, and my companion the botanist, with his educated observation, +might almost see as much, and the train, perhaps, would be gone out +of the picture, and the embanked straightness of the Ticino in the +Ambri-Piotta meadows--that might be altered, but that would be all +the visible change. Yet I have an idea that in some obscure manner +we should come to feel at once a difference in things. + +The botanist's glance would, under a subtle attraction, float back +to Airolo. "It's queer," he would say quite idly, "but I never +noticed that building there to the right before." + +"Which building?" + +"That to the right--with a queer sort of thing----" + +"I see now. Yes. Yes, it's certainly an odd-looking affair.... And +big, you know! Handsome! I wonder----" + +That would interrupt our Utopian speculations. We should both +discover that the little towns below had changed--but how, we should +not have marked them well enough to know. It would be indefinable, a +change in the quality of their grouping, a change in the quality of +their remote, small shapes. + +I should flick a few crumbs from my knee, perhaps. "It's odd," I +should say, for the tenth or eleventh time, with a motion to rise, +and we should get up and stretch ourselves, and, still a little +puzzled, turn our faces towards the path that clambers down over +the tumbled rocks and runs round by the still clear lake and down +towards the Hospice of St. Gotthard--if perchance we could still +find that path. + +Long before we got to that, before even we got to the great high +road, we should have hints from the stone cabin in the nape of the +pass--it would be gone or wonderfully changed--from the very goats +upon the rocks, from the little hut by the rough bridge of stone, +that a mighty difference had come to the world of men. + +And presently, amazed and amazing, we should happen on a man--no +Swiss--dressed in unfamiliar clothing and speaking an unfamiliar +speech.... + + +Section 4 + +Before nightfall we should be drenched in wonders, but still we +should have wonder left for the thing my companion, with his +scientific training, would no doubt be the first to see. He would +glance up, with that proprietary eye of the man who knows his +constellations down to the little Greek letters. I imagine his +exclamation. He would at first doubt his eyes. I should inquire the +cause of his consternation, and it would be hard to explain. He +would ask me with a certain singularity of manner for "Orion," and I +should not find him; for the Great Bear, and it would have vanished. +"Where?" I should ask, and "where?" seeking among that scattered +starriness, and slowly I should acquire the wonder that possessed +him. + +Then, for the first time, perhaps, we should realise from +this unfamiliar heaven that not the world had changed, but +ourselves--that we had come into the uttermost deeps of space. + + +Section 5 + +We need suppose no linguistic impediments to intercourse. The whole +world will surely have a common language, that is quite elementarily +Utopian, and since we are free of the trammels of convincing +story-telling, we may suppose that language to be sufficiently our +own to understand. Indeed, should we be in Utopia at all, if we +could not talk to everyone? That accursed bar of language, that +hostile inscription in the foreigner's eyes, "deaf and dumb to you, +sir, and so--your enemy," is the very first of the defects and +complications one has fled the earth to escape. + +But what sort of language would we have the world speak, if we were +told the miracle of Babel was presently to be reversed? + +If I may take a daring image, a mediaeval liberty, I would suppose +that in this lonely place the Spirit of Creation spoke to us on this +matter. "You are wise men," that Spirit might say--and I, being a +suspicious, touchy, over-earnest man for all my predisposition to +plumpness, would instantly scent the irony (while my companion, I +fancy, might even plume himself), "and to beget your wisdom is +chiefly why the world was made. You are so good as to propose an +acceleration of that tedious multitudinous evolution upon which I am +engaged. I gather, a universal tongue would serve you there. While I +sit here among these mountains--I have been filing away at them for +this last aeon or so, just to attract your hotels, you know--will +you be so kind----? A few hints----?" + +Then the Spirit of Creation might transiently smile, a smile that +would be like the passing of a cloud. All the mountain wilderness +about us would be radiantly lit. (You know those swift moments, when +warmth and brightness drift by, in lonely and desolate places.) + +Yet, after all, why should two men be smiled into apathy by the +Infinite? Here we are, with our knobby little heads, our eyes and +hands and feet and stout hearts, and if not us or ours, still the +endless multitudes about us and in our loins are to come at last to +the World State and a greater fellowship and the universal tongue. +Let us to the extent of our ability, if not answer that question, at +any rate try to think ourselves within sight of the best thing +possible. That, after all, is our purpose, to imagine our best and +strive for it, and it is a worse folly and a worse sin than +presumption, to abandon striving because the best of all our bests +looks mean amidst the suns. + +Now you as a botanist would, I suppose, incline to something as +they say, "scientific." You wince under that most offensive +epithet--and I am able to give you my intelligent sympathy--though +"pseudo-scientific" and "quasi-scientific" are worse by far for the +skin. You would begin to talk of scientific languages, of Esperanto, +La Langue Bleue, New Latin, Volapuk, and Lord Lytton, of the +philosophical language of Archbishop Whateley, Lady Welby's work +upon Significs and the like. You would tell me of the remarkable +precisions, the encyclopaedic quality of chemical terminology, and +at the word terminology I should insinuate a comment on that eminent +American biologist, Professor Mark Baldwin, who has carried the +language biological to such heights of expressive clearness as to be +triumphantly and invincibly unreadable. (Which foreshadows the line +of my defence.) + +You make your ideal clear, a scientific language you demand, without +ambiguity, as precise as mathematical formulae, and with every term +in relations of exact logical consistency with every other. It will +be a language with all the inflexions of verbs and nouns regular and +all its constructions inevitable, each word clearly distinguishable +from every other word in sound as well as spelling. + +That, at any rate, is the sort of thing one hears demanded, and if +only because the demand rests upon implications that reach far +beyond the region of language, it is worth considering here. It +implies, indeed, almost everything that we are endeavouring to +repudiate in this particular work. It implies that the whole +intellectual basis of mankind is established, that the rules of +logic, the systems of counting and measurement, the general +categories and schemes of resemblance and difference, are +established for the human mind for ever--blank Comte-ism, in fact, +of the blankest description. But, indeed, the science of logic and +the whole framework of philosophical thought men have kept since the +days of Plato and Aristotle, has no more essential permanence as +a final expression of the human mind, than the Scottish Longer +Catechism. Amidst the welter of modern thought, a philosophy long +lost to men rises again into being, like some blind and almost +formless embryo, that must presently develop sight, and form, and +power, a philosophy in which this assumption is denied. [Footnote: +The serious reader may refer at leisure to Sidgwick's Use of Words +in Reasoning (particularly), and to Bosanquet's Essentials of Logic, +Bradley's Principles of Logic, and Sigwart's Logik; the lighter +minded may read and mark the temper of Professor Case in the British +Encyclopaedia, article Logic (Vol. XXX.). I have appended to his +book a rude sketch of a philosophy upon new lines, originally read +by me to the Oxford Phil. Soc. in 1903.] + +All through this Utopian excursion, I must warn you, you shall feel +the thrust and disturbance of that insurgent movement. In the +reiterated use of "Unique," you will, as it were, get the gleam of +its integument; in the insistence upon individuality, and the +individual difference as the significance of life, you will feel the +texture of its shaping body. Nothing endures, nothing is precise and +certain (except the mind of a pedant), perfection is the mere +repudiation of that ineluctable marginal inexactitude which is the +mysterious inmost quality of Being. Being, indeed!--there is no +being, but a universal becoming of individualities, and Plato turned +his back on truth when he turned towards his museum of specific +ideals. Heraclitus, that lost and misinterpreted giant, may perhaps +be coming to his own.... + +There is no abiding thing in what we know. We change from weaker to +stronger lights, and each more powerful light pierces our hitherto +opaque foundations and reveals fresh and different opacities below. +We can never foretell which of our seemingly assured fundamentals +the next change will not affect. What folly, then, to dream of +mapping out our minds in however general terms, of providing for +the endless mysteries of the future a terminology and an idiom! We +follow the vein, we mine and accumulate our treasure, but who can +tell which way the vein may trend? Language is the nourishment of +the thought of man, that serves only as it undergoes metabolism, and +becomes thought and lives, and in its very living passes away. You +scientific people, with your fancy of a terrible exactitude in +language, of indestructible foundations built, as that Wordsworthian +doggerel on the title-page of Nature says, "for aye," are +marvellously without imagination! + +The language of Utopia will no doubt be one and indivisible; all +mankind will, in the measure of their individual differences in +quality, be brought into the same phase, into a common resonance of +thought, but the language they will speak will still be a living +tongue, an animated system of imperfections, which every individual +man will infinitesimally modify. Through the universal freedom of +exchange and movement, the developing change in its general spirit +will be a world-wide change; that is the quality of its +universality. I fancy it will be a coalesced language, a synthesis +of many. Such a language as English is a coalesced language; it is a +coalescence of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French and Scholar's Latin, +welded into one speech more ample and more powerful and beautiful +than either. The Utopian tongue might well present a more spacious +coalescence, and hold in the frame of such an uninflected or +slightly inflected idiom as English already presents, a profuse +vocabulary into which have been cast a dozen once separate tongues, +superposed and then welded together through bilingual and trilingual +compromises. [Footnote: Vide an excellent article, La Langue +Francaise en l'an 2003, par Leon Bollack, in La Revue, 15 Juillet, +1903.] In the past ingenious men have speculated on the inquiry, +"Which language will survive?" The question was badly put. I think +now that this wedding and survival of several in a common offspring +is a far more probable thing. + + +Section 6 + +This talk of languages, however, is a digression. We were on our +way along the faint path that runs round the rim of the Lake of +Lucendro, and we were just upon the point of coming upon our first +Utopian man. He was, I said, no Swiss. Yet he would have been a +Swiss on mother Earth, and here he would have the same face, with +some difference, maybe, in the expression; the same physique, though +a little better developed, perhaps--the same complexion. He would +have different habits, different traditions, different knowledge, +different ideas, different clothing, and different appliances, but, +except for all that, he would be the same man. We very distinctly +provided at the outset that the modern Utopia must have people +inherently the same as those in the world. + +There is more, perhaps, in that than appears at the first +suggestion. + +That proposition gives one characteristic difference between a +modern Utopia and almost all its predecessors. It is to be a world +Utopia, we have agreed, no less; and so we must needs face the fact +that we are to have differences of race. Even the lower class of +Plato's Republic was not specifically of different race. But this is +a Utopia as wide as Christian charity, and white and black, brown, +red and yellow, all tints of skin, all types of body and character, +will be there. How we are to adjust their differences is a master +question, and the matter is not even to be opened in this chapter. +It will need a whole chapter even to glance at its issues. But here +we underline that stipulation; every race of this planet earth is +to be found in the strictest parallelism there, in numbers the +same--only, as I say, with an entirely different set of traditions, +ideals, ideas, and purposes, and so moving under those different +skies to an altogether different destiny. + +There follows a curious development of this to anyone clearly +impressed by the uniqueness and the unique significance of +individualities. Races are no hard and fast things, no crowd of +identically similar persons, but massed sub-races, and tribes +and families, each after its kind unique, and these again are +clusterings of still smaller uniques and so down to each several +person. So that our first convention works out to this, that not +only is every earthly mountain, river, plant, and beast in that +parallel planet beyond Sirius also, but every man, woman, and child +alive has a Utopian parallel. From now onward, of course, the fates +of these two planets will diverge, men will die here whom wisdom +will save there, and perhaps conversely here we shall save men; +children will be born to them and not to us, to us and not to them, +but this, this moment of reading, is the starting moment, and for +the first and last occasion the populations of our planets are +abreast. + +We must in these days make some such supposition. The alternative is +a Utopia of dolls in the likeness of angels--imaginary laws to fit +incredible people, an unattractive undertaking. + +For example, we must assume there is a man such as I might have +been, better informed, better disciplined, better employed, thinner +and more active--and I wonder what he is doing!--and you, Sir or +Madam, are in duplicate also, and all the men and women that you +know and I. I doubt if we shall meet our doubles, or if it would be +pleasant for us to do so; but as we come down from these lonely +mountains to the roads and houses and living places of the Utopian +world-state, we shall certainly find, here and there, faces that +will remind us singularly of those who have lived under our +eyes. + +There are some you never wish to meet again, you say, and some, I +gather, you do. "And One----!" + +It is strange, but this figure of the botanist will not keep in +place. It sprang up between us, dear reader, as a passing +illustrative invention. I do not know what put him into my head, and +for the moment, it fell in with my humour for a space to foist the +man's personality upon you as yours and call you scientific--that +most abusive word. But here he is, indisputably, with me in Utopia, +and lapsing from our high speculative theme into halting but +intimate confidences. He declares he has not come to Utopia to meet +again with his sorrows. + +What sorrows? + +I protest, even warmly, that neither he nor his sorrows were in my +intention. + +He is a man, I should think, of thirty-nine, a man whose life has +been neither tragedy nor a joyous adventure, a man with one of +those faces that have gained interest rather than force or nobility +from their commerce with life. He is something refined, with +some knowledge, perhaps, of the minor pains and all the civil +self-controls; he has read more than he has suffered, and suffered +rather than done. He regards me with his blue-grey eye, from which +all interest in this Utopia has faded. + +"It is a trouble," he says, "that has come into my life only for a +month or so--at least acutely again. I thought it was all over. +There was someone----" + +It is an amazing story to hear upon a mountain crest in Utopia, this +Hampstead affair, this story of a Frognal heart. "Frognal," he says, +is the place where they met, and it summons to my memory the word +on a board at the corner of a flint-dressed new road, an estate +development road, with a vista of villas up a hill. He had known +her before he got his professorship, and neither her "people" nor +his--he speaks that detestable middle-class dialect in which aunts +and things with money and the right of intervention are called +"people"!--approved of the affair. "She was, I think, rather easily +swayed," he says. "But that's not fair to her, perhaps. She thought +too much of others. If they seemed distressed, or if they seemed to +think a course right----" ... + +Have I come to Utopia to hear this sort of thing? + + +Section 7 + +It is necessary to turn the botanist's thoughts into a worthier +channel. It is necessary to override these modest regrets, this +intrusive, petty love story. Does he realise this is indeed Utopia? +Turn your mind, I insist, to this Utopia of mine, and leave these +earthly troubles to their proper planet. Do you realise just where +the propositions necessary to a modern Utopia are taking us? +Everyone on earth will have to be here;--themselves, but with a +difference. Somewhere here in this world is, for example, Mr. +Chamberlain, and the King is here (no doubt incognito), and all the +Royal Academy, and Sandow, and Mr. Arnold White. + +But these famous names do not appeal to him. + +My mind goes from this prominent and typical personage to that, and +for a time I forget my companion. I am distracted by the curious +side issues this general proposition trails after it. There will be +so-and-so, and so-and-so. The name and figure of Mr. Roosevelt jerks +into focus, and obliterates an attempt to acclimatise the Emperor of +the Germans. What, for instance, will Utopia do with Mr. Roosevelt? +There drifts across my inner vision the image of a strenuous +struggle with Utopian constables, the voice that has thrilled +terrestrial millions in eloquent protest. The writ of arrest, +drifting loose in the conflict, comes to my feet; I impale the scrap +of paper, and read--but can it be?--"attempted disorganisation? ... +incitements to disarrange? ... the balance of population?" + +The trend of my logic for once has led us into a facetious alley. +One might indeed keep in this key, and write an agreeable little +Utopia, that like the holy families of the mediaeval artists (or +Michael Angelo's Last Judgement) should compliment one's friends in +various degrees. Or one might embark upon a speculative treatment of +the entire Almanach de Gotha, something on the lines of Epistemon's +vision of the damned great, when + + "Xerxes was a crier of mustard. + Romulus was a salter and a patcher of patterns...." + +That incomparable catalogue! That incomparable catalogue! Inspired +by the Muse of Parody, we might go on to the pages of "Who's Who," +and even, with an eye to the obdurate republic, to "Who's Who in +America," and make the most delightful and extensive arrangements. +Now where shall we put this most excellent man? And this? ... + +But, indeed, it is doubtful if we shall meet any of these doubles +during our Utopian journey, or know them when we meet them. I doubt +if anyone will be making the best of both these worlds. The great +men in this still unexplored Utopia may be but village Hampdens in +our own, and earthly goatherds and obscure illiterates sit here in +the seats of the mighty. + +That again opens agreeable vistas left of us and right. + +But my botanist obtrudes his personality again. His thoughts have +travelled by a different route. + +"I know," he says, "that she will be happier here, and that they +will value her better than she has been valued upon earth." + +His interruption serves to turn me back from my momentary +contemplation of those popular effigies inflated by old newspapers +and windy report, the earthly great. He sets me thinking of more +personal and intimate applications, of the human beings one knows +with a certain approximation to real knowledge, of the actual common +substance of life. He turns me to the thought of rivalries and +tendernesses, of differences and disappointments. I am suddenly +brought painfully against the things that might have been. What if +instead of that Utopia of vacant ovals we meet relinquished loves +here, and opportunities lost and faces as they might have looked to +us? + +I turn to my botanist almost reprovingly. "You know, she won't be +quite the same lady here that you knew in Frognal," I say, and wrest +myself from a subject that is no longer agreeable by rising to my +feet. + +"And besides," I say, standing above him, "the chances against our +meeting her are a million to one.... And we loiter! This is not the +business we have come upon, but a mere incidental kink in our larger +plan. The fact remains, these people we have come to see are people +with like infirmities to our own--and only the conditions are +changed. Let us pursue the tenour of our inquiry." + +With that I lead the way round the edge of the Lake of Lucendro +towards our Utopian world. + +(You figure him doing it.) + +Down the mountain we shall go and down the passes, and as the +valleys open the world will open, Utopia, where men and women are +happy and laws are wise, and where all that is tangled and confused +in human affairs has been unravelled and made right. + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +Concerning Freedoms + + +Section 1 + +Now what sort of question would first occur to two men descending +upon the planet of a Modern Utopia? Probably grave solicitude about +their personal freedom. Towards the Stranger, as I have already +remarked, the Utopias of the past displayed their least amiable +aspect. Would this new sort of Utopian State, spread to the +dimensions of a world, be any less forbidding? + +We should take comfort in the thought that universal Toleration is +certainly a modern idea, and it is upon modern ideas that this World +State rests. But even suppose we are tolerated and admitted to this +unavoidable citizenship, there will still remain a wide range of +possibility.... I think we should try to work the problem out from +an inquiry into first principles, and that we should follow the +trend of our time and kind by taking up the question as one of "Man +versus the State," and discussing the compromise of Liberty. + +The idea of individual liberty is one that has grown in importance +and grows with every development of modern thought. To the classical +Utopists freedom was relatively trivial. Clearly they considered +virtue and happiness as entirely separable from liberty, and as +being altogether more important things. But the modern view, with +its deepening insistence upon individuality and upon the +significance of its uniqueness, steadily intensifies the value of +freedom, until at last we begin to see liberty as the very substance +of life, that indeed it is life, and that only the dead things, the +choiceless things, live in absolute obedience to law. To have free +play for one's individuality is, in the modern view, the subjective +triumph of existence, as survival in creative work and offspring is +its objective triumph. But for all men, since man is a social +creature, the play of will must fall short of absolute freedom. +Perfect human liberty is possible only to a despot who is absolutely +and universally obeyed. Then to will would be to command and +achieve, and within the limits of natural law we could at any moment +do exactly as it pleased us to do. All other liberty is a compromise +between our own freedom of will and the wills of those with whom we +come in contact. In an organised state each one of us has a more or +less elaborate code of what he may do to others and to himself, and +what others may do to him. He limits others by his rights, and is +limited by the rights of others, and by considerations affecting the +welfare of the community as a whole. + +Individual liberty in a community is not, as mathematicians would +say, always of the same sign. To ignore this is the essential +fallacy of the cult called Individualism. But in truth, a general +prohibition in a state may increase the sum of liberty, and a +general permission may diminish it. It does not follow, as these +people would have us believe, that a man is more free where there is +least law and more restricted where there is most law. A socialism +or a communism is not necessarily a slavery, and there is no freedom +under Anarchy. Consider how much liberty we gain by the loss of the +common liberty to kill. Thereby one may go to and fro in all the +ordered parts of the earth, unencumbered by arms or armour, free of +the fear of playful poison, whimsical barbers, or hotel trap-doors. +Indeed, it means freedom from a thousand fears and precautions. +Suppose there existed even the limited freedom to kill in +vendetta, and think what would happen in our suburbs. Consider the +inconvenience of two households in a modern suburb estranged and +provided with modern weapons of precision, the inconvenience not +only to each other, but to the neutral pedestrian, the practical +loss of freedoms all about them. The butcher, if he came at all, +would have to come round in an armoured cart.... + +It follows, therefore, in a modern Utopia, which finds the +final hope of the world in the evolving interplay of unique +individualities, that the State will have effectually chipped away +just all those spendthrift liberties that waste liberty, and not +one liberty more, and so have attained the maximum general freedom. + +There are two distinct and contrasting methods of limiting liberty; +the first is Prohibition, "thou shalt not," and the second Command, +"thou shalt." There is, however, a sort of prohibition that takes +the form of a conditional command, and this one needs to bear in +mind. It says if you do so-and-so, you must also do so-and-so; if, +for example, you go to sea with men you employ, you must go in a +seaworthy vessel. But the pure command is unconditional; it says, +whatever you have done or are doing or want to do, you are to +do this, as when the social system, working through the base +necessities of base parents and bad laws, sends a child of thirteen +into a factory. Prohibition takes one definite thing from the +indefinite liberty of a man, but it still leaves him an unbounded +choice of actions. He remains free, and you have merely taken a +bucketful from the sea of his freedom. But compulsion destroys +freedom altogether. In this Utopia of ours there may be many +prohibitions, but no indirect compulsions--if one may so contrive +it--and few or no commands. As far as I see it now, in this present +discussion, I think, indeed, there should be no positive compulsions +at all in Utopia, at any rate for the adult Utopian--unless they +fall upon him as penalties incurred. + + +Section 2 + +What prohibitions should we be under, we two Uitlanders in this +Utopian world? We should certainly not be free to kill, assault, or +threaten anyone we met, and in that we earth-trained men would not +be likely to offend. And until we knew more exactly the Utopian +idea of property we should be very chary of touching anything that +might conceivably be appropriated. If it was not the property of +individuals it might be the property of the State. But beyond that +we might have our doubts. Are we right in wearing the strange +costumes we do, in choosing the path that pleases us athwart this +rock and turf, in coming striding with unfumigated rucksacks and +snow-wet hobnails into what is conceivably an extremely neat and +orderly world? We have passed our first Utopian now, with an +answered vague gesture, and have noted, with secret satisfaction, +there is no access of dismay; we have rounded a bend, and down the +valley in the distance we get a glimpse of what appears to be a +singularly well-kept road.... + +I submit that to the modern minded man it can be no sort of Utopia +worth desiring that does not give the utmost freedom of going to and +fro. Free movement is to many people one of the greatest of life's +privileges--to go wherever the spirit moves them, to wander and +see--and though they have every comfort, every security, every +virtuous discipline, they will still be unhappy if that is denied +them. Short of damage to things cherished and made, the Utopians +will surely have this right, so we may expect no unclimbable walls +and fences, nor the discovery of any laws we may transgress in +coming down these mountain places. + +And yet, just as civil liberty itself is a compromise defended by +prohibitions, so this particular sort of liberty must also have its +qualifications. Carried to the absolute pitch the right of free +movement ceases to be distinguishable from the right of free +intrusion. We have already, in a comment on More's Utopia, hinted at +an agreement with Aristotle's argument against communism, that it +flings people into an intolerable continuity of contact. +Schopenhauer carried out Aristotle in the vein of his own bitterness +and with the truest of images when he likened human society to +hedgehogs clustering for warmth, and unhappy when either too closely +packed or too widely separated. Empedocles found no significance in +life whatever except as an unsteady play of love and hate, of +attraction and repulsion, of assimilation and the assertion of +difference. So long as we ignore difference, so long as we ignore +individuality, and that I hold has been the common sin of all +Utopias hitherto, we can make absolute statements, prescribe +communisms or individualisms, and all sorts of hard theoretic +arrangements. But in the world of reality, which--to modernise +Heraclitus and Empedocles--is nothing more nor less than the world +of individuality, there are no absolute rights and wrongs, there are +no qualitative questions at all, but only quantitative adjustments. +Equally strong in the normal civilised man is the desire for freedom +of movement and the desire for a certain privacy, for a corner +definitely his, and we have to consider where the line of +reconciliation comes. + +The desire for absolute personal privacy is perhaps never a very +strong or persistent craving. In the great majority of human beings, +the gregarious instinct is sufficiently powerful to render any but +the most temporary isolations not simply disagreeable, but painful. +The savage has all the privacy he needs within the compass of his +skull; like dogs and timid women, he prefers ill-treatment to +desertion, and it is only a scarce and complex modern type that +finds comfort and refreshment in quite lonely places and quite +solitary occupations. Yet such there are, men who can neither sleep +well nor think well, nor attain to a full perception of beautiful +objects, who do not savour the best of existence until they are +securely alone, and for the sake of these even it would be +reasonable to draw some limits to the general right of free +movement. But their particular need is only a special and +exceptional aspect of an almost universal claim to privacy among +modern people, not so much for the sake of isolation as for +congenial companionship. We want to go apart from the great crowd, +not so much to be alone as to be with those who appeal to us +particularly and to whom we particularly appeal; we want to form +households and societies with them, to give our individualities play +in intercourse with them, and in the appointments and furnishings +of that intercourse. We want gardens and enclosures and exclusive +freedoms for our like and our choice, just as spacious as we can get +them--and it is only the multitudinous uncongenial, anxious also for +similar developments in some opposite direction, that checks this +expansive movement of personal selection and necessitates a +compromise on privacy. + +Glancing back from our Utopian mountain side down which this +discourse marches, to the confusions of old earth, we may remark +that the need and desire for privacies there is exceptionally great +at the present time, that it was less in the past, that in the +future it may be less again, and that under the Utopian conditions +to which we shall come when presently we strike yonder road, it may +be reduced to quite manageable dimensions. But this is to be +effected not by the suppression of individualities to some common +pattern, [Footnote: More's Utopia. "Whoso will may go in, for there +is nothing within the houses that is private or anie man's owne."] +but by the broadening of public charity and the general amelioration +of mind and manners. It is not by assimilation, that is to say, but +by understanding that the modern Utopia achieves itself. The ideal +community of man's past was one with a common belief, with common +customs and common ceremonies, common manners and common formulae; +men of the same society dressed in the same fashion, each according +to his defined and understood grade, behaved in the same fashion, +loved, worshipped, and died in the same fashion. They did or felt +little that did not find a sympathetic publicity. The natural +disposition of all peoples, white, black, or brown, a natural +disposition that education seeks to destroy, is to insist upon +uniformity, to make publicity extremely unsympathetic to even the +most harmless departures from the code. To be dressed "odd," to +behave "oddly," to eat in a different manner or of different food, +to commit, indeed, any breach of the established convention is to +give offence and to incur hostility among unsophisticated men. But +the disposition of the more original and enterprising minds at all +times has been to make such innovations. + +This is particularly in evidence in this present age. The almost +cataclysmal development of new machinery, the discovery of new +materials, and the appearance of new social possibilities through +the organised pursuit of material science, has given enormous and +unprecedented facilities to the spirit of innovation. The old local +order has been broken up or is now being broken up all over the +earth, and everywhere societies deliquesce, everywhere men are +afloat amidst the wreckage of their flooded conventions, and still +tremendously unaware of the thing that has happened. The old local +orthodoxies of behaviour, of precedence, the old accepted amusements +and employments, the old ritual of conduct in the important small +things of the daily life and the old ritual of thought in the +things that make discussion, are smashed up and scattered and mixed +discordantly together, one use with another, and no world-wide +culture of toleration, no courteous admission of differences, no +wider understanding has yet replaced them. And so publicity in the +modern earth has become confusedly unsympathetic for everyone. +Classes are intolerable to classes and sets to sets, contact +provokes aggressions, comparisons, persecutions and discomforts, +and the subtler people are excessively tormented by a sense of +observation, unsympathetic always and often hostile. To live without +some sort of segregation from the general mass is impossible in +exact proportion to one's individual distinction. + +Of course things will be very different in Utopia. Utopia will +be saturated with consideration. To us, clad as we are in +mountain-soiled tweeds and with no money but British bank-notes +negotiable only at a practically infinite distance, this must needs +be a reassuring induction. And Utopian manners will not only be +tolerant, but almost universally tolerable. Endless things will be +understood perfectly and universally that on earth are understood +only by a scattered few; baseness of bearing, grossness of manner, +will be the distinctive mark of no section of the community +whatever. The coarser reasons for privacy, therefore, will not exist +here. And that savage sort of shyness, too, that makes so many +half-educated people on earth recluse and defensive, that too the +Utopians will have escaped by their more liberal breeding. In the +cultivated State we are assuming it will be ever so much easier for +people to eat in public, rest and amuse themselves in public, and +even work in public. Our present need for privacy in many things +marks, indeed, a phase of transition from an ease in public in the +past due to homogeneity, to an ease in public in the future due to +intelligence and good breeding, and in Utopia that transition will +be complete. We must bear that in mind throughout the consideration +of this question. + +Yet, after this allowance has been made, there still remains a +considerable claim for privacy in Utopia. The room, or apartments, +or home, or mansion, whatever it may be a man or woman maintains, +must be private, and under his or her complete dominion; it seems +harsh and intrusive to forbid a central garden plot or peristyle, +such as one sees in Pompeii, within the house walls, and it is +almost as difficult to deny a little private territory beyond the +house. Yet if we concede that, it is clear that without some further +provision we concede the possibility that the poorer townsman (if +there are to be rich and poor in the world) will be forced to walk +through endless miles of high fenced villa gardens before he may +expand in his little scrap of reserved open country. Such is already +the poor Londoner's miserable fate.... Our Utopia will have, of +course, faultless roads and beautifully arranged inter-urban +communications, swift trains or motor services or what not, to +diffuse its population, and without some anticipatory provisions, +the prospect of the residential areas becoming a vast area of +defensively walled villa Edens is all too possible. + +This is a quantitative question, be it remembered, and not to be +dismissed by any statement of principle. Our Utopians will meet it, +I presume, by detailed regulations, very probably varying locally +with local conditions. Privacy beyond the house might be made a +privilege to be paid for in proportion to the area occupied, and the +tax on these licences of privacy might increase as the square of the +area affected. A maximum fraction of private enclosure for each +urban and suburban square mile could be fixed. A distinction could +be drawn between an absolutely private garden and a garden private +and closed only for a day or a couple of days a week, and at other +times open to the well-behaved public. Who, in a really civilised +community, would grudge that measure of invasion? Walls could be +taxed by height and length, and the enclosure of really natural +beauties, of rapids, cascades, gorges, viewpoints, and so forth +made impossible. So a reasonable compromise between the vital and +conflicting claims of the freedom of movement and the freedom of +seclusion might be attained.... + +And as we argue thus we draw nearer and nearer to the road that goes +up and over the Gotthard crest and down the Val Tremola towards +Italy. + +What sort of road would that be? + + +Section 3 + +Freedom of movement in a Utopia planned under modern conditions must +involve something more than unrestricted pedestrian wanderings, and +the very proposition of a world-state speaking one common tongue +carries with it the idea of a world population travelled and +travelling to an extent quite beyond anything our native earth has +seen. It is now our terrestrial experience that whenever economic +and political developments set a class free to travel, that class at +once begins to travel; in England, for example, above the five or +six hundred pounds a year level, it is hard to find anyone who is +not habitually migratory, who has not been frequently, as people +say, "abroad." In the Modern Utopia travel must be in the common +texture of life. To go into fresh climates and fresh scenery, to +meet a different complexion of humanity and a different type of home +and food and apparatus, to mark unfamiliar trees and plants and +flowers and beasts, to climb mountains, to see the snowy night of +the North and the blaze of the tropical midday, to follow great +rivers, to taste loneliness in desert places, to traverse the gloom +of tropical forests and to cross the high seas, will be an essential +part of the reward and adventure of life, even for the commonest +people.... This is a bright and pleasant particular in which a +modern Utopia must differ again, and differ diametrically, from its +predecessors. + +We may conclude from what has been done in places upon our earth +that the whole Utopian world will be open and accessible and as safe +for the wayfarer as France or England is to-day. The peace of the +world will be established for ever, and everywhere, except in remote +and desolate places, there will be convenient inns, at least as +convenient and trustworthy as those of Switzerland to-day; the +touring clubs and hotel associations that have tariffed that country +and France so effectually will have had their fine Utopian +equivalents, and the whole world will be habituated to the coming +and going of strangers. The greater part of the world will be as +secure and cheaply and easily accessible to everyone as is Zermatt +or Lucerne to a Western European of the middle-class at the present +time. + +On this account alone no places will be so congested as these two +are now on earth. With freedom to go everywhere, with easy access +everywhere, with no dread of difficulties about language, coinage, +custom, or law, why should everyone continue to go to just a few +special places? Such congestions are merely the measure of the +general inaccessibility and insecurity and costliness of +contemporary life, an awkward transitory phase in the first +beginnings of the travel age of mankind. + +No doubt the Utopian will travel in many ways. It is unlikely there +will be any smoke-disgorging steam railway trains in Utopia, they +are already doomed on earth, already threatened with that +obsolescence that will endear them to the Ruskins of to-morrow, but +a thin spider's web of inconspicuous special routes will cover the +land of the world, pierce the mountain masses and tunnel under the +seas. These may be double railways or monorails or what not--we are +no engineers to judge between such devices--but by means of them the +Utopian will travel about the earth from one chief point to another +at a speed of two or three hundred miles or more an hour. That +will abolish the greater distances.... One figures these main +communications as something after the manner of corridor trains, +smooth-running and roomy, open from end to end, with cars in which +one may sit and read, cars in which one may take refreshment, cars +into which the news of the day comes printing itself from the wires +beside the track; cars in which one may have privacy and sleep if +one is so disposed, bath-room cars, library cars; a train as +comfortable as a good club. There will be no distinctions of class +in such a train, because in a civilised world there would be no +offence between one kind of man and another, and for the good of the +whole world such travelling will be as cheap as it can be, and well +within the reach of any but the almost criminally poor. + +Such great tramways as this will be used when the Utopians wish to +travel fast and far; thereby you will glide all over the land +surface of the planet; and feeding them and distributing from them, +innumerable minor systems, clean little electric tramways I picture +them, will spread out over the land in finer reticulations, growing +close and dense in the urban regions and thinning as the population +thins. And running beside these lighter railways, and spreading +beyond their range, will be the smooth minor high roads such as this +one we now approach, upon which independent vehicles, motor cars, +cycles, and what not, will go. I doubt if we shall see any horses +upon this fine, smooth, clean road; I doubt if there will be many +horses on the high roads of Utopia, and, indeed, if they will use +draught horses at all upon that planet. Why should they? Where the +world gives turf or sand, or along special tracts, the horse will +perhaps be ridden for exercise and pleasure, but that will be all +the use for him; and as for the other beasts of burthen, on the +remoter mountain tracks the mule will no doubt still be a +picturesque survival, in the desert men will still find a use for +the camel, and the elephant may linger to play a part in the pageant +of the East. But the burthen of the minor traffic, if not the whole +of it, will certainly be mechanical. This is what we shall see even +while the road is still remote, swift and shapely motor-cars going +past, cyclists, and in these agreeable mountain regions there will +also be pedestrians upon their way. Cycle tracks will abound in +Utopia, sometimes following beside the great high roads, but oftener +taking their own more agreeable line amidst woods and crops and +pastures; and there will be a rich variety of footpaths and minor +ways. There will be many footpaths in Utopia. There will be pleasant +ways over the scented needles of the mountain pinewoods, +primrose-strewn tracks amidst the budding thickets of the lower +country, paths running beside rushing streams, paths across the wide +spaces of the corn land, and, above all, paths through the flowery +garden spaces amidst which the houses in the towns will stand. And +everywhere about the world, on road and path, by sea and land, the +happy holiday Utopians will go. + +The population of Utopia will be a migratory population beyond any +earthly precedent, not simply a travelling population, but +migratory. The old Utopias were all localised, as localised as a +parish councillor; but it is manifest that nowadays even quite +ordinary people live over areas that would have made a kingdom in +those former days, would have filled the Athenian of the Laws with +incredulous astonishment. Except for the habits of the very rich +during the Roman Empire, there was never the slightest precedent for +this modern detachment from place. It is nothing to us that we go +eighty or ninety miles from home to place of business, or take an +hour's spin of fifty miles to our week-end golf; every summer it has +become a fixed custom to travel wide and far. Only the clumsiness of +communications limit us now, and every facilitation of locomotion +widens not only our potential, but our habitual range. Not only +this, but we change our habitations with a growing frequency and +facility; to Sir Thomas More we should seem a breed of nomads. That +old fixity was of necessity and not of choice, it was a mere phase +in the development of civilisation, a trick of rooting man learnt +for a time from his new-found friends, the corn and the vine and +the hearth; the untamed spirit of the young has turned for ever to +wandering and the sea. The soul of man has never yet in any land +been willingly adscript to the glebe. Even Mr. Belloc, who preaches +the happiness of a peasant proprietary, is so much wiser than his +thoughts that he sails about the seas in a little yacht or goes +afoot from Belgium to Rome. We are winning our freedom again once +more, a freedom renewed and enlarged, and there is now neither +necessity nor advantage in a permanent life servitude to this place +or that. Men may settle down in our Modern Utopia for love and the +family at last, but first and most abundantly they will see the +world. + +And with this loosening of the fetters of locality from the feet of +men, necessarily there will be all sorts of fresh distributions of +the factors of life. On our own poor haphazard earth, wherever men +work, wherever there are things to be grown, minerals to be won, +power to be used, there, regardless of all the joys and decencies of +life, the households needs must cluster. But in Utopia there will be +wide stretches of cheerless or unhealthy or toilsome or dangerous +land with never a household; there will be regions of mining and +smelting, black with the smoke of furnaces and gashed and desolated +by mines, with a sort of weird inhospitable grandeur of industrial +desolation, and the men will come thither and work for a spell and +return to civilisation again, washing and changing their attire in +the swift gliding train. And by way of compensation there will be +beautiful regions of the earth specially set apart and favoured for +children; in them the presence of children will remit taxation, +while in other less wholesome places the presence of children will +be taxed; the lower passes and fore hills of these very Alps, for +example, will be populous with homes, serving the vast arable levels +of Upper Italy. + +So we shall see, as we come down by our little lake in the lap of +Lucendro, and even before we reach the road, the first scattered +chalets and households in which these migrant people live, the upper +summer homes. With the coming of summer, as the snows on the high +Alps recede, a tide of households and schools, teachers and doctors, +and all such attendant services will flow up the mountain masses, +and ebb again when the September snows return. It is essential to +the modern ideal of life that the period of education and growth +should be prolonged to as late a period as possible and puberty +correspondingly retarded, and by wise regulation the statesmen of +Utopia will constantly adjust and readjust regulations and taxation +to diminish the proportion of children reared in hot and stimulating +conditions. These high mountains will, in the bright sweet summer, +be populous with youth. Even up towards this high place where the +snow is scarce gone until July, these households will extend, and +below, the whole long valley of Urseren will be a scattered summer +town. + +One figures one of the more urban highways, one of those along which +the light railways of the second order run, such as that in the +valley of Urseren, into which we should presently come. I figure it +as one would see it at night, a band a hundred yards perhaps in +width, the footpath on either side shaded with high trees and lit +softly with orange glowlights; while down the centre the tramway of +the road will go, with sometimes a nocturnal tram-car gliding, lit +and gay but almost noiselessly, past. Lantern-lit cyclists will flit +along the track like fireflies, and ever and again some humming +motor-car will hurry by, to or from the Rhoneland or the Rhineland +or Switzerland or Italy. Away on either side the lights of the +little country homes up the mountain slopes will glow. + +I figure it at night, because so it is we should see it first. + +We should come out from our mountain valley into the minor road that +runs down the lonely rock wilderness of the San Gotthard Pass, we +should descend that nine miles of winding route, and so arrive +towards twilight among the clustering homes and upland unenclosed +gardens of Realp and Hospenthal and Andermatt. Between Realp and +Andermatt, and down the Schoellenen gorge, the greater road would +run. By the time we reached it, we should be in the way of +understanding our adventure a little better. We should know already, +when we saw those two familiar clusters of chalets and hotels +replaced by a great dispersed multitude of houses--we should see +their window lights, but little else--that we were the victims of +some strange transition in space or time, and we should come down by +dimly-seen buildings into the part that would answer to Hospenthal, +wondering and perhaps a little afraid. We should come out into this +great main roadway--this roadway like an urban avenue--and look up +it and down, hesitating whether to go along the valley Furka-ward, +or down by Andermatt through the gorge that leads to Goschenen.... + +People would pass us in the twilight, and then more people; we +should see they walked well and wore a graceful, unfamiliar dress, +but more we should not distinguish. + +"Good-night!" they would say to us in clear, fine voices. Their dim +faces would turn with a passing scrutiny towards us. + +We should answer out of our perplexity: "Good-night!"--for by the +conventions established in the beginning of this book, we are given +the freedom of their tongue. + + +Section 4 + +Were this a story, I should tell at length how much we were helped +by the good fortune of picking up a Utopian coin of gold, how at +last we adventured into the Utopian inn and found it all +marvellously easy. You see us the shyest and most watchful of +guests; but of the food they put before us and the furnishings of +the house, and all our entertainment, it will be better to speak +later. We are in a migratory world, we know, one greatly accustomed +to foreigners; our mountain clothes are not strange enough to +attract acute attention, though ill-made and shabby, no doubt, by +Utopian standards; we are dealt with as we might best wish to be +dealt with, that is to say as rather untidy, inconspicuous men. We +look about us and watch for hints and examples, and, indeed, get +through with the thing. And after our queer, yet not unpleasant, +dinner, in which we remark no meat figures, we go out of the house +for a breath of air and for quiet counsel one with another, and +there it is we discover those strange constellations overhead. It +comes to us then, clear and full, that our imagination has realised +itself; we dismiss quite finally a Rip-Van-Winkle fancy we have +entertained, all the unfamiliarities of our descent from the +mountain pass gather together into one fullness of conviction, and +we know, we know, we are in Utopia. + +We wander under the trees by the main road, watching the dim +passers-by as though they were the phantoms of a dream. We say +little to one another. We turn aside into a little pathway and come +to a bridge over the turbulent Reuss, hurrying down towards the +Devil's Bridge in the gorge below. Far away over the Furka ridge a +pallid glow preludes the rising of the moon. + +Two lovers pass us whispering, and we follow them with our eyes. +This Utopia has certainly preserved the fundamental freedom, to +love. And then a sweet-voiced bell from somewhere high up towards +Oberalp chimes two-and-twenty times. + +I break the silence. "That might mean ten o'clock," I say. + +My companion leans upon the bridge and looks down into the dim river +below. I become aware of the keen edge of the moon like a needle of +incandescent silver creeping over the crest, and suddenly the river +is alive with flashes. + +He speaks, and astonishes me with the hidden course his thoughts +have taken. + +"We two were boy and girl lovers like that," he says, and jerks a +head at the receding Utopians. "I loved her first, and I do not +think I have ever thought of loving anyone but her." + +It is a curiously human thing, and, upon my honour, not one I had +designed, that when at last I stand in the twilight in the midst of +a Utopian township, when my whole being should be taken up with +speculative wonder, this man should be standing by my side, and +lugging my attention persistently towards himself, towards his +limited futile self. This thing perpetually happens to me, this +intrusion of something small and irrelevant and alive, upon my great +impressions. The time I first saw the Matterhorn, that Queen among +the Alpine summits, I was distracted beyond appreciation by the tale +of a man who could not eat sardines--always sardines did this with +him and that; and my first wanderings along the brown streets of +Pompeii, an experience I had anticipated with a strange intensity, +was shot with the most stupidly intelligent discourse on vehicular +tariffs in the chief capitals of Europe that it is possible to +imagine. And now this man, on my first night in Utopia, talks and +talks and talks of his poor little love affair. + +It shapes itself as the most trite and feeble of tragedies, one of +those stories of effortless submission to chance and custom in which +Mr. Hardy or George Gissing might have found a theme. I do but half +listen at first--watching the black figures in the moonlit roadway +pacing to and fro. Yet--I cannot trace how he conveys the subtle +conviction to my mind--the woman he loves is beautiful. + +They were boy and girl together, and afterwards they met again as +fellow students in a world of comfortable discretions. He seems to +have taken the decorums of life with a confiding good faith, to have +been shy and innocent in a suppressed sort of way, and of a mental +type not made for worldly successes; but he must have dreamt about +her and loved her well enough. How she felt for him I could never +gather; it seemed to be all of that fleshless friendliness into +which we train our girls. Then abruptly happened stresses. The man +who became her husband appeared, with a very evident passion. He was +a year or so older than either of them, and he had the habit and +quality of achieving his ends; he was already successful, and with +the promise of wealth, and I, at least, perceived, from my +botanist's phrasing, that his desire was for her beauty. + +As my botanist talked I seemed to see the whole little drama, rather +clearer than his words gave it me, the actors all absurdly in +Hampstead middle-class raiment, meetings of a Sunday after church +(the men in silk hats, frock coats, and tightly-rolled umbrellas), +rare excursions into evening dress, the decorously vulgar fiction +read in their homes, its ambling sentimentalities of thought, the +amiably worldly mothers, the respectable fathers, the aunts, the +"people"--his "people" and her "people"--the piano music and the +song, and in this setting our friend, "quite clever" at botany and +"going in" for it "as a profession," and the girl, gratuitously +beautiful; so I figured the arranged and orderly environment into +which this claw of an elemental force had thrust itself to grip. + +The stranger who had come in got what he wanted; the girl considered +that she thought she had never loved the botanist, had had only +friendship for him--though little she knew of the meaning of those +fine words--they parted a little incoherently and in tears, and it +had not occurred to the young man to imagine she was not going off +to conventional life in some other of the endless Frognals he +imagined as the cellular tissue of the world. + +But she wasn't. + +He had kept her photograph and her memory sweet, and if ever he had +strayed from the severest constancy, it seemed only in the end to +strengthen with the stuff of experience, to enhance by comparative +disappointment his imagination of what she might have meant to +him.... Then eight years afterwards they met again. + +By the time he gets to this part of his story we have, at my +initiative, left the bridge and are walking towards the Utopian +guest house. The Utopian guest house! His voice rises and falls, +and sometimes he holds my arm. My attention comes and goes. +"Good-night," two sweet-voiced Utopians cry to us in their +universal tongue, and I answer them "Good-night." + +"You see," he persists, "I saw her only a week ago. It was in +Lucerne, while I was waiting for you to come on from England. I +talked to her three or four times altogether. And her face--the +change in her! I can't get it out of my head--night or day. The +miserable waste of her...." + +Before us, through the tall pine stems, shine the lights of our +Utopian inn. + +He talks vaguely of ill-usage. "The husband is vain, boastful, +dishonest to the very confines of the law, and a drunkard. There +are scenes and insults----" + +"She told you?" + +"Not much, but someone else did. He brings other women almost into +her presence to spite her." + +"And it's going on?" I interrupt. + +"Yes. _Now_." + +"Need it go on?