A subsequent conversation I had with Principal Grey also struck me as so
noteworthy that I jotted the particulars of it down without delay, for
the benefit of possible future English readers.
I had observed that although there were plenty of people dressed with
distinctive badges and colours, whose function it was to preserve order
and regulate the traffic, as the policemen do with us, I saw none whom I
could assume to be soldiers, and made enquiries on the subject. I was
told that standing armies were seldom maintained now, as it was no
longer the custom of nations to decimate each other by public slaughter,
but to trust to a system of international arbitration in the event of
quarrels arising.
Nevertheless, as New Amazonia was a temptingly wealthy State, thanks to
its perfect financial organisation, there was a possibility of invasion,
and great care had been lavished upon its fortifications, which, when
manned, or womaned, with trained warriors, were all but impregnable.
“Then,” I said, “you do possess a trained army, after all?”
“In one sense, yes. But not in the sense you mean. We are all trained to
fight, and there is not a woman or man in the country who does not
thoroughly understand military discipline. Our training begins in
infancy, and includes riding, shooting, swimming, diving, ballooning,
and every possible military exercise. In time of war we should all
receive remuneration commensurate with what we realise by the aid of our
ordinary avocations, _plus_ an additional third. Our discipline is
severe, but we glory in it, and all New Amazonia could be ready for
action within an hour. A few foolhardy attempts to vanquish us have been
made, but our foes suffered so severely that we are scarcely likely to
be molested again. Still, our vigilance is never relaxed, and our cordon
of sentries is so perfect and efficient, that not even one stranger can
intrude here without being speedily discovered. These sentries perform a
double duty, for they effectually prevent all attempts to either import
or export any goods that have not yielded their due proportion of profit
to the Mother.”
“Then New Amazonians cannot claim exemption from the temptation to
smuggle?”
“No, and yes. Such attempts used to be frequent in bygone days, but the
punishment for smuggling is so severe, and immunity from detection so
problematical, that the vice is almost stamped out.”
“And what is the punishment meted to offenders in this direction?”
“Foreigners are publicly whipped and expelled, _minus_ their goods. New
Amazonians are deprived of civil rights and relegated to inferior
duties.”
“Bad enough,” I soliloquised. “And, now, there is another thing which
puzzles me somewhat. What with war, seafaring, and a thousand accidents
to which men are more exposed than women, so many male lives are lost in
my country, that the feminine element predominates everywhere, just as
it seems to have done in Teuto-Scotland, when the project of
re-colonising Ireland was first mooted. Is there a tendency in this
direction with you now? And, if so, do you take steps to counteract it?”
“We have devoted much thought to the subject; and have come to the
conclusion that even where all the causes of masculine extinction which
you have named are absent, then is still a tendency for women to
outnumber men. This is easily accounted for. Very few children die with
us in infancy, but it is a fact that boys succumb more easily to
infantile disorders than girls. We desire to preserve an equality of the
sexes, nevertheless, and perfect physiological knowledge enables us to
solve this problem, as we have done many others which the Ancients
deemed unsolvable.”
“I notice that all your people are magnificently formed, but you must be
subject to certain ailments. Toothache, for instance, which is a perfect
scourge with us.”
“That is a phenomenon to which we are here quite strange, I am glad to
say. We would as soon expect our skulls to become diseased, as to see
our teeth decay. We know the exact chemical constituents of bone, and
are careful to supply the constitution with perfect bone-forming food.
We also avoid everything that has been proved to be an injurious article
of diet.”
“But individual temptation must sometimes break through this rule of
abstinence?”
“It cannot. No sooner is anything condemned by the Mother, than its
importation or manufacture is strictly forbidden, and that particular
article is soon unobtainable in the country.”
“I suppose malformed or crippled children are occasionally brought into
the world, even here. What becomes of them?”
“They are at once sent to spend their term of probation in less material
spheres.”
“Now, in relation to love matters. With which sex rests the onus of
proposing marriage?”
“With either sex, of course I do not see how it could be otherwise.”
“It is very much otherwise with us. A woman may be dying for love, but
she is not supposed to betray the fact to anyone, until the object of
her desires intimates that he has set his affections upon her.”
“But suppose that he intimates no such thing? Do you mean to say that
she is not even then to express her preference?”
