:
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion of slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . (Conrad 10).
Clearly, there is a racist component in the "idea only," for that idea is that Europeans have a right to extend their domain at the expense of others. Marlow has some regret at the fact that this is so, but in the end there is nothing he can do about it except accept it. Marlow is ever the moralist, and his place in the novel is superior in understanding to that of his audience on the deck:
. . . the audience represents a spectrum of social types and values; i
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