He then explains that under his scheme even the privileged classes would not be injured, since they would share with the rest of the community.
Of Riches.
“But shall not one man be richer than another?
“There is no need for that; for riches make men vainglorious, proud, and to oppress their bretheren, and are the occasion of wars. No man can be rich but he must be rich either by his own labors, or by the labors of other men helping him. If a man have no help from his neighbors, he shall never gather an estate of hundreds and thousands a year. If other men help him to work, then are those riches his neighbors’ as well as his; for they be the fruits of other men’s labors as well as his own. But all rich men live at ease, feeding and clothing themselves by the labors of other men, not by their own, which is their shame and not their nobility; for it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive. But rich men receive all they have from the laborer’s hand, and what they give, they give away other men’s labors, not their own. Therefore they are not righteous actors in the Earth.”
Titles of Honour.
“But shall not one man have more Titles of Honor than another?
“Yes: As a man goes through offices, he rises to Titles of Honor, till he comes to the highest nobility, to be a faithful Commonwealth’s Man in a Parliament House. Likewise he who finds out any secret in Nature shall have a Title of Honor given him, though he be a young man. But no man shall have any Title of Honor till he win it by industry, or come to it by age or Office-bearing. Every man that is fifty years of age shall have respect as a man of honor from all others that are younger, as is shown hereafter.”
Of Family Life.
“Shall every man count his neighbour’s house as his own, and live together as one family?
“No; though the Earth and Storehouses be common to every Family, yet every Family shall live apart as they do; and every man’s house, wife, children and furniture for ornament of his house, or anything he hath fetched in from the Storehouses, or provided for the necessary use of his family, is all a propriety unto that Family, for the peace thereof. And if any man offer to take away a man’s wife, children, or furniture of his house, without his consent, or disturb the peace of his dwelling, he shall suffer punishment as an enemy to the Commonwealth’s Government, as is mentioned in the Platform following.”