I would submit to a severe discipline, and to go without many
things cheerfully, for the good and happiness of the human race
in the future. Each one of us should do something, however small, towards
that great end. At the present time the labour of our predecessors in this
country, in all other countries of the earth, is entirely wasted. We
live--that is, we snatch an existence--and ourworks become nothing. The
piling up of fortunes, the building of cities, the establishment of immense
commerce, ends in a cipher. These objects are so outside my idea that I
cannot understand them, and look upon the struggle in amazement. Not even
the pressure of poverty can force upon me an understanding of, and sympathy
with, these things. It is the human being as the human being of whom I
think. That the human being as the human being, nude--apart altogether from
money, clothing, houses, properties--should enjoy greater health, strength,
safety, beauty, and happiness, I would gladly agree to a discipline like
that of Sparta. The Spartan method did produce the finest race of men, and
Sparta was famous in antiquity for the most beautiful women. So far,
therefore, it fits exactly to my ideas.

No science of modern times has yet discovered a plan to meet the
requirements of the millions who live now, no plan by which they might
attain similar physical proportion. Some increase of longevity, some slight
improvement in the general health is promised, and these are great things,
but far, far beneath the ideal. Probably the whole mode of thought of the
nations must be altered before physical progress is possible. Not while
money, furniture, affected show and the pageantry of wealth are the
ambitions of the multitude can the multitude become ideal in form. When the
ambition of the multitude is fixed on the ideal of form and beauty, then
that ideal will become immediately possible, and a marked advance towards it
could be made in three generations. Glad, indeed, should I be to discover
something that would help towards this end.