The Savage took it. "The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testa111ents, " he read aloud from the tide-page. "Nor this." lt was a small book and had lost its cover. ··ne Imitation of Christ." "Nor this". He hand.ed out another volume. "The Varieties of Religious Experience. By William James." "And I've got plenty more," Mwsta,pha Mond continued, resuming his seat. •· A whoie collection of pomographic old books. God in the saf· e and Ford on the shelves." "But if you know about God, why don't you tel1 them?" asked the Savage indignantly. "Why don't you give them these books about God?" "For the same reason as we don't give them Otl-te/fo : they're old; they're about God hunidreds of years ago. Not about God now." . . . "If you allowed yourselves to thinik of God, you woul<ln't allow yourselves to he ,degraded by pleasant vices. You',d have a r-eason for bearing things patiently, for doing things with coura:ge, . l've seen it with the Indians." 'Tm sure you hiave," s-aid Mustapha Mond. "But then we aren't Inidians. There isn't any need for a, civilized man to bear anything that's seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things - Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. lt would up&et the whole social order if men started -doing things on their own." "What about self-denial, then? If you had a GOid, you'd have a reason for self-denial." "But industrial civfüzation is only possible when ther,e's no se-lfdenial. Sdf-indulgence up to the very limits imposerd by hygiene arul economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning." „You',d hiave a reason for chastity!" said the Savage, blushing a little as he spo�e the wo11ds. "But chastity means passion, chastity means nieura.sthenia. And passion and neurasthenia mean instability. And instaibility means the end of civilization. You can't have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices." "But God's the rerason for everything noble and fine and heroic. If you had a God . . ." "My dear young frien,d," sai,d Mwstapha Mond, "civiliz.ation has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. Th-ese things are symptoms of poiitical inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ouris, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can adse. Where there are wars, where there ar,e divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be res,isted, objects of love to be foug.ht for or 17
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