human
It's a barbarous custom,
gpt
And yet ... you might think of them as happy, living that way.
human
Good gracious! Happy?
gpt
They needn't care about how they are to be provided for--and they have their duties.
human
But they're _prisoners_, Sylvia!
gpt
Yes, prisoners.... Aren't we all prisoners, somehow? I've sometimes thought that none of us can do just what we'd like to do, or come or go freely. We think we're free, as oxen in a treadmill think of themselves as being free, I suppose. We think we're climbing a long hill, and that we'll get to the top after a while. But at sundown the gate is opened and the oxen are released. They've never really gotten anywhere.
human
A pagan doctrine, that,
gpt
A pagan doctrine.... I wonder what that means.
human
Pagans are people who don't believe in God. I am not speaking of the God of the churches, exactly. I mean a good influence.
gpt
Don't they believe in their own gods?
human
No doubt. But you might call their own gods bad influences, as often as not.
gpt
Ah--perhaps they're just simple folk who believe in their own experiences.