but wonder that universal France did not adopt
his theory, at a moment's warning. But is there not something very
characteristic of his nation in Fourier's manner of putting forth his views? He
makes no claim to inspiration. He has not persuaded himself - as Swedenborg did,
and as any other than a Frenchman would, with a mission of like importance to
communicate - that he speaks with authority from above. He promulgates his
system, so far as I can perceive, entirely on his own responsibility. He has
searched out and discovered the whole counsel of the Almighty, in respect to
mankind, past, present, and for exactly seventy thousand years to come, by the
mere force and cunning of his individual intellect!«
    »Take the book out of my sight!« said Hollingsworth, with great virulence of
expression, »or, I tell you fairly, I shall fling it in the fire! And as for
Fourier, let him make a Paradise, if he can, of Gehenna, where, as I
conscientiously believe, he is floundering at this moment!«
    »And bellowing, I suppose,« said I - not that I felt any ill-will towards
Fourier, but merely wanted to give the finishing touch to Hollingsworth's image
- »bellowing for the least drop of his beloved limonade à cèdre!«
    There is but little profit to be expected in attempting to argue with a man
who allows himself to declaim in this manner; so I dropt the subject, and never
took it up again.
    But had the system, at which he was so enraged, combined almost any amount
of human wisdom, spiritual insight, and imaginative beauty, I question whether
Hollingsworth's mind was in a fit condition to receive it. I began to discern
that he had come among us, actuated by no real sympathy with our feelings and
our hopes, but chiefly because we were estranging ourselves from the world, with
which his lonely and exclusive object in life had already put him at odds.
Hollingsworth must have been originally endowed with a great spirit of
benevolence, deep enough, and warm enough, to be the source of as much
disinterested good, as Providence often allows a human being the privilege of
conferring upon his fellows. This native instinct yet lived within him. I myself
had profited by it, in my necessity. It was seen, too, in his treatment of
Priscilla. Such casual circumstances, as were here involved, would quicken his
divine power of sympathy, and make him seem, while their influence lasted, the
tenderest man and the truest