altogether gone out of fashion, to make room, not for an ascetic bliss, but for the power of sinlessly and elegantly indulging in luxuries, which an Assyrian voluptuary might have contemplated with envy. As an enthusiastic description of a superior condition of things necessarily implies a censure of that which is inferior, it must naturally have somewhat of a satirical appearance when addressed to persons living under the less advantageous circumstances. Sterne's proposition that "they manage things better in France," converts itself without a thought into " they manage things worse in England," and the superior goodness of the planet Mars implies the comparative badness of Mother Earth. So far as this is satire, Hermes may be deemed a satirist.

But as to his being an intentional satirist, we believe nothing of the kind. A glow of good-humour is diffused over the entire book, which justifies the supposition that Hermes is far too much delighted with the enjoyments he is describing to find room on his lip for a sneer at terrestrial defects and miseries. Let us rather imagine that he is a poetical utilitarian, who tries to picture the state of things that will arrive when not only the greatest but the most luxurious happiness is diffused amongst the greatest number. Of a state of primitive simplicity, of an Arcadia peopled with smart shepherds and shepherdesses, he has no notion. If we would be as good and as contented as the citizens of Montalluyah, we must become more, not less, Epicurean than we are at present-improve our music, our pictures, our means of locomotion, and our dinners.

For instance, we of this generation are very proud of our electricity; and when an enthusiastic optimist wishes to illustrate the superiority of the present to the past, the first thing to which he refers is probably the electric telegraph. But in our use of this agent we are mere babies compared with the Tootmanyoso and his subjects. Their advance commenced-so Hermes tells us-with the discovery that electricities are

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many and so various, that although they may all be classed under one category, rubricked in the Martial language with a term denoting a spark of Heaven-power," every kind of body, both animate or inanimate, contains an electricity of its own. So diverse are

the natures of these electricities that some are diffused, others concentrated; some sympathetic, some antipathetic, some gently mingling with others; some, when brought into contact with others, causing violent explosions.

Having discovered the existence of these various electricities, the sages of Montalluyah next found out how to extract them from all sorts of organic and inorganic substances. As fish are enumerated, Hermes warns us not to be too proud of our own Torpedo. "In naming fish," he says, "I refer to several species, and not merely to those already known to you as electrical, and which have the power of emitting strong currents of their own peculiar electricity. A huge fish, well known on your earth, supplies us with the most powerful of all electricities, an electricity of immense value." So it appears we are starving in the midst of undetected plenty. Philanthropist as he is, why does not Hermes name the precious fish, instead of tantalizing us with a conundrum? If we knew where to find it, doubtless we should do as they do in Montalluyah. Three large docks are built, into which the "

sea

monster" is driven, to be subjected to the process by which he is made to yield up the electricity contained in his huge frame. The different kinds of electricity, when extracted, are stored ready for use in a large building, where, to prevent mischief, they are secured in non-conducting pouches, and placed in separate compartments.

To enumerate the uses to which the very plural electricities are put, would require more space than we can afford to devote to the contemplation of the star-city. Indeed, it is not too much to say that there is a current of electricity through the entire book. One exploit, performed partly by means of this

powerful agent, exceptionally deserves mention, especially as the account of it involves a description of the physical configuration of Montalluyah. A huge mountain mass, it seems, projects from the elevated continent of Montalluyah for miles above the sea, the relic of a vast convulsion of nature, which, sweeping away its former basis, left it unsupported, save by its adhesion to the main continent of which it forms a part. From the point of junction it extends horizontally far beyond the seacoast, over cities built on the ridges and plains beneath, and it is of such a high elevation that when seen from below it is not easily distinguishable from the clouds above. Another city is built on the suspended mountain itself.

Even to the dull eye of an inhabitant of our earth, the position of the citizens either upon or below a horizontal mass of rock so slightly supported, would have seemed undesirable. The possibility of a crash, involving the destruction of those who fell and those upon whom the fall took place, seems so obvious to the meanest understanding that one marvels why the good folks of Montalluyah chose to build in such dangerous regions. We must assume that they were not very bright before the days of the reforming Tootmanyoso. Even an occasional fall of portions of the under part of the suspended mass, destroying half-a-dozen cities or so with all their inhabitants, was not sufficient to awaken the occupants of more fortunate sites to a sense of their peril. But to the keen eye of the Tootmanyoso it was manifest that a vertical prop was required at or towards the end of the suspended mass, opposite to the point of junction with the continent. A figure which looked like a capital F, or a gibbet, had to be converted into a semblance of the Greek II, or an integral portion of Stonehenge, or who knows what mischief might have ensued?

By the direction of the Tootmanyoso the perils menaced by the suspended mountain were arrested by the erection of a "mountain-supporter," whose base at the foundation is more than a mile

in diameter, and whose round walls are more than a hundred feet in thickness. The diameter of the tower-head is onethird of the diameter of the base, and the diminution is so gradual as to be scarcely perceived. The material out of which the blocks of which the building is constructed are made, is composed of an amalgamation of iron and marble fused into a compact mass.

