Fashionable Philosophy | Page 4

now possess?
Germsell. Pardon me, you do not possess them, Mr Fussle.
Lady Fritterly. Mr Fussle, might I ask you to take this cup of tea to Mrs
Allmash? Mr Germsell, it would be too kind of you to hand Mrs
Gloring the cake.

Fussle [_savagely_]. We will continue this conversation at the
Minerva.
Mrs Allmash [apart to the Khoja]. Oh, Mr Allyside, I am so glad to
hear that you speak English so perfectly! I want you to tell me all about
your religion; perhaps it may help us, you know, to find the religion of
the future, which we are all longing for. And I am so interested in
oriental religions! there is something so charmingly picturesque about
them. I quite dote on those dear old Shastras, and Vedas, and Puranas;
they contain such a lot of beautiful things, you know.
Ali Seyyid. I know as little, madam, of the Indian books you mention as
I do of the Bible, which I have always heard was a very good book, and
contained also a great many beautiful things. I am neither a Hindoo nor
a Buddhist,--in fact, it is forbidden to me by my religion to tell you
exactly what I am.
Mrs Allmash. But indeed I won't tell anybody if you will only confide
in me. Oh, this mystery is too exquisitely delicious! Who knows,
perhaps you might make a convert of me?
Ali Seyyid [_with an admiring gaze_]. Madam, you would be a prize so
well worth winning, that you almost tempt me. The first of our secrets
is that we are all things to all men, until we are quite sure of the
sympathy of the listener; then we venture a step further.
Mrs Allmash. How wise that is! and how unlike the system adopted by
Christians! You may be sure of my most entire sympathy.
Ali Seyyid. The next principle is--but this is a profound secret, which
you must promise not to repeat--the rejection of all fixed rules of
religion or morality. It really does not matter in the least what you do:
the internal disposition is the only thing of any value. Now, as far as I
understand, you have already got rid of the religion, or you would not
be looking for a new one; all you have to do is to get rid of the morality,
and there you are.
Mrs Allmash [_with an expression of horror and alarm_]. Yes, there I

should be indeed. Oh, Mr Allyside, what a dreadful man you are! Who
started such an extraordinary doctrine?
Ali Seyyid. Well, his name was Hassan-bin-Saba--commonly known
among Westerns as the "Old Man of the Mountain." His followers,
owing to the value they attached to murder as a remedial agent, have
been known by the name of the "Assassins."
Mrs Allmash. Oh, good gracious!
Lady Fritterly. My dear Louisa, what is the matter? You look quite
frightened.
Ali Seyyid. Mrs Allmash is a little alarmed because I proposed a new
morality for the future, as well as a new religion.
Mr Coldwaite. Excuse me; but in discussions of this sort, I think it is
most important that we should clearly understand the meanings of the
terms we employ. Now I deny that any difference subsists between
religion and morality. That any such distinction should exist in men's
minds is due to the fact that dogma is inseparably connected with
religion. If you eliminate dogma, what does religion consist of but
morality? Substitute the love of Humanity for the love of the
Unknowable--which is the subject of worship of Mr Germsell; or of the
Deity, who is the object of worship of the majority of mankind--and
you obtain a stimulus to morality which will suffice for all human need.
It is in this great emotion, as it seems to me, that you will find at once
the religion and the morality of the future.
Germsell. From what source do you get the force which enables you to
love humanity with a devotion so intense that it shall elevate your
present moral standard?
Coldwaite. From humanity itself. I am not going to be entrapped into
getting it from any unknowable source; the love of humanity, whether
it be humanity as existing, or when absorbed by death into the general
mass, is perpetually generating itself.

Mrs Allmash. Then it must produce itself from what was there before;
therefore it must be the same love, which keeps on going round and
round.
Lord Fondleton. A sort of circular love, in fact. I've often felt it: but I
didn't think it right to encourage it.
Lady Fritterly. Lord Fondleton, how can you be so silly? Don't pay
attention to him, Mr Coldwaite. I confess I still don't see how you can
get a higher love out of humanity