John's interest was caught for the moment by the word, "meliorist."

But Shakespeare is a meliorist even in Hamlet, and believes that the ailments of man can all be set right.

A pessimist I may be, but it is the habitually hopeful meliorist who is just now perplexed past power to think straight.

"Should I be even a meliorist-asI am-ifI had?"

"What is a meliorist, sir?"