diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:18:04 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:18:04 -0700 |
| commit | aacddcb362e16e4dde32bace3a8ae3d9b03dfa3e (patch) | |
| tree | 293592d9232701c647dca50f1ebb7cfedf732c8f | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951-0.txt | 5389 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 125900 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 130915 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951-h/1951-h.htm | 5968 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951.txt | 5389 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1951.zip | bin | 0 -> 125600 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/cmgrc10.txt | 5921 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/cmgrc10.zip | bin | 0 -> 124901 bytes |
11 files changed, 22683 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1951-0.txt b/1951-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5a5907 --- /dev/null +++ b/1951-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5389 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Coming Race + +Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Release Date: February 18, 2006 [EBook #1951] +Last Updated: August 28, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + + + + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + + + + + +THE COMING RACE + +by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton + + + + +Chapter I. + + +I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My ancestors +migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather +was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, +therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; +and being also opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public +service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by +his tailor. After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived +much in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sent at the age +of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete my literary education, +partly to commence my commercial training in a mercantile firm at +Liverpool. My father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left +well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for +a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory +wanderer over the face of the earth. + +In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a +professional engineer, with whom I had made acquaintance, to visit the +recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was employed. + +The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my reason for +concealing all clue to the district of which I write, and will perhaps +thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to its +discovery. + +Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the +engineer into the interior of the mine, and became so strangely +fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend’s +explorations, that I prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and +descended daily, for some weeks, into the vaults and galleries hollowed +by nature and art beneath the surface of the earth. The engineer was +persuaded that far richer deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been +detected, would be found in a new shaft that had been commenced under +his operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm +jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst asunder at some +distant period by volcanic fires. Down this chasm my friend caused +himself to be lowered in a ‘cage,’ having first tested the atmosphere +by the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he +returned he was very pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression +of face, very different from its ordinary character, which was open, +cheerful, and fearless. + +He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and leading to +no result; and, suspending further operations in the shaft, we returned +to the more familiar parts of the mine. + +All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by some +absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there was a scared, +bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At +night, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together +near the mouth of the mine, I said to my friend,-- + +“Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was something +strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has left your mind in a state +of doubt. In such a case two heads are better than one. Confide in me.” + + +The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he +spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a +degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a very temperate +man, his reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep himself to +himself should imitate the dumb animals, and drink water. At last he +said, “I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on +a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, +shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which my lamp could +not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinite surprise, streamed +upward a steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire? In that +case, surely I should have felt the heat. Still, if on this there was +doubt, it was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it +up. I examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture +to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some +way. I left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer to +the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable +amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far +as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at +regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard +confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course, +that no rival miners are at work in this district. Whose could be those +voices? What human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled +those lamps? + +“The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell +within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the +thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether +valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot +I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down +abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. Now +I have told you all.” + +“You will descend again?” + +“I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not.” + +“A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. I will +go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and +strength--and--pardon me--you must not drink more to-night, our hands +and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow.” + + + +Chapter II. + + +With the morning my friend’s nerves were rebraced, and he was not +less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for he evidently +believed in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that +he would have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have +been under one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our +nerves in solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to +the formless and sound to the dumb. + +We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the cage +held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and when he had +gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage rearose for me. +I soon gained his side. We had provided ourselves with a strong coil of +rope. + +The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my +friend’s. The hollow through which it came sloped diagonally: it seemed +to me a diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft +and silvery, as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we descended, +one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till +we reached the place at which my friend had previously halted, and which +was a projection just spacious enough to allow us to stand abreast. From +this spot the chasm widened rapidly like the lower end of a vast funnel, +and I saw distinctly the valley, the road, the lamps which my companion +had described. He had exaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had +heard--a mingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull tramp as of +feet. Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a distance the +outline of some large building. It could not be mere natural rock, it +was too symmetrical, with huge heavy Egyptian-like columns, and the +whole lighted as from within. I had about me a small pocket-telescope, +and by the aid of this, I could distinguish, near the building I +mention, two forms which seemed human, though I could not be sure. At +least they were living, for they moved, and both vanished within the +building. We now proceeded to attach the end of the rope we had brought +with us to the ledge on which we stood, by the aid of clamps and +grappling hooks, with which, as well as with necessary tools, we were +provided. + +We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraid to speak to +each other. One end of the rope being thus apparently made firm to the +ledge, the other, to which we fastened a fragment of the rock, rested on +the ground below, a distance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and +a more active man than my companion, and having served on board ship in +my boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to me than to him. In +a whisper I claimed the precedence, so that when I gained the ground I +might serve to hold the rope more steady for his descent. I got safely +to the ground beneath, and the engineer now began to lower himself. +But he had scarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when the +fastenings, which we had fancied so secure, gave way, or rather the +rock itself proved treacherous and crumbled beneath the strain; and the +unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom, falling just at my feet, +and bringing down with his fall splinters of the rock, one of which, +fortunately but a small one, struck and for the time stunned me. When I +recovered my senses I saw my companion an inanimate mass beside me, +life utterly extinct. While I was bending over his corpse in grief and +horror, I heard close at hand a strange sound between a snort and a +hiss; and turning instinctively to the quarter from which it came, I saw +emerging from a dark fissure in the rock a vast and terrible head, +with open jaws and dull, ghastly, hungry eyes--the head of a monstrous +reptile resembling that of the crocodile or alligator, but infinitely +larger than the largest creature of that kind I had ever beheld in my +travels. I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my utmost +speed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight, and +returned to the spot on which I had left the body of my friend. It +was gone; doubtless the monster had already drawn it into its den and +devoured it. The rope and the grappling-hooks still lay where they had +fallen, but they afforded me no chance of return; it was impossible to +re-attach them to the rock above, and the sides of the rock were too +sheer and smooth for human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strange +world, amidst the bowels of the earth. + + + +Chapter III. + + +Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplit road and +towards the large building I have described. The road itself seemed like +a great Alpine pass, skirting rocky mountains of which the one through +whose chasm I had descended formed a link. Deep below to the left lay +a vast valley, which presented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable +evidences of art and culture. There were fields covered with a strange +vegetation, similar to none I have seen above the earth; the colour of +it not green, but rather of a dull and leaden hue or of a golden red. + +There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved into +artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shone like pools of +naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles opened amidst the rocks, +with passes between, evidently constructed by art, and bordered by trees +resembling, for the most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties +of feathery foliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others were +more like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of flowers. +Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, with short thick stems +supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which either rose or drooped long +slender branches. The whole scene behind, before, and beside me far as +the eye could reach, was brilliant with innumerable lamps. The world +without a sun was bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but +the air less oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before me +void of signs of habitation. I could distinguish at a distance, whether +on the banks of the lake or rivulet, or half-way upon eminences, +embedded amidst the vegetation, buildings that must surely be the homes +of men. I could even discover, though far off, forms that appeared to +me human moving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to +the right, gliding quickly through the air, what appeared a small +boat, impelled by sails shaped like wings. It soon passed out of sight, +descending amidst the shades of a forest. Right above me there was no +sky, but only a cavernous roof. This roof grew higher and higher at the +distance of the landscapes beyond, till it became imperceptible, as an +atmosphere of haze formed itself beneath. + +Continuing my walk, I started,--from a bush that resembled a great +tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubs and plants of +large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or prickly-pear,--a curious +animal about the size and shape of a deer. But as, after bounding away +a few paces, it turned round and gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived +that it was not like any species of deer now extant above the earth, +but it brought instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had seen +in some museum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existed before +the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, after inspecting me a +moment or two, began to graze on the singular herbiage around undismayed +and careless. + + + +Chapter IV. + + +I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been made by +hands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I should have supposed +it at the first glance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptian +architecture. It was fronted by huge columns, tapering upward from +massive plinths, and with capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived +to be more ornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptian +architecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of the +acanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated the foliage of the +vegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like, some fern-like. And now +there came out of this building a form--human;--was it human? It stood +on the broad way and looked around, beheld me and approached. It +came within a few yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it an +indescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to the ground. +It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon that are seen on +Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres--images that +borrow the outlines of man, and are yet of another race. It was tall, +not gigantic, but tall as the tallest man below the height of giants. + +Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings folded +over its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of its attire was +composed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material. +It wore on its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carried +in its right hand a slender staff of bright metal like polished steel. +But the face! it was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was +the face of man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant +races. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression is the +face of the sculptured sphinx--so regular in its calm, intellectual, +mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more like that of the red +man than any other variety of our species, and yet different from it--a +richer and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and +brows arched as a semicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless +something in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteous +though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight of +a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowed +with forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came over +me. I fell on my knees and covered my face with my hands. + + + +Chapter V. + + +A voice accosted me--a very quiet and very musical key of voice--in a +language of which I could not understand a word, but it served to +dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could +scarcely bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that +seemed to read to the very depths of my heart. He then placed his left +hand on my forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my +shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my +former terror there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of +confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in +my own language. He listened to me with apparent attention, but with a +slight surprise in his looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that +I was not understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence +to the building. The entrance was open--indeed there was no door to it. +We entered an immense hall, lighted by the same kind of lustre as in the +scene without, but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large +tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of +matlike carpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated as +if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place, +just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or +the warble of birds to vernal groves. + +A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar +fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold. My guide touched +it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding +movement, skimming noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw +that it was no living form, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two +minutes after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by +curtains at the other end of the hall, when through the same opening +advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with features closely +resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to me evidently son +and father. On seeing me the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff +like that borne by my guide, as if in menace. At a word from the elder +he dropped it. The two then conversed for some moments, examining me +while they spoke. The child touched my garments, and stroked my face +with evident curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an +hilarity more subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently the roof +of the hall opened, and a platform descended, seemingly constructed +on the same principle as the ‘lifts’ used in hotels and warehouses for +mounting from one story to another. + +The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and motioned +to me to do the same, which I did. We ascended quickly and safely, and +alighted in the midst of a corridor with doorways on either side. + +Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber fitted up +with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselated with spars, and +metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; apertures as for +windows but unglazed, were made in the chamber opening to the floor; +and as I passed along I observed that these openings led into spacious +balconies, and commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In +cages suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and +bright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, modulated +into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A delicious fragrance, +from censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air. Several +automata, like the one I had seen, stood dumb and motionless by the +walls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan and again spoke +to me, and again I spoke, but without the least advance towards +understanding each other. + +But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received from the +splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I had done at first. + +There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompanied with acute, +lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sank back on the seat and +strove in vain to stifle a groan. On this the child, who had hitherto +seemed to eye me with distrust or dislike, knelt by my side to support +me; taking one of my hands in both his own, he approached his lips to +my forehead, breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; a +drowsy, heavy calm crept over me; I fell asleep. + +How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke I felt +perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silent forms, seated +around me in the gravity and quietude of Orientals--all more or less +like the first stranger; the same mantling wings, the same fashion of +garment, the same sphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red +man’s colour; above all, the same type of race--race akin to man’s, but +infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect--and inspiring the +same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each countenance was mild and +tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it +seemed to me that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret +of the dread which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of the +lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon +the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or as, in the +eyes of Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of the dead. + +I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child’s. In his eyes there +was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as that with which we may +gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly. I shrank from that touch--I +shrank from that eye. I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he +so pleased, that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill +a bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, quitted +me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. The others continued +to converse with each other in a low tone, and by their glances towards +me I could perceive that I was the object of their conversation. One +in especial seemed to be urging some proposal affecting me on the being +whom I had first met, and this last by his gesture seemed about to +assent to it, when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window, +placed himself between me and the other forms, as if in protection, and +spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or instinct I felt that +the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in my behalf. Ere he had +ceased another stranger entered the room. He appeared older than the +rest, though not old; his countenance less smoothly serene than theirs, +though equally regular in its features, seemed to me to have more the +touch of a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly to the words +addressed to him, first by my guide, next by two others of the group, +and lastly by the child; then turned towards myself, and addressed +me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. These I fancied that I +perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. I comprehended that he +inquired whence I came. I extended my arm, and pointed towards the road +which had led me from the chasm in the rock; then an idea seized me. +I drew forth my pocket-book, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a +rough design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it; +then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, the lifeless +form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my +interrogator, who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next +neighbour, and it thus passed round the group. The being I had at first +encountered then said a few words, and the child, who approached and +looked at my drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, +returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to his form, shook +them once or twice, and then launched himself into space without. I +started up in amaze and hastened to the window. The child was already in +the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a +bird does, but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him +steadily aloft without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift +as an eagle’s; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence I +had descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant +atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned, skimming through the +opening from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope and +grappling-hooks I had left at the descent from the chasm. Some words in +a low tone passed between the being present; one of the group touched an +automaton, which started forward and glided from the room; then the last +comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me by the hand, +and led me into the corridor. There the platform by which I had mounted +awaited us; we placed ourselves on it and were lowered into the hall +below. My new companion, still holding me by the hand, conducted me from +the building into a street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with +buildings on either side, separated from each other by gardens bright +with rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. Interspersed amidst +these gardens, which were divided from each other by low walls, or +walking slowly along the road, were many forms similar to those I had +already seen. Some of the passers-by, on observing me, approached my +guide, evidently by their tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him +inquiries about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us, +examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wild animal. +Yet even in gratifying their curiosity they preserved a grave and +courteous demeanour; and after a few words from my guide, who seemed to +me to deprecate obstruction in our road, they fell back with a +stately inclination of head, and resumed their own way with tranquil +indifference. Midway in this thoroughfare we stopped at a building that +differed from those we had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three +sides of a vast court, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidal +towers; in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of +colossal dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of what seemed to +me fire. We entered the building through an open doorway and came +into an enormous hall, in which were several groups of children, all +apparently employed in work as at some great factory. There was a huge +engine in the wall which was in full play, with wheels and cylinders +resembling our own steam-engines, except that it was richly ornamented +with precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a pale +phosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of the children were +at some mysterious work on this machinery, others were seated before +tables. I was not allowed to linger long enough to examine into the +nature of their employment. Not one young voice was heard--not one young +face turned to gaze on us. They were all still and indifferent as may +be ghosts, through the midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the +living. + +Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted +in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the colours, +like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects described on these walls +appeared to my glance as intended to illustrate events in the history of +the race amidst which I was admitted. In all there were figures, most +of them like the manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same +fashion of garb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigies +of various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, with backgrounds +depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as my imperfect knowledge of +the pictorial art would allow me to form an opinion, these paintings +seemed very accurate in design and very rich in colouring, showing +a perfect knowledge of perspective, but their details not +arranged according to the rules of composition acknowledged by our +artists--wanting, as it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague, +scattered, confused, bewildering--they were like heterogeneous fragments +of a dream of art. + +We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was assembled what I +afterwards knew to be the family of my guide, seated at a table spread +as for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of my guide’s wife, his +daughter, and two sons. I recognised at once the difference between +the two sexes, though the two females were of taller stature and ampler +proportions than the males; and their countenances, if still more +symmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness and +timidity of expression which give charm to the face of woman as seen on +the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughter wore wings longer +than those of the males. + +My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seated rose, +and with that peculiar mildness of look and manner which I have before +noticed, and which is, in truth, the common attribute of this formidable +race, they saluted me according to their fashion, which consists in +laying the right hand very gently on the head and uttering a soft +sibilant monosyllable--S.Si, equivalent to “Welcome.” + +The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped a golden +platter before me from one of the dishes. + +While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled more +at the delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), my companions +conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance +of any direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scrutiny of my +appearance. Yet I was the first creature of that variety of the human +race to which I belong that they had ever beheld, and was consequently +regarded by them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all +rudeness is unknown to this people, and the youngest child is taught to +despise any vehement emotional demonstration. When the meal was ended, +my guide again took me by the hand, and, re-entering the gallery, +touched a metallic plate inscribed with strange figures, and which I +rightly conjectured to be of the nature of our telegraphs. A platform +descended, but this time we mounted to a much greater height than in the +former building, and found ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions, +and which in its general character had much that might be familiar to +the associations of a visitor from the upper world. There were shelves +on the wall containing what appeared to be books, and indeed were so; +mostly very small, like our diamond duodecimos, shaped in the fashion +of our volumes, and bound in sheets of fine metal. There were several +curious-looking pieces of mechanism scattered about, apparently models, +such as might be seen in the study of any professional mechanician. Four +automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these people, answer the +ordinary purposes of domestic service) stood phantom-like at each angle +in the wall. In a recess was a low couch, or bed with pillows. A window, +with curtains of some fibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large +balcony. My host stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were +on the uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; the view beyond +was of a wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe:--the vast +ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distant background, the +intermediate valleys of mystic many-coloured herbiage, the flash of +waters, many of them like streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre +diffused over all by myriads of lamps, combined to form a whole of which +no words of mine can convey adequate description; so splendid was it, +yet so sombre; so lovely, yet so awful. + +But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes. +Suddenly there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of joyous +music; then a winged form soared into the space; another as if in chase +of the first, another and another; others after others, till the crowd +grew thick and the number countless. But how describe the fantastic +grace of these forms in their undulating movements! They appeared +engaged in some sport or amusement; now forming into opposite squadrons; +now scattering; now each group threading the other, soaring, descending, +interweaving, severing; all in measured time to the music below, as if +in the dance of the fabled Peri. + +I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I ventured to place my +hand on the large wings that lay folded on his breast, and in doing so a +slight shock as of electricity passed through me. I recoiled in fear; +my host smiled, and as if courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly +expanded his pinions. I observed that his garment beneath them became +dilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed to slide +into the wings, and in another moment he had launched himself into the +luminous atmosphere, and hovered there, still, and with outspread wings, +as an eagle that basks in the sun. Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he +rushed downwards into the midst of one of the groups, skimming through +the midst, and as suddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, +in one of which I thought to recognise my host’s daughter, detached +themselves from the rest, and followed him as a bird sportively follows +a bird. My eyes, dazzled with the lights and bewildered by the throngs, +ceased to distinguish the gyrations and evolutions of these winged +playmates, till presently my host re-emerged from the crowd and alighted +at my side. + +The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on my +senses; my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined to be +superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could be brought into +bodily communication with demons, I felt the terror and the wild +excitement with which, in the Gothic ages, a traveller might have +persuaded himself that he witnessed a ‘sabbat’ of fiends and witches. +I have a vague recollection of having attempted with vehement +gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud incoherent words, to +repel my courteous and indulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and +soothe me; of his intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment +were occasioned by the difference of form and movement between us which +the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had, in exercise, +made still more strongly perceptible; of the gentle smile with which he +had sought to dispel my alarm by dropping the wings to the ground and +endeavouring to show me that they were but a mechanical contrivance. +That sudden transformation did but increase my horror, and as extreme +fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I sprang at his throat like +a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the ground as by an electric +shock, and the last confused images floating before my sight ere I +became wholly insensible, were the form of my host kneeling beside +me with one hand on my forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his +daughter, with large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed upon my own. + + + +Chapter VI. + + +I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards learned, for many +days, even for some weeks according to our computation of time. When +I recovered I was in a strange room, my host and all his family were +gathered round me, and to my utter amaze my host’s daughter accosted me +in my own language with a slightly foreign accent. + +“How do you feel?” she asked. + +It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enough to falter +out, “You know my language? How? Who and what are you?” + +My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons, who then took from a +table a number of thin metallic sheets on which were traced drawings of +various figures--a house, a tree, a bird, a man, &c. + +In these designs I recognised my own style of drawing. Under each figure +was written the name of it in my language, and in my writing; and in +another handwriting a word strange to me beneath it. + +Said the host, “Thus we began; and my daughter Zee, who belongs to the +College of Sages, has been your instructress and ours too.” + +Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, in my +writing, words first, and then sentences, were inscribed. Under each +word and each sentence strange characters in another hand. Rallying my +senses, I comprehended that thus a rude dictionary had been effected. +Had it been done while I was dreaming? “That is enough now,” said Zee, +in a tone of command. “Repose and take food.” + + + +Chapter VII. + + +A room to myself was assigned to me in this vast edifice. It was +prettily and fantastically arranged, but without any of the splendour +of metal-work or gems which was displayed in the more public apartments. +The walls were hung with a variegated matting made from the stalks and +fibers of plants, and the floor carpeted with the same. + +The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting on balls of +crystal; the coverings, of a thin white substance resembling cotton. +There were sundry shelves containing books. A curtained recess +communicated with an aviary filled with singing-birds, of which I +did not recognise one resembling those I have seen on earth, except a +beautiful species of dove, though this was distinguished from our doves +by a tall crest of bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained +to sing in artful tunes, and greatly exceeded the skill of our piping +bullfinches, which can rarely achieve more than two tunes, and cannot, I +believe, sing those in concert. One might have supposed one’s self at +an opera in listening to the voices in my aviary. There were duets +and trios, and quartetts and choruses, all arranged as in one piece of +music. Did I want silence from the birds? I had but to draw a curtain +over the aviary, and their song hushed as they found themselves left in +the dark. Another opening formed a window, not glazed, but on touching a +spring, a shutter ascended from the floor, formed of some substance +less transparent than glass, but still sufficiently pellucid to allow +a softened view of the scene without. To this window was attached a +balcony, or rather hanging garden, wherein grew many graceful plants +and brilliant flowers. The apartment and its appurtenances had thus a +character, if strange in detail, still familiar, as a whole, to modern +notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration if found attached +to the apartments of an English duchess or a fashionable French author. +Before I arrived this was Zee’s chamber; she had hospitably assigned it +to me. + +Some hours after the waking up which is described in my last chapter, I +was lying alone on my couch trying to fix my thoughts on conjecture as +to the nature and genus of the people amongst whom I was thrown, when my +host and his daughter Zee entered the room. My host, still speaking +my native language, inquired with much politeness, whether it would be +agreeable to me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that +I should feel much honoured and obliged by the opportunity offered me to +express my gratitude for the hospitality and civilities I had received +in a country to which I was a stranger, and to learn enough of its +customs and manners not to offend through ignorance. + +As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch: but Zee, much to my +confusion, curtly ordered me to lie down again, and there was something +in her voice and eye, gentle as both were, that compelled my obedience. +She then seated herself unconcernedly at the foot of my bed, while her +father took his place on a divan a few feet distant. + +“But what part of the world do you come from?” asked my host, “that we +should appear so strange to you and you to us? I have seen individual +specimens of nearly all the races differing from our own, except the +primeval savages who dwell in the most desolate and remote recesses of +uncultivated nature, unacquainted with other light than that they obtain +from volcanic fires, and contented to grope their way in the dark, as do +many creeping, crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be a +member of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do you seem to +belong to any civilised people.” + +I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and replied that I had +the honour to belong to one of the most civilised nations of the earth; +and that, so far as light was concerned, while I admired the ingenuity +and disregard of expense with which my host and his fellow-citizens had +contrived to illumine the regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, +yet I could not conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heaven +could compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented by the +necessities of man. But my host said he had seen specimens of most of +the races differing from his own, save the wretched barbarians he had +mentioned. Now, was it possible that he had never been on the surface +of the earth, or could he only be referring to communities buried within +its entrails? + +My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a degree of +surprise which the people of that race very rarely manifest under any +circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was more