The Blazing World

The Empress has many different peoples as advisors: bird-men astronomers; bear-men experimental philosophers; ape-men chemists; fly-men, worm-men, and fish-men natural philosophers; spider-men and lice-men mathematicians; jackdaw-men, magpie-men, and parrot-men orators and logicians; and giant architects.

The Empress decides to use her position and her ability to speak the language to learn about the Blazing World. She asks the statesmen why the land has so few laws. They respond that laws cause conflict. The monarchy is their preferred form of government because just as a body has one head, so they have one Emperor. Similarly, even though the people attend many different churches, they all worship the same God with the same prayers.

Next, the architects explain how that the city’s buildings are low to the ground to avoid damage from the weather and heat.

The Empress convenes the bird-men astronomers and asks them about the sun, moon, and stars, learning that the Blazing World gets its name from its only perceivable celestial objects, the Blazing Stars. She then asks them to explain things about the air, wind, snow, thunder, and lightning. After they answer, she commands the experimental observers, the bear-men, to train their telescopes on the pole to see where she came from.