Men have despaired of redeeming a crumbling or recalcitrant world and have gone out into the desert for the saving of their own souls, and lo, the world followed and by them was saved. From each centre of righteousness and beauty and salvation radiated circle after circle of ever widening influence; the desert and the waste became orchard and garden, the ribald and the lawless and the insolent came knocking at the gates; soldier and bravo and king humbled their heads before tonsured monk and mitred abbot. Ever wider waxed the increasing circles until they touched, merged,--and the wonder was accomplished; ill had come to an end and good had come into being. So the Walled Towns, now when the need is clamorous again. Evil imperial in scale cannot be blotted out by reform imperial in method. The old way was the good way, the way of withdrawal and of temporary isolation. “To your tents, O Israel!” Gather together the faithful and them of like heart, building in the wilderness sanctuaries and Cities of Refuge. The old ideals are indestructible; they survive through the scorching of suns and the beating of tempests and as ever they are omnipotent when they are rightly used. Not for long would the Walled Towns stand aloof, and rampired against an alien and unkindly world, for more and more would men be drawn within their magical circuits, greater and ever greater would become their number, and at last the new wonder would be accomplished and society once more redeemed. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES Obvious typos corrected, where they are supported by the same word in the rest of the book. Note that there are several archaic terms used that are not actually typos e.g. alarum, froward. Apparent inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged. “in other” corrected to “in another” on page 35. Missing comma added on page 35: “the individual, the family, the State”. Missing quotation mark added on page 74: “are bound to be present.” “belongs” corrected to "belong" on page 92. Excerpts of _The Decadent: Being the Gospel of Inaction_ are quoted in the Prologue, after the thought break. The presentation of the excerpt has been left unchanged from the original scan.