s to tax
the food of the poor!

"Such a policy must inevitably result in misery to the many, and reduce
the stamina of the present and future generations.

"Your people have attained a high degree of civilisation in some things,
but not in others; and as they become more advanced, they will look back
on their past policy with feelings of amazement, and will, I am sure,
regard it in exactly the same light as the Martians do now. I can only
express the hope that their enlightenment will soon come."

It is useful sometimes to be enabled to see ourselves as others see us,
and I was now learning how the Martians regarded us.

In defence of my own world and country, however, I pointed out that
many of our thinkers and workers saw these matters in much the same
light as he did, and were endeavouring to educate their fellows in the
same views. Many were opposed to wars, and to the social conditions now
prevailing; but it would be vain to look for any great change in the
near future. An alteration in human nature must first be effected, and
that must necessarily be a matter of very slow growth.

I went on to inform him that one of our great poets had written a
splendid "vision of the world and all the wonder that would be," in
which he described our world as progressing:

"Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of Man; the federation of the world."

"Mars," I remarked, "had already reached this ideal state of affairs;
but it could not possibly be brought about in our world until a far
distant future: for it must be the result of slow development and
gradual education of the people to see its necessity and practicability.

"Any attempt to make a sudden change would only result in tumult and
worse disasters than we were exposed to at present. Any changes in
regard to our land system must also be carried out by degrees, and after
the most careful consideration, with the view of preventing any
injustice being done to the present holders.

"Our poet," I further said, "evidently had in mind the probability that,
before this consummation of universal peace could be reached, wars of a
more terrible nature than we have ever known would take place, for he
pictures:

'A rain of ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue.'

"It is not unlikely that the possibility, or the actual occurrence, of
such horrors as these may event