Martin took the same course, thinking as he went, that perhaps the free and independent citizens, who in their moral elevation, owned the colonel for their master, might render better homage to the goddess, Liberty, in nightly dreams upon the oven of a Russian Serf.

Summary

This quote from a passage by Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Blithedale Romance, suggests Martin's perspective on societal power dynamics. He believes that ardent proponents of liberty and independence, who hold themselves morally superior, may paradoxically subject themselves to an authoritative figure. Martin muses that these individuals might find themselves giving greater devotion to the abstract concept of liberty in their subconscious state, even if it means taking on the servitude experienced by a Russian serf to fully embrace that ideal.

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