rtue is thought; I
have often fancied," he continued to Pan, whom he was now confronting,
"that the effect of clothing on mind must be very considerable, and that
it must have a modifying rather than an expanding effect, or, even, an
intensifying as against an exuberant effect. With clothing the whole
environment is immediately affected. The air, which is our proper
medium, is only filtered to our bodies in an abated and niggardly
fashion which can scarcely be as beneficial as the generous and
unintermitted elemental play. The question naturally arises whether
clothing is as unknown to nature as we have fancied? Viewed as a
protective measure against atmospheric rigour we find that many
creatures grow, by their own central impulse, some kind of exterior
panoply which may be regarded as their proper clothing. Bears, cats,
dogs, mice, sheep and beavers are wrapped in fur, hair, fell, fleece or
pelt, so these creatures cannot by any means be regarded as being naked.
Crabs, cockroaches, snails and cockles have ordered around them a crusty
habiliment, wherein their original nakedness is only to be discovered by
force, and other creatures have similarly provided themselves with
some species of covering. Clothing, therefore, is not an art, but an
instinct, and the fact that man is born naked and does not grow his
clothing upon himself from within but collects it from various distant
and haphazard sources is not any reason to call this necessity an
instinct for decency. These, you will admit, are weighty reflections and
worthy of consideration before we proceed to the wide and thorny subject
of moral and immoral action. Now, what is virtue?" Pan, who had listened
with great courtesy to these remarks, here broke in on the Philosopher.

"Virtue," said he, "is the performance of pleasant actions."

The Philosopher held the statement for a moment on his forefinger.

"And what, then, is vice?" said he.

"It is vicious," said Pan, "to neglect the performance of pleasant
actions."

"If this be so," the other commented, "philosophy has up to the present
been on the wrong track."

"That is so," said Pan. "Philosophy is an immoral practice because it
suggests a standard of practice impossible of being followed, and which,
if it could be followed, would lead to the great sin of sterility."

"The idea of virtue," said the Philosopher, with some indignation, "has
animated the noblest intellects of the world."

"It has not animated