"Better to leave the book in the hands of one who could benefit from its wisdom, than to let it remain, inert, in a police warehouse."
These are the words of Dr. X which are confirmed by the Confucian Judge Fang when they discuss the fate of the stolen book and the fate of the one in whose possession it ended up. It is a determining choice that shapes the life of Nell.
"How could a man become a god?" Nell asked. "By living in an extremely pragmatic society," said Constable Moore...
The meaning of a pragmatic society is a society which takes a practical and realistic approach to life; therefore, the thought that a man can become a god in such a society may seem paradoxical. But, upon further consideration, it's a likely outcome since a man is a part of a reality, and giving a god-meaning to a man is a tangible, thus realistic, representation of that meaning itself.
"It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no use without that foundation..."
It is the basis of the Neo-Victorian society which uses a rather old-fashioned way in teaching the girls about qualities like humility and self-discipline. Society without morals, and connected to that without humaneness, is doomed to failure, as taught from the late twentieth century when teaching morality became unfashionable, according to Miss Matheson. Here we can "hear" the author's voice and his critic of time when this novel came out.
