Page:The Great Secret.djvu/167

Rh "Yes, and have them still, but not as your rulers are chosen. Our laws were simple and easily understood. There was no chicanery practised. Our rulers were not chosen by favour, supremacy or competition, but by rotation, and in regular order. One hundred men with the same number of women directed our movements for seven days only, and during that interval their hands were free from other work. On the seventh day the citizens assembled in yonder temple of justice, and those next in order took the resigned posts."

She pointed to a vast circular building of white marble which occupied the centre of the city, and covered a space of some acres. It was a great coliseum, surmounted by a dome-like roof, with pillars only for walls. Philip had noticed this mighty erection before, with its wide outside spaces.

"There we assembled weekly, and have met for ages, the flesh-bound and the free. There our simple code of laws are read over and our rulers for the next seven days chosen. There, too, our scientists and inventors expounded their theories and discoveries to all who cared to listen. The dramatists, poets, artists and musicians also gave their performances, recited their works, and did their best to amuse the community, and here also we adored the Source of Life and Knowledge. We had also our private schools and workshops, for every house is so constructed for the different work to be carried on at home."

"Had you no criminals?"

"No; crime and criminals are only produced by injustice, inequality, competition, covetousness, want, idleness, and overwork. We had justice. We were equal. There was no competition amongst us. There