Beautiful Saturn.
A delightfully busy world next met my gaze. Saturn, supreme in love,
with its mysterious rings and its eight moons, now held my attention and
won my admiration.
This world is almost as large as Jupiter, and its soil is more fertile.
The inhabitants resemble us in physical appearance, except that they are
twice our size.
Like Jupiter, it is enveloped in thick semi-liquid clouds which are
never at rest. This changing atmosphere causes continual friction of
particles, and this serves to produce sufficient heat to counteract the
frigid blasts that would otherwise freeze out the whole planet. These
atmospheric conditions attracted my attention to a great degree. I
estimated as best I could, and ascertained that Saturn receives as much
heat from this peculiar atmosphere as our Earth receives from the Sun.
As I found it on Jupiter, so I found it here. The human eye is so
constructed that it seems to have more than an X-ray power, for it can
look through this atmosphere as readily as we can peer through ours.
The air of Saturn, being so thick, contains much natural nourishment,
and the inhabitants are sustained largely by breathing. This reminded me
of the manner in which our fish flourish in the waters of our globe.
Marvelous indeed are the possibilities of life. I now had before me new
problems to solve, for natural laws have but a limited expression in our
own world. Here science puts on new garments, but they are all cut in
harmony with universal laws.
Woman is the ruling genius of this planet. Being untrammeled for a few
thousand years, she has attained a higher glory than her sex has reached
in any world of our Solar System.
As you scan the honor rolls of Saturn, reading the list of the eminent
leaders in science, art and philosophy, you will readily observe that
woman has forged to the front. She also sits upon the principal thrones
of temporal power.
Woman's beauty on Saturn is surpassing. It reaches a higher degree of
perfection than any of the myriad types of beauty on this enchanting
world. When I first opened my eyes on these scenes, I imagined that I
had reached Heaven, but, to my chagrin, I soon found the black marks of
sin that stain the whole planet.
The illustrious inventors of Saturn, living and dead, make a long list,
which is headed by the name of Veorda, a woman of marvelous intellect.
She looked into the mysteries of nature with a shrewd, wizard eye, but,
unfortunately, lost her life early in a bold experiment with explosives.
However, before she reached her much-lamented end, she had won enough
honor to outshine all inventors in the whole history of Saturn.
She was the sole inventor of all explosives, and she had learned how to
operate them without making any noise or smoke. This proved a valuable
aid to factories and quarries, and particularly in the handling of fire
arms, of which Saturn has a very strange collection.
Before Veorda was born the flying machine had been invented and used.
But aerial travel was soon abandoned owing to some terrible accidents
that had occurred. During the earlier part of her career Veorda labored
assiduously until she overcame a few difficulties and thereby perfected
the flying machine.
[Illustration: An Air Ship on Saturn.]
It was a day of international rejoicing when her perfected machine
sailed over the governments of Saturn. The invention stood every test
and at once air traffic was resumed and maintained. When this woman died
the governments erected to her memory the finest and costliest monument
that now stands on the whole world of Saturn. Of course, I went to see
it. As I stood studying the poetry of the pillars, I looked overhead and
saw one of the immense aerial ships carrying a pleasure party to a
distant point. I cannot describe my feelings as I lingered in the
presence of the sleeping dust and saw the imperishable influence of her
thoughts still working for her, in a carnal sense, "a more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory."
Yet with all this homage paid to Veorda, I cannot believe that she is
more illustrious than the present living wizard of our world, the
notable Edison.
Veorda lived and died a devoted worshipper of "The Great Influence," or
God, and it is delightful to think that we shall associate with such
great minds in our eternal abode in that Broader Life where the pure of
all spheres gather. Will I do wrong if I quote that sublime beatitude,
making it applicable to all worlds? "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God."
The written language of Saturn resembles the Chinese character language,
only it is much more smooth and more complete.
The Shakespeare of that planet is a woman called Ziek-dod who has been
dead twelve hundred years. Her writings have been quoted and esteemed as
masterpieces all through these ages. Her style is singular, resembling
the proverbs of Solomon, with a little more ornament in the language.
As to the subject matter, her epigrammatic sentences are grouped and
classified with an accuracy that is both pleasing and popular. At
intervals the reader is treated with a sprinkling of alliterative
sentences.
Ziek-dod shines as an eternal star among the great names of her world.
Like Veorda, she was pure-hearted and possessed fine moral and spiritual
qualities. She passed out into that Broader Life where language is
sweeter and thoughts are more holy.
In music I noticed the most radical departures. The popular home
instrument is larger than our organ and has nearly one hundred keys
arranged somewhat like the keyboard of a typewriter.
These keys and their combinations are capable of rendering sounds to
correspond with every syllable found in their words. A proper
familiarity with these sounds is a part of every child's training on
Saturn.
