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When we consider the question, without any fear of immediate

application to practice, in the spirit of Plato's Republic, are

we quite sure that the received notions of property are the best?

Is the distribution of wealth which is customary in civilized

countries the most favourable that can be conceived for the

education and development of the mass of mankind? Can 'the

spectator of all time and all existence' be quite convinced that

one or two thousand years hence, great changes will not have

taken place in the rights of property, or even that the very

notion of property, beyond what is necessary for personal

maintenance, may not have disappeared? This was a distinction

familiar to Aristotle, though likely to be laughed at among

ourselves.