Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

CHAPTER X. Containing some account of the strange rationality of the Symzonians.--Their simplicity of dress.--Manner of making cloth.--Circulating medium.--Taxes. The friendly reception which had been given to me by the Best Man, and his commands that information should be freely communicated to the stranger, were a sufficient introduction for me to the notice and kind offices of this benevolent people. They required no other evidence that my rank was sufficiently elevated to render me a fit associate for them, than the fact that the Best Man had found my conversation so interesting as to induce him to pass several hours in my company. I was visited by all classes of the community, and gave scope to my eager desire to possess myself of all the useful knowledge and science possessed by the most intelligent of the people. I gave my attention in the first instance almost exclusively to the Wise, in expectation of finding their conversation most instructive; but I soon found that like our philosophers they were more given to abstract theories than to practical knowledge, and would contend for hours to establish some fanciful hypothesis, to the neglect of plain and practical subjects of inquiry. I therefore turned my attention to the Good and the Useful, who never spoke on subjects they did not understand, and whose information, though not so abstruse as that of the Wise, extended to all matters of established utility. Moreover they could be implicitly relied on; for having no favourite hypotheses to maintain, and no selfish ends to answer, they explained every thing to me frankly and in an intelligible manner.