CHAPTER XIV: HOW MATTERS ARE MANAGED.
Said I: "How about your relations with foreign nations ?" "I will not affect not to know what you mean," said he, "but I will tell you at once that the whole system of rival and contending nations which played so great a part in the 'government' of the world of civilisation has disappeared along with the inequality betwixt man and man in society." "Does not that make the world duller ?" said I.
"Why ?" said the old man.
"The obliteration of national variety," said I.
"Nonsense," he said, somewhat snappishly.

"Cross the water and see.

You will find plenty of variety: the landscape, the building, the diet, the amusements, all various.

The men and women varying in looks as well as in habits of thought; the costume far more various than in the commercial period.

How should it add to the variety or dispel the dulness, to coerce certain families or tribes, often heterogeneous and jarring with one another, into certain artificial and mechanical groups, and call them nations, and stimulate their patriotism--_i.e._, their foolish and envious prejudices ?" "Well--I don't know how," said I.
"That's right," said Hammond cheerily; "you can easily understand that now we are freed from this folly it is obvious to us that by means of this very diversity the different strains of blood in the world can be serviceable and pleasant to each other, without in the least wanting to rob each other: we are all bent on the same enterprise, making the most of our lives.