Forster is often remembered as a modernist who believed in “personal relationships.” An acute social critic with a persistent ironic vision, he nevertheless retained a core belief in the enduring power of intimate ties to mitigate against an increasingly authoritarian and mechanized world. At the same time, passages like this one from The Longest Journey, which express a sense of pathos about the potential for male love to be articulated and realized, blend Forster's faith in small-scale humanity with his most private desire. If the erotics are shepherded in quietly, they effectively transform the passage from an example of youthful sentiment into a depiction of more empathetic, adult desire. Such saturated language about friendship would seem to proceed directly out of Forster's personal fantasies, to function in part as a sexualization of his humanist ideal.