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"Lady in trouble," I say. "Knight at hand. Why not stop this dismal +grizzling and carry her off?" (You figure the heroic sweep of the +arm that belongs to the Voice.) I positively forget for the moment +that we are in Utopia at all. + +"You mean?" + +"Take her away from him! What's all this emotion of yours worth if +it isn't equal to that!" + +Positively he seems aghast at me. + +"Do you mean elope with her?" + +"It seems a most suitable case." + +For a space he is silent, and we go on through the trees. A Utopian +tram-car passes and I see his face, poor bitted wretch! looking +pinched and scared in its trailing glow of light. + +"That's all very well in a novel," he says. "But how could I go back +to my laboratory, mixed classes with young ladies, you know, after a +thing like that? How could we live and where could we live? We might +have a house in London, but who would call upon us? ... Besides, you +don't know her. She is not the sort of woman.... Don't think I'm +timid or conventional. Don't think I don't feel.... Feel! _You_ +don't know what it is to feel in a case of this sort...." + +He halts and then flies out viciously: "Ugh! There are times when I +could strangle him with my hands." + +Which is nonsense. + +He flings out his lean botanising hands in an impotent gesture. + +"My dear Man!" I say, and say no more. + +For a moment I forget we are in Utopia altogether. + + +Section 5 + +Let us come back to Utopia. We were speaking of travel. + +Besides roadways and railways and tramways, for those who go to and +fro in the earth the Modern Utopians will have very many other ways +of travelling. There will be rivers, for example, with a vast +variety of boats; canals with diverse sorts of haulage; there will +be lakes and lagoons; and when one comes at last to the borders of +the land, the pleasure craft will be there, coming and going, and +the swift great passenger vessels, very big and steady, doing thirty +knots an hour or more, will trace long wakes as they go dwindling +out athwart the restless vastness of the sea. + +They will be just beginning to fly in Utopia. We owe much to M. +Santos Dumont; the world is immeasurably more disposed to believe +this wonder is coming, and coming nearly, than it was five years +ago. But unless we are to suppose Utopian scientific knowledge far +in advance of ours--and though that supposition was not proscribed +in our initial undertaking, it would be inconvenient for us and not +quite in the vein of the rest of our premises--they, too, will only +be in the same experimental stage as ourselves. In Utopia, however, +they will conduct research by the army corps while we conduct it--we +don't conduct it! We let it happen. Fools make researches and wise +men exploit them--that is our earthly way of dealing with the +question, and we thank Heaven for an assumed abundance of +financially impotent and sufficiently ingenious fools. + +In Utopia, a great multitude of selected men, chosen volunteers, +will be collaborating upon this new step in man's struggle with the +elements. Bacon's visionary House of Saloman [Footnote: In The New +Atlantis.] will be a thing realised, and it will be humming with +this business. Every university in the world will be urgently +working for priority in this aspect of the problem or that. Reports +of experiments, as full and as prompt as the telegraphic reports of +cricket in our more sportive atmosphere, will go about the world. +All this will be passing, as it were, behind the act drop of our +first experience, behind this first picture of the urbanised Urseren +valley. The literature of the subject will be growing and developing +with the easy swiftness of an eagle's swoop as we come down the +hillside; unseen in that twilight, unthought of by us until this +moment, a thousand men at a thousand glowing desks, a busy +specialist press, will be perpetually sifting, criticising, +condensing, and clearing the ground for further speculation. Those +who are concerned with the problems of public locomotion will +be following these aeronautic investigations with a keen and +enterprising interest, and so will the physiologist and the +sociologist. That Utopian research will, I say, go like an eagle's +swoop in comparison with the blind-man's fumbling of our terrestrial +way. Even before our own brief Utopian journey is out, we may get a +glimpse of the swift ripening of all this activity that will be in +progress at our coming. To-morrow, perhaps, or in a day or so, +some silent, distant thing will come gliding into view over the +mountains, will turn and soar and pass again beyond our astonished +sight.... + + +Section 6 + +But my friend and his great trouble turn my mind from these +questions of locomotion and the freedoms that cluster about them. In +spite of myself I find myself framing his case. He is a lover, the +most conventional of Anglican lovers, with a heart that has had its +training, I should think, in the clean but limited schoolroom of +Mrs. Henry Wood.... + +In Utopia I think they will fly with stronger pinions, it will not +be in the superficialities of life merely that movement will be wide +and free, they will mount higher and swoop more steeply than he in +his cage can believe. What will their range be, their prohibitions? +what jars to our preconceptions will he and I receive here? + +My mind flows with the free, thin flow that it has at the end of an +eventful day, and as we walk along in silence towards our inn I rove +from issue to issue, I find myself ranging amidst the fundamental +things of the individual life and all the perplexity of desires and +passions. I turn my questionings to the most difficult of all sets +of compromises, those mitigations of spontaneous freedom that +constitute the marriage laws, the mystery of balancing justice +against the good of the future, amidst these violent and elusive +passions. Where falls the balance of freedoms here? I pass for a +time from Utopianising altogether, to ask the question that, after +all, Schopenhauer failed completely to answer, why sometimes in the +case of hurtful, pointless, and destructive things we want so +vehemently.... + +I come back from this unavailing glance into the deeps to the +general question of freedoms in this new relation. I find myself far +adrift from the case of the Frognal botanist, and asking how far a +modern Utopia will deal with personal morals. + +As Plato demonstrated long ago, the principles of the relation of +State control to personal morals may be best discussed in the case +of intoxication, the most isolated and least complicated of all this +group of problems. But Plato's treatment of this issue as a question +of who may or may not have the use of wine, though suitable enough +in considering a small State in which everybody was the effectual +inspector of everybody, is entirely beside the mark under modern +conditions, in which we are to have an extraordinarily higher +standard of individual privacy and an amplitude and quantity of +migration inconceivable to the Academic imagination. We may accept +his principle and put this particular freedom (of the use of wine) +among the distinctive privileges of maturity, and still find all +that a modern would think of as the Drink Question untouched. + +That question in Utopia will differ perhaps in the proportion of its +factors, but in no other respect, from what it is upon earth. The +same desirable ends will be sought, the maintenance of public order +and decency, the reduction of inducements to form this bad and +wasteful habit to their lowest possible minimum, and the complete +protection of the immature. But the modern Utopians, having +systematised their sociology, will have given some attention to the +psychology of minor officials, a matter altogether too much +neglected by the social reformer on earth. They will not put into +the hands of a common policeman powers direct and indirect that +would be dangerous to the public in the hands of a judge. And they +will have avoided the immeasurable error of making their control of +the drink traffic a source of public revenue. Privacies they will +not invade, but they will certainly restrict the public consumption +of intoxicants to specified licensed places and the sale of them to +unmistakable adults, and they will make the temptation of the young +a grave offence. In so migratory a population as the Modern Utopian, +the licensing of inns and bars would be under the same control as +the railways and high roads. Inns exist for the stranger and not for +the locality, and we shall meet with nothing there to correspond +with our terrestrial absurdity of Local Option. + +The Utopians will certainly control this trade, and as certainly +punish personal excesses. Public drunkenness (as distinguished from +the mere elation that follows a generous but controlled use of wine) +will be an offence against public decency, and will be dealt with in +some very drastic manner. It will, of course, be an aggravation of, +and not an excuse for, crime. + +But I doubt whether the State will go beyond that. Whether an adult +shall use wine or beer or spirits, or not, seems to me entirely a +matter for his doctor and his own private conscience. I doubt if we +explorers shall meet any drunken men, and I doubt not we shall meet +many who have never availed themselves of their adult freedom in +this respect. The conditions of physical happiness will be better +understood in Utopia, it will be worth while to be well there, and +the intelligent citizen will watch himself closely. Half and more of +the drunkenness of earth is an attempt to lighten dull days and +hopelessly sordid and disagreeable lives, and in Utopia they do not +suffer these things. Assuredly Utopia will be temperate, not only +drinking, but eating with the soundest discretion. Yet I do not +think wine and good ale will be altogether wanting there, nor good, +mellow whisky, nor, upon occasion, the engaging various liqueur. +I do not think so. My botanist, who abstains altogether, is of +another opinion. We differ here and leave the question to the +earnest reader. I have the utmost respect for all Teetotalers, +Prohibitionists, and Haters and Persecutors of Innkeepers, their +energy of reform awakens responsive notes in me, and to their +species I look for a large part of the urgent repair of our earth; +yet for all that---- + +There is Burgundy, for example, a bottle of soft and kindly +Burgundy, taken to make a sunshine on one's lunch when four +strenuous hours of toil have left one on the further side of +appetite. Or ale, a foaming tankard of ale, ten miles of sturdy +tramping in the sleet and slush as a prelude, and then good bread +and good butter and a ripe hollow Stilton and celery and ale--ale +with a certain quantitative freedom. Or, again, where is the sin in +a glass of tawny port three or four times, or it may be five, a +year, when the walnuts come round in their season? If you drink no +port, then what are walnuts for? Such things I hold for the reward +of vast intervals of abstinence; they justify your wide, immaculate +margin, which is else a mere unmeaning blankness on the page of +palate God has given you! I write of these things as a fleshly man, +confessedly and knowingly fleshly, and more than usually aware of my +liability to err; I know myself for a gross creature more given to +sedentary world-mending than to brisk activities, and not one-tenth +as active as the dullest newspaper boy in London. Yet still I have +my uses, uses that vanish in monotony, and still I must ask why +should we bury the talent of these bright sensations altogether? +Under no circumstances can I think of my Utopians maintaining their +fine order of life on ginger ale and lemonade and the ale that is +Kops'. Those terrible Temperance Drinks, solutions of qualified +sugar mixed with vast volumes of gas, as, for example, soda, +seltzer, lemonade, and fire-extincteurs hand grenades--minerals, +they call such stuff in England--fill a man with wind and +self-righteousness. Indeed they do! Coffee destroys brain and +kidney, a fact now universally recognised and advertised throughout +America; and tea, except for a kind of green tea best used with +discretion in punch, tans the entrails and turns honest stomachs +into leather bags. Rather would I be Metchnikoffed [Footnote: See +The Nature of Man, by Professor Elie Metchnikoff.] at once and have +a clean, good stomach of German silver. No! If we are to have no ale +in Utopia, give me the one clean temperance drink that is worthy to +set beside wine, and that is simple water. Best it is when not quite +pure and with a trace of organic matter, for then it tastes and +sparkles.... + +My botanist would still argue. + +Thank Heaven this is my book, and that the ultimate decision rests +with me. It is open to him to write his own Utopia and arrange that +everybody shall do nothing except by the consent of the savants of +the Republic, either in his eating, drinking, dressing or lodging, +even as Cabet proposed. It is open to him to try a News from Nowhere +Utopia with the wine left out. I have my short way with him here +quite effectually. I turn in the entrance of our inn to the civil +but by no means obsequious landlord, and with a careful ambiguity of +manner for the thing may be considered an outrage, and I try to make +it possible the idea is a jest--put my test demand.... + +"You see, my dear Teetotaler?--he sets before me tray and glass +and..." Here follows the necessary experiment and a deep sigh.... +"Yes, a bottle of quite _excellent_ light beer! So there are also +cakes and ale in Utopia! Let us in this saner and more beautiful +world drink perdition to all earthly excesses. Let us drink more +particularly to the coming of the day when men beyond there will +learn to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative questions, +to temper good intentions with good intelligence, and righteousness +with wisdom. One of the darkest evils of our world is surely the +unteachable wildness of the Good." + + +Section 7 + +So presently to bed and to sleep, but not at once to sleep. At first +my brain, like a dog in unfamiliar quarters, must turn itself round +for a time or so before it lies down. This strange mystery of a +world of which I have seen so little as yet--a mountain slope, a +twilit road, a traffic of ambiguous vehicles and dim shapes, the +window lights of many homes--fills me with curiosities. Figures and +incidents come and go, the people we have passed, our landlord, +quietly attentive and yet, I feel, with the keenest curiosity +peeping from his eyes, the unfamiliar forms of the house parts and +furnishings, the unfamiliar courses of the meal. Outside this little +bedroom is a world, a whole unimagined world. A thousand million +things lie outside in the darkness beyond this lit inn of ours, +unthought-of possibilities, overlooked considerations, surprises, +riddles, incommensurables, a whole monstrous intricate universe of +consequences that I have to do my best to unravel. I attempt +impossible recapitulations and mingle the weird quality of dream +stuff with my thoughts. + +Athwart all this tumult of my memory goes this queer figure of my +unanticipated companion, so obsessed by himself and his own +egotistical love that this sudden change to another world seems only +a change of scene for his gnawing, uninvigorating passion. It occurs +to me that she also must have an equivalent in Utopia, and then that +idea and all ideas grow thin and vague, and are dissolved at last in +the rising tide of sleep.... + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +Utopian Economics + + +Section 1 + +These modern Utopians with the universally diffused good manners, +the universal education, the fine freedoms we shall ascribe to them, +their world unity, world language, world-wide travellings, +world-wide freedom of sale and purchase, will remain mere +dreamstuff, incredible even by twilight, until we have shown that at +that level the community will still sustain itself. At any rate, the +common liberty of the Utopians will not embrace the common liberty +to be unserviceable, the most perfect economy of organisation still +leaves the fact untouched that all order and security in a State +rests on the certainty of getting work done. How will the work of +this planet be done? What will be the economics of a modern +Utopia? + +Now in the first place, a state so vast and complex as this world +Utopia, and with so migratory a people, will need some handy symbol +to check the distribution of services and commodities. Almost +certainly they will need to have money. They will have money, and +it is not inconceivable that, for all his sorrowful thoughts, our +botanist, with his trained observation, his habit of looking at +little things upon the ground, would be the one to see and pick up +the coin that has fallen from some wayfarer's pocket. (This, in our +first hour or so before we reach the inn in the Urseren Thal.) You +figure us upon the high Gotthard road, heads together over the +little disk that contrives to tell us so much of this strange +world. + +It is, I imagine, of gold, and it will be a convenient accident if +it is sufficient to make us solvent for a day or so, until we are a +little more informed of the economic system into which we have come. +It is, moreover, of a fair round size, and the inscription declares +it one Lion, equal to "twaindy" bronze Crosses. Unless the ratio of +metals is very different here, this latter must be a token coin, and +therefore legal tender for but a small amount. (That would be pain +and pleasure to Mr. Wordsworth Donisthorpe if he were to chance to +join us, for once he planned a Utopian coinage, [Footnote: A System +of Measures, by Wordsworth Donisthorpe.] and the words Lion and +Cross are his. But a token coinage and "legal tender" he cannot +abide. They make him argue.) And being in Utopia, that unfamiliar +"twaindy" suggests at once we have come upon that most Utopian of +all things, a duodecimal system of counting. + +My author's privilege of details serves me here. This Lion is +distinctly a beautiful coin, admirably made, with its value in fine, +clear letters circling the obverse side, and a head thereon--of +Newton, as I live! One detects American influence here. Each +year, as we shall find, each denomination of coins celebrates a +centenary. The reverse shows the universal goddess of the Utopian +coinage--Peace, as a beautiful woman, reading with a child out of a +great book, and behind them are stars, and an hour-glass, halfway +run. Very human these Utopians, after all, and not by any means +above the obvious in their symbolism! + +So for the first time we learn definitely of the World State, and we +get our first clear hint, too, that there is an end to Kings. But +our coin raises other issues also. It would seem that this Utopia +has no simple community of goods, that there is, at any rate, a +restriction upon what one may take, a need for evidences of +equivalent value, a limitation to human credit. + +It dates--so much of this present Utopia of ours dates. Those former +Utopists were bitterly against gold. You will recall the undignified +use Sir Thomas More would have us put it to, and how there was no +money at all in the Republic of Plato, and in that later community +for which he wrote his Laws an iron coinage of austere appearance +and doubtful efficacy.... It may be these great gentlemen were a +little hasty with a complicated difficulty, and not a little unjust +to a highly respectable element. + +Gold is abused and made into vessels of dishonour, and abolished +from ideal society as though it were the cause instead of the +instrument of human baseness; but, indeed, there is nothing bad in +gold. Making gold into vessels of dishonour and banishing it from +the State is punishing the hatchet for the murderer's crime. Money, +did you but use it right, is a good thing in life, a necessary thing +in civilised human life, as complicated, indeed, for its purposes, +but as natural a growth as the bones in a man's wrist, and I do not +see how one can imagine anything at all worthy of being called a +civilisation without it. It is the water of the body social, it +distributes and receives, and renders growth and assimilation and +movement and recovery possible. It is the reconciliation of human +interdependence with liberty. What other device will give a man so +great a freedom with so strong an inducement to effort? The economic +history of the world, where it is not the history of the theory of +property, is very largely the record of the abuse, not so much of +money as of credit devices to supplement money, to amplify the scope +of this most precious invention; and no device of labour credits +[Footnote: Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Ch. IX.] or free +demand of commodities from a central store [Footnote: More's Utopia +and Cabet's Icaria.] or the like has ever been suggested that does +not give ten thousand times more scope for that inherent moral dross +in man that must be reckoned with in any sane Utopia we may design +and plan.... Heaven knows where progress may not end, but at any +rate this developing State, into which we two men have fallen, this +Twentieth Century Utopia, has still not passed beyond money and the +use of coins. + + +Section 2 + +Now if this Utopian world is to be in some degree parallel to +contemporary thought, it must have been concerned, it may be still +concerned, with many unsettled problems of currency, and with the +problems that centre about a standard of value. Gold is perhaps of +all material substances the best adapted to the monetary purpose, +but even at that best it falls far short of an imaginable ideal. It +undergoes spasmodic and irregular cheapening through new discoveries +of gold, and at any time it may undergo very extensive and sudden +and disastrous depreciation through the discovery of some way of +transmuting less valuable elements. The liability to such +depreciations introduces an undesirable speculative element into the +relations of debtor and creditor. When, on the one hand, there is +for a time a check in the increase of the available stores of gold, +or an increase in the energy applied to social purposes, or a +checking of the public security that would impede the free exchange +of credit and necessitate a more frequent production of gold in +evidence, then there comes an undue appreciation of money as against +the general commodities of life, and an automatic impoverishment of +the citizens in general as against the creditor class. The common +people are mortgaged into the bondage of debt. And on the other +hand an unexpected spate of gold production, the discovery of a +single nugget as big as St. Paul's, let us say--a quite possible +thing--would result in a sort of jail delivery of debtors and a +financial earthquake. + +It has been suggested by an ingenious thinker that it is possible +to use as a standard of monetary value no substance whatever, but +instead, force, and that value might be measured in units of energy. +An excellent development this, in theory, at any rate, of the +general idea of the modern State as kinetic and not static; it +throws the old idea of the social order and the new into the +sharpest antithesis. The old order is presented as a system of +institutions and classes ruled by men of substance; the new, of +enterprises and interests led by men of power. + +Now I glance at this matter in the most incidental manner, as a man +may skim through a specialist's exposition in a popular magazine. +You must figure me, therefore, finding from a casual periodical +paper in our inn, with a certain surprise at not having anticipated +as much, the Utopian self of that same ingenious person quite +conspicuously a leader of thought, and engaged in organising the +discussion of the currency changes Utopia has under consideration. +The article, as it presents itself to me, contains a complete +and lucid, though occasionally rather technical, explanation of +his newest proposals. They have been published, it seems, for +general criticism, and one gathers that in the modern Utopia the +administration presents the most elaborately detailed schemes of any +proposed alteration in law or custom, some time before any measure +is taken to carry it into effect, and the possibilities of every +detail are acutely criticised, flaws anticipated, side issues +raised, and the whole minutely tested and fined down by a planetful +of critics, before the actual process of legislation begins. + +The explanation of these proposals involves an anticipatory glance +at the local administration of a Modern Utopia. To anyone who has +watched the development of technical science during the last decade +or so, there will be no shock in the idea that a general +consolidation of a great number of common public services over areas +of considerable size is now not only practicable, but very +desirable. In a little while heating and lighting and the supply of +power for domestic and industrial purposes and for urban and +inter-urban communications will all be managed electrically from +common generating stations. And the trend of political and social +speculation points decidedly to the conclusion that so soon as it +passes out of the experimental stage, the supply of electrical +energy, just like drainage and the supply of water, will fall to the +local authority. Moreover, the local authority will be the universal +landowner. Upon that point so extreme an individualist as Herbert +Spencer was in agreement with the Socialist. In Utopia we conclude +that, whatever other types of property may exist, all natural +sources of force, and indeed all strictly natural products, coal, +water power, and the like, are inalienably vested in the local +authorities (which, in order to secure the maximum of convenience +and administrative efficiency, will probably control areas as large +sometimes as half England), they will generate electricity by water +power, by combustion, by wind or tide or whatever other natural +force is available, and this electricity will be devoted, some of it +to the authority's lighting and other public works, some of it, as +a subsidy, to the World-State authority which controls the high +roads, the great railways, the inns and other apparatus of world +communication, and the rest will pass on to private individuals +or to distributing companies at a uniform fixed rate for private +lighting and heating, for machinery and industrial applications of +all sorts. Such an arrangement of affairs will necessarily involve a +vast amount of book-keeping between the various authorities, the +World-State government and the customers, and this book-keeping will +naturally be done most conveniently in units of physical energy. + +It is not incredible that the assessment of the various local +administrations for the central world government would be already +calculated upon the estimated total of energy, periodically +available in each locality, and booked and spoken of in these +physical units. Accounts between central and local governments could +be kept in these terms. Moreover, one may imagine Utopian local +authorities making contracts in which payment would be no longer in +coinage upon the gold basis, but in notes good for so many thousands +or millions of units of energy at one or other of the generating +stations. + +Now the problems of economic theory will have undergone an enormous +clarification if, instead of measuring in fluctuating money values, +the same scale of energy units can be extended to their discussion, +if, in fact, the idea of trading could be entirely eliminated. In my +Utopia, at any rate, this has been done, the production and +distribution of common commodities have been expressed as a problem +in the conversion of energy, and the scheme that Utopia was now +discussing was the application of this idea of energy as the +standard of value to the entire Utopian coinage. Every one of those +giant local authorities was to be free to issue energy notes against +the security of its surplus of saleable available energy, and to +make all its contracts for payment in those notes up to a certain +maximum defined by the amount of energy produced and disposed of in +that locality in the previous year. This power of issue was to be +renewed just as rapidly as the notes came in for redemption. In a +world without boundaries, with a population largely migratory and +emancipated from locality, the price of the energy notes of these +various local bodies would constantly tend to be uniform, because +employment would constantly shift into the areas where energy was +cheap. Accordingly, the price of so many millions of units of energy +at any particular moment in coins of the gold currency would be +approximately the same throughout the world. It was proposed to +select some particular day when the economic atmosphere was +distinctly equable, and to declare a fixed ratio between the gold +coinage and the energy notes; each gold Lion and each Lion of credit +representing exactly the number of energy units it could buy on that +day. The old gold coinage was at once to cease to be legal tender +beyond certain defined limits, except to the central government, +which would not reissue it as it came in. It was, in fact, to become +a temporary token coinage, a token coinage of full value for the day +of conversion at any rate, if not afterwards, under the new standard +of energy, and to be replaceable by an ordinary token coinage as +time went on. The old computation by Lions and the values of the +small change of daily life were therefore to suffer no disturbance +whatever. + +The economists of Utopia, as I apprehended them, had a different +method and a very different system of theories from those I have +read on earth, and this makes my exposition considerably more +difficult. This article upon which I base my account floated before +me in an unfamiliar, perplexing, and dream-like phraseology. Yet I +brought away an impression that here was a rightness that earthly +economists have failed to grasp. Few earthly economists have been +able to disentangle themselves from patriotisms and politics, and +their obsession has always been international trade. Here in Utopia +the World State cuts that away from beneath their feet; there are no +imports but meteorites, and no exports at all. Trading is the +earthly economists' initial notion, and they start from perplexing +and insoluble riddles about exchange value, insoluble because all +trading finally involves individual preferences which are +incalculable and unique. Nowhere do they seem to be handling really +defined standards, every economic dissertation and discussion +reminds one more strongly than the last of the game of croquet Alice +played in Wonderland, when the mallets were flamingoes and the balls +were hedgehogs and crawled away, and the hoops were soldiers and +kept getting up and walking about. But economics in Utopia must be, +it seems to me, not a theory of trading based on bad psychology, but +physics applied to problems in the theory of sociology. The general +problem of Utopian economics is to state the conditions of the most +efficient application of the steadily increasing quantities of +material energy the progress of science makes available for human +service, to the general needs of mankind. Human labour and existing +material are dealt with in relation to that. Trading and relative +wealth are merely episodical in such a scheme. The trend of the +article I read, as I understood it, was that a monetary system based +upon a relatively small amount of gold, upon which the business of +the whole world had hitherto been done, fluctuated unreasonably and +supplied no real criterion of well-being, that the nominal values of +things and enterprises had no clear and simple relation to the real +physical prosperity of the community, that the nominal wealth of +a community in millions of pounds or dollars or Lions, measured +nothing but the quantity of hope in the air, and an increase of +confidence meant an inflation of credit and a pessimistic phase a +collapse of this hallucination of possessions. The new standards, +this advocate reasoned, were to alter all that, and it seemed to me +they would. + +I have tried to indicate the drift of these remarkable proposals, +but about them clustered an elaborate mass of keen and temperate +discussion. Into the details of that discussion I will not enter +now, nor am I sure I am qualified to render the multitudinous aspect +of this complicated question at all precisely. I read the whole +thing in the course of an hour or two of rest after lunch--it was +either the second or third day of my stay in Utopia--and we were +sitting in a little inn at the end of the Lake of Uri. We had +loitered there, and I had fallen reading because of a shower of +rain.... But certainly as I read it the proposition struck me as a +singularly simple and attractive one, and its exposition opened out +to me for the first time clearly, in a comprehensive outline, the +general conception of the economic nature of the Utopian State. + + +Section 3 + +The difference between the social and economic sciences as they +exist in our world [Footnote: But see Gidding's Principles of +Sociology, a modern and richly suggestive American work, imperfectly +appreciated by the British student. See also Walter Bagehot's +Economic Studies.] and in this Utopia deserves perhaps a word or +so more. I write with the utmost diffidence, because upon earth +economic science has been raised to a very high level of tortuous +abstraction by the industry of its professors, and I can claim +neither a patient student's intimacy with their productions +nor--what is more serious--anything but the most generalised +knowledge of what their Utopian equivalents have achieved. The vital +nature of economic issues to a Utopia necessitates, however, some +attempt at interpretation between the two. + +In Utopia there is no distinct and separate science of economics. +Many problems that we should regard as economic come within the +scope of Utopian psychology. My Utopians make two divisions of the +science of psychology, first, the general psychology of individuals, +a sort of mental physiology separated by no definite line from +physiology proper, and secondly, the psychology of relationship +between individuals. This second is an exhaustive study of +the reaction of people upon each other and of all possible +relationships. It is a science of human aggregations, of all +possible family groupings, of neighbours and neighbourhood, of +companies, associations, unions, secret and public societies, +religious groupings, of common ends and intercourse, and of the +methods of intercourse and collective decision that hold human +groups together, and finally of government and the State. The +elucidation of economic relationships, depending as it does on the +nature of the hypothesis of human aggregation actually in operation +at any time, is considered to be subordinate and subsequent to this +general science of Sociology. Political economy and economics, in +our world now, consist of a hopeless muddle of social assumptions +and preposterous psychology, and a few geographical and physical +generalisations. Its ingredients will be classified out and widely +separated in Utopian thought. On the one hand there will be the +study of physical economies, ending in the descriptive treatment of +society as an organisation for the conversion of all the available +energy in nature to the material ends of mankind--a physical +sociology which will be already at such a stage of practical +development as to be giving the world this token coinage +representing energy--and on the other there will be the study of +economic problems as problems in the division of labour, having +regard to a social organisation whose main ends are reproduction and +education in an atmosphere of personal freedom. Each of these +inquiries, working unencumbered by the other, will be continually +contributing fresh valid conclusions for the use of the practical +administrator. + +In no region of intellectual activity will our hypothesis of freedom +from tradition be of more value in devising a Utopia than here. From +its beginning the earthly study of economics has been infertile and +unhelpful, because of the mass of unanalysed and scarcely suspected +assumptions upon which it rested. The facts were ignored that trade +is a bye-product and not an essential factor in social life, that +property is a plastic and fluctuating convention, that value is +capable of impersonal treatment only in the case of the most +generalised requirements. Wealth was measured by the standards of +exchange. Society was regarded as a practically unlimited number of +avaricious adult units incapable of any other subordinate groupings +than business partnerships, and the sources of competition were +assumed to be inexhaustible. Upon such quicksands rose an edifice +that aped the securities of material science, developed a technical +jargon and professed the discovery of "laws." Our liberation from +these false presumptions through the rhetoric of Carlyle and Ruskin +and the activities of the Socialists, is more apparent than real. +The old edifice oppresses us still, repaired and altered by +indifferent builders, underpinned in places, and with a slight +change of name. "Political Economy" has been painted out, and +instead we read "Economics--under entirely new management." Modern +Economics differs mainly from old Political Economy in having +produced no Adam Smith. The old "Political Economy" made certain +generalisations, and they were mostly wrong; new Economics evades +generalisations, and seems to lack the intellectual power to make +them. The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog +which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning +inconvenience to passers-by. Its most typical exponents display a +disposition to disavow generalisations altogether, to claim +consideration as "experts," and to make immediate political +application of that conceded claim. Now Newton, Darwin, Dalton, +Davy, Joule, and Adam Smith did not affect this "expert" +hankey-pankey, becoming enough in a hairdresser or a fashionable +physician, but indecent in a philosopher or a man of science. In +this state of impotent expertness, however, or in some equally +unsound state, economics must struggle on--a science that is no +science, a floundering lore wallowing in a mud of statistics--until +either the study of the material organisation of production on the +one hand as a development of physics and geography, or the study +of social aggregation on the other, renders enduring foundations +possible. + + +Section 4 + +The older Utopias were all relatively small states; Plato's +Republic, for example, was to be smaller than the average English +borough, and no distinction was made between the Family, the Local +Government, and the State. Plato and Campanella--for all that the +latter was a Christian priest--carried communism to its final point +and prescribed even a community of husbands and wives, an idea that +was brought at last to the test of effectual experiment in the +Oneida Community of New York State (1848-1879). This latter body did +not long survive its founder, at least as a veritable communism, by +reason of the insurgent individualism of its vigorous sons. More, +too, denied privacy and ruled an absolute community of goods, at +any rate, and so, coming to the Victorian Utopias, did Cabet. But +Cabet's communism was one of the "free store" type, and the goods +were yours only after you had requisitioned them. That seems the +case in the "Nowhere" of Morris also. Compared with the older +writers Bellamy and Morris have a vivid sense of individual +separation, and their departure from the old homogeneity is +sufficiently marked to justify a doubt whether there will be any +more thoroughly communistic Utopias for ever. + +A Utopia such as this present one, written in the opening of the +Twentieth Century, and after the most exhaustive discussion--nearly +a century long--between Communistic and Socialistic ideas on the one +hand, and Individualism on the other, emerges upon a sort of +effectual conclusion to those controversies. The two parties have so +chipped and amended each other's initial propositions that, indeed, +except for the labels still flutteringly adhesive to the implicated +men, it is hard to choose between them. Each side established a good +many propositions, and we profit by them all. We of the succeeding +generation can see quite clearly that for the most part the heat and +zeal of these discussions arose in the confusion of a quantitative +for a qualitative question. To the onlooker, both Individualism and +Socialism are, in the absolute, absurdities; the one would make men +the slaves of the violent or rich, the other the slaves of the State +official, and the way of sanity runs, perhaps even sinuously, down +the intervening valley. Happily the dead past buries its dead, and +it is not our function now to adjudicate the preponderance of +victory. In the very days when our political and economic order is +becoming steadily more Socialistic, our ideals of intercourse turn +more and more to a fuller recognition of the claims of individuality. +The State is to be progressive, it is no longer to be static, and +this alters the general condition of the Utopian problem profoundly; +we have to provide not only for food and clothing, for order and +health, but for initiative. The factor that leads the World State +on from one phase of development to the next is the interplay of +individualities; to speak teleologically, the world exists for the +sake of and through initiative, and individuality is the method +of initiative. Each man and woman, to the extent that his or her +individuality is marked, breaks the law of precedent, transgresses +the general formula, and makes a new experiment for the direction of +the life force. It is impossible, therefore, for the State, which +represents all and is preoccupied by the average, to make effectual +experiments and intelligent innovations, and so supply the essential +substance of life. As against the individual the state represents +the species, in the case of the Utopian World State it absolutely +represents the species. The individual emerges from the species, +makes his experiment, and either fails, dies, and comes to an end, +or succeeds and impresses himself in offspring, in consequences and +results, intellectual, material and moral, upon the world. + +Biologically the species is the accumulation of the experiments of +all its successful individuals since the beginning, and the World +State of the Modern Utopist will, in its economic aspect, be a +compendium of established economic experience, about which +individual enterprise will be continually experimenting, either to +fail and pass, or to succeed and at last become incorporated with +the undying organism of the World State. This organism is the +universal rule, the common restriction, the rising level platform +on which individualities stand. + +The World State in this ideal presents itself as the sole landowner +of the earth, with the great local governments I have adumbrated, +the local municipalities, holding, as it were, feudally under it as +landlords. The State or these subordinates holds all the sources of +energy, and either directly or through its tenants, farmers and +agents, develops these sources, and renders the energy available for +the work of life. It or its tenants will produce food, and so human +energy, and the exploitation of coal and electric power, and the +powers of wind and wave and water will be within its right. It will +pour out this energy by assignment and lease and acquiescence and +what not upon its individual citizens. It will maintain order, +maintain roads, maintain a cheap and efficient administration of +justice, maintain cheap and rapid locomotion and be the common +carrier of the planet, convey and distribute labour, control, let, +or administer all natural productions, pay for and secure healthy +births and a healthy and vigorous new generation, maintain the +public health, coin money and sustain standards of measurement, +subsidise research, and reward such commercially unprofitable +undertakings as benefit the community as a whole; subsidise when +needful chairs of criticism and authors and publications, and +collect and distribute information. The energy developed and the +employment afforded by the State will descend like water that the +sun has sucked out of the sea to fall upon a mountain range, and +back to the sea again it will come at last, debouching in ground +rent and royalty and license fees, in the fees of travellers and +profits upon carrying and coinage and the like, in death duty, +transfer tax, legacy and forfeiture, returning to the sea. Between +the clouds and the sea it will run, as a river system runs, down +through a great region of individual enterprise and interplay, whose +freedom it will sustain. In that intermediate region between the +kindred heights and deeps those beginnings and promises will arise +that are the essential significance, the essential substance, of +life. From our human point of view the mountains and sea are for +the habitable lands that lie between. So likewise the State is +for Individualities. The State is for Individuals, the law is for +freedoms, the world is for experiment, experience, and change: these +are the fundamental beliefs upon which a modern Utopia must go. + + +Section 5 + +Within this scheme, which makes the State the source of all energy, +and the final legatee, what will be the nature of the property a man +may own? Under modern conditions--indeed, under any conditions--a +man without some negotiable property is a man without freedom, and +the extent of his property is very largely the measure of his +freedom. Without any property, without even shelter or food, a man +has no choice but to set about getting these things; he is in +servitude to his needs until he has secured property to satisfy +them. But with a certain small property a man is free to do many +things, to take a fortnight's holiday when he chooses, for example, +and to try this new departure from his work or that; with so much +more, he may take a year of freedom and go to the ends of the earth; +with so much more, he may obtain elaborate apparatus and try +curious novelties, build himself houses and make gardens, establish +businesses and make experiments at large. Very speedily, under +terrestrial conditions, the property of a man may reach such +proportions that his freedom oppresses the freedom of others. Here, +again, is a quantitative question, an adjustment of conflicting +freedoms, a quantitative question that too many people insist on +making a qualitative one. + +The object sought in the code of property laws that one would find +in operation in Utopia would be the same object that pervades the +whole Utopian organisation, namely, a universal maximum of +individual freedom. Whatever far-reaching movements the State or +great rich men or private corporations may make, the starvation by +any complication of employment, the unwilling deportation, the +destruction of alternatives to servile submissions, must not +ensue. Beyond such qualifications, the object of Modern Utopian +statesmanship will be to secure to a man the freedom given by all +his legitimate property, that is to say, by all the values his toil +or skill or foresight and courage have brought into being. Whatever +he has justly made he has a right to keep, that is obvious enough; +but he will also have a right to sell and exchange, and so this +question of what may be property takes really the form of what may +a man buy in Utopia? + +A modern Utopian most assuredly must have a practically unqualified +property in all those things that become, as it were, by possession, +extensions and expressions of his personality; his clothing, his +jewels, the tools of his employment, his books, the objects of art +he may have bought or made, his personal weapons (if Utopia have +need of such things), insignia, and so forth. All such things that +he has bought with his money or acquired--provided he is not a +professional or habitual dealer in such property--will be +inalienably his, his to give or lend or keep, free even from +taxation. So intimate is this sort of property that I have no doubt +Utopia will give a man posthumous rights over it--will permit him to +assign it to a successor with at the utmost the payment of a small +redemption. A horse, perhaps, in certain districts, or a bicycle, or +any such mechanical conveyance personally used, the Utopians might +find it well to rank with these possessions. No doubt, too, a house +and privacy owned and occupied by a man, and even a man's own +household furniture, might be held to stand as high or almost as +high in the property scale, might be taxed as lightly and +transferred under only a slightly heavier redemption, provided he +had not let these things on hire, or otherwise alienated them from +his intimate self. A thorough-going, Democratic Socialist will no +doubt be inclined at first to object that if the Utopians make these +things a specially free sort of property in this way, men would +spend much more upon them than they would otherwise do, but indeed +that will be an excellent thing. We are too much affected by the +needy atmosphere of our own mismanaged world. In Utopia no one will +have to hunger because some love to make and have made and own and +cherish beautiful things. To give this much of property to +individuals will tend to make clothing, ornamentation, implements, +books, and all the arts finer and more beautiful, because by buying +such things a man will secure something inalienable--save in the +case of bankruptcy--for himself and for those who belong to him. +Moreover, a man may in his lifetime set aside sums to ensure special +advantages of education and care for the immature children of +himself and others, and in this manner also exercise a posthumous +right. [Footnote: But a Statute of Mortmain will set a distinct time +limit to the continuance of such benefactions. A periodic revision +of endowments is a necessary feature in any modern Utopia.] + +For all other property, the Utopians will have a scantier respect; +even money unspent by a man, and debts to him that bear no interest, +will at his death stand upon a lower level than these things. What +he did not choose to gather and assimilate to himself, or assign for +the special education of his children, the State will share in the +lion's proportion with heir and legatee. + +This applies, for example, to the property that a man creates and +acquires in business enterprises, which are presumably undertaken +for gain, and as a means of living rather than for themselves. All +new machinery, all new methods, all uncertain and variable and +non-universal undertakings, are no business for the State; they +commence always as experiments of unascertained value, and next +after the invention of money, there is no invention has so +facilitated freedom and progress as the invention of the limited +liability company to do this work of trial and adventure. The +abuses, the necessary reforms of company law on earth, are no +concern of ours here and now, suffice it that in a Modern Utopia +such laws must be supposed to be as perfect as mortal laws can +possibly be made. Caveat vendor will be a sound qualification of +Caveat emptor in the beautifully codified Utopian law. Whether the +Utopian company will be allowed to prefer this class of share to +that or to issue debentures, whether indeed usury, that is to say +lending money at fixed rates of interest, will be permitted at all +in Utopia, one may venture to doubt. But whatever the nature of the +shares a man may hold, they will all be sold at his death, and +whatever he has not clearly assigned for special educational +purposes will--with possibly some fractional concession to near +survivors--lapse to the State. The "safe investment," that +permanent, undying claim upon the community, is just one of those +things Utopia will discourage; which indeed the developing security +of civilisation quite automatically discourages through the fall in +the rate of interest. As we shall see at a later stage, the State +will insure the children of every citizen, and those legitimately +dependent upon him, against the inconvenience of his death; it will +carry out all reasonable additional dispositions he may have made +for them in the same event; and it will insure him against old age +and infirmity; and the object of Utopian economics will be to give a +man every inducement to spend his surplus money in intensifying the +quality of his surroundings, either by economic adventures and +experiments, which may yield either losses or large profits, or in +increasing the beauty, the pleasure, the abundance and promise of +life. + +Besides strictly personal possessions and shares in business +adventures, Utopia will no doubt permit associations of its citizens +to have a property in various sorts of contracts and concessions, in +leases of agricultural and other land, for example; in houses they +may have built, factories and machinery they may have made, and +the like. And if a citizen prefer to adventure into business +single-handed, he will have all the freedoms of enterprise enjoyed +by a company; in business affairs he will be a company of one, and +his single share will be dealt with at his death like any other +shares.... So much for the second kind of property. And these two +kinds of property will probably exhaust the sorts of property a +Utopian may possess. + +The trend of modern thought is entirely against private property in +land or natural objects or products, and in Utopia these things +will be the inalienable property of the World State. Subject to the +rights of free locomotion, land will be leased out to companies +or individuals, but--in view of the unknown necessities of the +future--never for a longer period than, let us say, fifty years. + +The property of a parent in his children, and of a husband in his +wife, seems to be undergoing a steadily increasing qualification in +the world of to-day, but the discussion of the Utopian state of +affairs in regard to such property may be better reserved until +marriage becomes our topic. Suffice it here to remark, that the +increasing control of a child's welfare and upbringing by the +community, and the growing disposition to limit and tax inheritance +are complementary aspects of the general tendency to regard the +welfare and free intraplay of future generations no longer as the +concern of parents and altruistic individuals, but as the +predominant issue of statesmanship, and the duty and moral meaning +of the world community as a whole. + + +Section 6 + +From the conception of mechanical force as coming in from Nature to +the service of man, a conception the Utopian proposal of a coinage +based on energy units would emphasise, arise profound contrasts +between the modern and the classical Utopias. Except for a meagre +use of water power for milling, and the wind for sailing--so meagre +in the latter case that the classical world never contrived to do +without the galley slave--and a certain restricted help from oxen in +ploughing, and from horses in locomotion, all the energy that +sustained the old-fashioned State was derived from the muscular +exertion of toiling men. They ran their world by hand. Continual +bodily labour was a condition of social existence. It is only with +the coming of coal burning, of abundant iron and steel, and of +scientific knowledge that this condition has been changed. To-day, +I suppose, if it were possible to indicate, in units of energy, +the grand total of work upon which the social fabric of the +United States or England rests, it would be found that a vastly +preponderating moiety is derived from non-human sources, from coal +and liquid fuel, and explosives and wind and water. There is every +indication of a steady increase in this proportion of mechanical +energy, in this emancipation of men from the necessity of physical +labour. There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the +machine. + +Now it is only in the last three hundred years that any human being +seems to have anticipated this. It stimulates the imagination to +remark how entirely it was overlooked as a modifying cause in human +development. [Footnote: It is interesting to note how little even +Bacon seems to see of this, in his New Atlantis.] Plato clearly had +no ideas about machines at all as a force affecting social +organisation. There was nothing in his world to suggest them to him. +I suppose there arose no invention, no new mechanical appliance or +method of the slightest social importance through all his length of +years. He never thought of a State that did not rely for its force +upon human muscle, just as he never thought of a State that was not +primarily organised for warfare hand to hand. Political and moral +inventions he saw enough of and to spare, and in that direction he +still stimulates the imagination. But in regard to all material +possibilities he deadens rather than stimulates. [Footnote: The lost +Utopia of Hippodamus provided rewards for inventors, but unless +Aristotle misunderstood him, and it is certainly the fate of all +Utopias to be more or less misread, the inventions contemplated were +political devices.] An infinitude of nonsense about the Greek mind +would never have been written if the distinctive intellectual and +artistic quality of Plato's time, its extraordinarily clear +definition of certain material conditions as absolutely permanent, +coupled with its politico-social instability, had been borne in +mind. The food of the Greek imagination was the very antithesis of +our own nourishment. We are educated by our circumstances to think +no revolution in appliances and economic organisation incredible, +our minds play freely about possibilities that would have struck the +men of the Academy as outrageous extravagance, and it is in regard +to politico-social expedients that our imaginations fail. Sparta, +for all the evidence of history, is scarcely more credible to us +than a motor-car throbbing in the agora would have been to +Socrates. + +By sheer inadvertence, therefore, Plato commenced the tradition of +Utopias without machinery, a tradition we find Morris still loyally +following, except for certain mechanical barges and such-like toys, +in his News from Nowhere. There are some foreshadowings of +mechanical possibilities in the New Atlantis, but it is only in the +nineteenth century that Utopias appeared in which the fact is +clearly recognised that the social fabric rests no longer upon human +labour. It was, I believe, Cabet [Footnote: Cabet, Voyage en Icarie, +1848.] who first in a Utopian work insisted upon the escape of man +from irksome labours through the use of machinery. He is the great +primitive of modern Utopias, and Bellamy is his American equivalent. +Hitherto, either slave labour (Phaleas), [Footnote: Aristotle's +Politics, Bk. II., Ch. VIII.] or at least class distinctions +involving unavoidable labour in the lower class, have been +assumed--as Plato does, and as Bacon in the New Atlantis probably +intended to do (More gave his Utopians bondsmen sans phrase for +their most disagreeable toil); or there is--as in Morris and the +outright Return-to-Nature Utopians--a bold make-believe that all +toil may be made a joy, and with that a levelling down of all +society to an equal participation in labour. But indeed this is +against all the observed behaviour of mankind. It needed the +Olympian unworldliness of an irresponsible rich man of the +shareholding type, a Ruskin or a Morris playing at life, to imagine +as much. Road-making under Mr. Ruskin's auspices was a joy at Oxford +no doubt, and a distinction, and it still remains a distinction; it +proved the least contagious of practices. And Hawthorne did not find +bodily toil anything more than the curse the Bible says it is, at +Brook Farm. [Footnote: The Blythedale Experiment, and see also his +Notebook.] + +If toil is a blessing, never was blessing so effectually disguised, +and the very people who tell us that, hesitate to suggest more than +a beautiful ease in the endless day of Heaven. A certain amount of +bodily or mental exercise, a considerable amount of doing things +under the direction of one's free imagination is quite another +matter. Artistic production, for example, when it is at its best, +when a man is freely obeying himself, and not troubling to please +others, is really not toil at all. It is quite a different thing +digging potatoes, as boys say, "for a lark," and digging them +because otherwise you will starve, digging them day after day as a +dull, unavoidable imperative. The essence of toil is that +imperative, and the fact that the attention _must_ cramp itself to +the work in hand--that it excludes freedom, and not that it involves +fatigue. So long as anything but a quasi-savage life depended upon +toil, so long was it hopeless to expect mankind to do anything but +struggle to confer just as much of this blessing as possible upon +one another. But now that the new conditions physical science is +bringing about, not only dispense with man as a source of energy but +supply the hope that all routine work may be made automatic, it is +becoming conceivable that presently there may be no need for anyone +to toil habitually at all; that a labouring class--that is to say, +a class of workers without personal initiative--will become +unnecessary to the world of men. + +The plain message physical science has for the world at large is +this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as +well contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic +operating plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now at the +present moment be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the +smallest fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now +makes human life so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough +for everyone alive. Science stands, a too competent servant, behind +her wrangling underbred masters, holding out resources, devices, and +remedies they are too stupid to use. [Footnote: See that most +suggestive little book, Twentieth Century Inventions, by Mr. George +Sutherland.] And on its material side a modern Utopia must needs +present these gifts as taken, and show a world that is really +abolishing the need of labour, abolishing the last base reason for +anyone's servitude or inferiority. + + +Section 7 + +The effectual abolition of a labouring and servile class will make +itself felt in every detail of the inn that will shelter us, of the +bedrooms we shall occupy. You conceive my awakening to all these +things on the morning after our arrival. I shall lie for a minute or +so with my nose peeping over the coverlet, agreeably and gently +coming awake, and with some vague nightmare of sitting at a common +table with an unavoidable dustman in green and gold called Boffin, +[Footnote: Vide William Morris's News from Nowhere.] fading out of +my mind. Then I should start up. You figure my apprehensive, +startled inspection of my chamber. "Where am I?" that classic +phrase, recurs. Then I perceive quite clearly that I am in bed in +Utopia. + +Utopia! The word is enough to bring anyone out of bed, to the +nearest window, but thence I see no more than the great mountain +mass behind the inn, a very terrestrial looking mountain mass. I +return to the contrivances about me, and make my examination as I +dress, pausing garment in hand to hover over first this thing of +interest and then that. + +The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple; not by any +means cheaply equipped, but designed to economise the labour of +redding and repair just as much as is possible. It is beautifully +proportioned, and rather lower than most rooms I know on earth. +There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a +thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switch-board +is a brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not +carpeted, but covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms +the mattress (which is of metal with resistance coils threaded to +and fro in it); and the others warm the wall in various degrees, +each directing current through a separate system of resistances. The +casement does not open, but above, flush with the ceiling, a +noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. The air enters by a +Tobin shaft. There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath +and all that is necessary to one's toilette, and the water, one +remarks, is warmed, if one desires it warm, by passing it through an +electrically heated spiral of tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a +store machine on the turn of a handle, and when you have done with +it, you drop that and your soiled towels and so forth, which also +are given you by machines, into a little box, through the bottom of +which they drop at once, and sail down a smooth shaft. A little +notice tells you the price of your room, and you gather the price is +doubled if you do not leave the toilette as you found it. Beside the +bed, and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a +little clock, its face flush with the wall. The room has no corners +to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a gentle curve, and the +apartment could be swept out effectually by a few strokes of a +mechanical sweeper. The door frames and window frames are of metal, +rounded and impervious to draught. You are politely requested to +turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and +forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the +bedclothes hang airing. You stand at the doorway and realise that +there remains not a minute's work for anyone to do. Memories of the +foetid disorder of many an earthly bedroom after a night's use +float across your mind. + +And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as +anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar of +course, but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless +ornament that cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains +to check the draught from the ill-fitting wood windows, the +worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a little askew, the dusty +carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty, black-leaded +fireplace are gone. But the faintly tinted walls are framed with +just one clear coloured line, as finely placed as the member of a +Greek capital; the door handles and the lines of the panels of the +door, the two chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing table, +have all that final simplicity, that exquisite finish of contour +that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. The graciously shaped +windows each frame a picture--since they are draughtless the window +seats are no mere mockeries as are the window seats of earth--and on +the sill, the sole thing to need attention in the room, is one +little bowl of blue Alpine flowers. + +The same exquisite simplicity meets one downstairs. + +Our landlord sits down at table with us for a moment, and seeing we +do not understand the electrically heated coffee-pot before us, +shows us what to do. Coffee and milk we have, in the Continental +fashion, and some excellent rolls and butter. + +He is a swarthy little man, our landlord, and overnight we saw him +preoccupied with other guests. But we have risen either late or +early by Utopian standards, we know not which, and this morning he +has us to himself. His bearing is kindly and inoffensive, but he +cannot conceal the curiosity that possesses him. His eye meets ours +with a mute inquiry, and then as we fall to, we catch him +scrutinising our cuffs, our garments, our boots, our faces, our +table manners. He asks nothing at first, but says a word or so about +our night's comfort and the day's weather, phrases that have an air +of being customary. Then comes a silence that is interrogative. + +"Excellent coffee," I say to fill the gap. + +"And excellent rolls," says my botanist. + +Our landlord indicates his sense of our approval. + +A momentary diversion is caused by the entry of an elfin-tressed +little girl, who stares at us half impudently, half shyly, with +bright black eyes, hesitates at the botanist's clumsy smile and nod, +and then goes and stands by her father and surveys us steadfastly. + +"You have come far?" ventures our landlord, patting his daughter's +shoulder. + +I glance at the botanist. "Yes," I say, "we have." + +I expand. "We have come so far that this country of yours seems very +strange indeed to us." + +"The mountains?" + +"Not only the mountains." + +"You came up out of the Ticino valley?" + +"No--not that way." + +"By the Oberalp?" + +"No." + +"The Furka?" + +"No." + +"Not up from the lake?" + +"No." + +He looks puzzled. + +"We came," I say, "from another world." + +He seems trying to understand. Then a thought strikes him, and he +sends away his little girl with a needless message to her +mother. + +"Ah!" he says. "Another world--eh? Meaning----?" + +"Another world--far in the deeps of space." + +Then at the expression of his face one realises that a Modern Utopia +will probably keep its more intelligent citizens for better work +than inn-tending. He is evidently inaccessible to the idea we think +of putting before him. He stares at us a moment, and then remarks, +"There's the book to sign." + +We find ourselves confronted with a book, a little after the fashion +of the familiar hotel visitors' book of earth. He places this before +us, and beside it puts pen and ink and a slab, upon which ink has +been freshly smeared. + +"Thumbmarks," says my scientific friend hastily in English. + +"You show me how to do it," I say as quickly. + +He signs first, and I look over his shoulder. + +He is displaying more readiness than I should have expected. The +book is ruled in broad transverse lines, and has a