“It is too utterly bewildering. These things appear as real as any I ever saw.” “Appear! They _are as real_. Let us go into one of these bazars, and see what the people are doing.” They turned through an open doorway resplendent with burnished metal and sculpture to where great corridors, halls, and galleries, stocked with properties and merchandise of every description, were crowded with people. No one was in attendance; and those who came and went, carried with them what they pleased. No money was passed, nor did compensation of any kind seem forthcoming. “If anything strikes your fancy, take it,” said Ah Ben. “All things here are free, and yet everything is paid for.” Paul asked for an explanation, which Ah Ben gave as follows: “The city before you is located in the year 3,000, more than a thousand years in advance of our time. It is called _Levachan_, and will appear upon earth about 700 years hence; in about four hundred years from which time it will attain the size and splendor you now behold. We here see it in its spiritual state, which precedes and follows all material forms. It will begin its descent into matter, through the minds of physical man, about the time I have mentioned. It is merely a type of a class toward which we are tending, and I show it to you that you may see the vast strides we shall have made by that time. In the state of society in which we find ourselves, compensation is made by a system of absolute freedom in exchange. Here, if a man wants a coat, he takes it, and the owner reimburses himself from the great reservoir of the world's goods, which is open to all men as integral parts of a unit.” “What check have you upon the unreasoning rapacity of a thief, who will take ten times as much as he requires?” “The system operates directly against the development of that trait. Here, men are only too anxious to have their goods admired and taken; for, being certain of their own maintenance, they feel a pride in contributing to that of others, and there is no temptation to take that which can not be kept, since his neighbor has equal right to take from him an idle surplus. Here the laws are the reverse of ours, for here a man is encouraged in the taking, but never in the holding. Wealth is measured by what a man disburses; hence all are anxious to part with their individual property for the advancement of the commonwealth, knowing that the _one_ can only thrive when the many are prosperous.” They continued their walk amid the marvelous wealth that surrounded them. There were fabrics of untold value; jewels of indescribable splendor; men, women, and children with strangely eager faces. They seated themselves upon revolving chairs in the midst of a great space to watch the glittering show. “But tell me what it all means,” inquired Paul. “I feel as if it were a dream, and yet I am absolutely certain that it is not.”