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142
A Voyage to Other Worlds.

need of exchange, and all our gold and silver are used for ornament. How do you regulate the supply of things that are wanted?"

"There was a time, when we were in our imperfect state, when war existed, and selfishness and all its evils, that we had a system of exchange and barter, and bought and sold, as it seems men do now. Each laboured for himself and his family, and for them alone. The strong prospered, and the weak suffered. But now we arrange that nothing shall belong to the individual, but all to the community. All that is wanted is supplied from the common stores."

"How do you provide against indolence? On earth some theorists have held this view; but it never has been found to answer—human selfishness is too great—each man would grasp all that he could from the common stores intended for all, and some would idle when others would have to work."

"We have stamped out selfishness in our world, or nearly so. The first point in the education of our little ones is to teach them to be truthful and unselfish. If, when they grow up, they are found to have failed to learn the lesson, we first punish them as liars or selfish, and if they are incorrigible, send them through