e money in crowded London. Such a scheme is simply the
application of the principle of co-operation to communal life. It is
not chimerical; if it seem so, it is simply because we are so
ill-trained in morals that we are unwilling to act together in
practical brotherhood. It is not impracticable; it might be achieved
to-morrow if we were in earnest over it. There are hundreds of
thoughtful men who have perceived its attractions, outlined its system,
vaguely desired its benefits; are there not a thousand bold adventurers
in London willing to bring their vague ideal to the test, and to make a
practical experiment which, once successful, would alter the whole
science of living, and go far to solve some of the most difficult
problems of our time?

It is for such a movement that I wait. Free and glad as my life among
the mountains has been, yet I am sensible that I am deprived of many
elements of human intercourse, which are efficacious in the growth of
thought and the widening of the mind. I count my deprivation light
compared with the higher gains that are mine in the composure of my
mind, the joy of animal vitality, the tranquil days that leave no
bitterness and bring no discord, each joined to each in 'natural
piety,' each inwoven into the calm rhythm of fulfilled desire and duty.
But my pleasure is too little shared to be entirely satisfactory. I
see that there are terms on which my happiness might be communicated;
that there is a mode of life that should combine all the delight of
human intercourse with the tranquillity of natural existence; that the
choice does not lie, and ought not to lie, between the city and the
desert; that it is only by the folly of man, only by his greed, and
haste, and carelessness, and contempt for the communal principle, that
such a choice is forced upon me. The Regenerated City will come in
time, too late perhaps for me to enjoy it; but the City Colony or
Commune may come at any time; and when it comes I will gladly be its
conscript, I will earnestly labour for its welfare, I will humbly seek
to promote its success, believing that in the degree that society
exchanges individualism for co-operation, personal gain for common
good, man will enter on the widening evolution of a real progress, and
find the path that leads him to a truly Golden Age.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEST OF THE SIMPLE LIFE***

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