There were Projects for taxing Soot, Corn, Ribbons, for coining all the Plate of the Nobility, for prohibiting the wearing of Gold or Silver.  Some were for the Government’s taking all the Torchtrees (which gave a Light, and are used like our Candles) and dispose of them, by which great Sums might be raised.  Some were for laying a Tax on all who kept Coaches; others upon all who wore Silver or Gold Spurs:  But these touching only the Rich, the Minister would not listen to.  The Tax which he approved of most, was on the Light of the Sun, according to the Hours it was enjoy’d; so that the poor Peasant, who rose with it, paid for Twelve Hours Day-light, and the Nobility and Gentry, who kept their Beds till Noon, paid only for Six.

Another Tax was laid upon those who drank only Spring Water.  This fell altogether on the Poor, for the better Sort drank the Juice of a certain Tree imported from the Bubohibonians.

Whoever had not an Estate in Land of an Hundred Spasma’s was also tax’d Ten Spasma’s a Year, to be paid out of their Day Labour.  He who deliver’d a Project of fetching Gold from the Moon, was caress’d prodigiously, and his way of reasoning approved; tho’ I gave it in with a [+] as rejected by me, yet he was rewarded, and Preparation order’d for the Journey, in which I was commanded to accompany him:  For, he insinuated to the Minister, that it was possible the Inhabitants might be of my Species; nay, that I myself might have dropp’d out of that World, which was more reasonable than to believe the Story I told, of having pass’d so great a Sea; and that I very likely had form’d this Story out of a Tenderness to my Country lest his Imperial Majesty should attempt its Conquest.

He had so possess’d the Minister with this Notion, that my arguing against it was to no purpose.  He told me one Day, That all the Philosophers allow’d, nay, maintain’d, that both Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, were generated, grew, and were nourished, by the Spirit of the World:  A Quintessence partaking of all the Four Elements, tho’ it was no One, might be called Air, and was not; Fire, and was not Fire, _&c._ That this Spirit was assisted by the Influence of the Planets, and tended to the highest Perfection of Purity.  That all Metals were generated by the said Spirit, and differ’d from one another, but according to the Purity or Impurity of the Matrices which receiv’d it.  That as the Planets Influence was necessary, that of the Moon must, as the nearest to the Earth, be the most efficacious:  That as it was visible to the Eye, the Moon was more depurated than the Earth; was surrounded by a thinner Air, in which the Spirit of the World is more abundant, and was nearer to the other Planets, he naturally concluded, that it must abound in Gold Mines; and this Conclusion was strengthened by the Mountains discernible in the Moon; and Mountains being mostly rocky, afforded the purest Matrice for the Universal Spirit; so that it seem’d to him impossible, that any other Metal, less pure, could be generated in that World.  That such Metals, for their Use, were often preferable to Gold, and that in denying my Descent from thence, I was in Fact, doing an Injury to those I wish’d to serve, since by Intercourse with those Inhabitants, both Worlds might find their Advantage.