He paused to send for another drink. Brainard wondered what the august author of the great epic would have thought of this twentieth century criticism of his theory. “Now Mexico is free from all that sort of cant, and that is why I said Mexico was destined to be a great country. In Mexico they let the individual alone. You see, the Church is supposed to look after the morals of the community. That is a great relief—it simplifies life and makes it much more honest. The Church does the best it can, and the State helps it out when necessary. But the Church don’t expect too much, the Catholic Church I mean, of human beings, and so it isn’t disappointed. It all works beautifully! You’ll never find in Mexico such a fool performance as that going on in San Francisco to-day. They’re no puritans in California either. They don’t want reform—they don’t want to shut up the cafés and French restaurants and prevent the city council from getting its little rakeoff—not a bit of it! It’s only this puritan bug has got hold of some ‘better than thous’ among us, and they are raising hell.” He paused to finish his drink and wipe his brow. “It always heats me to think,” he explained. “But I was saying that for this reason Mexico has a great part to play in the future. For one thing, it furnishes us Americans a possible place to live in when our own country has one of these righteous attacks and is cleaning house. Lovely country, lovely climate, lovely people—if you know how to handle ’em right. No, sir, I hope they’ll never civilize Mexico in my time any more than it is civilized at present. The natural man needs a country, and Mexico is his country. . . . Come on—let’s have a look at the town. The band will be playing in the square a little later, and you will see some of the prettiest girls you ever saw in your life.”