intelligent, +and exclaimed, “So you see, my father, that there is truth in the old +tradition; there always is truth in every tradition commonly believed in +all times and by all tribes.” + +“Zee,” said my host mildly, “you belong to the College of Sages, and +ought to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of the Light-preserving +Council, it is my duty to take nothing for granted till it is proved to +the evidence of my own senses.” Then, turning to me, he asked me several +questions about the surface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon +which, though I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answers +seemed not to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head quietly, and, +changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how I had come down from +what he was pleased to call one world to the other. I answered, that +under the surface of the earth there were mines containing minerals, +or metals, essential to our wants and our progress in all arts and +industries; and I then briefly explained the manner in which, while +exploring one of those mines, I and my ill-fated friend had obtained a +glimpse of the regions into which we had descended, and how the descent +had cost him his life; appealing to the rope and grappling-hooks +that the child had brought to the house in which I had been at first +received, as a witness of the truthfulness of my story. + +My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits and modes of +life among the races on the upper earth, more especially among those +considered to be the most advanced in that civilisation which he was +pleased to define “the art of diffusing throughout a community the +tranquil happiness which belongs to a virtuous and well-ordered +household.” Naturally desiring to represent in the most favourable +colours the world from which I came, I touched but slightly, though +indulgently, on the antiquated and decaying institutions of Europe, in +order to expatiate on the present grandeur and prospective pre-eminence +of that glorious American Republic, in which Europe enviously seeks its +model and tremblingly foresees its doom. Selecting for an example of the +social life of the United States that city in which progress advances +at the fastest rate, I indulged in an animated description of the moral +habits of New York. Mortified to see, by the faces of my listeners, that +I did not make the favourable impression I had anticipated, I elevated +my theme; dwelling on the excellence of democratic institutions, their +promotion of tranquil happiness by the government of party, and the +mode in which they diffused such happiness throughout the community by +preferring, for the exercise of power and the acquisition of honours, +the lowliest citizens in point of property, education, and character. +Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a speech, on the purifying +influences of American democracy and their destined spread over the +world, made by a certain eloquent senator (for whose vote in the Senate +a Railway Company, to which my two brothers belonged, had just paid +20,000 dollars), I wound up by repeating its glowing predictions of the +magnificent future that smiled upon mankind--when the flag of freedom +should float over an entire continent, and two hundred millions of +intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily use of +revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrine of the +Patriot Monroe. + +When I had concluded, my host gently shook his head, and fell into a +musing study, making a sign to me and his daughter to remain silent +while he reflected. And after a time he said, in a very earnest and +solemn tone, “If you think as you say, that you, though a stranger, have +received kindness at the hands of me and mine, I adjure you to reveal +nothing to any other of our people respecting the world from which you +came, unless, on consideration, I give you permission to do so. Do you +consent to this request?” “Of course I pledge my word, to it,” said +I, somewhat amazed; and I extended my right hand to grasp his. But +he placed my hand gently on his forehead and his own right hand on my +breast, which is the custom amongst this race in all matters of promise +or verbal obligations. Then turning to his daughter, he said, “And you, +Zee, will not repeat to any one what the stranger has said, or may say, +to me or to you, of a world other than our own.” Zee rose and kissed her +father on the temples, saying, with a smile, “A Gy’s tongue is wanton, +but love can fetter it fast. And if, my father, you fear lest a chance +word from me or yourself could expose our community to danger, by a +desire to explore a world beyond us, will not a wave of the ‘vril,’ +properly impelled, wash even the memory of what we have heard the +stranger say out of the tablets of the brain?” + +“What is the vril?” I asked. + +Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I understood +very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an +exact synonym for vril. I should call it electricity, except that it +comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, +in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as +magnetism, galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they have +arrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has been +conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and which Faraday thus +intimates under the more cautious term of correlation:-- + +“I have long held an opinion,” says that illustrious experimentalist, +“almost amounting to a conviction, in common, I believe, with many other +lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the +forces of matter are made manifest, have one common origin; or, in other +words, are so directly related and mutually dependent that they are +convertible, as it were into one another, and possess equivalents of +power in their action.” + +These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of vril, +which Faraday would perhaps call ‘atmospheric magnetism,’ they can +influence the variations of temperature--in plain words, the weather; +that by operations, akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electro- +biology, odic force, &c., but applied scientifically, through vril +conductors, they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal +and vegetable, to an extent not surpassed in the romances of our +mystics. To all such agencies they give the common name of vril.” + +Zee asked me if, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of +the mind could be quickened to a degree unknown in the waking state, +by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one brain could be +transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly interchanged. +I replied, that there were amongst us stories told of such trance +or vision, and that I had heard much and seen something in mesmeric +clairvoyance; but that these practices had fallen much into disuse or +contempt, partly because of the gross impostures to which they had +been made subservient, and partly because, even where the effects upon +certain abnormal constitutions were genuinely produced, the effects when +fairly examined and analysed, were very unsatisfactory--not to be relied +upon for any systematic truthfulness or any practical purpose, and +rendered very mischievous to credulous persons by the superstitions +they tended to produce. Zee received my answers with much benignant +attention, and said that similar instances of abuse and credulity had +been familiar to their own scientific experience in the infancy of their +knowledge, and while the properties of vril were misapprehended, but +that she reserved further discussion on this subject till I was more +fitted to enter into it. She contented herself with adding, that it +was through the agency of vril, while I had been placed in the state +of trance, that I had been made acquainted with the rudiments of their +language; and that she and her father, who alone of the family, took +the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater proportionate +knowledge of my language than I of their own; partly because my language +was much simpler than theirs, comprising far less of complex ideas; and +partly because their organisation was, by hereditary culture, much more +ductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. At +this I secretly demurred; and having had in the course of a practical +life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or in travel, I could not +allow that my cerebral organisation could possibly be duller than that +of people who had lived all their lives by lamplight. However, while I +was thus thinking, Zee quietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead, +and sent me to sleep. + + + +Chapter VIII. + + +When I once more awoke I saw by my bed-side the child who had brought +the rope and grappling-hooks to the house in which I had been first +received, and which, as I afterwards learned, was the residence of +the chief magistrate of the tribe. The child, whose name was Taee +(pronounced Tar-ee), was the magistrate’s eldest son. I found that +during my last sleep or trance I had made still greater advance in the +language of the country, and could converse with comparative ease and +fluency. + +This child was singularly handsome, even for the beautiful race to which +he belonged, with a countenance very manly in aspect for his years, and +with a more vivacious and energetic expression than I had hitherto seen +in the serene and passionless faces of the men. He brought me the tablet +on which I had drawn the mode of my descent, and had also sketched the +head of the horrible reptile that had scared me from my friend’s corpse. +Pointing to that part of the drawing, Taee put to me a few questions +respecting the size and form of the monster, and the cave or chasm from +which it had emerged. His interest in my answers seemed so grave as +to divert him for a while from any curiosity as to myself or my +antecedents. But to my great embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to +my host, he was just beginning to ask me where I came from, when Zee, +fortunately entered, and, overhearing him, said, “Taee, give to our +guest any information he may desire, but ask none from him in return. To +question him who he is, whence he comes, or wherefore he is here, would +be a breach of the law which my father has laid down in this house.” + +“So be it,” said Taee, pressing his hand to his breast; and from that +moment, till the one in which I saw him last, this child, with whom I +became very intimate, never once put to me any of the questions thus +interdicted. + + + +Chapter IX. + + +It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if they are to +be so called, my mind became better prepared to interchange ideas with +my entertainers, and more fully to comprehend differences of manners +and customs, at first too strange to my experience to be seized by my +reason, that I was enabled to gather the following details respecting +the origin and history of the subterranean population, as portion of one +great family race called the Ana. + +According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the +race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in which their +descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their +archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the +lamps were lighted by no human hand. But such legends were considered by +most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions +the earth itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not +indeed in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of transition +from one form of development to another, and subject to many violent +revolutions of nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the +upper world inhabited by the ancestors of this race had been subjected +to inundations, not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, +save a scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be +a record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier one +contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, +according to the chronology of this people as compared with that of +Newton, it must have been many thousands of years before the time of +Noah. On the other hand, the account of these writers does not harmonise +with the opinions most in vogue among geological authorities, inasmuch +as it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dates long +anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation adapted to the +introduction of mammalia. A band of the ill-fated race, thus invaded by +the Flood, had, during the march of the waters, taken refuge in caverns +amidst the loftier rocks, and, wandering through these hollows, they +lost sight of the upper world forever. Indeed, the whole face of the +earth had been changed by this great revulsion; land had been turned +into sea--sea into land. In the bowels of the inner earth, even now, +I was informed as a positive fact, might be discovered the remains of +human habitation--habitation not in huts and caverns, but in vast cities +whose ruins attest the civilisation of races which flourished before +the age of Noah, and are not to be classified with those genera to which +philosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignorance of iron. + +The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts they had +practised above ground--arts of culture and civilisation. Their earliest +want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light they had +lost above it; and at no time, even in the traditional period, do the +races, of which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to +have been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, or +manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their former state +to contend with the rude forces of nature; and indeed the lengthened +battle they had fought with their conqueror Ocean, which had taken +centuries in its spread, had quickened their skill in curbing waters +into dikes and channels. To this skill they owed their preservation in +their new abode. “For many generations,” said my host, with a sort +of contempt and horror, “these primitive forefathers are said to have +degraded their rank and shortened their lives by eating the flesh of +animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves, escaped the +Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of the earth; other animals, +supposed to be unknown to the upper world, those hollows themselves +produced.” + +When what we should term the historical age emerged from the twilight +of tradition, the Ana were already established in different communities, +and had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that +which the more advanced nations above the earth now enjoy. They +were familiar with most of our mechanical inventions, including the +application of steam as well as gas. The communities were in fierce +competition with each other. They had their rich and their poor; they +had orators and conquerors; they made war either for a domain or +an idea. Though the various states acknowledged various forms of +government, free institutions were beginning to preponderate; popular +assemblies increased in power; republics soon became general; the +democracy to which the most enlightened European politicians look +forward as the extreme goal of political advancement, and which +still prevailed among other subterranean races, whom they despised as +barbarians, the loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was +visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant experiments +which belong to the infancy of political science. It was the age of envy +and hate, of fierce passions, of constant social changes more or less +violent, of strife between classes, of war between state and state. This +phase of society lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought +to a close, at least among the nobler and more intellectual +populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored in the +all-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril. + +According to the account I received from Zee, who, as an erudite +professor of the College of Sages, had studied such matters more +diligently than any other member of my host’s family, this fluid is +capable of being raised and disciplined into the mightiest agency over +all forms of matter, animate or inanimate. It can destroy like the flash +of lightning; yet, differently applied, it can replenish or invigorate +life, heal, and preserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure +of disease, or rather for enabling the physical organisation to +re-establish the due equilibrium of its natural powers, and thereby +to cure itself. By this agency they rend way through the most solid +substances, and open valleys for culture through the rocks of their +subterranean wilderness. From it they extract the light which supplies +their lamps, finding it steadier, softer, and healthier than the other +inflammable materials they had formerly used. + +But the effects of the alleged discovery of the means to direct the more +terrible force of vril were chiefly remarkable in their influence upon +social polity. As these effects became familiarly known and skillfully +administered, war between the vril-discoverers ceased, for they brought +the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority in +numbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the hollow +of a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter the strongest +fortress, or cleave its burning way from the van to the rear of an +embattled host. If army met army, and both had command of this agency, +it could be but to the annihilation of each. The age of war was +therefore gone, but with the cessation of war other effects bearing +upon the social state soon became apparent. Man was so completely at +the mercy of man, each whom he encountered being able, if so willing, +to slay him on the instant, that all notions of government by force +gradually vanished from political systems and forms of law. It is only +by force that vast communities, dispersed through great distances of +space, can be kept together; but now there was no longer either the +necessity of self-preservation or the pride of aggrandisement to make +one state desire to preponderate in population over another. + +The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few generations, +peacefully split into communities of moderate size. The tribe amongst +which I had fallen was limited to 12,000 families. Each tribe occupied +a territory sufficient for all its wants, and at stated periods the +surplus population departed to seek a realm of its own. There appeared +no necessity for any arbitrary selection of these emigrants; there was +always a sufficient number who volunteered to depart. + +These subdivided states, petty if we regard either territory or +population,--all appertained to one vast general family. They spoke +the same language, though the dialects might slightly differ. They +intermarried; They maintained the same general laws and customs; and so +important a bond between these several communities was the knowledge +of vril and the practice of its agencies, that the word A-Vril was +synonymous with civilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying “The Civilised +Nations,” was the common name by which the communities employing the +uses of vril distinguished themselves from such of the Ana as were yet +in a state of barbarism. + +The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treating of was apparently +very complicated, really very simple. It was based upon a principle +recognised in theory, though little carried out in practice, above +ground--viz., that the object of all systems of philosophical thought +tends to the attainment of unity, or the ascent through all intervening +labyrinths to the simplicity of a single first cause or principle. +Thus in politics, even republican writers have agreed that a benevolent +autocracy would insure the best administration, if there were any +guarantees for its continuance, or against its gradual abuse of the +powers accorded to it. This singular community elected therefore a +single supreme magistrate styled Tur; he held his office nominally +for life, but he could seldom be induced to retain it after the first +approach of old age. There was indeed in this society nothing to induce +any of its members to covet the cares of office. No honours, no insignia +of higher rank, were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate was not +distinguished from the rest by superior habitation or revenue. On the +other hand, the duties awarded to him were marvellously light and easy, +requiring no preponderant degree of energy or intelligence. There being +no apprehensions of war, there were no armies to maintain; there being +no government of force, there was no police to appoint and direct. What +we call crime was utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; and there were no +courts of criminal justice. The rare instances of civil disputes were +referred for arbitration to friends chosen by either party, or decided +by the Council of Sages, which will be described later. There were +no professional lawyers; and indeed their laws were but amicable +conventions, for there was no power to enforce laws against an offender +who carried in his staff the power to destroy his judges. There were +customs and regulations to compliance with which, for several ages, +the people had tacitly habituated themselves; or if in any instance an +individual felt such compliance hard, he quitted the community and went +elsewhere. There was, in fact, quietly established amid this state, +much the same compact that is found in our private families, in which we +virtually say to any independent grown-up member of the family whom +we receive to entertain, “Stay or go, according as our habits and +regulations suit or displease you.” But though there were no laws such +as we call laws, no race above ground is so law-observing. Obedience to +the rule adopted by the community has become as much an instinct as +if it were implanted by nature. Even in every household the head of it +makes a regulation for its guidance, which is never resisted nor even +cavilled at by those who belong to the family. They have a proverb, +the pithiness of which is much lost in this paraphrase, “No happiness +without order, no order without authority, no authority without unity.” + The mildness of all government among them, civil or domestic, may be +signalised by their idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal or +forbidden--viz., “It is requested not to do so and so.” Poverty among +the Ana is as unknown as crime; not that property is held in common, or +that all are equals in the extent of their possessions or the size and +luxury of their habitations: but there being no difference of rank or +position between the grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each +pursues his own inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like +a modest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself happy in +his own way. Owing to this absence of competition, and the limit placed +on the population, it is difficult for a family to fall into distress; +there are no hazardous speculations, no emulators striving for superior +wealth and rank. No doubt, in each settlement all originally had the +same proportions of land dealt out to them; but some, more adventurous +than others, had extended their possessions farther into the bordering +wilds, or had improved into richer fertility the produce of their +fields, or entered into commerce or trade. Thus, necessarily, some +had grown richer than others, but none had become absolutely poor, or +wanting anything which their tastes desired. If they did so, it was +always in their power to migrate, or at the worst to apply, without +shame and with certainty of aid, to the rich, for all the members of +the community considered themselves as brothers of one affectionate and +united family. More upon this head will be treated of incidentally as my +narrative proceeds. + +The chief care of the supreme magistrate was to communicate with certain +active departments charged with the administration of special details. +The most important and essential of such details was that connected with +the due provision of light. Of this department my host, Aph-Lin, was +the chief. Another department, which might be called the foreign, +communicated with the neighbouring kindred states, principally for the +purpose of ascertaining all new inventions; and to a third department +all such inventions and improvements in machinery were committed for +trial. Connected with this department was the College of Sages--a +college especially favoured by such of the Ana as were widowed and +childless, and by the young unmarried females, amongst whom Zee was +the most active, and, if what we call renown or distinction was a thing +acknowledged by this people (which I shall later show it is not), among +the more renowned or distinguished. It is by the female Professors +of this College that those studies which are deemed of least use in +practical life--as purely speculative philosophy, the history of remote +periods, and such sciences as entomology, conchology, &c.--are the more +diligently cultivated. Zee, whose mind, active as Aristotle’s, equally +embraced the largest domains and the minutest details of thought, had +written two volumes on the parasite insect that dwells amid the hairs +of a tiger’s* paw, which work was considered the best authority on that +interesting subject. + +* The animal here referred to has many points of difference from the +tiger of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader paw, and +still more receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakes and pools, +and feeds principally on fishes, though it does not object to any +terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes in its way. It is +becoming very scarce even in the wild districts, where it is devoured +by gigantic reptiles. I apprehended that it clearly belongs to the tiger +species, since the parasite animalcule found in its paw, like that in +the Asiatic tiger, is a miniature image of itself. + +But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtle or +elegant studies. They comprise various others more important, and +especially the properties of vril, to the perception of which their +finer nervous organisation renders the female Professors eminently keen. +It is out of this college that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selects +Councillors, limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of +event or circumstance perplexes his own judgment. + +There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but all are +carried on so noiselessly, and quietly that the evidence of a government +seems to vanish altogether, and social order to be as regular and +unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature. Machinery is employed to an +inconceivable extent in all the operations of labour within and without +doors, and it is the unceasing object of the department charged with its +administration to extend its efficiency. There is no class of labourers +or servants, but all who are required to assist or control the machinery +are found in the children, from the time they leave the care of their +mothers to the marriageable age, which they place at sixteen for the +Gy-ei (the females), twenty for the Ana (the males). These children are +formed into bands and sections under their own chiefs, each following +the pursuits in which he is most pleased, or for which he feels himself +most fitted. Some take to handicrafts, some to agriculture, some to +household work, and some to the only services of danger to which the +population is exposed; for the sole perils that threaten this tribe are, +first, from those occasional convulsions within the earth, to foresee +and guard against which tasks their utmost ingenuity--irruptions of fire +and water, the storms of subterranean winds and escaping gases. At +the borders of the domain, and at all places where such peril might +be apprehended, vigilant inspectors are stationed with telegraphic +communications to the hall in which chosen sages take it by turns to +hold perpetual sittings. These inspectors are always selected from the +elder boys approaching the age of puberty, and on the principle that at +that age observation is more acute and the physical forces more alert +than at any other. The second service of danger, less grave, is in the +destruction of all creatures hostile to the life, or the culture, or +even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these the most formidable are the vast +reptiles, of some of which antediluvian relics are preserved in our +museums, and certain gigantic winged creatures, half bird, half reptile. +These, together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigers +or venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children to hunt and +destroy; because, according to the Ana, here ruthlessness is wanted, +and the younger the child the more ruthlessly he will destroy. There is +another class of animals in the destruction of which discrimination +is to be used, and against which children of intermediate age are +appointed--animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage the +produce of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, and +a smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though infinitely more +destructive to crops, and much more cunning in its mode of depredation. +It is the first object of these appointed infants, to tame the more +intelligent of such animals into respect for enclosures signalised by +conspicuous landmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even +to guard the master’s property. It is only where such creatures are +found untamable to this extent that they are destroyed. Life is never +taken away for food or for sport, and never spared where untamably +inimical to the Ana. Concomitantly with these bodily services and tasks, +the mental education of the children goes on till boyhood ceases. It is +the general custom, then, to pass though a course of instruction at +the College of Sages, in which, besides more general studies, the pupil +receives special lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect +as he himself selects. Some, however, prefer to pass this period of +probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settle down at once +into rural or commercial pursuits. No force is put upon individual +inclination. + + + +Chapter X. + + +The word Ana (pronounced broadly ‘Arna’) corresponds with our plural +‘men;’ An (pronounced ‘Arn’), the singular, with ‘man.’ The word for +woman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei for +the plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jy-ei. They have +a proverb to the effect that this difference in pronunciation is +symbolical, for that the female sex is soft in the concrete, but hard to +deal with in the individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of +all the rights of equality with males, for which certain philosophers +above ground contend. + +In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour impartially +with the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age appropriated to the +destruction of animals irreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequently +preferred, as being by constitution more ruthless under the influence of +fear or hate. In the interval between infancy and the marriageable age +familiar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageable +age it is renewed, never with worse consequences than those which attend +upon marriage. All arts and vocations allotted to the one sex are open +to the other, and the Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in all +those abstruse and mystical branches of reasoning, for which they say +the Ana are unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the +routine of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in our +own world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest points of +theological doctrine, for which few men, actively engaged in worldly +business have sufficient learning or refinement of intellect. +Whether owing to early training in gymnastic exercises, or to their +constitutional organisation, the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana +in physical strength (an important element in the consideration and +maintenance of female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amid +their rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy +as those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to the +original laws of nature, females were intended to be larger than males, +and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest formations of life +in insects, and in the most ancient family of the vertebrata--viz., +fishes--in both of which the females are generally large enough to make +a meal of their consorts if they so desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a +readier and more concentred power over that mysterious fluid or agency +which contains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of that +sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannot only defend +themselves against all aggressions from the males, but could, at any +moment when he least expected his danger, terminate the existence of an +offending spouse. To the credit of the Gy-ei no instance of their abuse +of this awful superiority in the art of destruction is on record for +several ages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of appears +(according to their chronology) to have been about two thousand years +ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her husband; and this +abominable act inspired such terror among the males that they emigrated +in a body and left all the Gy-ei to themselves. The history runs that +the widowed Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when +in her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then entered +into a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever the +exercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate the +same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By this +conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consorts +succeeded in persuading many to return, but those who did return were +mostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt of +their consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejected +all overtures, and, remaining in other communities, were caught up there +by other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss +of so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warning +on the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution to which they +pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by long +hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lost both the aggressive and defensive +superiority over the Ana which they once possessed, just as in the +inferior animals above the earth many peculiarities in their original +formation, intended by nature for their protection, gradually fade or +become inoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. I should +be sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to make the experiment +whether he or she were the stronger. + +From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain alterations in +the marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat to the advantage of the +male. They now bind themselves in wedlock only for three years; at the +end of each third year either male or female can divorce the other and +is free to marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilege +of taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so please. +These regulations are for the most part a dead letter; divorces and +polygamy are extremely rare, and the marriage state now seems +singularly happy and serene among this astonishing people;--the Gy-ei, +notwithstanding their boastful superiority in physical strength and +intellectual abilities, being much curbed into gentle manners by the +dread of separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much the +creatures of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, likely +to exchange for hazardous novelties faces and manners to which they +are reconciled by habit. But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefully +retain, and the desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of most +lady asserters of woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege, +here usurped by men, of proclaiming their love and urging their suit; +in other words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a +phenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed it +is very seldom that a Gy does not secure any An upon whom she sets her +heart, if his affections be not strongly engaged elsewhere. However coy, +reluctant, and prudish, the male she courts may prove at first, yet her +perseverance, her ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over the +mystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck into +what we call “the fatal noose.” Their argument for the reversal of that +relationship of the sexes which the blind tyranny of man has established +on the surface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced with a +frankness which might well be commended to impartial consideration. +They say, that of the two the female is by nature of a more loving +disposition than the male--that love occupies a larger space in her +thoughts, and is more essential to her happiness, and that therefore +she ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male is a shy and +dubitant creature--that he has often a selfish predilection for the +single state--that he often pretends to misunderstand tender glances +and delicate hints--that, in short, he must be resolutely pursued and +captured. They add, moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An of +her choice, and one whom she would not select out of the whole world +becomes her mate, she is not only less happy than she otherwise would +be, but she is not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not +sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature that less lastingly +concentrates his affections on one object; that if he cannot get the +Gy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself to another Gy; and, +finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care of, it is less +necessary to the welfare of his existence that he should love as well +as be loved; he grows contented with his creature comforts, and the many +occupations of thought which he creates for himself. + +Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for the +male; for being thus sure that he is truly and ardently loved, and that +the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determination +to secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consent +dependent on such conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure, +if not a blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his +own hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they may +be, he demands a promise of full and unrestrained concession to them. +This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as the +characteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit veneration +for truth, and her word once given is never broken even by the giddiest +Gy, the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact, +notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gy-ei are the +most amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives I have ever seen even +in the happiest households above ground. It is an aphorism among them, +that “where a Gy loves it is her pleasure to obey.” It will be observed +that in the relationship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage, +for such is the moral perfection to which this community has attained, +that any illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as it +would be to a couple of linnets during the time they agree to live in +pairs. + + + +Chapter XI. + + +Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to the +existence of regions extending below the surface of the earth, and +habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material points +of organism, akin to those in the upper world, than the contradiction +thus presented to the doctrine in which, I believe, most geologists +and philosophers concur--viz., that though with us the sun is the great +source of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the +greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the ratio of +a degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface. +But though the domains of the tribe I speak of were, on the higher +ground, so comparatively near to the surface, that I could account for a +temperature, therein, suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and +valleys of that realm were much less hot than philosophers would deem +possible at such a depth--certainly not warmer than the south of France, +or at least of Italy. And according to all the accounts I received, vast +tracts immeasurably deeper beneath the surface, and in which one might +have thought only salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumerable +races organised like ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account +for a fact which is so at variance with the recognised laws of science, +nor could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did but +conjecture that sufficient allowance had not been made by our +philosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior earth--the +vastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served to create free +currents of air and frequent winds--and for the various modes in which +heat is evaporated and thrown off. She allowed, however, that there was +a depth at which the heat was deemed to be intolerable to such organised +life as was known to the experience of the Vril-ya, though their +philosophers believed that even in such places life of some kind, life +sentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant and thriving, could +the philosophers penetrate to it. “Wherever the All-Good builds,” + said she, “there, be sure, He places inhabitants. He loves not empty +dwellings.” She added, however, that many changes in temperature and +climate had been effected by the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the +agency of vril had been successfully employed in such changes. She +described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which I suspect +to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work all +the correlative forces united under the name of vril; and contended that +wherever this medium could be expanded, as it were, sufficiently for the +various agencies of vril to have ample play, a temperature congenial to +the highest forms of life could be secured. She said also, that it was +the belief of their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been +produced originally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surface +of the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or imported by +the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows) through the +operations of the light constantly brought to bear on them, and the +gradual improvement in culture. She said also, that since the vril light +had superseded all other light-giving bodies, the colours of flower and +foliage had become more brilliant, and vegetation had acquired larger +growth. + +Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent to +deal with them, I must now devote a few pages to the very interesting +questions connected with the language of the Vril-ya. + + + +Chapter XII. + + +The language of the Vril-ya is peculiarly interesting, because it seems +to me to exhibit with great clearness the traces of the three main +transitions through which language passes in attaining to perfection of +form. + +One of the most illustrious of recent philologists, Max Muller, in +arguing for the analogy between the strata of language and the strata +of the earth, lays down this absolute dogma: “No language can, by +any possibility, be inflectional without having passed through the +agglutinative and isolating stratum. No language can be agglutinative +without clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum of +isolation.”