‘Happily,’ said Buxton, ‘none of us are that. We’ve all got to die and make room for the new generation.’
‘And can you answer for the new generation?’ asked Rose, ‘that they will remain shut up in your Utopia to labour, not each for himself, but for mutual benefit; that they will conform to your ideas as regards drinking and matrimony; that no selfish passion will run riot; that no serpent will come into that paradise to tempt another Eve; that the new Adam will be wiser than the old one?’
‘Why, I thought you were in favour of the idea,’ said her husband.
‘But I am a woman.’
‘And therefore have a full right to change your opinion,’ added Buxton.
‘Of course, there must be some failures. It is by them we learn how to succeed,’ replied Wentworth. ‘We learn from the failure of past organizations the way to form better and more successful ones. Are there not successful Shaker settlements in America?’
‘You make me laugh,’ said the lady.
‘This is no laughing matter. We are very much in earnest.’
‘Well, if you are in earnest, let me have the selection of the candidates for the new society.’
‘Very good; but I am afraid you will only pass the good-looking ones, and forget the old time-honoured maxim that “handsome is as handsome does.”’