This a sentiment born of Enlightenment optimism that Mary Shelley would have heard
echoed in her father's home as well as in the one she established with Percy Bysshe
Shelley. It is based on a sense of the shared values of the human community. For it
to be discovered a falsehood would profoundly affect normative ethical premises. The
very blandness of this discourse testifies to our comfortable assurances and prepares
the way for a devastating reversal of them.