“Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, had the idea of making public principle and utility predominate over private interests and affections; and on that idea he ordained that children were not to be the property of their parents, but of the State, which was to direct their education, and determine their modes of life. A better idea with the legislators of the future—the number of whom will be equal with that of all wholesomely-developed men and women upon the earth—will be to take fullest advantage of all natural instincts. The parents, their hearts ever yearning with love for their offspring, and the community, careful of its individual members, co-operating in placing the children under all good influences towards that development, which, being the best for their individual lives, will also coincide with what is best for the general welfare. For this end, the experience of the past, and the higher wisdom of their own times, will far better qualify them to judge of fitting means and methods than we can now either surmise or suggest.”—David Maxwell (“Stepping-stones to Socialism,” p. 15).
LX.
1.—“Their task ineffable yields wondrous gain.”
“... I rest not from my great task;
To open the eternal worlds! To open the immortal eyes
Of man inwards; into the worlds of thought: into eternity
Ever expanding the human imagination.”
—William Blake (“Jerusalem”).
2.—“Their energies celestial force attain.”
“Les écrivains du dix-huitième siècle ont sans doute rendu d’immenses services aux Sociétés; mais leur philosophie basée sur le sensualisme, n’est pas allée plus loin que l’épiderme humain. Ils n’ont considéré que l’univers extérieur, et, sous ce rapport seulement, ils ont retardé, pour quelque temps, le développement morale de l’homme.... L’étude des mystères de la pensée, la découverte des organes de l’AME humaine, la géométrie de ses forces, les phénomènes de sa puissance, l’appréciation de la faculté qu’elle nous semble posséder de se mouvoir indépendamment du corps, de se transporter où elle veut et de voir sans le secours des organes corporels, enfin les lois de sa dynamique et celles de son influence physique, constitueront la glorieuse part du siècle suivant dans le trésor des sciences humaines. Et nous ne sommes occupés peut être, en ce moment, qu’à extraire les blocs énormes qui serviront plus tard à quelque puissant génie pour bâtir quelque glorieux édifice.”—Balzac (“Physiologie du Mariage,” Méditation XXVI.).