“With you things are just the reverse. Your machinery is not so perfect, your tools are not so handy, your conveniences for labor are very few, your day of manual labor is so long and toilsome, your returns go largely to the rich idlers or unproductive labors, your companions are often rival enemies, your occupation whatever you can get to do, your overseer a cruel, heartless tyrant, your appreciations for accomplishments have been withered by anxiety and poverty. Nothing but the bare necessity of acquiring the material subsistence for a meager livelihood spurs you on to your almost unendurable and endless toil, which generally lasts until the premature grave entombs the remains of your worn-out, lifeless body. Under your sad social and industrial arrangement, it is no wonder that you dishonor labor, that you endeavor by all schemes to escape that endless tread-mill of toil to which you are generally hitched for life by the tugs of cruelty, want of knowledge and superstition. “It is now time for our afternoon work, and, whenever hereafter I tell you anything about our wealth and labor, always endeavor to think of them as they are considered by the Marsites, and not as you look at wealth and labor here. Always bear in mind that organized-self and mental wealth are necessary constituents of our genuine wealth, and that the old toilsome labor has almost completely passed into delightful sportive exercise.” CHAPTER VII. INTERIOR OF “BIG-HOUSE.” After tea, about five o’clock, we were once more seated together on Mr. Uwins’ beautiful green, shady lawn to listen to Mr. Midith’s pleasing description of the Marsian “big-house.” “Do you recollect, Mr. Midith, telling us at noon that you would give us a more detailed description of the interior of the ‘big-house?’” asked Mrs. Uwins. “We shall now be pleased to give you our attention on that subject.” “Yes; we will all listen to you, Mr. Midith,” said little Celestine, sitting very near him. “There is so much to be told that I scarcely know where to begin,” said Mr. Midith; “and when I draw a clear, vivid picture of those grand, colossal structures in my imagination, it seems almost as though I once more enjoyed my native world, my native home, and my native society, for which, perhaps, in every stage of intellectual development, a person’s heart, who has been deprived of them, will yearn.