Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/53

 suitable questions. The remarks of the young, thus drawn out, were listened to with as serious attention as the words of the wisest. Their opinions, if not coincided in, were met, not by ridicule, but by a few words of comment intended less to convey the elder's opinion than to suggest the correct line of thought. Conversation thus became an important, if not the most important, means of education, in so far as the training of the moral perceptions, and the exercise of the judgment, is of greater importance than the mere imparting of information.

If required to state the pervading characteristic of the manners of these people, I should say self-control. In proportion as man had become master of nature, it had become needful to become master of himself. Calm self-respect was there, such as might he expected in a class. conscious of high powers, and knowing no superior: arrogance was wanting, that in which it originates being wanting,—a supposed inferior class or classes.

I have already adverted to the general prevalence of personal beauty among the population. To this rule the hostess and her sister were no exceptions. Ulmene, though the mother of a twelve-year-old girl, and, as I learned, in her thirty-fourth year, was in the pride of her beauty. She differed from her sister, some twelve years younger, chiefly in the Juno-like dignity befitting the mother of two children.

Ialma was soon to be a bride,—as soon, indeed, as she should reach the legal age,—twenty-three. She was now receiving from her sister some final instruction in the practical details of housekeeping. Though within a few weeks of her wedding-day, she was entirely free from the