Titans of Chaos

Lovely place, all polished wood floors gleaming like gold, dimmed lights over cozy white tables,wood-slatted windows casting striped shadows from the setting sun across the silverware andlinen. The fragrance of roses and of wine hung in the air. I suppose it was a small restaurant,compared with some, but to me it looked enormous.

They never starved us at the Academy, and they had staff to wait on us at meals, which I supposeis unusual, so you would think we'd be used to dining. But the difference here was that we got tochoose our own food.

What food it was! It was served on little white dishes, looking almost too beautiful to eat. (Irecommend the guinea hen breast and rillettes, though the lobster salad-I ate some off Vanity'splate-was quite tasty, too.) They served twenty types of cheeses from a cart, each one better thanthe last.

Imagine being able to eat as much as you'd like, without Mrs. Wren or Dr. Fell telling you no.

Freedom cannot be good for the figure. Are Americans fatter than Cubans because they're free?

I remember making some comment along these lines to the group.

Quentin looked glum and shook his head. "Unleashing the appetites is not freedom, but anothertype of slavery. Freedom in the absence of virtue will destroy a country as quickly as anytyranny."

Victor said, "Virtue imposed from without is not virtue at all, but merely prudence. A man whoavoids lying merely because a law tells him to tell the truth will avoid telling the truth as soon asthe law tells him to lie."

Quentin said, "The whole universe is built on a hierarchic principle, spirits being made of finersubstances than gross matter, quintessence being finer than aether. A democracy flattensdifferences between men, and too soon they lose the distinction between better and worse, nobleand base, good and evil. Have you seen what they call art here, compared to what we studied inschool? These people need a queen. To bow to a crowned sovereign would teach them respect forgreat and ancient things, so that when, after death, they met things greater and more ancient thanmere man, they would be ready."

Victor, who cared nothing one way or the other for art, said, "I believe in the principle ofatomism: let each individual stand or fall on his own. The ancient things we are running fromhave done nothing to convince me the Americans, or anyone else, should bow to them."

I said, "Speaking of gross matter, what do you think, Colin?"