Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

CHAPTER XIII. Recreations of the Symzonians.--Wonderful provision of nature for supplying the internal world with light.--Character and employments of the women of Symzonia. I visited the place of recreation, a neat plain rotunda, in the centre of an extensive flower garden, where the young people, the middle aged, and the old occasionally convened, to extend their knowledge of one another, interchange their thoughts by conversation, listen to the most exquisite music, and practise a variety of graceful and elegant exercises. Being all very fond of music, they all join in that, by turns, as in other performances. Sometimes an hundred instruments, and many hundreds of the most exquisite voices, filled the whole place with the most enchanting sounds. The exquisite beauty of the women, the graceful dignity of the men, the chaste decorum and sincere politeness of all, charmed the mind, and delighted the heart. Here there were no temptations to vice by offers of seducing cordials, wines, agreeable decoctions, or other intoxicating drinks, as in our places of resort for recreation. The enjoyments of this refined people were intellectual and pure--not the debasing gratifications of animal passions and sensual appetites. The soft reflected light of the sun, which was now no longer directly visible, gave a pleasing mellowness to the scene, that was inexpressibly agreeable, being about midway between a bright moonlight and clear sunshine. 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.