“Then less than ever! The object of her affections would not think her
worth having if she were won too easily, even if he wanted her. If he
did not want her, he would most probably sneer about her love-lorn
condition to all his acquaintances, and they would be highly amused at
her unwomanliness in presuming to love before she had been asked.”
“Well, I do not envy you your social institutions! It seems to me that
your men must be insufferable cads, and your women nothing less than
fools. Why do they permit such an anomalous state of things? Can they
not see that this is only another of the countless meshes with which
masculine egotism has woven the net of slavery and oppression? The man
who can look upon a true woman’s love for himself with anything but
respect and grateful sympathy is nothing better than a cur, who is
himself unworthy of the esteem of all honourable people.”
The Principal spoke with considerable warmth, and I was so struck with
the force of her remarks, that I promised to lay her views before my own
countrywomen at no distant date. I had, however, not much confidence in
the efficacy of any appeal I might make to womanly pride, seeing that so
little has yet been done in England to induce women to think and act for
themselves, and to endeavour to break through the multitude of social
barriers which have been erected by man’s selfishness, tyranny, and
arrogance. Still, it has often happened that the absurdity of a custom
has only needed to be demonstrated in black and white for its doom to be
sealed, and I introduce this subject to the notice of my countrywomen,
in the hope that it may induce some of them to bestow a little more
thought upon the anomalies of their position, and use their best
endeavours to remove at least some of the partially self-created
disabilities they suffer from.
By way of diverting the Principal’s attention from a subject which
aroused both her anger and contempt, I remarked upon the delightful
purity of the atmosphere here, and opined that infectious diseases could
not be very prevalent.
“We have heard of such evils,” was the reply, “but science and common
sense united have combated them effectually. Two of our finest statues
are in honour of a couple of scientists who must be ranked amongst the
most famous benefactors of their kind who have ever lived. I allude to
Koch and Pasteur, whose discoveries inaugurated a happy era of immunity
from disorders which once killed thousands of human beings annually.
Unfortunately for their contemporaries, the world at large looked upon
their discoveries as only interesting from the scientists’ point of
view, failing to recognise the fact that a gigantic revolution in
medicine was impending. In some of our archives mention is made of a Dr.
Austin Flint, who asserted that such a revolution was not far off. But
his utterances fell on ears that were mostly deaf or unheeding. And yet,
to the discovery and study of bacteria the most incalculable benefits to
the human race are to be attributed. So perfect has the knowledge on
this subject now become, that the cause of every infectious disease is
well known. They are all easily preventible, but where, through possible
slight relaxation of watchfulness, they may break out, they are so
easily curable as to cause no alarm. It is, however, many years since a
case of infectious disease occurred in New Amazonia. Science has
succeeded in affording us absolute protection against scarlet fever,
measles, yellow fever, cholera, whooping cough, and many other dreadful
ailments which formerly decimated nations.”
Naturally, I was very much interested in all these statements, and our
conversation branched into various departments of the curative art. I
was considerably amused by Principal Grey’s information relative to the
Dietetic Hospital, as fine a building as any I had yet noticed in
Andersonia.
The patients in this hospital were nearly all people in physical health,
and they pursued their ordinary daily avocations with a cheerfulness
which I had never before observed in an institution patronised solely
for its curative properties. The Dietists, as they were called, resorted
to this hospital in search of cures for mental and moral failings, and
implicitly obeyed the specialists who sought to effect their cure by
means of a wise and judicious selection of food.
Thus the violent tempered found their nature considerably modified and
sweetened, after being for a few months subjected to a daily diet in
which a peculiarly prepared carrot-soup was the _pièce de résistance_.
Nervous disorders were very few here, but the slightest suspicion of a
tendency to be nervous or fidgety was provocative of a temporary flight
to the hospital, which, owing to the speed and cheapness of the
water-cars, was easily accessible to every denizen of the island. Green
peas and scarlet runners were prohibited to those whose natural
tendencies ran in a choleric direction, since they were held to be
provocative of violent temper.
On the other hand, dried peas and lentils were high in favour, as they
were said to impart good humour. The fat and frivolous were dieted
partially on turnips, in order to curtail their physical tendency to
ponderosity, and their mental leaning towards superabundance of spirits.
To cabbage a thousand virtues were ascribed, and the idea that the
consumption of animal food produced coarseness of mind and body was
responsible in great measure for the disgust with which the foreign
habit of flesh-eating was regarded.
