"Havatoo is laid out like the half of a wagon wheel, with the Central Laboratories at the hub. The main sections of the city are bounded by four concentric semicircles. Inside the first is the civic center, where the Central Laboratories are situated; this I have called the hub. Between this and the next semicircle lie the five sub districts I have just described. Between this and the third semicircle lies the largest district, called Yorgan; here dwell the common people. And in the fourth section, a narrow strip just inside the outer wall, are the shops, markets, and factories."
"It is all most interesting," I said, "and to me the most interesting part of it is that the city is governed without laws."
"Without man-made laws," Ero Shan corrected me. "We are governed by natural laws with which all intelligent people are conversant. Of course occasionally a citizen commits an act that is harmful to another or to the peace of the city, for the genes of vicious and nonconformist characteristics have not all been eradicated from the germ cells of all of the citizens of Havatoo.
"If one commits an act that is subversive of the rights of others or of the general welfare of the community he is tried by a court that is not hampered by technicalities nor precedent, and which, taking into consideration all of the facts in the case, including the heredity of the defendant, reaches a decision that is final and without appeal."
"It seems rather drastic to punish a man for the acts of his ancestors," I remarked.
"But let me remind you that we do not punish," explained Ero Shan. "We only seek to improve the race to the end that we shall attain the greatest measure of happiness and contentment."
"Havatoo, with no bad people in it, must be an ideal city in which to live," I said.
"Oh, there are some bad people," replied Ero Shan, "for there are bad genes in all of us; but we are a very intelligent race, and the more intelligent people are the better able are they to control their bad impulses. Occasionally strangers enter Havatoo, bad men from the city across the river. How they accomplish it is a mystery that has never been solved, but we know that they come and steal a man or a woman occasionally. Sometimes we catch them, and when we do we destroy them. Rarely, our own people commit crimes, usually crimes of passion; but occasionally one commits a premeditated crime. The latter are a menace to the race and are not permitted to survive and transmit their characteristics to future generations or influence the present by their bad examples."
As he ceased speaking a very powerfully built man came to the door of the room. "You sent for me, Korgan Sentar Ero Shan?" he asked.