ned us, do
not exist. _There is no pleasure in sin._ Our race beliefs, based upon
untruth and ignorance, have bequeathed us a heritage of appetites,
passions and desires which are wrong, and hurtful when gratified.

Among the most hurtful of race beliefs is the fixed idea that labor is a
curse. Nothing could be further from the truth. As has been aptly said:
"Art is the expression of a man's joy in his work." Labor--muscular
exertion, having a definite productive object--is a blessing and a joy
when the worker is in love with his work. Work is a curse only under the
competitive system, which by its wasteful methods extends the hours of
toil beyond the limits of endurance, robs the worker of the full
benefits of his labor and gives him no time for self-improvement. The
experience of the stockholders of Solaris Farm shows how the ancient
curse was removed by unselfish co-operation, and labor crowned with the
dignity that is its due.

While Solaris Farm was not intended as a propaganda of spiritualism,
that cult has been introduced with considerable dramatic effect for two
apparent reasons. The first and least important of these reasons is to
cater to the ever-growing taste of the reading public for the occult;
but the second reason is peculiar to the book. In discussing man as the
most valuable product of the planet, and the relation which the soul
bears to the body, it became necessary to approach the subject from the
view-point of one who is in nowise affected by the petty altercations,
jealousies and strifes of the world; one who knows by experience all the
hardships of life and its many temptations, but who has also progressed
beyond the sphere of their influence. The most natural and obvious way
of obtaining this coveted point of observation was to let the spirit of
such a noble character as Fennimore Fenwick speak from the fulness of
his experience, both as mortal and spirit, of the needs of the race, the
curse of competition, the value of proper environmental conditions for
perfect motherhood, pre-natal education and adequate training of mind
and body, such as may not be secured even by the most wealthy in the
present condition of society, but which would be the heritage of every
individual in a co-operative community. The utterances of Fennimore
Fenwick rank with the best thought on these subjects and no person can
read them without having implanted in his breast a higher regard for his
race, and a greater solici