Another World | Page 7

may serve to call attention to the evils
which they were intended to remedy in Montalluyah, and which certainly nourish in all
their bad luxuriance here.

ANOTHER WORLD.

I.
MONTALLUYAH.
"You forsake this earthly form which goes to dust, but you still live on for ever and
ever....
"This life is but the shadow of what your future lives will be."
The Heavens are studded with stars, works of an Almighty Creator; their pale rays give
but a feeble indication of the glorious brightness of worlds, many peopled by beings of a
beauty, goodness, and power excelling all that human understanding can conceive.

By the grace of Him whose might embraces the universe, I will speak of a star where the
inhabitants are formed like the people of the Earth, and as the dawn of day gradually
discloses earth's marvellous beauties, so shall my revelations throw light on the customs
of that star-world for whose well-being I worked with devoted love.
Some of my world's ways will appear strange to you. Remember that they belong to
another planet, another country, another people, so that like wise travellers in a distant
land, you should for a time lull your own world's prejudice, and accompany me in
thought to Montalluyah, for such is the name of the city where I lived.
I was the son of one of the twelve kings called Tshialosoli, rulers of the country.
These Tshialosoli are less powerful than kings in your world, there being a ruler with full
power over them and the whole State, who is called in our language "Tootmanyoso," or
"The Father of the World."
All my youthful zeal and strength were applied to study and deep reflection. The most
able men were appointed to superintend my education. I outstripped my masters.
The extent of my knowledge, judgment, and foresight filled with wonder the most
learned and powerful in the land. Their approving praise did but encourage me onwards
in the search for knowledge.
People related everywhere how wondrous were the gifts of the heaven favoured student.
Early inspired by the desire to benefit my fellow-creatures, I often asked myself why, in a
world teeming with blessings, so much suffering existed? and why endless riches in the
seas, in the air, in the earth, remained unworked as though they did not exist for the use
of man?
At that time the state of civilization and knowledge in Montalluyah was in many respects
not unlike that of the most civilized countries of your world. The religion of fire had long
been replaced by the worship of the living God, and morality and goodness were
respected by most, preached by many, and practised by a few.
Wars were waged with relentless cruelty by brother against brother, bad passions ruled,
the rich oppressed the poor, and became in turn the victims of their own excesses, and
vice, disease, and misery were rampant throughout the land.
We had money of various metals and precious stones. The greed to possess money was
the cause of great crimes and loss of power. I asked myself whether men could not be
brought to seek knowledge and goodness as ardently as they sought money?
I could not then answer the question, but saw that, could this be done, the boundaries of
intelligence being everywhere extended, the discovery of never-ending fructifying
resources would follow, with the means also of multiplying those already known.
Notwithstanding wars and pestilence, the numbers of our people had largely increased,

whilst our stocks had seriously diminished, and scarcity and dearth afflicted my world.
The increasing numbers of the population would, I saw, become a means of plenty, by
supplying additional numbers and power to the phalanx of nature's workmen, each, with
redoubled skill fitly applied, joyfully labouring in his sphere to create abundance and
secure the general well-being.
I applied myself with unwavering perseverance to the study of humanity and the arts of
government, and soon found that like aspirations had ruled many wise and good men in
the different ages of my planet. I applied myself to the knowledge of their great wisdom
and many precepts, and sought to discover why, notwithstanding the truthfulness and
beauty of the golden lessons of these sages, and the eloquence and persuasion of their
words, corruption and ruin still so largely prevailed.
Not content with meditating on what had been done and written, I attended the schools,
observed the children's ways, and the mode of educating and rearing the husbandmen of
Nature's vineyard. I visited the hospitals for the sick, and the theatres of anatomy. I
examined into the causes of disease, and the effects of the existing remedies. I visited the
prisons, and studied the results of punishment and the causes of crime. I visited the poor
in their hovels,