To facilitate my progress in the language of Mizora I was sent to their
National College. It was the greatest favor they could have conferred
upon me, as it opened to me a wide field of knowledge. Their educational
system was a peculiar one, and, as it was the chief interest of the
country. I shall describe it before proceeding farther with this
narrative.
All institutions for instruction were public, as were, also, the books
and other accessories. The State was the beneficent mother who furnished
everything, and required of her children only their time and
application. Each pupil was compelled to attain a certain degree of
excellence that I thought unreasonably high, after which she selected
the science or vocation she felt most competent to master, and to that
she then devoted herself.
The salaries of teachers were larger than those of any other public
position. The Principal of the National College had an income that
exceeded any royal one I had ever heard of; but, as education was the
paramount interest of Mizora, I was not surprised at it. Their desire
was to secure the finest talent for educational purposes, and as the
highest honors and emoluments belonged to such a position, it could not
be otherwise. To be a teacher in Mizora was to be a person of
consequence. They were its aristocracy.
Every State had a free college provided for out of the State funds. In
these colleges every department of Science, Art, or Mechanics was
furnished with all the facilities for thorough instruction. All the
expenses of a pupil, including board, clothing, and the necessary
traveling fares, were defrayed by the State. I may here remark that all
railroads are owned and controlled by the General Government. The rates
of transportation were fixed by law, and were uniform throughout the
country.
The National College which I entered belonged to the General
Government. Here was taught the highest attainments in the arts and
sciences, and all industries practised in Mizora. It contained the very
cream of learning. There the scientist, the philosopher and inventor
found the means and appliances for study and investigation. There the
artist and sculptor had their finest work, and often their studios. The
principals and subordinate teachers and assistants were elected by
popular vote. The State Colleges were free to those of another State who
might desire to enter them, for Mizora was like one vast family. It was
regarded as the duty of every citizen to lend all the aid and
encouragement in her power to further the enlightenment of others,
wisely knowing the benefits of such would accrue to her own and the
general good. The National College was open to all applicants,
irrespective of age, the only requirements being a previous training to
enter upon so high a plane of mental culture. Every allurement was held
out to the people to come and drink at the public fountain where the cup
was inviting and the waters sweet. "For," said one of the leading
instructors to me, "education is the foundation of our moral elevation,
our government, our happiness. Let us relax our efforts, or curtail the
means and inducements to become educated, and we relax into ignorance,
and end in demoralization. We know the value of free education. It is
frequently the case that the greatest minds are of slow development, and
manifest in the primary schools no marked ability. They often leave the
schools unnoticed; and when time has awakened them to their mental
needs, all they have to do is to apply to the college, pass an
examination, and be admitted. If not prepared to enter the college, they
could again attend the common schools. We realize in its broadest sense
the ennobling influence of universal education. The higher the culture
of a people, the more secure is their government and happiness. A
prosperous people is always an educated one; and the freer the
education, the wealthier they become."
The Preceptress of the National College was the leading scientist of the
country. Her position was more exalted than any that wealth could have
given her. In fact, while wealth had acknowledged advantages, it held a
subordinate place in the estimation of the people. I never heard the
expression "very wealthy," used as a recommendation of a person. It was
always: "_She_ is a fine scholar, or mechanic, or artist, or musician.
_She_ excels in landscape gardening, or domestic work. _She_ is a
first-class chemist." But never "_She_ is rich."
The idea of a Government assuming the responsibility of education, like
a parent securing the interest of its children, was all so new to me;
and yet, I confessed to myself, the system might prove beneficial to
other countries than Mizora. In that world, from whence I had so
mysteriously emigrated, education was the privilege only of the rich.
And in no country, however enlightened, was there a system of education
that would reach all. Charitable institutions were restricted, and
benefited only a few. My heart beat with enthusiasm when I thought of
the mission before me. And then I reflected that the philosophers of my
world were but as children in progress compared to these. Still
traveling in grooves that had been worn and fixed for posterity by
bygone ages of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, it would require courage
and resolution, and more eloquence than I possessed, to persuade them
out of these trodden paths. To be considered the privileged class was an
active characteristic of human nature. Wealth, and the powerful grip
upon the people which the organizations of society and governments gave,
made it hereditary. Yet in this country, nothing was hereditary but the
prosperity and happiness of the whole people.
It was not a surprise to me that astronomy was an unknown science in
Mizora, as neither sun, moon, nor stars were visible there. "The moon's
pale beams" never afford material for a blank line in poetry; neither do
scientific discussions rage on the formation of Saturn's rings, or the
spots on the sun. They knew they occupied a hollow sphere, bounded North
and South by impassible oceans. Light was a property of the atmosphere.
