Life in a Thousand WorldsHarris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Science
Life in a Thousand Worlds
Harris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Utopias
The Shakespeare of that planet is a woman called Ziek-dod who has been
dead twelve hundred years. Her writings have been quoted and esteemed as
masterpieces all through these ages. Her style is singular, resembling
the proverbs of Solomon, with a little more ornament in the language.
As to the subject matter, her epigrammatic sentences are grouped and
classified with an accuracy that is both pleasing and popular. At
intervals the reader is treated with a sprinkling of alliterative
sentences.
Ziek-dod shines as an eternal star among the great names of her world.
Like Veorda, she was pure-hearted and possessed fine moral and spiritual
qualities. She passed out into that Broader Life where language is
sweeter and thoughts are more holy.
In music I noticed the most radical departures. The popular home
instrument is larger than our organ and has nearly one hundred keys
arranged somewhat like the keyboard of a typewriter.
These keys and their combinations are capable of rendering sounds to
correspond with every syllable found in their words. A proper
familiarity with these sounds is a part of every child's training on
Saturn.
When one plays on this instrument every sound struck on the keys
represents a certain vowel-consonant sound. Thus the listener hears the
sounds more distinctly than we hear the words of a phonograph.
Under such conditions a musician is capable of interpreting his exact
feelings when manipulating the keys. He talks to his listeners with
organ sounds. The great poet musicians can breathe out their
inspirations in rapturous melodies. On special occasions famous
musicians are employed to render original selections. Addresses and
lectures are also given in this manner with very pleasing results.
The Saturnites know nothing of the Telephone, Telegraph, or Phonograph.
But for carrying messages they have a signal system by which
intelligence is flashed from one point to another with great rapidity.
Saturn has eight moons and is surrounded with the rings which have made
it famous from the time the planet was first seen through the telescope.
These rings and moons are inhabited by a type of human beings altogether
different from those that live on the planet, and are distinctly visible
to the dwellers of Saturn by means of powerful telescopes.
The human beings on the rings are not able to watch their neighbors in
space, having no instruments to carry their vision beyond the
boundaries of their own peculiar abodes.
The most picturesque sight of all the Solar System is seen as you stand
on Saturn, and watch the rings and the eight moons chasing one another
in the heavens above you.
The inhabitants of this beautiful world believe that the soul of each
God-adorer at death passes out into the spirit life on the rings where
it will continue in a blissful existence until the final judgment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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