That these islanders were a distinct people, who were regardless of the rights of others, being governed by cupidity, whereby they had become detestable to all the rest of the externals, and to my nation in particular, to so great a degree, that our Wise men (who have the control in the government, the Good and Useful being held in but little estimation by the wise and the useless in my country) had repeatedly ordained a non-intercourse, in the vain hope of bringing these supposed descendants of the Belzubians to a sense of justice; and that we were at this time only secure from their attacks, by an invention for blowing them into the air, if they ventured to assail our shores; that the book which had misled the Wise man was written by one of this people, and had no reference to my country.
Before I had completed my work to my satisfaction, I received the agreeable intelligence, that the Best Man, supported by all the Good and most of the Useful of his council, had ordered the name of the Wise man who made the proposition, to be erased from the list of Worthies, as a cruel monster, for seriously proposing the infliction, upon strangers who had voluntarily thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the country, of penalties enacted only to render the consequences of the return of the outcasts too frightful to be encountered by them.
This was the only unpleasant occurrence during my stay. The days flew on with astonishing rapidity, so agreeably were they passed. The Symzonians slept but about three hours in the four-and-twenty, and considered me a very gross and sluggish being because I could not do without six hours sleep. With the exception of this short interval, every moment was occupied in conversation, study, observation, or amusement. Statistics, geography, botany, ærology, geology, mineralogy, zoology, ornithology, ichthiology, conchology, and entomology, in turn demanded and received my attention.
CHAPTER XIII.
Recreations of the Symzonians.—Wonderful provision of nature for supplying the internal world with light.—Character and employments of the women of Symzonia.
I visited the place of recreation, a neat plain rotunda, in the centre of an extensive flower garden, where the young people, the middle aged, and the old occasionally convened, to extend their knowledge of one another, interchange their thoughts by conversation, listen to the most exquisite music, and practise a variety of graceful and elegant exercises. Being all very fond of music, they all join in that, by turns, as in other performances. Sometimes an hundred instruments, and many hundreds of the most exquisite voices, filled the whole place with the most enchanting sounds.
The exquisite beauty of the women, the graceful dignity of the men, the chaste decorum and sincere politeness of all, charmed the mind, and delighted the heart. Here there were no temptations to vice by offers of seducing cordials, wines, agreeable decoctions, or other intoxicating drinks, as in our places of resort for recreation. The enjoyments of this refined people were intellectual and pure—not the debasing gratifications of animal passions and sensual appetites.
The soft reflected light of the sun, which was now no longer directly visible, gave a pleasing mellowness to the scene, that was inexpressibly agreeable, being about midway between a bright moonlight and clear sunshine. I had great cause to admire the wonderful provision of nature, by which the internal world enjoyed almost perpetual light, without being subject at any time to the scorching heats which oppress the bodies and irritate the passions of the inhabitants of the external surface.
When the sun has great southern declination, it is seen directly through the opening at the south pole, a little above the horizon—this gives an interval of bright light; and as the rays of heat are more refrangible than those of light[1], a sufficient degree of heat is experienced to ripen the most delicate fruits.