Our theme which began so compactly in Mr. Bensington's study has already spread and branched until it points this way and that and henceforth our whole story is one of dissemination. To follow the Food of the Gods further is to trace the ramifications of a perpetually branching tree; in a little while in the quarter of a lifetime the Food had trickled and increased from its first spring in the little farm near Hickleybrow until it had spread--it and the report and
shadow of its power--throughout the world. It spread beyond England very speedily. Soon in America all over the continent of Europe in Japan in Australia at last all over the world the thing was working towards its appointed end. Always it worked slowly by indirect courses and against resistance. It was bigness insurgent. In spite of prejudice in spite of law and regulation in spite of all that obstinate conservatism that lies at the base of the formal order of mankind the Food of the Gods once it had been set going pursued its subtle and invincible progress.