Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/439

Rh human race, become as good and as wise as the light of an extended sphere of life can make them; when that fountain of light with which the Creator has endowed their nature, can flow forth unimpeded and diffuse its living waters within the home and social life.

I cannot see it otherwise. I believe that this development of liberty is the profoundest and the most vital principle upon which the regeneration of society depends, and upon which the greatness and the happiness of the New World depends.

“The darkness of the mother casts its shadow over the child; the clearness of the mother casts its light over the child from generation to generation.”

It is in this conviction that I will unite myself to the Convention, and say with it,—

“Sing unto the Lord a new song ; sing unto the Lord all the earth.”

And now again to the Phalanstery.

In the evening of the second day after our arrival, there was a little play and a ball. A lively little piece, but without any very profound meaning, was acted very well by a number of the young people. Many of the young ladies made their appearance at the ball in the so-called Bloomer costume, that is to say, short dresses made to the throat and trowsers. This costume, which is in reality much more modest than that of the ordinary ball-room, and which looks extremely well on young ladies in their everyday occupations, is not advantageous for a ball-room, and is not at all becoming in the waltz, unless the skirts are very short, which was the case with two, otherwise remarkably well-dressed and very pretty young girls. Some of them had really in their Bloomer costume a certain fantastic grace, but when I compared this with the true feminine grace, which exhibited itself in some young girls with long dresses, and who in other respects were equally modestly attired with the Bloomer ladies, I could