The Voyage of Captain PopanillaDisraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
General
The Voyage of Captain Popanilla
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
Utopias -- Fiction
At this moment the Aboriginal Inhabitant appeared, and announced that
in examining the old Hall of Audience, which had been long locked up,
he had discovered in a corner, where they had been flung by the stout
soldier when he stole away the head, the remaining portions of the
Statue; that they were quite uninjured, and that on fixing the head once
more upon them, and winding up the works, he was delighted to find that
this great work of his ancestor, under whose superintendence the nation
had so flourished, resumed all its ancient functions. The people were
in a state of mind for a miracle, and they hailed the joyful wonder with
shouts of triumph. The State was placed under the provisional care of
the Aboriginal. All arrangements for its superintendence were left
to his discretion, and its advice was instantly to be taken upon that
subject which at present was nearest the people’s hearts.
But that subject was encompassed with difficulties. Pine-apples could
only be again procured by an application to the Prince of the World,
whose connection they had rejected, and by an introduction into
the island of those foreign agents, who, now convinced that the
Vraibleusians could not exist without their presence, would be more
arrogant and ambitious and turbulent than ever. Indeed, the Aboriginal
feared that the management of the Statue would be the sine qua non of
negotiation with the Prince. If this were granted, it was clear that
Vraibleusia must in future only rank as a dependent state of a foreign
power, since the direction of the whole island would actually be at
the will of the supplier of pine-apples. Ah! this mysterious taste for
fruit! In politics it has often occasioned infinite embarrassment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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