The Voyage of Captain Popanilla | Page 8

only a chief magistrate, and he had no more right
to laugh at him than a parish constable. He concluded by observing that
although what he at present urged might appear strange, nevertheless, if
the listeners had been acquainted with the characters and cases of
Galileo and Turgot, they would then have seen, as a necessary
consequence, that his system was perfectly correct, and he himself a
man of extraordinary merit.
Here the chief magistrate, no longer daring to smile, burst into a fit of
laughter; and turning to his courtiers said, 'I have not an idea what this
man is talking about, but I know that he makes my head ache: give me
a cup of wine, and let us have a dance.'
All applauded the royal proposition; and pushing Popanilla from one to
another, until he was fairly hustled to the brink of the lagoon, they soon
forgot the existence of this bore: in one word, he was cut. When
Popanilla found himself standing alone, and looking grave while all the

rest were gay, he began to suspect that he was not so influential a
personage as he previously imagined. Rather crest-fallen, he sneaked
home; and consoled himself for having nobody to speak to by reading
some amusing 'Conversations on Political Economy.'

CHAPTER 5
Popanilla was discomposed, but he was not discomfited. He consoled
himself for the Royal neglect by the recollection of the many illustrious
men who had been despised, banished, imprisoned, and burnt for the
maintenance of opinions which, centuries afterwards, had been
discovered to be truth. He did not forget that in still further centuries
the lately recognised truth had been re-discovered to be falsehood; but
then these men were not less illustrious; and what wonder that their
opinions were really erroneous, since they were not his present ones?
The reasoning was equally conclusive and consolatory. Popanilla,
therefore, was not discouraged; and although he deemed it more
prudent not to go out of his way to seek another audience of his
sovereign, or to be too anxious again to address a public meeting, he
nevertheless determined to proceed cautiously, but constantly,
propagating his doctrines and proselytizing in private.
Unfortunately for Popanilla, he did not enjoy one advantage which all
founders of sects have duly appreciated, and by which they have been
materially assisted. It is a great and an unanswerable argument in
favour of a Providence that we constantly perceive that the most
beneficial results are brought about by the least worthy and most
insignificant agents. The purest religions would never have been
established had they not been supported by sinners who felt the burthen
of the old faith; and the most free and enlightened governments are
often generated by the discontented, the disappointed, and the dissolute.
Now, in the Isle of Fantaisie, unfortunately for our revolutionizer, there
was not a single grumbler.
Unable, therefore, to make the bad passions of his fellow creatures the
unconscious instruments of his good purposes, Popanilla must have

been contented to have monopolised all the wisdom of the moderns,
had he not, with the unbaffled wit of an inventor, hit upon a new
expedient. Like Socrates, our philosopher began to cultivate with
sedulousness the society of youth.
In a short time the ladies of Fantaisie were forced to observe that the
fair sex most unfashionably predominated in their evening assemblages;
for the young gentlemen of the island had suddenly ceased to pay their
graceful homage at the altar of Terpsichore. In an Indian isle not to
dance was as bad as heresy. The ladies rallied the recreants, but their
playful sarcasms failed of their wonted effect. In the natural course of
things they had recourse to remonstrances, but their appeals were
equally fruitless. The delicate creatures tried reproaches, but the boyish
cynics received them with a scowl and answered them with a sneer.
The women fled in indignation to their friendly monarch; but the
voluptuary of nature only shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He kissed
away their tears, and their frowns vanished as he crowned their long
hair with roses.
'If the lads really show such bad taste,' said his Majesty, 'why I and my
lords must do double duty, and dance with a couple of you at once.'
Consoled and complimented, and crowned by a King, who could look
sad? The women forgot their anger in their increasing loyalty.
But the pupils of Popanilla had no sooner mastered the first principles
of science than they began to throw off their retired habits and
uncommunicative manners. Being not utterly ignorant of some of the
rudiments of knowledge, and consequently having completed their
education, it was now their duty, as members of society, to instruct and
not to study. They therefore courted, instead of shunned, their
fellow-creatures; and on all occasions