Man is shown as he was before, and as he had become after I as Tootmanyoso had reigned about one hundred of your years. Man's life had been lengthened from your average age to one which before the employment of the means enjoined and carried out in my reign would have been considered impossible.
The different stages of man's life during both eras are here contrasted in every gradation. Thus we have the child as he was, the child as he is, commencing his education, and his entry into manhood; the coxcomb and dissipated man of former times, and the man of the present era, following the road leading to his own happiness and the good of others; middle age—the man struggling to draw the load up the hill with painful efforts, the other man engaged in congenial occupation; lastly, the disappointed and the happy old age.
IV. WOMAN.
In like manner we have a series of pictures showing woman's former state; her present education, in the representation of which episodes are given of her progress in her own sphere to the level and companionship of man. Reference is made to the means of increasing her beauty, and employing her charms for her own and man's happiness;[1] the gentleness of her nature in softening man's lot, whilst she is supported and defended by him; woman as a mother, her devotion to her children, and her joy and gratitude in contemplating the development of their strength and beauty through the means enjoined and practised in my reign.
[Footnote 1: See p. 94.]
One picture, let me add, represents the mode of choosing a husband,[2] and another represents ceremonies used in the preparations for marriage.[3]
[Footnote 2: See p. 104.]
[Footnote 3: See p. 120.]
V. MARRIED LIFE.
In the picture relating to this subject we first show marriage as it was. The wife and husband are rarely by each other's side; when they meet they are in common attire, and receive each other with frowns; the wife, in grand costume, smiles on strangers, and so on with other episodes of former married life.