And Gerald could not help it, he was bound to strive to come up to her criterion, fulfil her idea of a man and a human-being.
After lunch, when all the others had withdrawn, Hermione and Gerald and Birkin lingered, finishing their talk.

There had been some discussion, on the whole quite intellectual and artificial, about a new state, a new world of man.

Supposing this old social state WERE broken and destroyed, then, out of the chaos, what then?
The great social idea, said Sir Joshua, was the SOCIAL equality of man.
No, said Gerald, the idea was, that every man was fit for his own little bit of a task--let him do that, and then please himself.

The unifying principle was the work in hand.

Only work, the business of production, held men together.