space for a name, +for a number, and a thumbmark. He puts his thumb upon the slab and +makes the thumbmark first with the utmost deliberation. Meanwhile +he studies the other two entries. The "numbers" of the previous +guests above are complex muddles of letters and figures. He writes +his name, then with a calm assurance writes down his number, +A.M.a.1607.2.ab+. I am wrung with momentary admiration. I follow +his example, and fabricate an equally imposing signature. We think +ourselves very clever. The landlord proffers finger bowls for our +thumbs, and his eye goes, just a little curiously, to our entries. + +I decide it is advisable to pay and go before any conversation about +our formulae arises. + +As we emerge into the corridor, and the morning sunlight of the +Utopian world, I see the landlord bending over the book. + +"Come on," I say. "The most tiresome thing in the world is +explanations, and I perceive that if we do not get along, they will +fall upon us now." + +I glance back to discover the landlord and a gracefully robed woman +standing outside the pretty simplicity of the Utopian inn, watching +us doubtfully as we recede. + +"Come on," I insist. + + +Section 8 + +We should go towards the Schoellenen gorge, and as we went, our +fresh morning senses would gather together a thousand factors for +our impression of this more civilised world. A Modern Utopia will +have done with yapping about nationality, and so the ugly +fortifications, the barracks and military defilements of the earthly +vale of Urseren will be wanting. Instead there will be a great +multitude of gracious little houses clustering in college-like +groups, no doubt about their common kitchens and halls, down and +about the valley slopes. And there will be many more trees, and a +great variety of trees--all the world will have been ransacked for +winter conifers. Despite the height of the valley there will be a +double avenue along the road. This high road with its tramway would +turn with us to descend the gorge, and we should hesitate upon the +adventure of boarding the train. But now we should have the memory +of our landlord's curious eye upon us, and we should decide at last +to defer the risk of explanations such an enterprise might +precipitate. + +We should go by the great road for a time, and note something of the +difference between Utopian and terrestrial engineering. + +The tramway, the train road, the culverts, and bridges, the +Urnerloch tunnel, into which the road plunges, will all be beautiful +things. + +There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and +railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to +be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection; a thing of human +making is for the most part ugly in proportion to the poverty of its +constructive thought, to the failure of its producer fully to grasp +the purpose of its being. Everything to which men continue to give +thought and attention, which they make and remake in the same +direction, and with a continuing desire to do as well as they can, +grows beautiful inevitably. Things made by mankind under modern +conditions are ugly, primarily because our social organisation is +ugly, because we live in an atmosphere of snatch and uncertainty, +and do everything in an underbred strenuous manner. This is the +misfortune of machinery, and not its fault. Art, like some beautiful +plant, lives on its atmosphere, and when the atmosphere is good, it +will grow everywhere, and when it is bad nowhere. If we smashed and +buried every machine, every furnace, every factory in the world, and +without any further change set ourselves to home industries, hand +labour, spade husbandry, sheep-folding and pig minding, we should +still do things in the same haste, and achieve nothing but +dirtiness, inconvenience, bad air, and another gaunt and gawky +reflection of our intellectual and moral disorder. We should mend +nothing. + +But in Utopia a man who designs a tram road will be a cultivated +man, an artist craftsman; he will strive, as a good writer, or a +painter strives, to achieve the simplicity of perfection. He will +make his girders and rails and parts as gracious as that first +engineer, Nature, has made the stems of her plants and the joints +and gestures of her animals. To esteem him a sort of anti-artist, to +count every man who makes things with his unaided thumbs an artist, +and every man who uses machinery as a brute, is merely a passing +phase of human stupidity. This tram road beside us will be a triumph +of design. The idea will be so unfamiliar to us that for a time it +will not occur to us that it is a system of beautiful objects at +all. We shall admire its ingenious adaptation to the need of a +district that is buried half the year in snow, the hard bed below, +curved and guttered to do its own clearing, the great arched sleeper +masses, raising the rails a good two yards above the ground, the +easy, simple standards and insulators. Then it will creep in upon +our minds, "But, by Jove! This is designed!" + +Indeed the whole thing will be designed. + +Later on, perhaps, we may find students in an art school working in +competition to design an electric tram, students who know something +of modern metallurgy, and something of electrical engineering, and +we shall find people as keenly critical of a signal box or an iron +bridge as they are on earth of----! Heavens! what _are_ they +critical about on earth? + +The quality and condition of a dress tie! + +We should make some unpatriotic comparisons with our own planet, no +doubt. + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +The Voice of Nature + + +Section 1 + +Presently we recognise the fellow of the earthly Devil's Bridge, +still intact as a footway, spanning the gorge, and old memories turn +us off the road down the steep ruin of an ancient mule track towards +it. It is our first reminder that Utopia too must have a history. We +cross it and find the Reuss, for all that it has already lit and +warmed and ventilated and cleaned several thousands of houses in the +dale above, and for all that it drives those easy trams in the +gallery overhead, is yet capable of as fine a cascade as ever it +flung on earth. So we come to a rocky path, wild as one could wish, +and descend, discoursing how good and fair an ordered world may be, +but with a certain unformulated qualification in our minds about +those thumb marks we have left behind. + +"Do you recall the Zermatt valley?" says my friend, "and how on +earth it reeks and stinks with smoke?" + +"People make that an argument for obstructing change, instead of +helping it forward!" + +And here perforce an episode intrudes. We are invaded by a talkative +person. + +He overtakes us and begins talking forthwith in a fluty, but not +unamiable, tenor. He is a great talker, this man, and a fairly +respectable gesticulator, and to him it is we make our first +ineffectual tentatives at explaining who indeed we are; but his flow +of talk washes that all away again. He has a face of that rubicund, +knobby type I have heard an indignant mineralogist speak of as +botryoidal, and about it waves a quantity of disorderly blond hair. +He is dressed in leather doublet and knee breeches, and he wears +over these a streaming woollen cloak of faded crimson that give him +a fine dramatic outline as he comes down towards us over the rocks. +His feet, which are large and handsome, but bright pink with the +keen morning air, are bare, except for sandals of leather. (It was +the only time that we saw anyone in Utopia with bare feet.) He +salutes us with a scroll-like waving of his stick, and falls in with +our slower paces. + +"Climbers, I presume?" he says, "and you scorn these trams of +theirs? I like you. So do I! Why a man should consent to be dealt +with as a bale of goods holding an indistinctive ticket--when God +gave him legs and a face--passes my understanding." + +As he speaks, his staff indicates the great mechanical road that +runs across the gorge and high overhead through a gallery in the +rock, follows it along until it turns the corner, picks it up as a +viaduct far below, traces it until it plunges into an arcade through +a jutting crag, and there dismisses it with a spiral whirl. "_No_!" +he says. + +He seems sent by Providence, for just now we had been discussing how +we should broach our remarkable situation to these Utopians before +our money is spent. + +Our eyes meet, and I gather from the botanist that I am to open our +case. + +I do my best. + +"You came from the other side of space!" says the man in the crimson +cloak, interrupting me. "Precisely! I like that--it's exactly my +note! So do I! And you find this world strange! Exactly my case! We +are brothers! We shall be in sympathy. I am amazed, I have been +amazed as long as I can remember, and I shall die, most certainly, +in a state of incredulous amazement, at this remarkable world. +Eh? ... You found yourselves suddenly upon a mountain top! Fortunate +men!" He chuckled. "For my part I found myself in the still stranger +position of infant to two parents of the most intractable +dispositions!" + +"The fact remains," I protest. + +"A position, I can assure you, demanding Tact of an altogether +superhuman quality!" + +We desist for a space from the attempt to explain our remarkable +selves, and for the rest of the time this picturesque and +exceptional Utopian takes the talk entirely under his control.... + + +Section 2 + +An agreeable person, though a little distracting, he was, and he +talked, we recall, of many things. He impressed us, we found +afterwards, as a poseur beyond question, a conscious Ishmaelite in +the world of wit, and in some subtly inexplicable way as a most +consummate ass. He talked first of the excellent and commodious +trams that came from over the passes, and ran down the long valley +towards middle Switzerland, and of all the growth of pleasant homes +and chalets amidst the heights that made the opening gorge so +different from its earthly parallel, with a fine disrespect. "But +they are beautiful," I protested. "They are graciously proportioned, +they are placed in well-chosen positions; they give no offence to +the eye." + +"What do we know of the beauty they replace? They are a mere rash. +Why should we men play the part of bacteria upon the face of our +Mother?" + +"All life is that!" + +"No! not natural life, not the plants and the gentle creatures that +live their wild shy lives in forest and jungle. That is a part of +her. That is the natural bloom of her complexion. But these houses +and tramways and things, all made from ore and stuff torn from her +veins----! You can't better my image of the rash. It's a morbid +breaking out! I'd give it all for one--what is it?--free and natural +chamois." + +"You live at times in a house?" I asked. + +He ignored my question. For him, untroubled Nature was the best, he +said, and, with a glance at his feet, the most beautiful. He +professed himself a Nazarite, and shook back his Teutonic poet's +shock of hair. So he came to himself, and for the rest of our walk +he kept to himself as the thread of his discourse, and went over +himself from top to toe, and strung thereon all topics under the sun +by way of illustrating his splendours. But especially his foil was +the relative folly, the unnaturalness and want of logic in his +fellow men. He held strong views about the extreme simplicity of +everything, only that men, in their muddle-headedness, had +confounded it all. "Hence, for example, these trams! They are always +running up and down as though they were looking for the lost +simplicity of nature. 'We dropped it here!'" He earned a living, we +gathered, "some considerable way above the minimum wage," which +threw a chance light on the labour problem--by perforating records +for automatic musical machines--no doubt of the Pianotist and +Pianola kind--and he spent all the leisure he could gain in going to +and fro in the earth lecturing on "The Need of a Return to Nature," +and on "Simple Foods and Simple Ways." He did it for the love of it. +It was very clear to us he had an inordinate impulse to lecture, and +esteemed us fair game. He had been lecturing on these topics in +Italy, and he was now going back through the mountains to lecture in +Saxony, lecturing on the way, to perforate a lot more records, +lecturing the while, and so start out lecturing again. He was +undisguisedly glad to have us to lecture to by the way. + +He called our attention to his costume at an early stage. It was the +embodiment of his ideal of Nature-clothing, and it had been made +especially for him at very great cost. "Simply because naturalness +has fled the earth, and has to be sought now, and washed out from +your crushed complexities like gold." + +"I should have thought," said I, "that any clothing whatever was +something of a slight upon the natural man." + +"Not at all," said he, "not at all! You forget his natural +vanity!" + +He was particularly severe on our artificial hoofs, as he called our +boots, and our hats or hair destructors. "Man is the real King of +Beasts and should wear a mane. The lion only wears it by consent and +in captivity." He tossed his head. + +Subsequently while we lunched and he waited for the specific natural +dishes he ordered--they taxed the culinary resources of the inn to +the utmost--he broached a comprehensive generalisation. "The animal +kingdom and the vegetable kingdom are easily distinguished, and for +the life of me I see no reason for confusing them. It is, I hold, a +sin against Nature. I keep them distinct in my mind and I keep them +distinct in my person. No animal substance inside, no vegetable +without;--what could be simpler or more logical? Nothing upon me but +leather and allwool garments, within, cereals, fruit, nuts, herbs, +and the like. Classification--order--man's function. He is here to +observe and accentuate Nature's simplicity. These people"--he swept +an arm that tried not too personally to include us--"are filled and +covered with confusion." + +He ate great quantities of grapes and finished with a cigarette. He +demanded and drank a great horn of unfermented grape juice, and it +seemed to suit him well. + +We three sat about the board--it was in an agreeable little arbour +on a hill hard by the place where Wassen stands on earth, and it +looked down the valley to the Uri Rothstock, and ever and again we +sought to turn his undeniable gift of exposition to the elucidation +of our own difficulties. + +But we seemed to get little, his style was so elusive. Afterwards, +indeed, we found much information and many persuasions had soaked +into us, but at the time it seemed to us he told us nothing. He +indicated things by dots and dashes, instead of by good hard +assertive lines. He would not pause to see how little we knew. +Sometimes his wit rose so high that he would lose sight of it +himself, and then he would pause, purse his lips as if he whistled, +and then till the bird came back to the lure, fill his void mouth +with grapes. He talked of the relations of the sexes, and love--a +passion he held in great contempt as being in its essence complex +and disingenuous--and afterwards we found we had learnt much of what +the marriage laws of Utopia allow and forbid. + +"A simple natural freedom," he said, waving a grape in an +illustrative manner, and so we gathered the Modern Utopia did not at +any rate go to that. He spoke, too, of the regulation of unions, of +people who were not allowed to have children, of complicated rules +and interventions. "Man," he said, "had ceased to be a natural +product!" + +We tried to check him with questions at this most illuminating +point, but he drove on like a torrent, and carried his topic out of +sight. The world, he held, was overmanaged, and that was the root of +all evil. He talked of the overmanagement of the world, and among +other things of the laws that would not let a poor simple idiot, a +"natural," go at large. And so we had our first glimpse of what +Utopia did with the feeble and insane. "We make all these +distinctions between man and man, we exalt this and favour that, and +degrade and seclude that; we make birth artificial, life artificial, +death artificial." + +"You say _We_," said I, with the first glimmering of a new idea, +"but _you_ don't participate?" + +"Not I! I'm not one of your samurai, your voluntary noblemen who +have taken the world in hand. I might be, of course, but I'm +not." + +"Samurai!" I repeated, "voluntary noblemen!" and for the moment +could not frame a question. + +He whirled on to an attack on science, that stirred the botanist to +controversy. He denounced with great bitterness all specialists +whatever, and particularly doctors and engineers. + +"Voluntary noblemen!" he said, "voluntary Gods I fancy they think +themselves," and I was left behind for a space in the perplexed +examination of this parenthesis, while he and the botanist--who is +sedulous to keep his digestion up to date with all the newest +devices--argued about the good of medicine men. + +"The natural human constitution," said the blond-haired man, "is +perfectly simple, with one simple condition--you must leave it to +Nature. But if you mix up things so distinctly and essentially +separated as the animal and vegetable kingdoms for example, and ram +_that_ in for it to digest, what can you expect? + +"Ill health! There isn't such a thing--in the course of Nature. But +you shelter from Nature in houses, you protect yourselves by clothes +that are useful instead of being ornamental, you wash--with such +abstersive chemicals as soap for example--and above all you consult +doctors." He approved himself with a chuckle. "Have you ever found +anyone seriously ill without doctors and medicine about? Never! You +say a lot of people would die without shelter and medical +attendance! No doubt--but a natural death. A natural death is better +than an artificial life, surely? That's--to be frank with you--the +very citadel of my position." + +That led him, and rather promptly, before the botanist could rally +to reply, to a great tirade against the laws that forbade "sleeping +out." He denounced them with great vigour, and alleged that for his +own part he broke that law whenever he could, found some corner of +moss, shaded from an excess of dew, and there sat up to sleep. He +slept, he said, always in a sitting position, with his head on his +wrists, and his wrists on his knees--the simple natural position for +sleep in man.... He said it would be far better if all the world +slept out, and all the houses were pulled down. + +You will understand, perhaps, the subdued irritation I felt, as I +sat and listened to the botanist entangling himself in the logical +net of this wild nonsense. It impressed me as being irrelevant. When +one comes to a Utopia one expects a Cicerone, one expects a person +as precise and insistent and instructive as an American +advertisement--the advertisement of one of those land agents, for +example, who print their own engaging photographs to instil +confidence and begin, "You want to buy real estate." One expects to +find all Utopians absolutely convinced of the perfection of their +Utopia, and incapable of receiving a hint against its order. And +here was this purveyor of absurdities! + +And yet now that I come to think it over, is not this too one of the +necessary differences between a Modern Utopia and those finite +compact settlements of the older school of dreamers? It is not to be +a unanimous world any more, it is to have all and more of the mental +contrariety we find in the world of the real; it is no longer to be +perfectly explicable, it is just our own vast mysterious welter, +with some of the blackest shadows gone, with a clearer illumination, +and a more conscious and intelligent will. Irrelevance is not +irrelevant to such a scheme, and our blond-haired friend is exactly +just where he ought to be here. + +Still---- + + +Section 3 + +I ceased to listen to the argumentation of my botanist with this +apostle of Nature. The botanist, in his scientific way, was, I +believe, defending the learned professions. (He thinks and argues +like drawing on squared paper.) It struck me as transiently +remarkable that a man who could not be induced to forget himself and +his personal troubles on coming into a whole new world, who could +waste our first evening in Utopia upon a paltry egotistical love +story, should presently become quite heated and impersonal in the +discussion of scientific professionalism. He was--absorbed. I can't +attempt to explain these vivid spots and blind spots in the +imaginations of sane men; there they are! + +"You say," said the botanist, with a prevalent index finger, and the +resolute deliberation of a big siege gun being lugged into action +over rough ground by a number of inexperienced men, "you prefer a +natural death to an artificial life. But what is your _definition_ +(stress) of artificial? ..." + +And after lunch too! I ceased to listen, flicked the end of my +cigarette ash over the green trellis of the arbour, stretched my +legs with a fine restfulness, leant back, and gave my mind to the +fields and houses that lay adown the valley. + +What I saw interwove with fragmentary things our garrulous friend +had said, and with the trend of my own speculations.... + +The high road, with its tramways and its avenues on either side, ran +in a bold curve, and with one great loop of descent, down the +opposite side of the valley, and below crossed again on a beautiful +viaduct, and dipped into an arcade in the side of the Bristenstock. +Our inn stood out boldly, high above the level this took. The houses +clustered in their collegiate groups over by the high road, and near +the subordinate way that ran almost vertically below us and past us +and up towards the valley of the Meien Reuss. There were one or two +Utopians cutting and packing the flowery mountain grass in the +carefully levelled and irrigated meadows by means of swift, light +machines that ran on things like feet and seemed to devour the +herbage, and there were many children and a woman or so, going to +and fro among the houses near at hand. I guessed a central building +towards the high road must be the school from which these children +were coming. I noted the health and cleanliness of these young heirs +of Utopia as they passed below. + +The pervading quality of the whole scene was a sane order, the +deliberate solution of problems, a progressive intention steadily +achieving itself, and the aspect that particularly occupied me was +the incongruity of this with our blond-haired friend. + +On the one hand here was a state of affairs that implied a power of +will, an organising and controlling force, the co-operation of a +great number of vigorous people to establish and sustain its +progress, and on the other this creature of pose and vanity, with +his restless wit, his perpetual giggle at his own cleverness, his +manifest incapacity for comprehensive co-operation. + +Now, had I come upon a hopeless incompatibility? Was this the +reductio ad absurdum of my vision, and must it even as I sat there +fade, dissolve, and vanish before my eyes? + +There was no denying our blond friend. If this Utopia is indeed to +parallel our earth, man for man--and I see no other reasonable +choice to that--there must be this sort of person and kindred sorts +of persons in great abundance. The desire and gift to see life whole +is not the lot of the great majority of men, the service of truth is +the privilege of the elect, and these clever fools who choke the +avenues of the world of thought, who stick at no inconsistency, who +oppose, obstruct, confuse, will find only the freer scope amidst +Utopian freedoms. + +(They argued on, these two, as I worried my brains with riddles. It +was like a fight between a cock sparrow and a tortoise; they both +went on in their own way, regardless of each other's proceedings. +The encounter had an air of being extremely lively, and the moments +of contact were few. "But you mistake my point," the blond man was +saying, disordering his hair--which had become unruffled in the +preoccupation of dispute--with a hasty movement of his hand, "you +don't appreciate the position I take up.") + +"Ugh!" said I privately, and lighted another cigarette and went away +into my own thoughts with that. + +The position he takes up! That's the way of your intellectual fool, +the Universe over. He takes up a position, and he's going to be the +most brilliant, delightful, engaging and invincible of gay delicious +creatures defending that position you can possibly imagine. And even +when the case is not so bad as that, there still remains the quality. +We "take up our positions," silly little contentious creatures +that we are, we will not see the right in one another, we will not +patiently state and restate, and honestly accommodate and plan, and +so we remain at sixes and sevens. We've all a touch of Gladstone in +us, and try to the last moment to deny we have made a turn. And so +our poor broken-springed world jolts athwart its trackless destiny. +Try to win into line with some fellow weakling, and see the little +host of suspicions, aggressions, misrepresentations, your approach +will stir--like summer flies on a high road--the way he will try to +score a point and claim you as a convert to what he has always said, +his fear lest the point should be scored to you. + +It is not only such gross and palpable cases as our blond and +tenoring friend. I could find the thing negligible were it only +that. But when one sees the same thread woven into men who are +leaders, men who sway vast multitudes, who are indeed great and +powerful men; when one sees how unfair they can be, how unteachable, +the great blind areas in their eyes also, their want of generosity, +then one's doubts gather like mists across this Utopian valley, its +vistas pale, its people become unsubstantial phantoms, all its order +and its happiness dim and recede.... + +If we are to have any Utopia at all, we must have a clear common +purpose, and a great and steadfast movement of will to override all +these incurably egotistical dissentients. Something is needed wide +and deep enough to float the worst of egotisms away. The world is +not to be made right by acclamation and in a day, and then for ever +more trusted to run alone. It is manifest this Utopia could not come +about by chance and anarchy, but by co-ordinated effort and a +community of design, and to tell of just land laws and wise +government, a wisely balanced economic system, and wise social +arrangements without telling how it was brought about, and how it is +sustained against the vanity and self-indulgence, the moody +fluctuations and uncertain imaginations, the heat and aptitude for +partisanship that lurk, even when they do not flourish, in the +texture of every man alive, is to build a palace without either door +or staircase. + +I had not this in mind when I began. + +Somewhere in the Modern Utopia there must be adequate men, men the +very antithesis of our friend, capable of self-devotion, of +intentional courage, of honest thought, and steady endeavour. There +must be a literature to embody their common idea, of which this +Modern Utopia is merely the material form; there must be some +organisation, however slight, to keep them in touch one with the +other. + +Who will these men be? Will they be a caste? a race? an organisation +in the nature of a Church? ... And there came into my mind the words +of our acquaintance, that he was not one of these "voluntary +noblemen." + +At first that phrase struck me as being merely queer, and then I +began to realise certain possibilities that were wrapped up in +it. + +The animus of our chance friend, at any rate, went to suggest that +here was his antithesis. Evidently what he is not, will be the class +to contain what is needed here. Evidently. + + +Section 4 + +I was recalled from my meditations by the hand of the blond-haired +man upon my arm. + +I looked up to discover the botanist had gone into the inn. + +The blond-haired man was for a moment almost stripped of pose. + +"I say," he said. "Weren't you listening to me?" + +"No," I said bluntly. + +His surprise was manifest. But by an effort he recalled what he had +meant to say. + +"Your friend," he said, "has been telling me, in spite of my +sustained interruptions, a most incredible story." + +I wondered how the botanist managed to get it in. "About that +woman?" I said. + +"About a man and a woman who hate each other and can't get away from +each other." + +"I know," I said. + +"It sounds absurd." + +"It is." + +"Why can't they get away? What is there to keep them together? It's +ridiculous. I----" + +"Quite." + +"He _would_ tell it to me." + +"It's his way." + +"He interrupted me. And there's no point in it. Is he----" he +hesitated, "mad?" + +"There's a whole world of people mad with him," I answered after a +pause. + +The perplexed expression of the blond-haired man intensified. It is +vain to deny that he enlarged the scope of his inquiry, visibly if +not verbally. "Dear me!" he said, and took up something he had +nearly forgotten. "And you found yourselves suddenly on a mountain +side? ... I thought you were joking." + +I turned round upon him with a sudden access of earnestness. At +least I meant my manner to be earnest, but to him it may have seemed +wild. + +"You," I said, "are an original sort of man. Do not be alarmed. +Perhaps you will understand.... We were not joking." + +"But, my dear fellow!" + +"I mean it! We come from an inferior world! Like this, but out of +order." + +"No world could be more out of order----" + +"You play at that and have your fun. But there's no limit to the +extent to which a world of men may get out of gear. In our +world----" + +He nodded, but his eye had ceased to be friendly. + +"Men die of starvation; people die by the hundred thousand +needlessly and painfully; men and women are lashed together to make +hell for each other; children are born--abominably, and reared in +cruelty and folly; there is a thing called war, a horror of blood +and vileness. The whole thing seems to me at times a cruel and +wasteful wilderness of muddle. You in this decent world have no +means of understanding----" + +"No?" he said, and would have begun, but I went on too quickly. + +"No! When I see you dandering through this excellent and hopeful +world, objecting, obstructing, and breaking the law, displaying your +wit on science and order, on the men who toil so ingloriously to +swell and use the knowledge that is salvation, this salvation for +which _our_ poor world cries to heaven----" + +"You don't mean to say," he said, "that you really come from some +other world where things are different and worse?" + +"I do." + +"And you want to talk to me about it instead of listening to +me?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, nonsense!" he said abruptly. "You can't do it--really. I can +assure you this present world touches the nadir of imbecility. You +and your friend, with his love for the lady who's so mysteriously +tied--you're romancing! People could not possibly do such things. +It's--if you'll excuse me--ridiculous. _He_ began--he would begin. +A most tiresome story--simply bore me down. We'd been talking very +agreeably before that, or rather I had, about the absurdity of +marriage laws, the interference with a free and natural life, and so +on, and suddenly he burst like a dam. No!" He paused. "It's really +impossible. You behave perfectly well for a time, and then you begin +to interrupt.... And such a childish story, too!" + +He spun round upon his chair, got up, glanced at me over his +shoulder, and walked out of the arbour. He stepped aside hastily to +avoid too close an approach to the returning botanist. "Impossible," +I heard him say. He was evidently deeply aggrieved by us. I saw him +presently a little way off in the garden, talking to the landlord of +our inn, and looking towards us as he talked--they both looked +towards us--and after that, without the ceremony of a farewell, he +disappeared, and we saw him no more. We waited for him a little +while, and then I expounded the situation to the botanist.... + +"We are going to have a very considerable amount of trouble +explaining ourselves," I said in conclusion. "We are here by an +act of the imagination, and that is just one of those metaphysical +operations that are so difficult to make credible. We are, by the +standard of bearing and clothing I remark about us, unattractive in +dress and deportment. We have nothing to produce to explain our +presence here, no bit of a flying machine or a space travelling +sphere or any of the apparatus customary on these occasions. We have +no means beyond a dwindling amount of small change out of a gold +coin, upon which I suppose in ethics and the law some native Utopian +had a better claim. We may already have got ourselves into trouble +with the authorities with that confounded number of yours!" + +"You did one too!" + +"All the more bother, perhaps, when the thing is brought home to us. +There's no need for recriminations. The thing of moment is that we +find ourselves in the position--not to put too fine a point upon +it--of tramps in this admirable world. The question of all others of +importance to us at present is what do they do with their tramps? +Because sooner or later, and the balance of probability seems to +incline to sooner, whatever they do with their tramps that they will +do with us." + +"Unless we can get some work." + +"Exactly--unless we can get some work." + +"Get work!" + +The botanist leant forward on his arms and looked out of the arbour +with an expression of despondent discovery. "I say," he remarked; +"this is a strange world--quite strange and new. I'm only beginning +to realise just what it means for us. The mountains there are the +same, the old Bristenstock and all the rest of it; but these houses, +you know, and that roadway, and the costumes, and that machine that +is licking up the grass there--only...." + +He sought expression. "Who knows what will come in sight round the +bend of the valley there? Who knows what may happen to us anywhere? +We don't know who rules over us even ... we don't know that!" + +"No," I echoed, "we don't know _that_." + + + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +Failure in a Modern Utopia + + +Section 1 + +The old Utopias--save for the breeding schemes of Plato and +Campanella--ignored that reproductive competition among +individualities which is the substance of life, and dealt +essentially with its incidentals. The endless variety of men, their +endless gradation of quality, over which the hand of selection +plays, and to which we owe the unmanageable complication of real +life, is tacitly set aside. The real world is a vast disorder of +accidents and incalculable forces in which men survive or fail. A +Modern Utopia, unlike its predecessors, dare not pretend to change +the last condition; it may order and humanise the conflict, but men +must still survive or fail. + +Most Utopias present themselves as going concerns, as happiness in +being; they make it an essential condition that a happy land can +have no history, and all the citizens one is permitted to see are +well looking and upright and mentally and morally in tune. But we +are under the dominion of a logic that obliges us to take over the +actual population of the world with only such moral and mental and +physical improvements as lie within their inherent possibilities, +and it is our business to ask what Utopia will do with its +congenital invalids, its idiots and madmen, its drunkards and men of +vicious mind, its cruel and furtive souls, its stupid people, too +stupid to be of use to the community, its lumpish, unteachable and +unimaginative people? And what will it do with the man who is "poor" +all round, the rather spiritless, rather incompetent low-grade man +who on earth sits in the den of the sweater, tramps the streets +under the banner of the unemployed, or trembles--in another man's +cast-off clothing, and with an infinity of hat-touching--on the +verge of rural employment? + +These people will have to be in the descendant phase, the species +must be engaged in eliminating them; there is no escape from that, +and conversely the people of exceptional quality must be ascendant. +The better sort of people, so far as they can be distinguished, +must have the fullest freedom of public service, and the fullest +opportunity of parentage. And it must be open to every man to +approve himself worthy of ascendency. + +The way of Nature in this process is to kill the weaker and the +sillier, to crush them, to starve them, to overwhelm them, using the +stronger and more cunning as her weapon. But man is the unnatural +animal, the rebel child of Nature, and more and more does he turn +himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him. He sees +with a growing resentment the multitude of suffering ineffectual +lives over which his species tramples in its ascent. In the Modern +Utopia he will have set himself to change the ancient law. No longer +will it be that failures must suffer and perish lest their breed +increase, but the breed of failure must not increase, lest they +suffer and perish, and the race with them. + +Now we need not argue here to prove that the resources of the world +and the energy of mankind, were they organised sanely, are amply +sufficient to supply every material need of every living human +being. And if it can be so contrived that every human being shall +live in a state of reasonable physical and mental comfort, without +the reproduction of inferior types, there is no reason whatever why +that should not be secured. But there must be a competition in life +of some sort to determine who are to be pushed to the edge, and who +are to prevail and multiply. Whatever we do, man will remain a +competitive creature, and though moral and intellectual training +may vary and enlarge his conception of success and fortify him +with refinements and consolations, no Utopia will ever save him +completely from the emotional drama of struggle, from exultations +and humiliations, from pride and prostration and shame. He lives in +success and failure just as inevitably as he lives in space and +time. + +But we may do much to make the margin of failure endurable. On +earth, for all the extravagance of charity, the struggle for the +mass of men at the bottom resolves itself into a struggle, and often +a very foul and ugly struggle, for food, shelter, and clothing. +Deaths outright from exposure and starvation are now perhaps +uncommon, but for the multitude there are only miserable houses, +uncomfortable clothes, and bad and insufficient food; fractional +starvation and exposure, that is to say. A Utopia planned upon +modern lines will certainly have put an end to that. It will insist +upon every citizen being being properly housed, well nourished, and +in good health, reasonably clean and clothed healthily, and upon +that insistence its labour laws will be founded. In a phrasing +that will be familiar to everyone interested in social reform, +it will maintain a standard of life. Any house, unless it be a +public monument, that does not come up to its rising standard of +healthiness and convenience, the Utopian State will incontinently +pull down, and pile the material and charge the owner for the +labour; any house unduly crowded or dirty, it must in some effectual +manner, directly or indirectly, confiscate and clear and clean. And +any citizen indecently dressed, or ragged and dirty, or publicly +unhealthy, or sleeping abroad homeless, or in any way neglected or +derelict, must come under its care. It will find him work if he can +and will work, it will take him to it, it will register him and lend +him the money wherewith to lead a comely life until work can be +found or made for him, and it will give him credit and shelter him +and strengthen him if he is ill. In default of private enterprises +it will provide inns for him and food, and it will--by itself acting +as the reserve employer--maintain a minimum wage which will cover +the cost of a decent life. The State will stand at the back of the +economic struggle as the reserve employer of labour. This most +excellent idea does, as a matter of fact, underlie the British +institution of the workhouse, but it is jumbled up with the relief +of old age and infirmity, it is administered parochially and on the +supposition that all population is static and localised whereas +every year it becomes more migratory; it is administered without +any regard to the rising standards of comfort and self-respect in +a progressive civilisation, and it is administered grudgingly. The +thing that is done is done as unwilling charity by administrators +who are often, in the rural districts at least, competing for +low-priced labour, and who regard want of employment as a crime. But +if it were possible for any citizen in need of money to resort to a +place of public employment as a right, and there work for a week or +month without degradation upon certain minimum terms, it seems +fairly certain that no one would work, except as the victim of some +quite exceptional and temporary accident, for less. + +The work publicly provided would have to be toilsome, but not +cruel or incapacitating. A choice of occupations would need to be +afforded, occupations adapted to different types of training and +capacity, with some residual employment of a purely laborious and +mechanical sort for those who were incapable of doing the things +that required intelligence. Necessarily this employment by the +State would be a relief of economic pressure, but it would not be +considered a charity done to the individual, but a public service. +It need not pay, any more than the police need pay, but it could +probably be done at a small margin of loss. There is a number of +durable things bound finally to be useful that could be made and +stored whenever the tide of more highly paid employment ebbed and +labour sank to its minimum, bricks, iron from inferior ores, shaped +and preserved timber, pins, nails, plain fabrics of cotton and +linen, paper, sheet glass, artificial fuel, and so on; new roads +could be made and public buildings reconstructed, inconveniences +of all sorts removed, until under the stimulus of accumulating +material, accumulating investments or other circumstances, the tide +of private enterprise flowed again. + +The State would provide these things for its citizen as though it +was his right to require them; he would receive as a shareholder in +the common enterprise and not with any insult of charity. But on the +other hand it will require that the citizen who renders the minimum +of service for these concessions shall not become a parent until he +is established in work at a rate above the minimum, and free of any +debt he may have incurred. The State will never press for its debt, +nor put a limit to its accumulation so long as a man or woman +remains childless; it will not even grudge them temporary spells of +good fortune when they may lift their earnings above the minimum +wage. It will pension the age of everyone who cares to take a +pension, and it will maintain special guest homes for the very old +to which they may come as paying guests, spending their pensions +there. By such obvious devices it will achieve the maximum +elimination of its feeble and spiritless folk in every generation +with the minimum of suffering and public disorder. + + +Section 2 + +But the mildly incompetent, the spiritless and dull, the poorer sort +who are ill, do not exhaust our Utopian problem. There remain idiots +and lunatics, there remain perverse and incompetent persons, there +are people of weak character who become drunkards, drug takers, and +the like. Then there are persons tainted with certain foul and +transmissible diseases. All these people spoil the world for others. +They may become parents, and with most of them there is manifestly +nothing to be done but to seclude them from the great body of the +population. You must resort to a kind of social surgery. You cannot +have social freedom in your public ways, your children cannot speak +to whom they will, your girls and gentle women cannot go abroad +while some sorts of people go free. And there are violent people, +and those who will not respect the property of others, thieves and +cheats, they, too, so soon as their nature is confirmed, must pass +out of the free life of our ordered world. So soon as there can be +no doubt of the disease or baseness of the individual, so soon as +the insanity or other disease is assured, or the crime repeated a +third time, or the drunkenness or misdemeanour past its seventh +occasion (let us say), so soon must he or she pass out of the common +ways of men. + +The dreadfulness of all such proposals as this lies in the +possibility of their execution falling into the hands of hard, dull, +and cruel administrators. But in the case of a Utopia one assumes +the best possible government, a government as merciful and +deliberate as it is powerful and decisive. You must not too hastily +imagine these things being done--as they would be done on earth at +present--by a number of zealous half-educated people in a state of +panic at a quite imaginary "Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit." + +No doubt for first offenders, and for all offenders under +five-and-twenty, the Modern Utopia will attempt cautionary and +remedial treatment. There will be disciplinary schools and colleges +for the young, fair and happy places, but with less confidence and +more restraint than the schools and colleges of the ordinary world. +In remote and solitary regions these enclosures will lie, they will +be fenced in and forbidden to the common run of men, and there, +remote from all temptation, the defective citizen will be schooled. +There will be no masking of the lesson; "which do you value most, +the wide world of humanity, or this evil trend in you?" From that +discipline at last the prisoners will return. + +But the others; what would a saner world do with them? + +Our world is still vindictive, but the all-reaching State of Utopia +will have the strength that begets mercy. Quietly the outcast will +go from among his fellow men. There will be no drumming of him out +of the ranks, no tearing off of epaulettes, no smiting in the face. +The thing must be just public enough to obviate secret tyrannies, +and that is all. + +There would be no killing, no lethal chambers. No doubt Utopia will +kill all deformed and monstrous and evilly diseased births, but for +the rest, the State will hold itself accountable for their being. +There is no justice in Nature perhaps, but the idea of justice +must be sacred in any good society. Lives that statesmanship has +permitted, errors it has not foreseen and educated against, must +not be punished by death. If the State does not keep faith, no one +will keep faith. Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State's +failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community. Even +for murder Utopia will not, I think, kill. + +I doubt even if there will be jails. No men are quite wise enough, +good enough and cheap enough to staff jails as a jail ought to be +staffed. Perhaps islands will be chosen, islands lying apart from +the highways of the sea, and to these the State will send its +exiles, most of them thanking Heaven, no doubt, to be quit of a +world of prigs. The State will, of course, secure itself against +any children from these people, that is the primary object in their +seclusion, and perhaps it may even be necessary to make these +island prisons a system of island monasteries and island nunneries. +Upon that I am not competent to speak, but if I may believe the +literature of the subject--unhappily a not very well criticised +literature--it is not necessary to enforce this separation. +[Footnote: See for example Dr. W. A. Chapple's The Fertility of +the Unfit.] + +About such islands patrol boats will go, there will be no freedoms +of boat building, and it may be necessary to have armed guards at +the creeks and quays. Beyond that the State will give these +segregated failures just as full a liberty as they can have. If +it interferes any further it will be simply to police the islands +against the organisation of serious cruelty, to maintain the freedom +of any of the detained who wish it to transfer themselves to other +islands, and so to keep a check upon tyranny. The insane, of course, +will demand care and control, but there is no reason why the islands +of the hopeless drunkard, for example, should not each have a +virtual autonomy, have at the most a Resident and a guard. I believe +that a community of drunkards might be capable of organising even +its own bad habit to the pitch of tolerable existence. I do not +see why such an island should not build and order for itself and +manufacture and trade. "Your ways are not our ways," the World State +will say; "but here is freedom and a company of kindred souls. Elect +your jolly rulers, brew if you will, and distil; here are vine +cuttings and barley fields; do as it pleases you to do. We will take +care of the knives, but for the rest--deal yourselves with God!" + +And you see the big convict steamship standing in to the Island of +Incurable Cheats. The crew are respectfully at their quarters, +ready to lend a hand overboard, but wide awake, and the captain is +hospitably on the bridge to bid his guests good-bye and keep an eye +on the movables. The new citizens for this particular Alsatia, each +no doubt with his personal belongings securely packed and at hand, +crowd the deck and study the nearing coast. Bright, keen faces would +be there, and we, were we by any chance to find ourselves beside the +captain, might recognise the double of this great earthly magnate or +that, Petticoat Lane and Park Lane cheek by jowl. The landing part +of the jetty is clear of people, only a government man or so stands +there to receive the boat and prevent a rush, but beyond the gates a +number of engagingly smart-looking individuals loiter speculatively. +One figures a remarkable building labelled Custom House, an +interesting fiscal revival this population has made, and beyond, +crowding up the hill, the painted walls of a number of comfortable +inns clamour loudly. One or two inhabitants in reduced circumstances +would act as hotel touts, there are several hotel omnibuses and a +Bureau de Change, certainly a Bureau de Change. And a small house +with a large board, aimed point-blank seaward, declares itself a +Gratis Information Office, and next to it rises the graceful dome of +a small Casino. Beyond, great hoardings proclaim the advantages of +many island specialities, a hustling commerce, and the opening of a +Public Lottery. There is a large cheap-looking barrack, the school +of Commercial Science for gentlemen of inadequate training.... + +Altogether a very go-ahead looking little port it would be, and +though this disembarkation would have none of the flow of hilarious +good fellowship that would throw a halo of genial noise about the +Islands of Drink, it is doubtful if the new arrivals would feel +anything very tragic in the moment. Here at last was scope for +adventure after their hearts. + +This sounds more fantastic than it is. But what else is there to do, +unless you kill? You must seclude, but why should you torment? All +modern prisons are places of torture by restraint, and the habitual +criminal plays the part of a damaged mouse at the mercy of the cat +of our law. He has his little painful run, and back he comes again +to a state more horrible even than destitution. There are no +Alsatias left in the world. For my own part I can think of no crime, +unless it is reckless begetting or the wilful transmission of +contagious disease, for which the bleak terrors, the solitudes and +ignominies of the modern prison do not seem outrageously cruel. If +you want to go so far as that, then kill. Why, once you are rid of +them, should you pester criminals to respect an uncongenial standard +of conduct? Into such islands of exile as this a modern Utopia will +have to purge itself. There is no alternative that I can +contrive. + + +Section 3 + +Will a Utopian be free to be idle? + +Work has to be done, every day humanity is sustained by its +collective effort, and without a constant recurrence of effort in +the single man as in the race as a whole, there is neither health +nor happiness. The permanent idleness of a human being is not +only burthensome to the world, but his own secure misery. But +unprofitable occupation is also intended by idleness, and it may be +considered whether that freedom also will be open to the Utopian. +Conceivably it will, like privacy, locomotion, and almost all the +freedoms of life, and on the same terms--if he possess the money to +pay for it. + +That last condition may produce a shock in minds accustomed to the +proposition that money is the root of all evil, and to the idea that +Utopia necessarily implies something rather oaken and hand-made and +primitive in all these relations. Of course, money is not the root +of any evil in the world; the root of all evil in the world, and the +root of all good too, is the Will to Live, and money becomes harmful +only when by bad laws and bad economic organisation it is more +easily attained by bad men than good. It is as reasonable to say +food is the root of all disease, because so many people suffer from +excessive and unwise eating. The sane economic ideal is to make the +possession of money the clear indication of public serviceableness, +and the more nearly that ideal is attained, the smaller is the +justification of poverty and the less the hardship of being poor. In +barbaric and disorderly countries it is almost honourable to be +indigent and unquestionably virtuous to give to a beggar, and even +in the more or less civilised societies of earth, so many children +come into life hopelessly handicapped, that austerity to the poor +is regarded as the meanest of mean virtues. But in Utopia everyone +will have had an education and a certain minimum of nutrition and +training; everyone will be insured against ill-health and accidents; +there will be the most efficient organisation for balancing the +pressure of employment and the presence of disengaged labour, and so +to be moneyless will be clear evidence of unworthiness. In Utopia, +no one will dream of giving to a casual beggar, and no one will +dream of begging. + +There will need to be, in the place of the British casual wards, +simple but comfortable inns with a low tariff--controlled to a +certain extent no doubt, and even in some cases maintained, by the +State. This tariff will have such a definite relation to the minimum +permissible wage, that a man who has incurred no liabilities through +marriage or the like relationship, will be able to live in comfort +and decency upon that minimum wage, pay his small insurance premium +against disease, death, disablement, or ripening years, and have a +margin for clothing and other personal expenses. But he will get +neither shelter nor food, except at the price of his freedom, unless +he can produce money. + +But suppose a man without money in a district where employment is +not to be found for him; suppose the amount of employment to have +diminished in the district with such suddenness as to have stranded +him there. Or suppose he has quarrelled with the only possible +employer, or that he does not like his particular work. Then no +doubt the Utopian State, which wants everyone to be just as happy as +the future welfare of the race permits, will come to his assistance. +One imagines him resorting to a neat and business-like post-office, +and stating his case to a civil and intelligent official. In any +sane State the economic conditions of every quarter of the earth +will be watched as constantly as its meteorological phases, and a +daily map of the country within a radius of three or four hundred +miles showing all the places where labour is needed will hang upon +the post-office wall. To this his attention will be directed. The +man out of work will decide to try his luck in this place or that, +and the public servant, the official, will make a note of his name, +verify his identity--the freedom of Utopia will not be incompatible +with the universal registration of thumb-marks--and issue passes for +travel and coupons for any necessary inn accommodation on his way to +the chosen destination. There he will seek a new employer. + +Such a free change of locality once or twice a year from a region of +restricted employment to a region of labour shortage will be among +the general privileges of the Utopian citizen. + +But suppose that in no district in the world is there work within +the capacity of this particular man? + +Before we suppose that, we must take into consideration the general +assumption one is permitted to make in all Utopian speculations. All +Utopians will be reasonably well educated upon Utopian lines; there +will be no illiterates unless they are unteachable imbeciles, no +rule-of-thumb toilers as inadaptable as trained beasts. The Utopian +worker will be as versatile as any well-educated man is on earth +to-day, and no Trade Union will impose a limit to his activities. +The world will be his Union. If the work he does best and likes best +is not to be found, there is still the work he likes second best. +Lacking his proper employment, he will turn to some kindred +trade. + +But even with that adaptability, it may be that sometimes he will +not find work. Such a disproportion between the work to be done and +the people to do it may arise as to present a surplus of labour +everywhere. This disproportion may be due to two causes: to an +increase of population without a corresponding increase of +enterprises, or to a diminution of employment throughout the world +due to the completion of great enterprises, to economies achieved, +or to the operation of new and more efficient labour-saving +appliances. Through either cause, a World State may find itself +doing well except for an excess of citizens of mediocre and lower +quality. + +But the first cause may be anticipated by wise marriage laws.... The +full discussion of these laws will come later, but here one may +insist that Utopia will control the increase of its population. +Without the determination and ability to limit that increase as well +as to stimulate it whenever it is necessary, no Utopia is possible. +That was clearly demonstrated by Malthus for all time. + +The second cause is not so easily anticipated, but then, though its +immediate result in glutting the labour market is similar, its final +consequences are entirely different from those of the first. The +whole trend of a scientific mechanical civilisation is continually +to replace labour by machinery and to increase it in its +effectiveness by organisation, and so quite independently of any +increase in population labour must either fall in value until it +can compete against and check the cheapening process, or if that +is prevented, as it will be in Utopia, by a minimum wage, come out +of employment. There is no apparent limit to this process. But a +surplus of efficient labour at the minimum wage is exactly the +condition that should stimulate new enterprises, and that in a State +saturated with science and prolific in invention will stimulate new +enterprises. An increasing surplus of available labour without an +absolute increase of population, an increasing surplus of labour +due to increasing economy and not to proliferation, and which, +therefore, does not press on and disarrange the food supply, is +surely the ideal condition for a progressive civilisation. I am +inclined to think that, since labour will be regarded as a +delocalised and fluid force, it will be the World State and not the +big municipalities ruling the force areas that will be the reserve +employer of labour. Very probably it will be convenient for the +State to hand over the surplus labour for municipal purposes, but +that is another question. All over the world the labour exchanges +will be reporting the fluctuating pressure of economic demand and +transferring workers from this region of excess to that of scarcity; +and whenever the excess is universal, the World State--failing an +adequate development of private enterprise--will either reduce the +working day and so absorb the excess, or set on foot some permanent +special works of its own, paying the minimum wage and allowing them +to progress just as slowly or just as rapidly as the ebb and flow of +labour dictated. But with sane marriage and birth laws there is no +reason to suppose such calls upon the resources and initiative of +the world more than temporary and exceptional occasions. + + +Section 4 + +The existence of our blond bare-footed friend was evidence enough +that in a modern Utopia a man will be free to be just as idle or +uselessly busy as it pleases him, after he has earned the minimum +wage. He must do that, of course, to pay for his keep, to pay his +assurance tax against ill-health or old age, and any charge or debt +paternity may have brought upon him. The World State of the modern +Utopist is no state of moral compulsions. If, for example, under the +restricted Utopian scheme of inheritance, a man inherited sufficient +money to release him from the need to toil, he would be free to go +where he pleased and do what he liked. A certain proportion of men +at ease is good for the world; work as a moral obligation is the +morality of slaves, and so long as no one is overworked there is no +need to worry because some few are underworked. Utopia does not +exist as a solace for envy. From leisure, in a good moral and +intellectual atmosphere, come experiments, come philosophy and the +new departures. + +In any modern Utopia there must be many leisurely people. We are all +too obsessed in the real world by the strenuous ideal, by the idea +that the vehement incessant fool is the only righteous man. Nothing +done in a hurry, nothing done under strain, is really well done. A +State where all are working hard, where none go to and fro, easily +and freely, loses touch with the purpose of freedom. + +But inherited independence will be the rarest and least permanent of +Utopian facts, for the most part that wider freedom will have to be +earned, and the inducements to men and women to raise their personal +value far above the minimum wage will be very great indeed. Thereby +will come privacies, more space in which to live, liberty to go +everywhere and do no end of things, the power and freedom to +initiate interesting enterprises and assist and co-operate with +interesting people, and indeed all the best things of life. The +modern Utopia will give a universal security indeed, and exercise +the minimum of compulsions to toil, but it will offer some acutely +desirable prizes. The aim of all these devices, the minimum wage, +the standard of life, provision for all the feeble and unemployed +and so forth, is not to rob life of incentives but to change their +nature, to make life not less energetic, but less panic-stricken and +violent and base, to shift the incidence of the struggle for +existence from our lower to our higher emotions, so to anticipate +and neutralise the motives of the cowardly and bestial, that the +ambitious and energetic imagination which is man's finest quality +may become the incentive and determining factor in survival. + + +Section 5 + +After we have paid for our lunch in the little inn that corresponds +to Wassen, the botanist and I would no doubt spend the rest of the +forenoon in the discussion of various aspects and possibilities of +Utopian labour laws. We should examine our remaining change, copper +coins of an appearance ornamental rather than reassuring, and we +should decide that after what we had gathered from the man with the +blond hair, it would, on the whole, be advisable to come to the +point with the labour question forthwith. At last we should draw the +deep breath of resolution and arise and ask for the Public Office. +We should know by this time that the labour bureau sheltered with +the post-office and other public services in one building. + +The public office of Utopia would of course contain a few surprises +for two men from terrestrial England. You imagine us entering, the +botanist lagging a little behind me, and my first attempts to be +offhand and commonplace in a demand for work. + +The office is in charge of a quick-eyed little woman of six and +thirty perhaps, and she regards us with a certain keenness of +scrutiny. + +"Where are your papers?" she asks. + +I think for a moment of the documents in my pocket, my passport +chequered with visas and addressed in my commendation and in the +name of her late Majesty by We, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoigne +Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, +Baron Cecil, and so forth, to all whom it may concern, my Carte +d'Identite (useful on minor occasions) of the Touring Club de +France, my green ticket to the Reading Room of the British Museum, +and my