ago and that we have merely matured. That is, the causes now at work on
the earth are having in us their legitimate effect. These processes are
slow but sure. To the Infinite time is of no more importance in itself
than is size.

"I know of no better topic to begin with," continued Thorwald, "than the
matter of government. You wondered at the peculiar discipline on board
this ship. It is but a type of what you will find on land. We have no
government in its strict sense, for there is no one that needs governing.
We have organization for mutual help in many ways, but no rulers nor
legislators. The only government is that of the family. Here character is
formed so that when the children go forth into the world no one desires to
wrong his neighbor. We know from our histories of all the struggles our
ancestors passed through before the days of universal peace and
brotherhood. Now we go and come as we please, with no fear of harm. We are
all one nation because all national boundaries have been obliterated, and
we have a common language. There are no laws of compulsion or restraint,
for all do by instinct what is best for themselves and their neighbors."

"Oh, happy Mars!" here broke in the usually prosaic doctor. "That sounds
like a story. And yet what is it," he continued, addressing me, "but the
effect of perfect obedience to our golden rule? If men should really learn
to do to others as they would have others do to them, what a
transformation it would accomplish."

"So that is what you call the golden rule, is it?" asked Thorwald. "And
are you all trying to live by it?"

"Well," I replied, "that is what many of us profess to be doing, but I
must say we fall far, very far short of the mark. I do not know a single