the laws of hospitality; so, taking Bruce by a
way on which the dust was of gold and the
pebbles precious stones, he brought him to his
own house (the walls of which were mostly
composed of jewels), and introduced him to his
wife: a pleasant old lady, who, in the first
instance, regaled him with a glass of cordial. The
language in which the amiable couple conversed
was altogether strange to Bruce, but the old
gentleman soon set him right by anointing the
tip of his tongue, his ears, his forehead, his
temples, and the crown of his head. He was
then enabled to understand and converse with
his new acquaintance.

A sojourn with the hospitable old gentleman
soon made Bruce acquainted with the domestic
habits of the nation now brought to his notice.
Three per day was the number of meals, none
of which lasted more than ten minutes, and
which all consisted of vegetable food. For
beds, the people used a mattress, with a rug or
quilt for their only covering; so hardy were
they rendered by this mode of living, that
the average length of life among them was three
hundred years, and a man of one hundred and
fifty was thought to have attained his prime.
Their dress was a kind of petticoat, reaching
from the waist to the ankles; their shoes, made
of leather, were large and easy; and they wore
their hair and beards to a great length, in the
belief that it was impiety to destroy a manifest
gift of their Creator.

But, after all, where was Bruce when he
made his interesting observations? This he
did not exactly know himself until he had been
enlightened by his venerable host, who informed
him that the world in which he now sojourned
was the very centre of the globe which men
call the earth. The Newtonian law, according
to which the attraction of gravitation varies
inversely as the square of the distance from
the centre, thus fully accounted for Bruce's
adhesion to the soil, when he alighted from
the load of hay. The Central World is one
thousand miles in diameter, and necessarily
having no light from the sun, is illumined by
the concave surface of the earth, which is
thickly studded with jewels of enormous size.
Bruce, looking as if he did not precisely
understand how a jewel, large or small, could shine
in the dark, was informed that the Central
World itself constantly emitted rays, which fell
or rather rose upon the gems, and the efficiency
of which was further increased by an atmosphere
thirty miles high. This system of give and
take having satisfactorily accounted for the
existence of day, the phenomenon of night had
yet to be explained; Bruce, to his infinite
edification, was informed that an opaque body,
of exactly the same size and area as half the
concave surface of the earth, performed a
complete revolution in twenty-four hours, and thus
for twelve hours shut out the light reflected by
the jewels. The Centralians, however, are not
without their star-lit nights, for the opaque
body is itself sprinkled with large gems, which
answer the purpose of the constellations in the
heavens contemplated by the inhabitants of the
earth's surface.

Taking an early walk one morning, and finding
himself rather fatigued, Bruce laid himself
on a field that was one carpet of lovely flowers,
and delighted himself with listening to the
songs of the innumerable birds that surrounded
him. For some time he remained motionless,
lest, by stirring he might frighten them
away; but at last, venturing to raise his head
in order to examine them more closely, he
was pleased to find that, far from being timid,
some of them perched on his head, some on his
shoulders, and one even on his hand. While
he was agreeably amused by a concert of these
"feathered songsters" (a name commonly given
to birds in 1802), he was found by his host,
who, taking him home to breakfast, explained
to him that the tameness of the birds, which
appeared so surprising, was a natural result
of the manners and customs of the country.
Where other animals are devoured and
persecuted by man, they usually fear and dislike
him; but among the Centralians, whose diet
consists exclusively of vegetables, and who would
not on any account take the life of any being
more highly organised than a cabbage, they find
no cause for alarm. It may be added that the
kindness of the Centralians to speechless
creatures is in some measure founded on a firm
belief that all animals are endowed with souls,
and that acts dictated by reason have been
wrongly attributed to instinct. This belief
leads to the further inference that, inasmuch as
beasts birds and insects are mostly free from
the vices incident to humanity, they are really
superior to the men we commonly find on the
surface of the earth. The savage satire of
Swift's Voyage to Houyhnhnms is thus repeated
in a mild and amiable tone.

Further experiences familiarised Bruce with
the docility of brutes in the Central World. A
lion, whom he accidentally roused from sleep,
licked his feet and fawned on him—nay, even
brought back a large stone which he flung,
to ascertain if the formidable animal had the
usual habits of a faithful dog. Once, the evil
nature he had acquired in the outer world,
prompted him, on the discovery of a sitting
hare, to long for a gun, and he picked up a
stone as an imperfect substitute; but the
fearlessness with which the little creature ran up
to him, and played a thousand tricks around
him, touched his conscience, so, desisting from
his infamous purpose, he resolved to be "more
circumspect for the future."

After Bruce had passed some time with the
family of his excellent host, the eldest son, a
youth of seventy, proposed a jaunt to the
capital, which being only three hundred miles
off, could easily be reached by daylight, if
they started at eight o'clock in the morning.
The proposal was accepted with joy; and
when the appointed time arrived, Bruce and
the son, fortified by the host's wife with a
basket containing sweet cakes and fruits, and a
bottle of excellent cordial, prepared for their