Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/362

 handsome, the figure being, to our idea, rather slight for size of head, and the mouth and nostrils rather wide, yet there was withal a real attraction in their simple and pleasing looks and ways. The elderly Jovians, also, turn out to enjoy this daily sight; and in order the better to do so, there is a commodious public pathway, running between the separate bathing-places of the two sexes, where all these seniors, and any others so inclined, may refresh their eyes with the pleasant and lively spectacle. As I gazed down upon it all, I wondered at times what my good wife would have said to such on-goings, and, still more, to her better half quietly enjoying them. But "Do as they do at Rome" is the rule here; and in this field of innocence, let me add, "Evil be to him who evil thinks." Still, I did rather hint to young Brown that it might probably be almost better, if perhaps we could possibly avoid alluding at all to the subject to the old lady, on our return home.

I might translate the name of this attractive public resort as the Esthetic Walk, only that our term is, perhaps, a trifle too transcendental and abstract for the practical Jovians of Io. Much of a practical and business consideration is connected with all this bathing institution. The Jovians attach very great importance, alike to perfect health and perfect form, because, as they justly say, much expense is saved by the former, and much more work done, and business profit made, by the latter. Such forms, therefore, are held in great distinction, and the Jovians have quite a way of their own of distinguishing them. Thus there is, in every district, the common public bath, to which any one may go; but there is, distinctively,