"We do not think it well to connect the hamlets on the different lines of
radiation from the capital, except by the good country roads which
traverse each region in every direction. The villages are mainly inhabited
by those who prefer a rural life; they are farming villages; but in
Altruria it can hardly be said that one man is more a farmer than another.
We do not like to distinguish men by their callings; we do not speak of
the poet This or the shoemaker That, for the poet may very likely be a
shoemaker in the obligatories, and the shoemaker a poet in the
voluntaries. If it can be said that one occupation is honored above
another with us, it is that which we all share, and that is the
cultivation of the earth. We believe that this, when not followed
slavishly, or for gain, brings man into the closest relations to the
Deity, through a grateful sense of the divine bounty, and that it not only
awakens a natural piety in him, but that it endears to the worker that
piece of soil which he tills, and so strengthens his love of home. The
home is the very heart of the Altrurian system, and we do not think it
well that people should be away from their homes very long or very often.
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