a mild and even balmy atmosphere scented with hothouse flowers.

"And this revelation completely satisfies all reasonable desires," he
continued, surveying his small audience from the hearthrug where he
stood; "mind, I say all reasonable desires. If you have a healthy
appetite for bread, you will get it and plenty of it, but if you have a
sickly craving for manna, why then you will come badly off, that is all.
This is the gospel of fact, not of fancy: of things as they actually
are, you know, instead of as A dreamt they were, or B decided they ought
to be, or C would like to have them. So this gospel is apt to look a
little dull beside the highly coloured romances the churches have
accustomed us to--as a modern plate-glass window might, compared with a
stained-glass oriel in a mediæval cathedral. There is no doubt which is
the prettier of the two. The question is, do you want pretty colour or
do you want clear daylight?" He paused, but neither of his listeners
spoke. Lady Atherley was counting the stitches of her knitting; I was
too tired; so he resumed: "For my part, I prefer the daylight and the
glass, without any daubing. What does science discover in the universe?
Precision, accuracy, reliability--any amount of it; but as to pity,
mercy, love! The fact is, that famous simile of the angel playing at
chess was a mistake. Very smart, I grant you, but altogether misleading.
Why! the orthodox quote it as much as the others--always a bad sign. It
tickles these anthropomorphic fancies, which are at the bottom of all
their creeds. Imagine yourself playing at chess, not with an angel, but
with an automaton, an admirably constructed automaton whose mechanism
can outwit your brains any day: calm and strong, if you like, but no
more playing for love than the clock behind me is ticking for love;
there you have a much clearer notion of existence. A much clearer
notion, and a much more satisfactory notion too, I say. Fair play and no
favour! What more can you ask, if you are fit to live?"