When one plays on this instrument every sound struck on the keys
represents a certain vowel-consonant sound. Thus the listener hears the
sounds more distinctly than we hear the words of a phonograph.
Under such conditions a musician is capable of interpreting his exact
feelings when manipulating the keys. He talks to his listeners with
organ sounds. The great poet musicians can breathe out their
inspirations in rapturous melodies. On special occasions famous
musicians are employed to render original selections. Addresses and
lectures are also given in this manner with very pleasing results.
The Saturnites know nothing of the Telephone, Telegraph, or Phonograph.
But for carrying messages they have a signal system by which
intelligence is flashed from one point to another with great rapidity.
Saturn has eight moons and is surrounded with the rings which have made
it famous from the time the planet was first seen through the telescope.
These rings and moons are inhabited by a type of human beings altogether
different from those that live on the planet, and are distinctly visible
to the dwellers of Saturn by means of powerful telescopes.
The human beings on the rings are not able to watch their neighbors in
space, having no instruments to carry their vision beyond the
boundaries of their own peculiar abodes.
The most picturesque sight of all the Solar System is seen as you stand
on Saturn, and watch the rings and the eight moons chasing one another
in the heavens above you.
The inhabitants of this beautiful world believe that the soul of each
God-adorer at death passes out into the spirit life on the rings where
it will continue in a blissful existence until the final judgment.
The religious life of Saturn is officially controlled by men. There are
many creeds, each with its own devoted followers. The leading church of
this world was not organized until seven thousand years after religious
life took a distinctive form. Then a man named Trique, who was a shrewd
student of the times, after a careful study of the weaknesses found in
existing religious bodies, and after amassing enormous wealth in
business, founded a new church on a neat, practical business plan which
may thus be briefly described in terms and figures of our own language.
Trique had a fortune of two hundred millions which, by investment,
netted him twenty millions annually. These net earnings he used to
establish his new denomination. He commenced operations simultaneously
at the capitol of each of the four governments of Saturn, and at each
place built two magnificent churches, costing one million dollars
apiece. It took over three years of our time to build these eight
churches. Before one year had expired he had started fifty other
churches in the centers of Saturn's population. These churches averaged
in cost three hundred thousand dollars each. Thus the plan continued,
ever starting new structures until all Saturn was decorated with the
churches of Trique, even village edifices costing from ten to
twenty-five thousand dollars. So much for the mere outward part of the
church which anybody might create if he had recourse to such enormous
wealth.
Before Trique commenced any one of his buildings, he canvassed the whole
community for charter members of his church. These were composed of two
classes, spiritual and connected. This canvassing was done by the
finest scholars that Trique could employ. Each one was supposed to be
the pastor of the community he canvassed. The conditions of the charter
membership were easy to meet. All that was required for connected
membership was a good moral life and a lip confession of the faith.
On account of the superior advantages offered by the Trique church it
grew steadily from the beginning. I will here append a few
characteristics of the organization:
1. The church takes care of all its members during sickness, furnishing
a physician and all necessary medicines free of charge. The church owns
drug stores and graduates its own physicians.
2. The church has its own salaried undertakers, and defrays all funeral
expenses.
3. The church supplies a moral and spiritual education to all the
children of its members. This school does a work similar to our
Sunday-school, only it is held daily and is under a trained corps of
paid teachers.
For all these advantages each member is required to give to the church
one-eleventh of his earnings and to attend the services of the church
and co-operate with the pastor in the advancement of all spiritual work.
The church keeps a perpetual record of the attendance and the work done
by each member.
It required a man of large business capacity to launch such a church
with its radically new principles. But Trique's immense wealth was a
powerful force when utilized in this manner. He made every church a
strong business center commanding the respect of the whole community.
Discipline was rigidly enforced. No member cared to be expelled from
such a church. It meant a going out from under a warm cover at the
approach of winter.
Fortunately, Trique was a clean, spiritual man and strongly urged a
spiritual ministry and membership.
It can be seen why this church grew so rapidly. In fifty years it became
so powerful that it could control, if it wished, the legislation in
nearly all the sections of the planet.
I have given but a brief picture of this ruling church. It must suffice.
I may add that one must not imagine the church services and forms in
Saturn to be like our worship. All things are so different that it would
take much space and time to describe them.
For beauty of natural scenery, Saturn surpasses all the Solar System.
Its air is of a different composition from ours, and its sky puts on
various tints as the day passes, which is a little over ten hours of our
time, but it takes nearly thirty of our years to make one on Saturn.
The immense mountain ranges present a picture of unusual beauty. The
leaves of trees are rich in velvety varieties and the undergrowth
appears as if trimmed by skilled hands. This is a desirable place to
live. But I learned that the inhabitants of Saturn do not appreciate all
this wealth of beauty, in its atmosphere or on its earth, a whit more
than the people of our world appreciate the sin cursed scenery which
greets their eyes.