Back to Methuselah

am not sure that it may not prove the only point they will swallow. Burge It will be no use to us even if they do. It’s not a party point. It’s as good for the other side as for us. Lubin Not necessarily. If we get in first with it, it will be associated in the public mind with our party. Suppose I put it forward as a plank in our program that we advocate the extension of human life to three hundred years! Dunreen, as leader of the opposite party, will be bound to oppose me: to denounce me as a visionary and so forth. By doing so he will place himself in the position of wanting to rob the people of two hundred and thirty years of their natural life. The Unionists will become the party of Premature Death; and we shall become the Longevity party. Burge Shaken. You really think the electorate would swallow it? Lubin My dear Burge: is there anything the electorate will not swallow if it is judiciously put to them? But we must make sure of our ground. We must have the support of the men of science. Is there serious agreement among them, Doctor, as to the possibility of such an evolution as you have described? Conrad Yes. Ever since the reaction against Darwin set in at the beginning of the present century, all scientific opinion worth counting has been converging rapidly upon Creative Evolution. Franklyn Poetry has been converging on it: philosophy has been converging on it: religion has been converging on it. It is going to be the religion of the twentieth century: a religion that has its intellectual roots in philosophy and science just as medieval Christianity had its intellectual roots in Aristotle. Lubin But surely any change would be so extremely gradual that⁠— Conrad Don’t deceive yourself. It’s only the politicians who improve the world so gradually that nobody can see the improvement. The notion that Nature does not proceed by jumps is only one of the budget of plausible lies that we call classical education. Nature always proceeds by jumps. She may spend twenty thousand years making up her mind to jump; but when she makes it up at last, the jump is big enough to take us into a new age. Lubin Impressed. Fancy my being leader of the party for the next three hundred years! Burge What!! Lubin Perhaps hard on some of the younger men. I think in fairness I shall have to step aside to make room after another century or so: that is, if Mimi can be persuaded to give up Downing Street. Burge This is too much. Your colossal conceit blinds you to the most obvious necessity of the political situation. Lubin You mean my retirement. I really cannot see that it is a necessity. I could not see it when I was almost an old man⁠—or at least an elderly one. Now that it appears that I am a young man, the case for it breaks down completely. To Conrad. May I ask are there any alternative theories? Is there a scientific Opposition? Conrad Well, some authorities hold that the human race is a failure, and that a new form of life, better adapted to high civilization, will supersede us as we have superseded the ape and the elephant. Burge The superman: eh! Conrad No. Some being quite different from us. Lubin Is that altogether desirable? Franklyn I fear so. However that may be, we may be quite sure of one thing. We shall not be let alone. The force behind evolution, call it what you will, is determined to solve the problem of civilization; and if it cannot do it through us, it will produce some more capable agents. Man is not God’s last word: God can still create. If you cannot do His work He will produce some being who can. Burge With zealous reverence. What do we know about Him, Barnabas? What does anyone know about Him? Conrad We know this about Him with absolute certainty. The power my brother calls God proceeds by the method of Trial and Error; and if we turn out to be one of the errors, we shall go the way of the mastodon and the megatherium and all the other scrapped experiments. Lubin Rising and beginning to walk up and down the room with his considering cap on. I admit that I am impressed, gentlemen. I will go so far as to say that your theory is likely to prove more interesting than ever Welsh Disestablishment was. But as a practical politician⁠—hm! Eh, Burge? Conrad We are not practical politicians. We are out to get something done. Practical politicians are people who have mastered the art of using parliament to prevent anything being done. Franklyn When we get matured statesmen and citizens⁠— Lubin Stopping short. Citizens! Oh! Are the citizens to live three hundred years as well as the statesmen? Conrad Of course. Lubin I confess that had not occurred to me. He sits down abruptly, evidently very unfavorably affected by this new light. Savvy and Haslam look at one another with unspeakable feelings. Burge Do you think it would be wise to go quite so far at first? Surely it would be more prudent to begin with the best men. Franklyn You need not be anxious about that. It will begin with the best men. Lubin I am glad to hear you say so. You see, we must put this into a practical parliamentary shape. Burge We shall have to draft a Bill: that is the long and the short of it. Until you have your Bill drafted you don’t know what you are really doing: that is my experience. Lubin Quite so. My idea is that whilst we should interest the electorate in this as a sort of religious aspiration and personal hope, using it at the same time to remove their prejudices against those of us who are getting on in years, it would be in the last degree upsetting and even dangerous to enable everyone to live