Towards democracy

392 Towards Democracy

To place a nation squarely on its own base, spreading out its people far and wide in honored usefulness upon the soii,

Building up all uses and capacities of the land into the 7

life of the masses,

So that the riches of the Earth may go first and foremost to those who produce them, and so onward into the whole structure of society ;

To render the life of the people clean and gracious, vital from base to summit, and selfdetermining, .

Dependent simply on itself and not on cliques and coteries of speculators anywhere; and springing thus inevitably up into wild free forms of love and fellowship ;

To make the wild places of the lands sacred, keeping the streams pure, and planting fresh blooms along their edges ; to preserve the air crystalline and without taint—tempting the. sun to shine where before was gloom ;

To adorn the woodlands and the high tops with new —

trees and shrubs and winged and footed things,

Sparing all living creatures as far as possible rather than |

destroying them ; What a pleasure!

To do all this in singleness of heart were indeed to openys

up riches for mankind of which few dreamSo much, so infinitely more than what is now called Wealth...

But to-day the lands are slimed and fenced over withir denials ; and those who would cannot get to them, and thoses who own have no joy in them—except such joy as a dog mayy

have in a fodderam.