[Merritt Mullen]

pegs and breaking forth into lusty song. Julia had settled down on her side
and seemed to be already on the point of falling asleep. He reached out for
the book, which was lying on the floor, and sat up against the bedhead.
'We must read it,' he said. 'You too. All members of the Brotherhood
have to read it.'
'You read it,' she said with her eyes shut. 'Read it aloud. That's the
best way. Then you can explain it to me as you go.'
The clock's hands said six, meaning eighteen. They had three or four
hours ahead of them. He propped the book against his knees and began
reading:

Chapter I.

Ignorance is Strength.

Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic
Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the
Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have
borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as
their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the
essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous
upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always
reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibnum,
however far it is pushed one way or the other
'Julia, are you awake?' said Winston.
'Yes, my love, I'm listening. Go on. It's marvellous.'
He continued reading:

The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of
the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change
places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim -- for it
is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by
drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their
daily lives -- is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which
all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the
same in its m