Lettre d'Indication from the London and County Bank. A +foolish humour prompts me to unfold all these, hand them to her +and take the consequences, but I resist. + +"Lost," I say, briefly. + +"Both lost?" she asks, looking at my friend. + +"Both," I answer. + +"How?" + +I astonish myself by the readiness of my answer. + +"I fell down a snow slope and they came out of my pocket." + +"And exactly the same thing happened to both of you?" + +"No. He'd given me his to put with my own." She raised her eyebrows. +"His pocket is defective," I add, a little hastily. + +Her manners are too Utopian for her to follow that up. She seems to +reflect on procedure. + +"What are your numbers?" she asks, abruptly. + +A vision of that confounded visitors' book at the inn above comes +into my mind. "Let me _see_," I say, and pat my forehead and +reflect, refraining from the official eye before me. "Let me +_see_." + +"What is yours?" she asks the botanist. + +"A. B.," he says, slowly, "little a, nine four seven, I +_think_----" + +"Don't you know?" + +"Not exactly," says the botanist, very agreeably. "No." + +"Do you mean to say neither of you know your own numbers?" says the +little post-mistress, with a rising note. + +"Yes," I say, with an engaging smile and trying to keep up a good +social tone. "It's queer, isn't it? We've both forgotten." + +"You're joking," she suggests. + +"Well," I temporise. + +"I suppose you've got your thumbs?" + +"The fact is----" I say and hesitate. "We've got our thumbs, of +course." + +"Then I shall have to send a thumb-print down to the office and get +your number from that. But are you sure you haven't your papers or +numbers? It's very queer." + +We admit rather sheepishly that it's queer, and question one another +silently. + +She turns thoughtfully for the thumb-marking slab, and as she does +so, a man enters the office. At the sight of him she asks with a +note of relief, "What am I to do, sir, here?" + +He looks from her to us gravely, and his eye lights to curiosity at +our dress. "What is the matter, madam?" he asks, in a courteous +voice. + +She explains. + +So far the impression we have had of our Utopia is one of a quite +unearthly sanity, of good management and comprehensive design in +every material thing, and it has seemed to us a little incongruous +that all the Utopians we have talked to, our host of last night, +the post-mistress and our garrulous tramp, have been of the most +commonplace type. But suddenly there looks out from this man's pose +and regard a different quality, a quality altogether nearer that of +the beautiful tramway and of the gracious order of the mountain +houses. He is a well-built man of perhaps five and thirty, with the +easy movement that comes with perfect physical condition, his face +is clean shaven and shows the firm mouth of a disciplined man, and +his grey eyes are clear and steady. His legs are clad in some woven +stuff deep-red in colour, and over this he wears a white shirt +fitting pretty closely, and with a woven purple hem. His general +effect reminds me somehow of the Knights Templars. On his head is a +cap of thin leather and still thinner steel, and with the vestiges +of ear-guards--rather like an attenuated version of the caps that +were worn by Cromwell's Ironsides. + +He looks at us and we interpolate a word or so as she explains and +feel a good deal of embarrassment at the foolish position we have +made for ourselves. I determine to cut my way out of this +entanglement before it complicates itself further. + +"The fact is----" I say. + +"Yes?" he says, with a faint smile. + +"We've perhaps been disingenuous. Our position is so entirely +exceptional, so difficult to explain----" + +"What have you been doing?" + +"No," I say, with decision; "it can't be explained like that." + +He looks down at his feet. "Go on," he says. + +I try to give the thing a quiet, matter-of-fact air. "You see," I +say, in the tone one adopts for really lucid explanations, "we come +from another world. Consequently, whatever thumb-mark registration +or numbering you have in this planet doesn't apply to us, and we +don't know our numbers because we haven't got any. We are really, +you know, explorers, strangers----" + +"But what world do you mean?" + +"It's a different planet--a long way away. Practically at an +infinite distance." + +He looks up in my face with the patient expression of a man who +listens to nonsense. + +"I know it sounds impossible," I say, "but here is the simple +fact--we _appear_ in your world. We appeared suddenly upon the neck +of Lucendro--the Passo Lucendro--yesterday afternoon, and I defy you +to discover the faintest trace of us before that time. Down we +marched into the San Gotthard road and here we are! That's our fact. +And as for papers----! Where in your world have you seen papers like +this?" + +I produce my pocket-book, extract my passport, and present it to +him. + +His expression has changed. He takes the document and examines it, +turns it over, looks at me, and smiles that faint smile of his +again. + +"Have some more," I say, and proffer the card of the T.C.F. + +I follow up that blow with my green British Museum ticket, as +tattered as a flag in a knight's chapel. + +"You'll get found out," he says, with my documents in his hand. +"You've got your thumbs. You'll be measured. They'll refer to the +central registers, and there you'll be!" + +"That's just it," I say, "we sha'n't be." + +He reflects. "It's a queer sort of joke for you two men to play," he +decides, handing me back my documents. + +"It's no joke at all," I say, replacing them in my pocket-book. + +The post-mistress intervenes. "What would you advise me to do?" + +"No money?" he asks. + +"No." + +He makes some suggestions. "Frankly," he says, "I think you have +escaped from some island. How you got so far as here I can't +imagine, or what you think you'll do.... But anyhow, there's the +stuff for your thumbs." + +He points to the thumb-marking apparatus and turns to attend to his +own business. + +Presently we emerge from the office in a state between discomfiture +and amusement, each with a tramway ticket for Lucerne in his hand +and with sufficient money to pay our expenses until the morrow. We +are to go to Lucerne because there there is a demand for +comparatively unskilled labour in carving wood, which seems to us a +sort of work within our range and a sort that will not compel our +separation. + + +Section 6 + +The old Utopias are sessile organisations; the new must square +itself to the needs of a migratory population, to an endless coming +and going, to a people as fluid and tidal as the sea. It does not +enter into the scheme of earthly statesmanship, but indeed all local +establishments, all definitions of place, are even now melting under +our eyes. Presently all the world will be awash with anonymous +stranger men. + +Now the simple laws of custom, the homely methods of identification +that served in the little communities of the past when everyone knew +everyone, fail in the face of this liquefaction. If the modern +Utopia is indeed to be a world of responsible citizens, it must have +devised some scheme by which every person in the world can be +promptly and certainly recognised, and by which anyone missing can +be traced and found. + +This is by no means an impossible demand. The total population of +the world is, on the most generous estimate, not more than +1,500,000,000, and the effectual indexing of this number of people, +the record of their movement hither and thither, the entry of +various material facts, such as marriage, parentage, criminal +convictions and the like, the entry of the new-born and the +elimination of the dead, colossal task though it would be, is still +not so great as to be immeasurably beyond comparison with the work +of the post-offices in the world of to-day, or the cataloguing of +such libraries as that of the British Museum, or such collections as +that of the insects in Cromwell Road. Such an index could be housed +quite comfortably on one side of Northumberland Avenue, for example. +It is only a reasonable tribute to the distinctive lucidity of the +French mind to suppose the central index housed in a vast series of +buildings at or near Paris. The index would be classified primarily +by some unchanging physical characteristic, such as we are told +the thumb-mark and finger-mark afford, and to these would be +added any other physical traits that were of material value. +The classification of thumb-marks and of inalterable physical +characteristics goes on steadily, and there is every reason for +assuming it possible that each human being could be given a distinct +formula, a number or "scientific name," under which he or she could +be docketed. [Footnote: It is quite possible that the actual +thumb-mark may play only a small part in the work of identification, +but it is an obvious convenience to our thread of story to assume +that it is the one sufficient feature.] About the buildings in which +this great main index would be gathered, would be a system of other +indices with cross references to the main one, arranged under names, +under professional qualifications, under diseases, crimes and the +like. + +These index cards might conceivably be transparent and so contrived +as to give a photographic copy promptly whenever it was needed, and +they could have an attachment into which would slip a ticket bearing +the name of the locality in which the individual was last reported. +A little army of attendants would be at work upon this index day and +night. From sub-stations constantly engaged in checking back +thumb-marks and numbers, an incessant stream of information would +come, of births, of deaths, of arrivals at inns, of applications to +post-offices for letters, of tickets taken for long journeys, of +criminal convictions, marriages, applications for public doles and +the like. A filter of offices would sort the stream, and all day and +all night for ever a swarm of clerks would go to and fro correcting +this central register, and photographing copies of its entries for +transmission to the subordinate local stations, in response to their +inquiries. So the inventory of the State would watch its every man +and the wide world write its history as the fabric of its destiny +flowed on. At last, when the citizen died, would come the last entry +of all, his age and the cause of his death and the date and place of +his cremation, and his card would be taken out and passed on to the +universal pedigree, to a place of greater quiet, to the ever-growing +galleries of the records of the dead. + +Such a record is inevitable if a Modern Utopia is to be +achieved. + +Yet at this, too, our blond-haired friend would no doubt rebel. One +of the many things to which some will make claim as a right, is that +of going unrecognised and secret whither one will. But that, so far +as one's fellow wayfarers were concerned, would still be possible. +Only the State would share the secret of one's little concealment. +To the eighteenth-century Liberal, to the old-fashioned +nineteenth-century Liberal, that is to say to all professed +Liberals, brought up to be against the Government on principle, this +organised clairvoyance will be the most hateful of dreams. Perhaps, +too, the Individualist would see it in that light. But these are +only the mental habits acquired in an evil time. The old Liberalism +assumed bad government, the more powerful the government the worse +it was, just as it assumed the natural righteousness of the free +individual. Darkness and secrecy were, indeed, the natural refuges +of liberty when every government had in it the near possibility of +tyranny, and the Englishman or American looked at the papers of a +Russian or a German as one might look at the chains of a slave. You +imagine that father of the old Liberalism, Rousseau, slinking off +from his offspring at the door of the Foundling Hospital, and you +can understand what a crime against natural virtue this quiet eye of +the State would have seemed to him. But suppose we do not assume +that government is necessarily bad, and the individual necessarily +good--and the hypothesis upon which we are working practically +abolishes either alternative--then we alter the case altogether. The +government of a modern Utopia will be no perfection of intentions +ignorantly ruling the world.... [Footnote: In the typical modern +State of our own world, with its population of many millions, and +its extreme facility of movement, undistinguished men who adopt an +alias can make themselves untraceable with the utmost ease. The +temptation of the opportunities thus offered has developed a new +type of criminality, the Deeming or Crossman type, base men who +subsist and feed their heavy imaginations in the wooing, betrayal, +ill-treatment, and sometimes even the murder of undistinguished +women. This is a large, a growing, and, what is gravest, a prolific +class, fostered by the practical anonymity of the common man. It is +only the murderers who attract much public attention, but the supply +of low-class prostitutes is also largely due to these free +adventures of the base. It is one of the bye products of State +Liberalism, and at present it is very probably drawing ahead in the +race against the development of police organisation.] + +Such is the eye of the State that is now slowly beginning to +apprehend our existence as two queer and inexplicable parties +disturbing the fine order of its field of vision, the eye that will +presently be focussing itself upon us with a growing astonishment +and interrogation. "Who in the name of Galton and Bertillon," one +fancies Utopia exclaiming, "are _you_?" + +I perceive I shall cut a queer figure in that focus. I shall affect +a certain spurious ease of carriage no doubt. "The fact is, I shall +begin...." + + +Section 7 + +And now see how an initial hypothesis may pursue and overtake its +maker. Our thumb-marks have been taken, they have travelled by +pneumatic tube to the central office of the municipality hard by +Lucerne, and have gone on thence to the headquarters of the index at +Paris. There, after a rough preliminary classification, I imagine +them photographed on glass, and flung by means of a lantern in +colossal images upon a screen, all finely squared, and the careful +experts marking and measuring their several convolutions. And then +off goes a brisk clerk to the long galleries of the index +building. + +I have told them they will find no sign of us, but you see him going +from gallery to gallery, from bay to bay, from drawer to drawer, and +from card to card. "Here he is!" he mutters to himself, and he whips +out a card and reads. "But that is impossible!" he says.... + +You figure us returning after a day or so of such Utopian +experiences as I must presently describe, to the central office in +Lucerne, even as we have been told to do. + +I make my way to the desk of the man who has dealt with us before. +"Well?" I say, cheerfully, "have you heard?" + +His expression dashes me a little. "We've heard," he says, and adds, +"it's very peculiar." + +"I told you you wouldn't find out about us," I say, +triumphantly. + +"But we have," he says; "but that makes your freak none the less +remarkable." + +"You've heard! You know who we are! Well--tell us! We had an idea, +but we're beginning to doubt." + +"You," says the official, addressing the botanist, "are----!" + +And he breathes his name. Then he turns to me and gives me mine. + +For a moment I am dumbfounded. Then I think of the entries we made +at the inn in the Urserenthal, and then in a flash I have the truth. +I rap the desk smartly with my finger-tips and shake my index-finger +in my friend's face. + +"By Jove!" I say in English. "They've got our doubles!" + +The botanist snaps his fingers. "Of course! I didn't think of +that." + +"Do you mind," I say to this official, "telling us some more about +ourselves?" + +"I can't think why you keep it up," he remarks, and then almost +wearily tells me the facts about my Utopian self. They are a little +difficult to understand. He says I am one of the samurai, which +sounds Japanese, "but you will be degraded," he says, with a gesture +almost of despair. He describes my position in this world in phrases +that convey very little. + +"The queer thing," he remarks, "is that you were in Norway only +three days ago." + +"I am there still. At least----. I'm sorry to be so much trouble to +you, but do you mind following up that last clue and inquiring if +the person to whom the thumb-mark really belongs isn't in Norway +still?" + +The idea needs explanation. He says something incomprehensible about +a pilgrimage. "Sooner or later," I say, "you will have to believe +there are two of us with the same thumb-mark. I won't trouble you +with any apparent nonsense about other planets and so forth again. +Here I am. If I was in Norway a few days ago, you ought to be able +to trace my journey hither. And my friend?" + +"He was in India." The official is beginning to look perplexed. + +"It seems to me," I say, "that the difficulties in this case are +only just beginning. How did I get from Norway hither? Does my +friend look like hopping from India to the Saint Gotthard at one +hop? The situation is a little more difficult than that----" + +"But here!" says the official, and waves what are no doubt +photographic copies of the index cards. + +"But we are not those individuals!" + +"You _are_ those individuals." + +"You will see," I say. + +He dabs his finger argumentatively upon the thumb-marks. "I see +now," he says. + +"There is a mistake," I maintain, "an unprecedented mistake. There's +the difficulty. If you inquire you will find it begin to unravel. +What reason is there for us to remain casual workmen here, when you +allege we are men of position in the world, if there isn't something +wrong? We shall stick to this wood-carving work you have found us +here, and meanwhile I think you ought to inquire again. That's how +the thing shapes to me." + +"Your case will certainly have to be considered further," he says, +with the faintest of threatening notes in his tone. "But at the same +time"--hand out to those copies from the index again--"there you +are, you know!" + + +Section 8 + +When my botanist and I have talked over and exhausted every +possibility of our immediate position, we should turn, I think, to +more general questions. + +I should tell him the thing that was becoming more and more apparent +in my own mind. Here, I should say, is a world, obviously on the +face of it well organised. Compared with our world, it is like a +well-oiled engine beside a scrap-heap. It has even got this +confounded visual organ swivelling about in the most alert and +lively fashion. But that's by the way.... You have only to look at +all these houses below. (We should be sitting on a seat on the +Gutsch and looking down on the Lucerne of Utopia, a Lucerne that +would, I insist, quite arbitrarily, still keep the Wasserthurm and +the Kapellbrucke.) You have only to mark the beauty, the simple +cleanliness and balance of this world, you have only to see the free +carriage, the unaffected graciousness of even the common people, to +understand how fine and complete the arrangements of this world must +be. How are they made so? We of the twentieth century are not going +to accept the sweetish, faintly nasty slops of Rousseauism that so +gratified our great-great-grandparents in the eighteenth. We know +that order and justice do not come by Nature--"if only the policeman +would go away." These things mean intention, will, carried to a +scale that our poor vacillating, hot and cold earth has never known. +What I am really seeing more and more clearly is the will beneath +this visible Utopia. Convenient houses, admirable engineering that +is no offence amidst natural beauties, beautiful bodies, and a +universally gracious carriage, these are only the outward and +visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace. Such an order means +discipline. It means triumph over the petty egotisms and vanities +that keep men on our earth apart; it means devotion and a nobler +hope; it cannot exist without a gigantic process of inquiry, trial, +forethought and patience in an atmosphere of mutual trust and +concession. Such a world as this Utopia is not made by the chance +occasional co-operations of self-indulgent men, by autocratic rulers +or by the bawling wisdom of the democratic leader. And an +unrestricted competition for gain, an enlightened selfishness, that +too fails us.... + +I have compared the system of indexing humanity we have come upon to +an eye, an eye so sensitive and alert that two strangers cannot +appear anywhere upon the planet without discovery. Now an eye does +not see without a brain, an eye does not turn round and look without +a will and purpose. A Utopia that deals only with appliances and +arrangements is a dream of superficialities; the essential problem +here, the body within these garments, is a moral and an intellectual +problem. Behind all this material order, these perfected +communications, perfected public services and economic organisations, +there must be men and women willing these things. There must be a +considerable number and a succession of these men and women of will. +No single person, no transitory group of people, could order and +sustain this vast complexity. They must have a collective if not +a common width of aim, and that involves a spoken or written +literature, a living literature to sustain the harmony of their +general activity. In some way they must have put the more +immediate objects of desire into a secondary place, and that means +renunciation. They must be effectual in action and persistent in +will, and that means discipline. But in the modern world in which +progress advances without limits, it will be evident that whatever +common creed or formula they have must be of the simplest sort; +that whatever organisation they have must be as mobile and flexible +as a thing alive. All this follows inevitably from the general +propositions of our Utopian dream. When we made those, we bound +ourselves helplessly to come to this.... + +The botanist would nod an abstracted assent. + +I should cease to talk. I should direct my mind to the confused mass +of memories three days in Utopia will have given us. Besides the +personalities with whom we have come into actual contact, our +various hosts, our foreman and work-fellows, the blond man, the +public officials and so on, there will be a great multitude of +other impressions. There will be many bright snapshots of little +children, for example, of girls and women and men, seen in shops and +offices and streets, on quays, at windows and by the wayside, people +riding hither and thither and walking to and fro. A very human crowd +it has seemed to me. But among them were there any who might be +thought of as having a wider interest than the others, who seemed in +any way detached from the rest by a purpose that passed beyond the +seen? + +Then suddenly I recall that clean-shaven man who talked with us for +a little while in the public office at Wassen, the man who reminded +me of my boyish conception of a Knight Templar, and with him come +momentary impressions of other lithe and serious-looking people +dressed after the same manner, words and phrases we have read in +such scraps of Utopian reading as have come our way, and expressions +that fell from the loose mouth of the man with the blond +hair.... + + + +CHAPTER THE SIXTH + +Women in a Modern Utopia + + +Section 1 + +But though I have come to a point where the problem of a Utopia has +resolved itself very simply into the problem of government and +direction, I find I have not brought the botanist with me. Frankly +he cannot think so steadily onward as I can. I feel to think, he +thinks to feel. It is I and my kind that have the wider range, +because we can be impersonal as well as personal. We can escape +ourselves. In general terms, at least, I understand him, but +he does not understand me in any way at all. He thinks me an +incomprehensible brute because his obsession is merely one of my +incidental interests, and wherever my reasoning ceases to be +explicit and full, the slightest ellipsis, the most transitory +digression, he evades me and is back at himself again. He may have a +personal liking for me, though I doubt it, but also he hates me +pretty distinctly, because of this bias he cannot understand. My +philosophical insistence that things shall be reasonable and hang +together, that what can be explained shall be explained, and that +what can be done by calculation and certain methods shall not be +left to chance, he loathes. He just wants adventurously to feel. He +wants to feel the sunset, and he thinks that on the whole he would +feel it better if he had not been taught the sun was about +ninety-two million miles away. He wants to feel free and strong, and +he would rather feel so than be so. He does not want to accomplish +great things, but to have dazzling things occur to him. He does not +know that there are feelings also up in the clear air of the +philosophic mountains, in the long ascents of effort and design. He +does not know that thought itself is only a finer sort of feeling +than his--good hock to the mixed gin, porter and treacle of his +emotions, a perception of similitudes and oppositions that carries +even thrills. And naturally he broods on the source of all his most +copious feelings and emotions, women, and particularly upon the +woman who has most made him feel. He forces me also to that. + +Our position is unfortunate for me. Our return to the Utopian +equivalent of Lucerne revives in him all the melancholy distresses +that so preoccupied him when first we were transferred to this +better planet. One day, while we are still waiting there for the +public office to decide about us, he broaches the matter. It is +early evening, and we are walking beside the lake after our simple +dinner. "About here," he says, "the quays would run and all those +big hotels would be along here, looking out on the lake. It's so +strange to have seen them so recently, and now not to see them at +all.... Where have they gone?" + +"Vanished by hypothesis." + +"What?" + +"Oh! They're there still. It's we that have come hither." + +"Of course. I forgot. But still---- You know, there was an avenue of +little trees along this quay with seats, and she was sitting looking +out upon the lake.... I hadn't seen her for ten years." + +He looks about him still a little perplexed. "Now we are here," he +says, "it seems as though that meeting and the talk we had must have +been a dream." + +He falls musing. + +Presently he says: "I knew her at once. I saw her in profile. But, +you know, I didn't speak to her directly. I walked past her seat and +on for a little way, trying to control myself.... Then I turned back +and sat down beside her, very quietly. She looked up at me. +Everything came back--everything. For a moment or so I felt I was +going to cry...." + +That seems to give him a sort of satisfaction even in the +reminiscence. + +"We talked for a time just like casual acquaintances--about the view +and the weather, and things like that." + +He muses again. + +"In Utopia everything would have been different," I say. + +"I suppose it would." + +He goes on before I can say anything more. + +"Then, you know, there was a pause. I had a sort of intuition that +the moment was coming. So I think had she. You may scoff, of course, +at these intuitions----" + +I don't, as a matter of fact. Instead, I swear secretly. Always this +sort of man keeps up the pretence of highly distinguished and +remarkable mental processes, whereas--have not I, in my own +composition, the whole diapason of emotional fool? Is not the +suppression of these notes my perpetual effort, my undying despair? +And then, am I to be accused of poverty? + +But to his story. + +"She said, quite abruptly, 'I am not happy,' and I told her, 'I knew +that the instant I saw you.' Then, you know, she began to talk to me +very quietly, very frankly, about everything. It was only afterwards +I began to feel just what it meant, her talking to me like that." + +I cannot listen to this! + +"Don't you understand," I cry, "that we are in Utopia. She may be +bound unhappily upon earth and you may be bound, but not here. Here +I think it will be different. Here the laws that control all these +things will be humane and just. So that all you said and did, over +there, does not signify here--does not signify here!" + +He looks up for a moment at my face, and then carelessly at my +wonderful new world. + +"Yes," he says, without interest, with something of the tone of an +abstracted elder speaking to a child, "I dare say it will be all +very fine here." And he lapses, thwarted from his confidences, into +musing. + +There is something almost dignified in this withdrawal into himself. +For a moment I entertain an illusion that really I am unworthy to +hear the impalpable inconclusiveness of what he said to her and of +what she said to him. + +I am snubbed. I am also amazed to find myself snubbed. I become +breathless with indignation. We walk along side by side, but now +profoundly estranged. + +I regard the facade of the Utopian public offices of Lucerne--I had +meant to call his attention to some of the architectural features of +these--with a changed eye, with all the spirit gone out of my +vision. I wish I had never brought this introspective carcass, this +mental ingrate, with me. + +I incline to fatalistic submission. I suppose I had no power to +leave him behind.... I wonder and I wonder. The old Utopists never +had to encumber themselves with this sort of man. + + +Section 2 + +How would things be "different" in the Modern Utopia? After all it +is time we faced the riddle of the problems of marriage and +motherhood.... + +The Modern Utopia is not only to be a sound and happy World State, +but it is to be one progressing from good to better. But as Malthus +[Footnote: Essay on the Principles of Population.] demonstrated for +all time, a State whose population continues to increase in +obedience to unchecked instinct, can progress only from bad to +worse. From the view of human comfort and happiness, the increase of +population that occurs at each advance in human security is the +greatest evil of life. The way of Nature is for every species to +increase nearly to its possible maximum of numbers, and then to +improve through the pressure of that maximum against its limiting +conditions by the crushing and killing of all the feebler +individuals. The way of Nature has also been the way of humanity so +far, and except when a temporary alleviation is obtained through an +expansion of the general stock of sustenance by invention or +discovery, the amount of starvation and of the physical misery of +privation in the world, must vary almost exactly with the excess of +the actual birth-rate over that required to sustain population at a +number compatible with a universal contentment. Neither has Nature +evolved, nor has man so far put into operation, any device by which +paying this price of progress, this misery of a multitude of starved +and unsuccessful lives can be evaded. A mere indiscriminating +restriction of the birth-rate--an end practically attained in the +homely, old-fashioned civilisation of China by female infanticide, +involves not only the cessation of distresses but stagnation, and +the minor good of a sort of comfort and social stability is won at +too great a sacrifice. Progress depends essentially on competitive +selection, and that we may not escape. + +But it is a conceivable and possible thing that this margin of +futile struggling, pain and discomfort and death might be reduced to +nearly nothing without checking physical and mental evolution, with +indeed an acceleration of physical and mental evolution, by +preventing the birth of those who would in the unrestricted +interplay of natural forces be born to suffer and fail. The method +of Nature "red in tooth and claw" is to degrade, thwart, torture, +and kill the weakest and least adapted members of every species in +existence in each generation, and so keep the specific average +rising; the ideal of a scientific civilisation is to prevent those +weaklings being born. There is no other way of evading Nature's +punishment of sorrow. The struggle for life among the beasts and +uncivilised men means misery and death for the inferior individuals, +misery and death in order that they may not increase and multiply; +in the civilised State it is now clearly possible to make the +conditions of life tolerable for every living creature, provided the +inferiors can be prevented from increasing and multiplying. But this +latter condition must be respected. Instead of competing to escape +death and wretchedness, we may compete to give birth and we may heap +every sort of consolation prize upon the losers in that competition. +The modern State tends to qualify inheritance, to insist upon +education and nurture for children, to come in more and more in the +interests of the future between father and child. It is taking over +the responsibility of the general welfare of the children more and +more, and as it does so, its right to decide which children it will +shelter becomes more and more reasonable. + +How far will such conditions be prescribed? how far can they be +prescribed in a Modern Utopia? + +Let us set aside at once all nonsense of the sort one hears in +certain quarters about the human stud farm. [Footnote: See Mankind +in the Making, Ch. II.] State breeding of the population was a +reasonable proposal for Plato to make, in view of the biological +knowledge of his time and the purely tentative nature of his +metaphysics; but from anyone in the days after Darwin, it is +preposterous. Yet we have it given to us as the most brilliant of +modern discoveries by a certain school of sociological writers, who +seem totally unable to grasp the modification of meaning "species" +and "individual" have undergone in the last fifty years. They do not +seem capable of the suspicion that the boundaries of species have +vanished, and that individuality now carries with it the quality of +the unique! To them individuals are still defective copies of a +Platonic ideal of the species, and the purpose of breeding no more +than an approximation to that perfection. Individuality is indeed a +negligible difference to them, an impertinence, and the whole flow +of modern biological ideas has washed over them in vain. + +But to the modern thinker individuality is the significant fact of +life, and the idea of the State, which is necessarily concerned with +the average and general, selecting individualities in order to pair +them and improve the race, an absurdity. It is like fixing a crane +on the plain in order to raise the hill tops. In the initiative of +the individual above the average, lies the reality of the future, +which the State, presenting the average, may subserve but cannot +control. And the natural centre of the emotional life, the cardinal +will, the supreme and significant expression of individuality, +should lie in the selection of a partner for procreation. + +But compulsory pairing is one thing, and the maintenance of general +limiting conditions is another, and one well within the scope of +State activity. The State is justified in saying, before you may add +children to the community for the community to educate and in part +to support, you must be above a certain minimum of personal +efficiency, and this you must show by holding a position of solvency +and independence in the world; you must be above a certain age, and +a certain minimum of physical development, and free of any +transmissible disease. You must not be a criminal unless you have +expiated your offence. Failing these simple qualifications, if you +and some person conspire and add to the population of the State, we +will, for the sake of humanity, take over the innocent victim of +your passions, but we shall insist that you are under a debt to the +State of a peculiarly urgent sort, and one you will certainly pay, +even if it is necessary to use restraint to get the payment out of +you: it is a debt that has in the last resort your liberty as a +security, and, moreover, if this thing happens a second time, or if +it is disease or imbecility you have multiplied, we will take an +absolutely effectual guarantee that neither you nor your partner +offend again in this matter. + +"Harsh!" you say, and "Poor Humanity!" + +You have the gentler alternative to study in your terrestrial slums +and asylums. + +It may be urged that to permit conspicuously inferior people to have +one or two children in this way would be to fail to attain the +desired end, but, indeed, this is not so. A suitably qualified +permission, as every statesman knows, may produce the social effects +without producing the irksome pressure of an absolute prohibition. +Amidst bright and comfortable circumstances, and with an easy and +practicable alternative, people will exercise foresight and +self-restraint to escape even the possibilities of hardship and +discomfort; and free life in Utopia is to be well worth this trouble +even for inferior people. The growing comfort, self-respect, and +intelligence of the English is shown, for example, in the fall in +the proportion of illegitimate births from 2.2 per 1,000 in 1846-50 +to 1.2 per 1,000 in 1890-1900, and this without any positive +preventive laws whatever. This most desirable result is pretty +certainly not the consequence of any great exaltation of our moral +tone, but simply of a rising standard of comfort and a livelier +sense of consequences and responsibilities. If so marked a change is +possible in response to such progress as England has achieved in the +past fifty years, if discreet restraint can be so effectual as this, +it seems reasonable to suppose that in the ampler knowledge and the +cleaner, franker atmosphere of our Utopian planet the birth of a +child to diseased or inferior parents, and contrary to the sanctions +of the State, will be the rarest of disasters. + +And the death of a child, too, that most tragic event, Utopia will +rarely know. Children are not born to die in childhood. But in our +world, at present, through the defects of our medical science and +nursing methods, through defects in our organisation, through +poverty and carelessness, and through the birth of children that +never ought to have been born, one out of every five children born +dies within five years. It may be the reader has witnessed this most +distressful of all human tragedies. It is sheer waste of suffering. +There is no reason why ninety-nine out of every hundred children +born should not live to a ripe age. Accordingly, in any Modern +Utopia, it must be insisted they will. + + +Section 3 + +All former Utopias have, by modern standards, erred on the side of +over regulation in these matters. The amount of State interference +with the marriage and birth of the citizens of a modern Utopia +will be much less than in any terrestrial State. Here, just as in +relation to property and enterprise, the law will regulate only in +order to secure the utmost freedom and initiative. + +Up to the beginning of this chapter, our Utopian speculations, like +many Acts of Parliament, have ignored the difference of sex. "He" +indeed is to be read as "He and She" in all that goes before. But +we may now come to the sexual aspects of the modern ideal of +a constitution of society in which, for all purposes of the +individual, women are to be as free as men. This will certainly be +realised in the Modern Utopia, if it can be realised at all--not +only for woman's sake, but for man's. + +But women may be free in theory and not in practice, and as long as +they suffer from their economic inferiority, from the inability to +produce as much value as a man for the same amount of work--and +there can be no doubt of this inferiority--so long will their legal +and technical equality be a mockery. It is a fact that almost +every point in which a woman differs from a man is an economic +disadvantage to her, her incapacity for great stresses of exertion, +her frequent liability to slight illnesses, her weaker initiative, +her inferior invention and resourcefulness, her relative incapacity +for organisation and combination, and the possibilities of emotional +complications whenever she is in economic dependence on men. So long +as women are compared economically with men and boys they will be +inferior in precisely the measure in which they differ from men. All +that constitutes this difference they are supposed not to trade upon +except in one way, and that is by winning or luring a man to marry, +selling themselves in an almost irrevocable bargain, and then +following and sharing his fortunes for "better or worse." + +But--do not let the proposition in its first crudity alarm +you--suppose the Modern Utopia equalises things between the sexes in +the only possible way, by insisting that motherhood is a service to +the State and a legitimate claim to a living; and that, since the +State is to exercise the right of forbidding or sanctioning +motherhood, a woman who is, or is becoming, a mother, is as much +entitled to wages above the minimum wage, to support, to freedom, +and to respect and dignity as a policeman, a solicitor-general, a +king, a bishop in the State Church, a Government professor, or +anyone else the State sustains. Suppose the State secures to every +woman who is, under legitimate sanctions, becoming or likely to +become a mother, that is to say who is duly married, a certain wage +from her husband to secure her against the need of toil and anxiety, +suppose it pays her a certain gratuity upon the birth of a child, +and continues to pay at regular intervals sums sufficient to keep +her and her child in independent freedom, so long as the child +keeps up to the minimum standard of health and physical and mental +development. Suppose it pays more upon the child when it rises +markedly above certain minimum qualifications, physical or mental, +and, in fact, does its best to make thoroughly efficient motherhood +a profession worth following. And suppose in correlation with this +it forbids the industrial employment of married women and of mothers +who have children needing care, unless they are in a position to +employ qualified efficient substitutes to take care of their +offspring. What differences from terrestrial conditions will +ensue? + +This extent of intervention will at least abolish two or three +salient hardships and evils of the civilised life. It will abolish +the hardship of the majority of widows, who on earth are poor and +encumbered exactly in proportion as they have discharged the chief +distinctive duty of a woman, and miserable, just in proportion as +their standard of life and of education is high. It will abolish the +hardship of those who do not now marry on account of poverty, or who +do not dare to have children. The fear that often turns a woman from +a beautiful to a mercenary marriage will vanish from life. In Utopia +a career of wholesome motherhood would be, under such conditions as +I have suggested, the normal and remunerative calling for a woman, +and a capable woman who has borne, bred, and begun the education +of eight or nine well-built, intelligent, and successful sons and +daughters would be an extremely prosperous woman, quite irrespective +of the economic fortunes of the man she has married. She would need +to be an exceptional woman, and she would need to have chosen a man +at least a little above the average as her partner in life. But his +death, or misbehaviour, or misfortunes would not ruin her. + +Now such an arrangement is merely the completed induction from the +starting propositions that make some measure of education free and +compulsory for every child in the State. If you prevent people +making profit out of their children--and every civilised State--even +that compendium of old-fashioned Individualism, the United States +of America--is now disposed to admit the necessity of that +prohibition--and if you provide for the aged instead of leaving them +to their children's sense of duty, the practical inducements to +parentage, except among very wealthy people, are greatly reduced. +The sentimental factor in the case rarely leads to more than a +solitary child or at most two to a marriage, and with a high and +rising standard of comfort and circumspection it is unlikely that +the birth-rate will ever rise very greatly again. The Utopians will +hold that if you keep the children from profitable employment for +the sake of the future, then, if you want any but the exceptionally +rich, secure, pious, unselfish, or reckless to bear children freely, +you must be prepared to throw the cost of their maintenance upon the +general community. + +In short, Utopia will hold that sound childbearing and rearing is a +service done, not to a particular man, but to the whole community, +and all its legal arrangements for motherhood will be based on that +conception. + + +Section 4 + +And after these preliminaries we must proceed to ask, first, what +will be the Utopian marriage law, and then what sort of customs and +opinions are likely to be superadded to that law? + +The trend of our reasoning has brought us to the conclusion that the +Utopian State will feel justified in intervening between men and +women on two accounts, first on account of paternity, and secondly +on account of the clash of freedoms that may otherwise arise. The +Utopian State will effectually interfere with and prescribe +conditions for all sorts of contract, and for this sort of contract +in particular it will be in agreement with almost every earthly +State, in defining in the completest fashion what things a man or +woman may be bound to do, and what they cannot be bound to do. From +the point of view of a statesman, marriage is the union of a man +and woman in a manner so intimate as to involve the probability of +offspring, and it is of primary importance to the State, first in +order to secure good births, and secondly good home conditions, that +these unions should not be free, nor promiscuous, nor practically +universal throughout the adult population. + +Prolific marriage must be a profitable privilege. It must occur only +under certain obvious conditions, the contracting parties must be in +health and condition, free from specific transmissible taints, above +a certain minimum age, and sufficiently intelligent and energetic +to have acquired a minimum education. The man at least must be +in receipt of a net income above the minimum wage, after any +outstanding charges against him have been paid. All this much +it is surely reasonable to insist upon before the State becomes +responsible for the prospective children. The age at which men and +women may contract to marry is difficult to determine. But if we +are, as far as possible, to put women on an equality with men, if we +are to insist upon a universally educated population, and if we are +seeking to reduce the infantile death-rate to zero, it must be much +higher than it is in any terrestrial State. The woman should be at +least one-and-twenty; the man twenty-six or twenty-seven. + +One imagines the parties to a projected marriage first obtaining +licenses which will testify that these conditions are satisfied. +From the point of view of the theoretical Utopian State, these +licenses are the feature of primary importance. Then, no doubt, that +universal register at Paris would come into play. As a matter of +justice, there must be no deception between the two people, and the +State will ensure that in certain broad essentials this is so. They +would have to communicate their joint intention to a public office +after their personal licenses were granted, and each would be +supplied with a copy of the index card of the projected mate, on +which would be recorded his or her age, previous marriages, legally +important diseases, offspring, domiciles, public appointments, +criminal convictions, registered assignments of property, and so +forth. Possibly it might be advisable to have a little ceremony for +each party, for each in the absence of the other, in which this +record could be read over in the presence of witnesses, together +with some prescribed form of address of counsel in the matter. There +would then be a reasonable interval for consideration and withdrawal +on the part of either spouse. In the event of the two people +persisting in their resolution, they would after this minimum +interval signify as much to the local official and the necessary +entry would be made in the registers. These formalities would be +quite independent of any religious ceremonial the contracting +parties might choose, for with religious belief and procedure the +modern State has no concern. + +So much for the preliminary conditions of matrimony. For those men +and women who chose to ignore these conditions and to achieve any +sort of union they liked the State would have no concern, unless +offspring were born illegitimately. In that case, as we have +already suggested, it would be only reasonable to make the parents +chargeable with every duty, with maintenance, education, and so +forth, that in the normal course of things would fall to the State. +It would be necessary to impose a life assurance payment upon these +parents, and to exact effectual guarantees against every possible +evasion of the responsibility they had incurred. But the further +control of private morality, beyond the protection of the immature +from corruption and evil example, will be no concern of the State's. +When a child comes in, the future of the species comes in; and +the State comes in as the guardian of interests wider than the +individual's; but the adult's private life is the entirely private +life into which the State may not intrude. + +Now what will be the nature of the Utopian contract of +matrimony? + +From the first of the two points of view named above, that of +parentage, it is obvious that one unavoidable condition will be the +chastity of the wife. Her infidelity being demonstrated, must at +once terminate the marriage and release both her husband and the +State from any liability for the support of her illegitimate +offspring. That, at any rate, is beyond controversy; a marriage +contract that does not involve that, is a triumph of metaphysics +over common sense. It will be obvious that under Utopian conditions +it is the State that will suffer injury by a wife's misconduct, and +that a husband who condones anything of the sort will participate in +her offence. A woman, therefore, who is divorced on this account +will be divorced as a public offender, and not in the key of a +personal quarrel; not as one who has inflicted a private and +personal wrong. This, too, lies within the primary implications of +marriage. + +Beyond that, what conditions should a marriage contract in Utopia +involve? + +A reciprocal restraint on the part of the husband is clearly of no +importance whatever, so far as the first end of matrimony goes, the +protection of the community from inferior births. It is no wrong to +the State. But it does carry with it a variable amount of emotional +offence to the wife; it may wound her pride and cause her violent +perturbations of jealousy; it may lead to her neglect, her solitude +and unhappiness, and it may even work to her physical injury. There +should be an implication that it is not to occur. She has bound +herself to the man for the good of the State, and clearly it is +reasonable that she should look to the State for relief if it does +occur. The extent of the offence given her is the exact measure +of her injury; if she does not mind nobody minds, and if her +self-respect does not suffer nothing whatever is lost to the world; +and so it should rest with her to establish his misconduct, and, if +she thinks fit, to terminate the marriage. + +A failure on either side to perform the elementary duties of +companionship, desertion, for example, should obviously give the +other mate the right to relief, and clearly the development of any +disqualifying habit, drunkenness, or drug-taking, or the like, or +any serious crime or acts of violence, should give grounds for a +final release. Moreover, the modern Utopian State intervenes between +the sexes only because of the coming generation, and for it to +sustain restrictions upon conduct in a continually fruitless +marriage is obviously to lapse into purely moral intervention. It +seems reasonable, therefore, to set a term to a marriage that +remains childless, to let it expire at the end of three or four or +five unfruitful years, but with no restriction upon the right of +the husband and wife to marry each other again. + +These are the fairly easy primaries of this question. We now come to +the more difficult issues of the matter. The first of these is the +question of the economic relationships of husband and wife, having +regard to the fact that even in Utopia women, at least until they +become mothers, are likely to be on the average poorer than men. The +second is the question of the duration of a marriage. But the two +interlock, and are, perhaps, best treated together in one common +section. And they both ramify in the most complicated manner into +the consideration of the general morale of the community. + + +Section 5 + +This question of marriage is the most complicated and difficult in +the whole range of Utopian problems. But it is happily not the most +urgent necessity that it should be absolutely solved. The urgent and +necessary problem is the ruler. With rulers rightly contrived and a +provisional defective marriage law a Utopia may be conceived as +existing and studying to perfect itself, but without rulers a Utopia +is impossible though the theory of its matrimony be complete. And +the difficulty in this question is not simply the difficulty of a +complicated chess problem, for example, in which the whole tangle +of considerations does at least lie in one plane, but a series of +problems upon different levels and containing incommensurable +factors. + +It is very easy to repeat our initial propositions, to recall that +we are on another planet, and that all the customs and traditions of +the earth are set aside, but the faintest realisation of that +demands a feat of psychological insight. We have all grown up into +an invincible mould of suggestion about sexual things; we regard +this with approval, that with horror, and this again with contempt, +very largely because the thing has always been put to us in this +light or that. The more emancipated we think ourselves the more +subtle are our bonds. The disentanglement of what is inherent in +these feelings from what is acquired is an extraordinary complex +undertaking. Probably all men and women have a more or less powerful +disposition to jealousy, but what exactly they will be jealous about +and what exactly they will suffer seems part of the superposed +factor. Probably all men and women are capable of ideal emotions and +wishes beyond merely physical desires, but the shape these take are +almost entirely a reaction to external images. And you really cannot +strip the external off; you cannot get your stark natural man, +jealous, but not jealous about anything in particular, imaginative +without any imaginings, proud at large. Emotional dispositions can +no more exist without form than a man without air. Only a very +observant man who had lived all over the planet Earth, in all sorts +of social strata, and with every race and tongue, and who was +endowed with great imaginative insight, could hope to understand the +possibilities and the limitations of human plasticity in this +matter, and say what any men and any women could be induced to do +willingly, and just exactly what no man and no woman could stand, +provided one had the training of them. Though very young men will +tell you readily enough. The proceedings of other races and other +ages do not seem to carry conviction; what our ancestors did, or +what the Greeks or Egyptians did, though it is the direct physical +cause of the modern young man or the modern young lady, is apt to +impress these remarkable consequences merely as an arrangement of +quaint, comical or repulsive proceedings. + +But there emerges to the modern inquirer certain ideals and +desiderata that at least go some way towards completing and +expanding the crude primaries of a Utopian marriage law set out +in section 4. + +The sound birth being assured, does there exist any valid reason for +the persistence of the Utopian marriage union? + +There are two lines of reasoning that go to establish a longer +duration for marriage. The first of these rests upon the general +necessity for a home and for individual attention in the case of +children. Children are the results of a choice between individuals; +they grow well, as a rule, only in relation to sympathetic and +kindred individualities, and no wholesale character-ignoring method +of dealing with them has ever had a shadow of the success of the +individualised home. Neither Plato nor Socrates, who repudiated the +home, seems ever to have had to do with anything younger than a +young man. Procreation is only the beginning of parentage, and even +where the mother is not the direct nurse and teacher of her child, +even where she delegates these duties, her supervision is, in the +common case, essential to its welfare. Moreover, though the Utopian +State will pay the mother, and the mother only, for the being and +welfare of her legitimate children, there will be a clear advantage +in fostering the natural disposition of the father to associate his +child's welfare with his individual egotism, and to dispense some of +his energies and earnings in supplementing the common provision of +the State. It is an absurd disregard of a natural economy to leave +the innate philoprogenitiveness of either sex uncultivated. Unless +the parents continue in close relationship, if each is passing +through a series of marriages, the dangers of a conflict of rights, +and of the frittering away of emotions, become very grave. The +family will lose homogeneity, and its individuals will have for the +mother varied and perhaps incompatible emotional associations. The +balance of social advantage is certainly on the side of much more +permanent unions, on the side of an arrangement that, subject to +ample provisions for a formal divorce without disgrace in cases of +incompatibility, would bind, or at least enforce ideals that would +tend to bind, a man and woman together for the whole term of her +maternal activity, until, that is, the last born of her children was +no longer in need of her help. + +The second system of considerations arises out of the artificiality +of woman's position. It is a less conclusive series than the first, +and it opens a number of interesting side vistas. + +A great deal of nonsense is talked about the natural equality or +inferiority of women to men. But it is only the same quality that +can be measured by degrees and ranged in ascending and descending +series, and the things that are essentially feminine are different +qualitatively from and incommensurable with the distinctly masculine +things. The relationship is in the region of ideals and conventions, +and a State is perfectly free to determine that men and women shall +come to intercourse on a footing of conventional equality or with +either the man or woman treated as the predominating individual. +Aristotle's criticism of Plato in this matter, his insistence upon +the natural inferiority of slaves and women, is just the sort of +confusion between inherent and imposed qualities that was his most +characteristic weakness. The spirit of the European people, of +almost all the peoples now in the ascendant, is towards a convention +of equality; the spirit of the Mahometan world is towards the +intensification of a convention that the man alone is a citizen and +that the woman is very largely his property. There can be no doubt +that the latter of these two convenient fictions is the more +primitive way of regarding this relationship. It is quite unfruitful +to argue between these ideals as if there were a demonstrable +conclusion, the adoption of either is an arbitrary act, and we shall +simply follow our age and time if we display a certain bias for the +former. + +If one looks closely into the various practical expansions of these +ideas, we find their inherent falsity works itself out in a very +natural way so soon as reality is touched. Those who insist upon +equality work in effect for assimilation, for a similar treatment of +the sexes. Plato's women of the governing class, for example, were +to strip for gymnastics like men, to bear arms and go to war, and +follow most of the masculine occupations of their class. They were +to have the same education and to be assimilated to men at every +doubtful point. The Aristotelian attitude, on the other hand, +insists upon specialisation. The men are to rule and fight and toil; +the women are to support motherhood in a state of natural +inferiority. The trend of evolutionary forces through long centuries +of human development has been on the whole in this second direction, +has been towards differentiation. [Footnote: See Havelock Ellis's +Man and Woman.] An adult white woman differs far more from a white +man than a negress or pigmy woman from her equivalent male. The +education, the mental disposition, of a white or Asiatic woman, +reeks of sex; her modesty, her decorum is not to ignore sex but to +refine and put a point to it; her costume is clamorous with the +distinctive elements of her form. The white woman in the materially +prosperous nations is more of a sexual specialist than her sister of +the poor and austere peoples, of the prosperous classes more so than +the peasant woman. The contemporary woman of fashion who sets the +tone of occidental intercourse is a stimulant rather than a +companion for a man. Too commonly she is an unwholesome stimulant +turning a man from wisdom to appearance, from beauty to beautiful +pleasures, from form to colour, from persistent aims to belief and +stirring triumphs. Arrayed in what she calls distinctly "dress," +scented, adorned, displayed, she achieves by artifice a sexual +differentiation profounder than that of any other vertebrated +animal. She outshines the peacock's excess above his mate, one must +probe among the domestic secrets of the insects and crustacea to +find her living parallel. And it is a question by no means easy and +yet of the utmost importance, to determine how far the wide and +widening differences between the human sexes is inherent and +inevitable, and how far it is an accident of social development that +may be converted and reduced under a different social regimen. Are +we going to recognise and accentuate this difference and to arrange +our Utopian organisation to play upon it, are we to have two primary +classes of human being, harmonising indeed and reacting, but +following essentially different lives, or are we going to minimise +this difference in every possible way? + +The former alternative leads either to a romantic organisation of +society in which men will live and fight and die for wonderful, +beautiful, exaggerated creatures, or it leads to the hareem. It +would probably lead through one phase to the other. Women would be +enigmas and mysteries and maternal dignitaries that one would +approach in a state of emotional excitement and seclude piously when +serious work was in hand. A girl would blossom from the totally +negligible to the mystically desirable at adolescence, and boys +would be removed from their mother's educational influence at as +early an age as possible. Whenever men and women met together, the +men would be in a state of inflamed competition towards one another, +and the women likewise, and the intercourse of ideas would be in +suspense. Under the latter alternative the sexual relation would be +subordinated to friendship and companionship; boys and girls would +be co-educated--very largely under maternal direction, and women, +disarmed of their distinctive barbaric adornments, the feathers, +beads, lace, and trimmings that enhance their clamorous claim to a +directly personal attention would mingle, according to their +quality, in the counsels and intellectual development of men. Such +women would be fit to educate boys even up to adolescence. It is +obvious that a marriage law embodying a decision between these two +sets of ideas would be very different according to the alternative +adopted. In the former case a man would be expected to earn and +maintain in an adequate manner the dear delight that had favoured +him. He would tell her beautiful lies about her wonderful moral +effect upon him, and keep her sedulously from all responsibility and +knowledge. And, since there is an undeniably greater imaginative +appeal to men in the first bloom of a woman's youth, she would have +a distinct claim upon his energies for the rest of her life. In the +latter case a man would no more pay for and support his wife than +she would do so for him. They