You'd be a
Solomon to those guileless nations. You'd instruct their ignorance
and preserve their morals. You'd lead their armies to victory on
account of your natural gifts. You'd have your birthdays celebrated
with torch-light processions. You'd be a luxurious patriot.' Now
that's a pleasant way of looking at it. But it seemed to me the
likeliest thing was to go out as a trader. Now as to trading. Sitting
on a stool and figuring discounts is business, and trading cheese-cloth
for parrots is business too. A horse is an animal, and so's a
potato-bug. But I take it where society is loose and business isn't a
system, there's always chance for a man with natural gifts. But
you're going to ask me: What for is all this mixture I've got aboard?
If some of it's tradable, you'd say, there must be a deal of it
isn't. And I ask you back, Tommy: Take it in general, haven't I got a
mixture that represents civilisation? Did you ever see a ship that
had more commodious, miscellaneous, and sufficient civilisation in
her than this? I'm taking out civilisation. Maybe I'm calculating on
a boom. Now, the secret of a boom is to spread out as far as you can
reach, and then flap.
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