suppose, for instance, he objects to learning arithmetic or
mathematics; you can't force him when he IS grown; can't you force
him while he is growing, and oughtn't you to do so?"

"Well," said he, "were you forced to learn arithmetic and
mathematics?"

"A little," said I.

"And how old are you now?"

"Say fifty-six," said I.

"And how much arithmetic and mathematics do you know now?" quoth the
old man, smiling rather mockingly.

Said I: "None whatever, I am sorry to say."

Hammond laughed quietly, but made no other comment on my admission,
and I dropped the subject of education, perceiving him to be hopeless
on that side.

I thought a little, and said: "You were speaking just now of
households: that sounded to me a little like the customs of past
times; I should have thought you would have lived more in public."

"Phalangsteries, eh?" said he. "Well, we live as we like, and we
like to live as a rule with certain house-mates that we have got used
to. Remember, again, that poverty is extinct, and that the
Fourierist phalangsteries and all their kind, as was but natural at