would be two friends, differing in +kind no doubt but differing reciprocally, who had linked themselves +in a matrimonial relationship. Our Utopian marriage so far as we +have discussed it, is indeterminate between these alternatives. + +We have laid it down as a general principle that the private morals +of an adult citizen are no concern for the State. But that involves +a decision to disregard certain types of bargain. A sanely contrived +State will refuse to sustain bargains wherein there is no plausibly +fair exchange, and if private morality is really to be outside the +scope of the State then the affections and endearments most +certainly must not be regarded as negotiable commodities. The State, +therefore, will absolutely ignore the distribution of these favours +unless children, or at least the possibility of children, is +involved. It follows that it will refuse to recognise any debts or +transfers of property that are based on such considerations. It will +be only consistent, therefore, to refuse recognition in the marriage +contract to any financial obligation between husband and wife, or +any settlements qualifying that contract, except when they are in +the nature of accessory provision for the prospective children. +[Footnote: Unqualified gifts for love by solvent people will, of +course, be quite possible and permissible, unsalaried services and +the like, provided the standard of life is maintained and the joint +income of the couple between whom the services hold does not sink +below twice the minimum wage.] So far the Utopian State will throw +its weight upon the side of those who advocate the independence of +women and their conventional equality with men. + +But to any further definition of the marriage relation the World +State of Utopia will not commit itself. The wide range of +relationships that are left possible, within and without the +marriage code, are entirely a matter for the individual choice and +imagination. Whether a man treat his wife in private as a goddess to +be propitiated, as a "mystery" to be adored, as an agreeable +auxiliary, as a particularly intimate friend, or as the wholesome +mother of his children, is entirely a matter for their private +intercourse: whether he keep her in Oriental idleness or active +co-operation, or leave her to live her independent life, rests with +the couple alone, and all the possible friendship and intimacies +outside marriage also lie quite beyond the organisation of the +modern State. Religious teaching and literature may affect these; +customs may arise; certain types of relationship may involve social +isolation; the justice of the statesman is blind to such things. It +may be urged that according to Atkinson's illuminating analysis +[Footnote: See Lang and Atkinson's Social Origins and Primal Law.] +the control of love-making was the very origin of the human +community. In Utopia, nevertheless, love-making is no concern of the +State's beyond the province that the protection of children covers. +[Footnote: It cannot be made too clear that though the control of +morality is outside the law the State must maintain a general +decorum, a systematic suppression of powerful and moving examples, +and of incitations and temptations of the young and inexperienced, +and to that extent it will, of course, in a sense, exercise a +control over morals. But this will be only part of a wider law to +safeguard the tender mind. For example, lying advertisements, and +the like, when they lean towards adolescent interests, will +encounter a specially disagreeable disposition in the law, over and +above the treatment of their general dishonesty.] Change of function +is one of the ruling facts in life, the sac that was in our remotest +ancestors a swimming bladder is now a lung, and the State which was +once, perhaps, no more than the jealous and tyrannous will of the +strongest male in the herd, the instrument of justice and equality. +The State intervenes now only where there is want of harmony between +individuals--individuals who exist or who may presently come into +existence. + + +Section 6 + +It must be reiterated that our reasoning still leaves Utopian +marriage an institution with wide possibilities of variation. We +have tried to give effect to the ideal of a virtual equality, an +equality of spirit between men and women, and in doing so we have +overridden the accepted opinion of the great majority of mankind. +Probably the first writer to do as much was Plato. His argument in +support of this innovation upon natural human feeling was thin +enough--a mere analogy to illustrate the spirit of his propositions; +it was his creative instinct that determined him. In the atmosphere +of such speculations as this, Plato looms very large indeed, and in +view of what we owe to him, it seems reasonable that we should +hesitate before dismissing as a thing prohibited and evil, a type of +marriage that he made almost the central feature in the organisation +of the ruling class, at least, of his ideal State. He was persuaded +that the narrow monogamic family is apt to become illiberal and +anti-social, to withdraw the imagination and energies of the citizen +from the services of the community as a whole, and the Roman +Catholic Church has so far endorsed and substantiated his opinion as +to forbid family relations to its priests and significant servants. +He conceived of a poetic devotion to the public idea, a devotion of +which the mind of Aristotle, as his criticisms of Plato show, was +incapable, as a substitute for the warm and tender but illiberal +emotions of the home. But while the Church made the alternative to +family ties celibacy [Footnote: The warm imagination of Campanella, +that quaint Calabrian monastic, fired by Plato, reversed this aspect +of the Church.] and participation in an organisation, Plato was far +more in accordance with modern ideas in perceiving the disadvantage +that would result from precluding the nobler types of character from +offspring. He sought a way to achieve progeny, therefore, without +the narrow concentration of the sympathies about the home, and he +found it in a multiple marriage in which every member of the +governing class was considered to be married to all the others. But +the detailed operation of this system he put tentatively and very +obscurely. His suggestions have the experimental inconsistency of an +enquiring man. He left many things altogether open, and it is unfair +to him to adopt Aristotle's forensic method and deal with his +discussion as though it was a fully-worked-out project. It is clear +that Plato intended every member of his governing class to be so +"changed at birth" as to leave paternity untraceable; mothers were +not to know their children, nor children their parents, but there is +nothing to forbid the supposition that he intended these people to +select and adhere to congenial mates within the great family. +Aristotle's assertion that the Platonic republic left no scope for +the virtue of continence shows that he had jumped to just the same +conclusions a contemporary London errand boy, hovering a little +shamefacedly over Jowett in a public library, might be expected to +reach. + +Aristotle obscures Plato's intention, it may be accidentally, by +speaking of his marriage institution as a community of wives. When +reading Plato he could not or would not escape reading in his own +conception of the natural ascendency of men, his idea of property in +women and children. But as Plato intended women to be conventionally +equal to men, this phrase belies him altogether; community of +husbands and wives would be truer to his proposal. Aristotle +condemns Plato as roundly as any commercial room would condemn him +to-day, and in much the same spirit; he asserts rather than proves +that such a grouping is against the nature of man. He wanted to have +women property just as he wanted to have slaves property, he did not +care to ask why, and it distressed his conception of convenience +extremely to imagine any other arrangement. It is no doubt true that +the natural instinct of either sex is exclusive of participators in +intimacy during a period of intimacy, but it was probably Aristotle +who gave Plato an offensive interpretation in this matter. No one +would freely submit to such a condition of affairs as multiple +marriage carried out, in the spirit of the Aristotelian +interpretation, to an obscene completeness, but that is all the more +reason why the modern Utopia should not refuse a grouped marriage to +three or more freely consenting persons. There is no sense in +prohibiting institutions which no sane people could ever want to +abuse. It is claimed--though the full facts are difficult to +ascertain--that a group marriage of over two hundred persons was +successfully organised by John Humphrey Noyes at Oneida Creek. +[Footnote: See John H. Noyes's History of American Socialisms and +his writings generally. The bare facts of this and the other +American experiments are given, together with more recent matter, by +Morris Hillquirt, in The History of Socialism in the United States.] +It is fairly certain in the latter case that there was no +"promiscuity," and that the members mated for variable periods, and +often for life, within the group. The documents are reasonably clear +upon that point. This Oneida community was, in fact, a league of two +hundred persons to regard their children as "common." Choice and +preference were not abolished in the community, though in some cases +they were set aside--just as they are by many parents under our +present conditions. There seems to have been a premature attempt at +"stirpiculture," at what Mr. Francis Galton now calls "Eugenics," in +the mating of the members, and there was also a limitation of +offspring. Beyond these points the inner secrets of the community do +not appear to be very profound; its atmosphere was almost +commonplace, it was made up of very ordinary people. There is no +doubt that it had a career of exceptional success throughout the +whole lifetime of its founder, and it broke down with the advent of +a new generation, with the onset of theological differences, and the +loss of its guiding intelligence. The Anglo-Saxon spirit, it has +been said by one of the ablest children of the experiment, is too +individualistic for communism. It is possible to regard the +temporary success of this complex family as a strange accident, as +the wonderful exploit of what was certainly a very exceptional man. +Its final disintegration into frankly monogamic couples--it is still +a prosperous business association--may be taken as an experimental +verification of Aristotle's common-sense psychology, and was +probably merely the public acknowledgment of conditions already +practically established. + +Out of respect for Plato we cannot ignore this possibility of +multiple marriage altogether in our Utopian theorising, but even if +we leave this possibility open we are still bound to regard it as a +thing so likely to be rare as not to come at all under our direct +observation during our Utopian journeyings. But in one sense, of +course, in the sense that the State guarantees care and support for +all properly born children, our entire Utopia is to be regarded as a +comprehensive marriage group. [Footnote: The Thelema of Rabelais, +with its principle of "Fay ce que vouldras" within the limits of the +order, is probably intended to suggest a Platonic complex marriage +after the fashion of our interpretation.] + +It must be remembered that a modern Utopia must differ from the +Utopias of any preceding age in being world-wide; it is not, +therefore, to be the development of any special race or type of +culture, as Plato's developed an Athenian-Spartan blend, or More, +Tudor England. The modern Utopia is to be, before all things, +synthetic. Politically and socially, as linguistically, we must +suppose it a synthesis; politically it will be a synthesis of once +widely different forms of government; socially and morally, a +synthesis of a great variety of domestic traditions and ethical +habits. Into the modern Utopia there must have entered the mental +tendencies and origins that give our own world the polygamy of the +Zulus and of Utah, the polyandry of Tibet, the latitudes of +experiment permitted in the United States, and the divorceless +wedlock of Comte. The tendency of all synthetic processes in matters +of law and custom is to reduce and simplify the compulsory canon, to +admit alternatives and freedoms; what were laws before become +traditions of feeling and style, and in no matter will this be more +apparent than in questions affecting the relations of the sexes. + + + +CHAPTER THE SEVENTH + +A Few Utopian Impressions + + +Section 1 + +But now we are in a better position to describe the houses and ways +of the Utopian townships about the Lake of Lucerne, and to glance a +little more nearly at the people who pass. You figure us as +curiously settled down in Utopia, as working for a low wage at +wood-carving, until the authorities at the central registry in Paris +can solve the perplexing problem we have set them. We stay in an inn +looking out upon the lake, and go to and fro for our five hours' +work a day, with a curious effect of having been born Utopians. The +rest of our time is our own. + +Our inn is one of those inns and lodging houses which have a minimum +tariff, inns which are partly regulated, and, in the default +of private enterprise, maintained and controlled by the World +State throughout the entire world. It is one of several such +establishments in Lucerne. It possesses many hundreds of practically +self-cleaning little bedrooms, equipped very much after the fashion +of the rooms we occupied in the similar but much smaller inn at +Hospenthal, differing only a little in the decoration. There is +the same dressing-room recess with its bath, the same graceful +proportion in the succinct simplicity of its furniture. This +particular inn is a quadrangle after the fashion of an Oxford +college; it is perhaps forty feet high, and with about five stories +of bedrooms above its lower apartments; the windows of the rooms +look either outward or inward to the quadrangle, and the doors give +upon artificially-lit passages with staircases passing up and down. +These passages are carpeted with a sort of cork carpet, but are +otherwise bare. The lower story is occupied by the equivalent of a +London club, kitchens and other offices, dining-room, writing-room, +smoking and assembly rooms, a barber's shop, and a library. A +colonnade with seats runs about the quadrangle, and in the middle +is a grass-plot. In the centre of this a bronze figure, a sleeping +child, reposes above a little basin and fountain, in which water +lilies are growing. The place has been designed by an architect +happily free from the hampering traditions of Greek temple building, +and of Roman and Italian palaces; it is simple, unaffected, +gracious. The material is some artificial stone with the dull +surface and something of the tint of yellow ivory; the colour is a +little irregular, and a partial confession of girders and pillars +breaks this front of tender colour with lines and mouldings of +greenish gray, that blend with the tones of the leaden gutters and +rain pipes from the light red roof. At one point only does any +explicit effort towards artistic effect appear, and that is in the +great arched gateway opposite my window. Two or three abundant +yellow roses climb over the face of the building, and when I look +out of my window in the early morning--for the usual Utopian working +day commences within an hour of sunrise--I see Pilatus above this +outlook, rosy in the morning sky. + +This quadrangle type of building is the prevalent element in Utopian +Lucerne, and one may go from end to end of the town along corridors +and covered colonnades without emerging by a gateway into the open +roads at all. Small shops are found in these colonnades, but the +larger stores are usually housed in buildings specially adapted to +their needs. The majority of the residential edifices are far finer +and more substantial than our own modest shelter, though we gather +from such chance glimpses as we get of their arrangements that the +labour-saving ideal runs through every grade of this servantless +world; and what we should consider a complete house in earthly +England is hardly known here. + +The autonomy of the household has been reduced far below terrestrial +conditions by hotels and clubs, and all sorts of co-operative +expedients. People who do not live in hotels seem usually to live in +clubs. The fairly prosperous Utopian belongs, in most cases, to one +or two residential clubs of congenial men and women. These clubs +usually possess in addition to furnished bedrooms more or less +elaborate suites of apartments, and if a man prefers it one of these +latter can be taken and furnished according to his personal taste. A +pleasant boudoir, a private library and study, a private garden +plot, are among the commonest of such luxuries. Devices to secure +roof gardens, loggias, verandahs, and such-like open-air privacies +to the more sumptuous of these apartments, give interest and variety +to Utopian architecture. There are sometimes little cooking corners +in these flats--as one would call them on earth--but the ordinary +Utopian would no more think of a special private kitchen for his +dinners than he would think of a private flour mill or dairy farm. +Business, private work, and professional practice go on sometimes in +the house apartments, but often in special offices in the great +warren of the business quarter. A common garden, an infant school, +play rooms, and a playing garden for children, are universal +features of the club quadrangles. + +Two or three main roads with their tramways, their cyclists' paths, +and swift traffic paths, will converge on the urban centre, where +the public offices will stand in a group close to the two or three +theatres and the larger shops, and hither, too, in the case of +Lucerne, the head of the swift railway to Paris and England and +Scotland, and to the Rhineland and Germany will run. And as one +walks out from the town centre one will come to that mingling of +homesteads and open country which will be the common condition of +all the more habitable parts of the globe. + +Here and there, no doubt, will stand quite solitary homesteads, +homesteads that will nevertheless be lit and warmed by cables from +the central force station, that will share the common water supply, +will have their perfected telephonic connection with the rest of +the world, with doctor, shop, and so forth, and may even have +a pneumatic tube for books and small parcels to the nearest +post-office. But the solitary homestead, as a permanent residence, +will be something of a luxury--the resort of rather wealthy garden +lovers; and most people with a bias for retirement will probably get +as much residential solitude as they care for in the hire of a +holiday chalet in a forest, by remote lagoons or high up the +mountain side. + +The solitary house may indeed prove to be very rare indeed in +Utopia. The same forces, the same facilitation of communications +that will diffuse the towns will tend to little concentrations of +the agricultural population over the country side. The field workers +will probably take their food with them to their work during the +day, and for the convenience of an interesting dinner and of +civilised intercourse after the working day is over, they will most +probably live in a college quadrangle with a common room and club. I +doubt if there will be any agricultural labourers drawing wages in +Utopia. I am inclined to imagine farming done by tenant +associations, by little democratic unlimited liability companies +working under elected managers, and paying not a fixed rent but a +share of the produce to the State. Such companies could reconstruct +annually to weed out indolent members. [Footnote: Schemes for the +co-operative association of producers will be found in Dr. Hertzka's +Freeland.] A minimum standard of efficiency in farming would be +insured by fixing a minimum beneath which the rent must not fall, +and perhaps by inspection. The general laws respecting the standard +of life would, of course, apply to such associations. This type of +co-operation presents itself to me as socially the best arrangement +for productive agriculture and horticulture, but such enterprises +as stock breeding, seed farming and the stocking and loan of +agricultural implements are probably, and agricultural research and +experiment certainly, best handled directly by large companies or +the municipality or the State. + +But I should do little to investigate this question; these are +presented as quite incidental impressions. You must suppose that for +the most part our walks and observations keep us within the more +urban quarters of Lucerne. From a number of beautifully printed +placards at the street corners, adorned with caricatures of +considerable pungency, we discover an odd little election is in +progress. This is the selection, upon strictly democratic lines, +with a suffrage that includes every permanent resident in the +Lucerne ward over the age of fifteen, of the ugliest local building. +The old little urban and local governing bodies, we find, have long +since been superseded by great provincial municipalities for all the +more serious administrative purposes, but they still survive to +discharge a number of curious minor functions, and not the least +among these is this sort of aesthetic ostracism. Every year every +minor local governing body pulls down a building selected by local +plebiscite, and the greater Government pays a slight compensation to +the owner, and resumes possession of the land it occupies. The idea +would strike us at first as simply whimsical, but in practice it +appears to work as a cheap and practical device for the aesthetic +education of builders, engineers, business men, opulent persons, and +the general body of the public. But when we come to consider its +application to our own world we should perceive it was the most +Utopian thing we had so far encountered. + + +Section 2 + +The factory that employs us is something very different from the +ordinary earthly model. Our business is to finish making little +wooden toys--bears, cattle men, and the like--for children. The +things are made in the rough by machinery, and then finished by +hand, because the work of unskilful but interested men--and it +really is an extremely amusing employment--is found to give a +personality and interest to these objects no machine can ever +attain. + +We carvers--who are the riffraff of Utopia--work in a long shed +together, nominally by time; we must keep at the job for the length +of the spell, but we are expected to finish a certain number of toys +for each spell of work. The rules of the game as between employer +and employed in this particular industry hang on the wall behind us; +they are drawn up by a conference of the Common Council of Wages +Workers with the employers, a common council which has resulted in +Utopia from a synthesis of the old Trades Unions, and which has +become a constitutional power; but any man who has skill or humour +is presently making his own bargain with our employer more or less +above that datum line. + +Our employer is a quiet blue-eyed man with a humorous smile. He +dresses wholly in an indigo blue, that later we come to consider a +sort of voluntary uniform for Utopian artists. As he walks about +the workshop, stopping to laugh at this production or praise that, +one is reminded inevitably of an art school. Every now and then +he carves a little himself or makes a sketch or departs to the +machinery to order some change in the rough shapes it is turning +out. Our work is by no means confined to animals. After a time I am +told to specialise in a comical little Roman-nosed pony; but several +of the better paid carvers work up caricature images of eminent +Utopians. Over these our employer is most disposed to meditate, and +from them he darts off most frequently to improve the type. + +It is high summer, and our shed lies open at either end. On one hand +is a steep mountain side down which there comes, now bridging a +chasm, now a mere straight groove across a meadow, now hidden among +green branches, the water-slide that brings our trees from the +purple forest overhead. Above us, but nearly hidden, hums the +machine shed, but we see a corner of the tank into which, with a +mighty splash, the pine trees are delivered. Every now and then, +bringing with him a gust of resinous smell, a white-clad machinist +will come in with a basketful of crude, unwrought little images, and +will turn them out upon the table from which we carvers select +them. + +(Whenever I think of Utopia that faint and fluctuating smell of +resin returns to me, and whenever I smell resin, comes the memory of +the open end of the shed looking out upon the lake, the blue-green +lake, the boats mirrored in the water, and far and high beyond +floats the atmospheric fairyland of the mountains of Glarus, twenty +miles away.) + +The cessation of the second and last spell of work comes about +midday, and then we walk home, through this beautiful intricacy of a +town to our cheap hotel beside the lake. + +We should go our way with a curious contentment, for all that we +were earning scarcely more than the minimum wage. We should have, of +course, our uneasiness about the final decisions of that universal +eye which has turned upon us, we should have those ridiculous sham +numbers on our consciences; but that general restlessness, that +brooding stress that pursues the weekly worker on earth, that aching +anxiety that drives him so often to stupid betting, stupid drinking, +and violent and mean offences will have vanished out of mortal +experience. + + +Section 3 + +I should find myself contrasting my position with my preconceptions +about a Utopian visit. I had always imagined myself as standing +outside the general machinery of the State--in the distinguished +visitors' gallery, as it were--and getting the new world in a series +of comprehensive perspective views. But this Utopia, for all the +sweeping floats of generalisation I do my best to maintain, is +swallowing me up. I find myself going between my work and the room +in which I sleep and the place in which I dine, very much as I went +to and fro in that real world into which I fell five-and-forty years +ago. I find about me mountains and horizons that limit my view, +institutions that vanish also without an explanation, beyond the +limit of sight, and a great complexity of things I do not understand +and about which, to tell the truth, I do not formulate acute +curiosities. People, very unrepresentative people, people just as +casual as people in the real world, come into personal relations +with us, and little threads of private and immediate interest spin +themselves rapidly into a thickening grey veil across the general +view. I lose the comprehensive interrogation of my first arrival; I +find myself interested in the grain of the wood I work, in birds +among the tree branches, in little irrelevant things, and it is only +now and then that I get fairly back to the mood that takes all +Utopia for its picture. + +We spend our first surplus of Utopian money in the reorganisation +of our wardrobes upon more Utopian lines; we develop acquaintance +with several of our fellow workers, and of those who share our +table at the inn. We pass insensibly into acquaintanceships and the +beginnings of friendships. The World Utopia, I say, seems for a time +to be swallowing me up. At the thought of detail it looms too big +for me. The question of government, of its sustaining ideas, of +race, and the wider future, hang like the arch of the sky over these +daily incidents, very great indeed, but very remote. These people +about me are everyday people, people not so very far from the +minimum wage, accustomed much as the everyday people of earth are +accustomed to take their world as they find it. Such enquiries as +I attempt are pretty obviously a bore to them, pass outside their +range as completely as Utopian speculation on earth outranges a +stevedore or a member of Parliament or a working plumber. Even the +little things of daily life interest them in a different way. So +I get on with my facts and reasoning rather slowly. I find myself +looking among the pleasant multitudes of the streets for types that +promise congenial conversation. + +My sense of loneliness is increased during this interlude by the +better social success of the botanist. I find him presently falling +into conversation with two women who are accustomed to sit at a +table near our own. They wear the loose, coloured robes of soft +material that are the usual wear of common adult Utopian women; they +are both dark and sallow, and they affect amber and crimson in their +garments. Their faces strike me as a little unintelligent, and there +is a faint touch of middle-aged coquetry in their bearing that I do +not like. Yet on earth we should consider them women of exceptional +refinement. But the botanist evidently sees in this direction scope +for the feelings that have wilted a little under my inattention, and +he begins that petty intercourse of a word, of a slight civility, of +vague enquiries and comparisons that leads at last to associations +and confidences. Such superficial confidences, that is to say, as he +finds satisfactory. + +This throws me back upon my private observations. + +The general effect of a Utopian population is vigour. Everyone one +meets seems to be not only in good health but in training; one +rarely meets fat people, bald people, or bent or grey. People who +would be obese or bent and obviously aged on earth are here in +good repair, and as a consequence the whole effect of a crowd +is livelier and more invigorating than on earth. The dress is +varied and graceful; that of the women reminds one most of the +Italian fifteenth century; they have an abundance of soft and +beautifully-coloured stuffs, and the clothes, even of the poorest, +fit admirably. Their hair is very simply but very carefully and +beautifully dressed, and except in very sunny weather they do not +wear hats or bonnets. There is little difference in deportment +between one class and another; they all are graceful and bear +themselves with quiet dignity, and among a group of them a European +woman of fashion in her lace and feathers, her hat and metal +ornaments, her mixed accumulations of "trimmings," would look like a +barbarian tricked out with the miscellaneous plunder of a museum. +Boys and girls wear much the same sort of costume--brown leather +shoes, then a sort of combination of hose and close-fitting trousers +that reaches from toe to waist, and over this a beltless jacket +fitting very well, or a belted tunic. Many slender women wear the +same sort of costume. We should see them in it very often in such +a place as Lucerne, as they returned from expeditions in the +mountains. The older men would wear long robes very frequently, but +the greater proportion of the men would go in variations of much the +same costume as the children. There would certainly be hooded cloaks +and umbrellas for rainy weather, high boots for mud and snow, and +cloaks and coats and furry robes for the winter. There would be no +doubt a freer use of colour than terrestrial Europe sees in these +days, but the costume of the women at least would be soberer and +more practical, and (in harmony with our discussion in the previous +chapter) less differentiated from the men's. + +But these, of course, are generalisations. These are the mere +translation of the social facts we have hypotheticated into the +language of costume. There will be a great variety of costume and +no compulsions. The doubles of people who are naturally foppish on +earth will be foppish in Utopia, and people who have no natural +taste on earth will have inartistic equivalents. Everyone will not +be quiet in tone, or harmonious, or beautiful. Occasionally, as I go +through the streets to my work, I shall turn round to glance again +at some robe shot with gold embroidery, some slashing of the +sleeves, some eccentricity of cut, or some discord or untidiness. +But these will be but transient flashes in a general flow of +harmonious graciousness; dress will have scarcely any of that effect +of disorderly conflict, of self-assertion qualified by the fear of +ridicule, that it has in the crudely competitive civilisations of +earth. + +I shall have the seeker's attitude of mind during those few days at +Lucerne. I shall become a student of faces. I shall be, as it were, +looking for someone. I shall see heavy faces, dull faces, faces with +an uncongenial animation, alien faces, and among these some with an +immediate quality of appeal. I should see desirable men approaching +me, and I should think; "Now, if I were to speak to _you_?" Many of +these latter I should note wore the same clothing as the man who +spoke to us at Wassen; I should begin to think of it as a sort of +uniform.... + +Then I should see grave-faced girls, girls of that budding age when +their bearing becomes delusively wise, and the old deception of +my youth will recur to me; "Could you and I but talk together?" +I should think. Women will pass me lightly, women with open and +inviting faces, but they will not attract me, and there will come +beautiful women, women with that touch of claustral preoccupation +which forbids the thought of any near approach. They are private and +secret, and I may not enter, I know, into their thoughts.... + +I go as often as I can to the seat by the end of old Kapelbrucke, +and watch the people passing over. + +I shall find a quality of dissatisfaction throughout all these days. +I shall come to see this period more and more distinctly as a pause, +as a waiting interlude, and the idea of an encounter with my double, +which came at first as if it were a witticism, as something verbal +and surprising, begins to take substance. The idea grows in my mind +that after all this is the "someone" I am seeking, this Utopian self +of mine. I had at first an idea of a grotesque encounter, as of +something happening in a looking glass, but presently it dawns on me +that my Utopian self must be a very different person from me. His +training will be different, his mental content different. But +between us there will be a strange link of essential identity, a +sympathy, an understanding. I find the thing rising suddenly to a +preponderance in my mind. I find the interest of details dwindling +to the vanishing point. That I have come to Utopia is the lesser +thing now; the greater is that I have come to meet myself. + +I spend hours trying to imagine the encounter, inventing little +dialogues. I go alone to the Bureau to find if any news has come to +hand from the Great Index in Paris, but I am told to wait another +twenty-four hours. I cease absolutely to be interested in anything +else, except so far as it leads towards intercourse with this being +who is to be at once so strangely alien and so totally mine. + + +Section 4 + +Wrapped up in these preoccupations as I am, it will certainly be the +botanist who will notice the comparative absence of animals about +us. + +He will put it in the form of a temperate objection to the Utopian +planet. + +He is a professed lover of dogs and there are none. We have seen no +horses and only one or two mules on the day of our arrival, and +there seems not a cat in the world. I bring my mind round to his +suggestion. "This follows," I say. + +It is only reluctantly that I allow myself to be drawn from my +secret musings into a discussion of Utopian pets. + +I try to explain that a phase in the world's development is +inevitable when a systematic world-wide attempt will be made to +destroy for ever a great number of contagious and infectious +diseases, and that this will involve, for a time at any rate, a +stringent suppression of the free movement of familiar animals. +Utopian houses, streets and drains will be planned and built to make +rats, mice, and such-like house parasites impossible; the race of +cats and dogs--providing, as it does, living fastnesses to which +such diseases as plague, influenza, catarrhs and the like, can +retreat to sally forth again--must pass for a time out of freedom, +and the filth made by horses and the other brutes of the highway +vanish from the face of the earth. These things make an old story to +me, and perhaps explicitness suffers through my brevity. + +My botanist fails altogether to grasp what the disappearance of +diseases means. His mind has no imaginative organ of that compass. +As I talk his mind rests on one fixed image. This presents what the +botanist would probably call a "dear old doggie"--which the botanist +would make believe did not possess any sensible odour--and it has +faithful brown eyes and understands everything you say. The botanist +would make believe it understood him mystically, and I figure his +long white hand--which seems to me, in my more jaundiced moments, to +exist entirely for picking things and holding a lens--patting its +head, while the brute looked things unspeakable.... + +The botanist shakes his head after my explanation and says quietly, +"I do not like your Utopia, if there are to be no dogs." + +Perhaps that makes me a little malicious. Indeed I do not hate dogs, +but I care ten thousand times more for a man than for all the brutes +on the earth, and I can see, what the botanist I think cannot, that +a life spent in the delightful atmosphere of many pet animals may +have too dear a price.... + +I find myself back again at the comparison of the botanist and +myself. There is a profound difference in our imaginations, and I +wonder whether it is the consequence of innate character or of +training and whether he is really the human type or I. I am not +altogether without imagination, but what imagination I have has the +most insistent disposition to square itself with every fact in the +universe. It hypothesises very boldly, but on the other hand it will +not gravely make believe. Now the botanist's imagination is always +busy with the most impossible make-believe. That is the way with all +children I know. But it seems to me one ought to pass out of it. It +isn't as though the world was an untidy nursery; it is a place of +splendours indescribable for all who will lift its veils. It may be +he is essentially different from me, but I am much more inclined to +think he is simply more childish. Always it is make-believe. He +believes that horses are beautiful creatures for example, dogs are +beautiful creatures, that some women are inexpressibly lovely, and +he makes believe that this is always so. Never a word of criticism +of horse or dog or woman! Never a word of criticism of his +impeccable friends! Then there is his botany. He makes believe that +all the vegetable kingdom is mystically perfect and exemplary, that +all flowers smell deliciously and are exquisitely beautiful, that +Drosera does not hurt flies very much, and that onions do not smell. +Most of the universe does not interest this nature lover at all. But +I know, and I am querulously incapable of understanding why everyone +else does not know, that a horse is beautiful in one way and quite +ugly in another, that everything has this shot-silk quality, and is +all the finer for that. When people talk of a horse as an ugly +animal I think of its beautiful moments, but when I hear a flow of +indiscriminate praise of its beauty I think of such an aspect as one +gets for example from a dog-cart, the fiddle-shaped back, and that +distressing blade of the neck, the narrow clumsy place between the +ears, and the ugly glimpse of cheek. There is, indeed, no beauty +whatever save that transitory thing that comes and comes again; all +beauty is really the beauty of expression, is really kinetic and +momentary. That is true even of those triumphs of static endeavour +achieved by Greece. The Greek temple, for example, is a barn with a +face that at a certain angle of vision and in a certain light has a +great calm beauty. + +But where are we drifting? All such things, I hold, are cases of +more and less, and of the right moment and the right aspect, even +the things I most esteem. There is no perfection, there is no +enduring treasure. This pet dog's beautiful affection, I say, or +this other sensuous or imaginative delight, is no doubt good, but it +can be put aside if it is incompatible with some other and wider +good. You cannot focus all good things together. + +All right action and all wise action is surely sound judgment and +courageous abandonment in the matter of such incompatibilities. If +I cannot imagine thoughts and feelings in a dog's brain that cannot +possibly be there, at least I can imagine things in the future of +men that might be there had we the will to demand them.... + +"I don't like this Utopia," the botanist repeats. "You don't +understand about dogs. To me they're human beings--and more! There +used to be such a jolly old dog at my aunt's at Frognal when I was +a boy----" + +But I do not heed his anecdote. Something--something of the nature +of conscience--has suddenly jerked back the memory of that beer I +drank at Hospenthal, and puts an accusing finger on the memory. + +I never have had a pet animal, I confess, though I have been fairly +popular with kittens. But with regard to a certain petting of +myself----? + +Perhaps I was premature about that beer. I have had no pet animals, +but I perceive if the Modern Utopia is going to demand the sacrifice +of the love of animals, which is, in its way, a very fine thing +indeed, so much the more readily may it demand the sacrifice of many +other indulgences, some of which are not even fine in the lowest +degree. + +It is curious this haunting insistence upon sacrifice and +discipline! + +It is slowly becoming my dominant thought that the sort of people +whose will this Utopia embodies must be people a little heedless of +small pleasures. You cannot focus all good things at the same time. +That is my chief discovery in these meditations at Lucerne. Much of +the rest of this Utopia I had in a sort of way anticipated, but not +this. I wonder if I shall see my Utopian self for long and be able +to talk to him freely.... + +We lie in the petal-strewn grass under some Judas trees beside the +lake shore, as I meander among these thoughts, and each of us, +disregardful of his companion, follows his own associations. + +"Very remarkable," I say, discovering that the botanist has come to +an end with his story of that Frognal dog. + +"You'd wonder how he knew," he says. + +"You would." + +I nibble a green blade. + +"Do you realise quite," I ask, "that within a week we shall face our +Utopian selves and measure something of what we might have +been?" + +The botanist's face clouds. He rolls over, sits up abruptly and puts +his lean hands about his knees. + +"I don't like to think about it," he says. "What is the good of +reckoning ... might have beens?" + + +Section 5 + +It is pleasant to think of one's puzzling the organised wisdom of +so superior a planet as this Utopia, this moral monster State my +Frankenstein of reasoning has made, and to that pitch we have come. +When we are next in the presence of our Lucerne official, he has the +bearing of a man who faces a mystification beyond his powers, an +incredible disarrangement of the order of Nature. Here, for the +first time in the records of Utopian science, are two cases--not +simply one but two, and these in each other's company!--of +duplicated thumb-marks. This, coupled with a cock-and-bull story +of an instantaneous transfer from some planet unknown to Utopian +astronomy. That he and all his world exists only upon a hypothesis +that would explain everyone of these difficulties absolutely, is +scarcely likely to occur to his obviously unphilosophic mind. + +The official eye is more eloquent than the official lips and asks +almost urgently, "What in this immeasurable universe have you +managed to do to your thumbs? And why?" But he is only a very +inferior sort of official indeed, a mere clerk of the post, and he +has all the guarded reserve of your thoroughly unoriginal man. "You +are not the two persons I ascertained you were," he says, with the +note of one resigned to communion with unreason; "because you"--he +indicates me--"are evidently at your residence in London." I smile. +"That gentleman"--he points a pen at the botanist in a manner that +is intended to dismiss my smile once for all--"will be in London +next week. He will be returning next Friday from a special mission +to investigate the fungoid parasites that have been attacking the +cinchona trees in Ceylon." + +The botanist blesses his heart. + +"Consequently"--the official sighs at the burthen of such nonsense, +"you will have to go and consult with--the people you ought to +be." + +I betray a faint amusement. + +"You will have to end by believing in our planet," I say. + +He waggles a negation with his head. He would intimate his position +is too responsible a one for jesting, and both of us in our several +ways enjoy the pleasure we poor humans have in meeting with +intellectual inferiority. "The Standing Committee of Identification," +he says, with an eye on a memorandum, "has remitted your case to the +Research Professor of Anthropology in the University of London, and +they want you to go there, if you will, and talk to him." + +"What else can we do?" says the botanist. + +"There's no positive compulsion," he remarks, "but your work here +will probably cease. Here----" he pushed the neat slips of paper +towards us--"are your tickets for London, and a small but sufficient +supply of money,"--he indicates two piles of coins and paper on +either hand of him--"for a day or so there." He proceeds in the +same dry manner to inform us we are invited to call at our earliest +convenience upon our doubles, and upon the Professor, who is to +investigate our case. + +"And then?" + +He pulls down the corners of his mouth in a wry deprecatory smile, +eyes us obliquely under a crumpled brow, shrugs his shoulders, and +shows us the palms of his hands. + +On earth, where there is nationality, this would have been a +Frenchman--the inferior sort of Frenchman--the sort whose only +happiness is in the routine security of Government employment. + + +Section 6 + +London will be the first Utopian city centre we shall see. + +We shall find ourselves there with not a little amazement. It will +be our first experience of the swift long distance travel of Utopia, +and I have an idea--I know not why--that we should make the journey +by night. Perhaps I think so because the ideal of long-distance +travel is surely a restful translation less suitable for the active +hours. + +We shall dine and gossip and drink coffee at the pretty little +tables under the lantern-lit trees, we shall visit the theatre, and +decide to sup in the train, and so come at last to the station. +There we shall find pleasant rooms with seats and books--luggage +all neatly elsewhere--and doors that we shall imagine give upon a +platform. Our cloaks and hats and such-like outdoor impedimenta will +be taken in the hall and neatly labelled for London, we shall +exchange our shoes for slippers there, and we shall sit down like +men in a club. An officious little bell will presently call our +attention to a label "London" on the doorway, and an excellent +phonograph will enforce that notice with infinite civility. The +doors will open, and we shall walk through into an equally +comfortable gallery. + +"Where is the train for London?" we shall ask a uniformed fellow +Utopian. + +"This is the train for London," he will say. + +There will be a shutting of doors, and the botanist and I, trying +not to feel too childish, will walk exploring through the capacious +train. + +The resemblance to a club will strike us both. "A _good_ club," the +botanist will correct me. + +When one travels beyond a certain speed, there is nothing but +fatigue in looking out of a window, and this corridor train, twice +the width of its poor terrestrial brother, will have no need of that +distraction. The simple device of abandoning any but a few windows, +and those set high, gives the wall space of the long corridors to +books; the middle part of the train is indeed a comfortable library +with abundant armchairs and couches, each with its green-shaded +light, and soft carpets upon the soundproof floor. Further on will +be a news-room, with a noiseless but busy tape at one corner, +printing off messages from the wires by the wayside, and further +still, rooms for gossip and smoking, a billiard room, and the dining +car. Behind we shall come to bedrooms, bathrooms, the hairdresser, +and so forth. + +"When shall we start?" I ask presently, as we return, rather like +bashful yokels, to the library, and the old gentleman reading the +Arabian Nights in the armchair in the corner glances up at me with a +sudden curiosity. + +The botanist touches my arm and nods towards a pretty little +lead-paned window, through which we see a village sleeping under +cloudy moonlight go flashing by. Then a skylit lake, and then a +string of swaying lights, gone with the leap of a camera +shutter. + +Two hundred miles an hour! + +We resort to a dignified Chinese steward and secure our berths. It +is perhaps terrestrial of us that we do not think of reading the +Utopian literature that lines the middle part of the train. I +find a bed of the simple Utopian pattern, and lie for a time +thinking--quite tranquilly--of this marvellous adventure. + +I wonder why it is that to lie securely in bed, with the light out, +seems ever the same place, wherever in space one may chance to be? +And asleep, there is no space for us at all. I become drowsy and +incoherent and metaphysical.... + +The faint and fluctuating drone of the wheels below the car, +re-echoed by the flying track, is more perceptible now, but it is +not unpleasantly loud, merely a faint tinting of the quiet.... + +No sea crossing breaks our journey; there is nothing to prevent a +Channel tunnel in that other planet; and I wake in London. + +The train has been in London some time when I awake, for these +marvellous Utopians have discovered that it is not necessary to +bundle out passengers from a train in the small hours, simply +because they have arrived. A Utopian train is just a peculiar kind +of hotel corridor that flies about the earth while one sleeps. + + +Section 7 + +How will a great city of Utopia strike us? + +To answer that question well one must needs be artist and engineer, +and I am neither. Moreover, one must employ words and phrases that +do not exist, for this world still does not dream of the things that +may be done with thought and steel, when the engineer is +sufficiently educated to be an artist, and the artistic intelligence +has been quickened to the accomplishment of an engineer. How can one +write of these things for a generation which rather admires that +inconvenient and gawky muddle of ironwork and Flemish architecture, +the London Tower Bridge. When before this, temerarious anticipators +have written of the mighty buildings that might someday be, the +illustrator has blended with the poor ineffectual splutter of the +author's words, his powerful suggestion that it amounted simply to +something bulbous, florid and fluent in the vein of the onion, and +L'Art Nouveau. But here, it may be, the illustrator will not +intervene. + +Art has scarcely begun in the world. + +There have been a few forerunners and that is all. Leonardo, Michael +Angelo; how they would have exulted in the liberties of steel! There +are no more pathetic documents in the archives of art than +Leonardo's memoranda. In these, one sees him again and again +reaching out as it were, with empty desirous hands, towards the +unborn possibilities of the engineer. And Durer, too, was a Modern, +with the same turn towards creative invention. In our times these +men would have wanted to make viaducts, to bridge wild and +inaccessible places, to cut and straddle great railways athwart the +mountain masses of the world. You can see, time after time, in +Durer's work, as you can see in the imaginary architectural +landscape of the Pompeian walls, the dream of structures, lighter +and bolder than stone or brick can yield.... These Utopian town +buildings will be the realisation of such dreams. + +Here will be one of the great meeting places of mankind. Here--I +speak of Utopian London--will be the traditional centre of one of +the great races in the commonalty of the World State--and here will +be its social and intellectual exchange. There will be a mighty +University here, with thousands of professors and tens of thousands +of advanced students, and here great journals of thought and +speculation, mature and splendid books of philosophy and science, +and a glorious fabric of literature will be woven and shaped, and +with a teeming leisureliness, put forth. Here will be stupendous +libraries, and a mighty organisation of museums. About these centres +will cluster a great swarm of people, and close at hand will be +another centre, for I who am an Englishman must needs stipulate that +Westminster shall still be a seat of world Empire, one of several +seats, if you will--where the ruling council of the world assembles. +Then the arts will cluster round this city, as gold gathers about +wisdom, and here Englishmen will weave into wonderful prose and +beautiful rhythms and subtly atmospheric forms, the intricate, +austere and courageous imagination of our race. + +One will come into this place as one comes into a noble mansion. +They will have flung great arches and domes of glass above the wider +spaces of the town, the slender beauty of the perfect metal-work far +overhead will be softened to a fairy-like unsubstantiality by the +mild London air. It will be the London air we know, clear of filth +and all impurity, the same air that gives our October days their +unspeakable clarity and makes every London twilight mysteriously +beautiful. We shall go along avenues of architecture that will be +emancipated from the last memories of the squat temple boxes of the +Greek, the buxom curvatures of Rome; the Goth in us will have taken +to steel and countless new materials as kindly as once he took to +stone. The gay and swiftly moving platforms of the public ways will +go past on either hand, carrying sporadic groups of people, and very +speedily we shall find ourselves in a sort of central space, rich +with palms and flowering bushes and statuary. We shall look along an +avenue of trees, down a wide gorge between the cliffs of crowded +hotels, the hotels that are still glowing with internal lights, to +where the shining morning river streams dawnlit out to sea. + +Great multitudes of people will pass softly to and fro in this +central space, beautiful girls and youths going to the University +classes that are held in the stately palaces about us, grave and +capable men and women going to their businesses, children meandering +along to their schools, holiday makers, lovers, setting out +upon a hundred quests; and here we shall ask for the two we more +particularly seek. A graceful little telephone kiosk will put us +within reach of them, and with a queer sense of unreality I shall +find myself talking to my Utopian twin. He has heard of me, he wants +to see me and he gives me clear directions how to come to him. + +I wonder if my own voice sounds like that. + +"Yes," I say, "then I will come as soon as we have been to our +hotel." + +We indulge in no eloquence upon this remarkable occasion. Yet I feel +an unusual emotional stir. I tremble greatly, and the telephonic +mouthpiece rattles as I replace it. + +And thence the botanist and I walk on to the apartments that have +been set aside for us, and into which the poor little rolls of the +property that has accumulated about us in Utopia, our earthly +raiment, and a change of linen and the like, have already been +delivered. As we go I find I have little to say to my companion, +until presently I am struck by a transitory wonder that he should +have so little to say to me. + +"I can still hardly realise," I say, "that I am going to see +myself--as I might have been." + +"No," he says, and relapses at once into his own preoccupation. + +For a moment my wonder as to what he should be thinking about brings +me near to a double self-forgetfulness. + +I realise we are at the entrance of our hotel before I can formulate +any further remark. + +"This is the place," I say. + + + +CHAPTER THE EIGHTH + +My Utopian Self + + +Section 1 + +It falls to few of us to interview our better selves. My Utopian self +is, of course, my better self--according to my best endeavours--and +I must confess myself fully alive to the difficulties of the +situation. When I came to this Utopia I had no thought of any such +intimate self-examination. + +The whole fabric of that other universe sways for a moment as I come +into his room, into his clear and ordered work-room. I am trembling. +A figure rather taller than myself stands against the light. + +He comes towards me, and I, as I advance to meet him, stumble +against a chair. Then, still without a word, we are clasping +hands. + +I stand now so that the light falls upon him, and I can see his face +better. He is a little taller than I, younger looking and sounder +looking; he has missed an illness or so, and there is no scar over +his eye. His training has been subtly finer than mine; he has made +himself a better face than mine.... These things I might have +counted upon. I can fancy he winces with a twinge of sympathetic +understanding at my manifest inferiority. Indeed, I come, trailing +clouds of earthly confusion and weakness; I bear upon me all the +defects of my world. He wears, I see, that white tunic with the +purple band that I have already begun to consider the proper Utopian +clothing for grave men, and his face is clean shaven. We forget to +speak at first in the intensity of our mutual inspection. When at +last I do gain my voice it is to say something quite different from +the fine, significant openings of my premeditated dialogues. + +"You have a pleasant room," I remark, and look about a little +disconcerted because there is no fireplace for me to put my back +against, or hearthrug to stand upon. He pushes me a chair, into +which I plump, and we hang over an immensity of conversational +possibilities. + +"I say," I plunge, "what do you think of me? You don't think I'm an +impostor?" + +"Not now that I have seen you. No." + +"Am I so like you?" + +"Like me and your story--exactly." + +"You haven't any doubt left?" I ask. + +"Not in the least, since I saw you enter. You come from the world +beyond Sirius, twin to this. Eh?" + +"And you don't want to know how I got here?" + +"I've ceased even to wonder how I got here," he says, with a laugh +that echoes mine. + +He leans back in his chair, and I in mine, and the absurd parody of +our attitude strikes us both. + +"Well?" we say, simultaneously, and laugh together. + +I will confess this meeting is more difficult even than I +anticipated. + + +Section 2 + +Our conversation at that first encounter would do very little to +develop the Modern Utopia in my mind. Inevitably, it would be +personal and emotional. He would tell me how he stood in his world, +and I how I stood in mine. I should have to tell him things, I +should have to explain things----. + +No, the conversation would contribute nothing to a modern +Utopia. + +And so I leave it out. + + +Section 3 + +But I should go back to my botanist in a state of emotional +relaxation. At first I should not heed the fact that he, too, had +been in some manner stirred. "I have seen him," I should say, +needlessly, and seem to be on the verge of telling the untellable. +Then I should fade off into: "It's the strangest thing." + +He would interrupt me with his own preoccupation. "You know," he +would say, "I've seen someone." + +I should pause and look at him. + +"She is in this world," he says. + +"Who is in this world?" + +"Mary!" + +I have not heard her name before, but I understand, of course, at +once. + +"I saw her," he explains. + +"Saw her?" + +"I'm certain it was her. Certain. She was far away across those +gardens near here--and before I had recovered from my amazement she +had gone! But it was Mary." + +He takes my arm. "You know I did not understand this," he says. "I +did not really understand that when you said Utopia, you meant I was +to meet her--in happiness." + +"I didn't." + +"It works out at that." + +"You haven't met her yet." + +"I shall. It makes everything different. To tell you the truth I've +rather hated this Utopia of yours at times. You mustn't mind my +saying it, but there's something of the Gradgrind----" + +Probably I should swear at that. + +"What?" he says. + +"Nothing." + +"But you spoke?" + +"I was purring. I'm a Gradgrind--it's quite right--anything you can +say about Herbert Spencer, vivisectors, materialistic Science or +Atheists, applies without correction to me. Begbie away! But now you +think better of a modern Utopia? Was the lady looking well?" + +"It was her real self. Yes. Not the broken woman I met--in the real +world." + +"And as though she was pining for you." + +He looks puzzled. + +"Look there!" I say. + +He looks. + +We are standing high above the ground in the loggia into which our +apartments open, and I point across the soft haze of the public +gardens to a tall white mass of University buildings that rises with +a free and fearless gesture, to lift saluting pinnacles against the +clear evening sky. "Don't you think that rather more beautiful +than--say--our National Gallery?" + +He looks at it critically. "There's a lot of metal in it," he +objects. "What?" + +I purred. "But, anyhow, whatever you can't see in that, you can, I +suppose, see that it is different from anything in your world--it +lacks the kindly humanity of a red-brick Queen Anne villa residence, +with its gables and bulges, and bow windows, and its stained +glass fanlight, and so forth. It lacks the self-complacent +unreasonableness of Board of Works classicism. There's something in +its proportions--as though someone with brains had taken a lot of +care to get it quite right, someone who not only knew what metal can +do, but what a University ought to be, somebody who had found the +Gothic spirit enchanted, petrified, in a cathedral, and had set it +free." + +"But what has this," he asks, "to do with her?" + +"Very much," I say. "This is not the same world. If she is here, she +will be younger in spirit and wiser. She will be in many ways more +refined----" + +"No one----" he begins, with a note of indignation. + +"No, no! She couldn't be. I was wrong there. But she will be +different. Grant that at any rate. When you go forward to speak to +her, she may not remember--very many things _you_ may remember. +Things that happened at Frognal--dear romantic walks through the +Sunday summer evenings, practically you two alone, you in your +adolescent silk hat and your nice gentlemanly gloves.... Perhaps +that did not happen here! And she may have other memories--of +things--that down there haven't happened. You noted her costume. She +wasn't by any chance one of the samurai?" + +He answers, with a note of satisfaction, "No! She wore a womanly +dress of greyish green." + +"Probably under the Lesser Rule." + +"I don't know what you mean by the Lesser Rule. She wasn't one of +the samurai." + +"And, after all, you know--I keep on reminding you, and you keep on +losing touch with the fact, that this world contains your +double." + +He pales, and his countenance is disturbed. Thank Heaven, I've +touched him at last! + +"This world contains your double. But, conceivably, everything may +be different here. The whole romantic story may have run a different +course. It was as it was in our world, by the accidents of custom +and proximity. Adolescence is a defenceless plastic period. You are +a man to form great affections,--noble, great affections. You might +have met anyone almost at that season and formed the same +attachment." + +For a time he is perplexed and troubled by this suggestion. + +"No," he says, a little doubtfully. "No. It was herself." ... Then, +emphatically, "No!" + + +Section 4 + +For a time we say no more, and I fall musing about my strange +encounter with my Utopian double. I think of the confessions I have +just made to him, the strange admissions both to him and myself. I +have stirred up the stagnations of my own emotional life, the pride +that has slumbered, the hopes and disappointments that have not +troubled me for years. There are things that happened to me in my +adolescence that no discipline of reason will ever bring to a just +proportion for me, the first humiliations I was made to suffer, the +waste of all the fine irrecoverable loyalties and passions of my +youth. The dull base caste of my little personal tragi-comedy--I +have ostensibly forgiven, I have for the most part forgotten--and +yet when I recall them I hate each actor still. Whenever it comes +into