(H.) You see the consequences of that fact?

(I) I think I do. But tell me out what they were.

(H.) If the government habitually destroyed wealth, the country must
have been poor?

(I) Yes, certainly.

(H.) Yet amidst this poverty the persons for the sake of whom the
government existed insisted on being rich whatever might happen?

(I) So it was.

(H.) What must happen if in a poor country some people insist on
being rich at the expense of the others?

(I) Unutterable poverty for the others. All this misery, then, was
caused by the destructive government of which we have been speaking?

(H.) Nay, it would be incorrect to say so. The government itself
was but the necessary result of the careless, aimless tyranny of the
times; it was but the machinery of tyranny. Now tyranny has come to
an end, and we no longer need such machinery; we could not possibly
use it since we are free. Therefore in your sense of the word we
have no government. Do you understand this now?

(I) Yes, I do. But I will ask you some more questions as to how you
as free men manage your affairs.