It seems to me that I can say things which not another man
in England except myself will venture to say, and yet which are crying to
be said."
I said: "But who will listen? If you say things which nobody else would
dare to say is not this much the same as saying what everyone except
yourself knows to be better left unsaid just now?"
"Perhaps," said he, "but I don't know it; I am bursting with these
things, and it is my fate to say them."
I knew there would be no stopping him, so I gave in and asked what
question he felt a special desire to burn his fingers with in the first
instance.
"Marriage," he rejoined promptly, "and the power of disposing of his
property after a man is dead. The question of Christianity is virtually
settled, or if not settled there is no lack of those engaged in settling
it. The question of the day now is marriage and the family system."
"That," said I drily, "is a hornet's nest indeed."
"Yes," said he no less drily, "but hornet's nests are exactly what I
happen to like. Before, however, I begin to stir up this particular one
I propose to travel for a few years, with the especial object of finding
out what nations now existing are the best, comeliest and most lovable,
and also what nations have been so in times past.
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