mean, as it always has done, a measuring up to standards. Marcus Aurelius will have used the word in this sense, to mean that a man's actions in this world should not disgrace his immortality hereafter. At Winchester College we were taught devotion to duty whatever the cost; it is a modern version of the same idea. We were not to remember that we were Romans; we were taught to remember that we were Wykehamists; but there is nothing in a name. We were expected to abide by the same standards. What I am suggesting is that there could be a middle class where immortality means that people enjoy an indwelling with each other, and where possibly it extends to small groups of people rather than couples only.
However, although immortality can only mean endless days for few or none, let us continue to consider this possibility, and see where we get to. One thing I am convinced about. The only chance of reaching an answer as to whether an immortality of endless days is possible in this world lies in treating it as a simple problem in human relations. One must cast out from one's mind all fear and hysteria; I mean the tendency to say that it is ridiculous even trying to solve the problem, because it is so obvious that it cannot be solved. This is what the pessimists have said about every problem since the world began. If one starts from the basis that it is a simple problem in human relations, then with luck it ought to be possible to reach a fairly clear indication one way or another; either that the problem is soluble, or that it is not. One must regard death simply as the last enemy, to be overcome in one way or another. Even if an immortality of endless days is possible, I do not suggest that you could not kill an immortal person by running him over with a bus, or shooting him with a bullet, or by hanging him on a tree. I am tempted to say, of course it would be possible.
Let us attempt a more detailed description of the difference between the consciousness of…