at we men
and women understand one another; but most probably you know nothing
even of the modes of thought of the man who lives next door to you."

"I suppose not."

"There are general laws current in the world as to morality. 'Thou
shalt not steal,' for instance. That has necessarily been current as
a law through all nations. But the first man you meet in the street
will have ideas about theft so different from yours, that, if you
knew them as you know your own, you would say that this law and yours
were not even founded on the same principle. It is compatible with
this man's honesty to cheat you in a matter of horseflesh, with that
man's in a traffic of railway shares, with that other man's as to a
woman's fortune; with a fourth's anything may be done for a seat in
Parliament, while the fifth man, who stands high among us, and who
implores his God every Sunday to write that law on his heart, spends
every hour of his daily toil in a system of fraud, and is regarded as
a pattern of the national commerce!"

Mr. Monk and Phineas were dining together at Mr. Monk's house, and
the elder politician of the two in this little speech had recurred to
certain matters which had already been discussed between them. Mr.
Monk was becoming somewhat sick of his place in the Cabinet, though
he had not as yet whispered a word of his sickness to any living
ears; and he had begun to pine for the lost freedom of a seat below
the gangway. He had been discussing political honesty with Phineas,
and hence had come the sermon of which I have ventured to reproduce
the concluding denunciations.

Phineas was fond of such discussions and fond of holding them with
Mr. Monk,--in this matter fluttering like a moth round a candle. He
would not perceive that as he had made up his mind to be a servant
of the public in Parliament, he must abandon all idea of independent
action; and unless he did so he could be neither successful as
regarded himself, or useful to the public whom he served. Could a man
be honest in Parliament, and yet abandon all idea of independence?
When he put such questions to Mr. Monk he did not get a direct
answer. And indeed the question was never put directly. But the
teaching which he received was ever of a nature to make him uneasy.
It was always to this effect: "You have taken up the trade now, and
seem to be fit for success in it. You had better give up thinking
about its special honesty." And yet Mr. Monk would on an occasi