If
the life is not of a deeply religious cast, it is at least not inferior
to that which is exemplified elsewhere, and there is the advantage of
an entire absence of assumption and pretence. The moral atmosphere, so
far, is pure; and there is found a strong desire to walk ever on the
mountain tops of life; though taste, rather than piety, is the aspect
presented to the eye.
In the second class of motives we have enumerated there is a strong
tendency to an important improvement in meeting the terrestrial
necessities of humanity. The banishment of servitude, the renouncement
of hireling labor and the elevation of all unavoidable work to its true
station, are problems whose solution seems to be charged upon
Association; for the dissociate systems have in vain sought remedies
for this unfavorable portion of human condition. It is impossible to
introduce into separate families even one half of the economies which
the present state of science furnishes to man. In that particular, it
is probable that even the feudal system is superior to the civic; for
its combinations permit many domestic arrangements of an economic
character, which are impracticable in small households. In order to
economize labor, and dignify the laborer, it is absolutely necessary
that men should cease to work in the present isolated, competitive
mode, and adopt that of co?perative union or Association.
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