"That," he answered, "is just the thought I want to speak of next, as the
doctor has said many earthly troubles arise from severe labor. Here there
is no hard work for us. It is all done by some kind of mechanism. Look at
the handling of this ship, in which, as you say, no one is burdened. The
hard and disagreeable parts of the work are taken out of our hands and are
put into the hand of machinery, which in its perfection is almost
intelligent. It is so in all departments of work. Inventions looking
toward the saving of labor have closely followed each other for so many
years that their object is about accomplished, and all the pain and sorrow
accompanying daily toil are things of the dead past. Even our animals are
relieved from distressing labor and share with us the blessings of an
advanced civilization, every heavy weight being raised and every
burdensome load being drawn by an arm of steel or aluminum, which neither
tires nor feels. We do not need to pity a machine. Why should flesh and
blood, whether of dumb beasts or of more intelligent beings, suffer the
agony of labor when the work can be better done by mechanical means?

"While speaking of the lower animals I may as well say here that we have
no wild beasts. All have been tamed; not merely brought into subjection,
but made the friends and companions in a sense of our higher race. Every
animal, large and small, has lost its power and will to harm us. The wasp
has lost its sting, the serpent its poison, and the tiger its desire to
tear. And not only is their enmity to us all gone, but they no longer prey
upon each other. Perfect peace reigns in this realm also."

"What has brought about this highly interesting condition?" I asked. "Was
there a natural tendency toward perfection on the part of the beasts?"

"No," replied Thorwald, "I think not. The change has been accomplished by