A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

113
There are many other crimes, all of which are severely punished. The
worse the offence is, the better is the offender treated. Among the
Kosekin capital punishment is imprisonment amid the greatest splendor,
where the prisoner is treated like a king, and has many palaces and
great retinues; for that which we consider the highest they regard as
the lowest, and with them the chief post of honor is what we would
call the lowest menial office. Of course, among such a people, any
suffering from want is unknown, except when it is voluntary. The
pauper class, with all their great privileges, have this restriction,
that they are forced to receive enough for food and clothing. Some,
indeed, manage by living in out-of-the-way places to deprive
themselves of these, and have been known to die of starvation; but
this is regarded as dishonorable, as taking an undue advantage of a
great position, and where it can be proved, the children and relatives
of the offender are severely punished according to the Kosekin
fashion.
State politics here move, like individual affairs, upon the great
principle of contempt for earthly things. The state is willing to
destroy itself for the good of other states; but as other states are
in the same position, nothing can result. In times of war the object
of each army is to honor the other and benefit it by giving it the
glory of defeat. The contest is thus most fierce. The Kosekin, through
their passionate love of death, are terrible in battle; and when they
are also animated by the desire to confer glory on their enemies by
defeating them, they generally succeed in their aim. This makes them
almost always victorious, and when they are not so not a soul returns
alive. Their state of mind is peculiar. If they are defeated they
rejoice, since defeat is their chief glory; but if they are victorious
they rejoice still more in the benevolent thought that they have
conferred upon the enemy the joy, the glory, and the honor of defeat.
Here all shrink from governing others. The highest wish of each is to
serve. The Meleks and Kohens, whom I at first considered the highest,
are really the lowest orders; next to these come the authors, then the
merchants, then farmers, then artisans, then laborers, and, finally,
the highest rank is reached in the paupers. Happy the aristocratic,
the haughty, the envied paupers! The same thing is seen in their
armies. The privates here are highest in rank, and the officers come
next in different graduations. These officers, however, have the
command and the charge of affairs as with us; yet this is consistent