History of a World of Immortals without a God / Translated from an unpublished manuscript in the library of a continental university

by Unknown

CHAPTER V.

Of the causes of the high civilization of Hesperos—Of the relations of the sexes—Of private personal property—Of property in Land; and of the methods of Eviction—Of the Jacks and Masters of all Trades.

When we bear in mind these essential differences of Hesperian life, the rapid development of civilization which took place in the northern hemisphere after the sudden introduction of the rational creation will not appear surprising. So far as I have been able to form an estimate, from the information that has been very freely afforded me, the newly created Hesperians were, both intellectually and morally, much on a par with the average of human beings. But the conditions under which they were placed rendered their advance in civilization incomparably more rapid than anything which a similar species, circumstanced as we are on the earth, could hope to attain.

Their total exemption from the chronic paralysis of the human race which is involved in the incessant passage of the latter through the stages of infancy and childhood, would, by itself, be enough to give the Hesperians such a start in the race as to render competition useless. With us the intelligent man of matured wisdom departs, carrying with him to the grave the greater part of his accumulated stores of knowledge, and all his skill; leaving his successor, the child, to recover them as well as he can. The Hesperian is crossed by no such check; his course is one uninterrupted advance. Thus it came to pass that, after the lapse of a few thousand years, the condition of the northern hemisphere was, as regards every form of advanced civilization, a very long way ahead of anything even dreamed of, much less realized on earth.

It is quite necessary that I should here say a few words on the relations between the sexes in this strange planet. On this difficult subject I have taken abundance of notes from the information I received; information which, I am bound to say, was given me without the slightest reserve. [I suppress all details in these notes, as public opinion, very rightly, does not permit the discussion of such matters.] It is obvious of itself that the permanence of individual life renders the establishment of such a life-contract as marriage an impossibility. Accordingly, the Hesperian relation which most nearly corresponds with the matrimonial institution on earth usually lasts for one of the cyclical periods already described as one of the distinctive peculiarities of Hesperian life. This is, I say, the customary procedure; but the relation is terminable at any time, and at the will of either party concerned. It should, of course, be remembered that, as there are no children, the disastrous consequences which would be the inevitable result of such a state of things on earth do not take place.

As for the institution of private property, the same permanence of individual life gives it quite a different form from that which it assumes under the conditions of death and succession. Personal property, indeed, in our strict sense of the term, can hardly be said to exist at all. There being no real family life—for the mere dwelling together of a childless man and woman can scarcely be called by such a name—a different social unit has been adopted. Three or four persons of each sex usually reside together, thus forming a household numbering six or eight, and ‘property’ has commonly reference to the household so constituted. The reader will see further on that this account of property is only correct for the ancient history of the planet.

With respect to property in land, very great troubles took place in the primitive times; and many ages elapsed before a satisfactory settlement was arrived at. Hesperos is, in comparison with the earth, very sparsely populated. One hundred millions of inhabitants to forty millions of square miles of land, give but an average of two and a-half to each square mile. Now, if we assume that the area of England is about 50,900 square miles—an estimate which does not much differ from the fact—and that the population (A.D. 1730) is somewhere about seven millions, we have above one hundred and thirty-seven to each square mile. In an island of like dimensions in Hesperos—and one such really exists not far from the mainland—there are only 127,250 inhabitants.

Hence it would seem that the land supply is greatly in excess of the needs of the population. But there are such extraordinary differences in the eligibility of particular sites as places for residence, that great competition invariably arose for those spots which are specially favoured by nature. These disputes were much aggravated by the conviction that the successful candidate had acquired a real, bona fide, and by no means fictitious perpetuity in the coveted abode. Thus these bitter feuds only too frequently resulted in the eviction of the occupier by one or other of the well-known processes by which evanescence was brought about; either that of mortal lesion, which was commonly effected by somebody lying in wait for the envied tenant in some lonely place; or by the slow method of the metronomic balance, carried out by imposing on the victim a sort of social ostracism, refusing to hold any intercourse with him, or indeed supply him with the necessaries of life.

Matters at length proceeded to such extremities, that the governing bodies, in alarm at the depopulating process, passed a very stringent land law, limiting the tenure of any holding to the period of the Life Cycle, which, as we have already seen, averages one hundred years. At the end of that period the estate was disposed of by lot, but there was no rule to prevent the incoming tenant from coming to terms with the outgoer. It must be distinctly understood, however, that, as the extent in area of each holding was strictly limited by law, there was abundance of land for everyone, and the dispossessed occupiers were merely transferred to another part of the country.

Permanence of individual life again is the cause of a marked difference in Hesperos from anything we experience on Earth, with respect to the tenures of the various occupations, trades, or professions, by the persons who exercise them. With us life is so short, and art so long, that when a man has once acquired the skill which is needful for his calling, he has but small opportunity, after having exercised it for a time, of ever learning another. But eternal tailoring or shoe-making, or even eternal writing of poetry, or painting, or playing on the fiddle, could not be thought of. Any attempt to carry out such a permanence of occupation would quickly terminate in the evanescence of the patient by the operation of the metronomic law.

So here again the life cycle is usually adhered to; and on its completion the subject almost invariably adopts a new calling. Hence a strange state of affairs now in Hesperos—every man, and woman also, is not only Jack, but master, or mistress, of all trades. A friend told me that, during the last seven centuries of the ancient period, he had successively occupied the positions of miner, lamp-maker, cathedral-organist, confectioner, marine engineer, barrister-at-law, and maker of sun-pictures.