ower to commend them to the
following Congress, lest anything be done hastily. If you will consider
a moment, Mr. West, you will see that we have nothing to make laws
about. The fundamental principles on which our society is founded
settle for all time the strifes and misunderstandings which in your day
called for legislation.

"Fully ninety-nine hundredths of the laws of that time concerned the
definition and protection of private property and the relations of
buyers and sellers. There is neither private property, beyond personal
belongings, now, nor buying and selling, and therefore the occasion of
nearly all the legislation formerly necessary has passed away.
Formerly, society was a pyramid poised on its apex. All the
gravitations of human nature were constantly tending to topple it over,
and it could be maintained upright, or rather upwrong (if you will
pardon the feeble witticism), by an elaborate system of constantly
renewed props and buttresses and guy-ropes in the form of laws. A
central Congress and forty state legislatures, turning out some twenty
thousand laws a year, could not make new props fast enough to take the
place of those which were constantly breaking down or becoming
ineffectual through some shifting of the strain. Now society rests on
its base, and is in as little need of artificial supports as the
everlasting hills."

"But you have at least municipal governments besides the one central
authority?"

"Certainly, and they have important and extensive functions in looking
out for the public comfort and recreation, and the improvement and
embellishment of the villages and cities."

"But having no control over the labor of their people, or means of
hiring it, how can they do anything?"

"Every town or city is conceded the right to retain, for its own public
works, a certain proportion of the quota of labor its citizens
contribute to the nation. This proportion, being assigned it as so much
credit, can be applied in any way desired."

Chapter 20

That afternoon Edith casually inquired if I had yet revisited the
underground chamber in the garden in which I had been found.

"Not yet," I replied. "To be frank, I have shrunk thus far from doing
so, lest the visit might revive old associations rather too strongly
for my mental equilibrium."

"Ah, yes!" she said, "I can imagine that you have done well to stay
away. I ought to have thought of that."

"No," I said, "I am glad you spoke of it.