A circle of burning mist shot forth long streamers of light from the
North, and a similar phenomena occurred in the South.
The recitation of my geography lesson would have astonished a pupil from
the outer world. They taught that a powerful current of electricity
existed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. It was the origin of
their atmospheric heat and light, and their change of seasons. The
latter appeared to me to coincide with those of the Arctic zone, in one
particular. The light of the sun during the Arctic summer is reflected
by the atmosphere, and produces that mellow, golden, rapturous light
that hangs like a veil of enchantment over the land of Mizora for six
months in the year. It was followed by six months of the shifting
iridescence of the Aurora Borealis.
As the display of the Aurora Borealis originated, and was most brilliant
at what appeared to me to be the terminus of the pole, I believed it was
caused by the meeting at that point of the two great electric currents
of the earth, the one on its surface, and the one known to the
inhabitants of Mizora. The heat produced by the meeting of two such
powerful currents of electricity is, undoubtedly, the cause of the open
Polar Sea. As the point of meeting is below the vision of the
inhabitants of the Arctic regions, they see only the reflection of the
Aurora. Its gorgeous, brilliant, indescribable splendor is known only to
the inhabitants of Mizora.
At the National College, where it is taught as a regular science, I
witnessed the chemical production of bread and a preparation resembling
meat. Agriculture in this wonderful land, was a lost art. No one that I
questioned had any knowledge of it. It had vanished in the dim past of
their barbarism. With the exception of vegetables and fruit, which were
raised in luscious perfection, their food came from the elements. A
famine among such enlightened people was impossible, and scarcity was
unknown. Food for the body and food for the mind were without price. It
was owing to this that poverty was unknown to them, as well as disease.
The absolute purity of all that they ate preserved an activity of vital
power long exceeding our span of life. The length of their year,
measured by the two seasons, was the same as ours, but the women who had
marked a hundred of them in their lifetime, looked younger and fresher,
and were more supple of limb than myself, yet I had barely passed my
twenty-second year.
I wrote out a careful description of the processes by which they
converted food out of the valueless elements--valueless because of their
abundance--and put it carefully away for use in my own country. There
drouth, or excessive rainfalls, produced scarcity, and sometimes famine.
The struggle of the poor was for food, to the exclusion of all other
interests. Many of them knew not what proper and health-giving
nourishment was. But here in Mizora, the daintiest morsels came from the
chemists laboratory, cheap as the earth under her feet.
I now began to enjoy the advantages of conversation, which added greatly
to my happiness and acquirements. I formed an intimate companionship
with the daughter of the Preceptress of the National College, and to her
was addressed the questions I asked about things that impressed me. She
was one of the most beautiful beings that it had been my lot to behold.
Her eyes were dark, almost the purplish blue of a pansy, and her hair
had a darker tinge than is common in Mizora, as if it had stolen the
golden edge of a ripe chestnut. Her beauty was a constant charm to me.
The National College contained a large and well filled gallery. Its
pictures and statuary were varied, not confined to historical portraits
and busts as was the one at the College of Experimental Science. Yet it
possessed a number of portraits of women exclusively of the blonde type.
Many of them were ideal in loveliness. This gallery also contained the
masterpieces of their most celebrated sculptors. They were all studies
of the female form. I am a connoisseur in art, and nothing that I had
ever seen before could compare with these matchless marbles, bewitching
in every delicate contour, alluring in softness, but grand and majestic
in pose and expression.
But I haunted this gallery for other reasons than its artistic
attractions. I was searching for the portrait of a man, or something
suggesting his presence. I searched in vain. Many of the paintings were
on a peculiar transparent substance that gave to the subject a
startlingly vivid effect. I afterward learned that they were
imperishable, the material being a translucent adamant of their own
manufacture. After a picture was painted upon it, another piece of
adamant was cemented over it.
Each day, as my acquaintance with the peculiar institutions and
character of the inhabitants of Mizora increased, my perplexity and a
certain air of mystery about them increased with it. It was impossible
for me not to feel for them a high degree of respect, admiration, and
affection. They were ever gentle, tender, and kind to solicitude. To
accuse them of mystery were a paradox; and yet they _were_ a mystery. In
conversation, manners and habits, they were frank to singularity. It was
just as common an occurrence for a poem to be read and commented on by
its author, as to hear it done by another. I have heard a poetess call
attention to the beauties of her own production, and receive praise or
adverse criticism with the same charming urbanity.
Ambition of the most intense earnestness was a natural characteristic,
but was guided by a stern and inflexible justice. Envy and malice were
unknown to them. It was, doubtless, owing to their elevated moral
character that courts and legal proceedings had become unnecessary. If a
discussion arose between parties involving a question of law, they
repaired to the Public Library, where the statute books were kept, and
looked up the matter themselves, and settled it as the law directed.
