A Voyage to the Moon

by George Tucker

  CHAPTER XIV.

  _Farther account of Okalbia--The Field of Roses--Curious superstitionconcerning that flower--The pleasures of smell traced to association, bya Glonglim philosopher._

  Though I felt some reluctance to abuse the patience of this polite andintelligent magistrate, I could not help making some inquiry about thejurisprudence of his country, and first, what was their system ofpunishment.

  "We have no capital punishment," says he; "for, from all we learn, it isnot more efficacious in preventing crime, than other punishments whichare milder; and we prefer making the example to offenders a lasting one.But we endeavour to prevent offences, not so much by punishment as byeducation; and the few crimes committed among us, bring certain censureon those who have the early instruction of the criminal. Murders arevery rare with us; thefts and robbery perhaps still more so. Ourordinary disputes about property, are commonly settled by arbitration,where, as well as in court, each party is permitted to state his case,to examine what witnesses and to ask what questions he pleases."

  "You do not," said I, "examine witnesses who are interested?"

  "Why not? The judges even examine the parties themselves."

  I then told him that the smallest direct interest in the issue of thecontroversy, disqualified a witness with us, from the strong bias itcreated to misrepresent facts, and even to misconceive them.

  He replied with a smile,--"It seems to me that your extreme fear ofhearing falsehood, must often prevent you from ascertaining the truth.It is true, that wherever the interest of a witness is involved, it hasan immediate tendency to make him misstate facts: but so would personalill-will--so would his sympathies--so would any strong feeling. What,then, is your course in these cases?"

  I told him that these objections applied to the credibility, and not tothe competency, of witnesses, which distinctions of the lawyers Iendeavoured to explain to him.

  "Then I think you often exclude a witness who is under a small bias, andadmit another who is under a great one. You allow a man to givetestimony in a case in which the fortune or character of his father,brother or child is involved, but reject him in a case in which he isnot interested to the amount of a greater sum than he would give to thefirst beggar he met. Is it not so?"

  "That, indeed, may be the operation of the rule. But cases of suchflagrant inconsistency are very rare; and this rule, like every other,must be tried by its general, and not its partial effects."

  "True; but your rule must at least be a troublesome one, and give riseto a great many nice distinctions, that make it difficult in theapplication. All laws are sufficiently exposed to this evil, and we donot wish unnecessarily to increase it. We have, therefore, adopted theplan of allowing either party to ask any question of any witness hepleases, and leave it to the judges to estimate the circumstances whichmay bias the witness. We, in short, pursue the same course ininvestigating facts in court that we pursue out of it, when no one formsa judgment until he has first heard what the parties and their friendssay on the subject."

  On my return home, I repeated this conversation to a lawyer of myacquaintance, who told me that such a rule of evidence might do for thepeople in the moon, but it certainly would not suit us. I leave thematter to be settled by more competent heads than mine, and return to mynarrative.

  I farther learnt from this intelligent magistrate, that the territory ofthe Happy Valley, or Okalbia, is divided into forty-two counties, andeach county into ten districts. In each district are three magistrates,who are appointed by the legislature. Causes of small value are decidedby the magistrates of the district; those of greater importance, by thecounty courts, composed of all the magistrates of the ten districts; afew by the court of last court, consisting of seven judges. Thelegislature consists of two houses, of which the members are electedannually, three from each county for one branch, and one member for theother. No qualification of property is required either to vote, or to beeligible to either house of the legislature, as they believe that thenatural influence of property is sufficient, without adding to thatinfluence by law; and that the moral effects of education among them,together with a few provisions in their constitution, are quitesufficient to guard against any improper combination of those who havesmall property. Besides, there are no odious privileges exclusivelypossessed by particular classes of men, to excite the envy or resentmentof the other classes, and induce them to act in concert.

  "Have you, then, no parties?" said I.