Knowing what I now did of the peculiar religious beliefs of New
Amazonians, I could easily conceive that the most scrupulous attention
would be paid to dietetic and sanitary matters, since a healthy body was
supposed to facilitate the perfecting of the spirit, and its final
glorification.
The importance attached to diet and sanitation reminded me forcibly of
the old Mosaic laws, and I enquired if great importance was attached to
the Testamentary records of Ancient History handed down to us in the
Bible.
“Certainly,” replied the Principal, very emphatically, “but we also heed
Herodotus and Josephus; and our greatest classical work on ancient
history has been compiled by twelve New Amazonian savants, who compared
all come-at-able records with such strict impartiality and absence of
special bias, that we flatter ourselves upon possessing the most
accurate and reliable records of ancient history extant.”
“But you surely reverence the Bible?”
“Yes, we reverence it, most assuredly. But where historical accuracy
seems to be slightly at fault, we are not above being instructed from
other sources.”
“Then what do you think of Moses as a historian, as a law-giver, and as
a general?”
“In all these respects we think that he was truly great. But, being
human, it was not impossible for him to adopt an erroneous opinion on a
given subject, or to commit a grave error of judgment. Many things for
which we can now find natural explanations must have seemed miraculous
in his days, and in no case do we believe that he placed anything on
record which he did not believe to be exactly as he described it. Still,
this does not prevent us from recognising some errors in his accounts of
the doings in former times. That he forsook the precincts of a Court, in
order to cast in his lot with his own downtrodden and oppressed people,
is proof sufficient of his innate nobility, and his fearless defence of
the ill-treated Israelitish labourers showed that he had also plenty of
the courage required in a great leader.”
“And what of David?”
“King David does not arouse my personal estimation. He attained to great
eminence, and founded a family which boasted as its scion Christ the
Martyr himself. He also wrote some beautiful poetry. But when it comes
to an analysis of private character, he does not shine greatly.
Naturally, however, the Jews, whose national prestige he increased so
materially, think very highly of him. Upon the whole, we prefer the New
Testament to the Old, for the sake of its beautiful moral teachings, as
well as for its historical importance.”
“You do not adhere to all its commandments?”
“No, it would be ill for us if we did. Never to speak in an assembly; to
be compelled to carry a great weight of hair about with us; to be
subservient to men in all things, and to foster woman’s disabilities and
man’s arrogance, to the extent preached by some of the Apostles, is
repugnant to the common sense of every woman who is able to think for
herself. But when we come across anything that is offensive to our
self-respect, we make due allowances for the egotism of man and the
customs of the times. We also remember that Jesus always showed Himself
to be woman’s true friend and associate; in fact, Jesus is the one pure
and shining light which the world has produced, of whom it can truly be
said that He was free from all trace of egotism, bigotry, and arrogance.
His every word and action bespoke the possession of that Divine charity
which thinketh no evil. No wonder that even yet He is by many regarded
as God himself. Surely His spirit would pass to eternal glory without
any of the probation which we expect to endure before we reach the
perfection which shall entitle us to dwell in the uttermost realms of
bliss.”
“And yet there must be many beautiful natures in so happy a land as
this.”
“I grant it. But the nature that can avoid sullying the soul with
wrongdoing in these enlightened days cannot compare with the purity and
goodness of a soul which walked unstained through life in the days of
bigotry, superstition, and ignorance.”
“That is true. But if we accept this opinion, we must also accept its
natural correlative, and consider that the sinner of to-day is more
blameworthy than those who sinned when to be good was not so easy as it
is now.”
“Few will dispute that point with you. But it becomes necessary for me
to remind you now that unpunctuality, and neglect of duty, are grave
sins with us. You will, therefore, excuse me for a time, since it
becomes necessary for me to address the students in a few minutes from
now.”
I felt rebuked for my presumption in encroaching so much upon the
Principal’s time. But she was so very good-natured, and so exceedingly
willing to gratify my curiosity, that I was tempted to trespass upon her
indulgence, being urged thereto by a sense of unreality, and a
conviction that my stay in New Amazonia would terminate as suddenly and
as mysteriously as it had begun. It was natural, therefore, that I
should wish to post myself up in all the information obtainable during
my sojourn here.