“Before beginning to read my paper,” said he, “I should like to say a few words to the new sister who has come among us. We expect soon to be having new members join us so fast that perhaps we shall not be able to specially mark the entrance of each. But in this case there are peculiar reasons for exhortation. Sister Olive has not joined under ordinary circumstances. She did not, like the rest of us, feel a call to the higher life: she only came out of personal affection for one of the members of the Community.”
Olive looked with a shy glance towards her husband, who took her hand in his for a moment, while Uncle David, who sat at the end of the room near Madame, said in a loud voice:
“Quite right, quite right, couldn’t ha’ had a better reason.”
“Therefore it becomes our duty to impress upon our new sister the principles which have been active in forming this Community,” said Brother Wright, without paying any heed to Uncle David’s interruption. “Perfection City has been founded to teach the world how to live. The old civilization has been tried and found wanting. It is time for a new one. Perfection City is the beginning of a new era. We are the Pioneers of a new world. We shall show the old and worn-out world how to banish evil from life. We cannot perhaps banish all physical evil, and for a time at least there may be sickness even among us, but we shall at once set about freeing ourselves from all the other troubles of life. There is nobody in Perfection City who will get rich, and nobody will ever be poor. We are all alike, and we shall none of us envy our neighbours his belongings, simply because everything belongs to all. The lesson we have to teach is the grandest the world ever saw, and when men know what it is, I foresee a future before Perfection City greater than that of any other city of the world. Rome lasted a good long while, but Rome didn’t possess the vital spark of life: Rome wasn’t communistic, therefore Rome fell. Perfection City won’t fall like that, but will go on teaching the world after we, its founders, are all dead. But our memories will live for the great things that we taught and through our example have made possible.”
Brother Wright stopped for a few seconds, and Uncle David said admiringly,
“You have a fine command of words, Brother Wright, and you have a way of making things sound uncommon grand. It always does me good to hear you talk of the grand future of our City; but we’ll have to get up some houses, and bigger ones, ’fore folks ’ull believe us.”
Uncle David was as simple as a child, or some of his hearers might have suspected a sarcasm in his words.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, as I’ve heard say,” remarked Brother Green, with a strong English accent, “and I shall be glad if our little village ever grows to half its power and honour.”
“Brother Green, I should refuse to have anything to say to the founding of another city like Rome,” interrupted Brother Wright with decisiveness.
“It seems to me,” said Ezra in a shy hesitating manner, “that what we are here for is to demonstrate, if we can, how a better life can be lived here than is possible in the older communities, where circumstances are too strong and too hampering for people to rise above them. The older civilization has done much, it has raised our race to a high standard. What we want to do is to carry on that work, and above all to bring everyone within reach of the best that life has to offer. The older civilization has left so many stranded ones, who have lost their strength in the wild struggle; while we hope to bring all along equally and give to each a share of happiness. As usual, my friends, when I try to express my ideas I find that someone else has already put them into incomparably finer language than I can ever command. It has been so again. I find that our great poet, Walt Whitman, has said better than I can what I feel. May I quote him to you?