Crystal streams trickled down from the mountains and were utilized for practical and æsthetic purposes. Small parks, exquisitely pretty, were very numerous, and in them the sparkling water was made to play curious pranks. Each of these spots was an ideal resting place, and I saw many elderly people enjoying them,--people whom I took to be from sixty to seventy years of age, but who, I was astonished to learn, were all upwards of a hundred. Perfect health and longevity are among the rewards of right living practiced from generation to generation. The forms of these old people were erect and their faces were beautiful in intelligence and sweetness of expression. I remarked, apropos of the general beauty and elegance of the buildings we passed: "This must be the fine quarter of Lunismar." "No, not especially," returned Calypso, "it is about the same all over." "Is it possible! then you must all be rich?" said I. "We have no very poor," he replied, "though of course some have larger possessions than others. We have tried, several times in the history of our race, to equalize the wealth of the country, but the experiment has always failed, human nature varies so much." "What, even here?" I asked. "What do you mean?" said he. "Why, I understand that you Caskians have attained to a most perfect state of development and culture, and--" I hesitated and he smiled. "And you think the process eliminates individual traits?" he inquired. Clytia laughingly added: "I hope, sir, you did not expect to find us all exactly alike, that would be too tame!" "You compliment me most highly," said Calypso, seriously, "but we must not permit you to suppose that we regard our 'development' as anywhere near perfect, In fact, the farther we advance, the greater, and the grander, appears the excellence to which we have not yet attained. Though it would be false modesty--and a disrespect to our ancestors--not to admit that we are conscious of having made some progress, as a race. We know what our beginnings were, and what we now are." After a moment he went on: "I suppose the principle of differentiation, as we observe it in plant and animal life, is the same in all life, not only physical, but intellectual, moral, spiritual. Cultivation, though it softens salient traits and peculiarities, may develop infinite variety in every kind and species." I understood this better later on, after I had met a greater number of people, and after my perceptions had become more delicate and acute,--or when a kind of initiatory experience had taught me how to see and to value excellence.