News from Nowhere

r dreary classical house; which indeed was as bare as need be, except for some big pots of the

d and five, and no doubt he doesn't care about moving. But of course he could live in a prettier hou

bout them, well designed but rather crudely executed. At the furthest corner of the room, at a desk near the window, sat a little old man in a roomy oak chair, well becushioned. He was dressed in a sort of Norfolk jacket of blue serge worn threadbare, w

had known, I would not have brou

hing to make me feel one too many. But the old man, who had not seen me a

end with him. A most hearty welcome to you! All the more, as I almost hope that you are going to amuse an old m

he said in a changed voice, "Might I ask you wher

gland, and now I am come back again; and I sle

at him harder than good manners allowed of; perhaps; for in truth his face, dried-apple-like as it was, se

iends. And I see my kinsman Richard Hammond has an air about him as if h

man: our guest finds things much altered, and cannot understand it; nor can I; so I thought I would bring him to you,

ul young woman, who stopped short on seeing Dick, and flushed as red as a rose, but faced him nevertheless.

g in this shy discomfort, but said

enty to say to each other. You had better go into Nelson's room up above; I know he has gone out; and he has just been c

looking straight before her; but it was easy to see that her blushes came fro

hem the old man turned to m

kisses (as indeed it does somewhat), yet I don't think my tales of the past interest them much. The last harvest, the last baby, the last knot of carving in the market-place, is history enough for them. It was different, I think, when I was a lad, when we were not so assured of peace and continuous plenty

owing wonder in his eyes as he spo

g my eyes on the way here from Hammersmith, and from asking some que

is. "Then," said he, "I

eing from another

miled and nodded, and wheeling his seat round to me, bade me sit in a h

one within the last fifty years they would have been much cleverer in execution; but I don't think I should have liked them the better. We were almost beginning again in those days: a

f I am rude; but I am so much interested in Richard, since he has been so ki

a perfect stranger he would be thought a strange person, and people w

ul girl, is he going

to her once already, and now I should say it is

I, wondering w

had not found any one else. But it did not last long, only about a year. Then she came to me, as she was in the habit of bringing her troubles to the old carle, and asked me how Dick was, and whether he was happy, and all the rest of it. So I saw how the land lay, and said that he was

d I. "Have the

sight of her, as I felt sure they would come together again: and Dick, who is the best of good fellows, really took the matter t

p them out of the Divorce Court: but I su

es that came into them were matters of property quarrels: and I think, dear guest," said he, smiling, "that though you do come from anothe

part from my shopping, would have been enough to tell me that "the sacred rights of property," as we used to thin

law could deal with? Fancy a court for enforcing a contract of passion or sentiment! If such a thing we

ieve that we can get rid of all the trouble that besets the dealings between the sexes. We know that we must face the unhappiness that comes of man and woman confusing the relations between natural passion, and sentiment, and the friendship which, when things go well,

s idealised into superhuman perfection, and made the one object of his desire; or lastly the reasonable longing of a strong and thoughtful man to become the most intimate friend of some beautiful and wise woman, the very type of the beauty and glory of the world which we love so well - as w

have fashioned man'

ereafter might be th

anyhow that all tales shall b

minal, to exaggerate these matters of sentiment and sensibility: we are no more inclined to eke out our sentimental sorrows than to cherish our bodily pains; and we recognise that there are other pleasures besides love-making. You must remember, also, that we are long-lived, and that therefore beauty both in man and woman is not so fleeting as it was in the days when we were burdened so heavily by self-inflicted diseases. So we shake off these griefs in a way which perhaps the sentimentalists of other times would think contemp

cannot really feel: thus it is that as that monstrosity of venal lust is no longer possible, so also it is no longer needed. Don't misunderstand me. You did not seemed shocked when I told you that there were no law-courts to enforce contracts of sentiment or passion; but so curiously are men made, that perhaps you will be shocked when I tell you that there is no code of public opinion which takes the place of such courts, and which might be as tyrannical and unreasonable

th some hesitation. "I

ially refined. I am also pretty sure, as I hinted to you just now, that there is not by a great way as much suffering involved in these matters either to

id I. "Now may I ask you about the

e got a reputation as a careful student of history. I believe I really do understand 'the Emanc

little bit nettled

ver the women, or the women over the men; both of which things took place in those old times. The women do what they can do best, and what

slation? do they tak

er to that question till we get on to the subject of legis

saw at the Guest House that the women were waiting on

otice an old Norwegian folk-lore tale called How the Man minded the House, or some such title; the result of which minding was that, after various tribulations, the man and the family cow balanced each other at the end of a rope, the man hanging halfway up

ed, his manner of treating this latter part of

that all the house-mates about her look pleased, and are grateful to her? And then, you know, everybody likes to be ordered about by a pret

led again, and at last f

rent amongst rich so-called cultivated people, of ignoring all the steps by which their daily dinner was reached, as matters too low for their

I," s

n understand me better than you would seem to

a question or two presently about that. But I want to return to the position of women amongst you. You have studied the 'emancipation of women' business of the n

e now done away with. A mother has no longer any mere sordid anxieties for the future of her children. They may indeed turn out better or worse; they may disappoint her highest hopes; such anxieties as these are a part of the mingled pleasure and pain which goes to make up the life of mankind. But at least she is spared the fear (it was most commonly the certainty) that artificial disabilities would make her children something less than men and women: she knows that they will live and act according to the measure of their own faculties. In times past, it is clear that the 'Society' of the day helped its Judaic god, and the 'Man of Science' of the time, in visiting the sins of the

said, "but I can see

benefits which we have gained by our freedom. What did you thi

that there could be so many good-loo

h century, and going over those and comparing them with the everyday faces in these times, puts the improvement in our good looks beyond a doubt. Now, there are some people who think it not too fantastic to connect this increase of beauty directly with our freedom and good sense in the matters we have been speaking of: they believe that a

at mind," said I