mong our kings. He aided me much in the devising
and carrying out many things for the well-being of our planet.

[Footnote 1: All students, even beginners, sketch from
nature, no other sketching is allowed.]

Had I not been the son of a king I should probably have been educated as
a harpist; for even as a child I showed great disposition for the harp,
and composed both words and music for my favourite instrument; but my
father's chief councillor, a man of great sagacity, saw in me the germ
of intellectual powers far beyond those required for the most perfect
execution of the harp, and, counselled by this sage, I was led to other
studies by judicious treatment, to the doubting surprise of my early
tutors.

* * * * *

I will now give you some account of one of the great works begun and
ended in my reign.

This work, called 'The Wonder' of my Planet, was by our poets often
spoken of as resembling my polity in the strength of its foundation, and
in beauty, grandeur, and stability, as a work which, like my laws, they
said had saved a world from destruction, and would endure for ever!

VIII.

THE STAR CITY.

"The City of delights. The beloved of the Angels."

The power of the sun in my world is great, and the heat and light are
excessive. The great heat being, however, tempered by cooling,
refreshing winds, and gushing waters, is to our constitutions generally
agreeable, except at the period called the extreme season.

The colours in the sky are in great variety, and of exceeding
transparency and brightness, some parts presenting masses of gorgeous
reds, golden colours, rich greens, and pinks of many shades.

The skies present also the appearance of a most irregular and uneven
surface--as though there were high hills, some with their peaks, some
with their bases, towards the earth, and with large spaces between, so
that whilst in one part these hill-peaks and bases appear only a few
miles off, other parts of the sky seem very distant.

In vast mountainous and rocky regions is built our great city called
Montalluyah, that is, "God's own City."

What are called the _External World Cities_ are built on the base sides
and summits of many peaked mountains, rocks, hills, and promontories,
girded, intersected, and undermined by the sea.

The City is divided into 200 districts each known by a name indicative of
the situation:--

The Upper Mountain Cit