The third day after his drive with his friend Skindeep, Popanilla was
waited upon by the most eminent bookseller in Hubbabub, who begged to
have the honour of introducing to the public a Narrative of Captain
Popanilla’s Voyage. This gentleman assured Popanilla that the
Vraibleusian public were nervously alive to anything connected with
discovery; that so ardent was their attachment to science and natural
philosophy that voyages and travels were sure to be read with eagerness,
particularly if they had coloured plates. Popanilla was charmed with the
proposition, but blushingly informed the mercantile Maecenas that he did
not know how to write. The publisher told him that this circumstance was
not of the slightest importance; that he had never for a moment supposed
that so sublime a savage could possess such a vulgar accomplishment;
and that it was by no means difficult for a man to publish his travels
without writing a line of them.
Popanilla having consented to become an author upon these terms,
the publisher asked him to dine with him, and introduced him to an
intelligent individual. This intelligent individual listened attentively
to all Popanilla’s adventures. The Captain concealed nothing. He began
with the eternal lock of hair, and showed how wonderfully this world was
constituted, that even the loss of a thing was not useless; from which
it was clear that Utility was Providence. After drinking some capital
wine, the intelligent individual told Popanilla that he was wrong in
supposing Fantaisie to be an island; that, on the contrary, it was a
great continent; that this was proved by the probable action of the
tides in the part of the island which had not yet been visited; that the
consequence of these tides would be that, in the course of a season
or two, Fantaisie would become a great receptacle for icebergs, and be
turned into the North Pole; that, therefore, the seasons throughout the
world would be changed; that this year, in Vraibleusia, the usual winter
would be omitted, and that when the present summer was finished the
dog-days would again commence. Popanilla took his leave highly delighted
with this intelligent individual and with the bookseller’s wine.
Owing to the competition which existed between the publishers, the
printers, and the engravers of the city of Hubbabub, and the great
exertions of the intelligent individual, the Narrative of Captain
Popanilla’s Voyage was brought out in less than a week, and was
immediately in everybody’s hand. The work contained a detailed account
of everything which took place daring the whole of the three days, and
formed a quarto volume. The plates were numerous and highly interesting,
There was a line engraving of Alligator Mountain and a mezzotint of
Seaweed Island; a view of the canoe N.E.; a view of the canoe N.W.;
a view of the canoe S.E.; a view of the canoe S.W. There were
highly-finished coloured drawings of the dried fish and the breadfruit,
and an exquisitely tinted representation of the latter in a mouldy
state. But the chef-d’oeuvre was the portrait of the Author himself. He
was represented trampling on the body of a boa constrictor of the first
quality, in the skin of which he was dressed; at his back were his bow
and arrows; his right hand rested on an uprooted pine-tree; he stood in
a desert between two volcanoes; at his feet was a lake of magnitude;
the distance lowered with an approaching tornado; but a lucky flash of
lightning revealed the range of the Andes and both oceans. Altogether he
looked the most dandified of savages, and the most savage of dandies. It
was a sublime lithograph, and produced scarcely less important effects
upon Popanilla’s fortune than that lucky ‘lock of hair;’ for no sooner
was the portrait published than Popanilla received a ticket for the
receptions of a lady of quality. On showing it to Skindeep, he was told
that the honour was immense, and therefore he must go by all means.
Skindeep regretted that he could not accompany him, but he was engaged
to a lecture on shoemaking; and a lecture was a thing he made it a point
never to miss, because, as he very properly observed, ‘By lectures you
may become extremely well informed without any of the inconveniences of
study. No fixity of attention, no continuity of meditation, no habits
of reflection, no aptitude of combination, are the least requisite; all
which things only give you a nervous headache; and yet you gain all the
results of all these processes. True it is that that which is so easily
acquired is not always so easily remembered; but what of that? Suppose
you forget any subject, why then you go to another lecture.’ ‘Very
true!’ said Popanilla.
Popanilla failed not to remember his invitation from Lady Spirituelle;
and at the proper hour his announcement produced a sensation throughout
her crowded saloons.
Spirituelle was a most enchanting lady; she asked Popanilla how tall he
really was, and whether the women in Fantaisie were as handsome as the
men. Then she said that the Vraibleusians were the most intellectual
and the most scientific nation in the world, and that the society at her
house was the most intellectual and the most scientific in Vraibleusia.
