The Diothas, or, A Far Look Ahead/Chapter 15
Though all the above particulars were not known to me at the time; yet I knew sufficient to make me regard with intense interest the great city that lay before me, where university life was carried on under such novel conditions. Novel to me, I should say. for the system had been in operation for thousands of years. Buildings could there. be seen, venerable both from the associations that clustered around them, and from an antiquity rivalled by no edifice now existing, except, perhaps, the pyramids. That extensive pile to the right, its numerous domes glittering with their coverings of ualin of various hues, was the great Travud Uergol, or College of Electric Science. That still more extensive series of edifices on the outer verge of the city was the Muetra, or Medical College for Women, to whose portals husbands might escort their wives, but were not permitted to enter.
Rich by the bequests of many generations of grateful alumnæ, this college was endowed to superfluity with all that could further the important object for which it existed, and offered all its resources, without charge, to the thousands of fair young brides, who, as students, thronged during winter its august portals. As well as I could make out from my point of view, the Muctra consisted of a series of quadrangles enclosing extensive open spaces adorned with grass, trees, flowers, and fountains. Interspersed with these were frequent statues of those who had deserved well of mankind by advancement of the healing art, and of benefactors of the college.
Even from that distance I could distinguish the inaguificent central avenue of cedars of Lebanon, the boast and glory of the college, with which they were almost coeval. During the summer the grounds were open to the public. It was, indeed, during a visit there, in company with Utis, that I saw and heard much of what is here mentioned.
He then told me of his first visit there in company with Ulmene, then a wife of two months. The husbands of the fair students were admitted, it seems, on certain occasions, to a sort of public reception, much as ladies are now admitted to a view of the clubs of their male relatives. One of these days was the opening day, when the students for that year appeared, to enter their names on the great roll. On this occasion each was usually accompanied by her mother, who with pride introduced her daughter to the well-remembered walks and buildings so closely associated with those happy days of carly wifebood. She would, also, probably show her, on the ancient rolls, the long series of ancestresses, her predecessors, extending far back into the distant past, who, like her, had trodden those time-honored halls.
After I had sufficiently feasted my eyes on the prospect from the balcony, I ascended the tower. This proved to be an observatory, rising to about a hundred and fifty feet above high water. From this elevation I could see far up the Sound, and over Long Island, cultivated like a garden, and dotted with the clumps of trees that indicated the presence of a home. Turning toward the ocean, I could see for about twelve miles beyond the island.
Of all that met my eye, the ocean alone seemed unchanged. The glints of varying color, the whitecaps, the surge upon the sandy shore, were even as of old. The very ships, at that distance, were not unlike those of eighty centuries before. While my nostrils snuffed up the well-remembered odor, my eyes followed the long line of white along the Jersey shore, toward where, in the distance, I fancied lay that beach forever associated with such sweet and bitter recollections. A feeling of strange sadness came over me, a sort of homesick longing for that past which already began to seem so unreal.
An approaching step recalled me to myself. A young man, perhaps a year or so older than myself. and of a countenance strikingly intellectual, issued from the door that opened on the balcony. Observing that my eye was attracted by the strange-looking instrument he carried in his hand. he said, with a pleasant smile,
"Perhaps you would like to see me visit the instruments?"
I duly acknowledged his courtesy, and followed to a dome-shaped apartment of large size, filled with instruments of even stranger appearance than that which had attracted my attention. With this instrument he proceeded to perform certain operations, as mysterious in purpose as the instrument was peculiar in form. This completed, he courteously began an explanation of the various uses of the strange objects before us. My silent attention apparently impressed him favorably in regard to my general intelligence and love of science. Yet his instruments were, in reality, even less intelligible to me than those I have wonderingly regarded in the Park Observatory.
We were still engaged in this way when Utis made his appearance. He greeted my kind informant with the air of an old acquaintance, and introduced me. On learning my name, Anvar Siured, for so the scientist was named to me, urgently pleaded that we should partake of the mid-day refection in company with his father, who, it seemed, was director of the observatory.
"I have not had the advantage of meeting your father," said Anvar; but, from the high regard I know my father cherishes to the memory of Eured Thiusen, I know he would greatly regret not seeing you."
On following to the study, we found a handsome, grayhaired gentleman seated before a calculating machine and a board, on which were traced complicated curves. He was deeply immersed in the solution of a problem. At a gesture from the son, we awaited in silence the leisure of the absorbed astronomer; while, to my equal interest and astonishment, he caused a marking-point to move over the face of the board, in obedience to the changes he made in the symbols on the table before him.
After I had been duly introduced, I took advantage of the marked kindness of my reception to inquire, in regard to the instrument before me, whether it could be made to describe any curve whatever.
"Any plane curve," was the reply of the old gentleman, evidently gratified by the interest displayed in an instrument that owed great improvements to himself.
