OF AGRICULTURE. 239 



would not be the hard labour of the serf or 

 slave. It would be accessible to everyone, 

 strong or weak, town bred or country born ; 

 it would also have many charms besides. And 

 its total amount would be far smaller than the 

 amount of labour which every thousand persons, 

 taken from this or from any other nation, have 

 now to spend in getting their present food, 

 much smaller in quantity and of worse quality. 

 I mean, of course, the technically necessary 

 labour, without even considering the labour 

 which we now have to give in order to maintain 

 all our middlemen, armies, and the like. The 

 amount of labour required to grow food under 

 a rational culture is so small, indeed, that our 

 hypothetical inhabitants would be led neces- 

 sarily to employ their leisure in manufacturing, 

 artistic, scientific, and other pursuits. 



From the technical point of view there is no 

 obstacle whatever for such an organisation being 

 started to-morrow with full success. The ob- 

 stacles against it are not in the imperfection 

 of the agricultural art, or in the infertility of 

 the soil, or in climate. They are entirely in 

 our institutions, in our inheritances and sur- 

 vivals from the past in the " Ghosts " which 

 oppress us. But to some extent they lie also 

 taking society as a whole in our phenomenal 

 ignorance. We, civilised men and women, 



