Captain Adam Seaborn

“ Commerce is practised only for the common convenience of society. The accumulation of wealth, and indulgence in luxury, being disreputable, and a bar to admission to the distinguished orders, an overreaching and avaricious spirit is not generated by traffic, as in the external world, but every operation of trade and transfer is performed on the most reasonable terms, which will enable him who performs it to live upon an equality with his fellow-men. ”

“ Three or four thousand years had now passed away, and doubts were entertained whether this were matter of genuine history, or an ingenious allegory, intended to present to the people a glowing picture of the evils which might follow a gross departure from purity of life and rectitude of principle. There were very few who could conceive it possible that human nature had ever sank to such extreme depravity, and that so great a proportion of mankind had been enslaved by evil passions, as to render the wicked the most numerous. ”

“ Finding that the longer we conversed on the habits, manners, and sentiments of the externals, the lower they would sink in the estimation of this truly enlightened man, I endeavoured to turn the discourse to our acquisitions in useful knowledge, in full confidence that on this subject I should have a decided advantage, and be able to raise the people of the external world to a high place in his consideration. ”

“ I then proceeded to account for the equable heat in the internal world, and the extreme cold at the icy hoop, upon principles which appeared to me to be very obvious.
In the first place, the sun’s direct influence is exerted, on an equal portion of the globe at all times; which influence is felt, on the external surface, only where it is directly exerted. In such places it is felt intensely, but from the free action of the external atmosphere, so soon as that influence is withdrawn the heat escapes and flies off rapidly, generating cold in its passage, or by evaporation as we express it. ”

“ It is the duty of the worthies to notice the conduct of the people in their respective districts, to aid the feeble and distressed; [122] if any such be found, to encourage the wavering, and reward the meritorious. Whenever any one of them discovers a man of retired but useful life, active but unobtrusive benevolence, extensive usefulness, with that modest shunning of the public exhibition of his doings which is necessary to possess the public in his favour, it becomes the duty of the Worthy to name him to the Grand Council, as a man of modest and exemplary merit ”

“ Their parterres are not designed for the idle gratification of the eye, but to support innumerable swarms of honey making insects; the Symzonians being as fond of the sweet which nature has provided as the Externals are of that which is wrung from the bloody sweat of slavery.
Symmetry in form, and elegance in arrangement, are much attended to by this people; they do not attempt to surpass nature in the creation of beauties, but endeavour to heighten the enjoyment of what is placed before them, and make a right use of whatever they possess. ”

“ This tax is so light that nothing but a criminal want of industry or frugality can hinder any one from paying it.
The whole revenue of government requires no more than one or two days labour of each man per annum; and as the government exists for the sole purpose of preserving the freedom of the citizens, in the pursuit of happiness, and in the enjoyment of all those privileges and immunities which are compatible with the well-being of society, all are equally indebted for its benefits. ”

“ How will you justify yourself to the world, to our families, or to your own conscience, if we should, after effecting a passage through this ‘icy hoop’ you speak of, find it closed against our return, and be thus forever lost to our wives, our children, and society? ”

“ The Author returns to the Explorer—Holds a council of officers—Determines to return to Seaborn’s Land—Takes leave of Surui—Sails from Symzonia—Touches at Token Island—Arrives at Boneto’s station.
I returned to my ship, with sensations very different from those which delighted my heart on my passage from it. I felt like a culprit exiled to Botany Bay for his crimes: so strong was the contrast between the peaceful, intelligent, and virtuous people, from amongst whom I was driven, and the turbulent, rude, and corrupt externals, with whom I was doomed to pass the remainder of my days. ”

“ Surui assumed me, that the labour necessary to procure all the essential comforts and rational embellishments of life, in this fruitful country, and with the temperate habits of the people, required but a small proportion of the labour which could be performed; that there was abundant leisure for an annual assemblage of all the people, without any detriment to the business of society; and that every member of it enjoyed an abundance of the comforts of life, without excessive or constant labour. ”

“ A poet would not need a better type from which to describe the infernal lake provided for the wicked.
Happily we rode out the storm until nearly day-light, when the gale having abated, and there being every indication of more moderate weather, I went to my cabin to put on dry clothes, and left the deck in charge of Mr. Boneto, to whose watch Mr. Slim was now attached. I had not been long below when a violent shock, like that of a ship striking her side against a floating wreck, induced me to hasten back. ”

