If the total amount of sensation which is experienced by the being in the original routine and the connected routines in the consecutive stages be summed up, it will be found to be
| 1000, 998, 996, 994881000, 9916801000, |
| 88 |
| 1000 |
| 680 |
| 1000 |
and so on.
Finally, the proportion of pain borne by the king was so small compared with the sensation experienced by the being, that A and B were apparently equal in sensation. Thus the sensation in the second A and in C together becomes apparently equal to that in B. And instead of the sensation diminishing quickly as shown above, it was only after a great many acts of the primary and connected routines had been gone through that any diminution of sensation in the form which the being could experience it was to be detected. Thus, as before stated, there was:
1. A routine of continually diminishing sensation.
2. Connected routines the sensation in which was apparently equal to that lost in A.
3. There was a continuous disappearance of sensation from the experience of the beings accompanying every step of the routine. The sensation which they could experience was less in every subsequent step and connected steps than in any one in which it was measured.
CHAPTER VI.
The history of the events which took place in the valley in their due order and importance must be sought elsewhere. But let us return and look at the condition of the valley and its inhabitants. Let us see what has become of them after a great lapse of time.
It is a fair, a beautiful land. The greater part of it is cultivated. There is no war—even to the extremest confines of the valley there is peace. Passing from the remote confines where still dwell a barbarous race, we come, as we approach the metropolis, amongst a more and more polite and refined people. In the metropolis itself the buildings are numerous and of great size. The palace which the king saw rise under the old man’s music is there, but another ruler dwells in it. Near the palace are two vast buildings standing on each side of a wide open court. There is no other building near save one between them, a comparatively small edifice of brick. These buildings are the assembly halls of the two most important councils in the valley. In the one on the left-hand side of the palace met the most distinguished of the inhabitants who from a special inclination or fitness were entrusted with the regulations about the pleasure and pain of the inhabitants. They framed the rules according to which each inhabitant must conform in his pursuit of pleasure, and they made the regulations whereby the whole body of inhabitants were supposed to gain an increase in pleasure and to avoid pain.