confession and prayer.




CHAPTER X


Roger Seaton was a man of many philosophies. He had one for every
day in the week, yet none wherewith to thoroughly satisfy himself.
While still a mere lad he had taken to the study of science as a
duck takes to water,--no new discovery or even suggestion of a new
discovery missed his instant and close attention. His avidity for
learning was insatiable,--his intense and insistent curiosity on all
matters of chemistry gave a knife-like edge to the quality of his
brain, making it sharp, brilliant and incisive. To him the ordinary
social and political interests of the world were simply absurd. The
idea that the greater majority of men should be created for no
higher purpose than those of an insect, just to live, eat, breed,
and die, was to him preposterous.

"Think of it!" he would exclaim--"All this wondrous organisation of
our planet for THAT! For a biped so stupid as to see nothing in his
surroundings but conveniences for satisfying his stomach and his
passions! We men are educated chiefly in order to learn how to make
money, and all we can do with the money WHEN made, is to build
houses to live in, eat as much as we want and more, and breed
children to whom we leave all the stuff we have earned, and who
either waste it or add to it, whichever suits their selfishness
best. Such lives are absolutely useless,--they repeat the same old