Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 8.djvu/331

 to buy and how to buy, and what you didn't know how to buy with your money, straight away this world planted something else upon you"

"I got rather done over a banjo first day," said Kipps. "Leastways, my Uncle says so."

"Exactly," said Masterman.

Sid began to speak from the bed. "That's all very well, Masterman," he said, "but after all money is Power, you know. You can do all sorts of things"

"I'm talking of happiness," said Masterman. "You can do all sorts of things with a loaded gun in the Hammersmith Broadway, but nothing—practically—that will make you or any one else very happy. Nothing. Power's a different matter altogether. As for happiness, you want a world in order before money or property, or any of those things have any real value; and this world, I tell you, is hopelessly out of joint. Man is a social animal with a mind nowadays that goes round the globe, and a community cannot be happy in one part and unhappy in another. It's all or nothing, no patching any more for ever. It is the standing mistake of the world not to understand that. Consequently people think there is a class or order somewhere, just above them or just below them, or a country or place somewhere, that is really safe and happy. The fact is, Society is one body, and it is either well or ill. That's the law. This society we live in is ill. It's a fractious, feverish invalid, gouty, greedy and ill-nourished. You can't have a happy left leg with neuralgia, or a happy throat with a broken leg. That's my position, and that's the knowledge you'll come to. I'm so satisfied