The same old Scotchman, now seventy-three years old, and a cheery old
fellow, who had known the elder Owen, and has lived as a Shaker forty
years, I asked, "Well, on the whole, reviewing your life, do you think
it a success?" He replied, clearly with the utmost sincerity:
"Certainly; I have been living out the highest aspirations my mind was
capable of. The best I knew has been realized for and around me here.
With my ideas of society I should have been unfit for any thing in the
world, and unhappy because every thing around me would have worked
contrary to my belief in the right and the best. Here I found my place
and my work, and have been happy and content, seeing the realization of
the highest I had dreamed of."
Considering the homeliness of the buildings, which mostly have the
appearance of mere factories or human hives, I asked Elder Frederick
whether, if they were to build anew, they would not aim at some
architectural effect, some beauty of design. He replied with great
positiveness, "No, the beautiful, as you call it, is absurd and
abnormal. It has no business with us. The divine man has no right to
waste money upon what you would call beauty, in his house or his daily
life, while there are people living in misery.
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