A small country has fewer people.
Though there are machines that can work ten to a hundred times faster than people, they are not needed.
The people take death seriously and do not travel far.
Though they have boats and carriages, no one uses them.
Though they have armor and weapons, no one displays them.
People return to the knotting of rope in place of writing.
Their food is plain and healthy, their clothes fine but simple, their homes secure;
They are happy in their lives.
Though they live within sight of their neighbors,
And crowing cocks and barking dogs are heard across the way,
Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die.