stating a great truth, after all; telling them, too, that God must be
an unjust Judge should he mete out happiness or misery to them without
consulting him,--that his power over their fate stretched over this life
and the next,--which, considering the limitless influence of a strong
mind over a weak one, was not so false, either."

Rapp's society, Knowles stated, did not consist altogether of this
class, however. A few men of education and enthusiasm had joined him,
and carried out his plans with integrity. The articles of association
were founded in a strict sense of justice; members entering the society
relinquished all claim to any property, much or little, of which they
might be possessed, receiving thereafter common maintenance, education,
profit, with the others; should they at any time thereafter choose to
leave, they received the sum deposited without interest. A suit had just
been decided in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania[B] which had elicited
this point.

Knowles, more and more eager, went on to describe the settlement as it
had been pictured to him; the quaint, quiet village on the shores of
"the Beautiful River," the rolling hills of woodland, the quiet valleys
over which their flocks wandered, the simple pastoral work in which all
joined; the day begun and ended with music;--even the rich, soft tints
of the fresh Western sky about them were not forgotten, nor the
picturesque dresses of the silent, primitive people.

"A home in which to forget all pain and sore, boy," ended the old man,
gulping down a sigh, and then falling into a heavy silence.

It was long before I broke it. "They do not marry?"

"No," anxiously, as if I had reached the core of the truth in this
matter at last. "It was their founder's scheme, as I believe, to lift
them above all taint of human passion,--to bring them by pure work,
solitude, and contact with a beautiful nature into a state of being
where neither earthly love, nor hate, nor ambition can enter,--a sphere
of infinite freedom, and infinite love for Him and all His creatures."

There was no doubting the fire of rapt enthusiasm in his eye, rising and
looking out across the moonlit fields as if already he saw the pleasant
hills of Beulah.

"Thank God for George Rapp! he has found a home where a man can stand
alone,"--stretching out his arms as if he would have torn out whatever
vestige of human love tugged at his sick old heart, his eye hunting out
Tony as he spoke.

T