An air voyage—Change of scenery—Homes for mothers—Evolution from competitive individualism—The mountains—Battell joins us—Orbitello—A perpetual World's Fair—Department of Exchange—The business of a continent—Norrena—Public Printing—The council—All matters submitted to the People—Library of Universal Knowledge.
VERY preparation had been made for our proposed voyage into the interior and as the sun appeared from behind the eastern edge of the southern verge we were embarking on the airship. Our party consisted of MacNair, Iola, Oqua, Captain Ganoe and myself. I took my place at the helm with MacNair and told him that I wanted to take lessons in aerial navigation. He kindly explained the use of the electric keyboard which controlled the machinery, and I found it so simple that I felt no need of an instructor. In this placid atmosphere all I had to do was to set the ship in the direction we wanted to go and turn on the power until we reached the speed at which we desired to travel. All the motions of the vessel were under absolute control. I found that the steering apparatus could be readily adjusted to overcome a light wind, and reasoned that the same principles would enable us to ride the storm. This first practical experience in aerial navigation gave me confidence.
Our course was a little north of west, and we were soon leaving the great communal agricultural district which we now regarded as our home. According to our reckoning it was now the 1st of February and I had begun to figure whether it would be possible for us to be ready to attempt the proposed journey to the outer world during the northern summer. If we did, it would certainly require intense application. These thoughts were continually running through my mind, and they spurred me up to gather all the information possible for the book that I was preparing.
The country over which we were passing was still agricultural, but the surface was more broken and the general arrangements were changed accordingly, presenting to our vision an agreeable variety. We still saw the magnificent communal homes with correspondingly large areas of cultivated lands, but we also saw cottages gathered into groups, with large public buildings which MacNair informed us were schools, public halls, homes for the aged, hospitals, and especially homes for prospective mothers who felt that the ideal conditions which these homes afforded would secure the best possible development of their offspring.
I was forcibly struck by the number and grandeur of these homes for mothers. I had noticed that every communal home had its department for the care of mothers, and now I found that the grandest structures that I had ever seen were devoted exclusively to this purpose. In reply to my inquiries I was informed that this care for motherhood was a universal feature throughout the inner world. But in this, as in everything else, liberty prevails. The mother is always free to select her own conditions. Many prefer these large public homes which are exclusively under the control of women, while others, with different temperaments, prefer greater exclusiveness in their own apartments, but all alike make this period of prospective motherhood, one in which all the environments are calculated to produce the best possible pre-natal influences upon the unborn child.
For this purpose, different temperaments require different surroundings. The impressions produced by beautiful scenery and social enjoyments on one, may be more readily produced by reading, lectures, music and intellectual entertainments on another. The unperverted taste of the mother is always accepted as a sure guide to what is best in each case, and the best is always provided.
While the country over which we were passing did not have the same artificial appearance as if laid out by one uniform pattern, like that where we had been located since our arrival in Altruria, I still noticed the general tendency of the people to get together in large communities. We passed over large districts of wild lands which afforded ample opportunities for isolated homes but nowhere did we see anything of the kind. This induced Captain Ganoe to ask if there was any law against people getting out by themselves and cultivating these wild lands.