CHAPTER XIV.
I reside within a city of Mars which, in point of population and grandeur, is one of the first on our planet. In accordance with our custom of designating such places with names of quality, it would be known in your language as the city of Good Will. As it is the type of all others, you are already informed of a few of its general features. I will, however, give you some fuller description of our society and surroundings, in only the hasty and imperfect manner which this opportunity affords.
With much the same feelings and inclinations as yours, and with that love and cultivation of the beautiful which we have pursued as an element of our religion, uninterrupted as with you by those delusions which destroy art, we have advanced much beyond you in that direction.
It is to be noted, as a coincidence proving the unity of all intelligence within the universe, that we have designed an architecture not unlike that of your ancient Greece. Our isolated exteriors, such as villas and country residences, bear a close resemblance to some of your ancient styles. In our cities we have been obliged to conform to the condition of aerial navigation, which has greatly restricted our elevated ornamentation, and forced upon us a system of curves instead of angles in our projections.
One of the most notable differences between your construction and ours is the material and form of our roofs, which are uniformly of solid glass, and dome shaped. The substance is laid on in a plastic state, hardens in a short time, is purely transparent, and as difficult to fracture as stone. The upper story of every house becomes by this method the chief source of light for its interior, and by ingeniously formed horizontal curtains can be darkened at will. We believe this to be one of the most important sanitary arrangements we possess, and to which may be chiefly ascribed the health and vigor of our bodies. In these bright upper apartments we bathe ourselves in the sun, and enjoy the constant bloom and fragrance of flowers.
By a natural adaption, these glass roofs have become inseparably connected with our religious lives. Our interest in the wonderful nightly exhibitions which they permit is increased by the general knowledge we have cultivated of the character and motions of the heavenly bodies. As a consequence, there are but few among us who cannot describe the paths and directions of the planets; and it is quite safe to say that a majority of our people can compute the periods of opposition and conjunction between them. No other exhibition so feeds and stimulates our religious impulses, as the grand display of divine power in the unceasing motions of the spheres. We bring the spectacle within our households, and dwell with it. It is the altar upon which we worship the great unseen.
Each block of buildings is surmounted by a single roof of the transparent character I have described. In this way we have utilized all the space for dwelling or business purposes, and prevented those unsightly back yards which disfigure the cities of the Earth and lower their sanitary condition. Usually there are no partition walls except in the lower stories, and these lofty upper apartments, especially if over dwellings, have their flattened dome-shaped roofs supported by a series of columns and arches artistically wrought and decorated, and their interiors adorned with growing flower and statuary, so as to furnish a delightful resort, convenient to the neighborhood and open to all.
These extensive halls are a necessity to the social character of our people. You may imagine how an intercourse based on perfect equality, and with the paramount idea of obtaining pleasure by bestowing it, would have its enjoyments enlarged by the unrestricted and unselected numbers participating. Music and dancing are delights with us beyond your experience. We enjoy the advantages of atmospheric conditions and a degree of gravitating force which are peculiarly adapted to heighten these enjoyments. Our voice tones, seldom without cultivation, acquire an energy and brilliancy in our atmosphere unknown to you. A combination of trained voices with us is so vastly superior to instrumental music, that the latter is not known except as a novelty. Since the force of gravity is less with us our bodies are much lighter than yours, and our motions are consequently more airy and graceful. In movements like dancing there is less muscular energy expended, and a greater pleasure attained.
Under these vast transparent domes, looking out upon the universe of planets and stars, we dance, and sing our hymns of praise to the Deity, asking for nothing, but uniting our voices in the rhythms of poetry and music in a thanksgiving for the pleasures of life, and for that guidance which has directed us clear of the deadly superstitions of our neighboring planet, and for that intelligence which has led us to find our true religious duties in exercising our better impulses within our own fields of action.