  "Oh yes; we are not without our political parties and disputes; and wesometimes wrangle about very small matters--such as, what amount oflabour shall be bestowed on the public roads--the best modes ofconducting our schools and colleges--the comparative merits of thecandidates for office, or the policy of some proposed change in thelaws. Man is made, you know, of very combustible materials, and may bekindled as effectually by a spark falling at the right time, in theright place, as when within reach of a great conflagration."

  The women appeared here to be under few restraints. I understood thatthey were taught, like our sex, all the speculative branches ofknowledge, but that they were more especially instructed, by professedteachers, in cookery, needlework, and every sort of domestic economy; aswere the young men in the occupations which require strength andexposure. They have a variety of public schools, and some houses forpublic festivals, but no public hospitals or almshouses whatever, thefew cases of private distress or misfortune being left for relief to themerits of the sufferer and the compassion of individuals.

  After passing a week among this singular and fortunate people, whom weevery where found equally amiable, intelligent, and hospitable, wereturned to Alamatua in the same way that we had come; that is, in alight car, drawn by four large mastiffs. When we had recovered from thefatigues of the journey, and I had carefully committed to paper all thatI had learnt of the Okalbians, the Brahmin and I took a walk towards apart of the suburbs which I had not yet seen, and where some of theliterati of his acquaintance resided. The sun appeared to be not morethan two hours high (though, in fact, it was more than fifty); the skywas without a cloud, and a fresh breeze from the mountains contributedto make it like one of the most delightful summer evenings of atemperate climate.

  We carelessly rambled along, enjoying the balmy freshness of the air,the picturesque scenery of the neighbouring mountains, the beauty orfragrance of some vegetable productions, and the oddity of others,until, having passed through a thick wood, we came to an extensiveplain, which was covered with rose-bushes. The queen of flowers hereappeared under every variety of colour, size, and species--red, white,black, and yellow--budding, full-blown, and half-blown;--some withthorns, and some without; some odourless, and others exhaling theirunrivalled perfume with an overpowering sweetness. I was about to pluckone of these flowers, (of which I have always been particularly fond,)when a man, whom I had not previously observed, stepping up behind me,seized my arm, and asked me if I knew what I was doing. He told us thatthe roses of this field, which is called Gulgal, were deemed sacred, andwere not allowed to be gathered without the special permission of thepriests, under a heavy penalty; and that he was one of those whose dutyit was to prevent the violation of the law, and to bring the offendersto punishment.

  The Brahmin, having diverted himself a while with my surprise anddisappointment, then informed me, that the rose had ever been regardedin Morosofia, as the symbol of female purity, delicacy, and sweetness;which notion had grown into a popular superstition, that whenever amarriage is consummated on the earth, one of these flowers springs up inthe moon; and that in colour, shape, size, or other property, it is afit type of the individual whose change of state is thus commemorated.

  "What, father," said I, "could have given rise to so strange anopinion?"

  "I know not," said he; "but I have heard it thus explained:--That theroses generally spring up, as well as blow, in the course of their longnights, during which the earth's resplendent disc is the mostconspicuous object in the heavens; which two facts stand, in the op
inionof the multitude, in the relation of cause and effect. Attributing,then, the symbolical character of the rose to its tutelary planet, theyregard the earth in the same light as the ancients did the chaste Diana,and believe that she plants this her favourite flower in the moon,whenever she loses a votary. The priesthood encourage this superstition,as they have grafted on it some mystical rites, which add to their powerand profit, and which one of our Pundits thinks has a great resemblanceto the Eleusinian mysteries. There is, however, my dear Atterley, littlesatisfaction in tracing the origin of vulgar superstitions. They grow uplike a strange plant in a forest, without our being able to tell how theseed found its way there. It is generally believed in the east, that themoon, at particular periods of her revolution round the earth, has agreat influence in causing rain; though every one must see, that,notwithstanding such influence must be the same in every part of theearth, it is invariably fair in one place, at the very time that it israiny in another. Nay, we may safely aver that there is not a day, noran hour, in the year, in which it is not dry and rainy, cloudy andclear, windy and calm, in hundreds of places at once."

