Now it may be considered strange how it was that some of the inhabitants could get other of the inhabitants to decipher the shells for them at all, or, at any rate, to decipher them so that there was any balance of pleasure left with the shells at all. But this power on the part of some of the inhabitants depended on the general action of the king. For by bearing the difference of pain in innumerable respects in the life of each he made life a pleasure (on the whole) to each, and they strove each to preserve their own life which was a source of pleasure. And some of the more powerful inhabitants had the power of denying to the rest, unless they laboured for them, the means of continuing to exist. Consequently it was possible for things to be obtained by the more powerful which had a balance of pleasure in them.
But the authorities who had studied the life of the valley in relation to pleasure and pain, saw that there was a danger in this relation of the more powerful to the less powerful. For as the numbers of the inhabitants increased the power grew more and more concentrated in the hands of a few, and there was a tendency for the inhabitants in general to be compelled more and more to go through the painful part of actions, leaving the pleasurable parts for the more powerful. And every now and then, before the council of wise men regulated the matter, great masses of the inhabitants passed off in a state of apathy. So they had many laws to restrict the action of the more powerful of the inhabitants; and, indeed, the more powerful of the inhabitants were ready to frame these laws themselves, and were willing to obey them, for they did not like to see portions of the inhabitants going off into a state of apathy.
But not only in this respect, but also in every other, the wise men regulated the affairs of the valley so as to make life more pleasurable. They had severe laws against any one who deprived another of pleasure without his consent, by violence or deceit. They did all they could to ward off a state of apathy. But in one respect beyond all others they were full of care and precaution. And this was in guarding against such sources of trouble, anxiety, and pain which could be removed from the community as a whole. Anything tending to lower the standard of comfort as a whole was carefully removed. Irregularities were reduced as much as possible; and, in one respect, a great step had been taken. It had not been carried in the council of wise men without great opposition, but it had at length been passed into law.
Any child born in the valley which had any incurable disease, or any gross deformity, or which by its delicacy seemed likely to cause more pain than pleasure in the valley, was at once put out of existence. The gain to the inhabitants of the valley of this was in their eyes immense; for their sight was offended by no deformities, and the painful offices of attending to the sick had undergone a considerable diminution since this edict had been passed into law.
The important duty of deciding on the claims of every infant that was born to a painless extinction was confined to a band of inspectors, who stayed for a short time only in any one part of the valley, lest they should become biassed by personal acquaintance with the individuals for whose children their offices were called into requisition.
CHAPTER VII.
Passing on to the other great building, where the other wise men meet, it is right to describe what may be called the intellectual development—as the foregoing was the moral development of the valley. The course which the opinions of the thinkers in the valley had gone through was the following.
At first they had no clear ideas, but all manner of mere opinions and fancies. At last they apprehended certain general tendencies—such as that towards the centre of the valley, and they explained many inclinations which had before been puzzling to them by this. And stimulated by this great discovery they examined more and more closely. And they found many special tendencies like that towards the centre of the valley, which the king had called into existence, and which he let go on as a general rule, unless he wished the contrary. And they also succeeded in nearly isolating the simplest routines, and so practically could observe the type of the king’s plan.
They saw that one act A was succeeded by another act B. And not taking into account that one was pleasant the other painful, they measured the amount of sensation present in the two acts. And then they took the next pair of acts, namely, A and B over again, and measured the amount of sensation present in them; and they found that the amount of sensation gradually diminished. And at first they thought that sensation gradually came to a stop; but afterwards they noticed that other actions were started in the neighbourhood of the routine A B as that diminished in point of feeling.
Now, of course, these other actions were started by the king with the pain-bearing power set free from the routine A B, as above described. But not knowing anything about this action on the part of the king, or about the king at all, the conclusion arrived at was this: That sensation transmits itself. If it does not continue in the routine A B, that part which does not continue passes on to the other routines, C D, E F, &c.