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The answer grated, made Cummings's flesh tingleHe had been absorbed in the argument, temporarily indifferent to Hearn, concerned only with unfolding his thesis, and the obscenity stirred little swirls of apprehension in himHis anger returned again
For the moment, however, he ignored Hearn Hearn shrugged once more, his silence unpleasantly eloquentThere was something unapproachable and unattainable about Hearn which had always piqued him, always irritated him subtlyThe empty pit where there should be a manAnd at the moment he desired, with an urgency that clamped his jaws together, to arouse some emotion in HearnWomen would have wanted to excite some love from him, but for himself -- to see Hearn afraid, filled with shame if only for an instant
Cummings went on talking, his voice quiet and expressionless"The average man always sees himself in relation to other men as either inferior or superiorWomen play no part in itThey're an index, a yardstick among other gauges, by which to measure superiority
"Did you arrive at that all by yourself, sir? It's an impressive analysis
Hearn's sarcasm riled him again"I'm quite aware, Robert, that you've worked out the ABC's of something like that, but you don't carry it any furtherYou stop there, go back to your starting point, and take off againThe truth of it is that from man's very inception there has been one great vision, blurred first by the exigencies and cruelties of nature, and then, as nature began to be conquered, by the second great cloak -- economic fear and economic strivingThat particular vision has been muddied and diverted, but we're coming to a time when our techniques will enable us to achieve it He exhaled his smoke slowly"There's that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angelActually man is in transit between brute and God
"Man's deepest urge is omnipotence?"
"YesIt's not religion, that's obvious, it's not love, it's not spirituality, those are all sops along the way, benefits we devise for ourselves when the limitations of our existence turn us away from the other dreamWhen we come kicking into the world, we are God, the universe is the limit of our senses
