CHAPTER XII.
A subsequent conversation I had with Principal Grey also struck me as so noteworthy that I jotted the particulars of it down without delay, for the benefit of possible future English readers.
I had observed that although there were plenty of people dressed with distinctive badges and colours, whose function it was to preserve order and regulate the traffic, as thepolicemen do with us, I saw none whom I could assume to be soldiers, and made enquiries on the subject. I was told that standing armies were seldom maintained now, as it was no longer the custom of nations to decimate each other by public slaughter, but to trust to a system of international arbitration in the event of quarrels arising.
Nevertheless, as New Amazonia was a temptingly wealthy State, thanks to its perfect financial organisation, there was a possibility of invasion, and great care had been lavished upon its fortifications, which, when manned, or womaned, with trained warriors, were all but impregnable.
“Then,” I said, “you do possess a trained army, after all?”
“In one sense, yes. But not in the sense you mean. We are all trained to fight, and there is not a woman or man in the country who does not thoroughly understand military discipline. Our training begins in infancy, and includes riding, shooting, swimming, diving, ballooning, and every possible military exercise. In time of war we should all receive remuneration commensurate with what we realise by the aid of our ordinary avocations,plusan additional third. Our discipline is severe, but we glory in it, and all New Amazonia could be ready for action within an hour. A few foolhardy attempts to vanquish us have been made, but our foes suffered so severely that we are scarcely likely to be molested again. Still, our vigilance is never relaxed, and our cordon of sentries is so perfect and efficient, that not even one stranger can intrude here without being speedily discovered. These sentries perform a double duty, for they effectually prevent all attempts to either import or export any goods that have not yielded their due proportion of profit to the Mother.”
“Then New Amazonians cannot claim exemption from the temptation to smuggle?”
“No, and yes. Such attempts used to be frequent in bygone days, but the punishment for smuggling is so severe, and immunity from detection so problematical, that the vice is almost stamped out.”
“And what is the punishment meted to offenders in this direction?”
“Foreigners are publicly whipped and expelled,minustheir goods. New Amazonians are deprived of civil rights and relegated to inferior duties.”
“Bad enough,” I soliloquised. “And, now, there is another thing which puzzles me somewhat. What with war, seafaring, and a thousand accidents to which men are more exposed than women, so many male lives are lost in my country, that the feminine element predominates everywhere, just as it seems to have done in Teuto-Scotland, when the project of re-colonising Ireland was first mooted. Is there a tendency in this direction with you now? And, if so, do you take steps to counteract it?”
“We have devoted much thought to the subject; and have come to the conclusion that even where all the causes of masculine extinction which you have named are absent, then is still a tendency for women to outnumber men. This is easily accounted for. Very few children die with us in infancy, but it is a fact that boys succumb more easily to infantile disorders than girls. We desire to preserve an equality of the sexes, nevertheless, and perfect physiological knowledge enables us to solve this problem, as we have done many others which the Ancients deemed unsolvable.”
“I notice that all your people are magnificently formed, but you must be subject to certain ailments. Toothache, for instance, which is a perfect scourge with us.”
“That is a phenomenon to which we are here quite strange, I am glad to say. We would as soon expect ourskulls to become diseased, as to see our teeth decay. We know the exact chemical constituents of bone, and are careful to supply the constitution with perfect bone-forming food. We also avoid everything that has been proved to be an injurious article of diet.”
“But individual temptation must sometimes break through this rule of abstinence?”
“It cannot. No sooner is anything condemned by the Mother, than its importation or manufacture is strictly forbidden, and that particular article is soon unobtainable in the country.”
“I suppose malformed or crippled children are occasionally brought into the world, even here. What becomes of them?”
“They are at once sent to spend their term of probation in less material spheres.”
“Now, in relation to love matters. With which sex rests the onus of proposing marriage?”
“With either sex, of course I do not see how it could be otherwise.”
“It is very much otherwise with us. A woman may be dying for love, but she is not supposed to betray the fact to anyone, until the object of her desires intimates that he has set his affections upon her.”
“But suppose that he intimates no such thing? Do you mean to say that she is not even then to express her preference?”
