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from the others. They have the privilege of being eternals but with this goes the duty of doing everything for the others who are not obliged to work. To these 700 eternals, we must add 210 probationers (about seventy each year, that is to say, ten from each province). Of the seven billion inhabitants, there are only about forty million children. It is only when they become of age - between eighteen and twenty-one years, depending on the individual - that the children undergo the operation, which gives them a life span of more than 750 years. From then on, they too may have children. This enables the oldest of our non-eternal inhabitants to know their descendants for up to fifty generations. Out of seven billion inhabitants, there are only about one million inactive people, and almost all of them are under treatment for psychological disorders. Our doctors treat them for a period of six months. Most people are interested in the arts, and they paint, sculpt, play music, write, produce films and participate in sports etc... We have a leisure civilization in the full sense of the word. Our cities have an average population of about 500,000 people spread over a very small area. A city is in fact a huge house situated in a high place, inside which people can sleep, love, and do whatever they please. These city houses are about one kilometer in length and height and are traversed in all directions by waves used by everyone for travelling. You tie on a belt, and then place yourself in a wave current, which transports you very rapidly to wherever you wish to go. The cities are cube-like in shape, so that they do not eat up the countryside as they do where you live. Indeed one of your cities with say a population of about 500,000 covers a surface area twenty times greater than ours. The result is that when you want to go into the te 1 country, you have to travel for many hours, whereas in our case, we are there in only tens of seconds. The same architect conceives an entire city, so that it will be pleasing to the eye and will harmonize perfectly with the scenery surrounding it.’ ‘But don't the people who have nothing to do get bored?’ 111 THE ELOHIM - THE SECRET OF ETERNITY