  I told the Brahmin that the same opinion prevailed in my country. Thatthe vulgar also believe the moon, according to its age, to haveparticular effects on the flesh of slaughtered animals; and that allsailors distinguish between a wet and a dry day, according to theposition of the crescent.

  We then inquired of the warden of this flowery plain, if he had everremarked any difference in the number of roses which sprung up in agiven period of time. He said he thought they were more numerous aboutfive and twenty or thirty years ago, than he had ever seen them beforeor since. With that exception, he said, the number appeared to be nearlythe same every year.

  The Brahmin happening to be in one of those pleasant moods which areoccasionally experienced by amiable tempers, even when under thepressure of sorrow and age, now amused himself in pointing out theflowers which probably represented the different nations of the earth;and when he saw any one remarkably small, pale and delicate, he insistedthat it belonged to his own country; which point, however, I, notyielding to him in nationality, warmly contested. I would here remark,that as the rose is called _gul_ in the Persian language and the ancientSanscrit, the name of this field furnished another argument in supportof the Brahmin's hypothesis of the origin of the moon.

  While thus oblivious of the past, and reckless of the future, we wereenjoying the present moment in this _badinage_, and I was extolling theodour of the rose, as beyond every other grateful to the olfactorynerves of man, a lively, flippant little personage came up, and accostedthe Brahmin with the familiarity of an acquaintance. My companionimmediately introduced me to him, and at the same time gave me tounderstand that this was the great Reffei, one of the most distinguishedliterati of the country. Although his eye was remarkably piercing, Iperceived in it somewhat of the wildness which always characterizes aGlonglim. He was evidently impatient for discussion; and having informedhimself of the subject of my rhapsody when he joined our party, hevehemently exclaimed,--"I am surprised at your falling in with thatpopular prejudice; while it is easy to show, that but for some feelingof love, or pity, or admiration, with which the rose happens to beassociated--some past pleasure which it brings to your recollection, orsome future pleasure which it suggests,--any other flower would beequally sweet. You see the rose a very beautiful flower; and you havebeen accustomed, whenever you saw and felt its beauty, to perceive, atthe same time, a certain odour. The beauty and the odour thus becomeassociated in your mind, and the smell brings along with it the pleasureyou feel in looking at it. But the chief part of the gratification youreceive from smelling a rose, arises from some past scene of delight ofwhich it reminds you; as, of the days of your innocence and childhood,when you ran about the garden--or when you were decorated withnosegays--or danced round a may-pole, (this is rather a freetranslation)--or presented a bunch of flowers to some little favourite."He said a great deal more on the subject, and spoke so prettily andingeniously, as almost to make a convert of me; when, on bringing mynose once more to the flower, I found in it the same exquisitefragrance as ever.

  "Why do we like," he continued, "the smell of a beef-steak, or of a cupof tea, except for the pleasure we receive from their taste?"

  I mentioned, as an exception to his theory, the codfish, which isesteemed a very savoury dish by my countrymen, but which no one everregarded as very fragrant. But he repelled my objection by an ingenioushypothesis, grounded on certain physiological facts, to show that thissupposed disagreeable smell was also the effect of some earlyassociations. I then mentioned to him assafoetida, the odour of which Ibelieved was universally odious. He immediately replied, that we arealways accustomed to associate with this drug, the disagreeable ideas ofsickness, female weakness, hysterics, affectation, &c. Unable tocontinue the argument, I felt myself vanquished. I again stooped to theflower, and as I inhaled its perfume, "Surely," said I to myself, "thisrose would be sweet if I were to lose my memory altogether:" butrecollecting the great Reffei's argument, I mentally added thanks todivine philosophy, which always corrects our natural prejudices.