Volume Iii Part 16 (1/2)

'Public opinion would never consent to that.'

'No,' replied Buxton; 'I am quite aware of that; but I would create a public opinion that would regard such marriages with horror, and then they would gradually become rare. Men and women have duties to society, and have to think of something else than the gratification of selfish pa.s.sion or mere animal instinct. It is thus hereditary disease may disappear, and the nation be all the stronger and happier and richer. I know there are good people who look upon such afflictions as the result of the Lord's chastening hand, and as they bury wife, or husband, or son, or daughter, learn to kiss the rod-as they call it-and to thank the Lord that He thus is weaning them from the world, and preparing them for a better world, whither they tell us their loved ones are already gone. I have no sympathy with that state of mind. It seems to me almost blasphemous, as the bereavements they rejoice in for their supposed sanctifying effects are simply the natural result of their own folly and imprudence and disregard of natural law. In the days of ignorance how did we treat the insane? Why, they were regarded as victims of Divine wrath, and the priest was called in-and of course well paid-to exorcise the evil spirit. That we do not do so now is a proof that we are a little wiser than our fathers-that, in fact, we are not quite such thundering fools; but we have a good deal yet to learn, nevertheless.'

'The fact is,' said Wentworth, 'a man must learn to deny himself for the public good. Rather a difficult task that. If the victim of hereditary disease refuses to marry and have children, hereditary disease will die out. Is not that asking too much of human nature?'

'There we must appeal to the law for the protection of the general public. The community is of more importance than the individual.'

'But there is no law that cannot be evaded.'

'Exactly so. Laws against drunkenness are constantly broken, but they have a beneficial effect nevertheless. A prohibitory liquor law goes too far. To act on the idea that a gla.s.s of claret, or beer, or cider does mischief to anyone is absurd. Walter Mapes was right when he wrote in praise of drink. As the old monk writes-

'”A gla.s.s of wine amazingly enliveneth one's internals.”'

'You are right there,' replied Wentworth. 'Last summer I was at a seaside watering-place. There had been a regatta there, and I had written a description of it for our paper. In a day or two after the event was celebrated by a grand dinner at the leading hotel, to which I was invited. Unfortunately, on the day of the dinner I was desperately ill. My head was splitting; my skin was as tough as the hide of a rhinoceros; I ached in every limb. I went to the medical men of the district; there were two of them in partners.h.i.+p. No. 1 made me believe that I was in a bad way; No. 2 made me out worse. ”Could I go to the dinner?” I asked. ”By no means,” was the reply. ”Take this medicine, go home and go to bed, and we will come and see you in the morning.” Ill as I was, I went to the dinner. It was a very jovial one, and I sat drinking champagne till late. I went home, slept like a top, and woke up as well as I ever was in my life. The next morning the doctor came.

”Ah,” he said, ”I see you look all the better for my medicine.” I said, ”I did not take a drop of your medicine. I went to the dinner, drank champagne all night, and it was that which cured me.” ”Very strange that,” said the doctor. ”The very things we think poison have often quite a contrary effect.” My own opinion is that if I had taken the medicine I should have been ill for a week at least. I don't take wine as a daily drink, because I can't afford it, for one reason, and for another because I believe, taken daily, it has a mischievous effect. But there are times when it does good, and life is not so joyous that we can afford to dispense entirely with the pleasant stimulus of wine. I would not prevent its manufacture. No society has ever existed without the winecup for its feasts and holidays. I would not put down the liquor traffic. I would only shut up the drink shops. It is they that cause the drunkenness which does so much mischief, and there is no need for their existence at all.

'But let us hear what her ladys.h.i.+p has to say,' said Buxton.

'What are you talking about?' she said.

'A regenerated State.'

'Ah, there is need for it,' she said. 'But how are you to get it? That is the question.'

'Oh, nothing is easier. Buy a farm in Ess.e.x and form there a model society.'

'With a cheap train to take your people to London in an hour or two?

That will never do.'

'Well, then, let us go to Canada and plant our Utopia there.'

'And fail, as others have done,' said she.

'But we shall take picked men and women, and with them we cannot fail.'

'But they are not immortal.'

'Happily,' said Buxton, 'none of us are that. We've all got to die and make room for the new generation.'

'And can you answer for the new generation?' asked Rose, 'that they will remain shut up in your Utopia to labour, not each for himself, but for mutual benefit; that they will conform to your ideas as regards drinking and matrimony; that no selfish pa.s.sion will run riot; that no serpent will come into that paradise to tempt another Eve; that the new Adam will be wiser than the old one?'

'Why, I thought you were in favour of the idea,' said her husband.

'But I am a woman.'

'And therefore have a full right to change your opinion,' added Buxton.

'Of course, there must be some failures. It is by them we learn how to succeed,' replied Wentworth. 'We learn from the failure of past organizations the way to form better and more successful ones. Are there not successful Shaker settlements in America?'

'You make me laugh,' said the lady.