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The objections that would be generally urged against Plato's

community of property, are the old ones of Aristotle, that

motives for exertion would be taken away, and that disputes would

arise when each was dependent upon all. Every man would produce

as little and consume as much as he liked. The experience of

civilized nations has hitherto been adverse to Socialism. The

effort is too great for human nature; men try to live in common,

but the personal feeling is always breaking in. On the other hand

it may be doubted whether our present notions of property are not

conventional, for they differ in different countries and in

different states of society. We boast of an individualism which

is not freedom, but rather an artificial result of the industrial

state of modern Europe. The individual is nominally free, but he

is also powerless in a world bound hand and foot in the chains of

economic necessity.