Page:Diary of a Pilgrimage (1891).pdf/279

Rh "True!" I said, "I see that. But what of the old works, the classics? You had Shakespeare, and Scott, and Thackeray, and there were one or two little things of my own that were not half-bad. What have you done with all those?"

"Oh, we have burned all those old works," he said. "They were full of the old, wrong notions of the old, wrong, wicked times, when men were merely slaves and beasts of burden."

He said all the old paintings and sculptures had been likewise destroyed, partly for that same reason, and partly because they were considered improper by the White Ribbon Vigilance Society, which was a great power now; while all new art and literature were forbidden, as such things tended to undermine the principles of equality. They made men think, and the men that thought grew cleverer than those that did not want to think; and those that did not want to think naturally objected to this, and being in THE MAJORITY, objected to some purpose.

He said that, from like considerations, there were no sports or games permitted. Sports and games caused competition, and competition led to inequality.

I said:

"How long do your citizens work each day?"

"Three hours," he answered; "after that, all the remainder of the day belongs to ourselves."

"Ah! that is just what I was coming to," I remarked. "Now, what do you do with yourselves during those other twenty-one hours?"

"Oh, we rest."

"What! for the whole twenty-one hours?" [sic]

"Well, rest and think and talk."

"What do you think and talk about?"