At his request I wrote down a function whose curve I wished to see. On glancing over what I had written down, the elder Siured uttered an exclamation of pleasurable recognition; while his son looked at the characters with the blank expression of one to whom they conveyed no idea whatever.
"It was your father taught me the long-lost meaning of that ancient notation employed in the infancy of science. This is what that signifies," he continued, addressing his son, and writing down a new set of symbols, of which all that I could understand was, that the notation employed was much more compact than mine.
It sounded strange to my ears to hear the science of Newton, Lagrange, and Gauss described as the "infancy of science," and their methods alluded to as antique curiosities. I could not but acknowledge to myself, however, that some progress had been made since their days, when I beheld the required curve described in about as short a time as I had taken to write down its formula.
In the course of our return journey, Utis, after answering some other inquiries on my part, said, in reference to the interesting family whose hospitality we had enjoyed,—
"In the Siureds you see a good exemplification of what I told you in regard to our twofold employments. From four till eight in the morning, you would find the elder Siured energetically working the machine by which he finishes the soles for sandals. He thus maintains the vigorous health that has enabled him, for so many years, to devote some ten hours a day to science.
"The machine that so interested you is his special hobby and relaxation. The important improvements due to him have rendered that machine about as perfect in one way as can be desired. But he has set his heart on rendering the machine capable of solving completely the converse as well as the direct problem."
"What is that?" inquired I.
"At present the machine solves perfectly the direct problem,—Given a function, to describe its curve. He wishes to adapt it to the solution of the converse problem,—Given any plane curve, to write down its function."
"That seems to me difficult, if not impossible," said I dubiously.
"The simpler cases are already mastered, however," was the reply; "and he expresses great hopes in regard to the rest."
"But these pursuits of his must involve considerable expense," said I, remembering the comparatively small capital that each could inherit.
"All expenses are probably covered by the small contribution received from every educational institution throughout the world that makes use of his inventions. In return, he gives a full right to all improvements as he reports them. More than this he does not desire."
"You have, then, such things as patent rights among you," I remarked.
"Yes: we consider it but just that a man should enjoy the fruits of intellectual, as well as of any other, labor. The royalty is generally small, however, and is fixed by a jury of experts. Yet, having the whole world as customer, a useful improvement often brings in immense sums to the inventor."
"How are such large fortunes disposed of," said I, "seeing that they cannot be left to one person?"
"That is sometimes a puzzle to the owner himself. A great income is, at present, of no personal advantage. It cannot procure a comfort beyond what all enjoy, nor does it confer an iota of social power. It has even become difficult to find conspicuous ways of employing it to the public advantage, our institutions are so numerous, and so liberally endowed by the generosity of a long series of public benefactors. The patentee, accordingly, frequently surrenders all rights to the public, or conveys them to the trustees of the general fund.
"Great wealth, in fact, is neither desired nor desirable among us. It is an imputation on a man's memory, it is true, if he leaves impaired the patrimony inherited from his father. But that maintained as received, his mind is at rest. The tendency has been, therefore, to increase slightly, from generation to generation, the ancestral inheritance; and, pari passu, the legal maximum of bequest has also been gradually raised."
He then went on to explain the origin and manner of administration of the general fund. This, it seems, was a kind of insurance-fund, towards which all married persons contributed a certain amount every year. It was also the recipient of numerous bequests, of nearly all the superfluous wealth, in fact, that was left by testators. From this fund was replaced all property lost by fire,—by any accident, indeed, beyond the owner's care.
Fires, it may be remarked in passing, were of extremely rare occurrence, as might be inferred from the highly incombustible nature of their building material, into which wood did not enter, being very sparingly employed, even in furniture. Life-insurance was not needful, seeing that every family had a certain amount of property; and premature deaths, among the men at least, were comparatively rare.
Any assistance required by a family on account of sickness, or similar misfortune, was cheerfully accorded by the related families, the family-feeling being very strong. Children, orphaned of both parents, found many eager to adopt them. The supply of such children was, in fact, far below the demand; the one want of many households being that crowning grace,—little ones to love and care for.
During the rest of the journey, and after we had retired to my study, I received much further information in regard to the social arrangements of the period. This, said Utis, was the more necessary, because, on the following day, I should meet and be introduced to a larger number of people than I had seen as yet, including a number of relatives by my mother's side.
"What is the occasion?" I naturally inquired.
"To-morrow is the day of rest," was the reply.
A moment's reflection showed me that such was the case. It was now the evening of the day that, in the ancient nomenclature, was called Saturday. I had altogether lost track of the days. So many new ideas had been crowding upon me, that it seemed as if years had elapsed since, in crossing the threshold of my chamber, I had, in fact, crossed that of a new world.