It is, no doubt, true that, as a whole, we have been and are still gradually marching toward individual freedom and equity, but, as we have seen, are still far from having attained them. Some of us have at last learned that happiness of self includes the happiness of others, and that our conscious efforts, guided by the highest intelligence, may be made to count in promoting this progressive march. For these reasons I have concluded to contribute my infinitesimal part of this conscious work of progress by outlining, in these printed pages, a social and economic system from which, I believe, our existing evils are eliminated; and to still further assist in this labor, I compare this new system with our present one, so as to make the work more perspicuous for those who are not much accustomed to think for themselves. I also name and describe some of the successive steps of progress which slowly succeeded one another. In this work I shall further endeavor to show that social and economic prosperity and harmony can be attained only in a system which recognizes extensive voluntary co-operation as its fundamental principle of production and distribution, and which concedes to every individual the right to do as he wills, provided he does not infringe the equal right of any other person; for in the harmonious and intelligent union of these two factors consists the solution of the social and economic problem. I am well aware that my work will meet with strong opposition from my timid contemporaries. I am aware that they will endeavor to spread the alarm that this book is dangerous, but such a course is nothing new and nothing strange. Persons whose hearts are cold and full of iniquity have never been able to see and feel beyond the very limited sphere of their own activity. They measure all other people by their own crude and wicked intentions. Cruelty and blind zeal have always led such persons on unwise paths. Countless examples may be cited in support of this proposition. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth, and was, therefore, condemned to drink the poisonous hemlock. Jesus, who advocated nobler and purer principles than His contemporaries, was crucified by them. Washington, who believed in a republic which concedes a little more individual freedom than a monarchy does, was branded a traitor by his monarchical contemporaries. Garrison, who advocated the liberation of chattel slaves, was denounced a dangerous demagogue. When Luther added a degree of personal liberty to the inflexible creed of his time, all Christendom branded him a heretic; a subverter of human well-being. Haeckel, Huxley, Spencer, Darwin, Buckel, Pentecost, Tucker and countless others, who have vastly enriched the storehouse of human knowledge by their genius and industry, have all, in their turn, been calumniated and denounced by persons who have, perhaps, never read a line of what these leading men have written.