"Here I am planning the real map of the world," he said. "Every sort of district that has a character of its own must have its own rule; and the great republic of the united states of the world must keep the federal peace between them all. That's the plain sense of life; the federal world-republic. Why do we bother ourselves with loyalties to any other government but that? It needs only that sufficient men should say it, and that republic would be here now. Why have we loitered so long--until these tragic punishments come? We have to map the world out into its states, and plan its government and the way of its tolerations." "And you think it will come?" "It will come." "And you believe that men will listen to such schemes?" said Letty. Mr. Britling, with his eyes far away over the hills, seemed to think. "Yes," he said. "Not perhaps to-day--not steadily. But kings and empires die; great ideas, once they are born, can never die again. In the end this world-republic, this sane government of the world, is as certain as the sunset. Only...." He sighed, and turned over a page of his atlas blindly. "Only we want it soon. The world is weary of this bloodshed, weary of all this weeping, of this wasting of substance and this killing of sons and lovers. We want it soon, and to have it soon we must work to bring it about. We must give our lives. What is left of our lives.... "That is what you and I must do, Letty. What else is there left for us to do?... I will write of nothing else, I will think of nothing else now but of safety and order. So that all these dear dead--not one of them but will have brought the great days of peace and man's real beginning nearer, and these cruel things that make men whimper like children, that break down bright lives into despair and kill youth at the very moment when it puts out its clean hands to take hold of life--these cruelties, these abominations of confusion, shall cease from the earth forever." Section 10 Letty regarded him, frowning, and with her chin between her fists.... "But do you really believe," said Letty, "that things can be better than they are?" "But--_Yes!_" said Mr. Britling. "I don't," said Letty. "The world is cruel. It is just cruel. So it will always be." "It need not be cruel," said Mr. Britling. "It is just a place of cruel things. It is all set with knives. It is full of diseases and accidents. As for God--either there is no God or he is an idiot. He is a slobbering idiot. He is like some idiot who pulls off the wings of flies." "No," said Mr. Britling. "There is no progress. Nothing gets better. How can _you_ believe in God after Hugh? _Do_ you believe in God?" "Yes," said Mr. Britling after a long pause; "I do believe in God." "Who lets these things happen!" She raised herself on her arm and thrust her argument at him with her hand. "Who kills my Teddy and your Hugh--and millions." "No," said Mr. Britling. "But he _must_ let these things happen. Or why do they happen?"