"But all men will not act like Mr Trafford," said Morley. "It
requires a sacrifice of self which cannot be expected, which
is unnatural. It is not individual influence that can
renovate society: it is some new principle that must
reconstruct it. You lament the expiring idea of Home. It
would not be expiring, if
it were worth retaining. The domestic principle has fulfilled
its purpose. The irresistible law of progress demands that
another should be developed. It will come; you may advance or
retard, but you cannot prevent it. It will work out like the
development of organic nature. In the present state of
civilization and with the scientific means of happiness at our
command, the notion of home should be obsolete. Home is a
barbarous idea; the method of a rude age; home is isolation;
therefore anti-social. What we want is Community."

"It is all very fine," said Gerard, "and I dare say you are
right, Stephen; but I like stretching my feet on my own
hearth."




Book 3 Chapter 10



Time passes with a measured and memorable wing during the
first period of a sojourn in a new place, among new characters