Should they fail to interpret the law alike, a third party was selected
as referee, but accepted no pay.
Indolence was as much a disgrace to them as is the lack of virtue to the
women of my country, hence every citizen, no matter how wealthy, had
some regular trade, business or profession. I found those occupations we
are accustomed to see accepted by the people of inferior birth and
breeding, were there filled by women of the highest social rank, refined
in manner and frequently of notable intellectual acquirements. It grew,
or was the result of the custom of selecting whatever vocation they felt
themselves competent to most worthily fill, and as no social favor or
ignominy rested on any kind of labor, the whole community of Mizora was
one immense family of sisters who knew no distinction of birth or
position among themselves.
There were no paupers and no charities, either public or private, to be
found in the country. The absence of poverty such as I knew existed in
all civilized nations upon the face of the earth, was largely owing to
the cheapness of food. But there was one other consideration that bore
vitally upon it. The dignity and necessity of labor was early and
diligently impressed upon the mind. The Preceptress said to me:
"Mizora is a land of industry. Nature has taught us the duty of work.
Had some of us been born with minds fully matured, or did knowledge come
to some as old age comes to all, we might think that a portion was
intended to live without effort. But we are all born equal, and labor is
assigned to all; and the one who seeks labor is wiser than the one who
lets labor seek her."
Citizens, I learned, were not restrained from accumulating vast wealth
had they the desire and ability to do so, but custom imposed upon them
the most honorable processes. If a citizen should be found guilty of
questionable business transactions, she suffered banishment to a lonely
island and the confiscation of her entire estate, both hereditary and
acquired. The property confiscated went to the public schools in the
town or city where she resided; but never was permitted to augment
salaries. I discovered this in the statute books, but not in the memory
of any one living had it been found necessary to inflict such a
punishment.
"Our laws," said Wauna, "are simply established legal advice. No law can
be so constructed as to fit every case so exactly that a criminal mind
could not warp it into a dishonest use. But in a country like ours,
where civilization has reached that state of enlightenment that needs no
laws, we are simply guided by custom."
The love of splendor and ornament was a pronounced characteristic of
these strange people. But where gorgeous colors were used, they were
always of rich quality. The humblest homes were exquisitely ornamented,
and often displayed a luxury that, with us, would have been considered
an evidence of wealth.
They took the greatest delight in their beauty, and were exceedingly
careful of it. A lovely face and delicate complexion, they averred,
added to one's refinement. The art of applying an artificial bloom and
fairness to the skin, which I had often seen practiced in my own
country, appeared to be unknown to them. But everything savoring of
deception was universally condemned. They made no concealment of the
practice they resorted to for preserving their complexions, and so
universal and effectual were they, that women who, I was informed, had
passed the age allotted to the grandmothers in my country, had the
smooth brow and pink bloom of cheek that belongs to a more youthful
period of life. There was, however, a distinction between youth and old
age. The hair was permitted to whiten, but the delicate complexion of
old age, with its exquisite coloring, excited in my mind as much
admiration as astonishment.
I cannot explain why I hesitated to press my first inquiry as to where
the men were. I had put the question to Wauna one day, but she professed
never to have heard of such beings. It silenced me--for a time.
"Perhaps it is some extinct animal," she added, naively. "We have so
many new things to study and investigate, that we pay but little
attention to ancient history."
I bided my time and put the query in another form.
"Where is your other parent?"
She regarded me with innocent surprise. "You talk strangely. I have but
one parent. How could I have any more?"
"You ought to have two."
She laughed merrily. "You have a queer way of jesting. I have but one
mother, one adorable mother. How could I have two?" and she laughed
again.
I saw that there was some mystery I could not unravel at present, and
fearing to involve myself in some trouble, refrained from further
questioning on the subject. I nevertheless kept a close observance of
all that passed, and seized every opportunity to investigate a mystery
that began to harass me with its strangeness.
Soon after my conversation with Wauna, I attended an entertainment at
which a great number of guests were present. It was a literary festival
and, after the intellectual delicacies were disposed of, a banquet
followed of more than royal munificence. Toasts were drank, succeeded by
music and dancing and all the gayeties of a festive occasion, yet none
but the fairest of fair women graced the scene. Is it strange,
therefore, that I should have regarded with increasing astonishment and
uneasiness a country in all respects alluring to the desires of man--yet
found him not there in lordly possession?
Beauty and intellect, wealth and industry, splendor and careful economy,
natures lofty and generous, gentle and loving--why has not Man claimed
this for himself?