a system and not against the individuals who were born into that system and had hitherto been unable to change it; and they could not help admiring his candor, his consistency, and his evident earnestness to better the condition of every man, no matter what his present position in society might be.
Then the chairman got up. He said he felt that the Brotherhood had not been disappointed when they expected something really good from the lecturer; but for himself, he found it so new a departure, so wide in its possibilities, and so daringly radical, that he scarcely felt himself competent to give it the minute criticism that it undoubtedly deserved; and he thought most of the others would be likely to receive it in the same way (hear, hear). It was now too late to ask any criticisms upon the subject from anyone present; but if they desired it, controversy could be carried on at the next meeting. He would now, as promised, invite any present to assist Holdfast in his laudable endeavor, and should formally declare the meeting closed, any who desired to co-operate being invited to remain behind.
Harry thanked the chairman and the rest of the society for their kindness, and immediately stepped into the body of the hall where most of the audience continued to loiter, and he was soon in the midst of an earnest group of men, some congratulating him, others arguing with him, and a few execrating him and telling him it was a pity the authorities ever released him.
“I do not blame you,” said Harry, smilingly, to the latter; “you abuse me now because you are the creatures of the existing conditions of society which will not let you do otherwise. Soon I will create new conditions when you will regret what you are now saying and will do all you can to help me.”
XIV.
“Well, Harry, how are you getting on with your social salvation scheme?” asked Wilberforce one day as the two were weighing out some corn for an order that had just come in.
“Very well! all things considered,” replied Harry, “I don't expect to accomplish things all at once. I only got two members, as you know, out of that enthusiastic meeting of the Brotherhood that I addressed four weeks ago, but have now got ten members besides yourself, and I am quite satisfied the others will follow.”
“Yes, Harry, but if they come at that rate it'll take another eight hundred years before you get the ten thousand members you anticipate. I think you'll be rather too old by that time; and as for me and the other members, we'll all be dead. I'm afraid you are too sanguine.”
“Not at all, Fred, I look at the past, and see how ideas developed, and learn how they will develop in the future. When that great social reformer Charles Fourier, brought out his new theories of social reconstruction, his books were thought little of and scarcely ever read, and he
