You need not wait, ladies and gentlemen, so long as
you think for that time. No social revolution is needed, no slow
education of the people is necessary. It would all come about
to-morrow, IF ONLY WE WERE REASONABLE CREATURES.
Imagine a world of reasonable beings! The Ten Commandments would be
unnecessary: no reasoning being sins, no reasoning creature makes
mistakes. There would be no rich men, for what reasonable man cares
for luxury and ostentation? There would be no poor: that I should
eat enough for two while my brother in the next street, as good a
man as I, starves, is not reasonable. There would be no difference
of opinion on any two points: there is only one reason. You, dear
Reader, would find, that on all subjects you were of the same
opinion as I. No novels would be written, no plays performed; the
lives of reasonable creatures do not afford drama. No mad loves, no
mad laughter, no scalding tears, no fierce unreasoning, brief-lived
joys, no sorrows, no wild dreams--only reason, reason everywhere.
But for the present we remain unreasonable. If I eat this
mayonnaise, drink this champagne, I shall suffer in my liver. Then,
why do I eat it? Julia is a charming girl, amiable, wise, and
witty; also she has a share in a brewery.
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