much content, despite social imperfections and injustices, despite the
ills of nature. Above and below are classes of extreme characterisation; I
believe the happiness assignable to those who are the lowest stratum of
civilisation is, relatively speaking, no whit less than that we may attribute to
the thin stratum of the surface, using the surface to mean the excessively rich.
It is a paradox, but anyone capable of thinking may be assured of its truth. The
life of the very poorest is a struggle to support their bodies; the richest,
relieved of that one anxiety, are overwhelmed with such a mass of artificial
troubles that their few moments of genuine repose do not exceed those vouchsafed
to their antipodes. You would urge the sufferings of the criminal class under
punishment? I balance against it the misery of the rich under the scourge of
their own excesses. It is a mistake due to mere thoughtlessness, or ignorance,
to imagine the labouring, or even the destitute, population as ceaselessly
groaning beneath the burden of their existence. Go along the poorest street in
the East End of London, and you will hear as much laughter, witness as much
gaiety, as in any thoroughfare of the West. Laughter and gaiety of a miserable
kind? I speak of it as relative to the habits and capabilities of the people. A
being of superior intelligence regarding humanity with an eye of perfect
understanding would discover that life was enjoyed every bit as much in the slum
as in the palace.«
    »You would consider it fair to balance excessive suffering of the body in
one class against excessive mental suffering in another?«
    »Undoubtedly. It is a fair application of my theory. But let me preach a
little longer. It is my belief that, though this equality of distribution
remains a fact, the sum total of happiness in nations is seriously diminishing.
Not only on account of the growth of population; the poor have more to suffer,
the rich less of true enjoyment, the mass of comfortable people fall into an
ever-increasing anxiety. A Radical will tell you that this is a transitional
state. Possibly, if we accept the Radical theories of progress. I held them once
in a very lighthearted way; I am now far less disposed to accept them as even
imaginably true. Those who are enthusiastic for the spirit of the age proceed on
the principle of countenancing evil that good may some day come of it. Such a
position astonishes me. Is the happiness of a man now alive of less account than
that of the man who shall live two hundred years hence? Altruism is doubtless
good, but only