Etzler, J. A. (John Adolphus). Paradise within the reach of all men
But, to go back a few years in imagination, think not that life in
these crystal palaces is to bear any analogy to life in our present
humble cottages. Far from it. Clothed, once for all, in some “flexible
stuff,” more durable than George Fox’s suit of leather, composed of
“fibres of vegetables,” “glutinated” together by some “cohesive
substances,” and made into sheets, like paper, of any size or form, man
will put far from him corroding care and the whole host of ills.
“The twenty-five halls in the inside of the square are to be each two
hundred feet square and high; the forty corridors, each one hundred
feet long and twenty wide; the eighty galleries, each from 1,000 to
1,250 feet long; about 7,000 private rooms, the whole surrounded and
intersected by the grandest and most splendid colonnades imaginable;
floors, ceilings, columns with their various beautiful and fanciful
intervals, all shining, and reflecting to infinity all objects and
persons, with splendid lustre of all beautiful colors, and fanciful
shapes and pictures. All galleries, outside and within the halls, are
to be provided with many thousand commodious and most elegant vehicles,
in which persons may move up and down like birds, in perfect security,
and without exertion. Any member may procure himself all the common
articles of his daily wants, by a short turn of some crank, without
leaving his apartment; he may, at any time, bathe himself in cold or
warm water, or in steam, or in some artificially prepared liquor for
invigorating health. He may, at any time, give to the air in his
apartment that temperature that suits his feeling best. He may cause,
at any time, an agreeable scent of various kinds. He may, at any time,
meliorate his breathing air,—that main vehicle of vital power. Thus, by
a proper application of the physical knowledge of our days, man may be
kept in a perpetual serenity of mind, and if there is no incurable
disease or defect in his organism, in constant vigor of health, and his
life be prolonged beyond any parallel which present times afford.
“One or two persons are sufficient to direct the kitchen business. They
have nothing else to do but to superintend the cookery, and to watch
the time of the victuals being done, and then to remove them, with the
table and vessels, into the dining-hall, or to the respective private
apartments, by a slight motion of the hand at some crank. Any
extraordinary desire of any person may be satisfied by going to the
place where the thing is to be had; and anything that requires a
particular preparation in cooking or baking may be done by the person
who desires it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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