386 NEW ATLANTIS. 



any man that shall live to see thirty persons descended 

 of his body alive together, and all above three years 

 old, to make this feast ; which is done at the cost of 

 the state. The Father of the Family, whom they call 

 the Tirsan, two days before the feast, taketh to him 

 three of such friends as he liketh to choose ; and is 

 assisted also by the governor of the city or place where 

 the feast is celebrated; and all the persons of the 

 family, of both sexes, are summoned to attend him. 

 These two days the Tirsan sitteth in consultation con 

 cerning the good estate of the family. There, if there 

 be any discord or suits between any of the family, they 

 are compounded and appeased. There, if any of the 

 family be distressed or decayed, order is taken for their 

 relief and competent means to live. There, if any be 

 subject to vice, or take ill courses, they are reproved 

 and censured. So likewise direction is given touching 

 marriages, and the courses of life which any of them 

 should take, with divers other the like orders and 

 advices. The governor assisteth, to the end to put 

 in execution by his public authority the decrees and 

 orders of the Tirsan, if they should be disobeyed; 

 though that seldom needeth ; such reverence and obe 

 dience they give to the order of nature. The Tirsan 

 doth also then ever choose one man from amono-st his 

 sons, to live in house with him : who is called ever 

 after the Son of the Vine. The reason will hereafter 

 appear. On the feast-day, the Father or Tirsan 

 cometh forth after divine service into a large room 

 where the feast is celebrated; which room hath an 

 half-pace l at the upper end. Against the wall, in the 



1 Half-pace or dais, the part raised by a low step above the rest of the 

 floor. S. L. E. 



