little dukes and princes and republics, just as Germany had to be
united in spite of its scores of kingdoms and duchies and liberties,
so now the world. Things as they are may be fun for lawyers and
politicians and court people and--douaniers; they may suit the loan-
mongers and the armaments shareholders, they may even be more
comfortable for the middle-aged, but what, except as an
inconvenience, does that matter to you or me?"

Prothero always pleased Benham when he swept away empires. There
was always a point when the rhetoric broke into gesture.

"We've got to sweep them away, Benham," he said, with a wide gesture
of his arm. "We've got to sweep them all away."

Prothero helped himself to some more whiskey, and spoke hastily,
because he was afraid some one else might begin. He was never safe
from interruption in his own room. The other young men present
sucked at their pipes and regarded him doubtfully. They were never
quite certain whether Prothero was a prophet or a fool. They could
not understand a mixed type, and he was so manifestly both.

"The only sane political work for an intelligent man is to get the
world-state ready. For that we have to prepare an aristocracy--"

"Your world-state will be aristocratic?" some one interpolated.

"Of course it will be aristocratic. How can uninformed men think
all round the globe? Democracy dies five miles from the parish
pump. It will be an aristocratic republic of all the capable men in
the world. . . ."