A striking feature in the lives of those we saw was the fact that there was no evidence of work. So far we had seen no plowing, or tilling of the soil, neither was there any sowing of seed or reaping of grain, nor building of houses; and yet we had the evidence of our eyes that superb structures and cities had been erected. On speaking of this fact to Torrence, he said:
"The climate and soil seem to render agriculture unnecessary; and possibly the buildings belong to a previous age. I doubt if material rots and disintegrates, as it does with us."
I asked how he had reached such an extraordinary conclusion.
"The atmosphere," he answered; "it never rains, I am sure, and I am equally convinced that there are comparatively no changes in the climate. The atmospheric conditions, which with us cause rust, disintegration, and decay, are here neutralized, or altered, by an absorption of electricity, pertaining only to the interior."
"But does the population not increase, requiring more houses to keep them?" I inquired.
"Probably not as it does with us; but even in our own world there are large regions where the death rate keeps pace with the births; and the tendency is undoubtedly in that direction. When population ceases to increase, which I believe is the case here, building will stop. Where the term of man's natural life has been greatly prolonged, there is less concentration of effort. The inner surface of the earth was undoubtedly peopled millions of years before the outer, and we are barely beginning to approximate conditions that have existed here for untold ages. After all, it is the swing of the pendulum, and the next move will be a vast exodus for the interior. The marvelous fertility of the soil, the singular qualities of the atmosphere, make it possible for these people to live without labor. I should, however, like to see their household arrangements to gain a better knowledge of their lives. One thing I am convinced of: it is that man's highest physical development, the acme of his material civilization, is only reached under adverse terrestrial conditions. Where nature coddles him he doesn't work, because he doesn't have to, and while he thus fails in some of the results that a harsher world would encourage, he gains in the poetical and spiritual side of his nature because of the time afforded for reflection."
"And yet have we not witnessed the grandest monuments to a material civilization ever dreamed of, in the strange city behind us?" I asked.
"True," said Torrence; "but I am firmly convinced that that city is millions of years old, and that we have not yet seen a house which has not existed in its present form and position for untold ages of time. With us a city flashes up in a moment of energy. Here the energy is applied directly to the result—pleasure—as life is assured, while the city is the growth of ages. Houses are not built here, neither do they rot!"
We were flying over a pastoral country without roads or fences, but where temples peeped from flowering trees, and houses, red and golden, stood by sheets of limpid water. Many of these were small, and looked as if they had been shored above the earth by magic.
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