Indeed, as we were all half infected with the
same delusions, it was not easy to answer his sophistries.
"After supper was over, the prospect of cleaning the dishes and
putting things in order was not so agreeable; but Mrs. Shelldrake
and Perkins undertook the work, and we did not think it necessary
to interfere with them. Half an hour afterwards, when the full
moon had risen, we took our chairs upon the sloop, to enjoy the
calm, silver night, the soft sea-air, and our summer's residence in
anticipatory talk.
"`My friends,' said Hollins (and HIS hobby, as you may remember,
Ned, was the organization of Society, rather than those reforms
which apply directly to the Individual),--`my friends, I think we
are sufficiently advanced in progressive ideas to establish our
little Arcadian community upon what I consider the true basis: not
Law, nor Custom, but the uncorrupted impulses of our nature. What
Abel said in regard to dietetic reform is true; but that alone will
not regenerate the race. We must rise superior to those
conventional ideas of Duty whereby Life is warped and crippled.
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