ompetent as trustees.
One man with the wealth of an Astor or a Rockefeller, and the
overflowing love guided by the wisdom of intuition (so conspicuous in
Jesus that men have worshipped him as a God, and elevated their own
natures by the worship), could accomplish more than all that American
wealth has ever done upon this continent.

Therefore by that right of eminent domain which is good over lands
occupied by the living, and far better over estates abandoned by the
dead, it becomes the duty of society to maintain the republic, to
assert the supreme law of justice, and thereby teach the doctrine so
long forgotten by followers of Christianity, that all our powers and
resources beyond our own necessities belong to our brothers. Such are
the principles of every real Christian. Such was the sentiment of John
Wesley; and his expression, if I recollect rightly, was that he would
consider himself a thief if he died with more than ten pounds in his
possession.

These doctrines are not entirely strange--the world is beginning to
look in this direction already. The _heirship of the state_ is an idea
already broached in France, sustained by Clemenceau, Pelletan, and
many other distinguished citizens, and discussed in the Chamber of
Deputies. The proposition was to limit the law of inheritance, and
substitute the heirship of the state for all collateral heirs. That
eminent and practical philanthropist, M. Godin, whose name has been
immortalized by the Industrial Palace at Guise, warmly espoused this
idea in all its breadth, and said:--

"When an individual dies, society has then the right to take
to itself what he leaves, for it has been the chief aid of
the deceased. Without its aid, without its institutions, he
could never have been able to amass the riches of which he
is at his death the holder. Society inherits wealth, then,
to use for the same work of social progress already
accomplished; that is to say to allow others, the surviving
in general (not the privileged strangers to the creation of
the existing riches), to continue their labor and
co-operation in the common social work. The heredity of the
State is then just, both in principle and in fact."

The two measures which are necessary now are the Department of
Productive Labor and the law of inheritance by the commonwealth, which
limits the transmission of estates above a hundred thousand dollars,
giving the comm