“Then less than ever! The object of her affections would not think her worth having if she were won too easily, even if he wanted her. If he did not want her, he would most probably sneer about her love-lorn condition to all his acquaintances, and they would be highly amused at her unwomanliness in presuming to love before she had been asked.”
“Well, I do not envy you your social institutions! It seems to me that your men must be insufferable cads, and your women nothing less than fools. Why do they permit such an anomalous state of things? Can they not see that this is only another of the countless meshes with which masculine egotism has woven the net of slavery and oppression? The man who can look upon a true woman’s love for himself with anything but respect and grateful sympathy is nothing better than a cur, who is himself unworthy of the esteem of all honourable people.”
The Principal spoke with considerable warmth, and I was so struck with the force of her remarks, that I promised to lay her views before my own countrywomen at no distant date. I had, however, not much confidence in the efficacy of any appeal I might make to womanly pride, seeing that so little has yet been done in England to induce women to think and act for themselves, and to endeavour to break through the multitude of social barriers which have been erected by man’s selfishness, tyranny, and arrogance. Still, it has often happened that the absurdity of a custom has only needed to be demonstrated in black and white for its doom to be sealed, and I introduce this subject to the notice of my countrywomen, in the hope that it may induce some of them to bestow a little more thought upon the anomalies of their position, and use their best endeavours to remove at least some of the partially self-created disabilities they suffer from.
By way of diverting the Principal’s attention from a subject which aroused both her anger and contempt, I remarked upon the delightful purity of the atmosphere here, and opined that infectious diseases could not be very prevalent.
“We have heard of such evils,” was the reply, “but science and common sense united have combated themeffectually. Two of our finest statues are in honour of a couple of scientists who must be ranked amongst the most famous benefactors of their kind who have ever lived. I allude to Koch and Pasteur, whose discoveries inaugurated a happy era of immunity from disorders which once killed thousands of human beings annually. Unfortunately for their contemporaries, the world at large looked upon their discoveries as only interesting from the scientists’ point of view, failing to recognise the fact that a gigantic revolution in medicine was impending. In some of our archives mention is made of a Dr. Austin Flint, who asserted that such a revolution was not far off. But his utterances fell on ears that were mostly deaf or unheeding. And yet, to the discovery and study of bacteria the most incalculable benefits to the human race are to be attributed. So perfect has the knowledge on this subject now become, that the cause of every infectious disease is well known. They are all easily preventible, but where, through possible slight relaxation of watchfulness, they may break out, they are so easily curable as to cause no alarm. It is, however, many years since a case of infectious disease occurred in New Amazonia. Science has succeeded in affording us absolute protection against scarlet fever, measles, yellow fever, cholera, whooping cough, and many other dreadful ailments which formerly decimated nations.”
Naturally, I was very much interested in all these statements, and our conversation branched into various departments of the curative art. I was considerably amused by Principal Grey’s information relative to the Dietetic Hospital, as fine a building as any I had yet noticed in Andersonia.
The patients in this hospital were nearly all people in physical health, and they pursued their ordinary dailyavocations with a cheerfulness which I had never before observed in an institution patronised solely for its curative properties. The Dietists, as they were called, resorted to this hospital in search of cures for mental and moral failings, and implicitly obeyed the specialists who sought to effect their cure by means of a wise and judicious selection of food.
Thus the violent tempered found their nature considerably modified and sweetened, after being for a few months subjected to a daily diet in which a peculiarly prepared carrot-soup was thepièce de résistance. Nervous disorders were very few here, but the slightest suspicion of a tendency to be nervous or fidgety was provocative of a temporary flight to the hospital, which, owing to the speed and cheapness of the water-cars, was easily accessible to every denizen of the island. Green peas and scarlet runners were prohibited to those whose natural tendencies ran in a choleric direction, since they were held to be provocative of violent temper.
On the other hand, dried peas and lentils were high in favour, as they were said to impart good humour. The fat and frivolous were dieted partially on turnips, in order to curtail their physical tendency to ponderosity, and their mental leaning towards superabundance of spirits. To cabbage a thousand virtues were ascribed, and the idea that the consumption of animal food produced coarseness of mind and body was responsible in great measure for the disgust with which the foreign habit of flesh-eating was regarded.
