| TOMMASO CAMPANELLA I The great ruler among them is a priest whom they call by the name HOH, though we should call him Metaphysic. He is head over all, in temporal and spiritual matters, and all business anti lawsuits are settled by him as the supreme authority. Three princes of equal powerviz, Pon, Sin and Morassist him, and these in our tongue we should call POWER, WISDOM AND LOVE. To POWER belongs the care of all matters relating to war and He attends to the military arts, and, next to Hoh, he is ruler in every affair of a warlike nature. He governs the military magistrates and the soldiers, and has the management of the munitions, the fortifications, to storming of places, the implements of war, the armories, the smiths and workmen connected with matters of this sort. On the interior wall of the first circuit all the mathematical figures are conspicuously paintedfigures more in number than Archimedes or Euclid discovered, marked symmetrically, and with the explanation of them neatly written and contained each in a little verse. There are definitions and propositions, etc., etc. On the exterior convex wall is first an immense drawing of the whole earth, given at one view. Following upon this, there are tablets setting forth for every separate country the customs both public and private, the laws, the origins and the power of the inhabitants; and the alphabets the different people use can be seen above that of the city of the sun. On the inside of the second circuit, that is to say of the second ring of buildings, paintings of all kinds of precious and common stones, of minerals and metals are seen; and a little piece of the metal itself is also there with an apposite explanation in two small verses for each metal or stone. On the outside are marked all the seas, rivers, lakes, and streams which are on the face of the earth; as are also the wines and the oil, and the different liquids, with the sources from which the last are extracted, their qualities and strength. Where are also vessel built into the wall above the arches, and these are full of liquids from one to three hundred years old, which cure all diseases. Hail and snow, storms and thunder, and whatever else takes place in the air, are represented with suitable figures and little verses. The inhabitants even have the art of representing in stone all the phenomena of the air, such as the wind, rain, thunder, the rainbow, etc. | |
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