The society has no debt, and has a considerable fund at interest.

They lose very few of their young people. Some who leave them return
after a few years in the world. Plain and dull as the life is, it
appears to satisfy the youth they train up; and no doubt it has its
rewards in its regularity, peacefulness, security against want, and
freedom from dependence on a master.

It struck me as odd that in cases of illness they use chiefly
homeopathic treatment. The people live to a hale old age. They had among
the members, in March, 1874, a woman aged ninety-seven, and a number of
persons over eighty.

They are non-resistants; but during the late war paid for substitutes in
the army. "But we did wrongly there," said one to me; "it is not right
to take part in wars even in this way."

To sum up: the people of Amana appeared to me a remarkably quiet,
industrious, and contented population; honest, of good repute among
their neighbors, very kindly, and with religion so thoroughly and
largely made a part of their lives that they may be called a religious
people.



IV.--RELIGION AND LITERATURE.


"If one gives himself entirely, and in all his life, to the will of God,