do say that
differences of opinion about real solid things need not, and with us do not,
crystallise people into parties permanently hostile to one another, with
different theories as to the build of the universe and the progress of time.
Isn't that what politics used to mean?«
    »H'm, well,« said I, »I am not so sure of that.«
    Said he: »I take you, neighbour; they only pretended to this serious
difference of opinion; for if it had existed they could not have dealt together
in the ordinary business of life; couldn't have eaten together, bought and sold
together, gambled together, cheated other people together, but must have fought
whenever they met: which would not have suited them at all. The game of the
masters of politics was to cajole or force the public to pay the expense of a
luxurious life and exciting amusement for a few cliques of ambitious persons:
and the pretence of serious difference of opinion, belied by every action of
their lives, was quite good enough for that. What has all that got to do with
us?«
    Said I: »Why, nothing, I should hope. But I fear - In short, I have been
told that political strife was a necessary result of human nature.«
    »Human nature!« cried the old boy, impetuously; »what human nature? The
human nature of paupers, of slaves, of slave-holders, or the human nature of
wealthy freemen? Which? Come, tell me that!«
    »Well,« said I, »I suppose there would be a difference according to
circumstances in people's action about these matters.«
    »I should think so, indeed,« said he. »At all events, experience shows that
it is so. Amongst us, our differences concern matters of business, and passing
events as to them, and could not divide men permanently. As a rule, the
immediate outcome shows which opinion on a given subject is the right one; it is
a matter of fact, not of speculation. For instance, it is clearly not easy to
knock up a political party on the question as to whether haymaking in such and
such a countryside shall begin this week or next, when all men agree that it
must at latest begin the week after next, and when any man can go down into the
fields himself and see whether the seeds are ripe enough for the cutting.«
    Said I: »And you settle these differences, great and small, by the will of