"So I was," I said, "if Dennis would have let me."
"I will let you, by all means," Dennis interposed, "so long as it is quite understood that everything you say has nothing to do with the real subject."
"Very well," said Bartlett, "that's understood. And now let's get along, on the basis of you and me and the man in the street. What are we trying to get, when we try to get Good? That I take it is the real question."
"And I can only answer," I said, "as I did before, that we are trying to get some state of conscious experience, to enter into some activity."
"Very well, then, what activity?" he inquired, catching me up sharp, as if he were afraid of Dennis interposing again.
"What activity!" cried Ellis, "why all and every one as much as another, and the more the merrier."
"What!" I exclaimed, rather taken aback, "all at once do you mean? whether they be good or whether they be bad, all alike indifferently?"
"There are no bad activities," he replied, "none bad essentially in themselves. Their goodness and badness depends on the way in which they are interchanged or combined. Any pursuit or occupation palls in time if it is followed exclusively; but all may be delightful in the just measure and proportion. We are complex creatures, and we ought to employ all our faculties alike, never one alone at the cost of all the others."
"That may be sound enough," I said, "but will you not describe more in detail the kind of life which you consider to be good?"
"How can I?" he replied. "It is like trying to sum infinity! The most I can do is to hint and rhapsodize."