"But there is no special subject I want to study," I said. "I am just a 'general' observer, and if I undertake to study a special subject I shall miss seeing what I most want to see."
"That is a difficulty. Perhaps you had better go on as you have been doing, and when you have had enough of that, go in for some political institutions; they have got you registered as a National Councillor, so you can pretend to study the working of the Constitution or some such thing."
"That's rather a good idea," I said; "but, judging from what I have seen, I should doubt whether they will let me see what I want to see."
"Just what I cannot get from an inspection of the machinery of the State--the effect of the laws and customs on the actual life of the people."
"Ah, that you will have to get by the aid of your imagination."
"But," I suggested, "is it not possible to get permission to live in some family, or with several different families in different classes in succession?"
"Oh yes," replied Johnson, "quite possible, if you are prepared to go through all the necessary formalities; but I doubt whether you will get much by it. You see, each family is a sort of replica, in miniature, of the State. They will have to report to the Police once a week upon all your doings. Every word you say will be listened to. They will be studying you, just as you will be studying them. I have tried it. There _is_ no natural intercourse in this country. Try it if you like, but I am sure you will come to my opinion in the end.
"Don't forget to enter the time of this conversation in your diary," Mr. Johnson said as we parted. "If you make a mistake, or if I make a mistake, we shall have an interview with an inspector from the Time Department, and the hotel manager will worry us to death about it."
The next day I resumed my tour of observation with a new 'conductor' whose name was Lickrod. He was almost affectionate in his greeting when we met at the Police Office, and we had not been long together before I recognised that he was a different type from Prigge, or Sheep, or any of the others I had met. He was to take me to see the Industrial town, and he was full of enthusiasm for everything we were to see. As we went along in the tram he explained rather effusively that it was a great pleasure to him to meet foreigners. He had a mission in life, just as Meccania had a mission among all the nations. He was a loyal Meccanian--in fact, he yielded to no man in his loyalty to the State; but for that very reason he ventured to criticise one defect in the policy of the Government. I began to wonder what that could be.