LEttER 



that separations should not take place, and equally impossible 

 that the neighbourhood should not be miserable. This is not the 

 way to settle in America. The way is, to go and sit yourself down 

 amongst the natives. They are already settled. They can lend 

 you what you want to borrow, and happy they are always to do it. 

 And, which is the great thing of all great things, you have their 

 women for your women to commune with ! 



983. RAPP, indeed, has done great things ; but RAPP has the 

 authority of MOSES and that of Aaron united in his own person. 

 Besides Rapp s community observe in reality that celibacy, which 

 Monks and Nuns pretend to, though I am not going to take my 

 oath, mind, that none of the tricks of the Convent are ever played 

 in the tabernacles of Harmony. At any rate, Rapp secures the 

 effects of celibacy ; first, an absence of the expence attending the 

 breeding and rearing of children, and, second, unremitted labour 

 of woman as well as man. But, where, in all the world is the 

 match of this to be found ? Where else shall we look for a Society 

 composed of persons willing and able to forego the gratification 

 of the most powerful propensity of nature, for the sake of getting 

 money together ? Where else shall we look for a band of men and 

 women who love money better than their own bodies ? Better 

 than their souls we find people enough to love money ; but, who 

 ever before heard of a set that preferred the love of money to that 

 of their bodies ? Who, before, ever conceived the idea of putting 

 a stop to the procreation of children, for the sake of saving the 

 expence of bearing and breeding them ? This Society, which is a 

 perfect prodigy and monster, ought to have the image of MAM 

 MON in their place of worship ; for that is the object of their 

 devotion, and not the God of nature. Yet the persons belonging 

 to this unnatural association are your nearest neighbours. The 

 masculine things here, called women, who have imposed barren 

 ness on themselves, out of a pure love of gain, are the nearest neigh 

 bours of the affectionate, tender-hearted wives and mothers and 

 daughters, who are to inhabit your colony, and who are, let us 

 thank God, the very reverse of the petticoated Germans of 

 Harmony. 



984. In such a situation, with so many circumstances to annoy, 

 what happiness can an English family enjoy in that country, so 

 far distant from all that resembles what they have left behind 

 them ? &quot; The fair Enchantress, Liberty&quot; of whom you speak 

 with not too much rapture, they would have found in any of these 

 States, and, in a garb, too, by which they would have recognised 

 her. Where they now are, they are free indeed ; but their free 

 dom is that of the wild animals in your woods. It is not freedom, 

 it is no government. The GIPSIES, in England, are free : and any 

 one, who has a mind to live in a cave, or cabin, in some hidden 

 recess of our Hampshire forests, may be free too. The English 

 farmer, in the Illinois, is, indeed, beyond the reach of the Borough- 

 mongers ; and so is the man that is in the grave. When it was 



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