"Whereas in the old days," said I, "it was very hard to live without
strife and robbery. That's what you mean, isn't it, by giving me the
negative side of your good conditions?"

"Yes," he said, "it was so hard, that those who habitually acted
fairly to their neighbours were celebrated as saints and heroes, and
were looked up to with the greatest reverence."

"While they were alive?" said I.

"No," said he, "after they were dead."

"But as to these days," I said; "you don't mean to tell me that no
one ever transgresses this habit of good fellowship?"

"Certainly not," said Hammond, "but when the transgressions occur,
everybody, transgressors and all, know them for what they are; the
errors of friends, not the habitual actions of persons driven into
enmity against society."

"I see," said I; "you mean that you have no 'criminal' classes."

"How could we have them," said he, "since there is no rich class to
breed enemies against the state by means of the injustice of the
state?"

Said I: "I thought that I understood from something that fell from
you a little while ago that you had abolished civil law. Is that so,
literally?"