She told him also that she had hoped by this season the world would have
been completely regulated by mind; but that the subversion of matter was
a more substantial business than she and the Committee of Management
had imagined: she had no doubt, however, that in a short time mind must
carry the day, because matter was mortal and mind eternal; therefore
mind had the best chance. Finally, she also told him that the passions
were the occasion of all the misery which had ever existed; and that
it was impossible for mankind either to be happy or great until, like
herself and her friends, they were ‘all soul.’
Popanilla was charmed with his company. What a difference between the
calm, smiling, easy, uninteresting, stupid, sunset countenances
of Fantaisie and those around him. All looked so interested and so
intelligent; their eyes were so anxious, their gestures so animated,
their manners so earnest. They must be very clever! He drew nearer.
If before he were charmed, now he was enchanted. What an universal
acquisition of useful knowledge! Three or four dukes were earnestly
imbibing a new theory of gas from a brilliant little gentleman in black,
who looked like a Will-o’-the-wisp. The Prime Minister was anxious
about pin-making; a Bishop equally interested in a dissertation on
the escapements of watches; a Field-Marshal not less intent on a new
specific from the concentrated essence of hellebore. But what most
delighted Popanilla was hearing a lecture from the most eminent lawyer
and statesman in Vraibleusia on his first and favourite study of
hydrostatics. His associations quite overcame him: all Fantaisie rushed
upon his memory, and he was obliged to retire to a less frequented part
of the room to relieve his too excited feelings.
He was in a few minutes addressed by the identical little gentleman who
had recently been speculating with the three dukes.
The little gentleman told him that he had heard with great pleasure that
in Fantaisie they had no historians, poets, or novelists. He proved to
Popanilla that no such thing as experience existed; that, as the world
was now to be regulated on quite different principles from those by
which it had hitherto been conducted, similar events to those which had
occurred could never again take place; and therefore it was absolutely
useless to know anything about the past. With regard to literary
fiction, he explained that, as it was absolutely necessary, from his
nature, that man should experience a certain quantity of excitement, the
false interest which these productions created prevented their readers
from obtaining this excitement by methods which, by the discovery of the
useful, might greatly benefit society.
‘You are of opinion, then,’ exclaimed the delighted Popanilla, ‘that
nothing is good which is not useful?’
‘Is it possible that an individual exists in this world who doubts this
great first principle?’ said the little man, with great animation.
‘Ah, my dear friend!’ said Popanilla, ‘if you only knew what an avowal
of this great first principle has cost me; what I have suffered; what I
have lost!’
‘What have you lost?’ asked the little gentleman.
‘In the first place, a lock of hair--’
‘Poh, nonsense!’
‘Ah! you may say Poh! but it was a particular lock of hair.’
‘My friend, that word is odious. Nothing is particular, everything is
general. Rules are general, feelings are general, and property should be
general; and, sir, I tell you what, in a very short time it must be
so. Why should Lady Spirituelle, for instance, receive me at her house,
rather than I receive her at mine?’
‘Why don’t you, then?’ asked the simple Popanilla.
‘Because I have not got one, sir!’ roared the little gentleman.
He would certainly have broken away had not Popanilla begged him to
answer one question. The Captain, reiterating in the most solemn manner
his firm belief in the dogma that nothing was good which was not useful,
and again detailing the persecutions which this conviction had brought
upon him, was delighted that an opportunity was now afforded to gain
from the lips of a distinguished philosopher a definition of what
utility really was. The distinguished philosopher could not refuse so
trifling a favour.
‘Utility,’ said he, ‘is--’
At this critical moment there was a universal buzz throughout the rooms,
and everybody looked so interested that the philosopher quite forgot
to finish his answer. On inquiring the cause of this great sensation,
Popanilla was informed that a rumour was about that a new element
had been discovered that afternoon. The party speedily broke up, the
principal philosophers immediately rushing to their clubs to ascertain
the truth of this report. Popanilla was unfashionable enough to make
his acknowledgments to his hostess before he left her house. As he
gazed upon her ladyship’s brilliant eyes and radiant complexion, he
felt convinced of the truth of her theory of the passions; he could not
refrain from pressing her hand in a manner which violated etiquette, and
which a nativity in the Indian Ocean could alone excuse; the pressure
was graciously returned. As Popanilla descended the staircase, he
discovered a little note of pink satin paper entangled in his ruffle.
He opened it with curiosity. It was ‘All soul.’ He did not return to his
hotel quite so soon as he expected.