--‘On the Stratification of Language,’ p. 20. + +Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of the +original isolating stratum, “as the faithful photograph of man in his +leading-strings trying the muscles of his mind, groping his way, and so +delighted with his first successful grasps that he repeats them again +and again,” (Max Muller, p. 3)--we have, in the language of the Vril-ya, +still “clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum,” the evidences +of the original isolation. It abounds in monosyllables, which are the +foundations of the language. The transition into the agglutinative +form marks an epoch that must have gradually extended through ages, +the written literature of which has only survived in a few fragments of +symbolical mythology and certain pithy sentences which have passed +into popular proverbs. With the extant literature of the Vril-ya the +inflectional stratum commences. No doubt at that time there must have +operated concurrent causes, in the fusion of races by some dominant +people, and the rise of some great literary phenomena by which the +form of language became arrested and fixed. As the inflectional stage +prevailed over the agglutinative, it is surprising to see how much more +boldly the original roots of the language project from the surface that +conceals them. In the old fragments and proverbs of the preceding stage +the monosyllables which compose those roots vanish amidst words of +enormous length, comprehending whole sentences from which no one part +can be disentangled from the other and employed separately. But when +the inflectional form of language became so far advanced as to have its +scholars and grammarians, they seem to have united in extirpating all +such polysynthetical or polysyllabic monsters, as devouring invaders of +the aboriginal forms. Words beyond three syllables became proscribed +as barbarous and in proportion as the language grew thus simplified it +increased in strength, in dignity, and in sweetness. Though now very +compressed in sound, it gains in clearness by that compression. By a +single letter, according to its position, they contrive to express +all that with civilised nations in our upper world it takes the waste, +sometimes of syllables, sometimes of sentences, to express. Let me here +cite one or two instances: An (which I will translate man), Ana (men); +the letter ‘s’ is with them a letter implying multitude, according to +where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa, a multitude of men. The +prefix of certain letters in their alphabet invariably denotes compound +significations. For instance, Gl (which with them is a single letter, as +‘th’ is a single letter with the Greeks) at the commencement of a word +infers an assemblage or union of things, sometimes kindred, sometimes +dissimilar--as Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i. e., an assemblage of +houses). Ata is sorrow; Glata, a public calamity. Aur-an is the health +or wellbeing of a man; Glauran, the wellbeing of the state, the good of +the community; and a word constantly in ther mouths is A-glauran, which +denotes their political creed--viz., that “the first principle of a +community is the good of all.” Aub is invention; Sila, a tone in music. +Glaubsila, as uniting the ideas of invention and of musical intonation, +is the classical word for poetry--abbreviated, in ordinary conversation, +to Glaubs. Na, which with them is, like Gl, but a single letter, always, +when an initial, implies something antagonistic to life or joy or +comfort, resembling in this the Aryan root Nak, expressive of perishing +or destruction. Nax is darkness; Narl, death; Naria, sin or evil. +Nas--an uttermost condition of sin and evil--corruption. In writing, +they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being by any special +name. He is symbolized by what may be termed the heiroglyphic of a +pyramid, /\. In prayer they address Him by a name which they deem too +sacred to confide to a stranger, and I know it not. In conversation they +generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good. The letter +V, symbolical of the inverted pyramid, where it is an initial, nearly +always denotes excellence of power; as Vril, of which I have said so +much; Veed, an immortal spirit; Veed-ya, immortality; Koom, pronounced +like the Welsh Cwm, denotes something of hollowness. Koom itself is +a cave; Koom-in, a hole; Zi-koom, a valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; +Bodh-koom, ignorance (literally, knowledge-void). Koom-posh is their +name for the government of the many, or the ascendancy of the most +ignorant or hollow. Posh is an almost untranslatable idiom, implying, as +the reader will see later, contempt. The closest rendering I can give to +it is our slang term, “bosh;” and this Koom-Posh may be loosely rendered +“Hollow-Bosh.” But when Democracy or Koom-Posh degenerates from popular +ignorance into that popular passion or ferocity which precedes its +decease, as (to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the +French Reign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the Roman Republic +preceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their name for that state of +things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife--Glek, the universal strife. Nas, as I +before said, is corruption or rot; thus, Glek-Nas may be construed, “the +universal strife-rot.” Their compounds are very expressive; thus, +Bodh being knowledge, and Too a participle that implies the action of +cautiously approaching,--Too-bodh is their word for Philosophy; Pah is +a contemptuous exclamation analogous to our idiom, “stuff and nonsense;” + Pah-bodh (literally stuff and nonsense-knowledge) is their term for +futile and false philosophy, and applied to a species of metaphysical or +speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue, which consisted in making +inquiries that could not be answered, and were not worth making; such, +for instance, as “Why does an An have five toes to his feet instead of +four or six? Did the first An, created by the All-Good, have the same +number of toes as his descendants? In the form by which an An will be +recognised by his friends in the future state of being, will he retain +any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toes or spiritual +toes?” I take these illustrations of Pahbodh, not in irony or jest, but +because the very inquiries I name formed the subject of controversy by +the latest cultivators of that ‘science,’--4000 years ago. + +In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently there were +eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but the effect +of time has been to reduce these cases, and multiply, instead of these +varying terminations, explanatory propositions. At present, in the +Grammar submitted to my study, there were four cases to nouns, three +having varying terminations, and the fourth a differing prefix. + + SINGULAR. PLURAL. + Nom. An, Man, | Nom. Ana, Men. + Dat. Ano, to Man, | Dat. Anoi, to Men. + Ac. Anan, Man, | Ac. Ananda, Men. + Voc. Hil-an, O Man, | Voc. Hil-Ananda, O Men. + +In the elder inflectional literature the dual form existed--it has long +been obsolete. + +The genitive case with them is also obsolete; the dative supplies its +place: they say the House ‘to’ a Man, instead of the House ‘of’ a Man. +When used (sometimes in poetry), the genitive in the termination is the +same as the nominative; so is the ablative, the preposition that marks +it being a prefix or suffix at option, and generally decided by ear, +according to the sound of the noun. It will be observed that the +prefix Hil marks the vocative case. It is always retained in addressing +another, except in the most intimate domestic relations; its omission +would be considered rude: just as in our of forms of speech in +addressing a king it would have been deemed disrespectful to say “King,” + and reverential to say “O King.” In fact, as they have no titles of +honour, the vocative adjuration supplies the place of a title, and is +given impartially to all. The prefix Hil enters into the composition of +words that imply distant communications, as Hil-ya, to travel. + +In the conjugation of their verbs, which is much too lengthy a subject +to enter on here, the auxiliary verb Ya, “to go,” which plays so +considerable part in the Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred +office, as if it were a radical in some language from which both +had descended. But another auxiliary or opposite signification also +accompanies it and shares its labours--viz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus +Ya enters into the future tense, and Zi in the preterite of all verbs +requiring auxiliaries. Yam, I shall go--Yiam, I may go--Yani-ya, I shall +go (literally, I go to go), Zam-poo-yan, I have gone (literally, I +rest from gone). Ya, as a termination, implies by analogy, progress, +movement, efflorescence. Zi, as a terminal, denotes fixity, sometimes in +a good sense, sometimes in a bad, according to the word with which it +is coupled. Iva-zi, eternal goodness; Nan-zi, eternal evil. Poo (from) +enters as a prefix to words that denote repugnance, or things from +which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust; Poo-naria, falsehood, +the vilest kind of evil. Poosh or Posh I have already confessed to be +untranslatable literally. It is an expression of contempt not unmixed +with pity. This radical seems to have originated from inherent sympathy +between the labial effort and the sentiment that impelled it, Poo being +an utterance in which the breath is exploded from the lips with more or +less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when an initial, is with them a +sound in which the breath is sucked inward, and thus Zu, pronounced Zoo +(which in their language is one letter), is the ordinary prefix to words +that signify something that attracts, pleases, touches the heart--as +Zummer, lover; Zutze, love; Zuzulia, delight. This indrawn sound of +Z seems indeed naturally appropriate to fondness. Thus, even in our +language, mothers say to their babies, in defiance of grammar, “Zoo +darling;” and I have heard a learned professor at Boston call his wife +(he had been only married a month) “Zoo little pet.” + +I cannot quit this subject, however, without observing by what slight +changes in the dialects favoured by different tribes of the same race, +the original signification and beauty of sounds may become confused and +deformed. Zee told me with much indignation that Zummer (lover) which in +the way she uttered it, seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of +her heart, was, in some not very distant communities of the Vril-ya, +vitiated into the half-hissing, half-nasal, wholly disagreeable, sound +of Subber. I thought to myself it only wanted the introduction of ‘n’ +before ‘u’ to render it into an English word significant of the last +quality an amorous Gy would desire in her Zummer. + +I will but mention another peculiarity in this language which gives +equal force and brevity to its forms of expressions. + +A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the alphabet, and +is often used as a prefix word by itself to convey a complex idea of +sovereignty or chiefdom, or presiding principle. For instance, Iva is +goodness; Diva, goodness and happiness united; A-Diva is unerring and +absolute truth. I have already noticed the value of A in A-glauran, +so, in vril (to whose properties they trace their present state of +civilisation), A-vril, denotes, as I have said, civilisation itself. + +The philologist will have seen from the above how much the language +of the Vril-ya is akin to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic; but, like all +languages, it contains words and forms in which transfers from very +opposite sources of speech have been taken. The very title of Tur, which +they give to their supreme magistrate, indicates theft from a tongue +akin to the Turanian. They say themselves that this is a foreign word +borrowed from a title which their historical records show to have been +borne by the chief of a nation with whom the ancestors of the Vril-ya +were, in very remote periods, on friendly terms, but which has long +become extinct, and they say that when, after the discovery of vril, +they remodelled their political institutions, they expressly adopted a +title taken from an extinct race and a dead language for that of their +chief magistrate, in order to avoid all titles for that office with +which they had previous associations. + +Should life be spared to me, I may collect into systematic form such +knowledge as I acquired of this language during my sojourn amongst the +Vril-ya. But what I have already said will perhaps suffice to show to +genuine philological students that a language which, preserving so many +of the roots in the aboriginal form, and clearing from the immediate, +but transitory, polysynthetical stage so many rude incumbrances, has +attained to such a union of simplicity and compass in its final +inflectional forms, must have been the gradual work of countless ages +and many varieties of mind ; that it contains the evidence of fusion +between congenial races, and necessitated, in arriving at the shape of +which I have given examples, the continuous culture of a highly +thoughtful people. + +That, nevertheless, the literature which belongs to this language is a +literature of the past; that the present felicitous state of society at +which the Ana have attained forbids the progressive cultivation of +literature, especially in the two main divisions of fiction and history, +--I shall have occasion to show. + + + + +Chapter XIII. + + +This people have a religion, and, whatever may be said against it, at +least it has these strange peculiarities: firstly, that all believe in +the creed they profess; secondly, that they all practice the precepts +which the creed inculcates. They unite in the worship of one divine +Creator and Sustainer of the universe. They believe that it is one of +the properties of the all-permeating agency of vril, to transmit to +the well-spring of life and intelligence every thought that a living +creature can conceive; and though they do not contend that the idea of a +Diety is innate, yet they say that the An (man) is the only creature, +so far as their observation of nature extends, to whom ‘the capacity +of conceiving that idea,’ with all the trains of thought which open out +from it, is vouchsafed. They hold that this capacity is a privilege that +cannot have been given in vain, and hence that prayer and thanksgiving +are acceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to the complete +development of the human creature. They offer their devotions both in +private and public. Not being considered one of their species, I was +not admitted into the building or temple in which the public worship is +rendered; but I am informed that the service is exceedingly short, and +unattended with any pomp of ceremony. It is a doctrine with the Vril-ya, +that earnest devotion or complete abstraction from the actual world +cannot, with benefit to itself, be maintained long at a stretch by the +human mind, especially in public, and that all attempts to do so either +lead to fanaticism or to hypocrisy. When they pray in private, it is +when they are alone or with their young children. + +They say that in ancient times there was a great number of books written +upon speculations as to the nature of the Diety, and upon the forms of +belief or worship supposed to be most agreeable to Him. But these were +found to lead to such heated and angry disputations as not only to shake +the peace of the community and divide families before the most united, +but in the course of discussing the attributes of the Diety, the +existence of the Diety Himself became argued away, or, what was +worse, became invested with the passions and infirmities of the human +disputants. “For,” said my host, “since a finite being like an An cannot +possibly define the Infinite, so, when he endeavours to realise an idea +of the Divinity, he only reduces the Divinity into an An like himself.” + During the later ages, therefore, all theological speculations, though +not forbidden, have been so discouraged as to have fallen utterly +into disuse. The Vril-ya unite in a conviction of a future state, more +felicitous and more perfect than the present. If they have very vague +notions of the doctrine of rewards and punishments, it is perhaps +because they have no systems of rewards and punishments among +themselves, for there are no crimes to punish, and their moral standard +is so even that no An among them is, upon the whole, considered more +virtuous than another. If one excels, perhaps in one virtue, another +equally excels in some other virtue; If one has his prevalent fault or +infirmity, so also another has his. In fact, in their extraordinary +mode of life. There are so few temptations to wrong, that they are good +(according to their notions of goodness) merely because they live. +They have some fanciful notions upon the continuance of life, when once +bestowed, even in the vegetable world, as the reader will see in the +next chapter. + + + +Chapter XIV. + + +Though, as I have said, the Vril-ya discourage all speculations on the +nature of the Supreme Being, they appear to concur in a belief by which +they think to solve that great problem of the existence of evil which +has so perplexed the philosophy of the upper world. They hold that +wherever He has once given life, with the perceptions of that life, +however faint it be, as in a plant, the life is never destroyed; it +passes into new and improved forms, though not in this planet (differing +therein from the ordinary doctrine of metempsychosis), and that the +living thing retains the sense of identity, so that it connects its past +life with its future, and is ‘conscious’ of its progressive improvement +in the scale of joy. For they say that, without this assumption, they +cannot, according to the lights of human reason vouchsafed to them, +discover the perfect justice which must be a constituent quality of the +All-Wise and the All-Good. Injustice, they say, can only emanate +from three causes: want of wisdom to perceive what is just, want of +benevolence to desire, want of power to fulfill it; and that each of +these three wants is incompatible in the All-Wise, the All-Good, +the All-Powerful. But that, while even in this life, the wisdom, +the benevolence, and the power of the Supreme Being are sufficiently +apparent to compel our recognition, the justice necessarily resulting +from those attributes, absolutely requires another life, not for man +only, but for every living thing of the inferior orders. That, alike in +the animal and the vegetable world, we see one individual rendered, by +circumstances beyond its control, exceedingly wretched compared to its +neighbours--one only exists as the prey of another--even a plant suffers +from disease till it perishes prematurely, while the plant next to it +rejoices in its vitality and lives out its happy life free from a pang. +That it is an erroneous analogy from human infirmities to reply by +saying that the Supreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making +his own secondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of +the First Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorant conception of the +All-Good, to dismiss with a brief contempt all consideration of justice +for the myriad forms into which He has infused life, and assume that +justice is only due to the single product of the An. There is no small +and no great in the eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant that +nothing, however humble, which feels that it lives and suffers, can +perish through the series of ages, that all its suffering here, if +continuous from the moment of its birth to that of its transfer to +another form of being, would be more brief compared with eternity than +the cry of the new-born is compared to the whole life of a man; and once +suppose that this living thing retains its sense of identity when so +transformed (for without that sense it could be aware of no future +being), and though, indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed +from the scope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it to be +uniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it would be +if acting only upon general and secondary laws; because such perfect +justice flows of necessity from perfectness of knowledge to conceive, +perfectness of love to will, and perfectness of power to complete it. + +However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tends perhaps to +confirm politically the systems of government which, admitting different +degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfect equality in rank, exquisite +mildness in all relations and intercourse, and tenderness to all created +things which the good of the community does not require them to destroy. +And though their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a +cankered flower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, +at least, is not a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter for no +unpleasing reflection to think that within the abysses of earth, never +lit by a ray from the material heavens, there should have penetrated so +luminous a conviction of the ineffable goodness of the Creator--so +fixed an idea that the general laws by which He acts cannot admit of any +partial injustice or evil, and therefore cannot be comprehended without +reference to their action over all space and throughout all time. And +since, as I shall have occasion to observe later, the intellectual +conditions and social systems of this subterranean race comprise and +harmonise great, and apparently antagonistic, varieties in philosophical +doctrine and speculation which have from time to time been started, +discussed, dismissed, and have re-appeared amongst thinkers or dreamers +in the upper world,--so I may perhaps appropriately conclude this +reference to the belief of the Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient +life once given is indestructible among inferior creatures as well as +in man, by an eloquent passage from the work of that eminent zoologist, +Louis Agassiz, which I have only just met with, many years after I had +committed to paper these recollections of the life of the Vril-ya which +I now reduce into something like arrangement and form: “The relations +which individual animals bear to one another are of such a character +that they ought long ago to have been considered as sufficient proof +that no organised being could ever have been called into existence by +other agency than by the direct intervention of a reflective mind. +This argues strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of +an immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and +superior endowments places man so much above the animals; yet the +principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called sense, reason, +or instinct, it presents in the whole range of organised beings a series +of phenomena closely linked together, and upon it are based not only +the higher manifestations of the mind, but the very permanence of the +specific differences which characterise every organism. Most of the +arguments in favour of the immortality of man apply equally to the +permanency of this principle in other living beings. May I not add that +a future life in which man would be deprived of that great source of +enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement which results from +the contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world would involve +a lamentable loss? And may we not look to a spiritual concert of the +combined worlds and ALL their inhabitants in the presence of +their Creator as the highest conception of paradise?”--‘Essay on +Classification,’ sect. xvii. p. 97-99. + + + +Chapter XV. + + +Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter of my +host was the most considerate and thoughtful in her kindness. At her +suggestion I laid aside the habiliments in which I had descended +from the upper earth, and adopted the dress of the Vril-ya, with the +exception of the artful wings which served them, when on foot, as a +graceful mantle. But as many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urban +pursuits, did not wear these wings, this exception created no marked +difference between myself and the race among whom I sojourned, and I was +thus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant curiosity. +Out of the household no one suspected that I had come from the upper +world, and I was but regarded as one of some inferior and barbarous +tribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a guest. + +The city was large in proportion to the territory round it, which was of +no greater extent than many an English or Hungarian nobleman’s estate; +but the whole if it, to the verge of the rocks which constituted its +boundary, was cultivated to the nicest degree, except where certain +allotments of mountain and pasture were humanely left free to the +sustenance of the harmless animals they had tamed, though not for +domestic use. So great is their kindness towards these humbler +creatures, that a sum is devoted from the public treasury for the +purpose of deporting them to other Vril-ya communities willing to +receive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they become too numerous +for the pastures allotted to them in their native place. They do not, +however, multiply to an extent comparable to the ratio at which, with +us, animals bred for slaughter, increase. It seems a law of nature that +animals not useful to man gradually recede from the domains he occupies, +or even become extinct. It is an old custom of the various sovereign +states amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to leave +between each state a neutral and uncultivated border-land. In the +instance of the community I speak of, this tract, being a ridge of +savage rocks, was impassable by foot, but was easily surmounted, whether +by the wings of the inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak +hereafter. Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles +impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always kept +lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special tax, to which all +the communities comprehended in the denomination of Vril-ya contribute +in settled proportions. By these means a considerable commercial traffic +with other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus +wealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The community +was also eminent for skill in constructing implements connected with the +arts of husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articles +more of luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on which +they set a higher price than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in +concert. These were brought from a great distance, and were marvellous +for beauty of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was +taken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the species +had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I saw no other +pet animals among this community except some very amusing and sportive +creatures of the Batrachian species, resembling frogs, but with very +intelligent countenances, which the children were fond of, and kept in +their private gardens. They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs +or horses, though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that such +creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be found in +regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya. She said that they +had gradually disappeared from the more civilised world since the +discovery of vril, and the results attending that discovery had +dispensed with their uses. Machinery and the invention of wings had +superseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer +wanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when the +ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or +hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as the horse +was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been, +there, of little use either for pastime or burden. The only creature +they use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is much +employed on farms. The nature of the surrounding soil in these +districts may be said to have first suggested the invention of wings and +air-boats. The largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by +the city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house with a +separate garden. The broad main street, in which Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded +into a vast square, in which were placed the College of Sages and all +the public offices; a magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I +call naptha (I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All these +public edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and solidity. +They reminded me of the architectural pictures of Martin. Along the +upper stories of each ran a balcony, or rather a terraced garden, +supported by columns, filled with flowering plants, and tenanted by +many kinds of tame birds. + +From the square branched several streets, all broad and brilliantly +lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either side. In my excursions +in the town I was never allowed to go alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was +my habitual companion. In this community the adult Gy is seen walking +with any young An as familiarly as if there were no difference of sex. + +The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attend on a +customer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly intelligent +and courteous, but without the least touch of importunity or cringing. +The shopkeeper himself might or might not be visible; when visible, he +seemed rarely employed on any matter connected with his professional +business; and yet he had taken to that business from special liking for +it, and quite independently of his general sources of fortune. + +The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beings +after the active age of childhood. Whether by temperament or philosophy, +they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when you +take away from a human being the incentives to action which are found in +cupidity or ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet. + +In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet to that +of their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in a bold misuse of +terms) their public ‘promenades,’ they employ the latter, also for the +aerial dances I have described, as well as for visiting their country +places, which are mostly placed on lofty heights; and, when still young, +they prefer their wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, to +vehicular conveyances. + +Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less rapidly than +some birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, and keep up +that rate for five or six hours at a stretch. But the Ana generally, on +reaching middle age, are not fond of rapid movements requiring violent +exercise. Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which our +own physicians will doubtless approve--viz., that regular transpiration +through the pores of the skin is essential to health, they habitually +use the sweating-baths to which we give the name Turkish or Roman, +succeeded by douches of perfumed waters. They have great faith in the +salubrious virtue of certain perfumes. + +It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four times +a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril.* + +* I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very similar in its +invigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the virtues +of which are ascribed by many physicians to electricity; but though +similar, the effect of the vril bath was more lasting. + +They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer of +life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather +tends to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases, +however, they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwing +off their complaint. + +In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all their +luxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in an atmosphere of +music and fragrance. Every room has its mechanical contrivances for +melodious sounds, usually tuned down to soft-murmured notes, which seem +like sweet whispers from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed to +these gentle sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor, when +alone, to reflection. But they have a notion that to breathe an air +filled with continuous melody and perfume has necessarily an effect +at once soothing and elevating upon the formation of character and the +habits of thought. Though so temperate, and with total abstinence from +other animal food than milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they are +delicate and dainty to an extreme in food and beverage; and in all their +sports even the old exhibit a childlike gaiety. Happiness is the end at +which they aim, not as the excitement of a moment, but as the prevailing +condition of the entire existence; and regard for the happiness of each +other is evinced by the exquisite amenity of their manners. + +Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of any +known races in the upper world, though I cannot help thinking it a +development, in the course of countless ages of the Brachycephalic type +of the Age of Stone in Lyell’s ‘Elements of Geology,’ C. X., p. 113, as +compared with the Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age of +Iron, correspondent with that now so prevalent amongst us, and called +the Celtic type. It has the same comparative massiveness of forehead, +not receding like the Celtic--the same even roundness in the frontal +organs; but it is far loftier in the apex, and far less pronounced +in the hinder cranial hemisphere where phrenologists place the animal +organs. To speak as a phrenologist, the cranium common to the Vril-ya +has the organs of weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, very +largely developed; that of construction much more pronounced than +that of ideality. Those which are called the moral organs, such as +conscientiousness and benevolence, are amazingly full; amativeness +and combativeness are both small; adhesiveness large; the organ of +destructiveness (i.e., of determined clearance of intervening +obstacles) immense, but less than that of benevolence; and their +philoprogenitiveness takes rather the character of compassion and +tenderness to things that need aid or protection than of the animal love +of offspring. I never met with one person deformed or misshapen. The +beauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of feature, but in +a smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle to the +extreme of old age, and a serene sweetness of expression, combined with +that majesty which seems to come from consciousness of power and the +freedom of all terror, physical or moral. It is that very sweetness, +combined with that majesty, which inspired in a beholder like myself, +accustomed to strive with the passions of mankind, a sentiment of +humiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a painter +might give to a demi-god, a genius, an angel. The males of the Vril-ya +are entirely beardless; the Gy-ei sometimes, in old age, develop a small +moustache. + +I was surprised to find that the colour of their skin was not uniformly +that which I had remarked in those individuals whom I had first +encountered,--some being much fairer, and even with blue eyes, and hair +of a deep golden auburn, though still of complexions warmer or richer in +tone than persons in the north of Europe. + +I was told that this admixture of colouring arose from intermarriage +with other and more distant tribes of the Vril-ya, who, whether by the +accident of climate or early distinction of race, were of fairer hues +than the tribes of which this community formed one. It was considered +that the dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of Ana; but they +attached no sentiment of pride to that antiquity, and, on the contrary, +believed their present excellence of breed came from frequent crossing +with other families differing, yet akin; and they encourage such +intermarriages, always provided that it be with the Vril-ya nations. +Nations which, not conforming their manners and institutions to those +of the Vril-ya, nor indeed held capable of acquiring the powers over +the vril agencies which it had taken them generations to attain and +transmit, were regarded with more disdain than the citizens of New York +regard the negroes. + +I learned from Zee, who had more lore in all matters than any male with +whom I was brought into familiar converse, that the superiority of +the Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of their +earlier struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localities +in which they had first settled. “Wherever,” said Zee, moralising, +“wherever goes on that early process in the history of civilisation, by +which life is made a struggle, in which the individual has to put forth +all his powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find this +result--viz., since in the competition a vast number must perish, nature +selects for preservation only the strongest specimens. With our +race, therefore, even before the discovery of vril, only the highest +organisations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books a +legend, once popularly believed, that we were driven from a region +that seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our +condition and attain to the purest elimination of our species by the +severity of the struggles our forefathers underwent; and that, when our +education shall become finally completed, we are destined to return +to the upper world, and supplant all the inferior races now existing +therein.” + +Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me in private upon the +political and social conditions of that upper world, in which Zee so +philosophically assumed that the inhabitants were to be exterminated +one day or other by the advent of the Vril-ya. They found in my +accounts,--in which I continued to do all I could (without launching +into falsehoods so positive that they would have been easily detected by +the shrewdness of my listeners) to present our powers and ourselves in +the most flattering point of view,--perpetual subjects of comparison +between our most civilised populations and the meaner subterranean races +which they considered hopelessly plunged in barbarism, and doomed to +gradual if certain extinction. But they both agreed in desiring to +conceal from their community all premature opening into the regions +lighted by the sun; both were humane, and shrunk from the thought of +annihilating so many millions of creatures; and the pictures I drew of +our life, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain I boasted +of our great men--poets, philosophers, orators, generals--and defied the +Vril-ya to produce their equals. “Alas,” said Zee, “this predominance +of the few over the many is the surest and most fatal sign of a race +incorrigibly savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortal +happiness consists in the extinction of that strife and competition +between individuals, which, no matter what forms of government they +adopt, render the many subordinate to the few, destroy real liberty to +the individual, whatever may be the nominal liberty of the state, and +annul that calm of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily, +cannot be attained? Our notion is, that the more we can assimilate life +to the existence which our noblest ideas can conceive to be that of +spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more we approximate +to a divine happiness here, and the more easily we glide into the +conditions of being hereafter. For, surely, all we can imagine of the +life of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence of self-made +cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems +to us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without +active occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, +but occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the +idiosyncrasies of each, not forced and repugnant--a life gladdened by +the untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral +atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry. +Such is the political state to which all the tribes and families of +the Vril-ya seek to attain, and towards that goal all our theories of +government are shaped. You see how utterly opposed is such a