of society. The many, now, who see their daughters liable to
destitution, or vice to escape from it, may be interested to examine
the means, if they have not yet soul enough to appreciate the ends he
proposes.

On the opposite side of the advancing army leads the great apostle of
individual culture, Goethe. Swedenborg makes organization and union
the necessary results of solitary thought. Fourier, whose nature was,
above all, constructive, looked to them too exclusively. Better
institutions, he thought, will make better men. Goethe expressed, in
every way, the other side. If one man could present better forms, the
rest could not use them till ripe for them.

Fourier says, As the institutions, so the men! All follies are
excusable and natural under bad institutions.

Goethe thinks, As the man, so the institutions! There is no excuse for
ignorance and folly. A man can grow in any place, if he will.

Ay! but, Goethe, bad institutions are prison-walls and impure air,
that make him stupid, so that be does not will.

And thou, Fourier, do not expect to change mankind at once, or even
"in three generations," by arrangement of groups and series, or
flourish of trumpets for attractive industry. If these attempts are
made by unready men, they will fail.

Yet we prize the theory of Fourier no less than the profound
suggestion of Goethe. Both are educating the age to a clearer
consciousness of what Man needs, what Man can be; and better life must