CHAPTER XXIV. HOW THE TRANSITION FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS WAS ACCOMPLISHED. “You said, Mr. Midith, that at one time your social and industrial organizations were similar to our present ones. How, then, did the change from the old to the new order of things take place? By what means was it accomplished, and what were the transitional steps?” inquired Mrs. Uwins. “Allow me here to make one preliminary statement,” proceeded Mr. Midith. “All of us agree that we are all in pursuit of the greatest happiness; we also agree that some acts are always attended with pleasure, or happiness, while others are always attended with pain, or misery. The reward of happiness, invariably following certain acts, and the punishment of misery, invariably following certain other acts, can be our only guide in ascertaining the most advantageous course of conduct, and the only incentive that leads us forward on the road of progress. Hence, as we advance in intellectual culture, our course of action will be more and more nearly in accord with the fullness of life; for acts which tend toward the fullness of life must, as a whole, produce greater happiness than those which detract from it, for under no other conceivable conditions could a race of sentient beings have been evolved. “From what we have seen elsewhere, as well as from the foregoing remarks, it follows that society, on the one hand, tends to widen and perfect voluntary co-operation on the part of production, and thereby economize also in consumption, and, on the other hand, it tends to enlarge the field of individual freedom; for both an abundant supply with which to satisfy our wants, and the largest possible scope of individual freedom tend to produce the greatest happiness. “That people, then, who by the widest and most thorough voluntary co-operation most completely satisfy all their varied and complex desires with the least amount of labor, and with the greatest freedom to the individual, is the highest civilized. A strong centralized government is not a mark of a high state of civilization, as some of you at first sight may think; if it were, Russia would rank in civilization far above the United States. Armies, navies and policemen are no signs of high intellectual culture; if you consider them such, Russia ranks first in culture and civilization. They are nothing more or less than remnants of barbarity; they are the marks of contemporaneous discord.