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 hornets' nest indeed."
"Yes," said he no less drily, "but hornets' 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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