Niels Klim's journey under the ground: being a narrative of his wonderful descent to the subterranean lands; together with an account of the sensible animals and trees inhabiting the planet Nazar and the firmament.Holberg, Ludvig
Science
Niels Klim's journey under the ground: being a narrative of his wonderful descent to the subterranean lands; together with an account of the sensible animals and trees inhabiting the planet Nazar and the firmament.
Holberg, Ludvig
Utopias -- Early works to 1800; Voyages, Imaginary -- Early works to 1800
Most of the things which I shall now relate, are so curious, that the
reader may be easily brought to believe them to be written from mere
whim, or at least to be poetical contrivance. The physical and moral
diversities are so many and so great, on this planet, that a man who has
only considered the difference between the antipodal nations of the
earth, can form but a faint idea of the same. It must be observed that
the nations of Nazar are divided by sounds and seas, and that this globe
is a kind of Archipelago.
It would be wearisome to relate all my adventures, and I shall limit my
remarks to those people who seemed to me the most remarkable.
The only things which I found in common with all, were figure and
language. All were trees. But in customs, gestures, and sense, so great
was the diversity, that each province appeared like a new world.
In Quamso, the province next to Potu, the inhabitants are entirely oak
trees. They know not of bodily weakness or disease, but arrive in
perfect and continued health to a very great age. They seem to be the
most fortunate of all creatures; but I found, after some intercourse
with them, that this assumption was a great mistake. Although I never
saw any of them sad, yet none appeared to be happy. The purest heaven
is never impressive, but after a storm; so happiness is not appreciated
by these oaks, because it is never interrupted; they bless not health,
because they are never sick. They spend their lives in tame and
uninterrupted indifference. Possessed of little politeness and goodness
of heart, their conversation is cold and cheerless; their manners stiff
and haughty. Without passions, they are crimeless; without weakness,
they are pitiless.
Those alone to whom pain and sickness bring the remembrance of their
mortality, learn in their own sufferings, to sympathise with and
compassionate the woes of others.
I was now in a land, where I had a living proof of how much the
occurrence of pain and the fear of death tend to produce mutual love and
cheerful converse among fellow beings. Here, for the first time, I came
to know the folly and sin of grumbling at the Creator, for bringing upon
us trouble and suffering, which are really good for us, and which
produce the happiest consequences.
The province Lalak, which is sometimes called Maskatta, or the Blessed
Land, was the next in the order of my journey. This land is very
appropriately named. All things spring forth spontaneously:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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