these various objects are frequently abrupt and decided to a degree to
which we can here offer no comparison. The other world about to be
described is, in fact, essentially another Earth--widely differing,
indeed, from ours in its details, but still subjected to the same
natural laws. Its inhabitants, like devout persons here, look forward
with reverent feeling towards the abode of the blest. To a purely
spiritual or angelic region these fragments do not relate.

The name of "Montalluyah," which more immediately belongs to the chief
city in the planet, is not incorrectly extended so as to include the
entire sphere. This new world is not made up of separate countries and
mutually independent states like those of the Earth, but, forming one
kingdom, is governed by one supreme Ruler, assisted by twelve kings
inferior to him in rank and power.

The speaker in the fragments (which may almost be said to take the form
of an autobiography) was the son of one of the twelve kings, who by his
genius and worth became "Tootmanyoso," or supreme Ruler. In the planet
his name is mentioned with even more reverence than, by different
peoples, is paid to that of Zoroaster, Solon, Lycurgus, or Alfred; but
he has this peculiarity that he does not fade, like many other great
legislators, into mythical indistinctness, but is himself the exponent
of his own polity.

It must not, however, be supposed that this great legislator was the
first to rescue his world from mere barbarism. The founder of
civilization in Montalluyah seems to have been a very ancient sage named
Elikoia, to whom brief reference is made in the following pages. Prior
to the reign of our Tootmanyoso the people had passed through various
stages of civilization, under the guidance of many wise and good men.