"The benefits we now actually enjoy are of another character. The life
we now lead, though, to a hasty and superficial observer surrounded
with so great imperfections and embarrassments, is far superior to what
we have been able to attain under the most favorable circumstances in
civilization. There is a freedom from the frivolities of fashion, from
arbitrary restrictions, and from the frenzy of competition: we meet our
fellow-men in more hearty, sincere and genial relations; kindred
spirits are not separated by artificial conventional barriers; there is
more personal independence and a wider sphere for its exercise; the
soul is warmed in the sunshine of a true social equality; we are not
brought into the rough and disgusting contact with uncongenial persons
which is such a genuine source of misery in the common intercourse of
society; there is a greater variety, of employment, a more constant
demand for the exertion of all the faculties, and a more exquisite
pleasure in effort, from the consciousness that we are not working for
personal ends, but for a holy principle.
"And even the external sacrifices, which the pioneers in every
enterprise are obliged to make, are not without a sort of romantic
charm, which effectually prevents us from enjoying the luxuries of
Egypt, though we should be blessed with neither the manna nor the
quails which once cheered a table in the desert So that for ourselves
we have reason to be content.
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