free criticism of one another in open meetings. They admit no one
to the society unless he or she promises to make a full confession
before others of every evil that can be recalled,--women confess
to women, men to men; these requirements make it difficult to
recruit their ranks. They are opposed to war and violence, do not
vote, and do not permit corporal punishment. They pay their full
share of public taxes and assessments and give largely in charity.
Their buildings are well built and well kept, their farms and
lands worked to the best advantage; in short, they are industrious
and thrifty.

Communism is one of those dreams that come so often to the best of
mankind and, lingering on through the waking hours, influence
conduct. The sharp distinctions and inequalities of life seem so
harsh and unjust; the wide intervals which separate those who have
from those who have not seem so unfair, that in all ages and in
all countries men have tried to devise schemes for social
equality,--equality of power, opportunity, and achievement.
Communism of some sort is one solution urged,--communism in
property, communism in effort, communism in results, everything in
common.

In 1840 Emerson wrote to Carlyle, "We are all a little wild here
with numberless projects of social reform. Not a reading man but
has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat pocket. I am
gently mad myself, and am resolved to live cleanly. George Ripley
is talking up a colony of agriculturists and scholars, with whom
he threatens to take the field and book. One man renounces the use
of animal food; another of coin; and another of domestic hired
service; and another of the State; and on the whole we have a