Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

NEW LANARK 265
face under the existing order. But Owen
reasons from his Cotton Mills to the whole
empire. He keeps out of sight from others,
and perhaps from himself, that his system,
instead of aiming at perfect freedom, can
only be kept in play by absolute power.
Indeed, he never looks beyond one of his
own ideal square villages, to the rules and
proportions of which he would square the
whole human race. The fo?^matio7i of char-
acter f Why the end of his institutions
would be, as far as possible, the destruction
of all character. They tend directly to
destroy individuality of character and domes-
ticity — in the one of which the strength of
man consists, and in the other his happiness.
The power of human society, and the grace,
would both be annihilated.
Yet I admire the man, and like him too.
And the Yahoos who are bred in our manu-
facturing towns, and under the administration
of our Poor Laws are so much worse than
the Chinese breed which he proposes to raise,
that I should be glad to see his regulations
adopted, as the Leeds people have proposed,
for a colony of paupers. Such a variety in
society would be curious ; and might as well
be encouraged as Quakerism and Moravianism.