In the mean while, and during the Course of this Discipline under the _Karatti_, my Host walk’d me about the City to shew me whatever was curious and observable. We walk’d up and down without any Molestation, and what was more to be admir’d, without any crowding or jostling; quite otherwise than it is with us, where People flock in Heaps to any Thing that is new and uncommon, that they may feast their Curiosity. For the Inhabitants of this Planet have very little Taste for Novelty, and pursue only solid Things. The Name of this City is _Keba_, and it is the second in Dignity of the whole _Potuan_ Empire. The Inhabitants are so sedate and grave, you would swear they were all Senators. Age is particularly honourable here; nor is there a profounder Deference and Veneration any where paid it; for it carries Authority not only in its Sentiments, but in its Looks and Nods. But I much wonder’d that a Nation so sober, so modest as this, should be delighted with Comedies and certain ludicrous Shews and Spectacles that were there exhibited. This did not seem to suit with so much Gravity. Which my Host perceiving, Through all these Dominions, says he, the Subjects divide their Time between Things serious and Things of a gayer Turn, _Saturnumq; gravem nostro Jove frangimus una._ For, among other laudable Institutions of this Empire, there is an Indulgence of innocent Pleasures, by which it is believ’d the Soul is strengthen’d, and prepar’d to sustain the more arduous Duties, and by which those black Clouds of Melancholy are dispell’d, which are thought to be the Sources of Riots, Seditions, and pernicious Counsels. Therefore they chequer the severer Toils with Sports and Plays, so happily tempering Seriousness with Pleasantry, that the first cannot degenerate into Sourness, nor the latter into Impertinence. But it was not without Indignation I observ’d that School-Disputations do there make a Part of the Shews and Theatrical Performances. For at set Times of the Year, Wagers being laid, and a Reward assign’d to the Conquerors, the Disputants engage like a Couple of Gladiators, and much upon the same Terms that fighting Cocks or any such battling Animals do among us. Hence it was a Custom among the Great, to maintain a Set of Disputants, as we do a Pack of Hounds, and to give them a logical Education, that they may be fit for Engagement at the stated Times of the Year. Thus a certain wealthy Citizen in three Years Time had made prodigious Gains, even to the Sum of 4000 _Ricatu_, from one Disputant, whom he maintained for that Purpose. This Disputant, with an amazing Volubility of Tongue, _Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis_,