THE DESCENT OF BOLSHEVISM
to the Mazdakites, tried to establish a Utopia, in which all things were held in common. For Noyes and his followers, who accepted the reign of God, there was no longer any law or rule of duty. They were a law unto themselves. They were free to do as they pleased. And under the influence of the divine Spirit, which dwelt in them, they could do only what was right. They were perfect—Perfectionists. And they were equalitarians: they held all things in common. And they gave up all religious observances, like the Ismailites, renounced allegiance to the United States Government, and instituted, what was called, "a complex system of marriage." But complex or simple, John Noyes could not by any marriage system or lack of it, raise communism to a virtue or an acceptablelegal formula, or even screen it under the semblance of religion. Noyes was a mild and sincere fanatic. But his Community, after a checkered career of forty years, developed into—and is still today—a fruit canning establishment—-
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