my mind--I do my best to prevent it--there it is, and these +detestable people blot out the stars for me. + +I have told all that story to my double, and he has listened with +understanding eyes. But for a little while those squalid memories +will not sink back into the deeps. + +We lean, side by side, over our balcony, lost in such egotistical +absorptions, quite heedless of the great palace of noble dreams to +which our first enterprise has brought us. + + +Section 5 + +I can understand the botanist this afternoon; for once we are in the +same key. My own mental temper has gone for the day, and I know what +it means to be untempered. Here is a world and a glorious world, and +it is for me to take hold of it, to have to do with it, here and +now, and behold! I can only think that I am burnt and scarred, and +there rankles that wretched piece of business, the mean +unimaginative triumph of my antagonist---- + +I wonder how many men have any real freedom of mind, are, in truth, +unhampered by such associations, to whom all that is great and noble +in life does not, at times at least, if not always, seem secondary +to obscure rivalries and considerations, to the petty hates that are +like germs in the blood, to the lust for self-assertion, to dwarfish +pride, to affections they gave in pledge even before they were +men. + +The botanist beside me dreams, I know, of vindications for that +woman. + +All this world before us, and its order and liberty, are no more +than a painted scene before which he is to meet Her at last, freed +from "that scoundrel." + +He expects "that scoundrel" really to be present and, as it were, +writhing under their feet.... + +I wonder if that man _was_ a scoundrel. He has gone wrong on earth, +no doubt, has failed and degenerated, but what was it sent him +wrong? Was his failure inherent, or did some net of cross purposes +tangle about his feet? Suppose he is not a failure in Utopia!... + +I wonder that this has never entered the botanist's head. + +He, with his vaguer mind, can overlook--spite of my ruthless +reminders--all that would mar his vague anticipations. That, too, if +I suggested it, he would overcome and disregard. He has the most +amazing power of resistance to uncongenial ideas; amazing that is, +to me. He hates the idea of meeting his double, and consequently so +soon as I cease to speak of that, with scarcely an effort of his +will, it fades again from his mind. + +Down below in the gardens two children pursue one another, and one, +near caught, screams aloud and rouses me from my reverie. + +I follow their little butterfly antics until they vanish beyond a +thicket of flowering rhododendra, and then my eyes go back to the +great facade of the University buildings. + +But I am in no mood to criticise architecture. + +Why should a modern Utopia insist upon slipping out of the hands of +its creator and becoming the background of a personal drama--of such +a silly little drama? + +The botanist will not see Utopia in any other way. He tests it +entirely by its reaction upon the individual persons and things he +knows; he dislikes it because he suspects it of wanting to lethal +chamber his aunt's "dear old doggie," and now he is reconciled to it +because a certain "Mary" looks much younger and better here than she +did on earth. And here am I, near fallen into the same way of +dealing! + +We agreed to purge this State and all the people in it of +traditions, associations, bias, laws, and artificial entanglements, +and begin anew; but we have no power to liberate ourselves. Our +past, even its accidents, its accidents above all, and ourselves, +are one. + + + +CHAPTER THE NINTH + +The Samurai + + +Section 1 + +Neither my Utopian double nor I love emotion sufficiently to +cultivate it, and my feelings are in a state of seemly subordination +when we meet again. He is now in possession of some clear, general +ideas about my own world, and I can broach almost at once the +thoughts that have been growing and accumulating since my arrival +in this planet of my dreams. We find our interest in a humanised +state-craft, makes us, in spite of our vast difference in training +and habits, curiously akin. + +I put it to him that I came to Utopia with but very vague ideas of +the method of government, biassed, perhaps, a little in favour of +certain electoral devices, but for the rest indeterminate, and +that I have come to perceive more and more clearly that the large +intricacy of Utopian organisation demands more powerful and +efficient method of control than electoral methods can give. I have +come to distinguish among the varied costumes and the innumerable +types of personality Utopia presents, certain men and women of a +distinctive costume and bearing, and I know now that these people +constitute an order, the samurai, the "voluntary nobility," which +is essential in the scheme of the Utopian State. I know that this +order is open to every physically and mentally healthy adult in +the Utopian State who will observe its prescribed austere rule of +living, that much of the responsible work of the State is reserved +for it, and I am inclined now at the first onset of realisation to +regard it as far more significant than it really is in the Utopian +scheme, as being, indeed, in itself and completely the Utopian +scheme. My predominant curiosity concerns the organisation of this +order. As it has developed in my mind, it has reminded me more and +more closely of that strange class of guardians which constitutes +the essential substance of Plato's Republic, and it is with an +implicit reference to Plato's profound intuitions that I and my +double discuss this question. + +To clarify our comparison he tells me something of the history of +Utopia, and incidentally it becomes necessary to make a correction +in the assumptions upon which I have based my enterprise. We are +assuming a world identical in every respect with the real planet +Earth, except for the profoundest differences in the mental +content of life. This implies a different literature, a different +philosophy, and a different history, and so soon as I come to +talk to him I find that though it remains unavoidable that we +should assume the correspondence of the two populations, man for +man--unless we would face unthinkable complications--we must assume +also that a great succession of persons of extraordinary character +and mental gifts, who on earth died in childhood or at birth, or +who never learnt to read, or who lived and died amidst savage or +brutalising surroundings that gave their gifts no scope, did in +Utopia encounter happier chances, and take up the development and +application of social theory--from the time of the first Utopists in +a steady onward progress down to the present hour. [Footnote: One +might assume as an alternative to this that amidst the four-fifths +of the Greek literature now lost to the world, there perished, +neglected, some book of elementary significance, some earlier +Novum Organum, that in Utopia survived to achieve the profoundest +consequences.] The differences of condition, therefore, had widened +with each successive year. Jesus Christ had been born into a liberal +and progressive Roman Empire that spread from the Arctic Ocean +to the Bight of Benin, and was to know no Decline and Fall, +and Mahomet, instead of embodying the dense prejudices of Arab +ignorance, opened his eyes upon an intellectual horizon already +nearly as wide as the world. + +And through this empire the flow of thought, the flow of intention, +poured always more abundantly. There were wars, but they were +conclusive wars that established new and more permanent relations, +that swept aside obstructions, and abolished centres of decay; there +were prejudices tempered to an ordered criticism, and hatreds that +merged at last in tolerant reactions. It was several hundred years +ago that the great organisation of the samurai came into its present +form. And it was this organisation's widely sustained activities +that had shaped and established the World State in Utopia. + +This organisation of the samurai was a quite deliberate invention. +It arose in the course of social and political troubles and +complications, analogous to those of our own time on earth, and was, +indeed, the last of a number of political and religious experiments +dating back to the first dawn of philosophical state-craft in +Greece. That hasty despair of specialisation for government that +gave our poor world individualism, democratic liberalism, and +anarchism, and that curious disregard of the fund of enthusiasm and +self-sacrifice in men, which is the fundamental weakness of worldly +economics, do not appear in the history of Utopian thought. All +that history is pervaded with the recognition of the fact +that self-seeking is no more the whole of human life than the +satisfaction of hunger; that it is an essential of a man's existence +no doubt, and that under stress of evil circumstances it may as +entirely obsess him as would the food hunt during famine, but that +life may pass beyond to an illimitable world of emotions and effort. +Every sane person consists of possibilities beyond the unavoidable +needs, is capable of disinterested feeling, even if it amounts only +to enthusiasm for a sport or an industrial employment well done, +for an art, or for a locality or class. In our world now, as in +the Utopian past, this impersonal energy of a man goes out into +religious emotion and work, into patriotic effort, into artistic +enthusiasms, into games and amateur employments, and an enormous +proportion of the whole world's fund of effort wastes itself in +religious and political misunderstandings and conflicts, and in +unsatisfying amusements and unproductive occupations. In a modern +Utopia there will, indeed, be no perfection; in Utopia there +must also be friction, conflicts and waste, but the waste will +be enormously less than in our world. And the co-ordination of +activities this relatively smaller waste will measure, will be the +achieved end for which the order of the samurai was first devised. + +Inevitably such an order must have first arisen among a clash of +social forces and political systems as a revolutionary organisation. +It must have set before itself the attainment of some such Utopian +ideal as this modern Utopia does, in the key of mortal imperfection, +realise. At first it may have directed itself to research and +discussion, to the elaboration of its ideal, to the discussion of a +plan of campaign, but at some stage it must have assumed a more +militant organisation, and have prevailed against and assimilated +the pre-existing political organisations, and to all intents and +purposes have become this present synthesised World State. Traces of +that militancy would, therefore, pervade it still, and a campaigning +quality--no longer against specific disorders, but against universal +human weaknesses, and the inanimate forces that trouble man--still +remain as its essential quality. + +"Something of this kind," I should tell my double, "had arisen in +our thought"--I jerk my head back to indicate an infinitely distant +planet--"just before I came upon these explorations. The idea had +reached me, for example, of something to be called a New Republic, +which was to be in fact an organisation for revolution something +after the fashion of your samurai, as I understand them--only most +of the organisation and the rule of life still remained to be +invented. All sorts of people were thinking of something in that way +about the time of my coming. The idea, as it reached me, was pretty +crude in several respects. It ignored the high possibility of a +synthesis of languages in the future; it came from a literary man, +who wrote only English, and, as I read him--he was a little vague in +his proposals--it was to be a purely English-speaking movement. And +his ideas were coloured too much by the peculiar opportunism of his +time; he seemed to have more than half an eye for a prince or a +millionaire of genius; he seemed looking here and there for support +and the structural elements of a party. Still, the idea of a +comprehensive movement of disillusioned and illuminated men behind +the shams and patriotisms, the spites and personalities of the +ostensible world was there." + +I added some particulars. + +"Our movement had something of that spirit in the beginning," said +my Utopian double. "But while your men seem to be thinking +disconnectedly, and upon a very narrow and fragmentary basis of +accumulated conclusions, ours had a fairly comprehensive science of +human association, and a very careful analysis of the failures of +preceding beginnings to draw upon. After all, your world must be as +full as ours was of the wreckage and decay of previous attempts; +churches, aristocracies, orders, cults...." + +"Only at present we seem to have lost heart altogether, and now +there are no new religions, no new orders, no new cults--no +beginnings any more." + +"But that's only a resting phase, perhaps. You were saying----" + +"Oh!--let that distressful planet alone for a time! Tell me how you +manage in Utopia." + + +Section 2 + +The social theorists of Utopia, my double explained, did not base +their schemes upon the classification of men into labour and +capital, the landed interest, the liquor trade, and the like. They +esteemed these as accidental categories, indefinitely amenable to +statesmanship, and they looked for some practical and real +classification upon which to base organisation. [Footnote: In that +they seem to have profited by a more searching criticism of early +social and political speculations than our earth has yet undertaken. +The social speculations of the Greeks, for example, had just the +same primary defect as the economic speculations of the eighteenth +century--they began with the assumption that the general conditions +of the prevalent state of affairs were permanent.] But, on the other +hand, the assumption that men are unclassifiable, because +practically homogeneous, which underlies modern democratic methods +and all the fallacies of our equal justice, is even more alien to +the Utopian mind. Throughout Utopia there is, of course, no other +than provisional classifications, since every being is regarded as +finally unique, but for political and social purposes things have +long rested upon a classification of temperaments, which attends +mainly to differences in the range and quality and character of the +individual imagination. + +This Utopian classification was a rough one, but it served its +purpose to determine the broad lines of political organisation; it +was so far unscientific that many individuals fall between or within +two or even three of its classes. But that was met by giving the +correlated organisation a compensatory looseness of play. Four main +classes of mind were distinguished, called, respectively, the +Poietic, the Kinetic, the Dull, and the Base. The former two are +supposed to constitute the living tissue of the State; the latter +are the fulcra and resistances, the bone and cover of its body. They +are not hereditary classes, nor is there any attempt to develop any +class by special breeding, simply because the intricate interplay +of heredity is untraceable and incalculable. They are classes to +which people drift of their own accord. Education is uniform until +differentiation becomes unmistakable, and each man (and woman) must +establish his position with regard to the lines of this abstract +classification by his own quality, choice, and development.... + +The Poietic or creative class of mental individuality embraces a +wide range of types, but they agree in possessing imaginations that +range beyond the known and accepted, and that involve the desire to +bring the discoveries made in such excursions, into knowledge and +recognition. The scope and direction of the imaginative excursion +may vary very greatly. It may be the invention of something new or +the discovery of something hitherto unperceived. When the invention +or discovery is primarily beauty then we have the artistic type of +Poietic mind; when it is not so, we have the true scientific man. +The range of discovery may be narrowed as it is in the art of +Whistler or the science of a cytologist, or it may embrace a wide +extent of relevance, until at last both artist or scientific +inquirer merge in the universal reference of the true philosopher. +To the accumulated activities of the Poietic type, reacted upon by +circumstances, are due almost all the forms assumed by human thought +and feeling. All religious ideas, all ideas of what is good or +beautiful, entered life through the poietic inspirations of man. +Except for processes of decay, the forms of the human future must +come also through men of this same type, and it is a primary +essential to our modern idea of an abundant secular progress that +these activities should be unhampered and stimulated. + +The Kinetic class consists of types, various, of course, and merging +insensibly along the boundary into the less representative +constituents of the Poietic group, but distinguished by a more +restricted range of imagination. Their imaginations do not range +beyond the known, experienced, and accepted, though within these +limits they may imagine as vividly or more vividly than members of +the former group. They are often very clever and capable people, but +they do not do, and they do not desire to do, new things. The more +vigorous individuals of this class are the most teachable people in +the world, and they are generally more moral and more trustworthy +than the Poietic types. They live,--while the Poietics are always +something of experimentalists with life. The characteristics of +either of these two classes may be associated with a good or bad +physique, with excessive or defective energy, with exceptional +keenness of the senses in some determinate direction or such-like +"bent," and the Kinetic type, just as the Poietic type, may display +an imagination of restricted or of the most universal range. But a +fairly energetic Kinetic is probably the nearest thing to that ideal +our earthly anthropologists have in mind when they speak of the +"Normal" human being. The very definition of the Poietic class +involves a certain abnormality. + +The Utopians distinguished two extremes of this Kinetic class +according to the quality of their imaginative preferences, the Dan +and Beersheba, as it were, of this division. At one end is the +mainly intellectual, unoriginal type, which, with energy of +personality, makes an admirable judge or administrator and without +it an uninventive, laborious, common mathematician, or common +scholar, or common scientific man; while at the other end is the +mainly emotional, unoriginal man, the type to which--at a low level +of personal energy--my botanist inclines. The second type includes, +amidst its energetic forms, great actors, and popular politicians +and preachers. Between these extremes is a long and wide region of +varieties, into which one would put most of the people who form the +reputable workmen, the men of substance, the trustworthy men and +women, the pillars of society on earth. + +Below these two classes in the Utopian scheme of things, and merging +insensibly into them, come the Dull. The Dull are persons of +altogether inadequate imagination, the people who never seem to +learn thoroughly, or hear distinctly, or think clearly. (I believe +if everyone is to be carefully educated they would be considerably +in the minority in the world, but it is quite possible that will not +be the reader's opinion. It is clearly a matter of an arbitrary +line.) They are the stupid people, the incompetent people, the +formal, imitative people, the people who, in any properly organised +State, should, as a class, gravitate towards and below the minimum +wage that qualifies for marriage. The laws of heredity are far too +mysterious for such offspring as they do produce to be excluded from +a fair chance in the world, but for themselves, they count neither +for work nor direction in the State. + +Finally, with a bold disregard of the logician's classificatory +rules, these Utopian statesmen who devised the World State, hewed +out in theory a class of the Base. The Base may, indeed, be either +poietic, kinetic, or dull, though most commonly they are the last, +and their definition concerns not so much the quality of their +imagination as a certain bias in it, that to a statesman makes it a +matter for special attention. The Base have a narrower and more +persistent egoistic reference than the common run of humanity; they +may boast, but they have no frankness; they have relatively great +powers of concealment, and they are capable of, and sometimes have +an aptitude and inclination towards, cruelty. In the queer phrasing +of earthly psychology with its clumsy avoidance of analysis, they +have no "moral sense." They count as an antagonism to the State +organisation. + +Obviously, this is the rudest of classifications, and no Utopian has +ever supposed it to be a classification for individual application, +a classification so precise that one can say, this man is "poietic," +and that man is "base." In actual experience these qualities mingle +and vary in every possible way. It is not a classification for +Truth, but a classification to an end. Taking humanity as a +multitude of unique individuals in mass, one may, for practical +purposes, deal with it far more conveniently by disregarding its +uniquenesses and its mixed cases altogether, and supposing it to be +an assembly of poietic, kinetic, dull, and base people. In many +respects it behaves as if it were that. The State, dealing as it +does only with non-individualised affairs, is not only justified in +disregarding, but is bound to disregard, a man's special +distinction, and to provide for him on the strength of his prevalent +aspect as being on the whole poietic, kinetic, or what not. In a +world of hasty judgments and carping criticism, it cannot be +repeated too often that the fundamental ideas of a modern Utopia +imply everywhere and in everything, margins and elasticities, a +certain universal compensatory looseness of play. + + +Section 3 + +Now these Utopian statesmen who founded the World State put the +problem of social organisation in the following fashion:--To +contrive a revolutionary movement that shall absorb all existing +governments and fuse them with itself, and that must be rapidly +progressive and adaptable, and yet coherent, persistent, powerful, +and efficient. + +The problem of combining progress with political stability had never +been accomplished in Utopia before that time, any more than it has +been accomplished on earth. Just as on earth, Utopian history was a +succession of powers rising and falling in an alternation of +efficient conservative with unstable liberal States. Just as on +earth, so in Utopia, the kinetic type of men had displayed a more or +less unintentional antagonism to the poietic. The general +life-history of a State had been the same on either planet. First, +through poietic activities, the idea of a community has developed, +and the State has shaped itself; poietic men have arisen first in +this department of national life, and then that, and have given +place to kinetic men of a high type--for it seems to be in their +nature that poietic men should be mutually repulsive, and not +succeed and develop one another consecutively--and a period of +expansion and vigour has set in. The general poietic activity has +declined with the development of an efficient and settled social and +political organisation; the statesman has given way to the +politician who has incorporated the wisdom of the statesman with his +own energy, the original genius in arts, letters, science, and every +department of activity to the cultivated and scholarly man. The +kinetic man of wide range, who has assimilated his poietic +predecessor, succeeds with far more readiness than his poietic +contemporary in almost every human activity. The latter is by his +very nature undisciplined and experimental, and is positively +hampered by precedents and good order. With this substitution of the +efficient for the creative type, the State ceases to grow, first in +this department of activity, and then in that, and so long as its +conditions remain the same it remains orderly and efficient. But it +has lost its power of initiative and change; its power of adaptation +is gone, and with that secular change of conditions which is the law +of life, stresses must arise within and without, and bring at last +either through revolution or through defeat the release of fresh +poietic power. The process, of course, is not in its entirety +simple; it may be masked by the fact that one department of activity +may be in its poietic stage, while another is in a phase of +realisation. In the United States of America, for example, during +the nineteenth century, there was great poietic activity in +industrial organisation, and none whatever in political philosophy; +but a careful analysis of the history of any period will show the +rhythm almost invariably present, and the initial problem before the +Utopian philosopher, therefore, was whether this was an inevitable +alternation, whether human progress was necessarily a series of +developments, collapses, and fresh beginnings, after an interval of +disorder, unrest, and often great unhappiness, or whether it was +possible to maintain a secure, happy, and progressive State beside +an unbroken flow of poietic activity. + +Clearly they decided upon the second alternative. If, indeed, I am +listening to my Utopian self, then they not only decided the problem +could be solved, but they solved it. + +He tells me how they solved it. + +A modern Utopia differs from all the older Utopias in its +recognition of the need of poietic activities--one sees this new +consideration creeping into thought for the first time in the +phrasing of Comte's insistence that "spiritual" must precede +political reconstruction, and in his admission of the necessity of +recurrent books and poems about Utopias--and at first this +recognition appears to admit only an added complication to a problem +already unmanageably complex. Comte's separation of the activities +of a State into the spiritual and material does, to a certain +extent, anticipate this opposition of poietic and kinetic, but the +intimate texture of his mind was dull and hard, the conception +slipped from him again, and his suppression of literary activities, +and his imposition of a rule of life upon the poietic types, who are +least able to sustain it, mark how deeply he went under. To a large +extent he followed the older Utopists in assuming that the +philosophical and constructive problem could be done once for all, +and he worked the results out simply under an organised kinetic +government. But what seems to be merely an addition to the +difficulty may in the end turn out to be a simplification, just as +the introduction of a fresh term to an intricate irreducible +mathematical expression will at times bring it to unity. + +Now philosophers after my Utopian pattern, who find the ultimate +significance in life in individuality, novelty and the undefined, +would not only regard the poietic element as the most important in +human society, but would perceive quite clearly the impossibility of +its organisation. This, indeed, is simply the application to the +moral and intellectual fabric of the principles already applied in +discussing the State control of reproduction (in Chapter the Sixth, +section 2). But just as in the case of births it was possible for +the State to frame limiting conditions within which individuality +plays more freely than in the void, so the founders of this modern +Utopia believed it possible to define conditions under which every +individual born with poietic gifts should be enabled and encouraged +to give them a full development, in art, philosophy, invention, +or discovery. Certain general conditions presented themselves as +obviously reasonable:--to give every citizen as good an education +as he or she could acquire, for example; to so frame it that the +directed educational process would never at any period occupy the +whole available time of the learner, but would provide throughout +a marginal free leisure with opportunities for developing +idiosyncrasies, and to ensure by the expedient of a minimum wage +for a specified amount of work, that leisure and opportunity did +not cease throughout life. + +But, in addition to thus making poietic activities universally +possible, the founders of this modern Utopia sought to supply +incentives, which was an altogether more difficult research, a +problem in its nature irresolvably complex, and admitting of no +systematic solution. But my double told me of a great variety of +devices by which poietic men and women were given honour and +enlarged freedoms, so soon as they produced an earnest of their +quality, and he explained to me how great an ambition they might +entertain. + +There were great systems of laboratories attached to every municipal +force station at which research could be conducted under the most +favourable conditions, and every mine, and, indeed, almost every +great industrial establishment, was saddled under its lease with +similar obligations. So much for poietic ability and research in +physical science. The World State tried the claims of every living +contributor to any materially valuable invention, and paid or +charged a royalty on its use that went partly to him personally, and +partly to the research institution that had produced him. In the +matter of literature and the philosophical and sociological +sciences, every higher educational establishment carried its +studentships, its fellowships, its occasional lectureships, and to +produce a poem, a novel, a speculative work of force or merit, was +to become the object of a generous competition between rival +Universities. In Utopia, any author has the option either of +publishing his works through the public bookseller as a private +speculation, or, if he is of sufficient merit, of accepting a +University endowment and conceding his copyright to the University +press. All sorts of grants in the hands of committees of the most +varied constitution, supplemented these academic resources, and +ensured that no possible contributor to the wide flow of the Utopian +mind slipped into neglect. Apart from those who engaged mainly in +teaching and administration, my double told me that the world-wide +House of Saloman [Footnote: The New Atlantis.] thus created +sustained over a million men. For all the rarity of large fortunes, +therefore, no original man with the desire and capacity for material +or mental experiments went long without resources and the stimulus +of attention, criticism, and rivalry. + +"And finally," said my double, "our Rules ensure a considerable +understanding of the importance of poietic activities in the +majority of the samurai, in whose hands as a class all the real +power of the world resides." + +"Ah!" said I, "and now we come to the thing that interests me most. +For it is quite clear, in my mind, that these samurai form the real +body of the State. All this time that I have spent going to and fro +in this planet, it has been growing upon me that this order of men +and women, wearing such a uniform as you wear, and with faces +strengthened by discipline and touched with devotion, is the +Utopian reality; but that for them, the whole fabric of these fair +appearances would crumble and tarnish, shrink and shrivel, until at +last, back I should be amidst the grime and disorders of the life +of earth. Tell me about these samurai, who remind me of Plato's +guardians, who look like Knights Templars, who bear a name that +recalls the swordsmen of Japan ... and whose uniform you yourself are +wearing. What are they? Are they an hereditary caste, a specially +educated order, an elected class? For, certainly, this world turns +upon them as a door upon its hinges." + + +Section 4 + +"I follow the Common Rule, as many men do," said my double, +answering my allusion to his uniform almost apologetically. "But my +own work is, in its nature, poietic; there is much dissatisfaction +with our isolation of criminals upon islands, and I am analysing the +psychology of prison officials and criminals in general with a view +to some better scheme. I am supposed to be ingenious with expedients +in this direction. Typically, the samurai are engaged in +administrative work. Practically the whole of the responsible rule +of the world is in their hands; all our head teachers and +disciplinary heads of colleges, our judges, barristers, employers of +labour beyond a certain limit, practising medical men, legislators, +must be samurai, and all the executive committees, and so forth, +that play so large a part in our affairs are drawn by lot +exclusively from them. The order is not hereditary--we know just +enough of biology and the uncertainties of inheritance to know how +silly that would be--and it does not require an early consecration +or novitiate or ceremonies and initiations of that sort. The samurai +are, in fact, volunteers. Any intelligent adult in a reasonably +healthy and efficient state may, at any age after five-and-twenty, +become one of the samurai, and take a hand in the universal +control." + +"Provided he follows the Rule." + +"Precisely--provided he follows the Rule." + +"I have heard the phrase, 'voluntary nobility.'" + +"That was the idea of our Founders. They made a noble and privileged +order--open to the whole world. No one could complain of an unjust +exclusion, for the only thing that could exclude from the order was +unwillingness or inability to follow the Rule." + +"But the Rule might easily have been made exclusive of special +lineages and races." + +"That wasn't their intention. The Rule was planned to exclude the +dull, to be unattractive to the base, and to direct and co-ordinate +all sound citizens of good intent." + +"And it has succeeded?" + +"As well as anything finite can. Life is still imperfect, still a +thick felt of dissatisfactions and perplexing problems, but most +certainly the quality of all its problems has been raised, and there +has been no war, no grinding poverty, not half the disease, and an +enormous increase of the order, beauty, and resources of life since +the samurai, who began as a private aggressive cult, won their way +to the rule of the world." + +"I would like to have that history," I said. "I expect there was +fighting?" He nodded. "But first--tell me about the Rule." + +"The Rule aims to exclude the dull and base altogether, to +discipline the impulses and emotions, to develop a moral habit and +sustain a man in periods of stress, fatigue, and temptation, to +produce the maximum co-operation of all men of good intent, and, in +fact, to keep all the samurai in a state of moral and bodily health +and efficiency. It does as much of this as well as it can, but, of +course, like all general propositions, it does not do it in any case +with absolute precision. On the whole, it is so good that most men +who, like myself, are doing poietic work, and who would be just as +well off without obedience, find a satisfaction in adhesion. At +first, in the militant days, it was a trifle hard and uncompromising; +it had rather too strong an appeal to the moral prig and harshly +righteous man, but it has undergone, and still undergoes, revision +and expansion, and every year it becomes a little better adapted to +the need of a general rule of life that all men may try to follow. +We have now a whole literature, with many very fine things in it, +written about the Rule." + +He glanced at a little book on his desk, took it up as if to show it +me, then put it down again. + +"The Rule consists of three parts; there is the list of things that +qualify, the list of things that must not be done, and the list of +things that must be done. Qualification exacts a little exertion, as +evidence of good faith, and it is designed to weed out the duller +dull and many of the base. Our schooling period ends now about +fourteen, and a small number of boys and girls--about three per +cent.--are set aside then as unteachable, as, in fact, nearly +idiotic; the rest go on to a college or upper school." + +"All your population?" + +"With that exception." + +"Free?" + +"Of course. And they pass out of college at eighteen. There are +several different college courses, but one or other must be followed +and a satisfactory examination passed at the end--perhaps ten per +cent. fail--and the Rule requires that the candidate for the samurai +must have passed." + +"But a very good man is sometimes an idle schoolboy." + +"We admit that. And so anyone who has failed to pass the college +leaving examination may at any time in later life sit for it +again--and again and again. Certain carefully specified things +excuse it altogether." + +"That makes it fair. But aren't there people who cannot pass +examinations?" + +"People of nervous instability----" + +"But they may be people of great though irregular poietic +gifts." + +"Exactly. That is quite possible. But we don't want that sort of +people among our samurai. Passing an examination is a proof of a +certain steadiness of purpose, a certain self-control and +submission----" + +"Of a certain 'ordinariness.'" + +"Exactly what is wanted." + +"Of course, those others can follow other careers." + +"Yes. That's what we want them to do. And, besides these two +educational qualifications, there are two others of a similar kind +of more debateable value. One is practically not in operation now. +Our Founders put it that a candidate for the samurai must possess +what they called a Technique, and, as it operated in the beginning, +he had to hold the qualification for a doctor, for a lawyer, for a +military officer, or an engineer, or teacher, or have painted +acceptable pictures, or written a book, or something of the sort. He +had, in fact, as people say, to 'be something,' or to have 'done +something.' It was a regulation of vague intention even in the +beginning, and it became catholic to the pitch of absurdity. To play +a violin skilfully has been accepted as sufficient for this +qualification. There may have been a reason in the past for this +provision; in those days there were many daughters of prosperous +parents--and even some sons--who did nothing whatever but idle +uninterestingly in the world, and the organisation might have +suffered by their invasion, but that reason has gone now, and the +requirement remains a merely ceremonial requirement. But, on the +other hand, another has developed. Our Founders made a collection of +several volumes, which they called, collectively, the Book of the +Samurai, a compilation of articles and extracts, poems and prose +pieces, which were supposed to embody the idea of the order. It was +to play the part for the samurai that the Bible did for the ancient +Hebrews. To tell you the truth, the stuff was of very unequal merit; +there was a lot of very second-rate rhetoric, and some nearly +namby-pamby verse. There was also included some very obscure verse +and prose that had the trick of seeming wise. But for all such +defects, much of the Book, from the very beginning, was splendid and +inspiring matter. From that time to this, the Book of the Samurai +has been under revision, much has been added, much rejected, and +some deliberately rewritten. Now, there is hardly anything in it +that is not beautiful and perfect in form. The whole range of noble +emotions finds expression there, and all the guiding ideas of our +Modern State. We have recently admitted some terse criticism of its +contents by a man named Henley." + +"Old Henley!" + +"A man who died a little time ago." + +"I knew that man on earth. And he was in Utopia, too! He was a great +red-faced man, with fiery hair, a noisy, intolerant maker of +enemies, with a tender heart--and he was one of the samurai?" + +"He defied the Rules." + +"He was a great man with wine. He wrote like wine; in our world he +wrote wine; red wine with the light shining through." + +"He was on the Committee that revised our Canon. For the revising +and bracing of our Canon is work for poietic as well as kinetic men. +You knew him in your world?" + +"I wish I had. But I have seen him. On earth he wrote a thing ... it +would run-- + + "Out of the night that covers me, + Black as the pit from pole to pole, + I thank whatever Gods may be, + For my unconquerable soul...." + +"We have that here. All good earthly things are in Utopia also. We +put that in the Canon almost as soon as he died," said my +double. + + +Section 5 + +"We have now a double Canon, a very fine First Canon, and a Second +Canon of work by living men and work of inferior quality, and a +satisfactory knowledge of both of these is the fourth intellectual +qualification for the samurai." + +"It must keep a sort of uniformity in your tone of thought." + +"The Canon pervades our whole world. As a matter of fact, very much +of it is read and learnt in the schools.... Next to the intellectual +qualification comes the physical, the man must be in sound health, +free from certain foul, avoidable, and demoralising diseases, and in +good training. We reject men who are fat, or thin and flabby, or +whose nerves are shaky--we refer them back to training. And finally +the man or woman must be fully adult." + +"Twenty-one? But you said twenty-five!" + +"The age has varied. At first it was twenty-five or over; then the +minimum became twenty-five for men and twenty-one for women. Now +there is a feeling that it ought to be raised. We don't want to take +advantage of mere boy and girl emotions--men of my way of thinking, +at any rate, don't--we want to get our samurai with experiences, +with a settled mature conviction. Our hygiene and regimen are +rapidly pushing back old age and death, and keeping men hale and +hearty to eighty and more. There's no need to hurry the young. Let +them have a chance of wine, love, and song; let them feel the bite +of full-bodied desire, and know what devils they have to reckon +with." + +"But there is a certain fine sort of youth that knows the +desirability of the better things at nineteen." + +"They may keep the Rule at any time--without its privileges. But a +man who breaks the Rule after his adult adhesion at five-and-twenty +is no more in the samurai for ever. Before that age he is free to +break it and repent." + +"And now, what is forbidden?" + +"We forbid a good deal. Many small pleasures do no great harm, but +we think it well to forbid them, none the less, so that we can weed +out the self-indulgent. We think that a constant resistance to +little seductions is good for a man's quality. At any rate, it shows +that a man is prepared to pay something for his honour and +privileges. We prescribe a regimen of food, forbid tobacco, wine, or +any alcoholic drink, all narcotic drugs----" + +"Meat?" + +"In all the round world of Utopia there is no meat. There used to +be. But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughter-houses. And, in +a population that is all educated, and at about the same level of +physical refinement, it is practically impossible to find anyone who +will hew a dead ox or pig. We never settled the hygienic question of +meat-eating at all. This other aspect decided us. I can still +remember, as a boy, the rejoicings over the closing of the last +slaughter-house." + +"You eat fish." + +"It isn't a matter of logic. In our barbaric past horrible flayed +carcases of brutes dripping blood, were hung for sale in the public +streets." He shrugged his shoulders. + +"They do that still in London--in _my_ world," I said. + +He looked again at my laxer, coarser face, and did not say whatever +thought had passed across his mind. + +"Originally the samurai were forbidden usury, that is to say the +lending of money at fixed rates of interest. They are still under +that interdiction, but since our commercial code practically +prevents usury altogether, and our law will not recognise contracts +for interest upon private accommodation loans to unprosperous +borrowers, it is now scarcely necessary. The idea of a man growing +richer by mere inaction and at the expense of an impoverishing +debtor, is profoundly distasteful to Utopian ideas, and our State +insists pretty effectually now upon the participation of the lender +in the borrower's risks. This, however, is only one part of a series +of limitations of the same character. It is felt that to buy simply +in order to sell again brings out many unsocial human qualities; it +makes a man seek to enhance profits and falsify values, and so the +samurai are forbidden to buy to sell on their own account or for any +employer save the State, unless some process of manufacture changes +the nature of the commodity (a mere change in bulk or packing does +not suffice), and they are forbidden salesmanship and all its arts. +Consequently they cannot be hotel-keepers, or hotel proprietors, or +hotel shareholders, and a doctor--all practising doctors must be +samurai--cannot sell drugs except as a public servant of the +municipality or the State." + +"That, of course, runs counter to all our current terrestrial +ideas," I said. "We are obsessed by the power of money. These rules +will work out as a vow of moderate poverty, and if your samurai are +an order of poor men----" + +"They need not be. Samurai who have invented, organised, and +developed new industries, have become rich men, and many men who +have grown rich by brilliant and original trading have subsequently +become samurai." + +"But these are exceptional cases. The bulk of your money-making +business must be confined to men who are not samurai. You must have +a class of rich, powerful outsiders----" + +"_Have_ we?" + +"I don't see the evidences of them." + +"As a matter of fact, we have such people! There are rich traders, +men who have made discoveries in the economy of distribution, or who +have called attention by intelligent, truthful advertisement to the +possibilities of neglected commodities, for example." + +"But aren't they a power?" + +"Why should they be?" + +"Wealth _is_ power." + +I had to explain that phrase. + +He protested. "Wealth," he said, "is no sort of power at all unless +you make it one. If it is so in your world it is so by inadvertency. +Wealth is a State-made thing, a convention, the most artificial of +powers. You can, by subtle statesmanship, contrive what it shall buy +and what it shall not. In your world it would seem you have made +leisure, movement, any sort of freedom, life itself, _purchaseable_. +The more fools you! A poor working man with you is a man in +discomfort and fear. No wonder your rich have power. But here a +reasonable leisure, a decent life, is to be had by every man on +easier terms than by selling himself to the rich. And rich as men +are here, there is no private fortune in the whole world that is +more than a little thing beside the wealth of the State. The samurai +control the State and the wealth of the State, and by their vows +they may not avail themselves of any of the coarser pleasures wealth +can still buy. Where, then, is the power of your wealthy man?" + +"But, then--where is the incentive----?" + +"Oh! a man gets things for himself with wealth--no end of things. +But little or no power over his fellows--unless they are +exceptionally weak or self-indulgent persons." + +I reflected. "What else may not the samurai do?" + +"Acting, singing, or reciting are forbidden them, though they may +lecture authoritatively or debate. But professional mimicry is not +only held to be undignified in a man or woman, but to weaken and +corrupt the soul; the mind becomes foolishly dependent on applause, +over-skilful in producing tawdry and momentary illusions of +excellence; it is our experience that actors and actresses as a +class are loud, ignoble, and insincere. If they have not such +flamboyant qualities then they are tepid and ineffectual players. +Nor may the samurai do personal services, except in the matter of +medicine or surgery; they may not be barbers, for example, nor inn +waiters, nor boot cleaners. But, nowadays, we have scarcely any +barbers or boot cleaners; men do these things for themselves. Nor +may a man under the Rule be any man's servant, pledged to do +whatever he is told. He may neither be a servant nor keep one; he +must shave and dress and serve himself, carry his own food from the +helper's place to the table, redd his sleeping room, and leave it +clean...." + +"That is all easy enough in a world as ordered as yours. I suppose +no samurai may bet?" + +"Absolutely not. He may insure his life and his old age for the +better equipment of his children, or for certain other specified +ends, but that is all his dealings with chance. And he is also +forbidden to play games in public or to watch them being played. +Certain dangerous and hardy sports and exercises are prescribed for +him, but not competitive sports between man and man or side and +side. That lesson was learnt long ago before the coming of the +samurai. Gentlemen of honour, according to the old standards, rode +horses, raced chariots, fought, and played competitive games of +skill, and the dull, cowardly and base came in thousands to admire, +and howl, and bet. The gentlemen of honour degenerated fast enough +into a sort of athletic prostitute, with all the defects, all the +vanity, trickery, and self-assertion of the common actor, and with +even less intelligence. Our Founders made no peace with this +organisation of public sports. They did not spend their lives to +secure for all men and women on the earth freedom, health, and +leisure, in order that they might waste lives in such folly." + +"We have those abuses," I said, "but some of our earthly games have +a fine side. There is a game called cricket. It is a fine, generous +game." + +"Our boys play that, and men too. But it is thought rather puerile +to give very much time to it; men should have graver interests. It +was undignified and unpleasant for the samurai to play conspicuously +ill, and impossible for them to play so constantly as to keep hand +and eye in training against the man who was fool enough and cheap +enough to become an expert. Cricket, tennis, fives, billiards----. +You will find clubs and a class of men to play all these things in +Utopia, but not the samurai. And they must play their games as +games, not as displays; the price of a privacy for playing cricket, +so that they could charge for admission, would be overwhelmingly +high.... Negroes are often very clever at cricket. For a time, most +of the samurai had their sword-play, but few do those exercises now, +and until about fifty years ago they went out for military training, +a fortnight in every year, marching long distances, sleeping in the +open, carrying provisions, and sham fighting over unfamiliar ground +dotted with disappearing targets. There was a curious inability in +our world to realise that war was really over for good and all." + +"And now," I said, "haven't we got very nearly to the end of your +prohibitions? You have forbidden alcohol, drugs, smoking, betting, +and usury, games, trade, servants. But isn't there a vow of +Chastity?" + +"That is the Rule for your earthly orders?" + +"Yes--except, if I remember rightly, for Plato's Guardians." + +"There is a Rule of Chastity here--but not of Celibacy. We know +quite clearly that civilisation is an artificial arrangement, and +that all the physical and emotional instincts of man are too strong, +and his natural instinct of restraint too weak, for him to live +easily in the civilised State. Civilisation has developed far more +rapidly than man has modified. Under the unnatural perfection of +security, liberty and abundance our civilisation has attained, the +normal untrained human being is disposed to excess in almost every +direction; he tends to eat too much and too elaborately, to drink +too much, to become lazy faster than his work can be reduced, to +waste his interest upon displays, and to make love too much and too +elaborately. He gets out of training, and concentrates upon egoistic +or erotic broodings. The past history of our race is very largely a +history of social collapses due to demoralisation by indulgences +following security and abundance. In the time of our Founders the +signs of a world-wide epoch of prosperity and relaxation were +plentiful. Both sexes drifted towards sexual excesses, the men +towards sentimental extravagances, imbecile devotions, and the +complication and refinement of physical indulgences; the women +towards those expansions and differentiations of feeling that find +expression in music and costly and distinguished dress. Both sexes +became unstable and promiscuous. The whole world seemed disposed to +do exactly the same thing with its sexual interest as it had done +with its appetite for food and drink--make the most of it." + +He paused. + +"Satiety came to help you," I said. + +"Destruction may come before satiety. Our Founders organised motives +from all sorts of sources, but I think the chief force to give men +self-control is Pride. Pride may not be the noblest thing in the +soul, but it is the best King there, for all that. They looked to it +to keep a man clean and sound and sane. In this matter, as in all +matters of natural desire, they held no appetite must be glutted, no +appetite must have artificial whets, and also and equally that no +appetite should be starved. A man must come from the table +satisfied, but not replete. And, in the matter of love, a straight +and clean desire for a clean and straight fellow-creature was our +Founders' ideal. They enjoined marriage between equals as the +samurai's duty to the race, and they framed directions of the +precisest sort to prevent that uxorious inseparableness, that +connubiality which will reduce a couple of people to something +jointly less than either. That Canon is too long to tell you now. A +man under the Rule who loves a woman who does not follow it, must +either leave the samurai to marry her, or induce her to accept what +is called the Woman's Rule, which, while it excepts her from the +severer qualifications and disciplines, brings her regimen of life +into a working harmony with his." + +"Suppose she breaks the Rule afterwards?" + +"He must leave either her or the order." + +"There is matter for a novel or so in that." + +"There has been matter for hundreds." + +"Is the Woman's Rule a sumptuary law as well as a regimen? I +mean--may she dress as she pleases?" + +"Not a bit of it," said my double. "Every woman who could command +money used it, we found, to make underbred aggressions on other +women. As men emerged to civilisation, women seemed going back +to savagery--to paint and feathers. But the samurai, both men +and women, and the women under the Lesser Rule also, all have a +particular dress. No difference is made between women under either +the Great or the Lesser Rule. You have seen the men's dress--always +like this I wear. The women may wear the same, either with the hair +cut short or plaited behind them, or they may have a high-waisted +dress of very fine, soft woollen material, with their hair coiled up +behind." + +"I have seen it," I said. Indeed, nearly all the women had seemed to +be wearing variants of that simple formula. "It seems to me a very +beautiful dress. The other--I'm not used to. But I like it on girls +and slender women." + +I had a thought, and added, "Don't they sometimes, well--take a good +deal of care, dressing their hair?" + +My double laughed in my eyes. "They do," he said. + +"And the Rule?" + +"The Rule is never fussy," said my double, still smiling. + +"We don't want women to cease to be beautiful, and consciously +beautiful, if you like," he added. "The more real beauty of form and +face we have, the finer our world. But costly sexualised +trappings----" + +"I should have thought," I said, "a class of women who traded on +their sex would have arisen, women, I mean, who found an interest +and an advantage in emphasising their individual womanly beauty. +There is no law to prevent it. Surely they would tend to counteract +the severity of costume the Rule dictates." + +"There are such women. But for all that the Rule sets the key of +everyday dress. If a woman is possessed by the passion for gorgeous +raiment she usually satisfies it in her own private circle, or with +rare occasional onslaughts upon the public eye. Her everyday mood +and the disposition of most people is against being conspicuous +abroad. And I should say there are little liberties under the Lesser +Rule; a discreet use of fine needlework and embroidery, a wider +choice of materials." + +"You have no changing fashions?" + +"None. For all that, are not our dresses as beautiful as yours?" + +"Our women's dresses are not beautiful at all," I said, forced for a +time towards the mysterious philosophy of dress. "Beauty? That isn't +their concern." + +"Then what are they after?" + +"My dear man! What is all my world after?" + + +Section 6 + +I should come to our third talk with a great curiosity to hear of +the last portion of the Rule, of the things that the samurai are +obliged to do. + +There would be many precise directions regarding his health, and +rules that would aim at once at health and that constant exercise of +will that makes life good. Save in specified exceptional +circumstances, the samurai must bathe in cold water, and the men +must shave every day; they have the precisest directions in such +matters; the body must be in health, the skin and muscles and nerves +in perfect tone, or the samurai must go to the doctors of the order, +and give implicit obedience to the regimen prescribed. They must +sleep alone at least four nights in five; and they must eat with and +talk to anyone in their fellowship who cares for their conversation +for an hour, at least, at the nearest club-house of the samurai once +on three chosen days in every week. Moreover, they must read aloud +from the Book of the Samurai for at least ten minutes every day. +Every month they must buy and read faithfully through at least one +book that has been published during the past five years, and the +only intervention with private choice in that matter is the +prescription of a certain minimum of length for the monthly book or +books. But the full Rule in these minor compulsory matters is +voluminous and detailed, and it abounds with alternatives. Its aim +is rather to keep before the samurai by a number of sample duties, +as it were, the need of, and some of the chief methods towards +health of body and mind, rather than to provide a comprehensive +rule, and to ensure the maintenance of a community of feeling and +interests among the samurai through habit, intercourse, and a living +contemporary literature. These minor obligations do not earmark more +than an hour in the day. Yet they serve to break down isolations of +sympathy, all sorts of physical and intellectual sluggishness and +the development of unsocial preoccupations of many sorts. + +Women samurai who are married, my double told me, must bear +children--if they are to remain married as well as in the +order--before the second period for terminating a childless marriage +is exhausted. I failed to ask for the precise figures from my double +at the time, but I think it is beyond doubt that it is from samurai +mothers of the Greater or Lesser Rule that a very large proportion +of the future population of Utopia will be derived. There is one +liberty accorded to women samurai which is refused to men, and that +is to marry outside the Rule, and women married to men not under the +Rule are also free to become samurai. Here, too, it will be manifest +there is scope for novels and the drama of life. In practice, it +seems that it is only men of great poietic distinction outside the +Rule, or great commercial leaders, who have wives under it. The +tendency of such unions is either to bring the husband under the +Rule, or take the wife out of it. There can be no doubt that these +marriage limitations tend to make the samurai something of an +hereditary class. Their children, as a rule, become samurai. But it +is not an exclusive caste; subject to the most reasonable +qualifications, anyone who sees fit can enter it at any time, and +so, unlike all other privileged castes the world has seen, it +increases relatively to the total population, and may indeed at last +assimilate almost the whole population of the earth. + + +Section 7 + +So much my double told me readily. + +But now he came to the heart of all his explanations, to the will +and motives at the centre that made men and women ready to undergo +discipline, to renounce the richness and elaboration of the sensuous +life, to master emotions and control impulses, to keep in the key of +effort while they had abundance about them to rouse and satisfy all +desires, and his exposition was more difficult. + +He tried to make his religion clear to me. + +The leading principle of the Utopian religion is the repudiation of +the doctrine of original sin; the Utopians hold that man, on the +whole, is good. That is their cardinal belief. Man has pride and +conscience, they hold, that you may refine by training as you refine +his eye and ear; he has remorse and sorrow in his being, coming on +the heels of all inconsequent enjoyments. How can one think of him +as bad? He is religious; religion is as natural to him as lust and +anger, less intense, indeed, but coming with a wide-sweeping +inevitableness as peace comes after all tumults and noises. And in +Utopia they understand this, or, at least, the samurai do, clearly. +They accept Religion as they accept Thirst, as something inseparably +in the mysterious rhythms of life. And just as thirst and pride and +all desires may be perverted in an age of abundant opportunities, +and men may be degraded and wasted by intemperance in drinking, by +display, or by ambition, so too the nobler complex of desires that +constitutes religion may be turned to evil by the dull, the base, +and the careless. Slovenly indulgence in religious inclinations, a +failure to think hard and discriminate as fairly as possible in +religious matters, is just as alien to the men under the Rule as it +would be to drink deeply because they were thirsty, eat until +glutted, evade a bath because the day was chilly, or make love to +any bright-eyed girl who chanced to look pretty in the dusk. Utopia, +which is to have every type of character that one finds on earth, +will have its temples and its priests, just as it will have its +actresses and wine, but the samurai will be forbidden the religion +of dramatically lit altars, organ music, and incense, as distinctly +as they are forbidden the love of painted women, or the consolations +of brandy. And to all the things that are less than religion and +that seek to comprehend it, to cosmogonies and philosophies, to +creeds and formulae, to catechisms and easy explanations, the +attitude of the samurai, the note of the Book of Samurai, will be +distrust. These things, the samurai will say, are part of the +indulgences that should come before a man submits himself to the +Rule; they are like the early gratifications of young men, +experiences to establish renunciation. The samurai will have emerged +above these things. + +The theology of the Utopian rulers will be saturated with that same +philosophy of uniqueness, that repudiation of anything beyond +similarities and practical parallelisms, that saturates all their +institutions. They will have analysed exhaustively those fallacies +and assumptions that arise between the One and the Many, that have +troubled philosophy since philosophy began. Just as they will have +escaped that delusive unification of every species under its +specific definition that has dominated earthly reasoning, so they +will have escaped the delusive simplification of God that vitiates +all terrestrial theology. They will hold God to be complex and of an +endless variety of aspects, to be expressed by no universal formula +nor approved in any uniform manner. Just as the language of Utopia +will be a synthesis, even so will its God be. The aspect of God is +different in the measure of every man's individuality, and the +intimate thing of religion must, therefore, exist in human solitude, +between man and God alone. Religion in its quintessence is a +relation between God and man; it is perversion to make it a relation +between man and man, and a man may no more reach God through a +priest than love his wife through a priest. But just as a man in +love may refine the interpretation of his feelings and borrow +expression from the poems and music of poietic men, so an individual +man may at his discretion read books of devotion and hear music that +is in harmony with his inchoate feelings. Many of the samurai, +therefore, will set themselves private regimens that will help their +secret religious life, will pray habitually, and read books of +devotion, but with these things the Rule of the order will have +nothing to do. + +Clearly the God of the samurai is a transcendental and mystical God. +So far