with THIS disease."

"Well, you have no civil law, and no criminal law. But have you no
laws of the market, so to say--no regulation for the exchange of
wares? for you must exchange, even if you have no property."

Said he: "We have no obvious individual exchange, as you saw this
morning when you went a-shopping; but of course there are regulations
of the markets, varying according to the circumstances and guided by
general custom. But as these are matters of general assent, which
nobody dreams of objecting to, so also we have made no provision for
enforcing them: therefore I don't call them laws. In law, whether
it be criminal or civil, execution always follows judgment, and
someone must suffer. When you see the judge on his bench, you see
through him, as clearly as if he were made of glass, the policeman to
emprison, and the soldier to slay some actual living person. Such
follies would make an agreeable market, wouldn't they?"

"Certainly," said I, "that means turning the market into a mere
battle-field, in which many people must suffer as much as in the
battle-field of bullet and bayonet. And from what I have seen I
should suppose that your marketing, great and little, is carried on
in a way that makes it a pleasant occupation."

"You are right, neighbour," said he. "Although there are so many,
indeed by far the greater number amongst us, who would be unhappy if
they were not engaged in actually making things, and things which
turn out beautiful under their hands,--there are many, like the
housekeepers I was speaking of, whose delight is in administration
and organisation, to use long-tailed words; I mean people who like