“But now,” continued Mr. Midith “let us consider a few of the transitional steps through which the Marsites passed in effecting the change from the old to the new method of owning land. Of course you know very well that not every one abandoned his vacant land simultaneously. All great ideas are born in the mind of one individual. He imparts it to a few of his social companions, and his companions to their companions and so on until it becomes universal. Just so did the vacant land agitation arise on Mars, and just so has it already arisen on earth. You can perhaps see more clearly the rise of an idea when you contemplate how your so-called civilized nations, states, and individuals gradually abolished _chattel_ slavery, wife stealing, imprisonment for debt, etc., etc. But allow me to give you a warning right here. Do not be deceived like many of you are, by thinking that war can really set slaves free. All freedom and toleration, like all ideas, have their origin in the intellectual faculty of the individual. They are born by mental impressions received on consciousness and not by bullet-holes through the brain. “As I have told you, the social feelings unfolded in proportion to the intellectual elevation. With the development of the just and peaceable sentiments, a closer and more extensive association and co-operation became mutually agreeable. The evils caused by the deed ownership of land became constantly clearer and more apparent to a larger number of our population, and the conscious burden of this wrong became more and more painful to bear; so much so that many began to abandon their vacant land, or invited others to co-operate with them on equitable terms. “In this manner the rude community was born and developed. The tillers of the soil commenced to live and work together. They began to manufacture their own implements, mine their own minerals, made their own medium of exchange, and bought what they needed and sold what they had to spare directly to other similar rude communities. This, for want of business, forced the townsmen out of the cities and towns onto vacant land to provide for their own wants. The reward of co-operation and of individual freedom strengthened and built up the infant community. The communistic production was so abundant, the labor so easy and pleasant, and the social life so agreeable that even the dullest began to see the advantages and sought to become a constituent part of a community.