PRIVATE  PROPERTY  IN  LAND  107

by  step.  We  do  not  delude  ourselves  on  that  point,
and  never  have.”  And  again:  *  “  But  in  thinking  of
details  it  should  he  remembered  that  we  cannot  get  to  the
single  tax  at  one  leap,  but  only  by  gradual  steps,  which
will  bring  experience  to  the  settlement  of  details.”
Neither  of  them  concerned  himself  with  specific  ways
and  means.  Neither  thought  of  interpreting  the  statement ­
  that  all  ground  rent  ought  to  be  taken  for  public
use  to  mean  that  the  whole  of  it  ought  to  be  taken  and
at  once.  But  both,  recognising  that  a  right  thing  may
be  done  in  a  wrong  way,  insisted  that  a  right  way  ought
to  be  found  to  do  a  thing  that  ought  to  be  done.  This
book,  The  A  B  C  of  Taxation,  is  a  search  for  that
right  way.

*  Century  Magazine,  July,  1890,  p.  401.