Knowing what I now did of the peculiar religious beliefs of New Amazonians, I could easily conceive that the most scrupulous attention would be paid to dietetic and sanitary matters, since a healthy body was supposed to facilitate the perfecting of the spirit, and its final glorification.
The importance attached to diet and sanitation reminded me forcibly of the old Mosaic laws, and I enquired if great importance was attached to the Testamentary records of Ancient History handed down to us in the Bible.
“Certainly,” replied the Principal, very emphatically, “but we also heed Herodotus and Josephus; and our greatest classical work on ancient history has been compiled by twelve New Amazonian savants, who compared all come-at-able records with such strict impartiality and absence of special bias, that we flatter ourselves upon possessing the most accurate and reliable records of ancient history extant.”
“But you surely reverence the Bible?”
“Yes, we reverence it, most assuredly. But where historical accuracy seems to be slightly at fault, we are not above being instructed from other sources.”
“Then what do you think of Moses as a historian, as a law-giver, and as a general?”
“In all these respects we think that he was truly great. But, being human, it was not impossible for him to adopt an erroneous opinion on a given subject, or to commit a grave error of judgment. Many things for which we can now find natural explanations must have seemed miraculous in his days, and in no case do we believe that he placed anything on record which he did not believe to be exactly as he described it. Still, this does not prevent us from recognising some errors in his accounts of the doings in former times. That he forsook the precincts of a Court, in order to cast in his lot with his own downtrodden and oppressed people, is proof sufficient of his innate nobility, and his fearless defence of the ill-treated Israelitish labourers showed that he had also plenty of the courage required in a great leader.”
“And what of David?”
“King David does not arouse my personal estimation. He attained to great eminence, and founded a family which boasted as its scion Christ the Martyr himself. He also wrote some beautiful poetry. But when it comes to an analysis of private character, he does not shine greatly. Naturally, however, the Jews, whose national prestige he increased so materially, think very highly of him. Upon the whole, we prefer the New Testament to the Old, for the sake of its beautiful moral teachings, as well as for its historical importance.”
“You do not adhere to all its commandments?”
“No, it would be ill for us if we did. Never to speak in an assembly; to be compelled to carry a great weight of hair about with us; to be subservient to men in all things, and to foster woman’s disabilities and man’s arrogance, to the extent preached by some of the Apostles, is repugnant to the common sense of every woman who is able to think for herself. But when we come across anything that is offensive to our self-respect, we make due allowances for the egotism of man and the customs of the times. We also remember that Jesus always showed Himself to be woman’s true friend and associate; in fact, Jesus is the one pure and shining light which the world has produced, of whom it can truly be said that He was free from all trace of egotism, bigotry, and arrogance. His every word and action bespoke the possession of that Divine charity which thinketh no evil. No wonder that even yet He is by many regarded as God himself. Surely His spirit would pass to eternal glory without any of the probation which we expect to endure before we reach the perfection which shall entitle us to dwell in the uttermost realms of bliss.”
“And yet there must be many beautiful natures in so happy a land as this.”
“I grant it. But the nature that can avoid sullying thesoul with wrongdoing in these enlightened days cannot compare with the purity and goodness of a soul which walked unstained through life in the days of bigotry, superstition, and ignorance.”
“That is true. But if we accept this opinion, we must also accept its natural correlative, and consider that the sinner of to-day is more blameworthy than those who sinned when to be good was not so easy as it is now.”
“Few will dispute that point with you. But it becomes necessary for me to remind you now that unpunctuality, and neglect of duty, are grave sins with us. You will, therefore, excuse me for a time, since it becomes necessary for me to address the students in a few minutes from now.”
I felt rebuked for my presumption in encroaching so much upon the Principal’s time. But she was so very good-natured, and so exceedingly willing to gratify my curiosity, that I was tempted to trespass upon her indulgence, being urged thereto by a sense of unreality, and a conviction that my stay in New Amazonia would terminate as suddenly and as mysteriously as it had begun. It was natural, therefore, that I should wish to post myself up in all the information obtainable during my sojourn here.