Voice of thunder from Sinai: “Pretend to honour them!”
“Love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Alas, my neighbour happens to be mean and detestable.
Voice of the lambent Dove, cooing: “Put it over him, that you love him.”
Talk about the cunning of serpents! I never saw even a serpent kissing his instinctive enemy.
Pfui! I wouldn’t blacken my mouth, kissing my neighbour, who, I repeat, to me is mean and detestable.
Dove, go home!
The Goat and Compasses, indeed!
Everything is relative. Every Commandment that ever issued out of the mouth of God or man, is strictly relative: adhering to the particular time, place and circumstance.
And this is the beauty of the novel; everything is true in its own relationship, and no further.