“But look here, old chap,” protested Gurney, “if things are as you say, and men rule the country, why shouldn’t they alter public opinion, and so open the way to do as they jolly well please?”
“Because the majority are too much ashamed of their desires to dare the attempt in the first place, and in the second because they don’t wish to open the way for other men. They aren’t united in this; they are as jealous as women. If they once opened the way to free love, their own belongings wouldn’t be safe.”
“What’s your remedy, then?”
“Oh! a few thousand more years of moral development,” said Thrale, carelessly, “an evolution towards self-consciousness, a fuller understanding of the meaning of life, and a finer altruism.”
“You don’t look far ahead,” remarked Gurney.
“Do you think anyone can look even a year ahead?” asked Thrale.
“There have been some pretty good attempts in some ways—Swedenborg, for instance, and Samuel Butler....”
“Yes, yes, that’s all right, in some ways—the development of certain sorts of knowledge, for example. But there is always the chance of the unpredictable element coming in and upsetting the whole calculation. Some invention may do it, an unforeseen clash of opinions or an epidemic....”
For a time they drifted further away from their original topic till some remark reminded Gurney that he had meant to ask a question and had forgotten it.
“By the way,” he said, “I wanted to ask you what you meant when you said you had seen a god in old Gosling?”