“ I therefore rigged my vessel as a ketch, with one large mast, and a long sliding topmast, which could be easily launched or sent up by the assistance of the engine; and a small mast abaft fitted to be struck at pleasure.
Having thus constructed a vessel which possessed the qualities most essential to my purpose, I finished the interior in such manner as I judged best calculated to render myself and people comfortable during the voyage. I took care to have one apartment large enough to contain all my crew. ”

“ What a delightful situation these islands offer, for a virtuous, enlightened, and industrious community! Nearly four hundred islands, one of which is some hundred of miles in extent, situated in the most temperate climate of the globe, where the air is always salubrious, heat never oppressive, cold never severe, the ground never frozen, and the heaviest snow of no more than two or three days duration on the ground; with a soil capable of affording, by cultivation, all the useful products of the temperate zone; a location convenient for the prosecution of the whale, seal, and other fisheries ”

“ I had great cause to admire the wonderful provision of nature, by which the internal world enjoyed almost perpetual light, without being subject at any time to the scorching heats which oppress the bodies and irritate the passions of the inhabitants of the external surface. ”

“ I compared my doings and my sensations with those of that swarm of sordid beings who waste their lives in Wall-street, or in the purlieus of the courts intent on gain, and scrambling for the wrecks of the property of their unfortunate fellow beings, or hiring out the efforts of their minds to perform such loathsome work as their employers would pay them for;—men who feel themselves ennobled by their wealth, or by their technical knowledge; who think themselves superior to the useful classes of society ”

“ That, from the evidence before him, it appeared that we were of a race who had either wholly fallen from virtue, or were at least very much under the influence of the worst passions of our nature; that a great proportion of the race were governed by an inveterate selfishness, that canker of the soul, which is wholly incompatible with ingenuous and affectionate good-will towards our fellow-beings; that we were given to the practice of injustice, violence, and oppression, even to such a degree as to maintain bodies of armed men, trained to destroy their fellow-creatures ”

“ Ross, saluted him by pulling their noses; and surely it is not surprising that men, inhabiting such different positions on this earth as the inside and outside of it, should differ so much as to consider that a compliment in the one place, which is deemed an insult in the other. Indeed it seemed to me a small thing, when I considered how widely the most enlightened of the externals differ in opinion upon the most simple propositions of religion, politics, and political economy. ”

“ I admitted that there was a race on the external world, inhabitants of some islands far to the north, who, from their vicinity to the place of exile, might be the descendants of the outcasts, but who, in my opinion, were more probably the descendants of the Belzubians, being a restless, turbulent people, much given to depredations upon the rights and property of others, of insatiable ambition, inordinate avarice, and excessive vanity; who made war their chief occupation, maintaining vast fleets and armies ”

“ Surui described the enjoyments of the season of the grand assemblage with the most enthusiastic expressions of delight.—None but the Good, the Wise, the Useful, none but the virtuous and benevolent, are then within the circuit of the district. The rarest gratifications of which the human mind is susceptible in intellectual intercourse, were then enjoyed without a sense of evil.
To me, who had been accustomed to see a great proportion of mankind constantly devoted to hard labour, or incessantly applying to business, to obtain a precarious subsistence ”

“ Before I had completed my work to my satisfaction, I received the agreeable intelligence, that the Best Man, supported by all the Good and most of the Useful of his council, had ordered the name of the Wise man who made the proposition, [180] to be erased from the list of Worthies, as a cruel monster, for seriously proposing the infliction, upon strangers who had voluntarily thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the country, of penalties enacted only to render the consequences of the return of the outcasts too frightful to be encountered by them. ”

“ There they continue in their vicious course, pursuing the gratification of their sensual appetites, and are punished with diseases of body which enervate their faculties, inordinate passions which torture their minds, and fierce desires which are incapable of being satisfied.—The influence of their gross appetites and of the climate, causes them to lose their fairness of complexion and beauty of form and feature. They become dark coloured, ill favoured, and mis-shapen men, not much superior to the brute creation. They retain, indeed, said Surui, some of the customs and manners of Symzonia ”

“ It was a matter of continual debate amongst them on the forecastle, where Slim and even Albicore sometimes took a part in those grave and learned disquisitions. In one of their conferences, Slim advanced the opinion, that, as the sun was now near its extreme southern declination, and we could see it but a small part of the time, we must be in some great hole in the earth; and that when the sun returned to the north, which would soon take place, we should for a certainty be involved in total darkness, and never be able to find our way out again. ”

