7. Aloofness.
Knowing what we meant thereby.
Ruth said she had noticed that the artistic life was a selfish ideal.
“Yes,” I said, “selfish in the best sense.”
“It is self-development, you mean,” said Alfred.
“Yes,” I answered, “and that selfishness includes the whole world.”
“Why use the word ‘selfishness,’ then,” asked Marian, “that has been used in another sense?”
We spent the rest of the time telling Leo our idea of God and progress. Henry, Ruth, Florence and Marian did it; Florence told him of complete human sympathy, Marian of progress toward it as the good, Henry explained the poem, “Abou ben Adhem,” and Ruth—when Leo objected that knowing men was not knowing God—quoted a passage from the Bible to show it was.
“I always think of God as a supreme power,” said Leo.
I told him something of our idea. What I cared for was to hear the others talk. All, except Henry, seemed satisfied with a merely human conception of self—that is, Florence set the key, and all but Henry kept the tune. He spoke of the “something outside.”