"Another cognate cause of crimes of violence was the family tyranny,
which was the subject of so many novels and stories of the past, and
which once more was the result of private property. Of course that
is all ended, since families are held together by no bond of
coercion, legal or social, but by mutual liking and affection, and
everybody is free to come or go as he or she pleases. Furthermore,
our standards of honour and public estimation are very different from
the old ones; success in besting our neighbours is a road to renown
now closed, let us hope for ever. Each man is free to exercise his
special faculty to the utmost, and every one encourages him in so
doing. So that we have got rid of the scowling envy, coupled by the
poets with hatred, and surely with good reason; heaps of unhappiness
and ill-blood were caused by it, which with irritable and passionate
men--i.e., energetic and active men--often led to violence."

I laughed, and said: "So that you now withdraw your admission, and
say that there is no violence amongst you?"

"No," said he, "I withdraw nothing; as I told you, such things will
happen. Hot blood will err sometimes. A man may strike another, and
the stricken strike back again, and the result be a homicide, to put
it at the worst. But what then? Shall we the neighbours make it
worse still? Shall we think so poorly of each other as to suppose
that the slain man calls on us to revenge him, when we know that if
he had been maimed, he would, when in cold blood and able to weigh
all the circumstances, have forgiven his manner? Or will the death
of the slayer bring the slain man to life again and cure the
unhappiness his loss has caused?"