CHAPTER VII 



THE WEEDS OF THE EARTH 



fTIHE affairs of the New Earth do not 

 -- always move smoothly. There are breaks 

 and interruptions, obstacles are interposed ; 

 indeed, far and beyond these in injury are the 

 robbers, persistently, systematically, ruthlessly 

 stealing, and, when balked, not hesitating to 

 press forward into cruelty. These robbers are 

 reinforced in their activities, and re-supplied 

 with strength, from the very sources out of 

 which their victims derive their own life, and 

 thus are doubly dangerous. It is quite as 

 though the burglar who enters your house by 

 night was also your son, living upon that 

 which you have yourself accumulated. 



Or it may be that to some the untoward 

 situation which is presented suggests rather an 

 organized internecine strife, a war between 

 members of the same blood though differing 

 in inclination and tastes. Looked at from this 

 point of view, the strife is like that between 



103 



