Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

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. In general, therefore, it was supposed that Fultria, willing to exhibit a magnificent specimen of his genius, and being somewhat under the influence of vanity, as Wise men often are, fancied it possible for such a deplorable state of corruption and violence to happen in a long course of ages, and stated an imaginary case, as an excuse for constructing his tremendous engine. I did not express my opinions on this subject, for I thought it most discreet to conceal the fact, that such a state of things actually existed in the external world.--My silence, however, did not avail; for, having put my books, among which were Ree's Cyclopediæ, Shakspeare's works, Milton's Paradise Lost, and many volumes of modern history, poetry, and novels, into the hands of Surui, I was soon called upon for explanations as to what was true, and what fictitious.