ather,
and mayhap may do as bad for his son."

"We will not think that," said Morley. "At present we will think of
other things. You may guess I am a bit wearied; I think I'll say good
night; you have strangers with you."

"Nay, nay man; nay. This Franklin is a likely lad enough; I think you
will take to him. Prithee come in. Sybil will not take it kindly if you
go, after so long an absence; and I am sure I shall not."

So they entered together.

The evening passed in various conversation, though it led frequently to
the staple subject of talk beneath the roof of Gerard--the Condition
of the People. What Morley had seen in his recent excursion afforded
materials for many comments.

"The domestic feeling is fast vanishing among the working classes of
this country," said Gerard; "nor is it wonderful--the Home no longer
exists."

"But there are means of reviving it," said Egremont; "we have witnessed
them to-day. Give men homes, and they will have soft and homely notions,
If all men acted like Mr Trafford, the condition of the people would be
changed."

"But all men will not act like Mr Trafford," said Morley. "It requires
a sacrifice of self which cannot be expected, which is unnatural. It
is not individual influence that can renovate society: it is some new
principle that must reconstruct it. You lament the expiring idea of
Home. It would not be expiring, if it were worth retaining. The domestic
principle has fulfilled its purpose. The irresistible law of progress
demands that another should be developed. It will come; you may
advance or retard, but you cannot prevent it. It will work out like the
development of organic nature. In the present state of civilization and
with the scientific means of happiness at our command, the notion of
home should be obsolete. Home is a barbarous idea; the method of a
rude age; home is isolation; therefore anti-social. What we want is
Community."

"It is all very fine," said Gerard, "and I dare say you are right,
Stephen; but I like stretching my feet on my own hearth."

Book 3 Chapter 10

Time passes with a measured and memorable wing during the first period
of a sojourn in a new place, among new characters and new manners.
Every person, every incident, every feeling, touches and stirs the
imagination. The restless mind creates and observes at the same time.
Indeed there is scarcely any popular tenet more erroneous than that
which holds that when time is slow, li