Mr.Barton's Sermon passage from Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

      Edward Bellamy published his novel- Looking Backward- which depicts a Utopian world of twentieth century in nineteen century. This particular passage of chapter twenty six is about the dialogue of Doctor Leete and Julian West, a 19^th century aristocrat who falls asleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year of 2000. The doctor gives Julian a sermon about the different between 19^th century and 20^th century. Comparing to a feudal, agricultural society, the industrial system of private capital in 19^th century is much more efficiency, yet its problem is that the gap between rich and poor becomes larger and larger. “If you would see man again the beasts of prey they seemed in the nineteenth century, all you have to do is to restore the old social and industrial system, which taught them to view their natural prey in their fellow-men, and find their gain in the loss of others”. However, Bellamy attempts to persuade readers of a new century in which an economy based on publicly-owned capital would enhance the characteristics that nineteenth-century society admired most about their industrial system. He argues that his ideal society would be vastly more efficient; labor would never be idle, and supply would far more closely match demand. Bellamy believes that this society will bring us “liberty, equality, fraternity”, and happiness will follow.