Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

When this terrific engine was completed, Fultria proposed to exterminate the enemy at once; whereupon all the Good and many of the Wise men objected to so barbarous a proceeding. They contended that it would be contrary to the practice of civilized nations, and taking an unjustifiable advantage of the enemy, by using means of warfare not resorted to by civilized men, and not much better than poisoning them secretly. They could not consent to such unheard of barbarity; at best it was justifying the means by the end, and doing evil that good might come; but it was better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. Fultria, on hearing these objections to the use of the means of emancipation which he had provided with so much labour and ingenuity, ascended the platform, and addressed the Best Man in Council in defence of his engine and his views. I found his speech on record, it having been carefully preserved, notwithstanding the lapse of many centuries. I translated it with the aid of Surui, but our language is not sufficiently nervous to convey the sentiments of this enlightened man with the energy and conciseness of the original language. I endeavoured to put down the substance of it in English, but it cannot be expected that a sailor should do such justice to a fine specimen of Symzonian eloquence as might be done by some of our professed belles lettres scholars, who pass their lives in studying the arrangement of words and in admiring the elegance and dignity of their compositions.