Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/340

Rh the assembly came, after an examination of the question which continued for two days, was, “that the brethren who had already set up lightning-conductors against their houses, should not be recommended to remove them, but that the brethren who had not yet set them up, should be strongly recommended to do without them, and to trust in the Lord alone for the preservation of their houses.” In consequence of this stagnating principle, the Dunkers allow their beards and their hair to grow in the most undisturbed repose, and by the same rule, they should not either cut their nails, if they would be perfectly consistent; but they admit of an exception, when they find it for the best. They baptise each other in the river, by immersing the whole body under water, whence probably their name, and they have meeting-houses, and meet together like the Quakers, with alternate preaching and silence, with occasional feet-washing. They practise agriculture, are generally in good circumstances, and while they are friendly and communicative among themselves, are somewhat haughty and cold towards those whom they call the children of the world.

Whilst the Dunkers stagnate in this manner in the Virginia Valley, rooted to the earth and the very letter of religion, a large colony is at this moment establishing itself in the most westerly portion of Virginia, under the name of Egalitaires, and which, headed by French Communists, have purchased large tracts of land for the establishment of a community, the tendency of which is considerably unlike that of the Dunkers. Fortunate country—where everything can have a fair trial, and every bias of the human mind have its sphere and its place of action, to the benefit of the many-sided developments of the human spirit, without being detrimental to any!

During my journey from Weiher's Grotto the next morning, I visited a farm which belonged to a Dunker family. It was situated near the high road, and seemed