The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Symposium, by G. Lowes Dickinson

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Title: A Modern Symposium

Author: G. Lowes Dickinson

Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30432]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN SYMPOSIUM ***

Produced by Al Haines

A MODERN SYMPOSIUM

BY

G. LOWES DICKINSON

"LIFE LIKE A DOME OF MANY-COLOURED GLASS
STAINS THE WHITE RADIANCE OF ETERNITY"

LONDON

GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD

MUSEUM STREET

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1905
REPRINTED 1930
REPRINTED 1934

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
UNWIN BROTHERS LTD., WOKING

FRATRUM SOCIETATI
FRATRUM MINIMUS

THE SPEAKERS

LORD CANTILUPE
A TORY

ALFRED REMENHAM
A LIBERAL

REUBEN MENDOZA
A CONSERVATIVE

GEORGE ALLISON
A SOCIALIST

ANGUS MACCARTHY
AN ANARCHIST

HENRY MARTIN
A PROFESSOR

CHARLES WILSON
A MAN OF SCIENCE

ARTHUR ELLIS
A JOURNALIST

PHILIP AUDUBON
A MAN OF BUSINESS

AUBREY CORYAT
A POET

SIR JOHN HARINGTON
A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE

WILLIAM WOODMAN
A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

GEOFFRY VIVIAN
A MAN OF LETTERS

A MODERN SYMPOSIUM

SOME of my readers may have heard of a club known as the Seekers. It
is now extinct; but in its day it was famous, and included a number of
men prominent in politics or in the professions. We used to meet once
a fortnight on the Saturday night, in London during the winter, but in
the summer usually at the country house of one or other of the members,
where we would spend the week-end together. The member in whose house
the meeting was held was chairman for the evening; and after the paper
had been read it was his duty to call upon the members to speak in what
order he thought best. On the occasion of the discussion which I am to
record, the meeting was held in my own house, where I now write, on the
North Downs. The company was an interesting one. There was Remenham,
then Prime Minister, and his great antagonist Mendoza, both of whom
were members of our society. For we aimed at combining the most
opposite eleme