A Modern Symposium

A summer evening on the North Downs becomes an improvised exchange of political convictions when Lord Cantilupe arrives without his promised paper. The Seekers, a club bringing together politicians and professional men, settle on a terrace overlooking the Sussex weald. Their host asks Cantilupe to explain his Tory beliefs, then proposes that the others answer with their own views. Published in 1905, G. Lowes Dickinson's philosophical dialogue gives a shared setting to sharply different accounts of society.

Cantilupe defends inherited rank and government by gentlemen, while the listed speakers include a Liberal, a Socialist, an Anarchist, a scientist and a poet. Discussion also turns toward the family, education, children's living conditions and the purpose of property. These speeches connect personal assumptions with proposals for public life. Readers interested in Britain's social debates can follow how competing outlooks give different weight to wealth, authority and human development.