 In describing the Conclave's reaction to the Maternite emergency, the author is making a comparison to:
] I was wandering among the tall grass of the slopes, listening to the soft whistling of the wind; allowing the grass to caress my toga and thighs. It was a day soft and clear; a day accepted by the young, cherished by we old. In whose names Man finally left this earth, to seek his cousins among the stars. And indeed it was but a moment before Melia slipped through the high grass to stand at his side. "Sias," they were saying, "the Maternite's gone." Then turned to me, and said calmly, "The watcher at the Maternite Machine, it appears, has been drunk. Everything has evaporated in Maternite. In moments of emergency, it is wise to speak with caution. A man my age does not hurry in the heat of the midday sun—maddugs nenglishmin go out in the midday sun, as the ancients say, although I often wonder why—but Xeon and Melia ran all the way down to the city. They were aware that they stood in the midst of an unprecedented happening; indeed, an emergency. They were created so long ago, indeed, that the ignorant believe them to have been constructed by the gods themselves. Indeed, the watcher is more a tradition than a necessity. I hastened to the City Hall and found the Conclave assembled, waiting for me to bring them to order. They accompanied me past the marble pillars into the cool recesses of the Hall, then seated themselves on the floor as I took my place by the great table.
 how modern leaders revert to ceremony and argument instead of problem-solving
 how authoritarian governments, though less humane, are often more effective in executing policies  how modern leaders revert to ceremony and argument instead of problem-solving  how the filibuster prevents governments from making real progress for its people  how young members and elder members of governments typically reach an impasse