as the samurai have a purpose in common in maintaining the +State, and the order and progress of the world, so far, by their +discipline and denial, by their public work and effort, they worship +God together. But the fount of motives lies in the individual life, +it lies in silent and deliberate reflections, and at this, the most +striking of all the rules of the samurai aims. For seven consecutive +days in the year, at least, each man or woman under the Rule must go +right out of all the life of man into some wild and solitary place, +must speak to no man or woman, and have no sort of intercourse with +mankind. They must go bookless and weaponless, without pen or paper, +or money. Provisions must be taken for the period of the journey, a +rug or sleeping sack--for they must sleep under the open sky--but +no means of making a fire. They may study maps beforehand to guide +them, showing any difficulties and dangers in the journey, but +they may not carry such helps. They must not go by beaten ways or +wherever there are inhabited houses, but into the bare, quiet places +of the globe--the regions set apart for them. + +This discipline, my double said, was invented to secure a certain +stoutness of heart and body in the members of the order, which +otherwise might have lain open to too many timorous, merely +abstemious, men and women. Many things had been suggested, swordplay +and tests that verged on torture, climbing in giddy places and the +like, before this was chosen. Partly, it is to ensure good training +and sturdiness of body and mind, but partly, also, it is to draw +their minds for a space from the insistent details of life, from the +intricate arguments and the fretting effort to work, from personal +quarrels and personal affections, and the things of the heated room. +Out they must go, clean out of the world. + +Certain great areas are set apart for these yearly pilgrimages +beyond the securities of the State. There are thousands of square +miles of sandy desert in Africa and Asia set apart; much of the +Arctic and Antarctic circles; vast areas of mountain land and frozen +marsh; secluded reserves of forest, and innumerable unfrequented +lines upon the sea. Some are dangerous and laborious routes; some +merely desolate; and there are even some sea journeys that one may +take in the halcyon days as one drifts through a dream. Upon the +seas one must go in a little undecked sailing boat, that may be +rowed in a calm; all the other journeys one must do afoot, none +aiding. There are, about all these desert regions and along most +coasts, little offices at which the samurai says good-bye to the +world of men, and at which they arrive after their minimum time of +silence is overpast. For the intervening days they must be alone +with Nature, necessity, and their own thoughts. + +"It is good?" I said. + +"It is good," my double answered. "We civilised men go back to the +stark Mother that so many of us would have forgotten were it not for +this Rule. And one thinks.... Only two weeks ago I did my journey +for the year. I went with my gear by sea to Tromso, and then inland +to a starting-place, and took my ice-axe and rucksack, and said +good-bye to the world. I crossed over four glaciers; I climbed three +high mountain passes, and slept on moss in desolate valleys. I saw +no human being for seven days. Then I came down through pine woods +to the head of a road that runs to the Baltic shore. Altogether it +was thirteen days before I reported myself again, and had speech +with fellow creatures." + +"And the women do this?" + +"The women who are truly samurai--yes. Equally with the men. Unless +the coming of children intervenes." + +I asked him how it had seemed to him, and what he thought about +during the journey. + +"There is always a sense of effort for me," he said, "when I leave +the world at the outset of the journey. I turn back again and again, +and look at the little office as I go up my mountain side. The first +day and night I'm a little disposed to shirk the job--every year +it's the same--a little disposed, for example, to sling my pack from +my back, and sit down, and go through its contents, and make sure +I've got all my equipment." + +"There's no chance of anyone overtaking you?" + +"Two men mustn't start from the same office on the same route within +six hours of each other. If they come within sight of each other, +they must shun an encounter, and make no sign--unless life is in +danger. All that is arranged beforehand." + +"It would be, of course. Go on telling me of your journey." + +"I dread the night. I dread discomfort and bad weather. I only begin +to brace up after the second day." + +"Don't you worry about losing your way?" + +"No. There are cairns and skyline signs. If it wasn't for that, of +course we should be worrying with maps the whole time. But I'm only +sure of being a man after the second night, and sure of my power to +go through." + +"And then?" + +"Then one begins to get into it. The first two days one is apt to +have the events of one's journey, little incidents of travel, and +thoughts of one's work and affairs, rising and fading and coming +again; but then the perspectives begin. I don't sleep much at nights +on these journeys; I lie awake and stare at the stars. About dawn, +perhaps, and in the morning sunshine, I sleep! The nights this last +time were very short, never more than twilight, and I saw the glow +of the sun always, just over the edge of the world. But I had chosen +the days of the new moon, so that I could have a glimpse of the +stars.... Years ago, I went from the Nile across the Libyan Desert +east, and then the stars--the stars in the later days of that +journey--brought me near weeping.... You begin to feel alone on the +third day, when you find yourself out on some shining snowfield, and +nothing of mankind visible in the whole world save one landmark, one +remote thin red triangle of iron, perhaps, in the saddle of the +ridge against the sky. All this busy world that has done so much and +so marvellously, and is still so little--you see it little as it +is--and far off. All day long you go and the night comes, and it +might be another planet. Then, in the quiet, waking hours, one +thinks of one's self and the great external things, of space and +eternity, and what one means by God." + +He mused. + +"You think of death?" + +"Not of my own. But when I go among snows and desolations--and +usually I take my pilgrimage in mountains or the north--I think very +much of the Night of this World--the time when our sun will be red +and dull, and air and water will lie frozen together in a common +snowfield where now the forests of the tropics are steaming.... I +think very much of that, and whether it is indeed God's purpose that +our kind should end, and the cities we have built, the books we have +written, all that we have given substance and a form, should lie +dead beneath the snows." + +"You don't believe that?" + +"No. But if it is not so----. I went threading my way among gorges +and precipices, with my poor brain dreaming of what the alternative +should be, with my imagination straining and failing. Yet, in those +high airs and in such solitude, a kind of exaltation comes to +men.... I remember that one night I sat up and told the rascal stars +very earnestly how they should not escape us in the end." + +He glanced at me for a moment as though he doubted I should +understand. + +"One becomes a personification up there," he said. "One becomes the +ambassador of mankind to the outer world. + +"There is time to think over a lot of things. One puts one's self +and one's ambition in a new pair of scales.... + +"Then there are hours when one is just exploring the wilderness like +a child. Sometimes perhaps one gets a glimpse from some precipice +edge of the plains far away, and houses and roadways, and remembers +there is still a busy world of men. And at last one turns one's feet +down some slope, some gorge that leads back. You come down, perhaps, +into a pine forest, and hear that queer clatter reindeer make--and +then, it may be, see a herdsman very far away, watching you. You +wear your pilgrim's badge, and he makes no sign of seeing +you.... + +"You know, after these solitudes, I feel just the same queer +disinclination to go back to the world of men that I feel when I +have to leave it. I think of dusty roads and hot valleys, and being +looked at by many people. I think of the trouble of working with +colleagues and opponents. This last journey I outstayed my time, +camping in the pine woods for six days. Then my thoughts came round +to my proper work again. I got keen to go on with it, and so I came +back into the world. You come back physically clean--as though you +had had your arteries and veins washed out. And your brain has been +cleaned, too.... I shall stick to the mountains now until I am old, +and then I shall sail a boat in Polynesia. That is what so many old +men do. Only last year one of the great leaders of the samurai--a +white-haired man, who followed the Rule in spite of his one hundred +and eleven years--was found dead in his boat far away from any land, +far to the south, lying like a child asleep...." + +"That's better than a tumbled bed," said I, "and some boy of a +doctor jabbing you with injections, and distressful people hovering +about you." + +"Yes," said my double; "in Utopia we who are samurai die better than +that.... Is that how your great men die?" + +It came to me suddenly as very strange that, even as we sat and +talked, across deserted seas, on burning sands, through the still +aisles of forests, and in all the high and lonely places of the +world, beyond the margin where the ways and houses go, solitary men +and women sailed alone or marched alone, or clambered--quiet, +resolute exiles; they stood alone amidst wildernesses of ice, on the +precipitous banks of roaring torrents, in monstrous caverns, or +steering a tossing boat in the little circle of the horizon amidst +the tumbled, incessant sea, all in their several ways communing with +the emptiness, the enigmatic spaces and silences, the winds and +torrents and soulless forces that lie about the lit and ordered life +of men. + +I saw more clearly now something I had seen dimly already, in the +bearing and the faces of this Utopian chivalry, a faint persistent +tinge of detachment from the immediate heats and hurries, the little +graces and delights, the tensions and stimulations of the daily +world. It pleased me strangely to think of this steadfast yearly +pilgrimage of solitude, and how near men might come then to the high +distances of God. + + +Section 8 + +After that I remember we fell talking of the discipline of the Rule, +of the Courts that try breaches of it, and interpret doubtful +cases--for, though a man may resign with due notice and be free +after a certain time to rejoin again, one deliberate breach may +exclude a man for ever--of the system of law that has grown up about +such trials, and of the triennial council that revises and alters +the Rule. From that we passed to the discussion of the general +constitution of this World State. Practically all political power +vests in the samurai. Not only are they the only administrators, +lawyers, practising doctors, and public officials of almost all +kinds, but they are the only voters. Yet, by a curious exception, +the supreme legislative assembly must have one-tenth, and may have +one-half of its members outside the order, because, it is alleged, +there is a sort of wisdom that comes of sin and laxness, which is +necessary to the perfect ruling of life. My double quoted me a verse +from the Canon on this matter that my unfortunate verbal memory did +not retain, but it was in the nature of a prayer to save the world +from "unfermented men." It would seem that Aristotle's idea of a +rotation of rulers, an idea that crops up again in Harrington's +Oceana, that first Utopia of "the sovereign people" (a Utopia that, +through Danton's readings in English, played a disastrous part in +the French Revolution), gets a little respect in Utopia. The +tendency is to give a practically permanent tenure to good men. +Every ruler and official, it is true, is put on his trial every +three years before a jury drawn by lot, according to the range of +his activities, either from the samurai of his municipal area or +from the general catalogue of the samurai, but the business of this +jury is merely to decide whether to continue him in office or order +a new election. In the majority of cases the verdict is +continuation. Even if it is not so the official may still appear as +a candidate before the second and separate jury which fills the +vacant post.... + +My double mentioned a few scattered details of the electoral +methods, but as at that time I believed we were to have a number of +further conversations, I did not exhaust my curiosities upon this +subject. Indeed, I was more than a little preoccupied and +inattentive. The religion of the samurai was after my heart, and it +had taken hold of me very strongly.... But presently I fell +questioning him upon the complications that arise in the Modern +Utopia through the differences between the races of men, and found +my attention returning. But the matter of that discussion I shall +put apart into a separate chapter. In the end we came back to the +particulars of this great Rule of Life that any man desiring of +joining the samurai must follow. + +I remember how, after our third bout of talking, I walked back +through the streets of Utopian London to rejoin the botanist at our +hotel. + +My double lived in an apartment in a great building--I should judge +about where, in our London, the Tate Gallery squats, and, as the day +was fine, and I had no reason for hurry, I went not by the covered +mechanical way, but on foot along the broad, tree-set terraces that +follow the river on either side. + +It was afternoon, and the mellow Thames Valley sunlight, warm and +gentle, lit a clean and gracious world. There were many people +abroad, going to and fro, unhurrying, but not aimless, and I watched +them so attentively that were you to ask me for the most elementary +details of the buildings and terraces that lay back on either bank, +or of the pinnacles and towers and parapets that laced the sky, I +could not tell you them. But of the people I could tell a great +deal. + +No Utopians wear black, and for all the frequency of the samurai +uniform along the London ways the general effect is of a +gaily-coloured population. You never see anyone noticeably ragged or +dirty; the police, who answer questions and keep order (and are +quite distinct from the organisation for the pursuit of criminals) +see to that; and shabby people are very infrequent. People who want +to save money for other purposes, or who do not want much bother +with their clothing, seem to wear costumes of rough woven cloth, +dyed an unobtrusive brown or green, over fine woollen underclothing, +and so achieve a decent comfort in its simplest form. Others outside +the Rule of the samurai range the spectrum for colour, and have +every variety of texture; the colours attained by the Utopian dyers +seem to me to be fuller and purer than the common range of stuffs on +earth; and the subtle folding of the woollen materials witness that +Utopian Bradford is no whit behind her earthly sister. White is +extraordinarily frequent; white woollen tunics and robes into which +are woven bands of brilliant colour, abound. Often these ape the cut +and purple edge that distinguishes the samurai. In Utopian London +the air is as clear and less dusty than it is among high mountains; +the roads are made of unbroken surfaces, and not of friable earth; +all heating is done by electricity, and no coal ever enters the +town; there are no horses or dogs, and so there is not a suspicion +of smoke and scarcely a particle of any sort of dirt to render white +impossible. + +The radiated influence of the uniform of the samurai has been to +keep costume simple, and this, perhaps, emphasises the general +effect of vigorous health, of shapely bodies. Everyone is well grown +and well nourished; everyone seems in good condition; everyone walks +well, and has that clearness of eye that comes with cleanness of +blood. In London I am apt to consider myself of a passable size and +carriage; here I feel small and mean-looking. The faint suspicions +of spinal curvatures, skew feet, unequal legs, and ill-grown bones, +that haunt one in a London crowd, the plain intimations--in yellow +faces, puffy faces, spotted and irregular complexions, in nervous +movements and coughs and colds--of bad habits and an incompetent or +disregarded medical profession, do not appear here. I notice few old +people, but there seems to be a greater proportion of men and women +at or near the prime of life. + +I hang upon that. I have seen one or two fat people here--they are +all the more noticeable because they are rare. But wrinkled age? +Have I yet in Utopia set eyes on a bald head? + +The Utopians have brought a sounder physiological science than ours +to bear upon regimen. People know better what to do and what to +avoid, how to foresee and forestall coming trouble, and how to evade +and suppress the subtle poisons that blunt the edge of sensation. +They have put off the years of decay. They keep their teeth, they +keep their digestions, they ward off gout and rheumatism, neuralgia +and influenza and all those cognate decays that bend and wrinkle men +and women in the middle years of existence. They have extended the +level years far into the seventies, and age, when it comes, comes +swiftly and easily. The feverish hurry of our earth, the decay that +begins before growth has ceased, is replaced by a ripe prolonged +maturity. This modern Utopia is an adult world. The flushed romance, +the predominant eroticisms, the adventurous uncertainty of a world +in which youth prevails, gives place here to a grave deliberation, +to a fuller and more powerful emotion, to a broader handling of +life. + +Yet youth is here. + +Amidst the men whose faces have been made fine by thought and +steadfast living, among the serene-eyed women, comes youth, +gaily-coloured, buoyantly healthy, with challenging eyes, with fresh +and eager face.... + +For everyone in Utopia who is sane enough to benefit, study and +training last until twenty; then comes the travel year, and many are +still students until twenty-four or twenty-five. Most are still, in +a sense, students throughout life, but it is thought that, unless +responsible action is begun in some form in the early twenties, will +undergoes a partial atrophy. But the full swing of adult life is +hardly attained until thirty is reached. Men marry before the middle +thirties, and the women rather earlier, few are mothers before +five-and-twenty. The majority of those who become samurai do so +between twenty-seven and thirty-five. And, between seventeen and +thirty, the Utopians have their dealings with love, and the play and +excitement of love is a chief interest in life. Much freedom of act +is allowed them so that their wills may grow freely. For the most +part they end mated, and love gives place to some special and more +enduring interest, though, indeed, there is love between older men +and fresh girls, and between youths and maturer women. It is in +these most graceful and beautiful years of life that such freedoms +of dress as the atmosphere of Utopia permits are to be seen, and the +crude bright will and imagination of youth peeps out in ornament and +colour. + +Figures come into my sight and possess me for a moment and pass, and +give place to others; there comes a dusky little Jewess, red-lipped +and amber-clad, with a deep crimson flower--I know not whether real +or sham--in the dull black of her hair. She passes me with an +unconscious disdain; and then I am looking at a brightly-smiling, +blue-eyed girl, tall, ruddy, and freckled warmly, clad like a stage +Rosalind, and talking gaily to a fair young man, a novice under the +Rule. A red-haired mother under the Lesser Rule goes by, green-gowned, +with dark green straps crossing between her breasts, and her two +shock-headed children, bare-legged and lightly shod, tug at her +hands on either side. Then a grave man in a long, fur-trimmed robe, +a merchant, maybe, debates some serious matter with a white-tunicked +clerk. And the clerk's face----? I turn to mark the straight, +blue-black hair. The man must be Chinese.... + +Then come two short-bearded men in careless indigo blue raiment, +both of them convulsed with laughter--men outside the Rule, who +practise, perhaps, some art--and then one of the samurai, in +cheerful altercation with a blue-robed girl of eight. "But you +_could_ have come back yesterday, Dadda," she persists. He is deeply +sunburnt, and suddenly there passes before my mind the picture of a +snowy mountain waste at night-fall and a solitary small figure under +the stars.... + +When I come back to the present thing again, my eye is caught +at once by a young negro, carrying books in his hand, a +prosperous-looking, self-respecting young negro, in a trimly-cut +coat of purple-blue and silver. + +I am reminded of what my double said to me of race. + + + +CHAPTER THE TENTH + +Race in Utopia + + +Section 1 + +Above the sphere of the elemental cravings and necessities, the soul +of man is in a perpetual vacillation between two conflicting +impulses: the desire to assert his individual differences, the +desire for distinction, and his terror of isolation. He wants to +stand out, but not too far out, and, on the contrary, he wants +to merge himself with a group, with some larger body, but not +altogether. Through all the things of life runs this tortuous +compromise, men follow the fashions but resent ready-made uniforms +on every plane of their being. The disposition to form aggregations +and to imagine aggregations is part of the incurable nature of man; +it is one of the great natural forces the statesman must utilise, +and against which he must construct effectual defences. The study of +the aggregations and of the ideals of aggregations about which men's +sympathies will twine, and upon which they will base a large +proportion of their conduct and personal policy, is the legitimate +definition of sociology. + +Now the sort of aggregation to which men and women will refer +themselves is determined partly by the strength and idiosyncrasy of +the individual imagination, and partly by the reek of ideas that +chances to be in the air at the time. Men and women may vary greatly +both in their innate and their acquired disposition towards this +sort of larger body or that, to which their social reference can be +made. The "natural" social reference of a man is probably to some +rather vaguely conceived tribe, as the "natural" social reference of +a dog is to a pack. But just as the social reference of a dog may be +educated until the reference to a pack is completely replaced by a +reference to an owner, so on his higher plane of educability the +social reference of the civilised man undergoes the most remarkable +transformations. But the power and scope of his imagination and the +need he has of response sets limits to this process. A highly +intellectualised mature mind may refer for its data very +consistently to ideas of a higher being so remote and indefinable as +God, so comprehensive as humanity, so far-reaching as the purpose in +things. I write "may," but I doubt if this exaltation of reference +is ever permanently sustained. Comte, in his Positive Polity, +exposes his soul with great freedom, and the curious may trace how, +while he professes and quite honestly intends to refer himself +always to his "Greater Being" Humanity, he narrows constantly to his +projected "Western Republic" of civilised men, and quite frequently +to the minute indefinite body of Positivist subscribers. And the +history of the Christian Church, with its development of orders and +cults, sects and dissents, the history of fashionable society with +its cliques and sets and every political history with its cabals and +inner cabinets, witness to the struggle that goes on in the minds of +men to adjust themselves to a body larger indeed than themselves, +but which still does not strain and escape their imaginative +grasp. + +The statesman, both for himself and others, must recognise this +inadequacy of grasp, and the necessity for real and imaginary +aggregations to sustain men in their practical service of the order +of the world. He must be a sociologist; he must study the whole +science of aggregations in relation to that World State to which his +reason and his maturest thought direct him. He must lend himself to +the development of aggregatory ideas that favour the civilising +process, and he must do his best to promote the disintegration of +aggregations and the effacement of aggregatory ideas, that keep men +narrow and unreasonably prejudiced one against another. + +He will, of course, know that few men are even rudely consistent in +such matters, that the same man in different moods and on different +occasions, is capable of referring himself in perfect good faith, +not only to different, but to contradictory larger beings, and that +the more important thing about an aggregatory idea from the State +maker's point of view is not so much what it explicitly involves as +what it implicitly repudiates. The natural man does not feel he is +aggregating at all, unless he aggregates _against something. He +refers himself to the tribe; he is loyal to the tribe, and quite +inseparably he fears or dislikes those others outside the tribe. The +tribe is always at least defensively hostile and usually actively +hostile to humanity beyond the aggregation. The Anti-idea, it would +seem, is inseparable from the aggregatory idea; it is a necessity of +the human mind. When we think of the class A as desirable, we think +of Not-A as undesirable. The two things are as inevitably connected +as the tendons of our hands, so that when we flatten down our little +fingers on our palms, the fourth digit, whether we want it or not, +comes down halfway. All real working gods, one may remark, all gods +that are worshipped emotionally, are tribal gods, and every attempt +to universalise the idea of God trails dualism and the devil after +it as a moral necessity. + +When we inquire, as well as the unformed condition of terrestrial +sociology permits, into the aggregatory ideas that seem to satisfy +men, we find a remarkable complex, a disorderly complex, in the +minds of nearly all our civilised contemporaries. For example, all +sorts of aggregatory ideas come and go across the chameleon surfaces +of my botanist's mind. He has a strong feeling for systematic +botanists as against plant physiologists, whom he regards as lewd +and evil scoundrels in this relation, but he has a strong feeling +for all botanists, and, indeed, all biologists, as against +physicists, and those who profess the exact sciences, all of whom he +regards as dull, mechanical, ugly-minded scoundrels in this +relation; but he has a strong feeling for all who profess what is +called Science as against psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, +and literary men, whom he regards as wild, foolish, immoral +scoundrels in this relation; but he has a strong feeling for all +educated men as against the working man, whom he regards as a +cheating, lying, loafing, drunken, thievish, dirty scoundrel in this +relation; but so soon as the working man is comprehended together +with those others, as Englishmen--which includes, in this case, I +may remark, the Scottish and Welsh--he holds them superior to all +other sorts of European, whom he regards, &c.... + +Now one perceives in all these aggregatory ideas and rearrangements +of the sympathies one of the chief vices of human thought, due to +its obsession by classificatory suggestions. [Footnote: See Chapter +the First, section 5, and the Appendix.] The necessity for marking +our classes has brought with it a bias for false and excessive +contrast, and we never invent a term but we are at once cramming it +with implications beyond its legitimate content. There is no feat of +irrelevance that people will not perform quite easily in this way; +there is no class, however accidental, to which they will not at +once ascribe deeply distinctive qualities. The seventh sons of +seventh sons have remarkable powers of insight; people with a +certain sort of ear commit crimes of violence; people with red hair +have souls of fire; all democratic socialists are trustworthy +persons; all people born in Ireland have vivid imaginations and all +Englishmen are clods; all Hindoos are cowardly liars; all +curly-haired people are good-natured; all hunch-backs are energetic +and wicked, and all Frenchmen eat frogs. Such stupid generalisations +have been believed with the utmost readiness, and acted upon by +great numbers of sane, respectable people. And when the class is +one's own class, when it expresses one of the aggregations to which +one refers one's own activities, then the disposition to divide all +qualities between this class and its converse, and to cram one's own +class with every desirable distinction, becomes overwhelming. + +It is part of the training of the philosopher to regard all such +generalisations with suspicion; it is part of the training of the +Utopist and statesman, and all good statesmen are Utopists, to +mingle something very like animosity with that suspicion. For crude +classifications and false generalisations are the curse of all +organised human life. + + +Section 2 + +Disregarding classes, cliques, sets, castes, and the like minor +aggregations, concerned for the most part with details and minor +aspects of life, one finds among the civilised peoples of the world +certain broad types of aggregatory idea. There are, firstly, the +national ideas, ideas which, in their perfection, require a +uniformity of physical and mental type, a common idiom, a common +religion, a distinctive style of costume, decoration, and thought, +and a compact organisation acting with complete external unity. Like +the Gothic cathedral, the national idea is never found complete with +all its parts; but one has in Russia, with her insistence on +political and religious orthodoxy, something approaching it pretty +closely, and again in the inland and typical provinces of China, +where even a strange pattern of hat arouses hostility. We had it in +vigorous struggle to exist in England under the earlier Georges in +the minds of those who supported the Established Church. The idea of +the fundamental nature of nationality is so ingrained in thought, +with all the usual exaggeration of implication, that no one laughs +at talk about Swedish painting or American literature. And I will +confess and point out that my own detachment from these delusions is +so imperfect and discontinuous that in another passage I have +committed myself to a short assertion of the exceptionally noble +quality of the English imagination. [Footnote: Chapter the Seventh, +section 6.] I am constantly gratified by flattering untruths about +English superiority which I should reject indignantly were the +application bluntly personal, and I am ever ready to believe the +scenery of England, the poetry of England, even the decoration and +music of England, in some mystic and impregnable way, the best. This +habit of intensifying all class definitions, and particularly those +in which one has a personal interest, is in the very constitution of +man's mind. It is part of the defect of that instrument. We may +watch against it and prevent it doing any great injustices, or +leading us into follies, but to eradicate it is an altogether +different matter. There it is, to be reckoned with, like the coccyx, +the pineal eye, and the vermiform appendix. And a too consistent +attack on it may lead simply to its inversion, to a vindictively +pro-foreigner attitude that is equally unwise. + +The second sort of aggregatory ideas, running very often across the +boundaries of national ideas and in conflict with them, are +religious ideas. In Western Europe true national ideas only emerged +to their present hectic vigour after the shock of the Reformation +had liberated men from the great tradition of a Latin-speaking +Christendom, a tradition the Roman Catholic Church has sustained as +its modification of the old Latin-speaking Imperialism in the rule +of the pontifex maximus. There was, and there remains to this day, a +profound disregard of local dialect and race in the Roman Catholic +tradition, which has made that Church a persistently disintegrating +influence in national life. Equally spacious and equally regardless +of tongues and peoples is the great Arabic-speaking religion of +Mahomet. Both Christendom and Islam are indeed on their secular +sides imperfect realisations of a Utopian World State. But the +secular side was the weaker side of these cults; they produced no +sufficiently great statesmen to realise their spiritual forces, and +it is not in Rome under pontifical rule, nor in Munster under the +Anabaptists, but rather in Thomas a Kempis and Saint Augustin's City +of God that we must seek for the Utopias of Christianity. + +In the last hundred years a novel development of material forces, +and especially of means of communication, has done very much to +break up the isolations in which nationality perfected its +prejudices and so to render possible the extension and consolidation +of such a world-wide culture as mediaeval Christendom and Islam +foreshadowed. The first onset of these expansive developments has +been marked in the world of mind by an expansion of political +ideals--Comte's "Western Republic" (1848) was the first Utopia that +involved the synthesis of numerous States--by the development of +"Imperialisms" in the place of national policies, and by the search +for a basis for wider political unions in racial traditions and +linguistic affinities. Anglo-Saxonism, Pan-Germanism, and the like +are such synthetic ideas. Until the eighties, the general tendency +of progressive thought was at one with the older Christian tradition +which ignored "race," and the aim of the expansive liberalism +movement, so far as it had a clear aim, was to Europeanise the +world, to extend the franchise to negroes, put Polynesians into +trousers, and train the teeming myriads of India to appreciate the +exquisite lilt of The Lady of the Lake. There is always some +absurdity mixed with human greatness, and we must not let the fact +that the middle Victorians counted Scott, the suffrage and +pantaloons among the supreme blessings of life, conceal from us the +very real nobility of their dream of England's mission to the +world.... + +We of this generation have seen a flood of reaction against such +universalism. The great intellectual developments that centre upon +the work of Darwin have exacerbated the realisation that life is a +conflict between superior and inferior types, it has underlined the +idea that specific survival rates are of primary significance in the +world's development, and a swarm of inferior intelligences has +applied to human problems elaborated and exaggerated versions of +these generalisations. These social and political followers of +Darwin have fallen into an obvious confusion between race and +nationality, and into the natural trap of patriotic conceit. The +dissent of the Indian and Colonial governing class to the first +crude applications of liberal propositions in India has found a +voice of unparalleled penetration in Mr. Kipling, whose want of +intellectual deliberation is only equalled by his poietic power. The +search for a basis for a new political synthesis in adaptable +sympathies based on linguistic affinities, was greatly influenced by +Max Muller's unaccountable assumption that language indicated +kindred, and led straight to wildly speculative ethnology, to the +discovery that there was a Keltic race, a Teutonic race, an +Indo-European race, and so forth. A book that has had enormous +influence in this matter, because of its use in teaching, is J. R. +Green's Short History of the English People, with its grotesque +insistence upon Anglo-Saxonism. And just now, the world is in a sort +of delirium about race and the racial struggle. The Briton +forgetting his Defoe, [Footnote: The True-born Englishman.] the Jew +forgetting the very word proselyte, the German forgetting his +anthropometric variations, and the Italian forgetting everything, +are obsessed by the singular purity of their blood, and the danger +of contamination the mere continuance of other races involves. True +to the law that all human aggregation involves the development of a +spirit of opposition to whatever is external to the aggregation, +extraordinary intensifications of racial definition are going on; +the vileness, the inhumanity, the incompatibility of alien races is +being steadily exaggerated. The natural tendency of every human +being towards a stupid conceit in himself and his kind, a stupid +depreciation of all unlikeness, is traded upon by this bastard +science. With the weakening of national references, and with the +pause before reconstruction in religious belief, these new arbitrary +and unsubstantial race prejudices become daily more formidable. They +are shaping policies and modifying laws, and they will certainly be +responsible for a large proportion of the wars, hardships, and +cruelties the immediate future holds in store for our earth. + +No generalisations about race are too extravagant for the inflamed +credulity of the present time. No attempt is ever made to +distinguish differences in inherent quality--the true racial +differences--from artificial differences due to culture. No lesson +seems ever to be drawn from history of the fluctuating incidence of +the civilising process first upon this race and then upon that. The +politically ascendant peoples of the present phase are understood to +be the superior races, including such types as the Sussex farm +labourer, the Bowery tough, the London hooligan, and the Paris +apache; the races not at present prospering politically, such as the +Egyptians, the Greeks, the Spanish, the Moors, the Chinese, the +Hindoos, the Peruvians, and all uncivilised people are represented +as the inferior races, unfit to associate with the former on terms +of equality, unfit to intermarry with them on any terms, unfit for +any decisive voice in human affairs. In the popular imagination of +Western Europe, the Chinese are becoming bright gamboge in colour, +and unspeakably abominable in every respect; the people who are +black--the people who have fuzzy hair and flattish noses, and no +calves to speak of--are no longer held to be within the pale of +humanity. These superstitions work out along the obvious lines of +the popular logic. The depopulation of the Congo Free State by the +Belgians, the horrible massacres of Chinese by European soldiery +during the Pekin expedition, are condoned as a painful but necessary +part of the civilising process of the world. The world-wide +repudiation of slavery in the nineteenth century was done against a +vast sullen force of ignorant pride, which, reinvigorated by the +new delusions, swings back again to power. + +"Science" is supposed to lend its sanction to race mania, but it is +only "science" as it is understood by very illiterate people that +does anything of the sort--"scientists'" science, in fact. What +science has to tell about "The Races of Man" will be found compactly +set forth by Doctor J. Deinker, in the book published under that +title. [Footnote: See also an excellent paper in the American +Journal of Sociology for March, 1904, The Psychology of Race +Prejudice, by W. I. Thomas.] From that book one may learn the +beginnings of race charity. Save for a few isolated pools of savage +humanity, there is probably no pure race in the whole world. The +great continental populations are all complex mixtures of numerous +and fluctuating types. Even the Jews present every kind of skull +that is supposed to be racially distinctive, a vast range of +complexion--from blackness in Goa, to extreme fairness in +Holland--and a vast mental and physical diversity. Were the Jews +to discontinue all intermarriage with "other races" henceforth +for ever, it would depend upon quite unknown laws of fecundity, +prepotency, and variability, what their final type would be, or, +indeed, whether any particular type would ever prevail over +diversity. And, without going beyond the natives of the British +Isles, one can discover an enormous range of types, tall and short, +straight-haired and curly, fair and dark, supremely intelligent and +unteachably stupid, straightforward, disingenuous, and what not. The +natural tendency is to forget all this range directly "race" comes +under discussion, to take either an average or some quite arbitrary +ideal as the type, and think only of that. The more difficult thing +to do, but the thing that must be done if we are to get just results +in this discussion, is to do one's best to bear the range in +mind. + +Let us admit that the average Chinaman is probably different in +complexion, and, indeed, in all his physical and psychical +proportions, from the average Englishman. Does that render their +association upon terms of equality in a World State impossible? What +the average Chinaman or Englishman may be, is of no importance +whatever to our plan of a World State. It is not averages that +exist, but individuals. The average Chinaman will never meet the +average Englishman anywhere; only individual Chinamen will meet +individual Englishmen. Now among Chinamen will be found a range of +variety as extensive as among Englishmen, and there is no single +trait presented by all Chinamen and no Englishman, or vice versa. +Even the oblique eye is not universal in China, and there are +probably many Chinamen who might have been "changed at birth," taken +away and educated into quite passable Englishmen. Even after we have +separated out and allowed for the differences in carriage, physique, +moral prepossessions, and so forth, due to their entirely divergent +cultures, there remains, no doubt, a very great difference between +the average Chinaman and the average Englishman; but would that +amount to a wider difference than is to be found between extreme +types of Englishmen? + +For my own part I do not think that it would. But it is evident that +any precise answer can be made only when anthropology has adopted +much more exact and exhaustive methods of inquiry, and a far more +precise analysis than its present resources permit. + +Be it remembered how doubtful and tainted is the bulk of our +evidence in these matters. These are extraordinarily subtle +inquiries, from which few men succeed in disentangling the threads +of their personal associations--the curiously interwoven strands of +self-love and self-interest that affect their inquiries. One might +almost say that instinct fights against such investigations, as it +does undoubtedly against many necessary medical researches. But +while a long special training, a high tradition and the possibility +of reward and distinction, enable the medical student to face many +tasks that are at once undignified and physically repulsive, the +people from whom we get our anthropological information are rarely +men of more than average intelligence, and of no mental training at +all. And the problems are far more elusive. It surely needs at least +the gifts and training of a first-class novelist, combined with a +sedulous patience that probably cannot be hoped for in combination +with these, to gauge the all-round differences between man and man. +Even where there are no barriers of language and colour, +understanding may be nearly impossible. How few educated people seem +to understand the servant class in England, or the working men! +Except for Mr. Bart Kennedy's A Man Adrift, I know of scarcely any +book that shows a really sympathetic and living understanding of the +navvy, the longshore sailor man, the rough chap of our own race. +Caricatures, luridly tragic or gaily comic, in which the +misconceptions of the author blend with the preconceptions of the +reader and achieve success, are, of course, common enough. And then +consider the sort of people who pronounce judgments on the moral and +intellectual capacity of the negro, the Malay, or the Chinaman. You +have missionaries, native schoolmasters, employers of coolies, +traders, simple downright men, who scarcely suspect the existence +of any sources of error in their verdicts, who are incapable of +understanding the difference between what is innate and what is +acquired, much less of distinguishing them in their interplay. Now +and then one seems to have a glimpse of something really living--in +Mary Kingsley's buoyant work, for instance--and even that may be no +more than my illusion. + +For my own part I am disposed to discount all adverse judgments and +all statements of insurmountable differences between race and race. +I talk upon racial qualities to all men who have had opportunities +of close observation, and I find that their insistence upon these +differences is usually in inverse proportion to their intelligence. +It may be the chance of my encounters, but that is my clear +impression. Common sailors will generalise in the profoundest way +about Irishmen, and Scotchmen, and Yankees, and Nova Scotians, and +"Dutchies," until one might think one talked of different species of +animal, but the educated explorer flings clear of all these +delusions. To him men present themselves individualised, and if they +classify it is by some skin-deep accident of tint, some trick of the +tongue, or habit of gesture, or such-like superficiality. And after +all there exists to-day available one kind at least of unbiassed +anthropological evidence. There are photographs. Let the reader turn +over the pages of some such copiously illustrated work as The Living +Races of Mankind, [Footnote: The Living Races of Mankind, by H. N. +Hutchinson, J. W. Gregory, and R. Lydekker. (Hutchinson.)] and look +into the eyes of one alien face after another. Are they not very +like the people one knows? For the most part, one finds it hard to +believe that, with a common language and common social traditions, +one would not get on very well with these people. Here or there is +a brutish or evil face, but you can find as brutish and evil in +the Strand on any afternoon. There are differences no doubt, but +fundamental incompatibilities--no! And very many of them send out +a ray of special resemblance and remind one more strongly of this +friend or that, than they do of their own kind. One notes with +surprise that one's good friend and neighbour X and an anonymous +naked Gold Coast negro belong to one type, as distinguished from +one's dear friend Y and a beaming individual from Somaliland, who +as certainly belong to another. + +In one matter the careless and prejudiced nature of accepted racial +generalisations is particularly marked. A great and increasing +number of people are persuaded that "half-breeds" are peculiarly +evil creatures--as hunchbacks and bastards were supposed to be in +the middle ages. The full legend of the wickedness of the half-breed +is best to be learnt from a drunken mean white from Virginia or the +Cape. The half-breed, one hears, combines all the vices of either +parent, he is wretchedly poor in health and spirit, but vindictive, +powerful, and dangerous to an extreme degree, his morals--the mean +white has high and exacting standards--are indescribable even in +whispers in a saloon, and so on, and so on. There is really not an +atom of evidence an unprejudiced mind would accept to sustain any +belief of the sort. There is nothing to show that the children of +racial admixture are, as a class, inherently either better or worse +in any respect than either parent. There is an equally baseless +theory that they are better, a theory displayed to a fine degree of +foolishness in the article on Shakespeare in the Encyclopaedia +Britannica. Both theories belong to the vast edifice of sham science +that smothers the realities of modern knowledge. It may be that most +"half-breeds" are failures in life, but that proves nothing. They +are, in an enormous number of cases, illegitimate and outcast from +the normal education of either race; they are brought up in homes +that are the battle-grounds of conflicting cultures; they labour +under a heavy premium of disadvantage. There is, of course, a +passing suggestion of Darwin's to account for atavism that might go +to support the theory of the vileness of half-breeds, if it had ever +been proved. But, then, it never has been proved. There is no proof +in the matter at all. + + +Section 3 + +Suppose, now, there is such a thing as an all-round inferior race. +Is that any reason why we should propose to preserve it for ever in +a condition of tutelage? Whether there is a race so inferior I do +not know, but certainly there is no race so superior as to be +trusted with human charges. The true answer to Aristotle's plea for +slavery, that there are "natural slaves," lies in the fact that +there are no "natural" masters. Power is no more to be committed to +men without discipline and restriction than alcohol. The true +objection to slavery is not that it is unjust to the inferior but +that it corrupts the superior. There is only one sane and logical +thing to be done with a really inferior race, and that is to +exterminate it. + +Now there are various ways of exterminating a race, and most of them +are cruel. You may end it with fire and sword after the old Hebrew +fashion; you may enslave it and work it to death, as the Spaniards +did the Caribs; you may set it boundaries and then poison it slowly +with deleterious commodities, as the Americans do with most of their +Indians; you may incite it to wear clothing to which it is not +accustomed and to live under new and strange conditions that will +expose it to infectious diseases to which you yourselves are immune, +as the missionaries do the Polynesians; you may resort to honest +simple murder, as we English did with the Tasmanians; or you can +maintain such conditions as conduce to "race suicide," as the +British administration does in Fiji. Suppose, then, for a moment, +that there is an all-round inferior race; a Modern Utopia is under +the hard logic of life, and it would have to exterminate such a race +as quickly as it could. On the whole, the Fijian device seems the +least cruel. But Utopia would do that without any clumsiness of race +distinction, in exactly the same manner, and by the same machinery, +as it exterminates all its own defective and inferior strains; that +is to say, as we have already discussed in Chapter the Fifth, +section 1, by its marriage laws, and by the laws of the minimum +wage. That extinction need never be discriminatory. If any of the +race did, after all, prove to be fit to survive, they would +survive--they would be picked out with a sure and automatic justice +from the over-ready condemnation of all their kind. + +Is there, however, an all-round inferior race in the world? Even the +Australian black-fellow is, perhaps, not quite so entirely eligible +for extinction as a good, wholesome, horse-racing, sheep-farming +Australian white may think. These queer little races, the +black-fellows, the Pigmies, the Bushmen, may have their little +gifts, a greater keenness, a greater fineness of this sense or that, +a quaintness of the imagination or what not, that may serve as their +little unique addition to the totality of our Utopian civilisation. +We are supposing that every individual alive on earth is alive in +Utopia, and so all the surviving "black-fellows" are there. Every +one of them in Utopia has had what none have had on earth, a fair +education and fair treatment, justice, and opportunity. Suppose that +the common idea is right about the general inferiority of these +people, then it would follow that in Utopia most of them are +childless, and working at or about the minimum wage, and some will +have passed out of all possibility of offspring under the hand of +the offended law; but still--cannot we imagine some few of these +little people--whom you must suppose neither naked nor clothed in +the European style, but robed in the Utopian fashion--may have found +some delicate art to practise, some peculiar sort of carving, for +example, that justifies God in creating them? Utopia has sound +sanitary laws, sound social laws, sound economic laws; what harm are +these people going to do? + +Some may be even prosperous and admired, may have married women of +their own or some other race, and so may be transmitting that +distinctive thin thread of excellence, to take its due place in the +great synthesis of the future. + +And, indeed, coming along that terrace in Utopia, I see a little +figure, a little bright-eyed, bearded man, inky black, frizzy +haired, and clad in a white tunic and black hose, and with a mantle +of lemon yellow wrapped about his shoulders. He walks, as most +Utopians walk, as though he had reason to be proud of something, as +though he had no reason to be afraid of anything in the world. He +carries a portfolio in his hand. It is that, I suppose, as much as +his hair, that recalls the Quartier Latin to my mind. + + +Section 4 + +I had already discussed the question of race with the botanist at +Lucerne. + +"But you would not like," he cried in horror, "your daughter to +marry a Chinaman or a negro?" + +"Of course," said I, "when you say Chinaman, you think of a creature +with a pigtail, long nails, and insanitary habits, and when you say +negro you think of a filthy-headed, black creature in an old hat. +You do this because your imagination is too feeble to disentangle +the inherent qualities of a thing from its habitual associations." + +"Insult isn't argument," said the botanist. + +"Neither is unsound implication. You make a question of race into a +question of unequal cultures. You would not like your daughter to +marry the sort of negro who steals hens, but then you would also not +like your daughter to marry a pure English hunchback with a squint, +or a drunken cab tout of Norman blood. As a matter of fact, very few +well-bred English girls do commit that sort of indiscretion. But you +don't think it necessary to generalise against men of your own race +because there are drunken cab touts, and why should you generalise +against negroes? Because the proportion of undesirables is higher +among negroes, that does not justify a sweeping condemnation. You +may have to condemn most, but why _all_? There may be--neither of us +knows enough to deny--negroes who are handsome, capable, +courageous." + +"Ugh!" said the botanist. + +"How detestable you must find Othello!" + +It is my Utopia, and for a moment I could almost find it in my heart +to spite the botanist by creating a modern Desdemona and her lover +sooty black to the lips, there before our eyes. But I am not so sure +of my case as that, and for the moment there shall come nothing more +than a swart-faced, dusky Burmese woman in the dress of the Greater +Rule, with her tall Englishman (as he might be on earth) at her +side. That, however, is a digression from my conversation with the +botanist. + +"And the Chinaman?" said the botanist. + +"I think we shall have all the buff and yellow peoples intermingling +pretty freely." + +"Chinamen and white women, for example." + +"Yes," I said, "you've got to swallow that, anyhow; you _shall_ +swallow that." + +He finds the idea too revolting for comment. + +I try and make the thing seem easier for him. "Do try," I said, "to +grasp a Modern Utopian's conditions. The Chinaman will speak the +same language as his wife--whatever her race may be--he will wear +costume of the common civilised fashion, he will have much the same +education as his European rival, read the same literature, bow to +the same traditions. And you must remember a wife in Utopia is +singularly not subject to her husband...." + +The botanist proclaims his invincible conclusion: "Everyone would +cut her!" + +"This is Utopia," I said, and then sought once more to tranquillise +his mind. "No doubt among the vulgar, coarse-minded people outside +the Rule there may be something of the sort. Every earthly moral +blockhead, a little educated, perhaps, is to be found in Utopia. You +will, no doubt, find the 'cut' and the 'boycott,' and all those nice +little devices by which dull people get a keen edge on life, in +their place here, and their place here is somewhere----" + +I turned a thumb earthward. "There!" + +The botanist did not answer for a little while. Then he said, with +some temper and great emphasis: "Well, I'm jolly glad anyhow that +I'm not to be a permanent resident in this Utopia, if our daughters +are to be married to Hottentots by regulation. I'm jolly glad." + +He turned his back on me. + +Now did I say anything of the sort? ... + +I had to bring him, I suppose; there's no getting away from him in +this life. But, as I have already observed, the happy ancients went +to their Utopias without this sort of company. + + +Section 5 + +What gives the botanist so great an advantage in all his +Anti-Utopian utterances is his unconsciousness of his own +limitations. He thinks in little pieces that lie about loose, and +nothing has any necessary link with anything else in his mind. So +that I cannot retort upon him by asking him, if he objects to this +synthesis of all nations, tongues and peoples in a World State, what +alternative ideal he proposes. + +People of this sort do not even feel the need of alternatives. +Beyond the scope of a few personal projects, meeting Her again, and +things like that, they do not feel that there is a future. They are +unencumbered by any baggage of convictions whatever, in relation to +that. That, at least, is the only way in which I can explain our +friend's high intellectual mobility. Attempts to correlate +statesmanship, which they regard with interest as a dramatic +interplay of personalities, with any secular movement of humanity, +they class with the differential calculus and Darwinism, as things +far too difficult to be anything but finally and subtly wrong. + +So the argument must pass into a direct address to the reader. + +If you are not prepared to regard a world-wide synthesis of all +cultures and polities and races into one World State as the +desirable end upon which all civilising efforts converge, what do +you regard as the desirable end? Synthesis, one may remark in +passing, does not necessarily mean fusion, nor does it mean +uniformity. + +The alternatives fall roughly under three headings. The first is to +assume there is a best race, to define as well as one can that best +race, and to regard all other races as material for extermination. +This has a fine, modern, biological air ("Survival of the Fittest"). +If you are one of those queer German professors who write insanity +about Welt-Politik, you assume the best race is the "Teutonic"; +Cecil Rhodes affected that triumph of creative imagination, the +"Anglo-Saxon race"; my friend, Moses Cohen, thinks there is much to +be said for the Jew. On its premises, this is a perfectly sound and +reasonable policy, and it opens out a brilliant prospect for the +scientific inventor for what one might call Welt-Apparat in the +future, for national harrowing and reaping machines, and +race-destroying fumigations. The great plain of China ("Yellow +Peril") lends itself particularly to some striking wholesale +undertaking; it might, for example, be flooded for a few days, and +then disinfected with volcanic chlorine. Whether, when all the +inferior races have been stamped out, the superior race would not +proceed at once, or after a brief millennial period of social +harmony, to divide itself into sub-classes, and begin the business +over again at a higher level, is an interesting residual question +into which we need not now penetrate. + +That complete development of a scientific Welt-Politik is not, +however, very widely advocated at present, no doubt from a want of +confidence in the public imagination. We have, however, a very +audible and influential school, the Modern Imperialist school, which +distinguishes its own race--there is a German, a British, and an +Anglo-Saxon section in the school, and a wider teaching which +embraces the whole "white race" in one remarkable tolerance--as the +superior race, as one, indeed, superior enough to own slaves, +collectively, if not individually; and the exponents of this +doctrine look with a resolute, truculent, but slightly indistinct +eye to a future in which all the rest of the world will be in +subjection to these elect. The ideals of this type are set forth +pretty clearly in Mr. Kidd's Control of the Tropics. The whole world +is to be administered by the "white" Powers--Mr. Kidd did not +anticipate Japan--who will see to it that their subjects do not +"prevent the utilisation of the immense natural resources which they +have in charge." Those other races are to be regarded as children, +recalcitrant children at times, and without any of the tender +emotions of paternity. It is a little doubtful whether the races +lacking "in the elementary qualities of social efficiency" are +expected to acquire them under the chastening hands of those races +which, through "strength and energy of character, humanity, probity, +and integrity, and a single-minded devotion to conceptions of duty," +are developing "the resources of the richest regions of the earth" +over their heads, or whether this is the ultimate ideal. + +Next comes the rather incoherent alternative that one associates in +England with official Liberalism. + +Liberalism in England is not quite the same thing as Liberalism in +the rest of the world; it is woven of two strands. There is +Whiggism, the powerful tradition of seventeenth-century Protestant +and republican England, with its great debt to republican Rome, its +strong constructive and disciplinary bias, its broad and originally +very living and intelligent outlook; and interwoven with this there +is the sentimental and logical Liberalism that sprang from the +stresses of the eighteenth century, that finds its early scarce +differentiated expression in Harrington's Oceana, and after fresh +draughts of the tradition of Brutus and Cato and some elegant +trifling with noble savages, budded in La Cite Morellyste, flowered +in the emotional democratic naturalism of Rousseau, and bore +abundant fruit in the French Revolution. These are two very distinct +strands. Directly they were freed in America from the grip of +conflict with British Toryism, they came apart as the Republican and +Democratic parties respectively. Their continued union in Great +Britain is a political accident. Because of this mixture, the whole +career of English-speaking Liberalism, though it has gone to one +unbroken strain of eloquence, has never produced a clear statement +of policy in relation to other peoples politically less fortunate. +It has developed no definite ideas at all about the future of +mankind. The Whig disposition, which once had some play in India, +was certainly to attempt to anglicise the "native," to assimilate +his culture, and then to assimilate his political status with that +of his temporary ruler. But interwoven with this anglicising +tendency, which was also, by the bye, a Christianising tendency, was +a strong disposition, derived from the Rousseau strand, to leave +other peoples alone, to facilitate even the separation and autonomy +of detached portions of our own peoples, to disintegrate finally +into perfect, because lawless, individuals. The official exposition +of British "Liberalism" to-day still wriggles unstably because of +these conflicting constituents, but on the whole the Whig strand now +seems the weaker. The contemporary Liberal politician offers cogent +criticism upon the brutality and conceit of modern imperialisms, but +that seems to be the limit of his service. Taking what they do not +say and do not propose as an indication of Liberal intentions, it +would seem that the ideal of the British Liberals and of the +American Democrats is to favour the existence of just as many petty, +loosely allied, or quite independent nationalities as possible, just +as many languages as possible, to deprecate armies and all controls, +and to trust to the innate goodness of disorder and the powers of an +ardent sentimentality to keep the world clean and sweet. The +Liberals will not face the plain consequence that such a state of +affairs is hopelessly unstable, that it involves the maximum risk of +war with the minimum of permanent benefit and public order. They +will not reflect that the stars in their courses rule inexorably +against it. It is a vague, impossible ideal, with a rude sort of +unworldly moral beauty, like the gospel of the Doukhobors. Besides +that charm it has this most seductive quality to an official British +Liberal, that it does not exact intellectual activity nor indeed +activity of any sort whatever. It is, by virtue of that alone, a far +less mischievous doctrine than the crude and violent Imperialism of +the popular