The New Utopia.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 246, 18 January 1878, Page 5

The New Utopia.

(From thi Irish Monthly.)

CHAPTER Vll.— ( Continued) We approached, the altar, and I perceived what had not struck meat" first, the exceeding richness of all its fittings. '•That tabernacle," said, the chaplain." -is solid gold: it was made out of the first gold discovered at tllenlevcn, in Australia, ' the great nugget " as it was called; the duke had it sent to England untouched, and resolved that the first fruits of his gold-fields should furnish the tabernacle of his chapel. The lamps and candlesticks are likewise Australian gold, and so are the sacred vessels." I knelt before the tabernacle, and the last fragment of my doubts and misgivings vanished into thin air. " Oh, Grant, Graut, ! " I murmured, "what injustice I have done you! The world talks and judges, and comprehends nothing : you are not of its form and fashion ! " And as we turned to leave the chapel, I seemed still to see before me the dying face of Bt Alexis, and the golden tabernacle. We walked home through the plantations, and Oswald was si lent, and, for him, thoughtful. " I called your duke a mail of busiucss this morning,"' he said, '■ but just now I could fancy him to be a poet." '• A poet ! Why so ] " " Well, it was a beautiful thought that about his gold ; there was something about the whole thing that struck me as poetical.'' I doubt if the duke was ever conscious of doing anything particularly graceful ; but undoubtedly, Faith has always an innate sense of beauty." . '| That is a little beyond me," sakl Oswald ; '"but I will tell you why it struck me. At Exborough Park, as you may be aware, there is also what goes by the name of a chapel. " The Exborough people always set you down to gold plate at dinner, but the chapel looks like a dust-hole. Lcven has abolished the gold plate at Oakham, and the gentry hereabouts call it one of his peculiarities ; but I suspect they would understand it better if they looked at that altar." " Vet the Exboroughs are Catholic*,'* I remarked. " I should rather think so." said Oswald, " and immensely proud of being of the old stock, and all that sort of thing. But Lady Ex. goes in for London seasons to any extent, and the Exborough girls are the fastest in the county." '• A report reached mo in Australia,"' I said, - that one of them was likely to become Duchess of Levcn." "Wouldn't Lady Exborough have liked it ! " said Oswald : "but it mw a dead failure. On that .subject, as on many others. Levcn is peculiar ; and I believe he confided to Mary that if the seige lasted he should have to leave the county."' I laughed. '• Then there icax a scigc .' And who relie\ cd it 1"' 1 asked, "Oh, I bdic\e. Lord Exlxmmgh stepped in and stopped proceedings ; and Lady Florinda herself "took alarm when Gleuleven was founded, and the rumour spread that the duke was going t o be a lay brother."' '•What h Glcnlcven > "' tasked. "Everyone talks of it. and no one tells me what or where it is." " What, don't you know? It is a largo tract of country just on the outskirts of Exborough Moor, where Leven has transplanted a community of Benedictines who iied from the tender mercies of Beastmark. He has built them a grand place. I believe : I have not sv'cn it, but by all accounts the church is a second Cluny. They farm the land, and have all manner of schools of art, carving and metal work ; then there arc the granite works opened hard by, all which things give occupation to Leven's colony of orphan boys and other solcot characters, out of whom he cherishes the design of creating a New Utopia."' 1 looked enquiringly. " I really cannot tell you much mure about it." continued Oswald ; " Iml J think hi.s small success at Bradford, or what he considers as such Jias convinced him that the reformation of society is somewhat a difficult undertaking unless you take your society' in the cradle. And he has conceived the idea of a Christian colony," not beyond (he Jfocky Mountains, orin the wilds of Australia, but here in the heart ol" England, to be peopled by men and women of his own bringing up. who shall be protected from penny newspapers, be greatly given to plain chant, and wholly ignorant "of the pot-house." '• It sounds splendid ; but arc you in earnest ? "' " Well, I tell you. I have never seen the place. It is a tremendously long diive. and killing Cor the horses. [ cat her my ideas of it chiefly In>m Knowlos's talk, who would gicatly like to be received .is a monk— of course under certain conditions." '• Well, you have excited my curiosity, and some day I shall tiy and see for myself." I replied ; " but it sounds, as jou s-xy, uncommonly Utopian." We reached home, and for the rest of the evening I listened, after a soil, lo Oswald's careless rallle : but my attention. I confess-, would often wander away to thoughts of the chapel and Utopia.