 the old man, smiling, »and the nineteenth
century saw itself as a man who has lost his clothes whilst bathing, and has to
walk naked through the town.«
    »You are very bitter about that unlucky nineteenth century,« said I.
    »Naturally,« said he, »since I know so much about it.«
    He was silent a little, and then said: »There are traditions - nay, real
histories - in our family about it: my grandfather was one of its victims. If
you know something about it, you will understand what he suffered when I tell
you that he was in those days a genuine artist, a man of genius, and a
revolutionist.«
    »I think I do understand,« said I: »but now, as it seems, you have reversed
all this?«
    »Pretty much so,« said he. »The wares which we make are made because they
are needed: men make for their neighbours' use as if they were making for
themselves, not for a vague market of which they know nothing, and over which
they have no control: as there is no buying and selling, it would be mere
insanity to make goods on the chance of their being wanted; for there is no
longer anyone who can be compelled to buy them. So that whatever is made is
good, and thoroughly fit for its purpose. Nothing can be made except for genuine
use; therefore no inferior goods are made. Moreover, as aforesaid, we have now
found out what we want, so we make no more than we want; and as we are not
driven to make a vast quantity of useless things, we have time and resources
enough to consider our pleasure in making them. All work which would be irksome
to do by hand is done by immensely improved machinery; and in all work which it
is a pleasure to do by hand machinery is done without. There is no difficulty in
finding work which suits the special turn of mind of everybody; so that no man
is sacrificed to the wants of another. From time to time, when we have found out
that some piece of work was too disagreeable or troublesome, we have given it up
and done altogether without the thing produced by it. Now, surely you can see
that under these circumstances all the work that we do is an exercise of the
mind and body more or less pleasant to be done: so that instead of avoiding work
everybody seeks it: and, since people have got defter in doing the work
generation after generation, it has become