This vast work was not to be accomplished without the aid of electricity, since no merely mechanical power would have sufficed to raise the stupendous blocks to the required level. The discovery had happily been made that what we call gravity, is merely "tenacious electricity," and that this may be so much diminished that the heaviest body will become comparatively light. Where can be found a more simple and beautiful application of science to the wants of practical life?

We have endeavoured to describe one grand achievement of the best of Tootmanyosos in advancing the material prosperity of his kingdom. Let us now turn to his educational improvements, premising that nearly all his operations are based on that oldfashioned maxim, "prevention is better than cure." To extirpate phthisis and insanity, he set his doctors to investigate the primary forms of malady, and in general he was so successful that their work left off at a point preceding that at which the labours of the terrestrial practitioners begin. His system of education commences with the babies. Nothing is too great or too small for his comprehensive glance. He can look up to the summit of the mountainsupporter, all but lost in the clouds, and down to the lowest possible cradle in which an infant is to be nursed. He prevents a city above from tumbling down and smashing a city below, and he is equally gracious in preventing parents from boxing their children's ears, and from making them walk too early after the fashion of their elders. A series of machines were invented, under his auspices, by a man named Drahna, which, by the most gradual

process, initiated infants into the independent use of their legs. The first machine is a soft spring-cushion, upon which the child is laid, and which is set in motion by the turn of a small handle. So delightful is the movement, that children have been heard to cry when the machine is stopped. Another machine, larger and stronger than the first, but similar in principle, is used before the first lesson in actual walking begins. In the third machine, which cannot be overturned, and in which every part of the body is supported, the legs of the child are alternately moved, so that it acquires a perfect notion of the sort of operation which it will have to perform in after-life, without the slightest strain on the limbs. In the fourth machine the child uses its own free will in the movement of its legs, but is upheld by a framework covered with bandages of down, which prevents the injuries that might otherwise arise from an ugly fall.

When the children arrive at an age fitted for school, they are under the care of "character-divers," who are totally distinct from the preceptors in the various branches of knowledge. Their duty is not to teach, but to discover the particular qualities, tendencies, and incipient faults of children, and to act accordingly, developing the germs of good, and eradicating those of evil. They are to no small extent assisted in their researches by the establishment of Amusement Galleries," about which the children are allowed to stray between the hours of study, according to their own inclinations. The toys are mostly of an instructive kind, comprising small musical instruments, maps in relief, and even minute living animals; for Montalluyah is happy enough possess horses and deer, in shape exactly resembling ours, but no larger than our ordinary lap-dogs. Under these favourable circumstances all sorts of characters are revealed. Vanity, or self-exaltation accompanied by envy, which exults in the depreciation of others, is an ill weed that frequently courts the scrutinizing gaze of the character-divers, who tread it out with the gentlest of footsteps.

On the whole the "amusement gallery" is less intended for male than for female children. Young girls frequent it until they leave school, but young men are forced to quit it when the irrepressible character-divers find their attendance no longer desirable. The Tootmanyoso did not intend to bring up a race of Geoffrey Delamaynes, but he would have had no violent objection to "Muscular Christianity." He instituted gymnastic exercises of a very terrestrial kind, and his sea-bathing for boys comprised headers from very lofty rocks. But, probably taking counsel of some Wilkie Collins of the planet, he showed excessive anxiety that the athlete should not degenerate into the bully. If a timid boy is required to leap into the sea from a very tall rock, six or seven of the bravest are selected to accompany him. They are forbidden to urge him to jump from the high elevation, or to taunt him for shrinking from the performance of the feat; and if he does not follow the example of bolder jumpers, the overseer of the party mildly remarks to him, "As you have not bathed from the rock, you had better bathe below." Ambition now does its work. The timid boy, advised to join the leapers from the lower part, who are his juniors, becomes anxious to imitate the braver boys of his own age. The proper jump is achieved at last, but such is the dread of self-exaltation, that the utmost care is taken neither to praise the new-made athlete too much, nor to reproach him with awkwardness. No boy is allowed, under any circumstances, to taunt another with any weakness or failing, and consequently he who has overcome his timidity scarcely knows that it was fear which prevented him in the first instance from rising to a level with his companions.

Although an Oriental tone pervades the life of Montalluyah, there is no toleration of polygamy. Nay, a slight approach is made to the matrimonial regulations of the Moravians, inasmuch as a contract of marriage is not regarded as a merely private affair, but a matter in which the whole community is in

terested. In many districts a council of ladies, who have passed through certain ordeals, and a council of elders regulate everything relating to wedlock, and over each of them presides a man of a certain age and spotless character, whose mode of life has been watched and recorded from early years. Let not the advocates for "Woman's Rights" be too sure that they will find allies when there is direct communication between the earth and Mars. It will be observed that even the council composed of elderly ladies is not allowed to act without a male president.