progress to +that of the uncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim at +a systematic perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warring passions +aggravated more and more as their progress storms its way onward. The +most powerful of all the races in our world, beyond the pale of the +Vril-ya, esteems itself the best governed of all political societies, +and to have reached in that respect the extreme end at which political +wisdom can arrive, so that the other nations should tend more or less to +copy it. It has established, on its broadest base, the Koom-Posh--viz., +the government of the ignorant upon the principle of being the most +numerous. It has placed the supreme bliss in the vying with each other +in all things, so that the evil passions are never in repose--vying for +power, for wealth, for eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry it +is horrible to hear the vituperation, the slanders, and calumnies which +even the best and mildest among them heap on each other without remorse +or shame.” + +“Some years ago,” said Aph-Lin, “I visited this people, and their +misery and degradation were the more appalling because they were always +boasting of their felicity and grandeur as compared with the rest of +their species. And there is no hope that this people, which evidently +resembles your own, can improve, because all their notions tend to +further deterioration. They desire to enlarge their dominion more and +more, in direct antagonism to the truth that, beyond a very limited +range, it is impossible to secure to a community the happiness which +belongs to a well-ordered family; and the more they mature a system +by which a few individuals are heated and swollen to a size above the +standard slenderness of the millions, the more they chuckle and exact, +and cry out, ‘See by what great exceptions to the common littleness of +our race we prove the magnificent results of our system!’” + +“In fact,” resumed Zee, “if the wisdom of human life be to approximate +to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying +off into the opposite direction than a system which aims at carrying +to the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see +how, by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit +themselves even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still +expect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, +minds accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of +godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and would +long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with each +other.” + + + +Chapter XVI. + + +I have spoken so much of the Vril Staff that my reader may expect me +to describe it. This I cannot do accurately, for I was never allowed to +handle it for fear of some terrible accident occasioned by my ignorance +of its use; and I have no doubt that it requires much skill and practice +in the exercise of its various powers. It is hollow, and has in the +handle several stops, keys, or springs by which its force can be +altered, modified, or directed--so that by one process it destroys, by +another it heals--by one it can rend the rock, by another disperse the +vapour--by one it affects bodies, by another it can exercise a certain +influence over minds. It is usually carried in the convenient size of +a walking-staff, but it has slides by which it can be lengthened or +shortened at will. When used for special purposes, the upper part rests +in the hollow of the palm with the fore and middle fingers protruded. +I was assured, however, that its power was not equal in all, but +proportioned to the amount of certain vril properties in the wearer in +affinity, or ‘rapport’ with the purposes to be effected. Some were more +potent to destroy, others to heal, &c.; much also depended on the calm +and steadiness of volition in the manipulator. They assert that the +full exercise of vril power can only be acquired by the constitutional +temperament--i.e., by hereditarily transmitted organisation--and that +a female infant of four years old belonging to the Vril-ya races can +accomplish feats which a life spent in its practice would not enable +the strongest and most skilled mechanician, born out of the pale of the +Vril-ya to achieve. All these wands are not equally complicated; those +intrusted to children are much simpler than those borne by sages of +either sex, and constructed with a view to the special object on which +the children are employed; which as I have before said, is among the +youngest children the most destructive. In the wands of wives and +mothers the correlative destroying force is usually abstracted, the +healing power fully charged. I wish I could say more in detail of this +singular conductor of the vril fluid, but its machinery is as exquisite +as its effects are marvellous. + +I should say, however, that this people have invented certain tubes by +which the vril fluid can be conducted towards the object it is meant +to destroy, throughout a distance almost indefinite; at least I put +it modestly when I say from 500 to 1000 miles. And their mathematical +science as applied to such purpose is so nicely accurate, that on +the report of some observer in an air-boat, any member of the vril +department can estimate unerringly the nature of intervening obstacles, +the height to which the projectile instrument should be raised, and the +extent to which it should be charged, so as to reduce to ashes within a +space of time too short for me to venture to specify it, a capital twice +as vast as London. + +Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians--wonderful for the +adaptation of the inventive faculty to practical uses. + +I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great public museum, +which occupies a wing in the College of Sages, and in which are hoarded, +as curious specimens of the ignorant and blundering experiments of +ancient times, many contrivances on which we pride ourselves as recent +achievements. In one department, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete +lumber, are tubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an +inflammable powder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and +even still more murderous than our latest improvements. + +My host spoke of these with a smile of contempt, such as an artillery +officer might bestow on the bows and arrows of the Chinese. In another +department there were models of vehicles and vessels worked by steam, +and of an air-balloon which might have been constructed by Montgolfier. +“Such,” said Zee, with an air of meditative wisdom--“such were the +feeble triflings with nature of our savage forefathers, ere they had +even a glimmering perception of the properties of vril!” + +This young Gy was a magnificent specimen of the muscular force to which +the females of her country attain. Her features were beautiful, like +those of all her race: never in the upper world have I seen a face so +grand and so faultless, but her devotion to the severer studies had +given to her countenance an expression of abstract thought which +rendered it somewhat stern when in repose; and such a sternness became +formidable when observed in connection with her ample shoulders and +lofty stature. She was tall even for a Gy, and I saw her lift up a +cannon as easily as I could lift a pocket-pistol. Zee inspired me with a +profound terror--a terror which increased when we came into a department +of the museum appropriated to models of contrivances worked by the +agency of vril; for here, merely by a certain play of her vril staff, +she herself standing at a distance, she put into movement large and +weighty substances. She seemed to endow them with intelligence, and to +make them comprehend and obey her command. She set complicated pieces of +machinery into movement, arrested the movement or continued it, until, +within an incredibly short time, various kinds of raw material were +reproduced as symmetrical works of art, complete and perfect. Whatever +effect mesmerism or electro-biology produces over the nerves and muscles +of animated objects, this young Gy produced by the motions of her +slender rod over the springs and wheels of lifeless mechanism. + +When I mentioned to my companions my astonishment at this influence +over inanimate matter--while owning that, in our world, I had witnessed +phenomena which showed that over certain living organisations certain +other living organisations could establish an influence genuine in +itself, but often exaggerated by credulity or craft--Zee, who was more +interested in such subjects than her father, bade me stretch forth my +hand, and then, placing it beside her own, she called my attention to +certain distinctions of type and character. In the first place, the +thumb of the Gy (and, as I afterwards noticed, of all that race, male or +female) was much larger, at once longer and more massive, than is found +with our species above ground. There is almost, in this, as great a +difference as there is between the thumb of a man and that of a gorilla. +Secondly, the palm is proportionally thicker than ours--the texture of +the skin infinitely finer and softer--its average warmth is greater. +More remarkable than all this, is a visible nerve, perceptible under the +skin, which starts from the wrist skirting the ball of the thumb, and +branching, fork-like, at the roots of the fore and middle fingers. “With +your slight formation of thumb,” said the philosophical young Gy, “and +with the absence of the nerve which you find more or less developed in +the hands of our race, you can never achieve other than imperfect +and feeble power over the agency of vril; but so far as the nerve is +concerned, that is not found in the hands of our earliest progenitors, +nor in those of the ruder tribes without the pale of the Vril-ya. It has +been slowly developed in the course of generations, commencing in the +early achievements, and increasing with the continuous exercise, of the +vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousand years, such +a nerve may possibly be engendered in those higher beings of your +race, who devote themselves to that paramount science through which +is attained command over all the subtler forces of nature permeated +by vril. But when you talk of matter as something in itself inert +and motionless, your parents or tutors surely cannot have left you so +ignorant as not to know that no form of matter is motionless and inert: +every particle is constantly in motion and constantly acted upon by +agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and rapid, but vril the +most subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the most powerful. So that, +in fact, the current launched by my hand and guided by my will does but +render quicker and more potent the action which is eternally at work +upon every particle of matter, however inert and stubborn it may seem. +If a heap of metal be not capable of originating a thought of its own, +yet, through its internal susceptibility to movement, it obtains the +power to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at work on it; by +which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the vril power, it is +as much compelled to obey as if it were displaced by a visible bodily +force. It is animated for the time being by the soul thus infused into +it, so that one may almost say that it lives and reasons. Without this +we could not make our automata supply the place of servants.” + +I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of the young Gy +to hazard the risk of arguing with her. I had read somewhere in my +schoolboy days that a wise man, disputing with a Roman Emperor, suddenly +drew in his horns; and when the emperor asked him whether he had nothing +further to say on his side of the question, replied, “Nay, Caesar, there +is no arguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions.” + +Though I had a secret persuasion that, whatever the real effects of +vril upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved her a very shallow +philosopher as to its extent or its causes, I had no doubt that Zee +could have brained all the Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the +other, with a blow of her fist. Every sensible man knows that it is +useless to argue with any ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; +but to argue with a Gy seven feet high upon the mysteries of vril,--as +well argue in a desert, and with a simoon! + +Amid the various departments to which the vast building of the College +of Sages was appropriated, that which interested me most was devoted to +the archaeology of the Vril-ya, and comprised a very ancient collection +of portraits. In these the pigments and groundwork employed were of +so durable a nature that even pictures said to be executed at dates as +remote as those in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained much +freshness of colour. In examining this collection, two things especially +struck me:--first, that the pictures said to be between 6000 and 7000 +years old were of a much higher degree of art than any produced within +the last 3000 or 4000 years; and, second, that the portraits within the +former period much more resembled our own upper world and European types +of countenance. Some of them, indeed reminded me of the Italian heads +which look out from the canvases of Titian--speaking of ambition or +craft, of care or of grief, with furrows in which the passions have +passed with iron ploughshare. These were the countenances of men who had +lived in struggle and conflict before the discovery of the latent forces +of vril had changed the character of society--men who had fought with +each other for power or fame as we in the upper world fight. + +The type of face began to evince a marked change about a thousand years +after the vril revolution, becoming then, with each generation, more +serene, and in that serenity more terribly distinct from the faces of +labouring and sinful men; while in proportion as the beauty and the +grandeur of the countenance itself became more fully developed, the art +of the painter became more tame and monotonous. + +But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of three portraits +belonging to the pre-historical age, and, according to mythical +tradition, taken by the orders of a philosopher, whose origin and +attributes were as much mixed up with symbolical fable as those of an +Indian Budh or a Greek Prometheus. + +From this mysterious personage, at once a sage and a hero, all the +principal sections of the Vril-ya race pretend to trace a common origin. + +The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of his grandfather, and +great-grandfather. They are all at full length. The philosopher is +attired in a long tunic which seems to form a loose suit of scaly +armour, borrowed, perhaps, from some fish or reptile, but the feet and +hands are exposed: the digits in both are wonderfully long, and webbed. +He has little or no perceptible throat, and a low receding forehead, not +at all the ideal of a sage’s. He has bright brown prominent eyes, a very +wide mouth and high cheekbones, and a muddy complexion. According to +tradition, this philosopher had lived to a patriarchal age, extending +over many centuries, and he remembered distinctly in middle life his +grandfather as surviving, and in childhood his great-grandfather; the +portrait of the first he had taken, or caused to be taken, while yet +alive--that of the latter was taken from his effigies in mummy. +The portrait of his grandfather had the features and aspect of the +philosopher, only much more exaggerated: he was not dressed, and the +colour of his body was singular; the breast and stomach yellow, the +shoulders and legs of a dull bronze hue: the great-grandfather was a +magnificent specimen of the Batrachian genus, a Giant Frog, ‘pur et +simple.’ + +Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher +bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form and sententious brevity, this +is notably recorded: “Humble yourselves, my descendants; the father of +your race was a ‘twat’ (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for +it was the same Divine Thought which created your father that develops +itself in exalting you.” + +Aph-Lin told me this fable while I gazed on the three Batrachian +portraits. I said in reply: “You make a jest of my supposed ignorance +and credulity as an uneducated Tish, but though these horrible daubs +may be of great antiquity, and were intended, perhaps, for some +rude caracature, I presume that none of your race even in the less +enlightened ages, ever believed that the great-grandson of a Frog became +a sententious philosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the +lofty Vril-ya, but of the meanest varieties of the human race, had its +origin in a Tadpole.” + +“Pardon me,” answered Aph-Lin: “in what we call the Wrangling or +Philosophical Period of History, which was at its height about seven +thousand years ago, there was a very distinguished naturalist, who +proved to the satisfaction of numerous disciples such analogical and +anatomical agreements in structure between an An and a Frog, as to +show that out of the one must have developed the other. They had some +diseases in common; they were both subject to the same parasitical worms +in the intestines; and, strange to say, the An has, in his structure, a +swimming-bladder, no longer of any use to him, but which is a rudiment +that clearly proves his descent from a Frog. Nor is there any argument +against this theory to be found in the relative difference of size, for +there are still existent in our world Frogs of a size and stature not +inferior to our own, and many thousand years ago they appear to have +been still larger.” + +“I understand that,” said I, “because Frogs this enormous are, according +to our eminent geologists, who perhaps saw them in dreams, said to have +been distinguished inhabitants of the upper world before the Deluge; and +such Frogs are exactly the creatures likely to have flourished in the +lakes and morasses of your subterranean regions. But pray, proceed.” + +“In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage asserted another +sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maxim in that age, that +the human reason could only be sustained aloft by being tossed to and +fro in the perpetual motion of contradiction; and therefore another +sect of philosophers maintained the doctrine that the An was not the +descendant of the Frog, but that the Frog was clearly the improved +development of the An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally, was much +more symmetrical than that of the An; beside the beautiful conformation +of its lower limbs, its flanks and shoulders the majority of the Ana in +that day were almost deformed, and certainly ill-shaped. Again, the Frog +had the power to live alike on land and in water--a mighty privilege, +partaking of a spiritual essence denied to the An, since the disuse +of his swimming-bladder clearly proves his degeneration from a higher +development of species. Again, the earlier races of the Ana seem to +have been covered with hair, and, even to a comparatively recent date, +hirsute bushes deformed the very faces of our ancestors, spreading wild +over their cheeks and chins, as similar bushes, my poor Tish, spread +wild over yours. But the object of the higher races of the Ana through +countless generations has been to erase all vestige of connection with +hairy vertebrata, and they have gradually eliminated that debasing +capillary excrement by the law of sexual selection; the Gy-ei naturally +preferring youth or the beauty of smooth faces. But the degree of the +Frog in the scale of the vertebrata is shown in this, that he has +no hair at all, not even on his head. He was born to that hairless +perfection which the most beautiful of the Ana, despite the culture of +incalculable ages, have not yet attained. The wonderful complication and +delicacy of a Frog’s nervous system and arterial circulation were shown +by this school to be more susceptible of enjoyment than our inferior, or +at least simpler, physical frame allows us to be. The examination of +a Frog’s hand, if I may use that expression, accounted for its keener +susceptibility to love, and to social life in general. In fact, +gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are still more so. In +short, these two schools raged against each other; one asserting the An +to be the perfected type of the Frog; the other that the Frog was the +highest development of the An. The moralists were divided in +opinion with the naturalists, but the bulk of them sided with the +Frog-preference school. They said, with much plausibility, that in moral +conduct (viz., in the adherence to rules best adapted to the health and +welfare of the individual and the community) there could be no doubt +of the vast superiority of the Frog. All history showed the wholesale +immorality of the human race, the complete disregard, even by the +most renowned amongst them, of the laws which they acknowledged to be +essential to their own and the general happiness and wellbeing. But the +severest critic of the Frog race could not detect in their manners a +single aberration from the moral law tacitly recognised by themselves. +And what, after all, can be the profit of civilisation if superiority in +moral conduct be not the aim for which it strives, and the test by which +its progress should be judged? + +“In fine, the adherents of this theory presumed that in some remote +period the Frog race had been the improved development of the Human; but +that, from some causes which defied rational conjecture, they had not +maintained their original position in the scale of nature; while the +Ana, though of inferior organisation, had, by dint less of their virtues +than their vices, such as ferocity and cunning, gradually acquired +ascendancy, much as among the human race itself tribes utterly barbarous +have, by superiority in similar vices, utterly destroyed or reduced +into insignificance tribes originally excelling them in mental gifts +and culture. Unhappily these disputes became involved with the religious +notions of that age; and as society was then administered under the +government of the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of +course the most inflammable class--the multitude took the whole question +out of the hands of the philosophers; political chiefs saw that the +Frog dispute, so taken up by the populace, could become a most valuable +instrument of their ambition; and for not less than one thousand years +war and massacre prevailed, during which period the philosophers on both +sides were butchered, and the government of Koom-Posh itself was happily +brought to an end by the ascendancy of a family that clearly established +its descent from the aboriginal tadpole, and furnished despotic rulers +to the various nations of the Ana. These despots finally disappeared, at +least from our communities, as the discovery of vril led to the tranquil +institutions under which flourish all the races of the Vril-ya.” + +“And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive the dispute; or +do they all recognise the origin of your race in the tadpole?” + +“Nay, such disputes,” said Zee, with a lofty smile, “belong to the +Pah-bodh of the dark ages, and now only serve for the amusement of +infants. When we know the elements out of which our bodies are composed, +elements in common to the humblest vegetable plants, can it signify +whether the All-Wise combined those elements out of one form more than +another, in order to create that in which He has placed the capacity to +receive the idea of Himself, and all the varied grandeurs of intellect +to which that idea gives birth? The An in reality commenced to exist +as An with the donation of that capacity, and, with that capacity, the +sense to acknowledge that, however through the countless ages his race +may improve in wisdom, it can never combine the elements at its command +into the form of a tadpole.” + +“You speak well, Zee,” said Aph-Lin; “and it is enough for us shortlived +mortals to feel a reasonable assurance that whether the origin of the +An was a tadpole or not, he is no more likely to become a tadpole again +than the institutions of the Vril-ya are likely to relapse into the +heaving quagmire and certain strife-rot of a Koom-Posh.” + + +Chapter XVII. + + +The Vril-ya, being excluded from all sight of the heavenly bodies, and +having no other difference between night and day than that which they +deem it convenient to make for themselves,--do not, of course, arrive at +their divisions of time by the same process that we do; but I found it +easy by the aid of my watch, which I luckily had about me, to compute +their time with great nicety. I reserve for a future work on the science +and literature of the Vril-ya, should I live to complete it, all details +as to the manner in which they arrive at their rotation of time; and +content myself here with saying, that in point of duration, their year +differs very slightly from ours, but that the divisions of their year +are by no means the same. Their day, (including what we call night) +consists of twenty hours of our time, instead of twenty-four, and of +course their year comprises the correspondent increase in the number of +days by which it is summed up. They subdivide the twenty hours of their +day thus--eight hours,* called the “Silent Hours,” for repose; eight +hours, called the “Earnest Time,” for the pursuits and occupations of +life; and four hours called the “Easy Time” (with which what I may term +their day closes), allotted to festivities, sport, recreation, or family +converse, according to their several tastes and inclinations. + +* For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, years, +&c., in any general reference to subdivisions of time among the Vril-ya; +those terms but loosely corresponding, however, with such subdivisions. + +But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain, both +in the streets and in the surrounding country, to the limits of their +territory, the same degree of light at all hours. Only, within doors, +they lower it to a soft twilight during the Silent Hours. They have +a great horror of perfect darkness, and their lights are never wholly +extinguished. On occasions of festivity they continue the duration of +full light, but equally keep note of the distinction between night and +day, by mechanical contrivances which answer the purpose of our clocks +and watches. They are very fond of music; and it is by music that these +chronometers strike the principal division of time. At every one +of their hours, during their day, the sounds coming from all the +time-pieces in their public buildings, and caught up, as it were, by +those of houses or hamlets scattered amidst the landscapes without the +city, have an effect singularly sweet, and yet singularly solemn. +But during the Silent Hours these sounds are so subdued as to be only +faintly heard by a waking ear. They have no change of seasons, and, at +least on the territory of this tribe, the atmosphere seemed to me very +equable, warm as that of an Italian summer, and humid rather than dry; +in the forenoon usually very still, but at times invaded by strong +blasts from the rocks that made the borders of their domain. But time +is the same to them for sowing or reaping as in the Golden Isles of the +ancient poets. At the same moment you see the younger plants in blade or +bud, the older in ear or fruit. All fruit-bearing plants, however, after +fruitage, either shed or change the colour of their leaves. But that +which interested me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the +ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I found on +minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded the term allotted to +us on the upper earth. What seventy years are to us, one hundred +years are to them. Nor is this the only advantage they have over us in +longevity, for as few among us attain to the age of seventy, so, on the +contrary, few among them die before the age of one hundred; and they +enjoy a general degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a +blessing even to the last. Various causes contribute to this result: +the absence of all alcoholic stimulants; temperance in food; more +especially, perhaps, a serenity of mind undisturbed by anxious +occupations and eager passions. They are not tormented by our avarice +or our ambition; they appear perfectly indifferent even to the desire of +fame; they are capable of great affection, but their love shows +itself in a tender and cheerful complaisance, and, while forming their +happiness, seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe. As the Gy is +sure only to marry where she herself fixes her choice, and as here, not +less than above ground, it is the female on whom the happiness of home +depends; so the Gy, having chosen the mate she prefers to all others, is +lenient to his faults, consults his humours, and does her best to secure +his attachment. The death of a beloved one is of course with them, as +with us, a cause for sorrow; but not only is death with them so much +more rare before that age in which it becomes a release, but when it +does occur the survivor takes much more consolation than, I am afraid, +the generality of us do, in the certainty of reunion in another and yet +happier life. + +All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyable +longevity, though, no doubt, much also must be owing to hereditary +organisation. According to their records, however, in those earlier +stages of their society when they lived in communities resembling ours, +agitated by fierce competition, their lives were considerably shorter, +and their maladies more numerous and grave. They themselves say that +the duration of life, too, has increased, and is still on the increase, +since their discovery of the invigorating and medicinal properties of +vril, applied for remedial purposes. They have few professional and +regular practitioners of medicine, and these are chiefly Gy-ei, who, +especially if widowed and childless, find great delight in the healing +art, and even undertake surgical operations in those cases required by +accident, or, more rarely, by disease. + +They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during the Easy +Time of their day, they are wont to assemble in great numbers for those +winged sports in the air which I have already described. They have also +public halls for music, and even theatres, at which are performed +pieces that appeared to me somewhat to resemble the plays of the +Chinese--dramas that are thrown back into distant times for their events +and personages, in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, +and the hero, in once scene a child, in the next is an old man, and so +forth. These plays are of very ancient composition, and their stories +cast in remote times. They appeared to me very dull, on the whole, +but were relieved by startling mechanical contrivances, and a kind of +farcical broad humour, and detached passages of great vigour and power +expressed in language highly poetical, but somewhat overcharged with +metaphor and trope. In fine, they seemed to me very much what the plays +of Shakespeare seemed to a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps +to an Englishman in the reign of Charles II. + +The audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted the chief portion, appeared +to enjoy greatly the representation of these dramas, which, for so +sedate and majestic a race of females, surprised me, till I observed +that all the performers were under the age of adolescence, and +conjectured truly that the mothers and sisters came to please their +children and brothers. + +I have said that these dramas are of great antiquity. No new plays, +indeed no imaginative works sufficiently important to survive their +immediate day, appear to have been composed for several generations. In +fact, though there is no lack of new publications, and they have even +what may be called newspapers, these are chiefly devoted to mechanical +science, reports of new inventions, announcements respecting various +details of business--in short, to practical matters. Sometimes a child +writes a little tale of adventure, or a young Gy vents her amorous hopes +or fears in a poem; but these effusions are of very little merit, +and are seldom read except by children and maiden Gy-ei. The most +interesting works of a purely literary character are those of +explorations and travels into other regions of this nether world, +which are generally written by young emigrants, and are read with great +avidity by the relations and friends they have left behind. + +I could not help expressing to Aph-Lin my surprise that a community in +which mechanical science had made so marvellous a progress, and in +which intellectual civilisation had exhibited itself in realising +those objects for the happiness of the people, which the political +philosophers above ground had, after ages of struggle, pretty generally +agreed to consider unattainable visions, should, nevertheless, be so +wholly without a contemporaneous literature, despite the excellence +to which culture had brought a language at once so rich and simple, +vigourous and musical. + +My host replied--“Do you not perceive that a literature such as you mean +would be wholly incompatible with that perfection of social or political +felicity at which you do us the honour to think we have arrived? We have +at last, after centuries of struggle, settled into a form of government +with which we are content, and in which, as we allow no differences of +rank, and no honours are paid to administrators distinguishing them from +others, there is no stimulus given to individual ambition. No one would +read works advocating theories that involved any political or social +change, and therefore no one writes them. If now and then an An feels +himself dissatisfied with our tranquil mode of life, he does not attack +it; he goes away. Thus all that part of literature (and to judge by the +ancient books in our public libraries, it was once a very large part), +which relates to speculative theories on society is become utterly +extinct. Again, formerly there was a vast deal written respecting +the attributes and essence of the All-Good, and the arguments for and +against a future state; but now we all recognise two facts, that there +IS a Divine Being, and there IS a future state, and we all equally agree +that if we wrote our fingers to the bone, we could not throw any light +upon the nature and conditions of that future state, or quicken our +apprehensions of the attributes and essence of that Divine Being. Thus +another part of literature has become also extinct, happily for our +race; for in the time when so much was written on subjects which no one +could determine, people seemed to live in a perpetual state of quarrel +and contention. So, too, a vast part of our ancient literature consists +of historical records of wars an revolutions during the times when the +Ana lived in large and turbulent societies, each seeking aggrandisement +at the expense of the other. You see our serene mode of life now; such +it has been for ages. We have no events to chronicle. What more of us +can be said than that, ‘they were born, they were happy, they died?’ +Coming next to that part of literature which is more under the control +of the imagination, such as what we call Glaubsila, or colloquially +‘Glaubs,’ and you call poetry, the reasons for its decline amongst us +are abundantly obvious. + +“We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in that department +of literature which we all still read with pleasure, but of which none +would tolerate imitations, that they consist in the portraiture of +passions which we no longer experience--ambition, vengeance, unhallowed +love, the thirst for warlike renown, and suchlike. The old poets lived +in an atmosphere impregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what +they expressed glowingly. No one can express such passions now, for no +one can feel them, or meet with any sympathy in his readers if he did. +Again, the old poetry has a main element in its dissection of those +complex mysteries of human character which conduce to abnormal vices and +crimes, or lead to signal and extraordinary virtues. But our society, +having got rid of temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has +necessarily rendered the moral average so equal, that there are no +very salient virtues. Without its ancient food of strong passions, vast +crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if not actually starved +to death, reduced to a very meagre diet. There is still the poetry of +description--description of rocks, and trees, and waters, and common +household life; and our young Gy-ei weave much of this insipid kind of +composition into their love verses.” + +“Such poetry,” said I, “might surely be made very charming; and we have +critics amongst us who consider it a higher kind than that which depicts +the crimes, or analyses the passions, of man. At all events, poetry of +the inspired kind you mention is a poetry that nowadays commands more +readers than any other among the people I have left above ground.” + +“Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains with the +language they employ, and devote themselves to the culture and polish of +words and rhythms of an art?” + +“Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the gift of poetry +may be inborn, the gift requires as much care to make it available as a +block of metal does to be made into one of your engines.” + +“And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow all those pains +upon such verbal prettinesses?” + +“Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing as the bird +does; but to cultivate the song into verbal or artificial prettiness, +probably does need an inducement from without, and our poets find it in +the love of fame--perhaps, now and then, in the want of money.” + +“Precisely so. But in our society we attach fame to nothing which man, +in that moment of his duration which is called ‘life,’ can perform. We +should soon lose that equality which constitutes the felicitous essence +of our commonwealth if we selected any individual for pre-eminent +praise: pre-eminent praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the +moment it were given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other +men would immediately covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envy +hate, and with hate calumny and persecution. Our history tells us that +most of the poets and most of the writers who, in the old time, were +favoured with the greatest praise, were also assailed by the greatest +vituperation, and even, on the whole, rendered very unhappy, partly +by the attacks of jealous rivals, partly by the diseased mental +constitution which an acquired sensitiveness to praise and to blame +tends to engender. As for the stimulus of want; in the first place, no +man in our community knows the goad of poverty; and, secondly, if he +did, almost every occupation would be more lucrative than writing. + +“Our public libraries contain all the books of the past which time has +preserved; those books, for the reasons above stated, are infinitely +better than any can write nowadays, and they are open to all to read +without cost. We are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior +books, when we can read superior books for nothing.” + +“With us, novelty has an attraction; and a new book, if bad, is read +when an old book, though good, is neglected.” + +“Novelty, to barbarous states of society struggling in despair for +something better, has no doubt an attraction, denied to us, who see +nothing to gain in novelties; but after all, it is observed by one of +our great authors four thousand years ago, that ‘he who studies old +books will always find in them something new, and he who reads new books +will always find in them something old.’ But to return to the question +you have raised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstaking +labour, whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, such as have +the poetic temperament, no doubt vent it in song, as you say the bird +sings; but for lack of elaborate culture it fails of an audience, +and, failing of an audience, dies out, of itself, amidst the ordinary +avocations of life.” + +“But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of +literature do not operate against that of science?” + +“Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth +apart from all consideration of fame, and science with us too is devoted +almost solely to practical uses, essential to our social conversation +and the comforts of our daily life. No fame is asked by the inventor, +and none is given to him; he enjoys an occupation congenial to his +tastes, and needing no wear and tear of the passions. Man must have +exercise for his mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather +than violent, is best for both. Our most ingenious cultivators of +science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the most free from +disease. Painting is an amusement to many, but the art is not what it +was in former times, when the great painters in our various communities +vied with each other for the prize of a golden crown, which gave them a +social rank equal to that of the kings under whom they lived. You +will thus doubtless have observed in our archaeological department how +superior in point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago. +Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, more allied to science than +it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable arts, music is that which +flourishes the most amongst us. Still, even in music the absence of +stimulus in praise or fame has served to prevent any great superiority +of one individual over another; and we rather excel in choral music, +with the aid of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great +use of the agency of water,* than in single performers.” + +* This may remind the student of Nero’s invention of a musical machine, +by which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on +which he was employed when the conspiracy against him broke out. + +“We have had scarcely any original composer for some ages. Our favorite +airs are very ancient in substance, but have admitted many complicated +variations by inferior, though ingenious, musicians.” + +“Are there no political societies among the Ana which are animated +by those passions, subjected to those crimes, and admitting those +disparities in condition, in intellect, and in morality, which the state +of your tribe, or indeed of the Vril-ya generally, has left behind in +its progress to perfection? If so, among such societies perhaps Poetry +and her sister arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?” + +“There are such societies in remote regions, but we do not admit them +within the pale of civilised communities; we scarcely even give them the +name of Ana, and certainly not that of Vril-ya. They are savages, living +chiefly in that low stage of being, Koom-Posh, tending necessarily to +its own hideous dissolution in Glek-Nas. Their wretched existence is +passed in perpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight +with their neighbours, they fight among themselves. They are divided +into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimes murder each +other, and on the most frivolous points of difference that would be +unintelligible to us if we had not read history, and seen that we too +have passed through the same early state of ignorance and barbarism. Any +trifle is sufficient to set them together by the ears. They pretend to +be all equals, and the more they have struggled to be so, by removing +old distinctions, and starting afresh, the more glaring and intolerable +the disparity becomes, because nothing in hereditary affections and +associations is left to soften the one naked distinction between the +many who have nothing and the few who have much. Of course the many hate +the few, but without the few they could not live. The many are always +assailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the few; but as soon as +they have done so, a new few starts out of the many, and is harder +to deal with than the old few. For where societies are large, and +competition to have something is the predominant fever, there must be +always many losers and few gainers. In short, they are savages groping +their way in the dark towards some gleam of light, and would demand our +commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages, they did not +provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and cruelty. Can you +imagine that creatures of this kind, armed only with such miserable +weapons as you may see in our museum of antiquities, clumsy iron tubes +charged with saltpetre, have more than once threatened with destruction +a tribe of the Vril-ya, which dwells nearest to them, because they say +they have thirty millions of population--and that tribe may have fifty +thousand--if the latter do not accept their notions of Soc-Sec (money +getting) on some trading principles which they have the impudence to +call ‘a law of civilisation’?” + +“But thirty millions of population are formidable odds against fifty +thousand!” + +My host stared at me astonished. “Stranger,” said he, “you could not +have heard me say that this threatened tribe belongs to the Vril-ya; and +it only waits for these savages to declare war, in order to commission +some half-a-dozen small children to sweep away their whole population.” + +At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much more affinity +with “the savages” than I did with the Vril-ya, and remembering all I +had said in praise of the glorious American institutions, which Aph-Lin +stigmatised as Koom-Posh. Recovering my self-possession, I asked +if there were modes of transit by which I could safely visit this +temerarious and remote people. + +“You can travel with safety, by vril agency, either along the ground or +amid the air, throughout all the range of the communities with which +we are allied and akin; but I cannot vouch for your safety in barbarous +nations governed by different laws from ours; nations, indeed, so +benighted, that there are among them large numbers who actually live by +stealing from each other, and one could not with safety in the Silent +Hours even leave the doors of one’s own house open.” + +Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee, who came +to inform us that he, having been deputed to discover and destroy the +enormous reptile which I had seen on my first arrival, had been on the +watch for it ever since his visit to me, and had began to suspect that +my eyes had deceived me, or that the creature had made its way through +the cavities within the rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its +kindred race,--when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a great +devastation of the herbage bordering one of the lakes. “And,” said Taee, +“I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding. So,” (turning to +me) “I thought it might amuse you to accompany me to see the way we +destroy such unpleasant visitors.” As I looked at the face of the young +child, and called to mind the enormous size of the creature he proposed +to exterminate, I felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps +fear for myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosity +to witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my +unwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant by betraying +apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my first impulse. +Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteous consideration for my +amusement, and professed my willingness to set out with him on so +diverting an enterprise. + + + +Chapter XVIII. + + +As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left the +main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange and +solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to the +verge of the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some time +an inattentive listener to the talk of my companion. + +Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by +machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part very +graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sake +of mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of +useful objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that +they are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace; +and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens +their imagination in a way unknown to themselves. + +In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use +of automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to the +operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. It +was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparently +guiding or superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, from +human forms endowed with thought. + +By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused by +the lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of the +children among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from the +habit of having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and +responsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt +as if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. I +asked him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities +into which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided. + +“Not exactly,” he said, “because they multiply, of course, every year as +the surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father say +that, according to the last report, there were a million and a half of +communities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions and +forms of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences, +about which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Ana +do. An An cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does; +the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures.” + +“Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or +amount of population that you do?” + +“No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger--varying +according to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to the +degree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each +community sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care +always that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of +population upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no +state shall be too large for a government resembling that of a +single well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds +thirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the smaller +the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the +capacities of the territory it occupies, the richer each individual is, +and the larger the sum contributed to the general treasury,--above all, +the happier and the more tranquil is the whole political body, and the +more perfect the products of its industry. The state which all tribes of +the Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and which +has brought the vril force to its fullest development, is perhaps the +smallest. It limits itself to four thousand families; but every inch of +its territory is cultivated to the utmost perfection of garden ground; +its machinery excels that of every other tribe, and there is no +product of its industry in any department which is not sought for, at +extraordinary prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes make +this state their model, considering that we should reach the highest +state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could unite the greatest +degree of happiness with the highest degree of intellectual achievement; +and it is clear that the smaller the society the less difficult that +will be. Ours is too large for it.” + +This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little state of +Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and which to this +day our mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide and model in all +departments of intellect. But then Athens permitted fierce rivalry and +perpetual change, and was certainly not happy. Rousing myself from the +reverie into which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our +talk to the subjects connected with emigration. + +“But,” said I, “when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agree +to quit home and found a new community elsewhere, they must necessarily +be very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the machines +they take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form a +civilised state with the comforts and luxuries in which they had been +reared.” + +“You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constant +communication with each other, and settle amongst themselves each +year what proportion of one community will unite with the emigrants of +another, so as to form a state of sufficient size; and the place for +emigration is agreed upon at least a year before, and pioneers sent from +each state to level rocks, and embank waters, and construct houses; so +that when the emigrants at last go, they find a city already made, and a +country around it at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as children +make us take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigrate +myself when of age.” + +“Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and barren?” + +“As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy except +when necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot settle in lands +already occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take the cultivated lands +of the other races of Ana, we must utterly destroy the previous +inhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we take waste spots, and find that +a troublesome, quarrelsome race of Ana, especially if under the +administration of Koom-Posh or Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks +a quarrel with us; then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy +it: there is no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic that +it is always changing the form of government which represents it. +Koom-Posh,” said the child, emphatically, “is bad enough, still it has +brains, though at the back of its head, and is not without a heart; but +in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of the creatures disappear, and they +become all jaws, claws, and belly.” “You express yourself strongly. +Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am the +citizen of a Koom-Posh.” + +“I no longer,” answered Taee, “wonder to see you here so far from your +home. What was the condition of your native community before it became a +Koom-Posh?” + +“A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribe +sends forth--but so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependent +on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crowned +with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh.” + +“Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?” + +“About 100 years.” + +“The length of an An’s life--a very young community. In much less than +another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas.” + +“Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in its +duration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions so +as to melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that, +whether they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old states +is towards Koom-Posh-erie.” + +“The old states?” + +“Yes, the old states.” + +“With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive +land?” + +“On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to that +area.” + +“I see! old states indeed!--so old as to become drivelling if they don’t +pack off that surplus population as we do ours--very old states!--very, +very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very old men to try to +turn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if you ask them why +they attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they answered that +by imitating very young children they could become very young children +themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a great +many thousand years ago--and in every instance a very old state that +played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in horror of its +own self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his dotage cries +out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, more or +less long, that very old state died out of history. A very old state +attempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the +house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his +vigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is +to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out, +‘How the wind blows! How the walls shake!’” + +“My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices, +which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert, +though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as you +appear to be.” + +“I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in your +Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother +to stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost? And if the poor old +folks hesitated--say, ‘What do you fear?--see how I do it!’” + +“Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I make +allowances for your want of that culture which a Koom-Posh alone can +bestow.” + +“I, in my turn,” answered Taee, with an air of the suave but lofty good +breeding which characterises his race, “not only make allowances for +you as not educated among the Vril-ya, but I entreat you to vouchsafe me +your pardon for the insufficient respect to the habits and opinions of +so amiable a Tish!” + +I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish by my +host and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet name, literally +signifying a small barbarian; the children apply it endearingly to the +tame species of Frog which they keep in their gardens. + +We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to point +out to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. “The enemy certainly +lies within these waters,” said Taee. “Observe what shoals of fish are +crowded together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the small +ones, who are their habitual prey and who generally shun them, all +forget their instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. This +reptile certainly must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more +devouring than any other, and are said to be among the few surviving +species of the world’s dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were created. +The appetite of a Krek is insatiable--it feeds alike upon vegetable and +animal life; but for the swift-footed creatures of the elk species it +is too slow in its movements. Its favourite dainty is an An when it can +catch him unawares; and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever +it enters their dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers first +cleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded, +and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured. It +was impossible to exterminate them wholly till that discovery which +constitutes the power and sustains the civilisation of our race. But +after the uses of vril became familiar to us, all creatures inimical +to us were soon annihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of these +enormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts +beyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who was +bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed with her +staff, it would not have dared even to show itself; for, like all savage +creatures, the reptile has a marvellous instinct, which warns it against +the bearer of the vril wand. How they teach their young to avoid him, +though seen for the first time, is one of those mysteries which you may +ask Zee to explain, for I cannot. The reptile in this instinct does but +resemble our wild birds and animals, which will not come in reach of a +man armed with a gun. When the electric wires were first put up, +partridges struck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded. +No younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident. So +long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its lurking-place; +but we must now decoy it forth.” + +“Will that not be difficult?” + +“Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one hundred +yards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In a short time the +reptile will catch sight or scent of you, and perceiving that you are no +vril-bearer, will come forth to devour you. As soon as it is fairly out +of the water, it becomes my prey.” + +“Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that horrible +monster which could engulf me within its jaws in a second! I beg to +decline.” + +The child laughed. “Fear nothing,” said he; “only sit still.” + +Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about to take +fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on the shoulder, and, +fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was rooted to the spot. All power of +volition left me. Submissive to the infant’s gesture, I followed him +to the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most +readers have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whether +genuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had ever been +able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but I was a mere +machine at the will of this terrible child. Meanwhile he expanded his +wings, soared aloft, and alighted amidst a copse at the brow of a hill +at some distance. + +I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation of +horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its water, spell-bound. It +might be ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the still +surface, gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towards +the centre. At the same time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced +their sense of the enemy’s approach by splash and leap and bubbling +circle. I could detect their hurried flight hither and thither, some +even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous furrow came +moving along the waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of the +reptile emerged--its jaws bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing +themselves hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its fore +feet were on the strand--now its enormous breast, scaled on either +side as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugated skin of a dull +venomous yellow; and now its whole length was on the land, a hundred +feet or more from the jaw to the tail. Another stride of those ghastly +feet would have brought it to the spot where I sat. There was but a +moment between me and this grim form of death, when what seemed a flash +of lightning shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time +briefer than that in which a man can draw his breath, enveloped +the monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me a +blackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but of which +even the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly crumbling into +dust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, ice-cold with +a new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe. + +I felt the child’s hand on my head--fear left me--the spell was +broken--I rose up. “You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy their +enemies,” said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, he contemplated +the smouldering relics of the monster, and said quietly, “I have +destroyed larger creatures, but none with so much pleasure. Yes, it IS +a Krek; what suffering it must have inflicted while it lived!” Then he +took up the poor fishes that had flung themselves ashore, and restored +them mercifully to their native element. + + + +Chapter XIX. + + +As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitous way, +in order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I will call the +‘Station,’ from which emigrants or travellers to other communities +commence their journeys. I had, on a former occasion, expressed a wish +to see their vehicles. These I found to be of two kinds, one for land +journeys, one for aerial voyages: the former were of all sizes and +forms, some not larger than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of +one story and containing several rooms, furnished according to the ideas +of comfort or luxury which are entertained by the Vril-ya. The aerial +vehicles were of light substances, not the least resembling our +balloons, but rather our boats and pleasure-vessels, with helm and +rudder, with large wings or paddles, and a central machine worked by +vril. All the vehicles both for land or air were indeed worked by that +potent and mysterious agency. + +I saw a convoy set out on its journey, but it had few passengers, +containing chiefly articles of merchandise, and was bound to a +neighbouring community; for among all the tribes of the Vril-ya there +is considerable commercial interchange. I may here observe, that their +money currency does not consist of the precious metals, which are too +common among them for that purpose. The smaller coins in ordinary use +are manufactured from a peculiar fossil shell, the comparatively scarce +remnant of some very early deluge, or other convulsion of nature, by +which a species has become extinct. It is minute, and flat as an oyster, +and takes a jewel-like polish. This coinage circulates among all the +tribes of the Vril-ya. Their larger transactions are carried on much +like ours, by bills of exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer +the purpose of our bank-notes. + +Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among the tribe I +became acquainted with was very considerable, compared with the amount +of population. But I never heard that any one grumbled at it, for it was +devoted to purposes of universal utility, and indeed necessary to the +civilisation of the tribe. The cost of lighting so large a range +of country, of providing for emigration, of maintaining the public +buildings at which the various operations of national intellect were +carried on, from the first education of an infant to the departments in +which the College of Sages were perpetually trying new experiments in +mechanical science; all these involved the necessity for considerable +state funds. To these I must add an item that struck me as very +singular. I have said that all the human labour required by the state is +carried on by children up to the marriageable age. For this labour the +state pays, and at a rate immeasurably higher than our own remuneration +to labour even in the United States. According to their theory, every +child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age, and there +terminating the period of labour, should have acquired enough for an +independent competence during life. As, no matter what the disparity of +fortune in the parents, all the children must equally serve, so all +are equally paid according to their several ages or the nature of their +work. Where the parents or friends choose to retain a child in their +own service, they must pay into the public fund in the same ratio as the +state pays to the children it employs; and this sum is handed over to +the child when the period of service expires. This practice serves, no +doubt, to render the notion of social equality familiar and agreeable; +and if it may be said that all the children form a democracy, no less +truly it may be said that all the adults form an aristocracy. The +exquisite politeness and refinement of manners among the Vril-ya, the +generosity of their sentiments, the absolute leisure they enjoy for +following out their own private pursuits, the amenities of their +domestic intercourse, in which they seem as members of one noble order +that can have no distrust of each other’s word or deed, all combine to +make the Vril-ya the most perfect nobility which a political disciple +of Plato or Sidney could conceive for the ideal of an aristocratic +republic. + + + +Chapter XX. + + +From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have just narrated, +the child paid me frequent visits. He had taken a liking to me, which I +cordially returned. Indeed, as he was not yet twelve years old, and +had not commenced the course of scientific studies with which childhood +closes in that country, my intellect was less inferior to his than to +that of the elder members of his race, especially of the Gy-ei, and most +especially of the accomplished Zee. The children of the Vril-ya, +having upon their minds the weight of so many active duties and grave +responsibilities, are not generally mirthful; but Taee, with all +his wisdom, had much of the playful good-humour one often finds the +characteristic of elderly men of genius. He felt that sort of pleasure +in my society which a boy of a similar age in the upper world has in the +company of a pet dog or monkey. It amused him to try and teach me the +ways of his people, as it amuses a nephew of mine to make his poodle +walk on his hind legs or jump through a hoop. I willingly lent myself to +such experiments, but I never achieved the success of the poodle. I was +very much interested at first in the attempt to ply the wings which the +youngest of the Vril-ya use as nimbly and easily as ours do their legs +and arms; but my efforts were attended with contusions serious enough to +make me abandon them in despair. + +These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the knee, +and in repose thrown back so as to form a very graceful mantle. They are +composed from the feathers of a gigantic bird that abounds in the rocky +heights of the country--the colour mostly white, but sometimes with +reddish streaks. They are fastened round the shoulders with light but +strong springs of steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide through +loops for that purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane. +As the arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the vest or tunic +becomes, by mechanical contrivance inflated with air, increased or +diminished at will by the movement of the arms, and serving to buoy the +whole form as on bladders. The wings and the balloon-like apparatus are +highly charged with vril; and when the body is thus wafted upward, it +seems to become singularly lightened of its weight. I found it easy +enough to soar from the ground; indeed, when the wings were spread it +was scarcely possible not to soar, but then came the difficulty and the +danger. I utterly failed in the power to use and direct the pinions, +though I am considered among my own race unusually alert and ready in +bodily exercises, and am a very practiced swimmer. I could only make the +most confused and blundering efforts at flight. I was the servant of the +wings; the wings were not my servants--they were beyond my control; +and when by a violent strain of muscle, and, I must fairly own, in that +abnormal strength which is given by excessive fright, I curbed their +gyrations and brought them near to the body, it seemed as if I lost the +sustaining power stored in them and the connecting bladders, as when the +air is let out of a balloon, and found myself precipitated again to the +earth; saved, indeed, by some spasmodic flutterings, from being dashed +to pieces, but not saved from the bruises and the stun of a heavy fall. +I would, however, have persevered in my attempts, but for the advice or +the commands of the scientific Zee, who had benevolently accompanied my +flutterings, and, indeed, on the last occasion, flying just under me, +received my form as it fell on her own expanded wings, and preserved +me from breaking my head on the roof of the pyramid from which we had +ascended. + +“I see,” she said, “that your trials are in vain, not from the fault +of the wings and their appurtenances, nor from any imperfectness and +malformation of your own corpuscular system, but from irremediable, +because organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that the +connection between the will and the agencies of that fluid which has +been subjected to the control of the Vril-ya was never established by +the first discoverers, never achieved by a single generation; it has +gone on increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as it +has been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, at last, +it has become an instinct; and an infant An of our race wills to fly +as intuitively and unconsciously as he wills to walk. He thus plies his +invented or artificial wings with as much safety as a bird plies those +with which it is born. I did not think sufficiently of this when I +allowed you to try an experiment which allured me, for I have longed to +have in you a companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life +is becoming dear to me.” Herewith the Gy’s voice and face softened, and +I felt more seriously alarmed than I had been in my previous flights. + +Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit mention of a +custom among the Gy-ei which seems to me very pretty and tender in the +sentiment it implies. A Gy wears wings habitually when yet a virgin--she +joins the Ana in their aerial sports--she adventures alone and afar into +the wilder regions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height of +her soarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, she excels +the opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage she wears wings +no more, she suspends them with her own willing hand over the nuptial +couch, never to be resumed unless the marriage tie be severed by divorce +or death. + +Now when Zee’s voice and eyes thus softened--and at that softening I +prophetically recoiled and shuddered--Taee, who had accompanied us in +our flights, but who, child-like, had been much more amused with my +awkwardness, than sympathising in my fears or aware of my danger, +hovered over us, poised amidst spread wings, and hearing the endearing +words of the young Gy, laughed aloud. Said he, “If the Tish cannot +learn the use of wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you can +suspend your own.” + + + +Chapter XXI. + + +I had for some time observed in my host’s highly informed and powerfully +proportioned daughter that kindly and protective sentiment which, +whether above the earth or below it, an all-wise Providence has bestowed +upon the feminine division of the human race. But until very lately I +had ascribed it to that affection for ‘pets’ which a human female at +every age shares with a human child. I now became painfully aware that +the feeling with which Zee deigned to regard me was different from that +which I had inspired in Taee. But this conviction gave me none of that +complacent gratification which the vanity of man ordinarily conceives +from a flattering appreciation of his personal merits on the part of +the fair sex; on the contrary, it inspired me with fear. Yet of all +the Gy-ei in the community, if Zee were perhaps the wisest and the +strongest, she was, by common repute, the gentlest, and she was +certainly the most popularly beloved. The desire to aid, to succour, to +protect, to comfort, to bless, seemed to pervade her whole being. Though +the complicated miseries that originate in penury and guilt are unknown +to the social system of the Vril-ya, still, no sage had yet discovered +in vril an agency which could banish sorrow from life; and wherever +amongst her people sorrow found its way, there Zee followed in the +mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy fail to secure the love she +sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought all the resources of her +lore, and all the consolations of her sympathy, to bear upon a grief +that so needs the solace of a confidant. In the rare cases, when grave +illness seized upon childhood or youth, and the cases, less rare, +when, in the hardy and adventurous probation of infants, some accident, +attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studies and +her sports, and became the healer and nurse. Her favourite flights +were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain where children were +stationed on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the +invasions of devouring animals, so that she might warn them of any peril +which her knowledge detected or foresaw, or be at hand if any harm had +befallen. Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements there +was a concurrent benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learn any +novelty in invention that would be useful to the practitioner of some +special art or craft? she hastened to communicate and explain it. Was +some veteran sage of the College perplexed and wearied with the toil of +an abstruse study? she would patiently devote herself to his aid, work +out details for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile, quicken +his wit with her luminous suggestion, be to him, as it were, his own +good genius made visible as the strengthener and inspirer. The same +tenderness she exhibited to the inferior creatures. I have often known +her bring home some sick and wounded animal, and tend and cherish it as +a mother would tend and cherish her stricken child. Many a time when I +sat in the balcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I have +watched her rising in the air on her radiant wings, and in a few moments +groups of infants below, catching sight of her, would soar upward with +joyous sounds of greeting; clustering and sporting around her, so that +she seemed a very centre of innocent delight. When I have walked with +her amidst the rocks and valleys without the city, the elk-deer would +scent or see her from afar, come bounding up, eager for the caress +of her hand, or follow her footsteps, till dismissed by some musical +whisper that the creature had learned to comprehend. It is the fashion +among the virgin Gy-ei to wear on their foreheads a circlet, or coronet, +with gems resembling opals, arranged in four points or rays like stars. +These are lustreless in ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand +they take a clear lambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This +serves as an ornament in their festivities, and as a lamp, if, in their +wanderings beyond their artificial lights, they have to traverse the +dark. There are times, when I have seen Zee’s thoughtful majesty of face +lighted up by this crowning halo, that I could scarcely believe her to +be a creature of mortal birth, and bent my head before her as the vision +of a being among the celestial orders. But never once did my heart feel +for this lofty type of the noblest womanhood a sentiment of human love. +Is it that, among the race I belong to, man’s pride so far influences +his passions that woman loses to him her special charm of woman if he +feels her to be in all things eminently superior to himself? But by what +strange infatuation could this peerless daughter of a race which, in the +supremacy of its powers and the felicity of its conditions, ranked all +other races in the category of barbarians, have deigned to honour me +with her preference? In personal qualifications, though I passed for +good-looking amongst the people I came from, the handsomest of my +countrymen might have seemed insignificant and homely beside the grand +and serene type of beauty which characterised the aspect of the Vril-ya. + +That novelty, the very difference between myself and those to whom Zee +was accustomed, might serve to bias her fancy was probable enough, and +as the reader will see later, such a cause might suffice to account for +the predilection with which I was distinguished by a young Gy scarcely +out of her childhood, and very inferior in all respects to Zee. But +whoever will consider those tender characteristics which I have just +ascribed to the daughter of Aph-Lin, may readily conceive that the main +cause of my attraction to her was in her instinctive desire to cherish, +to comfort, to protect, and, in protecting, to sustain and to exalt. +Thus, when I look back, I account for the only weakness unworthy of +her lofty nature, which bowed the daughter of the Vril-ya to a woman’s +affection for one so inferior to herself as was her father’s guest. But +be the cause what it may, the consciousness that I had inspired such +affection thrilled me with awe--a moral awe of her very imperfections, +of her mysterious powers, of the inseparable distinctions between her +race and my own; and with that awe, I must confess to my shame, there +combined the more material and ignoble dread of the perils to which her +preference would expose me. + +Under these anxious circumstances, fortunately, my conscience and sense +of honour were free from reproach. It became clearly my duty, if Zee’s +preference continued manifest, to intimate it to my host, with, of +course, all the delicacy which is ever to be preserved by a well-bred +man in confiding to another any degree of favour by which one of the +fair sex may condescend to distinguish him. Thus, at all events, +I should be freed from responsibility or suspicion of voluntary +participation in the sentiments of Zee; and the superior wisdom of +my host might probably suggest some sage extrication from my perilous +dilemma. In this resolve I obeyed the ordinary instinct of civilised and +moral man, who, erring though he be, still generally prefers the right +course in those cases where it is obviously against his inclinations, +his interests, and his safety to elect the wrong one. + + + +Chapter XXII. + + +As the reader has seen, Aph-Lin had not favoured my general and +unrestricted intercourse with his countrywomen. Though relying on my +promise to abstain from giving any information as to the world I had +left, and still more on the promise of those to whom had been put the +same request, not to question me, which Zee had exacted from Taee, yet +he did not feel sure that, if I were allowed to mix with the strangers +whose curiosity the sight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard +myself against their inquiries. When I went out, therefore, it was never +alone; I was always accompanied either by one of my host’s family, or +my child-friend Taee. Bra, Aph-Lin’s wife, seldom stirred beyond the +gardens which surrounded the house, and was fond of reading the ancient +literature, which contained something of romance and adventure not to be +found in the writings of recent ages, and presented pictures of a +life unfamiliar to her experience and interesting to her imagination; +pictures, indeed, of a life more resembling that which we lead every day +above ground, coloured by our sorrows, sins, passions, and much to her +what the tales of the Genii or the Arabian Nights are to us. But her +love of reading did not prevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as +mistress of the largest household in the city. She went daily the +round of the chambers, and saw that the automata and other mechanical +contrivances were in order, that the numerous children employed by +Aph-Lin, whether in his private or public capacity, were carefully +tended. Bra also inspected the accounts of the whole estate, and it was +her great delight to assist her husband in the business connected with +his office as chief administrator of the Lighting Department, so that +her avocations necessarily kept her much within doors. The two sons were +both completing their education at the College of Sages; and the +elder, who had a strong passion for mechanics, and especially for works +connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, had decided on +devoting himself to these pursuits, and was now occupied in constructing +a shop or warehouse, at which his inventions could be exhibited and +sold. The younger son preferred farming and rural occupations; and when +not attending the College, at which he chiefly studied the theories +of agriculture, was much absorbed by his practical application of that +science to his father’s lands. It will be seen by this how completely +equality of ranks is established among this people--a shopkeeper being +of exactly the same grade in estimation as the large landed proprietor. +Aph-Lin was the wealthiest member of the community, and his eldest son +preferred keeping a shop to any other avocation; nor was this choice +thought to show any want of elevated notions on his part. + +This young man had been much interested in examining my watch, the works +of which were new to him, and was greatly pleased when I made him a +present of it. Shortly after, he returned the gift with interest, by a +watch of his own construction, marking both the time as in my watch and +the time as kept among the Vril-ya. I have that watch still, and it has +been much admired by many among the most eminent watchmakers of London +and Paris. It is of gold, with diamond hands and figures, and it plays a +favorite tune among the Vril-ya in striking the hours: it only requires +to be wound up once in ten months, and has never gone wrong since I had +it. These young brothers being thus occupied, my usual companions in +that family, when I went