“ Slim, you are a sufficiently capable officer, and can get through with your duty well enough when you choose to do it, but you don’t know every thing; your mind is too dense to admit the rays of intelligence. ”

“ The faculties of man had begun to dwindle for want of scope, and the happiness of society required new and more copious contributions.
I reasoned with myself as follows: A bountiful Providence provides food for the appetite which it creates; therefore the desire of mankind for a greater world to bustle in, manifested by their dissatisfaction with the one which they possess, is sufficient evidence that the means of gratification are provided. ”

“ Still greater numbers give their industry and their lives to the acquisition of mere matters of ornament, for the gratification of pride, an insatiable passion, which is only stimulated to increase its demands by every new indulgence. I saw that the internals owed their happiness to their rationality, to a conformity with the laws of nature and religion; and that the externals were miserable, from the indulgence of inordinate passions, and subjection to vicious propensities. ”

“ But, alas! we are short-sighted creatures. I was soon called to lament the loss of my vessel, the partner of my adventures. Mr. Boneto not being satisfied with a life of idleness on shore, and having a wish to visit Europe, I permitted him to take the Explorer, without her machinery, for a voyage to New-Orleans, and thence to Europe. He took his money with him to purchase a cargo. On his way, he knocked that charming vessel to pieces on the Bahama Banks, for want of Blunt’s chart, improved by recent surveys, to warn him of all the dangers. ”

“ He found the sun to rise, in latitude 76°, fifteen days sooner than was expected by astronomical calculations. This will give the polar region seven months constant sunshine; think of that, my shipmates, said I, seven months constant day, with a continual stream of light and heat pouring upon the same spot, without any interval of night to cool the earth and air. I think if we can but find our way to the polar region, we shall be in much more danger of being roasted alive, than of being frozen to death. ”

“ That fruit is considered the most delicate and best flavoured of any on the external world. Formerly it had given me great satisfaction; but now, after having enjoyed the exquisite fruits of Symzonia, it seemed quite insipid.
The day after leaving Angier Point, we were in the open ocean, with a stiff gale from S. E. driving us rapidly towards our [225] homes, our wives and children. It is a delightful sensation which the mariner experiences on clearing port for his homeward passage, after a long and toilsome voyage. ”

“ Those parts of the external world from which the influence of the sun is withdrawn for the greatest length of time thus become intensely cold, excepting in the immediate vicinity of the polar openings, where the issue of warm air, from the internal cavity, tempers the atmosphere: but at a short distance from the verge of the opening the very influence of this warm air generates cold, by parting rapidly with its latent heat and condensing into snow and hail, which causes the circle of ice between [146] the 70th and 80th degrees of latitude, called the “icy hoop.” ”

“ The council examine minutely into the grounds of the popular opinion, and if they find it well founded, and that the man is truly good, benevolent, and virtuous, they admit him a member by the title of Good.
The second class of worthies, are such as have in like manner been ascertained to have promoted the interests of society by [121] improvements in science, and the advancement of useful knowledge. Such men, if free from vice, although not distinguished by benevolence, or the highest class of virtues, are admitted to the order of worthies by the title of Wise. ”

“ The next day we had a vertical sun, as I had predicted, and the weather as warm as I had ever known it at sea, with a fine breeze. No one knew which way we were steering but myself; and Slim’s opinion confidently expressed that we were near the equator, and must soon make the continent of Asia, Africa, America, or the Asiatic islands, served to quiet the apprehensions of the men for their own [82] safety, and at the same time to awaken their solicitude for the situation of Mr. Boneto’s party, whom they said I had barbarously left to perish by the frosts of a polar winter, on Seaborn’s Land. ”

“ This will be more obvious, if we consider the powerful influence of the ice, during this absence of the sun’s rays, and remember the great change of temperature which occurs in our climate immediately after sunset at the close of a sunny day in February or March. This interval of night in latitude 70°, counteracts most of the effects of the sun’s heat in the day time. Nearly as much ice forms in the night as is thawed during the day. This accounts for the ‘icy hoop.’ There is not summer enough to dissipate the ice of winter; while at the pole there is summer enough to dissolve a globe of ice. ”