Press. + +Neither of these two schools of policy, neither the international +laisser faire of the Liberals, nor "hustle to the top" Imperialism, +promise any reality of permanent progress for the world of men. They +are the resort, the moral reference, of those who will not think +frankly and exhaustively over the whole field of this question. Do +that, insist upon solutions of more than accidental applicability, +and you emerge with one or other of two contrasted solutions, as the +consciousness of kind or the consciousness of individuality prevails +in your mind. In the former case you will adopt aggressive +Imperialism, but you will carry it out to its "thorough" degree of +extermination. You will seek to develop the culture and power of +your kind of men and women to the utmost in order to shoulder all +other kinds from the earth. If on the other hand you appreciate the +unique, you will aim at such a synthesis as this Utopia displays, a +synthesis far more credible and possible than any other +Welt-Politik. In spite of all the pageant of modern war, synthesis +is in the trend of the world. To aid and develop it, could be made +the open and secure policy of any great modern empire now. Modern +war, modern international hostility is, I believe, possible only +through the stupid illiteracy of the mass of men and the conceit and +intellectual indolence of rulers and those who feed the public mind. +Were the will of the mass of men lit and conscious, I am firmly +convinced it would now burn steadily for synthesis and peace. + +It would be so easy to bring about a world peace within a few +decades, was there but the will for it among men! The great empires +that exist need but a little speech and frankness one with another. +Within, the riddles of social order are already half solved in books +and thought, there are the common people and the subject peoples to +be educated and drilled, to be led to a common speech and a common +literature, to be assimilated and made citizens; without, there is +the possibility of treaties. Why, for example, should Britain and +France, or either and the United States, or Sweden and Norway, or +Holland, or Denmark, or Italy, fight any more for ever? And if there +is no reason, how foolish and dangerous it is still to sustain +linguistic differences and custom houses, and all sorts of foolish +and irritating distinctions between their various citizens! Why +should not all these peoples agree to teach some common language, +French, for example, in their common schools, or to teach each +other's languages reciprocally? Why should they not aim at a common +literature, and bring their various common laws, their marriage +laws, and so on, into uniformity? Why should they not work for a +uniform minimum of labour conditions through all their communities? +Why, then, should they not--except in the interests of a few rascal +plutocrats--trade freely and exchange their citizenship freely +throughout their common boundaries? No doubt there are difficulties +to be found, but they are quite finite difficulties. What is there +to prevent a parallel movement of all the civilised Powers in the +world towards a common ideal and assimilation? + +Stupidity--nothing but stupidity, a stupid brute jealousy, aimless +and unjustifiable. + +The coarser conceptions of aggregation are at hand, the hostile, +jealous patriotisms, the blare of trumpets and the pride of fools; +they serve the daily need though they lead towards disaster. The +real and the immediate has us in its grip, the accidental personal +thing. The little effort of thought, the brief sustained effort of +will, is too much for the contemporary mind. Such treaties, such +sympathetic international movements, are but dream stuff yet on +earth, though Utopia has realised them long since and already passed +them by. + + + +CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH + +The Bubble Bursts + + +Section 1 + +As I walk back along the river terrace to the hotel where the +botanist awaits me, and observe the Utopians I encounter, I have no +thought that my tenure of Utopia becomes every moment more +precarious. There float in my mind vague anticipations of more talks +with my double and still more, of a steady elaboration of detail, of +interesting journeys of exploration. I forget that a Utopia is a +thing of the imagination that becomes more fragile with every added +circumstance, that, like a soap-bubble, it is most brilliantly and +variously coloured at the very instant of its dissolution. This +Utopia is nearly done. All the broad lines of its social +organisation are completed now, the discussion of all its general +difficulties and problems. Utopian individuals pass me by, fine +buildings tower on either hand; it does not occur to me that I may +look too closely. To find the people assuming the concrete and +individual, is not, as I fondly imagine, the last triumph of +realisation, but the swimming moment of opacity before the film +gives way. To come to individual emotional cases, is to return to +the earth. + +I find the botanist sitting at a table in the hotel courtyard. + +"Well?" I say, standing before him. + +"I've been in the gardens on the river terrace," he answers, "hoping +I might see her again." + +"Nothing better to do?" + +"Nothing in the world." + +"You'll have your double back from India to-morrow. Then you'll have +conversation." + +"I don't want it," he replies, compactly. + +I shrug my shoulders, and he adds, "At least with him." + +I let myself down into a seat beside him. + +For a time I sit restfully enjoying his companionable silence, and +thinking fragmentarily of those samurai and their Rules. I entertain +something of the satisfaction of a man who has finished building a +bridge; I feel that I have joined together things that I had never +joined before. My Utopia seems real to me, very real, I can believe +in it, until the metal chair-back gives to my shoulder blades, and +Utopian sparrows twitter and hop before my feet. I have a pleasant +moment of unhesitating self-satisfaction; I feel a shameless +exultation to be there. For a moment I forget the consideration the +botanist demands; the mere pleasure of completeness, of holding and +controlling all the threads possesses me. + +"You _will_ persist in believing," I say, with an aggressive +expository note, "that if you meet this lady she will be a person +with the memories and sentiments of her double on earth. You think +she will understand and pity, and perhaps love you. Nothing of the +sort is the case." I repeat with confident rudeness, "Nothing of the +sort is the case. Things are different altogether here; you can +hardly tell even now how different are----" + +I discover he is not listening to me. + +"What is the matter?" I ask abruptly. + +He makes no answer, but his expression startles me. + +"What is the matter?" and then I follow his eyes. + +A woman and a man are coming through the great archway--and +instantly I guess what has happened. She it is arrests my attention +first--long ago I knew she was a sweetly beautiful woman. She is +fair, with frank blue eyes, that look with a sort of tender +receptivity into her companion's face. For a moment or so they +remain, greyish figures in the cool shadow, against the sunlit +greenery of the gardens beyond. + +"It is Mary," the botanist whispers with white lips, but he stares +at the form of the man. His face whitens, it becomes so transfigured +with emotion that for a moment it does not look weak. Then I see +that his thin hand is clenched. + +I realise how little I understand his emotions. + +A sudden fear of what he will do takes hold of me. He sits white and +tense as the two come into the clearer light of the courtyard. The +man, I see, is one of the samurai, a dark, strong-faced man, a man I +have never seen before, and she is wearing the robe that shows her a +follower of the Lesser Rule. + +Some glimmering of the botanist's feelings strikes through to my +slow sympathies. Of course--a strange man! I put out a restraining +hand towards his arm. "I told you," I say, "that very probably, most +probably, she would have met some other. I tried to prepare +you." + +"Nonsense," he whispers, without looking at me. "It isn't that. +It's--that scoundrel----" + +He has an impulse to rise. "That scoundrel," he repeats. + +"He isn't a scoundrel," I say. "How do you know? Keep still! Why are +you standing up?" + +He and I stand up quickly, I as soon as he. But now the full meaning +of the group has reached me. I grip his arm. "Be sensible," I say, +speaking very quickly, and with my back to the approaching couple. +"He's not a scoundrel here. This world is different from that. It's +caught his pride somehow and made a man of him. Whatever troubled +them there----" + +He turns a face of white wrath on me, of accusation, and for the +moment of unexpected force. "This is _your_ doing," he says. "You +have done this to mock me. He--of all men!" For a moment speech +fails him, then; "You--you have done this to mock me." + +I try to explain very quickly. My tone is almost propitiatory. + +"I never thought of it until now. But he's---- How did I know he was +the sort of man a disciplined world has a use for?" + +He makes no answer, but he looks at me with eyes that are positively +baleful, and in the instant I read his mute but mulish resolve that +Utopia must end. + +"Don't let that old quarrel poison all this," I say almost +entreatingly. "It happened all differently here--everything is +different here. Your double will be back to-morrow. Wait for him. +Perhaps then you will understand----" + +He shakes his head, and then bursts out with, "What do I want with a +double? Double! What do I care if things have been different here? +This----" + +He thrusts me weakly back with his long, white hand. "My God!" he +says almost forcibly, "what nonsense all this is! All these dreams! +All Utopias! There she is----! Oh, but I have dreamt of her! And +now----" + +A sob catches him. I am really frightened by this time. I still try +to keep between him and these Utopians, and to hide his gestures +from them. + +"It's different here," I persist. "It's different here. The emotion +you feel has no place in it. It's a scar from the earth--the sore +scar of your past----" + +"And what are we all but scars? What is life but a scarring? It's +_you_--you who don't understand! Of course we are covered with +scars, we live to be scarred, we are scars! We are the scars of the +past! These _dreams_, these childish dreams----!" + +He does not need to finish his sentence, he waves an unteachable +destructive arm. + +My Utopia rocks about me. + +For a moment the vision of that great courtyard hangs real. There +the Utopians live real about me, going to and fro, and the great +archway blazes with sunlight from the green gardens by the +riverside. The man who is one of the samurai, and his lady, whom the +botanist loved on earth, pass out of sight behind the marble +flower-set Triton that spouts coolness in the middle of the place. +For a moment I see two working men in green tunics sitting on a +marble seat in the shadow of the colonnade, and a sweet little +silver-haired old lady, clad all in violet, and carrying a book, +comes towards us, and lifts a curious eye at the botanist's +gestures. And then---- + +"Scars of the past! Scars of the past! These fanciful, useless +dreams!" + + +Section 2 + +There is no jerk, no sound, no hint of material shock. We are in +London, and clothed in the fashion of the town. The sullen roar of +London fills our ears.... + +I see that I am standing beside an iron seat of poor design in that +grey and gawky waste of asphalte--Trafalgar Square, and the +botanist, with perplexity in his face, stares from me to a poor, +shrivelled, dirt-lined old woman--my God! what a neglected thing she +is!--who proffers a box of matches.... + +He buys almost mechanically, and turns back to me. + +"I was saying," he says, "the past rules us absolutely. These +dreams----" + +His sentence does not complete itself. He looks nervous and +irritated. + +"You have a trick at times," he says instead, "of making your +suggestions so vivid----" + +He takes a plunge. "If you don't mind," he says in a sort of +quavering ultimatum, "we won't discuss that aspect of the +question--the lady, I mean--further." + +He pauses, and there still hangs a faint perplexity between us. + +"But----" I begin. + +For a moment we stand there, and my dream of Utopia runs off me like +water from an oiled slab. Of course--we lunched at our club. We came +back from Switzerland by no dream train but by the ordinary Bale +express. We have been talking of that Lucerne woman he harps upon, +and I have made some novel comment on his story. I have touched +certain possibilities. + +"You can't conceivably understand," he says. + +"The fact remains," he goes on, taking up the thread of his argument +again with an air of having defined our field, "we are the scars of +the past. That's a thing one can discuss--without personalities." + +"No," I say rather stupidly, "no." + +"You are always talking as though you could kick the past to pieces; +as though one could get right out from oneself and begin afresh. It +is your weakness--if you don't mind my being frank--it makes you +seem harsh and dogmatic. Life has gone easily for you; you have +never been badly tried. You have been lucky--you do not understand +the other way about. You are--hard." + +I answer nothing. + +He pants for breath. I perceive that in our discussion of his case I +must have gone too far, and that he has rebelled. Clearly I must +have said something wounding about that ineffectual love story of +his. + +"You don't allow for my position," he says, and it occurs to me to +say, "I'm obliged to look at the thing from my own point of +view...." + +One or other of us makes a move. What a lot of filthy, torn paper is +scattered about the world! We walk slowly side by side towards the +dirt-littered basin of the fountain, and stand regarding two grimy +tramps who sit and argue on a further seat. One holds a horrible old +boot in his hand, and gesticulates with it, while his other hand +caresses his rag-wrapped foot. "Wot does Cham'lain _si_?" his words +drift to us. "W'y, 'e says, wot's the good of 'nvesting your kepital +where these 'ere Americans may dump it flat any time they +like...." + +(Were there not two men in green sitting on a marble seat?) + + +Section 3 + +We walk on, our talk suspended, past a ruthlessly clumsy hoarding, +towards where men and women and children are struggling about a +string of omnibuses. A newsvendor at the corner spreads a newspaper +placard upon the wood pavement, pins the corners down with stones, +and we glimpse something about:-- + + +MASSACRE IN ODESSA. + +DISCOVERY OF HUMAN REMAINS AT CHERTSEY. + +SHOCKING LYNCHING OUTRAGE IN NEW YORK STATE. + +GERMAN INTRIGUES GET A SET-BACK. + +THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.--FULL LIST. + + +Dear old familiar world! + +An angry parent in conversation with a sympathetic friend jostles +against us. "I'll knock his blooming young 'ed orf if 'e cheeks me +again. It's these 'ere brasted Board Schools----" + +An omnibus passes, bearing on a board beneath an incorrectly drawn +Union Jack an exhortation to the true patriot to "Buy Bumper's +British-Boiled Jam." ... + +I am stunned beyond the possibility of discussion for a space. In +this very place it must have been that the high terrace ran with the +gardens below it, along which I came from my double to our hotel. I +am going back, but now through reality, along the path I passed so +happily in my dream. And the people I saw then are the people I am +looking at now--with a difference. + +The botanist walks beside me, white and nervously jerky in his +movements, his ultimatum delivered. + +We start to cross the road. An open carriage drives by, and we see a +jaded, red-haired woman, smeared with paint, dressed in furs, and +petulantly discontented. Her face is familiar to me, her face, with +a difference. + +Why do I think of her as dressed in green? + +Of course!--she it was I saw leading her children by the hand! + +Comes a crash to our left, and a running of people to see a +cab-horse down on the slippery, slanting pavement outside St. +Martin's Church. + +We go on up the street. + +A heavy-eyed young Jewess, a draggled prostitute--no crimson flower +for her hair, poor girl!--regards us with a momentary speculation, +and we get a whiff of foul language from two newsboys on the +kerb. + +"We can't go on talking," the botanist begins, and ducks aside just +in time to save his eye from the ferule of a stupidly held umbrella. +He is going to treat our little tiff about that lady as closed. He +has the air of picking up our conversation again at some earlier +point. + +He steps into the gutter, walks round outside a negro hawker, just +escapes the wheel of a hansom, and comes to my side again. + +"We can't go on talking of your Utopia," he says, "in a noise and +crowd like this." + +We are separated by a portly man going in the opposite direction, +and join again. "We can't go on talking of Utopia," he repeats, "in +London.... Up in the mountains--and holiday-time--it was all right. +We let ourselves go!" + +"I've been living in Utopia," I answer, tacitly adopting his tacit +proposal to drop the lady out of the question. + +"At times," he says, with a queer laugh, "you've almost made me live +there too." + +He reflects. "It doesn't do, you know. _No_! And I don't know +whether, after all, I want----" + +We are separated again by half-a-dozen lifted flagstones, a burning +brazier, and two engineers concerned with some underground business +or other--in the busiest hour of the day's traffic. + +"Why shouldn't it do?" I ask. + +"It spoils the world of everyday to let your mind run on impossible +perfections." + +"I wish," I shout against the traffic, "I could _smash_ the world of +everyday." + +My note becomes quarrelsome. "You may accept _this_ as the world of +reality, _you_ may consent to be one scar in an ill-dressed compound +wound, but so--not I! This is a dream too--this world. _Your_ dream, +and you bring me back to it--out of Utopia----" + +The crossing of Bow Street gives me pause again. + +The face of a girl who is passing westward, a student girl, rather +carelessly dressed, her books in a carrying-strap, comes across my +field of vision. The westward sun of London glows upon her face. She +has eyes that dream, surely no sensuous nor personal dream. + +After all, after all, dispersed, hidden, disorganised, undiscovered, +unsuspected even by themselves, the samurai of Utopia are in this +world, the motives that are developed and organised there stir +dumbly here and stifle in ten thousand futile hearts.... + +I overtake the botanist, who got ahead at the crossing by the +advantage of a dust-cart. + +"You think this is real because you can't wake out of it," I say. +"It's all a dream, and there are people--I'm just one of the first +of a multitude--between sleeping and waking--who will presently be +rubbing it out of their eyes." + +A pinched and dirty little girl, with sores upon her face, stretches +out a bunch of wilting violets, in a pitifully thin little fist, and +interrupts my speech. "Bunch o' vi'lets--on'y a penny." + +"No!" I say curtly, hardening my heart. + +A ragged and filthy nursing mother, with her last addition to our +Imperial People on her arm, comes out of a drinkshop, and stands a +little unsteadily, and wipes mouth and nose comprehensively with the +back of a red chapped hand.... + + +Section 4 + +"Isn't _that_ reality?" says the botanist, almost triumphantly, and +leaves me aghast at his triumph. + +"_That_!" I say belatedly. "It's a thing in a nightmare!" + +He shakes his head and smiles--exasperatingly. + +I perceive quite abruptly that the botanist and I have reached the +limits of our intercourse. + +"The world dreams things like that," I say, "because it suffers from +an indigestion of such people as you." + +His low-toned self-complacency, like the faded banner of an +obstinate fort, still flies unconquered. And you know, he's not even +a happy man with it all! + +For ten seconds or more I am furiously seeking in my mind for a +word, for a term of abuse, for one compendious verbal missile that +shall smash this man for ever. It has to express total inadequacy of +imagination and will, spiritual anaemia, dull respectability, gross +sentimentality, a cultivated pettiness of heart.... + +That word will not come. But no other word will do. Indeed the word +does not exist. There is nothing with sufficient vituperative +concentration for this moral and intellectual stupidity of educated +people.... + +"Er----" he begins. + +No! I can't endure him. + +With a passionate rapidity of movement, I leave his side, dart +between a carriage and a van, duck under the head of a cab-horse, +and board a 'bus going westward somewhere--but anyhow, going in +exactly the reverse direction to the botanist. I clamber up the +steps and thread my swaying way to the seat immediately behind the +driver. + +"There!" I say, as I whack myself down on the seat and pant. + +When I look round the botanist is out of sight. + + +Section 5 + +But I am back in the world for all that, and my Utopia is done. + +It is good discipline for the Utopist to visit this world +occasionally. + +But from the front seat on the top of an omnibus on a sunny +September afternoon, the Strand, and Charing Cross corner, and +Whitehall, and the great multitude of people, the great uproar of +vehicles, streaming in all directions, is apt to look a world +altogether too formidable. It has a glare, it has a tumult and +vigour that shouts one down. It shouts one down, if shouting is to +carry it. What good was it to trot along the pavement through this +noise and tumult of life, pleading Utopia to that botanist? What +good would it be to recommend Utopia in this driver's preoccupied +ear? + +There are moments in the life of every philosopher and dreamer when +he feels himself the flimsiest of absurdities, when the Thing in +Being has its way with him, its triumphant way, when it asks in a +roar, unanswerably, with a fine solid use of the current vernacular, +"What Good is all this--Rot about Utopias?" + +One inspects the Thing in Being with something of the diffident +speculation of primitive man, peering from behind a tree at an angry +elephant. + +(There is an omen in that image. On how many occasions must that +ancestor of ours have had just the Utopist's feeling of ambitious +unreality, have decided that on the whole it was wiser to go very +quietly home again, and leave the big beast alone? But, in the end, +men rode upon the elephant's head, and guided him this way or +that.... The Thing in Being that roars so tremendously about Charing +Cross corner seems a bigger antagonist than an elephant, but then we +have better weapons than chipped flint blades....) + +After all, in a very little time everything that impresses me so +mightily this September afternoon will have changed or passed away +for ever, everything. These omnibuses, these great, stalwart, +crowded, many-coloured things that jostle one another, and make so +handsome a clatter-clamour, will all have gone; they and their +horses and drivers and organisation; you will come here and you will +not find them. Something else will be here, some different sort of +vehicle, that is now perhaps the mere germ of an idea in some +engineer student's brain. And this road and pavement will have +changed, and these impressive great buildings; other buildings will +be here, buildings that are as yet more impalpable than this page +you read, more formless and flimsy by far than anything that is +reasoned here. Little plans sketched on paper, strokes of a pen or +of a brush, will be the first materialisations of what will at last +obliterate every detail and atom of these re-echoing actualities +that overwhelm us now. And the clothing and gestures of these +innumerable people, the character of their faces and bearing, these +too will be recast in the spirit of what are now obscure and +impalpable beginnings. + +The new things will be indeed of the substance of the thing that is, +but differing just in the measure of the will and imagination that +goes to make them. They will be strong and fair as the will is +sturdy and organised and the imagination comprehensive and bold; +they will be ugly and smeared with wretchedness as the will is +fluctuating and the imagination timid and mean. + +Indeed Will is stronger than Fact, it can mould and overcome Fact. +But this world has still to discover its will, it is a world that +slumbers inertly, and all this roar and pulsation of life is no more +than its heavy breathing.... My mind runs on to the thought of an +awakening. + +As my omnibus goes lumbering up Cockspur Street through the clatter +rattle of the cabs and carriages, there comes another fancy in my +mind.... Could one but realise an apocalyptic image and suppose an +angel, such as was given to each of the seven churches of Asia, +given for a space to the service of the Greater Rule. I see him as a +towering figure of flame and colour, standing between earth and sky, +with a trumpet in his hands, over there above the Haymarket, against +the October glow; and when he sounds, all the samurai, all who are +samurai in Utopia, will know themselves and one another.... + +(Whup! says a motor brougham, and a policeman stays the traffic with +his hand.) + +All of us who partake of the samurai would know ourselves and one +another! + +For a moment I have a vision of this resurrection of the living, of +a vague, magnificent answer, of countless myriads at attention, of +all that is fine in humanity at attention, round the compass of the +earth. + +Then that philosophy of individual uniqueness resumes its sway over +my thoughts, and my dream of a world's awakening fades. + +I had forgotten.... + +Things do not happen like that. God is not simple, God is not +theatrical, the summons comes to each man in its due time for him, +with an infinite subtlety of variety.... + +If that is so, what of my Utopia? + +This infinite world must needs be flattened to get it on one +retina. The picture of a solid thing, although it is flattened and +simplified, is not necessarily a lie. Surely, surely, in the end, by +degrees, and steps, something of this sort, some such understanding, +as this Utopia must come. First here, then there, single men and +then groups of men will fall into line--not indeed with my poor +faulty hesitating suggestions--but with a great and comprehensive +plan wrought out by many minds and in many tongues. It is just +because my plan is faulty, because it mis-states so much, and omits +so much, that they do not now fall in. It will not be like _my_ +dream, the world that is coming. My dream is just my own poor dream, +the thing sufficient for me. We fail in comprehension, we fail so +variously and abundantly. We see as much as it is serviceable for us +to see, and we see no further. But the fresh undaunted generations +come to take on our work beyond our utmost effort, beyond the range +of our ideas. They will learn with certainty things that to us are +guesses and riddles.... + +There will be many Utopias. Each generation will have its new +version of Utopia, a little more certain and complete and real, with +its problems lying closer and closer to the problems of the Thing +in Being. Until at last from dreams Utopias will have come to be +working drawings, and the whole world will be shaping the final +World State, the fair and great and fruitful World State, that will +only not be a Utopia because it will be this world. So surely it +must be---- + + +The policeman drops his hand. "Come up," says the 'bus driver, and +the horses strain; "Clitter, clatter, cluck, clak," the line of +hurrying hansoms overtakes the omnibus going west. A dexterous lad +on a bicycle with a bale of newspapers on his back dodges nimbly +across the head of the column and vanishes up a side street. + +The omnibus sways forward. Rapt and prophetic, his plump hands +clasped round the handle of his umbrella, his billycock hat a trifle +askew, this irascible little man of the Voice, this impatient +dreamer, this scolding Optimist, who has argued so rudely and +dogmatically about economics and philosophy and decoration, and +indeed about everything under the sun, who has been so hard on the +botanist and fashionable women, and so reluctant in the matter of +beer, is carried onward, dreaming dreams, dreams that with all the +inevitable ironies of difference, may be realities when you and I +are dreams. + +He passes, and for a little space we are left with his egoisms and +idiosyncrasies more or less in suspense. + +But why was he intruded? you ask. Why could not a modern Utopia be +discussed without this impersonation--impersonally? It has confused +the book, you say, made the argument hard to follow, and thrown +a quality of insincerity over the whole. Are we but mocking at +Utopias, you demand, using all these noble and generalised hopes +as the backcloth against which two bickering personalities jar and +squabble? Do I mean we are never to view the promised land again +except through a foreground of fellow-travellers? There is a common +notion that the reading of a Utopia should end with a swelling heart +and clear resolves, with lists of names, formation of committees, +and even the commencement of subscriptions. But this Utopia began +upon a philosophy of fragmentation, and ends, confusedly, amidst a +gross tumult of immediate realities, in dust and doubt, with, at the +best, one individual's aspiration. Utopias were once in good faith, +projects for a fresh creation of the world and of a most unworldly +completeness; this so-called Modern Utopia is a mere story of +personal adventures among Utopian philosophies. + +Indeed, that came about without the writer's intention. So it was +the summoned vision came. For I see about me a great multitude of +little souls and groups of souls as darkened, as derivative as my +own; with the passage of years I understand more and more clearly +the quality of the motives that urge me and urge them to do whatever +we do.... Yet that is not all I see, and I am not altogether bounded +by my littleness. Ever and again, contrasting with this immediate +vision, come glimpses of a comprehensive scheme, in which these +personalities float, the scheme of a synthetic wider being, the +great State, mankind, in which we all move and go, like blood +corpuscles, like nerve cells, it may be at times like brain cells, +in the body of a man. But the two visions are not seen consistently +together, at least by me, and I do not surely know that they exist +consistently together. The motives needed for those wider issues +come not into the interplay of my vanities and wishes. That greater +scheme lies about the men and women I know, as I have tried to make +the vistas and spaces, the mountains, cities, laws, and order of +Utopia lie about my talking couple, too great for their sustained +comprehension. When one focuses upon these two that wide landscape +becomes indistinct and distant, and when one regards that then the +real persons one knows grow vague and unreal. Nevertheless, I cannot +separate these two aspects of human life, each commenting on the +other. In that incongruity between great and individual inheres the +incompatibility I could not resolve, and which, therefore, I have +had to present in this conflicting form. At times that great scheme +does seem to me to enter certain men's lives as a passion, as a real +and living motive; there are those who know it almost as if it was a +thing of desire; even for me, upon occasion, the little lures of the +immediate life are seen small and vain, and the soul goes out to +that mighty Being, to apprehend it and serve it and possess. But +this is an illumination that passes as it comes, a rare transitory +lucidity, leaving the soul's desire suddenly turned to presumption +and hypocrisy upon the lips. One grasps at the Universe and +attains--Bathos. The hungers, the jealousies, the prejudices and +habits have us again, and we are forced back to think that it is so, +and not otherwise, that we are meant to serve the mysteries; that in +these blinkers it is we are driven to an end we cannot understand. +And then, for measured moments in the night watches or as one walks +alone or while one sits in thought and speech with a friend, the +wider aspirations glow again with a sincere emotion, with the +colours of attainable desire.... + +That is my all about Utopia, and about the desire and need for +Utopia, and how that planet lies to this planet that bears the daily +lives of men. + + + +APPENDIX + +SCEPTICISM OF THE INSTRUMENT + + +A Portion of a Paper read to the Oxford Philosophical Society, +November 8, 1903, and reprinted, with some Revision, from the +Version given in Mind, vol. xiii. (N.S.), No. 51. + +(See also Chapter I., Section 6, and Chapter X., Sections 1 and 2.) + +It seems to me that I may most propitiously attempt to interest you +this evening by describing very briefly the particular metaphysical +and philosophical system in which I do my thinking, and more +particularly by setting out for your consideration one or two points +in which I seem to myself to differ most widely from current +accepted philosophy. + +You must be prepared for things that will strike you as crude, for a +certain difference of accent and dialect that you may not like, and +you must be prepared too to hear what may strike you as the clumsy +statement of my ignorant rediscovery of things already beautifully +thought out and said. But in the end you may incline to forgive me +some of this first offence.... It is quite unavoidable that, in +setting out these intellectual foundations of mine, I should lapse +for a moment or so towards autobiography. + +A convergence of circumstances led to my having my knowledge of +concrete things quite extensively developed before I came to +philosophical examination at all. I have heard someone say that a +savage or an animal is mentally a purely objective being, and in +that respect I was like a savage or an animal until I was well over +twenty. I was extremely unaware of the subjective or introverted +element in my being. I was a Positivist without knowing it. My early +education was a feeble one; it was one in which my private +observation, inquiry and experiment were far more important factors +than any instruction, or rather perhaps the instruction I received +was less even than what I learnt for myself, and it terminated at +thirteen. I had come into pretty intimate contact with the harder +realities of life, with hunger in various forms, and many base and +disagreeable necessities, before I was fifteen. About that age, +following the indication of certain theological and speculative +curiosities, I began to learn something of what I will call +deliberately and justly, Elementary Science--stuff I got out of +Cassell's Popular Educator and cheap text-books--and then, through +accidents and ambitions that do not matter in the least to us now, I +came to three years of illuminating and good scientific work. The +central fact of those three years was Huxley's course in Comparative +Anatomy at the school in Exhibition Road. About that as a nucleus I +arranged a spacious digest of facts. At the end of that time I had +acquired what I still think to be a fairly clear, and complete and +ordered view of the ostensibly real universe. Let me try to give you +the chief things I had. I had man definitely placed in the great +scheme of space and time. I knew him incurably for what he was, +finite and not final, a being of compromises and adaptations. I had +traced his lungs, for example, from a swimming bladder, step by +step, with scalpel and probe, through a dozen types or more, I had +seen the ancestral caecum shrink to that disease nest, the appendix +of to-day, I had watched the gill slit patched slowly to the +purposes of the ear and the reptile jaw suspension utilised to eke +out the needs of a sense organ taken from its native and natural +water. I had worked out the development of those extraordinarily +unsatisfactory and untrustworthy instruments, man's teeth, from the +skin scutes of the shark to their present function as a basis for +gold stoppings, and followed the slow unfolding of the complex and +painful process of gestation through which man comes into the world. +I had followed all these things and many kindred things by +dissection and in embryology--I had checked the whole theory of +development again in a year's course of palaeontology, and I had +taken the dimensions of the whole process, by the scale of the +stars, in a course of astronomical physics. And all that amount of +objective elucidation came before I had reached the beginnings of +any philosophical or metaphysical inquiry, any inquiry as to why I +believed, how I believed, what I believed, or what the fundamental +stuff of things was. + +Now following hard upon this interlude with knowledge, came a time +when I had to give myself to teaching, and it became advisable to +acquire one of those Teaching Diplomas that are so widely and so +foolishly despised, and that enterprise set me to a superficial, but +suggestive study of educational method, of educational theory, of +logic, of psychology, and so at last, when the little affair with +the diploma was settled, to philosophy. Now to come to logic over +the bracing uplands of comparative anatomy is to come to logic with +a lot of very natural preconceptions blown clean out of one's mind. +It is, I submit, a way of taking logic in the flank. When you have +realised to the marrow, that all the physical organs of man and all +his physical structure are what they are through a series of +adaptations and approximations, and that they are kept up to a level +of practical efficiency only by the elimination of death, and that +this is true also of his brain and of his instincts and of many of +his mental predispositions, you are not going to take his thinking +apparatus unquestioningly as being in any way mysteriously different +and better. And I had read only a little logic before I became aware +of implications that I could not agree with, and assumptions that +seemed to me to be altogether at variance with the general scheme of +objective fact established in my mind. + +I came to an examination of logical processes and of language with +the expectation that they would share the profoundly provisional +character, the character of irregular limitation and adaptation that +pervades the whole physical and animal being of man. And I found the +thing I had expected. And as a consequence I found a sort of +intellectual hardihood about the assumptions of logic, that at first +confused me and then roused all the latent scepticism in my +mind. + +My first quarrel with the accepted logic I developed long ago in a +little paper that was printed in the Fortnightly Review in July +1891. It was called the "Rediscovery of the Unique," and re-reading +it I perceive not only how bad and even annoying it was in manner--a +thing I have long known--but also how remarkably bad it was in +expression. I have good reason for doubting whether my powers of +expression in these uses have very perceptibly improved, but at any +rate I am doing my best now with that previous failure before +me. + +That unfortunate paper, among other oversights I can no longer +regard as trivial, disregarded quite completely the fact that a +whole literature upon the antagonism of the one and the many, of the +specific ideal and the individual reality, was already in existence. +It defined no relations to other thought or thinkers. I understand +now, what I did not understand then, why it was totally ignored. But +the idea underlying that paper I cling to to-day. I consider it an +idea that will ultimately be regarded as one of primary importance +to human thought, and I will try and present the substance of that +early paper again now very briefly, as the best opening of my +general case. My opening scepticism is essentially a doubt of the +objective reality of classification. I have no hesitation in saying +that is the first and primary proposition of my philosophy. + +I have it in my mind that classification is a necessary condition of +the working of the mental implement, but that it is a departure from +the objective truth of things, that classification is very +serviceable for the practical purposes of life but a very doubtful +preliminary to those fine penetrations the philosophical purpose, in +its more arrogant moods, demands. All the peculiarities of my way of +thinking derive from that. + +A mind nourished upon anatomical study is of course permeated with +the suggestion of the vagueness and instability of biological +species. A biological species is quite obviously a great number of +unique individuals which is separable from other biological species +only by the fact that an enormous number of other linking +individuals are inaccessible in time--are in other words dead and +gone--and each new individual in that species does, in the +distinction of its own individuality, break away in however +infinitesimal degree from the previous average properties of the +species. There is no property of any species, even the properties +that constitute the specific definition, that is not a matter of +more or less. If, for example, a species be distinguished by a +single large red spot on the back, you will find if you go over a +great number of specimens that red spot shrinking here to nothing, +expanding there to a more general redness, weakening to pink, +deepening to russet and brown, shading into crimson, and so on, and +so on. And this is true not only of biological species. It is true +of the mineral specimens constituting a mineral species, and I +remember as a constant refrain in the lectures of Prof. Judd upon +rock classification, the words "they pass into one another by +insensible gradations." That is true, I hold, of all things. + +You will think perhaps of atoms of the elements as instances of +identically similar things, but these are things not of experience +but of theory, and there is not a phenomenon in chemistry that is +not equally well explained on the supposition that it is merely the +immense quantities of atoms necessarily taken in any experiment that +mask by the operation of the law of averages the fact that each atom +also has its unique quality, its special individual difference. This +idea of uniqueness in all individuals is not only true of the +classifications of material science; it is true, and still more +evidently true, of the species of common thought, it is true of +common terms. Take the word chair. When one says chair, one thinks +vaguely of an average chair. But collect individual instances, think +of armchairs and reading chairs, and dining-room chairs and kitchen +chairs, chairs that pass into benches, chairs that cross the +boundary and become settees, dentists' chairs, thrones, opera +stalls, seats of all sorts, those miraculous fungoid growths that +cumber the floor of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, and you will +perceive what a lax bundle in fact is this simple straightforward +term. In co-operation with an intelligent joiner I would undertake +to defeat any definition of chair or chairishness that you gave me. +Chairs just as much as individual organisms, just as much as mineral +and rock specimens, are unique things--if you know them well enough +you will find an individual difference even in a set of machine-made +chairs--and it is only because we do not possess minds of unlimited +capacity, because our brain has only a limited number of +pigeon-holes for our correspondence with an unlimited universe of +objective uniques, that we have to delude ourselves into the belief +that there is a chairishness in this species common to and +distinctive of all chairs. + +Let me repeat; this is of the very smallest importance in all the +practical affairs of life, or indeed in relation to anything but +philosophy and wide generalisations. But in philosophy it matters +profoundly. If I order two new-laid eggs for breakfast, up come two +unhatched but still unique avian individuals, and the chances are +they serve my rude physiological purpose. I can afford to ignore the +hens' eggs of the past that were not quite so nearly this sort of +thing, and the hens' eggs of the future that will accumulate +modification age by age; I can venture to ignore the rare chance of +an abnormality in chemical composition and of any startling +aberration in my physiological reaction; I can, with a confidence +that is practically perfect, say with unqualified simplicity "two +eggs," but not if my concern is not my morning's breakfast but the +utmost possible truth. + +Now let me go on to point out whither this idea of uniqueness tends. +I submit to you that syllogism is based on classification, that +all hard logical reasoning tends to imply and is apt to imply a +confidence in the objective reality of classification. Consequently +in denying that I deny the absolute validity of logic. Classification +and number, which in truth ignore the fine differences of objective +realities, have in the past of human thought been imposed upon +things. Let me for clearness' sake take a liberty here--commit, as +you may perhaps think, an unpardonable insolence. Hindoo thought +and Greek thought alike impress me as being overmuch obsessed by +an objective treatment of certain necessary preliminary conditions +of human thought--number and definition and class and abstract +form. But these things, number, definition, class and abstract +form, I hold, are merely unavoidable conditions of mental +activity--regrettable conditions rather than essential facts. The +forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a +little in taking hold of it. + +It was about this difficulty that the mind of Plato played a little +inconclusively all his life. For the most part he tended to regard +the _idea_ as the something behind reality, whereas it seems to me +that the idea is the more proximate and less perfect thing, the +thing by which the mind, by ignoring individual differences, +attempts to comprehend an otherwise unmanageable number of unique +realities. + +Let me give you a rough figure of what I am trying to convey in this +first attack upon the philosophical validity of general terms. You +have seen the results of those various methods of black and white +reproduction that involve the use of a rectangular net. You know the +sort of process picture I mean--it used to be employed very +frequently in reproducing photographs. At a little distance you +really seem to have a faithful reproduction of the original picture, +but when you peer closely you find not the unique form and masses of +the original, but a multitude of little rectangles, uniform in shape +and size. The more earnestly you go into the thing, the closer you +look, the more the picture is lost in reticulations. I submit the +world of reasoned inquiry has a very similar relation to the world I +call objectively real. For the rough purposes of every day the +net-work picture will do, but the finer your purpose the less it +will serve, and for an ideally fine purpose, for absolute and +general knowledge that will be as true for a man at a distance with +a telescope as for a man with a microscope it will not serve at +all. + +It is true you can make your net of logical interpretation finer and +finer, you can fine your classification more and more--up to a +certain limit. But essentially you are working in limits, and as you +come closer, as you look at finer and subtler things, as you leave +the practical purpose for which the method exists, the element of +error increases. Every species is vague, every term goes cloudy at +its edges, and so in my way of thinking, relentless logic is only +another phrase for a stupidity,--for a sort of intellectual +pigheadedness. If you push a philosophical or metaphysical inquiry +through a series of valid syllogisms--never committing any generally +recognised fallacy--you nevertheless leave a certain rubbing and +marginal loss of objective truth and you get deflections that are +difficult to trace, at each phase in the process. Every species +waggles about in its definition, every tool is a little loose in its +handle, every scale has its individual error. So long as you are +reasoning for practical purposes about the finite things of +experience, you can every now and then check your process, and +correct your adjustments. But not when you make what are called +philosophical and theological inquiries, when you turn your +implement towards the final absolute truth of things. Doing that is +like firing at an inaccessible, unmarkable and indestructible target +at an unknown distance, with a defective rifle and variable +cartridges. Even if by chance you hit, you cannot know that you hit, +and so it will matter nothing at all. + +This assertion of the necessary untrustworthiness of all reasoning +processes arising out of the fallacy of classification in what is +quite conceivably a universe of uniques, forms only one introductory +aspect of my general scepticism of the Instrument of Thought. + +I have now to tell you of another aspect of this scepticism of the +instrument which concerns negative terms. + +Classes in logic are not only represented by circles with a hard +firm outline, whereas they have no such definite limits, but also +there is a constant disposition to think of negative terms as if +they represented positive classes. With words just as with numbers +and abstract forms there are definite phases of human development. +There is, you know, with regard to number, the phase when man can +barely count at all, or counts in perfect good faith and sanity upon +his fingers. Then there is the phase when he is struggling with the +development of number, when he begins to elaborate all sorts of +ideas about numbers, until at last he develops complex superstitions +about perfect numbers and imperfect numbers, about threes and sevens +and the like. The same is the case with abstracted forms, and even +to-day we are scarcely more than heads out of the vast subtle muddle +of thinking about spheres and ideally perfect forms and so on, that +was the price of this little necessary step to clear thinking. You +know better than I do how large a part numerical and geometrical +magic, numerical and geometrical philosophy has played in the +history of the mind. And the whole apparatus of language and mental +communication is beset with like dangers. The language of the savage +is, I suppose, purely positive; the thing has a name, the name has a +thing. This indeed is the tradition of language, and to-day even, +we, when we hear a name, are predisposed--and sometimes it is a very +vicious disposition--to imagine forthwith something answering to the +name. We are disposed, as an incurable mental vice, to accumulate +intension in terms. If I say to you Wodget or Crump, you find +yourself passing over the fact that these are nothings, these are, +so to speak, mere blankety blanks, and trying to think what sort of +thing a Wodget or a Crump may be. And where this disposition has +come in, in its most alluring guise, is in the case of negative +terms. Our instrument of knowledge persists in handling even such +openly negative terms as the Absolute, the Infinite, as though they +were real existences, and when the negative element is ever so +little disguised, as it is in such a word as Omniscience, then the +illusion of positive reality may be complete. + +Please remember that I am trying to tell you my philosophy, and not +arguing about yours. Let me try and express how in my mind this +matter of negative terms has shaped itself. I think of something +which I may perhaps best describe as being off the stage or out of +court, or as the Void without Implications, or as Nothingness or as +Outer Darkness. This is a sort of hypothetical Beyond to the visible +world of human thought, and thither I think all negative terms reach +at last, and merge and become nothing. Whatever positive class you +make, whatever boundary you draw, straight away from that boundary +begins the corresponding negative class and passes into the +illimitable horizon of nothingness. You talk of pink things, you +ignore, if you are a trained logician, the more elusive shades of +pink, and draw your line. Beyond is the not pink, known and +knowable, and still in the not pink region one comes to the Outer +Darkness. Not blue, not happy, not iron, all the not classes meet in +that Outer Darkness. That same Outer Darkness and nothingness is +infinite space, and infinite time, and any being of infinite +qualities, and all that region I rule out of court in my philosophy +altogether. I will neither affirm nor deny if I can help it about +any not things. I will not deal with not things at all, except by +accident and inadvertence. If I use the word 'infinite' I use it as +one often uses 'countless,' "the countless hosts of the enemy"--or +'immeasurable'--"immeasurable cliffs"--that is to say as the limit +of measurement rather than as the limit of imaginary measurability, +as a convenient equivalent to as many times this cloth yard as you +can, and as many again and so on and so on. Now a great number of +apparently positive terms are, or have become, practically negative +terms and are under the same ban with me. A considerable number of +terms that have played a great part in the world of thought, seem to +me to be invalidated by this same defect, to have no content or an +undefined content or an unjustifiable content. For example, that +word Omniscient, as implying infinite knowledge, impresses me as +being a word with a delusive air of being solid and full, when it is +really hollow with no content whatever. I am persuaded that knowing +is the relation of a conscious being to something not itself, that +the thing known is defined as a system of parts and aspects and +relationships, that knowledge is comprehension, and so that only +finite things can know or be known. When you talk of a being of +infinite extension and infinite duration, omniscient and omnipotent +and Perfect, you seem to me to be talking in negatives of nothing +whatever. When you speak of the Absolute you speak to me of nothing. +If however you talk of a great yet finite and thinkable being, a +being not myself, extending beyond my imagination in time and space, +knowing all that I can think of as known and capable of doing all +that I can think of as done, you come into the sphere of my mental +operations, and into the scheme of my philosophy.... + +These then are my first two charges against our Instrument of +Knowledge, firstly, that it can work only by disregarding +individuality and treating uniques as identically similar objects in +this respect or that, so as to group them under one term, and that +once it has done so it tends automatically to intensify the +significance of that term, and secondly, that it can only deal +freely with negative terms by treating them as though they were +positive. But I have a further objection to the Instrument of Human +Thought, that is not correlated to these former objections and that +is also rather more difficult to convey. + +Essentially this idea is to present a sort of stratification in +human ideas. I have it very much in mind that various terms in our +reasoning lie, as it were, at different levels and in different +planes, and that we accomplish a large amount of error and confusion +by reasoning terms together that do not lie or nearly lie in the +same plane. + +Let me endeavour to make myself a little less obscure by a most +flagrant instance from physical things. Suppose some one began to +talk seriously of a man seeing an atom through a microscope, or +better perhaps of cutting one in half with a knife. There are a +number of non-analytical people who would be quite prepared to +believe that an atom could be visible to the eye or cut in this +manner. But any one at all conversant with physical conceptions +would almost as soon think of killing the square root of 2 with a +rook rifle as of cutting an atom in half with a knife. Our +conception of an atom is reached through a process of hypothesis and +analysis, and in the world of atoms there are no knives and no +men to cut. If you have thought with a strong consistent mental +movement, then when you have thought of your atom under the knife +blade, your knife blade has itself become a cloud of swinging +grouped atoms, and your microscope lens a little universe of +oscillatory and vibratory molecules. If you think of the universe, +thinking at the level of atoms, there is neither knife to cut, scale +to weigh nor eye to see. The universe at that plane to which the +mind of the molecular physicist descends has none of the shapes or +forms of our common life whatever. This hand with which I write is +in the universe of molecular physics a cloud of warring atoms and +molecules, combining and recombining, colliding, rotating, flying +hither and thither in the universal atmosphere of ether. + +You see, I hope, what I mean, when I say that the universe of +molecular physics is at a different level from the universe of +common experience;--what we call stable and solid is in that world a +freely moving system of interlacing centres of force, what we call +colour and sound is there no more than this length of vibration or +that. We have reached to a conception of that universe of molecular +physics by a great enterprise of organised analysis, and our +universe of daily experiences stands in relation to that elemental +world as if it were a synthesis of those elemental things. + +I would suggest to you that this is only a very extreme instance of +the general state of affairs, that there may be finer and subtler +differences of level between one term and another, and that terms +may very well be thought of as lying obliquely and as being twisted +through different levels. + +It will perhaps give a clearer idea of what I am seeking to convey +if I suggest a concrete image for the whole world of a man's thought +and knowledge. Imagine a large clear jelly, in which at all angles +and in all states of simplicity or contortion his ideas are +imbedded. They are all valid and possible ideas as they lie, none in +reality incompatible with any. If you imagine the direction of up or +down in this clear jelly being as it were the direction in which one +moves by analysis or by synthesis, if you go down for example from +matter to atoms and centres of force and up to men and states and +countries--if you will imagine the ideas lying in that manner--you +will get the beginning of my intention. But our Instrument, our +process of thinking, like a drawing before the discovery of +perspective, appears to have difficulties with the third dimension, +appears capable only of dealing with or reasoning about ideas by +projecting them upon the same plane. It will be obvious that a great +multitude of things may very well exist together in a solid jelly, +which would be overlapping and incompatible and mutually +destructive, when projected together upon one plane. Through the +bias in our Instrument to do this, through reasoning between terms +not in the same plane, an enormous amount of confusion, perplexity +and mental deadlocking occurs. + +The old theological deadlock between predestination and free-will +serves admirably as an example of the sort of deadlock I mean. Take +life at the level of common sensation and common experience and +there is no more indisputable fact than man's freedom of will, +unless it is his complete moral responsibility. But make only the +least penetrating of analyses and you perceive a world of inevitable +consequences, a rigid succession of cause and effect. Insist upon a +flat agreement between the two, and there you are! The Instrument +fails. + +It is upon these three objections, and upon an extreme suspicion of +abstract terms which arises materially out of my first and second +objections, that I chiefly rest my case for a profound scepticism of +the remoter possibilities of the Instrument of Thought. It is a +thing no more perfect than the human eye or the human ear, though +like those other instruments it may have undefined possibilities of +evolution towards increased range, and increased power. + +So much for my main contention. But before I conclude I may--since I +am here--say a little more in the autobiographical vein, and with +a view to your discussion to show how I reconcile this fundamental +scepticism with the very positive beliefs about world-wide issues I +possess, and the very definite distinction I make between right and +wrong. + +I reconcile these things by simply pointing out to you that if there +is any validity in my image of that three dimensional jelly in which +our ideas are suspended, such a reconciliation as you demand in +logic, such a projection of the things as in accordance upon one +plane, is totally unnecessary and impossible. + +This insistence upon the element of uniqueness in being, this +subordination of the class to the individual difference, not only +destroys the universal claim of philosophy, but the universal claim +of ethical imperatives, the universal claim of any religious +teaching. If you press me back upon my fundamental position I must +confess I put faith and standards and rules of conduct upon exactly +the same level as I put my belief of what is right in art, and what +I consider right practice in art. I have arrived at a certain sort +of self-knowledge and there are, I find, very distinct imperatives +for me, but I am quite prepared to admit there is no proving them +imperative on any one else. One's political proceedings, one's moral +acts are, I hold, just as much self-expression as one's poetry or +painting or music. But since life has for its primordial elements +assimilation and aggression, I try not only to obey my imperatives, +but to put them persuasively and convincingly into other minds, to +bring about _my_ good and to resist and overcome _my_ evil as though +they were the universal Good and the universal Evil in which +unthinking men believe. And it is obviously in no way contradictory +to this philosophy, for me, if I find others responding +sympathetically to any notes of mine or if I find myself responding +sympathetically to notes sounding about me, to give that common +resemblance between myself and others a name, to refer these others +and myself in common to this thing as if it were externalised and +spanned us all. + +Scepticism of the Instrument is for example not incompatible with +religious association and with organisation upon the basis of a +common faith. It is possible to regard God as a Being synthetic in +relation to men and societies, just as the idea of a universe of +atoms and molecules and inorganic relationships is analytical in +relation to human life. + +The repudiation of demonstration in any but immediate and verifiable +cases that this Scepticism of the Instrument amounts to, the +abandonment of any universal validity for moral and religious +propositions, brings ethical, social and religious teaching into the +province of poetry, and does something to correct the estrangement +between knowledge and beauty that is a feature of so much mental +existence at this time. All these things are self-expression. Such +an opinion sets a new and greater value on that penetrating and +illuminating quality of mind we call insight, insight which when it +faces towards the contradictions that arise out of the imperfections +of the mental instrument is called humour. In these innate, +unteachable qualities I hold--in humour and the sense of +beauty--lies such hope of intellectual salvation from the original +sin of our intellectual instrument as we may entertain in this +uncertain and fluctuating world of unique appearances.... + +So frankly I spread my little equipment of fundamental assumptions +before you, heartily glad of the opportunity you have given me of +taking them out, of looking at them with the particularity the +presence of hearers ensures, and of hearing the impression they make +upon you. Of course, such a sketch must have an inevitable crudity +of effect. The time I had for it--I mean the time I was able to give +in preparation--was altogether too limited for any exhaustive finish +of presentation; but I think on the whole I have got the main lines +of this sketch map of my mental basis true. Whether I have made +myself comprehensible is a different question altogether. It is for +you rather than me to say how this sketch map of mine lies with +regard to your own more systematic cartography.... + +Here followed certain comments upon Personal Idealism, and Mr. F. C. +S. Schiller's Humanism, of no particular value. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Utopia, by H. G. Wells + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN UTOPIA *** + +This file should be named 6424.txt or 6424.zip + +Produced by Andrew Sly + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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