THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

I. 1. The Harmony of Virtue63able from slightness or from intensity to spoil the delicate effectof her perverseness, or the form to engross too largely the attention,or indeed any element to fall too short or carry too far, butwill subdue the whole trio into a just and appropriate harmony.Wilson: If she wants to be a perfect flirt, that is what shewill do.Keshav: And if coquetry is native in her, to be a perfect flirtwill be highest pinnacle of virtue.Wilson: That follows from the premises.Keshav: And so here we have a concrete example of perfectvirtue, and begin to understand what we mean by the perfect evolutionof an inborn quality, or are you still unenlightened?Wilson: No, I perfectly understand.Keshav: Hither then we have climbed with much more laboriouseffort and have almost cut our hands in two on the projections,but do at last really stand on the fourth and last rungof the ladder.Wilson: The last? I rather fancy we are only half way upand shall have to ascend another three or four rungs before weare kissed by the fresh winds that carol on the brow. I havemany things to ask you and you have as yet spoken nothing ofthe relations between man and man and how this new moralityis to be modified by the needs of society and what justice meansand what self-sacrifice and indeed a thousand things which willneed many hours to investigate.Keshav: I am Frankenstein saddled with a monster of myown making and have made a man to my ruin and a young manto my hurt. Nevertheless “lead on, monster: we'll follow.”Treneth: Will you not rest on the fourth rung and have acup of tea in my rooms before you resume.Keshav: But shall we not put a stop to your spheroids andtrianguloids and asinoids and all the other figures of mathematicalingenuity?Treneth: I am at present watching a body which revolveson six screws and is consequently very drunk; and a day offwill sensibly assist my speculations.Keshav: So let it be, but before we go I may as well recallto you at a glance what is our fourth rung.