rag
The nest, wherein 'tis bliss to rest his plumes
Flight-wearied--so, from farthest dreamland's shores,
Where clouds and chaos form the continents,
And reason reigns not, Fancy back return'd
To sights and sounds familiar--to the birds
Singing above--and the bright vale beneath,
With cottages and trees--and the blue sky--
And the glad waters murmuring to the sun.

FRENCH SOCIALISTS.[28]

Socialism, as well in this country as in France, may be regarded as an
offset of the French Revolution. It is true that, in all times, the
striking disparity between the conditions of men has given rise to
Utopian speculations--to schemes of some new order of society, where the
comforts of life should be enjoyed in a more equalized manner than seems
possible under the old system of individual efforts and individual
rights; and it may be added that, as this disparity of wealth becomes
more glaring in proportion as the disparity of intelligence and
political rights diminishes, such speculations may be expected in these
later times to become more frequent and more bold. Nevertheless we
apprehend that the courage or audacity requisite to attempt the
realization of these speculative schemes, must confess its origin in the
fever-heat of the French Revolution. It required the bold example of
that great political subversion to prompt the design of these social
subversions--to familiarize the mind with the project of reducing into
practice what had been deemed sufficiently adventurous as reverie.

What a stride has been taken since those olden times, when the
philosophic visionary devised his Utopian society with all the freedom,
because with all the irresponsibility, of dreams! He so little
contemplated any practical result, that he did not even venture to bring
his new commonwealth on the old soil of Europe, lest it should appear
too strange, and be put out of countenance by the broad reality: but he
carried it out to some far-off island in the ocean, and created a new
territory for his new people. A chancellor of England, the high
administrator of the laws of property, could then amuse his leisure with
constructing a Utopia, where property, with all its laws, would undergo
strange mutation. How would he have started from his woolsack if any one
had told him that his design would be improved upon in boldness, and
that such men as his own carpenter and mason would set about the
veritable realization