As we have said, the approach to Moravian institutions is slight. If the young lady, whose marriage is intended, is not allowed to cast her eyes over the entire kingdom, she has a liberal allowance of eighty-five candidates, among whom she may make her choice, it being understood that the qualifications of these gentlemen have been first ascertained by the councils. Nor is the lady herself without the possibility of a voice in the formation of this general assembly; for if she has a special liking for one particular person, she is allowed to communicate the fact privately to one of the ladies of the council.

During thirty-one evenings in succession, the eighty-five candidates are assembled together in the presence of the young lady, who on these solemn occasions wears a peculiar head-dress with a star in front. This is a distinctive mark. Other ladies are allowed to be present, but are not expected to pay court to the gentlemen, and the self-denying faculty of the "girls of the period" in Montalluyah is not weakly demonstrated by the fact, that in spite of the general suppression of flirtation, the privilege of attending these gatherings as a lookeron, if for one evening only, is eagerly sought. That in her embarras de richesses the lady with the star may not solve the difficulty by suddenly jumping to a choice, she is not allowed to announce her decision till the thirtyfirst evening has arrived. If the attractions of all of the suitors are, at the first glance, tolerably equal, she examines

their several pretensions, at the rate of about two suitors and three-quarters per evening; but probably some are mentally struck out of the list at the beginning, so that the deliberations of the damsel are confined to a comparatively small number.

On the awful thirty-first evening the maiden declares her decision by presenting the chosen one with an appropriate flower. Thereupon a band of music strikes up a well-known march, to the strains of which the happy man leads his intended to a throne, placed on a slightly raised daïs. Each of the suitors then lays down a flower before the enthroned beauty, and this she will sometimes kiss when anxious to show that the donor, though rejected, did not occupy the lowest place in her esteem on the list of candidates.

If the thirty-first evening passes over without the expected event taking place, another assembly is called after the lapse of a year; but now the number of suitors is limited to forty-five, and the number of evenings to twelve, rapidity of decision being facilitated by the abbreviation of the time in which the choice is to be declared and a diminution of the area over which the power of choice extends. In the case of another failure, another year elapses, and the assembly is now reduced to twenty-one, and the number of evenings to seven. If no result is obtained, the fastidious young lady is doomed to a life of single blessedness. This regulation has, however, but small practical value, since in the recollection of the Tootmanyoso, who remembered everything, there has not been one case where the selection has been postponed beyond the second year.

We have stated above that the young lady whose hand is sought declares her preference by the presentation to the chosen one of an appropriate flower. To render intelligible the force of this statement it is necessary to explain that the inhabitants of Montalluyah, like the terrestrials of the East, have an elaborate language of flowers, of which Hermes gives us some pretty specimens. The meaning associated with each flower

is universally understood, its name at once conveying its signification as distinctly as a combination of words. To so great an extent is proficiency in this language carried, that even long conversations are sometimes held between a lady and gentleman with flowers as the only medium of communication.

These gifted people also have a language of music, and in Montalluyah Songs without words" would denote no exceptional form of composition, not only words but sentences being often implied by notes. Thus Lenardi, a noted harpist, taking his place at the instrument, expressed to a lady his admiration of her beauty and goodness, his hope that no other occupied her thoughts, the despair that he would feel if his suit were rejected. He wound up with the assertion: "Thou art pure as the dew upon the leaf of opening day; but like to that dew will thy love pass away"-and all this without the utterance from his lips of so much as an articulate sound. The lady, who was quite his match, took her turn at the harp, and, by a process similar to his own, told him so plainly that he need not despair, that a "choicemeeting" was convened, which resulted in a speedy marriage.

The harp is the national instrument of Montalluyah, and addresses several senses at once. Around its framework are devised small birds of variegated plumage, perched on foliage of green enamel, with flowers in their natural colours. The instant the player strikes the chords the birds open their wings, the flowers quiver, and from certain

small vases concealed in the framework are thrown forth jets of perfume, the potency of which is regulated by the force of the harpist.

In these graceful sports of fancy, if so we call them, there is nothing like intentional satire. Hermes appears in the character of an editor only, and the ostensible narrator of the wonders of Montalluyah is the reforming Tootmanyoso himself, the means of communication between author and editor being enveloped in mystery. But, altogether somebody, whether it be Hermes or the Martial potentate, presents the public with a large bouquet of very fragrant flowers, each of which has the peculiarity proper to the flowers of Montalluyah, that it is pregnant with suggestion.

We will conclude our notice of this most original and engaging book, from the varied storehouse of which we have made selections almost at random, with the good Tootmanyoso's profession of his practical philosophy :

"I loved the world. The wicked only are impatient and discontented. I knew that blessings are everywhere about us, though we are expected to exercise our intelligence to make them available; and whilst I inculcated that 'intemperance is not enjoyment,' and that 'intemperance destroyed the power of enjoyment,' I did not hesitate to tell my people that the world and the blessings everywhere abounding are given us to enjoy, and that, like guests invited to a banquet, we were neither to run riot nor to reject the good things offered us in love."

No. 164.-VOL. XXVIII.

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