abroad, were my host or his daughter. Now, +agreeably with the honourable conclusions I had come to, I began to +excuse myself from Zee’s invitations to go out alone with her, and +seized an occasion when that learned Gy was delivering a lecture at the +College of Sages to ask Aph-Lin to show me his country-seat. As this was +at some little distance, and as Aph-Lin was not fond of walking, while I +had discreetly relinquished all attempts at flying, we proceeded to our +destination in one of the aerial boats belonging to my host. A child of +eight years old, in his employ, was our conductor. My host and myself +reclined on cushions, and I found the movement very easy and luxurious. +“Aph-Lin,” said I, “you will not, I trust, be displeased with me, if I +ask your permission to travel for a short time, and visit other tribes +or communities of your illustrious race. I have also a strong desire to +see those nations which do not adopt your institutions, and which you +consider as savages. It would interest me greatly to notice what are the +distinctions between them and the races whom we consider civilised in +the world I have left.” + +“It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone,” said Aph-Lin. +“Even among the Vril-ya you would be exposed to great dangers. Certain +peculiarities of formation and colour, and the extraordinary phenomenon +of hirsute bushes upon your cheeks and chin, denoting in you a species +of An distinct alike from our own race and any known race of barbarians +yet extant, would attract, of course, the special attention of the +College of Sages in whatever community of Vril-ya you visited, and it +would depend upon the individual temper of some individual sage whether +you would be received, as you have been here, hospitably, or whether you +would not be at once dissected for scientific purposes. Know that when +the Tur first took you to his house, and while you were there put to +sleep by Taee in order to recover from your previous pain or fatigue, +the sages summoned by the Tur were divided in opinion whether you were +a harmless or an obnoxious animal. During your unconscious state your +teeth were examined, and they clearly showed that you were not only +graminivorous but carnivorous. Carnivorous animals of your size are +always destroyed, as being of savage and dangerous nature. Our teeth, as +you have doubtless observed,* are not those of the creatures who devour +flesh.” + +* I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist enough to +have distinguished the difference. + +“It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, that as, in +remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living beings of the brute species, +their teeth must have been fitted for that purpose. But, even if so, +they have been modified by hereditary transmission, and suited to the +food on which we now exist; nor are even the barbarians, who adopt the +turbulent and ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh +like beasts of prey. + +“In the course of this dispute it was proposed to dissect you; but +Taee begged you off, and the Tur being, by office, averse to all novel +experiments at variance with our custom of sparing life, except where it +is clearly proved to be for the good of the community to take it, sent +to me, whose business it is, as the richest man of the state, to afford +hospitality to strangers from a distance. It was at my option to decide +whether or not you were a stranger whom I could safely admit. Had I +declined to receive you, you would have been handed over to the College +of Sages, and what might there have befallen you I do not like to +conjecture. Apart from this danger, you might chance to encounter some +child of four years old, just put in possession of his vril staff; and +who, in alarm at your strange appearance, and in the impulse of the +moment, might reduce you to a cinder. Taee himself was about to do so +when he first saw you, had his father not checked his hand. Therefore I +say you cannot travel alone, but with Zee you would be safe; and I have +no doubt that she would accompany you on a tour round the neighbouring +communities of Vril-ya (to the savage states, No!): I will ask her.” + +Now, as my main object in proposing to travel was to escape from Zee, I +hastily exclaimed, “Nay, pray do not! I relinquish my design. You have +said enough as to its dangers to deter me from it; and I can scarcely +think it right that a young Gy of the personal attractions of your +lovely daughter should travel into other regions without a better +protector than a Tish of my insignificant strength and stature.” + +Aph-Lin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearest approach +to laughter that a full-grown An permits to himself, ere he replied: +“Pardon my discourteous but momentary indulgence of mirth at any +observation seriously made by my guest. I could not but be amused at the +idea of Zee, who is so fond of protecting others that children call her +‘THE GUARDIAN,’ needing a protector herself against any dangers arising +from the audacious admiration of males. Know that our Gy-ei, while +unmarried, are accustomed to travel alone among other tribes, to see if +they find there some An who may please them more than the Ana they find +at home. Zee has already made three such journeys, but hitherto her +heart has been untouched.” + +Here the opportunity which I sought was afforded to me, and I said, +looking down, and with faltering voice, “Will you, my kind host, promise +to pardon me, if what I am about to say gives offence?” + +“Say only the truth, and I cannot be offended; or, could I be so, it +would not be for me, but for you to pardon.” + +“Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should have like +to witness more of the wonders, and enjoy more of the felicity, which +belong to your people, let me return to my own.” + +“I fear there are reasons why I cannot do that; at all events, not +without permission of the Tur, and he, probably, would not grant it. You +are not destitute of intelligence; you may (though I do not think +so) have concealed the degree of destructive powers possessed by your +people; you might, in short, bring upon us some danger; and if the Tur +entertains that idea, it would clearly be his duty, either to put an end +to you, or enclose you in a cage for the rest of your existence. But why +should you wish to leave a state of society which you so politely allow +to be more felicitous than your own?” + +“Oh, Aph-Lin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, and unwittingly, I +should betray your hospitality; lest, in the caprice of will which in +our world is proverbial among the other sex, and from which even a Gy +is not free, your adorable daughter should deign to regard me, though a +Tish, as if I were a civilised An, and--and--and---” “Court you as +her spouse,” put in Aph-Lin, gravely, and without any visible sign of +surprise or displeasure. + +“You have said it.” + +“That would be a misfortune,” resumed my host, after a pause, “and I +feel you have acted as you ought in warning me. It is, as you imply, +not uncommon for an unwedded Gy to conceive tastes as to the object she +covets which appear whimsical to others; but there is no power to compel +a young Gy to any course opposed to that which she chooses to pursue. +All we can to is to reason with her, and experience tells us that the +whole College of Sages would find it vain to reason with a Gy in a +matter that concerns her choice in love. I grieve for you, because such +a marriage would be against the A-glauran, or good of the community, for +the children of such a marriage would adulterate the race: they might +even come into the world with the teeth of carnivorous animals; this +could not be allowed: Zee, as a Gy, cannot be controlled; but you, as a +Tish, can be destroyed. I advise you, then, to resist her addresses; +to tell her plainly that you can never return her love. This happens +constantly. Many an An, however, ardently wooed by one Gy, rejects her, +and puts an end to her persecution by wedding another. The same course +is open to you.” + +“No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring the community, +and exposing it to the chance of rearing carnivorous children.” + +“That is true. All I can say, and I say it with the tenderness due to a +Tish, and the respect due to a guest, is frankly this--if you yield, you +will become a cinder. I must leave it to you to take the best way you +can to defend yourself. Perhaps you had better tell Zee that she is +ugly. That assurance on the lips of him she woos generally suffices to +chill the most ardent Gy. Here we are at my country-house.” + + + +Chapter XXIII. + + +I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extreme coolness +with which he stated his inability to control the dangerous caprice of +his daughter, and treated the idea of the reduction into a cinder to +which her amorous flame might expose my too seductive person, took away +the pleasure I should otherwise have had in the contemplation of my +host’s country-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machinery +by which his farming operations were conducted. The house differed in +appearance from the massive and sombre building which Aph-Lin inhabited +in the city, and which seemed akin to the rocks out of which the city +itself had been hewn into shape. The walls of the country-seat +were composed by trees placed a few feet apart from each other, the +interstices being filled in with the transparent metallic substance +which serves the purpose of glass among the Ana. These trees were all in +flower, and the effect was very pleasing, if not in the best taste. We +were received at the porch by life-like automata, who conducted us +into a chamber, the like to which I never saw before, but have often on +summer days dreamily imagined. It was a bower--half room, half garden. +The walls were one mass of climbing flowers. The open spaces, which +we call windows, and in which, here, the metallic surfaces were slided +back, commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape with its +lakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering to our +conservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along the sides of the +room were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions for repose. In the +centre of the floor was a cistern and a fountain of that liquid light +which I have presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate +hue; it sufficed without lamps to light up the room with a subdued +radiance. All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, +not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of this +country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with the same +sense of relief as that with which in the upper world it reposes +on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I have compared to our +conservatories) there were singing birds innumerable, which, while we +remained in the room, sang in those harmonies of tune to which they are, +in these parts, so wonderfully trained. The roof was open. The whole +scene had charms for every sense--music form the birds, fragrance from +the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect. About all was +a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, for a honeymoon, if a Gy +bride were a little less formidably armed not only with the rights +of woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a Gy, so +learned, so tall, so stately, so much above the standard of the creature +we call woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of being +reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in that +bower so constructed for dreams of poetic love. + +The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids which +form the innocent wines of the Vril-ya. + +“Truly,” said I, “this is a charming residence, and I can scarcely +conceive why you do not settle yourself here instead of amid the +gloomier abodes of the city.” + +“As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am +compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can only come hither for +short intervals.” + +“But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to your +office, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept it?” + +“Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, ‘Be +it requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner of Light,’ so I had +no choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares, +which were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at least +endurable. We are all formed by custom--even the difference of our race +from the savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, which +becomes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You +see there are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the responsibilities +of chief magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not been +rendered so light, or if there were any questions as to compliance with +his requests.” + +“Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?” + +“We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes on +as if each and all governed themselves according to immemorial custom.” + +“When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide for his +successor?” + +“The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for many years +is the best person to choose one by whom those duties may be understood, +and he generally names his successor.” + +“His son, perhaps?” + +“Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, and a +father naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if the Tur himself +decline to make a choice, for fear it might be supposed that he owed +some grudge to the person on whom his choice would settle, then there +are three of the College of Sages who draw lots among themselves which +shall have the power to elect the chief. We consider that the judgment +of one An of ordinary capacity is better than the judgment of three or +more, however wise they may be; for among three there would probably +be disputes, and where there are disputes, passion clouds judgment. The +worst choice made by one who has no motive in choosing wrong, is better +than the best choice made by many who have many motives for not choosing +right.” + +“You reverse in your policy the maxims adopted in my country.” + +“Are you all, in your country, satisfied with your governors?” + +“All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are sure to be +those most displeasing to others.” + +“Then our system is better than yours.” “For you it may be; but +according to our system a Tish could not be reduced to a cinder if a +female compelled him to marry her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my +native world.” + +“Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can’t compel you to marry her. +She can only entice you to do so. Don’t be enticed. Come and look round +my domain.” + +We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though the Ana keep +no stock for food, there are some animals which they rear for milking +and others for shearing. The former have no resemblance to our cows, +nor the latter to our sheep, nor do I believe such species exist amongst +them. They use the milk of three varieties of animal: one resembles the +antelope, but is much larger, being as tall as a camel; the other two +are smaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other, resemble +no creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleek and of rounded +proportions; their colour that of the dappled deer, with very mild +countenances and beautiful dark eyes. The milk of these three creatures +differs in richness and taste. It is usually diluted with water, and +flavoured with the juice of a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itself +is very nutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves them +for clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italian she-goat +than any other creature, but is considerably larger, has no horns, +and is free from the displeasing odour of our goats. Its fleece is not +thick, but very long and fine; it varies in colour, but is never white, +more generally of a slate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it is +usually worn dyed to suit the taste of the wearer. These animals were +exceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care and affection +by the children (chiefly female) who tended them. + +We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and fruits. +I may here observe that the main staple of food among these people +consists--firstly, of a kind of corn much larger in ear than our wheat, +and which by culture is perpetually being brought into new varieties of +flavour; and, secondly, of a fruit of about the size of a small orange, +which, when gathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for many +months in their warehouses, and then becomes succulent and tender. Its +juice, which is of dark-red colour, enters into most of their sauces. +They have many kinds of fruit of the nature of the olive, from which +delicious oils are extracted. They have a plant somewhat resembling the +sugar-cane, but its juices are less sweet and of a delicate perfume. +They have no bees nor honey-making insects, but they make much use of a +sweet gum that oozes from a coniferous plant, not unlike the araucaria. +Their soil teems also with esculent roots and vegetables, which it is +the aim of their culture to improve and vary to the utmost. And I never +remember any meal among this people, however it might be confined to +the family household, in which some delicate novelty in such articles of +food was not introduced. In fine, as I before observed, their cookery is +exquisite, so diversified and nutritious that one does not miss animal +food; and their own physical forms suffice to show that with them, at +least, meat is not required for superior production of muscular fibre. +They have no grapes--the drinks extracted from their fruits are innocent +and refreshing. Their staple beverage, however, is water, in the choice +of which they are very fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightest +impurity. + +“My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our produce,” said +Aph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses, “and therefore will +inherit these lands, which constitute the chief part of my wealth. To my +elder son such inheritance would be a great trouble and affliction.” + +“Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealth +would be a great trouble and affliction?” + +“Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do not consider +that a fortune much above the average is a heavy burden. We are rather a +lazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing more +cares than we can help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. +For instance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of us +like and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a continued +interest in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we may +anticipate their wants and see that none fall into poverty. There is +an old proverb amongst us which says, ‘The poor man’s need is the rich +man’s shame---’” + +“Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, even +of the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief.” + +“If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a Koom-Posh, THAT +is impossible with us, unless an An has, by some extraordinary process, +got rid of all his means, cannot or will not emigrate, and has either +tired out the affectionate aid of this relations or personal friends, or +refuses to accept it.” + +“Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or automaton, and +become a labourer--a servant?” + +“No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound reason, +and place him, at the expense of the State, in a public building, where +every comfort and every luxury that can mitigate his affliction are +lavished upon him. But an An does not like to be considered out of his +mind, and therefore such cases occur so seldom that the public building +I speak of is now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An +whom I recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem conscious +of loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I spoke of wants, I +meant such wants as an An with desires larger than his means sometimes +entertains--for expensive singing-birds, or bigger houses, or +country-gardens; and the obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of +him something that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, +are obliged to buy a great many things they do not require, and live on +a very large scale where they might prefer to live on a small one. For +instance, the great size of my house in the town is a source of much +trouble to my wife, and even to myself; but I am compelled to have it +thus incommodiously large, because, as the richest An of the community, +I am appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities +when they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year, when +certain periodical entertainments are held, and when relations scattered +throughout all the realms of the Vril-ya joyfully reunite for a time. +This hospitality, on a scale so extensive, is not to my taste, and +therefore I should have been happier had I been less rich. But we must +all bear the lot assigned to us in this short passage through time that +we call life. After all, what are a hundred years, more or less, to the +ages through which we must pass hereafter? Luckily, I have one son who +likes great wealth. It is a rare exception to the general rule, and I +own I cannot myself understand it.” + +After this conversation I sought to return to the subject which +continued to weigh on my heart--viz., the chances of escape from Zee. +But my host politely declined to renew that topic, and summoned our +air-boat. On our way back we were met by Zee, who, having found us gone, +on her return from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings and +flown in search of us. + +Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as she beheld +me, and, poising herself beside the boat on her large outspread plumes, +she said reproachfully to Aph-Lin--“Oh, father, was it right in you +to hazard the life of your guest in a vehicle to which he is so +unaccustomed? He might, by an incautious movement, fall over the side; +and alas; he is not like us, he has no wings. It were death to him to +fall. Dear one!” (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softer +voice), “have you no thought of me, that you should thus hazard a life +which has become almost a part of mine? Never again be thus rash, unless +I am thy companion. What terror thou hast stricken into me!” + +I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that he would +indignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of anxiety and +affection, which, under all the circumstances, would, in the world above +ground, be considered immodest in the lips of a young female, addressed +to a male not affianced to her, even if of the same rank as herself. + +But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, and so +absolutely foremost among those rights do females claim the privilege +of courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thought of reproving his +virgin daughter than he would have thought of disobeying the orders of +the Tur. In that country, custom, as he implied, is all in all. + +He answered mildly, “Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my belief +the he can take very good care of himself.” + +“I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. Oh, heart of +my heart, it was in the thought of thy danger that I first felt how much +I loved thee!” + +Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These words were +spoken loud in the hearing of Zee’s father--in the hearing of the child +who steered. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could not +help replying angrily: “Zee, either you mock me, which, as your father’s +guest, misbecomes you, or the words you utter are improper for a maiden +Gy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed her +with the consent of her parents. How much more improper to address them +to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your affections, and who +can never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence and +awe!” + +Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. “Be not +so cruel!” exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. “Can love command +itself where it is truly felt? Do you suppose that a maiden Gy will +conceal a sentiment that it elevates her to feel? What a country you +must have come from!” + +Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, “Among the Tish-a the rights of +your sex do not appear to be established, and at all events my guest may +converse with you more freely if unchecked by the presence of others.” + +To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender +reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward. + +“I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host,” I said bitterly, +“in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me.” + +“I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairs +is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel to come between her and +her affections.” + + + +Chapter XXIV. + + +On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in the hall +with a request that he would be present at the funeral obsequies of a +relation who had recently departed from that nether world. + +Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst this people, +and, glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion to defer an encounter +with Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might be permitted to witness with him +the interment of his relation; unless, indeed, it were regarded as one +of those sacred ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not +be admitted. + +“The departure of an An to a happier world,” answered my host, “when, as +in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long in this as to have lost +pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful though quiet festival than a sacred +ceremony, and you may accompany me if you will.” + +Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main street to a house +at some little distance, and, entering the hall, were conducted to a +room on the ground floor, where we found several persons assembled round +a couch on which was laid the deceased. It was an old man, who had, as I +was told, lived beyond his 130th year. To judge by the calm smile on his +countenance, he had passed away without suffering. One of the sons, who +was now the head of the family, and who seemed in vigorous middle life, +though he was considerably more than seventy, stepped forward with a +cheerful face and told Aph-Lin “that the day before he died his father +had seen in a dream his departed Gy, and was eager to be reunited to +her, and restored to youth beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good.” + +While these two were talking, my attention was drawn to a dark metallic +substance at the farther end of the room. It was about twenty feet in +length, narrow in proportion, and all closed round, save, near the roof, +there were small round holes through which might be seen a red light. +From the interior emanated a rich and sweet perfume; and while I was +conjecturing what purpose this machine was to serve, all the time-pieces +in the town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and as +that sound ceased, music of a more joyous character, but still of a joy +subdued and tranquil, rang throughout the chamber, and from the walls +beyond, in a choral peal. Symphonious with the melody, those in the room +lifted their voices in chant. The words of this hymn were simple. They +expressed no regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to the new world +whither the deceased had preceded the living. Indeed, in their language, +the funeral hymn is called the ‘Birth Song.’ Then the corpse, covered +by a long cerement, was tenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk +and borne towards the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward to +see what happened. A sliding door or panel at one end was lifted up--the +body deposited within, on a shelf--the door reclosed--a spring a the +side touched--a sudden ‘whishing,’ sighing sound heard from within; +and lo! at the other end of the machine the lid fell down, and a small +handful of smouldering dust dropped into a ‘patera’ placed to receive +it. The son took up the ‘patera’ and said (in what I understood +afterwards was the usual form of words), “Behold how great is the Maker! +To this little dust He gave form and life and soul. It needs not this +little dust for Him to renew form and life and soul to the beloved one +we shall soon see again.” + +Each present bowed his head and pressed his hand to his heart. Then a +young female child opened a small door within the wall, and I perceived, +in the recess, shelves on which were placed many ‘paterae’ like that +which the son held, save that they all had covers. With such a cover +a Gy now approached the son, and placed it over the cup, on which it +closed with a spring. On the lid were engraven the name of the deceased, +and these words:--“Lent to us” (here the date of birth). “Recalled from +us” (here the date of death). + +The closed door shut with a musical sound, and all was over. + + + +Chapter XXV. + + +“And this,” said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed--“this, I +presume, is your usual form of burial?” + +“Our invariable form,” answered Aph-Lin. “What is it amongst your +people?” + +“We inter the body whole within the earth.” + +“What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the wife on +whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of corruption?” “But +if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body waste within +the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism, worked, no doubt by the +agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?” + +“You answer well,” said my host, “and there is no arguing on a matter +of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and repulsive, and would +serve to invest death with gloomy and hideous associations. It is +something, too, to my mind, to be able to preserve the token of what has +been our kinsman or friend within the abode in which we live. We thus +feel more sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But +our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by custom. Custom +is not to be changed by a wise An, any more than it is changed by a +wise Community, without the greatest deliberation, followed by the +most earnest conviction. It is only thus that change ceases to be +changeability, and once made is made for good.” + +When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the children in his +service and sent them round to several of his friends, requesting their +attendance that day, during the Easy Hours, to a festival in honour of +his kinsman’s recall to the All-Good. This was the largest and gayest +assembly I ever witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was +prolonged far into the Silent Hours. + +The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially for grand +occasions. This differed from our entertainments, and was not without +a certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the +Roman empire. There was not one great table set out, but numerous small +tables, each appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond +that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The Ana never +laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the cheerful ring of their +voices at the various tables betokened gaiety of intercourse. As they +have no stimulant drinks, and are temperate in food, though so choice +and dainty, the banquet itself did not last long. The tables sank +through the floor, and then came musical entertainments for those who +liked them. Many, however, wandered away:--some of the younger ascended +in their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; others +strolled through the various apartments, examining the curiosities with +which they were stored, or formed themselves into groups for various +games, the favourite of which is a complicated kind of chess played by +eight persons. I mixed with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the +conversation by the constant companionship of one or the other of my +host’s sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The +guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown accustomed to +my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets, and I had ceased to +excite much curiosity. + +To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to excite my +jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome young An, who (though, +as is the modest custom of the males when addressed by females, he +answered with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy +as young ladies new to the world are in most civilised countries, except +England and America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and +ready to falter a bashful “Yes” if she had actually proposed. Fervently +hoping that she would, and more and more averse to the idea of reduction +to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity with which a human body can be +hurried into a pinch of dust, I amused myself by watching the manners of +the other young people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was +no singular assertor of a female’s most valued rights. Wherever I turned +my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy was the wooing +party, and the An the coy and reluctant one. The pretty innocent airs +which an An gave himself on being thus courted, the dexterity with which +he evaded direct answers to professions of attachment, or turned into +jest the flattering compliments addressed to him, would have done honour +to the most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were subjected +greatly to these seductive influences, and both acquitted themselves +with wonderful honour to their tact and self-control. + +I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments to +the management of a great property, and who was of an eminently +philosophical temperament,--“I find it difficult to conceive how at your +age, and with all the intoxicating effects on the senses, of music and +lights and perfumes, you can be so cold to that impassioned young Gy who +has just left you with tears in her eyes at your cruelty.” + +The young An replied with a sigh, “Gentle Tish, the greatest misfortune +in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with another.” + +“Oh! You are in love with another?” + +“Alas! Yes.” + +“And she does not return your love?” + +“I don’t know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but she has +never plainly told me that she loves me.” + +“Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?” + +“Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from? Could I so +betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly--so lost to shame, +as to own love to a Gy who has not first owned hers to me?” + +“Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex +so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, ‘I love you,’ till she says it +first to him?” + +“I can’t say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does, he is +disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised by the Gy-ei. +No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she would consider that +he audaciously infringed on the rights of her sex, while outraging the +modesty which dignifies his own. It is very provoking,” continued the +An, “for she whom I love has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot +but think she likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me +because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as to the +surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really love me, for where +a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights.” + +“Is this young Gy present?” + +“Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother.” + +I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided, and saw +a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this people is a sign +that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She wears gray, a neutral tint, +to indicate that she is looking about for a spouse; dark purple if she +wishes to intimate that she has made a choice; purple and orange when +she is betrothed or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, +and would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen. + +Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is +difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young friend’s +choice seemed to me to possess the average of good looks; but there was +an expression in her face that pleased me more than did the faces of the +young Gy-ei generally, because it looked less bold--less conscious of +female rights. I observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, +from time to time, sidelong at my young friend. + +“Courage,” said I, “that young Gy loves you.” + +“Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?” + +“Your mother is aware of your attachment?” + +“Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to confide +such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he may have told it +again to his wife.” + +“Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind your +mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about you. Do not +hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself to be questioned till I +rejoin you.” + +The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly on the +head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole unobserved behind his +mother and his beloved. I overheard their talk. Bra was speaking; +said she, “There can be no doubt of this: either my son, who is of +marriageable age, will be decoyed into marriage with one of his many +suitors, or he will join those who emigrate to a distance and we shall +see him no more. If you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should +propose.” + +“I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win his +affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces; and I am not +like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not enter into his favourite +pursuits, and then he would get tired of me, and at the end of three +years divorce me, and I could never marry another--never.” + +“It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be so +necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for timepieces, that he +would rather give up the timepieces than divorce his Gy. You see, my +dear Lo,” continued Bra, “that precisely because we are the stronger +sex, we rule the other provided we never show our strength. If you were +superior to my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as +his wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that art to +yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the Gy in all +except his own special pursuit. But if she either excels him in that, +or affects not to admire him for his proficiency in it, he will not love +her very long; perhaps he may even divorce her. But where a Gy really +loves, she soon learns to love all that the An does.” + +The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down musingly, +then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still silent, and went +through the crowd till she paused by the young An who loved her. I +followed her steps, but discreetly stood at a little distance while +I watched them. Somewhat to my surprise, till I recollected the coy +tactics among the Ana, the lover seemed to receive her advances with an +air of indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps, +and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished amid the +luminous space above. + +Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled with the +crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or homage. It so happened +that I had not seen this great dignitary since the day I had entered +his dominions, and recalling Aph-Lin’s words as to his terrible doubt +whether or not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the +sight of his tranquil countenance. + +“I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee,” said the Tur, laying +his hand politely on my bended head. “He is very fond of your society, +and I trust you are not displeased with the customs of our people.” + +I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be an +assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received from the Tur, +and my admiration of his countrymen, but the dissecting-knife gleamed +before my mind’s eye and choked my utterance. A softer voice said, “My +brother’s friend must be dear to me.” And looking up I saw a young +Gy, who might be sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and +gazing at me with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to her +full growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about feet 10 +inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutive stature, I thought +her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I suppose something in my eyes +revealed that impression, for her countenance grew yet more benignant. +“Taee tells me,” she said, “that you have not yet learned to accustom +yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should have liked to fly with +you.” + +“Alas!” I replied, “I can never hope to enjoy that happiness. I am +assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary gift, and it +would take generations before one of my race could poise himself in the +air like a bird.” “Let not that thought vex you too much,” replied this +amiable Princess, “for, after all, there must come a day when Zee and +myself must resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that day comes we +might be glad if the An we chose was also without wings.” + +The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began to feel +at ease with Taee’s charming sister, and rather startled her by the +boldness of my compliment in replying, “that no An she could choose +would ever use his wings to fly away from her.” It is so against custom +for an An to say such civil things to a Gy till she has declared her +passion for him, and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young +maiden stood quite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she +did not seem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me to +accompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen to the songs +of the birds. I followed her steps as she glided before me, and she led +me into a chamber almost deserted. A fountain of naphtha was playing in +the centre of the room; round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls +of the room were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds +were chanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of the +divans, and I placed myself at her side. “Taee tells me,” she said, +“that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house that you are not to be +questioned as to the country you come from or the reason why you visit +us. Is it so?” + +* Literally “has said, In this house be it requested.” Words synonymous +with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular +people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur that his College of Sages +should dissect me, the decree would have ran blandly thus,--“Be it +requested that, for the good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be +requested to submit himself to dissection.” + +“It is.” + +“May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at least if the +Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colour as yourself, and no +taller?” + +“I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of Aph-Lin, +which is more binding on myself than any one, if I answer questions so +innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are much fairer of hue than I am, and +their average height is at least a head shorter than mine.” + +“They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I suppose +their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary disadvantage +of size?” + +“They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still they are +very powerful in my country, and an An has small chance of a happy life +if he be not more or less governed by his Gy.” + +“You speak feelingly,” said Taee’s sister, in a tone of voice half sad, +half petulant. “You are married, of course.” + +“No--certainly not.” + +“Nor betrothed?” + +“Nor betrothed.” + +“Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?” + +“In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first.” + +“What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!” said the maiden, “and +what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed, never +loved one Gy more than another?” + +I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, “Pardon +me, but I think we are beginning to infringe upon Aph-Lin’s injunction. +This much only will I answer, and then, I implore you, ask no more. I +did once feel the preference you speak of; I did propose, and the +Gy would willingly have accepted me, but her parents refused their +consent.” + +“Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can interfere +with the choice of their daughters?” + +“Indeed they can, and do very often.” + +“I should not like to live in that country,” said the Gy simply; “but I +hope you will never go back to it.” + +I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with her right +hand, and looked into it tenderly. “Stay with us,” she said; “stay with +us, and be loved.” What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming +a cinder I might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the +light of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and +Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside us. She said not a +word, but, taking my arm with her mighty hand, she drew me away, as a +mother draws a naughty child, and led me through the apartments to one +of the corridors, on which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to +stairs, we ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my +forehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantly plunged +into a profound sleep. + +When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds in the +adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee’s sister, her gentle looks and +caressing words, vividly returned to me; and so impossible is it for one +born and reared in our upper world’s state of society to divest +himself of ideas dictated by vanity and ambition, that I found myself +instinctively building proud castles in the air. + +“Tish though I be,” thus ran my meditations--“Tish though I be, it is +then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance can captivate. +Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first maiden of this land, the +daughter of the absolute Monarch whose autocracy they so idly seek to +disguise by the republican title of chief magistrate. But for the sudden +swoop of that horrible Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed +to me; and though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a +subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten me with +destruction if I accept his daughter’s hand, yet a Sovereign, whose word +is law, could compel the community to abrogate any custom that forbids +intermarriage with one of a strange race, and which in itself is a +contradiction to their boasted equality of ranks. + +“It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with such +incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would not have +sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me from the +combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form. And if I were exalted +by such an alliance, who knows but what the Monarch might elect me as +his successor? Why not? Few among this indolent race of philosophers +like the burden of such greatness. All might be pleased to see the +supreme power lodged in the hands of an accomplished stranger who has +experience of other and livelier forms of existence; and once chosen, +what reforms I would institute! What additions to the really pleasant +but too monotonous life of this realm my familiarity with the civilised +nations above ground would effect! I am fond of the sports of the field. +Next to war, is not the chase a king’s pastime? In what varieties of +strange game does this nether world abound? How interesting to strike +down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge! But how? +By that terrible vril, in which, from want of hereditary transmission, I +could never be a proficient? No, but by a civilised handy breech-loader, +which these ingenious mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt +improve; nay, surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, +I should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war. Apropos +of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so intelligent, so +rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for +10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction a mere philosophical +crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in human nature, such as +has been partially, and with complete failure, tried in the upper world +by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the +neighbouring nations as well armed as one’s own subjects; but then, +what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, and +apparently resembling, in their democratic institutions, my American +countrymen? One might invade them without offence to the vril nations, +our allies, appropriate their territories, extending, perhaps, to the +most distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire +in which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over +those regions there was no sun to set). As for the fantastical notion +against conceding fame or renown to an eminent individual, because, +forsooth, bestowal of honours insures contest in the pursuit of them, +stimulates angry passions, and mars the felicity of peace--it is opposed +to the very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute creation, +which are all, if tamable, participators in the sentiment of praise and +emulation. What renown would be given to a king who thus extended his +empire! I should be deemed a demigod.” Thinking of that, the other +fanatical notion of regulating this life by reference to one which, +no doubt, we Christians firmly believe in, but never take into +consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled me to +abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance with modern +thought and practical action. Musing over these various projects, I felt +how much I should have liked at that moment to brighten my wits by +a good glass of whiskey-and-water. Not that I am habitually a +spirit-drinker, but certainly there are times when a little stimulant +of alcoholic nature, taken with a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes; +certainly among these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from +which one could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cut +off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject the animal +food which our first medical men agree in recommending to the gastric +juices of mankind!) one would certainly pass a more exhilarating hour +of repast. Then, too, instead of those antiquated dramas performed +by childish amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our +modern opera and a ‘corps de ballet,’ for which one might find, among +the nations I shall conquer, young females of less formidable height and +thews than the Gy-ei--not armed with vril, and not insisting upon one’s +marrying them. + +I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, political, +social, and moral, calculated to bestow on the people of the nether +world the blessings of a civilisation known to the races of the upper, +that I did not perceive that Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a +deep sigh, and, raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch. + +I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a Gy can, +without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although an An would be +considered forward and immodest to the last degree if he entered the +chamber of a Gy without previously obtaining her permission to do +so. Fortunately I was in the full habiliments I had worn when Zee had +deposited me on the couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well +as shocked, by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted. + +“Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you,” said she, “for I am very +unhappy. I have not slept since we parted.” + +“A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father’s guest might +well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids. Where was the affection +you pretend to have for me, where was even that politeness on which the +Vril-ya pride themselves, when, taking advantage alike of that physical +strength in which your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our +own, and of those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of +vril invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to humiliation +before your assembled visitors, before Her Royal Highness--I mean, the +daughter of your own chief magistrate,--carrying me off to bed like a +naughty infant, and plunging me into sleep, without asking my consent?” + +“Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love? Can you +think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends upon love +till it fades away in blissful trust when we know that the heart we +have wooed is won, I could be indifferent to the perils to which the +audacious overtures of that silly little child might expose you?” “Hold! +Since you introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps does not misbecome +me to say that my most imminent perils come from yourself, or at least +would come if I believed in your love and accepted your addresses. Your +father has told me plainly that in that case I should be consumed into +a cinder with as little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee +blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand.” + +“Do not let that fear chill your heart to me,” exclaimed Zee, dropping +on her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space of her ample palm. +“It is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed as those of the same race +wed; true that the love between us must be pure as that which, in our +belief, exists between lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that +boundary at which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to +be together, wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left +my father. He consents to our union on those terms. I have sufficient +influence with the College of Sages to insure their request to the Tur +not to interfere with the free choice of a Gy; provided that her wedding +with one of another race be but the wedding of souls. Oh, think you that +true love needs ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your +side in this life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows here: +I ask here for a tie which will bind us for ever and for ever in the +world of immortals. Do you reject me?” + +As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face was +changed; nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a divine light, as +that of an immortal, shining out from its human beauty. But she rather +awed me as an angel than moved me as a woman, and after an embarrassed +pause, I faltered forth evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as +delicately as I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position +amongst her race in the light of a husband who might never be permitted +the name of father. + +“But,” said Zee, “this community does not constitute the whole world. +No; nor do all the populations comprised in the league of the Vril-ya. +For thy sake I will renounce my country and my people. We will fly +together to some region where thou shalt be safe. I am strong enough to +bear thee on my wings across the deserts that intervene. I am skilled +enough to cleave open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build +our home. Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the +universe. Or wouldst thou return to thine own world, above the surface +of this, exposed to the uncertain seasons, and lit but by the changeful +orbs which constitute by thy description the fickle character of those +savage regions? I so, speak the word, and I will force the way for thy +return, so that I am thy companion there, though, there as here, but +partner of thy soul, and fellow traveller with thee to the world in +which there is no parting and no death.” + +I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once so pure +and so impassioned, with which these words were uttered, and in a voice +that would have rendered musical the roughest sounds in the rudest +tongue. And for a moment it did occur to me that I might avail myself of +Zee’s agency to effect a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But +a very brief space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable +and base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus away, +from her own people and a home in which I had been so hospitably +treated, a creature to whom our world would be so abhorrent, and +for whose barren, if spiritual love, I could not reconcile myself to +renounce the more human affection of mates less exalted above my erring +self. With this sentiment of duty towards the Gy combined another of +duty towards the whole race I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce +into the upper world a being so formidably gifted--a being that with a +movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New York and its +glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her of her staff, with +her science she could easily construct another; and with the deadly +lightnings that armed the slender engine her whole frame was charged. If +thus dangerous to the cities and populations of the whole upper earth, +could she be a safe companion to myself in case her affection should be +subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts, which +it takes so many words to express, passed rapidly through my brain and +decided my answer. + +“Zee,” I said, in the softest tones I could command and pressing +respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine vanished--“Zee, I +can find no words to say how deeply I am touched, and how highly I am +honoured, by a love so disinterested and self-immolating. My best return +to it is perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs +of yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are equally +opposed to such a union between those of races so widely differing. On +the other hand, though not deficient in courage among my own people, or +amid dangers with which I am familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of +horror, think of constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal +chaos, with all the elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic +gases, at war with each other, and with the probability that at some +moment, while you were busied in cleaving rocks or conveying vril into +lamps, I should be devoured by a krek which your operations disturbed +from its hiding-place. I, a mere Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, +so brilliant, so learned, so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve +that love, for I cannot return it.” + +Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face away to hide +her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along the room, and paused at +the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as by a new thought, she returned to +my side and said, in a whispered tone,-- + +“You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With perfect +frankness, then, answer me this question. If you cannot love me, do you +love another?” + +“Certainly, I do not.” + +“You do not love Taee’s sister?” + +“I never saw her before last night.” “That is no answer. Love is swifter +than vril. You hesitate to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy +that prompts me to caution you. If the Tur’s daughter should declare +love to you--if in her ignorance she confides to her father any +preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you, he will +have no option but to request your immediate destruction, as he is +specially charged with the duty of consulting the good of the community, +which could not allow the daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the +Tish-a, in that sense of marriage which does not confine itself to union +of the souls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She has +no strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has no science +wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believe that here my +friendship speaks, and that my jealousy is silent.” + +With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I thought no +more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or of the political, +social, and moral reforms I should institute in the capacity of Absolute +Sovereign. + + + +Chapter XXVI. + + +After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a profound +melancholy. The curious interest with which I had hitherto examined the +life and habits of this marvellous community was at an end. I could not +banish from my mind the consciousness that I was among a people who, +however kind and courteous, could destroy me at any moment without +scruple or compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the +people which, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the +contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world, now began +to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Even the serene +tranquility of the lustrous air preyed on my spirits. I longed for a +change, even to winter, or storm, or darkness. I began to feel that, +whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards +a better, and higher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of +the upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the very +happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire. + +Now, in this social state of the Vril-ya, it was singular to mark how +it contrived to unite and to harmonise into one system nearly all the +objects which the various philosophers of the upper world have placed +before human hopes as the ideals of a Utopian future. It was a state in +which war, with all its calamities, was deemed impossible,--a state in +which the freedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree, +without one of those animosities which make freedom in the upper world +depend on the perpetual strife of hostile parties. Here the corruption +which debases democracies was as unknown as the discontents which +undermine the thrones of monarchies. Equality here was not a name; it +was a reality. Riches were not persecuted, because they were not envied. +Here those problems connected with the labours of a working class, +hitherto insoluble above ground, and above ground conducing to such +bitterness between classes, were solved by a process the simplest,--a +distinct and separate working class was dispensed with altogether. +Mechanical inventions, constructed on the principles that baffled my +research to ascertain, worked by an agency infinitely more powerful and +infinitely more easy of management than aught we have yet extracted from +electricity or steam, with the aid of children whose strength was +never overtasked, but who loved their employment as sport and pastime, +sufficed to create a Public-wealth so devoted to the general use that +not a grumbler was ever heard of. The vices that rot our cities here +had no footing. Amusements abounded, but they were all innocent. No +merry-makings conduced to intoxication, to riot, to disease. Love +existed, and was ardent in pursuit, but its object, once secured, was +faithful. The adulterer, the profligate, the harlot, were phenomena so +unknown in this commonwealth, that even to find the words by which they +were designated one would have had to search throughout an obsolete +literature composed thousands of years before. They who have been +students of theoretical philosophies above ground, know that all these +strange departures from civilised life do but realise ideas which have +been broached, canvassed, ridiculed, contested for; sometimes partially +tried, and still put forth in fantastic books, but have never come +to practical result. Nor were these all the steps towards theoretical +perfectibility which this community had made. It had been the sober +belief of Descartes that the life of man could be prolonged, not, +indeed, on this earth, to eternal duration, but to what he called the +age of the patriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to 150 years +average length. Well, even this dream of sages was here fulfilled--nay, +more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middle life was preserved even +after the term of a century was passed. With this longevity was combined +a greater blessing than itself--that of continuous health. Such diseases +as befell the race were removed with ease by scientific applications of +that agency--life-giving as life-destroying--which is inherent in vril. +Even this idea is not unknown above ground, though it has generally +been confined to enthusiasts or charlatans, and emanates from confused +notions about mesmerism, odic force, &c. Passing by such trivial +contrivances as wings, which every schoolboy knows has been tried and +found wanting, from the mythical or pre-historical period, I proceed to +that very delicate question, urged of late as essential to the perfect +happiness of our human species by the two most disturbing and potential +influences on upper-ground society,--Womankind and Philosophy. I mean, +the Rights of Women. + +Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of rights +where there are not corresponding powers to enforce them; and above +ground, for some reason or other, man, in his physical force, in the use +of weapons offensive and defensive, when it come to positive personal +contest, can, as a rule of general application, master women. But among +this people there can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as +I have before said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger and stronger +than the An; and her will being also more resolute than his, and will +being essential to the direction of the vril force, she can bring to +bear upon him, more potently than he on herself, the mystical agency +which art can extract from the occult properties of nature. Therefore +all that our female philosophers above ground contend for as to rights +of women, is conceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth. +Besides such physical powers, the Gy-ei have (at least in youth) a keen +desire for accomplishments and learning which exceeds that of the male; +and thus they are the scholars, the professors--the learned portion, in +short, of the community. + +Of course, in this state of society the female establishes, as I have +shown, her most valued privilege, that of choosing and courting her +wedding partner. Without that privilege she would despise all the +others. Now, above ground, we should not unreasonably apprehend that a +female, thus potent and thus privileged, when she had fairly hunted us +down and married us, would be very imperious and tyrannical. Not so with +the Gy-ei: once married, the wings once suspended, and more amiable, +complacent, docile mates, more sympathetic, more sinking their loftier +capacities into the study of their husbands’ comparatively frivolous +tastes and whims, no poet could conceive in his visions of conjugal +bliss. Lastly, among the more important characteristics of the Vril-ya, +as distinguished from our mankind--lastly, and most important on the +bearings of their life and the peace of their commonwealths, is their +universal agreement in the existence of a merciful beneficent Diety, and +of a future world to the duration of which a century or two are moments +too brief to waste upon thoughts of fame and power and avarice; while +with that agreement is combined another--viz., since they can know +nothing as to the nature of that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme +goodness, nor of that future world beyond the fact of its felicitous +existence, so their reason forbids all angry disputes on insoluble +questions. Thus they secure for that state in the bowels of the earth +what no community ever secured under the light of the stars--all the +blessings and consolations of a religion without any of the evils and +calamities which are engendered by strife between one religion and +another. + +It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of +existence among the Vril-ya is thus, as a whole, immeasurably more +felicitous than that of super-terrestrial races, and, realising the +dreams of our most sanguine philanthropists, almost approaches to a +poet’s conception of some angelical order. And yet, if you would take +a thousand of the best and most philosophical of human beings you could +find in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them +as citizens in the beatified community, my belief is, that in less than +a year they would either die of ennui, or attempt some revolution by +which they would militate against the good of the community, and be +burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur. + +Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of this +narrative, any ignorant disparagement of the race to which I belong. I +have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make it clear that the principles +which regulate the social system of the Vril-ya forbid them to produce +those individual examples of human greatness which adorn the annals of +the upper world. Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no +Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan;--where states are so happy that +they fear no danger and desire no change, they cannot give birth to a +Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes, or a Butler; and +where a society attains to a moral standard, in which there are no +crimes and no sorrows from which tragedy can extract its aliment of pity +and sorrow, no salient vices or follies on which comedy can lavish its +mirthful satire, it has lost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or +a Moliere, or a Mrs. Beecher-Stowe. But if I have no desire to disparage +my fellow-men above ground in showing how much the motives that impel +the energies and ambition of individuals in a society of contest and +struggle--become dormant or annulled in a society which aims at securing +for the aggregate the calm and innocent felicity which we presume to be +the lot of beatified immortals; neither, on the other hand, have I the +wish to represent the commonwealths of the Vril-ya as an ideal form of +political society, to the attainment of which our own efforts of reform +should be directed. On the contrary, it is because we have so combined, +throughout the series of ages, the elements which compose human +character, that it would be utterly impossible for us to adopt the modes +of life, or to reconcile our passions to the modes of thought among +the Vril-ya,--that I arrived at the conviction that this people--though +originally not only of our human race, but, as seems to me clear by the +roots of their language, descended from the same ancestors as the Great +Aryan family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant +civilisation of the world; and having, according to their myths +and their history, passed through phases of society familiar to +ourselves,--had yet now developed into a distinct species with which it +was impossible that any community in the upper world could amalgamate: +and that if they ever emerged from these nether recesses into the light +of day, they would, according to their own traditional persuasions of +their ultimate destiny, destroy and replace our existent varieties of +man. + +It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be found to +conceive a partiality for so ordinary a type of our super-terrestrial +race as myself, that even if the Vril-ya did appear above ground, we +might be saved from extermination by intermixture of race. But this is +too sanguine a belief. Instances of such ‘mesalliance’ would be as rare +as those of intermarriage between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the +Red Indians. Nor would time be allowed for the operation of familiar +intercourse. The Vril-ya, on emerging, induced by the charm of a sunlit +heaven to form their settlements above ground, would commence at once +the work of destruction, seize upon the territories already cultivated, +and clear off, without scruple, all the inhabitants who resisted +that invasion. And considering their contempt for the institutions of +Koom-Posh or Popular Government, and the pugnacious valour of my +beloved countrymen, I believe that if the Vril-ya first appeared in free +America--as, being the choicest portion of the habitable earth, they +would doubtless be induced to do--and said, “This quarter of the globe +we take; Citizens of a Koom-Posh, make way for the development of +species in the Vril-ya,” my brave compatriots would show fight, and not +a soul of them would be left in this life, to rally round the Stars and +Stripes, at the end of a week. + +I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family assembled, +and she was then reserved and silent. My apprehensions of danger from an +affection I had so little encouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded +away, but my dejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to the +upper world, but I racked my brains in vain for any means to effect it. +I was never permitted to wander forth alone, so that I could not even +visit the spot on which I had alighted, and see if it were possible to +reascend to the mine. Nor even in the Silent Hours, when the household +was locked in sleep, could I have let myself down from the lofty floor +in which my apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata +who stood mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could I ascertain +the springs by which were set in movement the platforms that supplied +the place of stairs. The knowledge how to avail myself of these +contrivances had been purposely withheld from me. Oh, that I could but +have learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every +infant, then I might have escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, +and buoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which the perpendicular +sides forbade place for human footing! + + + +Chapter XXVII. + + +One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew in at the +open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I was always pleased +with the visits of a child, in whose society, if humbled, I was less +eclipsed than in that of Ana who had completed their education and +matured their understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with +him for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which I +had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he were +at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city. His countenance +seemed to me graver than usual as he replied, “I came hither on purpose +to invite you forth.” + +We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from the +house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were returning +from the fields with baskets full of flowers, and chanting a song in +chorus as they walked. A young Gy sings more often than she talks. They +stopped on seeing us, accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with +the courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their manner +towards our weaker sex. + +And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in +her courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing that +approaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner which those +young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the distinguished epithet +of ‘fast’ is accorded, exhibit towards young gentlemen whom they do not +profess to love. No; the bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary +is very much that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upper +world towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo; deferential, +complimentary, exquisitely polished--what we should call ‘chivalrous.’ + +Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things addressed +to my ‘amour propre,’ which were said to me by those courteous young +Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would have thought himself +aggrieved, treated with irony, ‘chaffed’ (if so vulgar a slang word +may be allowed on the authority of the popular novelists who use it +so freely), when one fair Gy complimented me on the freshness of my +complexion, another on the choice of colours in my dress, a third, with +a sly smile, on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin’s entertainment. But +I knew already that all such language was what the French call ‘banal,’ +and did but express in the female mouth, below earth, that sort of +desire to pass for amiable with the opposite sex which, above earth, +arbitrary custom and hereditary transmission demonstrate by the mouth of +the male. And just as a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated +to such compliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, return +them, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so I who +had learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy and dignified +a Minister of that nation, could but smile and try to look pretty in +bashfully disclaiming the compliments showered upon me. While we were +thus talking, Taee’s sister, it seems, had seen us from the upper rooms +of the Royal Palace at the entrance of the town, and, precipitating +herself on her wings, alighted in the midst of the group. + +Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deference +of manner which I have called ‘chivalrous,’ yet not without a certain +abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir Philip +Sydney might have termed ‘rustic,’ “Why do you never come to see +us?” While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to this +unlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, “Sister, you +forget--the stranger is of my sex. It is not for persons of my sex, +having due regard for reputation and modesty, to lower themselves by +running after the society of yours.” + +This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gy-ei in +general; but Taee’s sister looked greatly abashed. Poor thing!--and a +PRINCESS too! + +Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and the group; +and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon us, +with the silent and stately pace peculiar to the Vril-ya. At the sight +of his countenance, the same terror which had seized me when I first +beheld it returned. On that brow, in those eyes, there was that same +indefinable something which marked the being of a race fatal to our +own--that strange expression of serene exemption from our common cares +and passions, of conscious superior power, compassionate and inflexible +as that of a judge who pronounces doom. I shivered, and, inclining low, +pressed the arm of my child-friend, and drew him onward silently. The +Tur placed himself before our path, regarded me for a moment without +speaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter’s face, and, with +a grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went through the midst of +the group,--still without a word. + + + +Chapter XXVIII. + + +When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road that lay between +the city and the chasm through which I had descended into this region +beneath the light of the stars and sun, I said under my breath, “Child +and friend, there is a look in your father’s face which appals me. I +feel as if, in its awful tranquillity, I gazed upon death.” + +Taee did not immediately reply. He seemed agitated, and as if debating +with himself by what words to soften some unwelcome intelligence. At +last he said, “None of the Vril-ya fear death: do you?” + +“The dread of death is implanted in the breasts of the race to which I +belong. We can conquer it at the call of duty, of honour, of love. We +can die for a truth, for a native land, for those who are dearer to us +than ourselves. But if death do really threaten me now and here, where +are such counteractions to the natural instinct which invests with awe +and terror the contemplation of severance between soul and body?” + +Taee looked surprised, but there was great tenderness in his voice as +he replied, “I will tell my father what you say. I will entreat him to +spare your life.” + +“He has, then, already decreed to destroy it?” + +“‘Tis my sister’s fault or folly,” said Taee, with some petulance. +“But she spoke this morning to my father; and, after she had spoken, +he summoned me, as a chief among the children who are commissioned to +destroy such lives as threaten the community, and he said to me, ‘Take +thy vril staff, and seek the stranger who has made himself dear to thee. +Be his end painless and prompt.’” + +“And,” I faltered, recoiling from the child--“and it is, then, for my +murder that thus treacherously thou hast invited me forth? No, I cannot +believe it. I cannot think thee guilty of such a crime.” + +“It is no crime to slay those who threaten the good of the community; it +would be a crime to slay the smallest insect that cannot harm us.” + +“If you mean that I threaten the good of the community because your +sister honours me with the sort of preference which a child may feel for +a strange plaything, it is not necessary to kill me. Let me return to +the people I have left, and by the chasm through which I descended. With +a slight help from you I might do so now. You, by the aid of your wings, +could fasten to the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you +found, and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to the +spot from which I alighted, and I vanish from your world for ever, and +as surely as if I were among the dead.” + +“The chasm through which you descended! Look round; we stand now on the +very place where it yawned. What see you? Only solid rock. The chasm was +closed, by the orders of Aph-Lin, as soon as communication between him +and yourself was established in your trance, and he learned from +your own lips the nature of the world from which you came. Do you not +remember when Zee bade me not question you as to yourself or your +race? On quitting you that day, Aph-Lin accosted me, and said, ‘No path +between the stranger’s home and ours should be left unclosed, or the +sorrow and evil of his home may descend to ours. Take with thee the +children of thy band, smite the sides of the cavern with your vril +staves till the fall of their fragments fills up every chink through +which a gleam of our lamps could force its way.’” + +As the child spoke, I stared aghast at the blind rocks before me. Huge +and irregular, the granite masses, showing by charred discolouration +where they had been shattered, rose from footing to roof-top; not a +cranny! + +“All hope, then, is gone,” I murmured, sinking down on the craggy +wayside, “and I shall nevermore see the sun.” I covered my face with my +hands, and prayed to Him whose presence I had so often forgotten when +the heavens had declared His handiwork. I felt His presence in the +depths of the nether earth, and amidst the world of the grave. I looked +up, taking comfort and courage from my prayers, and, gazing with a quiet +smile into the face of the child, said, “Now, if thou must slay me, +strike.” + +Taee shook his head gently. “Nay,” he said, “my father’s request is not +so formally made as to leave me no choice. I will speak with him, and +may prevail to save thee. Strange that thou shouldst have that fear of +death which we thought was only the instinct of the inferior creatures, +to whom the convictions of another life has not been vouchsafed. +With us, not an infant knows such a fear. Tell me, my dear Tish,” + he continued after a little pause, “would it reconcile thee more to +departure from this form of life to that form which lies on the other +side of the moment called ‘death,’ did I share thy journey? If so, I +will ask my father whether it be allowable for me to go with thee. I am +one of our generation destined to emigrate, when of age for it, to some +regions unknown within this world. I would just as soon emigrate now to +regions unknown, in another world. The All-Good is no less there than +here. Where is he not?” + +“Child,” said I, seeing by Taee’s countenance that he spoke in serious +earnest, “it is crime in thee to slay me; it were a crime not less in +me to say, ‘Slay thyself.’ The All-Good chooses His own time to give us +life, and his own time to take it away. Let us go back. If, on speaking +with thy father, he decides on my death, give me the longest warning in +thy power, so that I may pass the interval in self-preparation.” + + + +Chapter XXIX. + + +In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting the +night of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the disturbed slumber into +which I had not long fallen, by a hand on my shoulder. I started and +beheld Zee standing beside me. “Hush,” she said in a whisper; “let no +one hear us. Dost thou think that I have ceased to watch over thy safety +because I could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailed +with his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages who, +in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he has +ordained thee to perish when the world re-awakens to life. I will save +thee. Rise and dress.” + +Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes I had +worn on quitting the upper world, and which I had exchanged subsequently +for the more picturesque garments of the Vril-ya. The young Gy then +moved towards the casement and stepped into the balcony, while hastily +and wonderingly I donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the +balcony, her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she said +softly, “See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up the +world in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will be dark to me.” She +drew me back into the room without waiting for my answer, thence into +the corridor, from which we descended into the hall. We passed into the +deserted streets and along the broad upward road which wound beneath the +rocks. Here, where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hours +are unutterably solemn--the vast space illumined by mortal skill is +so wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft as were +our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of harmony with the +universal repose. I was aware in my own mind, though Zee said it not, +that she had decided to assist my return to the upper world, and that +we were bound towards the place from which I had descended. Her silence +infected me and commanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It had +been re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when I had +emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock before which I +had last stood with Taee, a new clift had been riven, and along its +blackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered embers. My +upward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet into the +darkness of the hollow void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering how +that grim ascent was to be made. + +Zee divined my doubt. “Fear not,” said she, with a faint smile; “your +return is assured. I began this work when the Silent Hours commenced, +and all else were asleep; believe that I did not paused till the path +back into thy world was clear. I shall be with thee a little while yet. +We do not part until thou sayest, ‘Go, for I need thee no more.’” + +My heart smote me with remorse at these words. “Ah!” I exclaimed, “would +that thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I should never say, ‘I +need thee no more.’” + +“I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them when thou art +gone,” answered the Gy, tenderly. + +During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned away from me, her +form bent and her head bowed over her breast. Now, she rose to the full +height of her grand stature, and stood fronting me. While she had been +thus averted from my gaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she wore +round her brow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Not +only her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were illumined by +the effulgence of the diadem. + +“Now,” said she, “put thine arm around me for the first and last time. +Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm.” + +As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. Clinging to her, +I was borne aloft through the terrible chasm. The starry light from her +forehead shot around and before us through the darkness. Brightly and +steadfastly, and swiftly as an angel may soar heavenward with the soul +it rescues from the grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heard +in the distance the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We +halted on the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and beyond, +in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of the miners. Then I +released my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, passionately, but as +with a mother’s passion, and said, as the tears gushed from her eyes, +“Farewell for ever. Thou wilt not let me go into thy world--thou canst +never return to mine. Ere our household shake off slumber, the rocks +will have again closed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, nor +perhaps by others, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, and +with kindness. When I reach the life that lies beyond this speck in +time, I shall look round for thee. Even there, the world consigned to +thyself and thy people may have rocks and gulfs which divide it from +that in which I rejoin those of my race that have gone before, and I may +be powerless to cleave way to regain thee as I have cloven way to lose.” + +Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings, and saw the +rays of her starry diadem receding far and farther through the gloom. + +I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I rose and +took my way with slow footsteps towards the place in which I heard the +sounds of men. The miners I encountered were strange to me, of another +nation than my own. They turned to look at me with some surprise, but +finding that I could not answer their brief questions in their own +language, they returned to their work and suffered me to pass on +unmolested. In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled +by other interrogatories;--save those of a friendly official to whom I +was known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with me. I took care +not to return to my former lodging, but hastened that very day to quit +a neighbourhood where I could not long have escaped inquiries to which +I could have given no satisfactory answers. I regained in safety my own +country, in which I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged in +practical business, till I retired on a competent fortune, three years +ago. I have been little invited and little tempted to talk of the +rovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhat disappointed, as most men +are, in matters connected with household love and domestic life, I often +think of the young Gy as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I could +have rejected such a love, no matter what dangers attended it, or by +what conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of a people +calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight and deemed +uninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing our most disciplined modes +of force, and virtues to which our life, social and political, becomes +antagonistic in proportion as our civilisation advances,--the more +devoutly I pray that ages may yet elapse before there emerge into +sunlight our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, frankly told by +my physician that I am afflicted by a complaint which, though it gives +little pain and no perceptible notice of its encroachments, may at any +moment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellow-men to place on +record these forewarnings of The Coming Race. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + +***** This file should be named 1951-0.txt or 1951-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1951/ + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1951-0.zip b/1951-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2685c96 --- /dev/null +++ b/1951-0.zip diff --git a/1951-h.zip b/1951-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b623ac --- /dev/null +++ b/1951-h.zip diff --git a/1951-h/1951-h.htm b/1951-h/1951-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db3344e --- /dev/null +++ b/1951-h/1951-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5968 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Coming Race + +Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Release Date: February 18, 2006 [EBook #1951] +Last Updated: August 28, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + + + + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE COMING RACE + </h1> + <h2> + by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter IV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter V. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter VI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter VII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter VIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter IX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter X. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter XI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter XII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter XIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter XIV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter XV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter XVI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter XVII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter XVIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter XIX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter XX. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter XXI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter XXII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter XXIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0024"> Chapter XXIV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0025"> Chapter XXV. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0026"> Chapter XXVI. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0027"> Chapter XXVII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0028"> Chapter XXVIII. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0029"> Chapter XXIX. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Chapter I. + </h2> + <p> + I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My ancestors + migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather was + not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, therefore, + enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; and being also + opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public service. My + father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor. + After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived much in his + library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sent at the age of sixteen to + the old country, partly to complete my literary education, partly to + commence my commercial training in a mercantile firm at Liverpool. My + father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and + having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all + pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer over the + face of the earth. + </p> + <p> + In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a + professional engineer, with whom I had made acquaintance, to visit the + recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was employed. + </p> + <p> + The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my reason for + concealing all clue to the district of which I write, and will perhaps + thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to its + discovery. + </p> + <p> + Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the engineer + into the interior of the mine, and became so strangely fascinated by its + gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend’s explorations, that I + prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and descended daily, for some + weeks, into the vaults and galleries hollowed by nature and art beneath + the surface of the earth. The engineer was persuaded that far richer + deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been detected, would be found in a + new shaft that had been commenced under his operations. In piercing this + shaft we came one day upon a chasm jagged and seemingly charred at the + sides, as if burst asunder at some distant period by volcanic fires. Down + this chasm my friend caused himself to be lowered in a ‘cage,’ having + first tested the atmosphere by the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour + in the abyss. When he returned he was very pale, and with an anxious, + thoughtful expression of face, very different from its ordinary character, + which was open, cheerful, and fearless. + </p> + <p> + He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and leading to no + result; and, suspending further operations in the shaft, we returned to + the more familiar parts of the mine. + </p> + <p> + All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by some absorbing + thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there was a scared, bewildered + look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At night, as we + two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together near the mouth of + the mine, I said to my friend,— + </p> + <p> + “Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was something + strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has left your mind in a state of + doubt. In such a case two heads are better than one. Confide in me.” + </p> + <p> + The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he + spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a degree + to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a very temperate man, his + reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep himself to himself should + imitate the dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said, “I will tell + you all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on a ridge of rock; and + below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, shot down to a + considerable depth, the darkness of which my lamp could not have + penetrated. But through it, to my infinite surprise, streamed upward a + steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire? In that case, + surely I should have felt the heat. Still, if on this there was doubt, it + was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it up. I + examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture to trust + myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some way. I + left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer to the + light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, + a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye + could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regular + intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard confusedly + at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course, that no rival + miners are at work in this district. Whose could be those voices? What + human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled those lamps? + </p> + <p> + “The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell + within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the + thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether + valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot I + had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down + abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. Now I + have told you all.” + </p> + <p> + “You will descend again?” + </p> + <p> + “I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not.” + </p> + <p> + “A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. I will go + with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and + strength—and—pardon me—you must not drink more to-night, + our hands and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter II. + </h2> + <p> + With the morning my friend’s nerves were rebraced, and he was not less + excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for he evidently believed + in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that he would + have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have been under + one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our nerves in + solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to the formless + and sound to the dumb. + </p> + <p> + We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the cage held + only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and when he had gained + the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage rearose for me. I soon + gained his side. We had provided ourselves with a strong coil of rope. + </p> + <p> + The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my friend’s. + The hollow through which it came sloped diagonally: it seemed to me a + diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft and silvery, + as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we descended, one after the + other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till we reached the + place at which my friend had previously halted, and which was a projection + just spacious enough to allow us to stand abreast. From this spot the + chasm widened rapidly like the lower end of a vast funnel, and I saw + distinctly the valley, the road, the lamps which my companion had + described. He had exaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had heard—a + mingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull tramp as of feet. + Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a distance the outline + of some large building. It could not be mere natural rock, it was too + symmetrical, with huge heavy Egyptian-like columns, and the whole lighted + as from within. I had about me a small pocket-telescope, and by the aid of + this, I could distinguish, near the building I mention, two forms which + seemed human, though I could not be sure. At least they were living, for + they moved, and both vanished within the building. We now proceeded to + attach the end of the rope we had brought with us to the ledge on which we + stood, by the aid of clamps and grappling hooks, with which, as well as + with necessary tools, we were provided. + </p> + <p> + We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraid to speak to + each other. One end of the rope being thus apparently made firm to the + ledge, the other, to which we fastened a fragment of the rock, rested on + the ground below, a distance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and a + more active man than my companion, and having served on board ship in my + boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to me than to him. In a + whisper I claimed the precedence, so that when I gained the ground I might + serve to hold the rope more steady for his descent. I got safely to the + ground beneath, and the engineer now began to lower himself. But he had + scarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when the fastenings, which + we had fancied so secure, gave way, or rather the rock itself proved + treacherous and crumbled beneath the strain; and the unhappy man was + precipitated to the bottom, falling just at my feet, and bringing down + with his fall splinters of the rock, one of which, fortunately but a small + one, struck and for the time stunned me. When I recovered my senses I saw + my companion an inanimate mass beside me, life utterly extinct. While I + was bending over his corpse in grief and horror, I heard close at hand a + strange sound between a snort and a hiss; and turning instinctively to the + quarter from which it came, I saw emerging from a dark fissure in the rock + a vast and terrible head, with open jaws and dull, ghastly, hungry eyes—the + head of a monstrous reptile resembling that of the crocodile or alligator, + but infinitely larger than the largest creature of that kind I had ever + beheld in my travels. I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my + utmost speed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight, and + returned to the spot on which I had left the body of my friend. It was + gone; doubtless the monster had already drawn it into its den and devoured + it. The rope and the grappling-hooks still lay where they had fallen, but + they afforded me no chance of return; it was impossible to re-attach them + to the rock above, and the sides of the rock were too sheer and smooth for + human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strange world, amidst the + bowels of the earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter III. + </h2> + <p> + Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplit road and + towards the large building I have described. The road itself seemed like a + great Alpine pass, skirting rocky mountains of which the one through whose + chasm I had descended formed a link. Deep below to the left lay a vast + valley, which presented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable evidences + of art and culture. There were fields covered with a strange vegetation, + similar to none I have seen above the earth; the colour of it not green, + but rather of a dull and leaden hue or of a golden red. + </p> + <p> + There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved into + artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shone like pools of + naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles opened amidst the rocks, + with passes between, evidently constructed by art, and bordered by trees + resembling, for the most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties of + feathery foliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others were more + like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of flowers. + Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, with short thick stems + supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which either rose or drooped long + slender branches. The whole scene behind, before, and beside me far as the + eye could reach, was brilliant with innumerable lamps. The world without a + sun was bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but the air less + oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before me void of signs of + habitation. I could distinguish at a distance, whether on the banks of the + lake or rivulet, or half-way upon eminences, embedded amidst the + vegetation, buildings that must surely be the homes of men. I could even + discover, though far off, forms that appeared to me human moving amidst + the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to the right, gliding quickly + through the air, what appeared a small boat, impelled by sails shaped like + wings. It soon passed out of sight, descending amidst the shades of a + forest. Right above me there was no sky, but only a cavernous roof. This + roof grew higher and higher at the distance of the landscapes beyond, till + it became imperceptible, as an atmosphere of haze formed itself beneath. + </p> + <p> + Continuing my walk, I started,—from a bush that resembled a great + tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubs and plants of + large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or prickly-pear,—a + curious animal about the size and shape of a deer. But as, after bounding + away a few paces, it turned round and gazed at me inquisitively, I + perceived that it was not like any species of deer now extant above the + earth, but it brought instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had + seen in some museum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existed + before the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, after inspecting + me a moment or two, began to graze on the singular herbiage around + undismayed and careless. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IV. + </h2> + <p> + I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been made by hands, + and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I should have supposed it at the + first glance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptian architecture. + It was fronted by huge columns, tapering upward from massive plinths, and + with capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived to be more ornamental + and more fantastically graceful that Egyptian architecture allows. As the + Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of the acanthus, so the capitals of + these columns imitated the foliage of the vegetation neighbouring them, + some aloe-like, some fern-like. And now there came out of this building a + form—human;—was it human? It stood on the broad way and looked + around, beheld me and approached. It came within a few yards of me, and at + the sight and presence of it an indescribable awe and tremor seized me, + rooting my feet to the ground. It reminded me of symbolical images of + Genius or Demon that are seen on Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of + Eastern sepulchres—images that borrow the outlines of man, and are + yet of another race. It was tall, not gigantic, but tall as the tallest + man below the height of giants. + </p> + <p> + Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings folded over + its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of its attire was composed + of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material. It wore on + its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carried in its right + hand a slender staff of bright metal like polished steel. But the face! it + was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was the face of man, but + yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant races. The nearest + approach to it in outline and expression is the face of the sculptured + sphinx—so regular in its calm, intellectual, mysterious beauty. Its + colour was peculiar, more like that of the red man than any other variety + of our species, and yet different from it—a richer and a softer hue, + with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched as a + semicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless something in the + aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteous though the features, + roused that instinct of danger which the sight of a tiger or serpent + arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowed with forces inimical + to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came over me. I fell on my knees + and covered my face with my hands. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter V. + </h2> + <p> + A voice accosted me—a very quiet and very musical key of voice—in + a language of which I could not understand a word, but it served to dispel + my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could scarcely + bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that seemed to read + to the very depths of my heart. He then placed his left hand on my + forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my shoulder. The + effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my former terror + there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of confidence in + myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in my own language. He + listened to me with apparent attention, but with a slight surprise in his + looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that I was not understood. He + then took me by the hand and led me in silence to the building. The + entrance was open—indeed there was no door to it. We entered an + immense hall, lighted by the same kind of lustre as in the scene without, + but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large tesselated blocks + of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of matlike carpeting. A + strain of low music, above and around, undulated as if from invisible + instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place, just as the sound + of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or the warble of birds + to vernal groves. + </p> + <p> + A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar fashion, + was standing motionless near the threshold. My guide touched it twice with + his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding movement, skimming + noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw that it was no living + form, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two minutes after it + vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by curtains at the + other end of the hall, when through the same opening advanced a boy of + about twelve years old, with features closely resembling those of my + guide, so that they seemed to me evidently son and father. On seeing me + the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff like that borne by my guide, + as if in menace. At a word from the elder he dropped it. The two then + conversed for some moments, examining me while they spoke. The child + touched my garments, and stroked my face with evident curiosity, uttering + a sound like a laugh, but with an hilarity more subdued that the mirth of + our laughter. Presently the roof of the hall opened, and a platform + descended, seemingly constructed on the same principle as the ‘lifts’ used + in hotels and warehouses for mounting from one story to another. + </p> + <p> + The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and motioned to + me to do the same, which I did. We ascended quickly and safely, and + alighted in the midst of a corridor with doorways on either side. + </p> + <p> + Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber fitted up + with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselated with spars, and + metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; apertures as for + windows but unglazed, were made in the chamber opening to the floor; and + as I passed along I observed that these openings led into spacious + balconies, and commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In + cages suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and + bright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, modulated + into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A delicious fragrance, + from censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air. Several + automata, like the one I had seen, stood dumb and motionless by the walls. + The stranger placed me beside him on a divan and again spoke to me, and + again I spoke, but without the least advance towards understanding each + other. + </p> + <p> + But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received from the + splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I had done at first. + </p> + <p> + There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompanied with acute, + lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sank back on the seat and strove + in vain to stifle a groan. On this the child, who had hitherto seemed to + eye me with distrust or dislike, knelt by my side to support me; taking + one of my hands in both his own, he approached his lips to my forehead, + breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; a drowsy, heavy + calm crept over me; I fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke I felt + perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silent forms, seated + around me in the gravity and quietude of Orientals—all more or less + like the first stranger; the same mantling wings, the same fashion of + garment, the same sphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red man’s + colour; above all, the same type of race—race akin to man’s, but + infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect—and inspiring the + same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each countenance was mild and + tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it seemed + to me that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret of the + dread which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of the lines + and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon the + faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or as, in the eyes of + Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of the dead. + </p> + <p> + I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child’s. In his eyes there + was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as that with which we may + gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly. I shrank from that touch—I + shrank from that eye. I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he + so pleased, that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill a + bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, quitted me, + and placed himself beside one of the windows. The others continued to + converse with each other in a low tone, and by their glances towards me I + could perceive that I was the object of their conversation. One in + especial seemed to be urging some proposal affecting me on the being whom + I had first met, and this last by his gesture seemed about to assent to + it, when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window, placed himself + between me and the other forms, as if in protection, and spoke quickly and + eagerly. By some intuition or instinct I felt that the child I had before + so dreaded was pleading in my behalf. Ere he had ceased another stranger + entered the room. He appeared older than the rest, though not old; his + countenance less smoothly serene than theirs, though equally regular in + its features, seemed to me to have more the touch of a humanity akin to my + own. He listened quietly to the words addressed to him, first by my guide, + next by two others of the group, and lastly by the child; then turned + towards myself, and addressed me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. + These I fancied that I perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. I + comprehended that he inquired whence I came. I extended my arm, and + pointed towards the road which had led me from the chasm in the rock; then + an idea seized me. I drew forth my pocket-book, and sketched on one of its + blank leaves a rough design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself + clinging to it; then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, + the lifeless form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph + to my interrogator, who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his + next neighbour, and it thus passed round the group. The being I had at + first encountered then said a few words, and the child, who approached and + looked at my drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, + returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to his form, shook + them once or twice, and then launched himself into space without. I + started up in amaze and hastened to the window. The child was already in + the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a bird + does, but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him + steadily aloft without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift as an + eagle’s; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence I had + descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant + atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned, skimming through the + opening from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope and + grappling-hooks I had left at the descent from the chasm. Some words in a + low tone passed between the being present; one of the group touched an + automaton, which started forward and glided from the room; then the last + comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me by the hand, and + led me into the corridor. There the platform by which I had mounted + awaited us; we placed ourselves on it and were lowered into the hall + below. My new companion, still holding me by the hand, conducted me from + the building into a street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with + buildings on either side, separated from each other by gardens bright with + rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. Interspersed amidst these + gardens, which were divided from each other by low walls, or walking + slowly along the road, were many forms similar to those I had already + seen. Some of the passers-by, on observing me, approached my guide, + evidently by their tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him inquiries + about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us, examining me + with great interest, as if I were some rare wild animal. Yet even in + gratifying their curiosity they preserved a grave and courteous demeanour; + and after a few words from my guide, who seemed to me to deprecate + obstruction in our road, they fell back with a stately inclination of + head, and resumed their own way with tranquil indifference. Midway in this + thoroughfare we stopped at a building that differed from those we had + hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three sides of a vast court, at the + angles of which were lofty pyramidal towers; in the open space between the + sides was a circular fountain of colossal dimensions, and throwing up a + dazzling spray of what seemed to me fire. We entered the building through + an open doorway and came into an enormous hall, in which were several + groups of children, all apparently employed in work as at some great + factory. There was a huge engine in the wall which was in full play, with + wheels and cylinders resembling our own steam-engines, except that it was + richly ornamented with precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate + a pale phosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of the children + were at some mysterious work on this machinery, others were seated before + tables. I was not allowed to linger long enough to examine into the nature + of their employment. Not one young voice was heard—not one young + face turned to gaze on us. They were all still and indifferent as may be + ghosts, through the midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the living. + </p> + <p> + Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted in + compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the colours, like + pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects described on these walls appeared + to my glance as intended to illustrate events in the history of the race + amidst which I was admitted. In all there were figures, most of them like + the manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same fashion of garb, + nor all with wings. There were also the effigies of various animals and + birds, wholly strange to me, with backgrounds depicting landscapes or + buildings. So far as my imperfect knowledge of the pictorial art would + allow me to form an opinion, these paintings seemed very accurate in + design and very rich in colouring, showing a perfect knowledge of + perspective, but their details not arranged according to the rules of + composition acknowledged by our artists—wanting, as it were, a + centre; so that the effect was vague, scattered, confused, bewildering—they + were like heterogeneous fragments of a dream of art. + </p> + <p> + We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was assembled what I + afterwards knew to be the family of my guide, seated at a table spread as + for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of my guide’s wife, his + daughter, and two sons. I recognised at once the difference between the + two sexes, though the two females were of taller stature and ampler + proportions than the males; and their countenances, if still more + symmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness and + timidity of expression which give charm to the face of woman as seen on + the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughter wore wings longer + than those of the males. + </p> + <p> + My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seated rose, and + with that peculiar mildness of look and manner which I have before + noticed, and which is, in truth, the common attribute of this formidable + race, they saluted me according to their fashion, which consists in laying + the right hand very gently on the head and uttering a soft sibilant + monosyllable—S.Si, equivalent to “Welcome.” + </p> + <p> + The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped a golden + platter before me from one of the dishes. + </p> + <p> + While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled more at the + delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), my companions conversed + quietly, and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance of any + direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scrutiny of my appearance. + Yet I was the first creature of that variety of the human race to which I + belong that they had ever beheld, and was consequently regarded by them as + a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all rudeness is unknown to + this people, and the youngest child is taught to despise any vehement + emotional demonstration. When the meal was ended, my guide again took me + by the hand, and, re-entering the gallery, touched a metallic plate + inscribed with strange figures, and which I rightly conjectured to be of + the nature of our telegraphs. A platform descended, but this time we + mounted to a much greater height than in the former building, and found + ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions, and which in its general + character had much that might be familiar to the associations of a visitor + from the upper world. There were shelves on the wall containing what + appeared to be books, and indeed were so; mostly very small, like our + diamond duodecimos, shaped in the fashion of our volumes, and bound in + sheets of fine metal. There were several curious-looking pieces of + mechanism scattered about, apparently models, such as might be seen in the + study of any professional mechanician. Four automata (mechanical + contrivances which, with these people, answer the ordinary purposes of + domestic service) stood phantom-like at each angle in the wall. In a + recess was a low couch, or bed with pillows. A window, with curtains of + some fibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large balcony. My host + stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were on the uppermost + story of one of the angular pyramids; the view beyond was of a wild and + solemn beauty impossible to describe:—the vast ranges of precipitous + rock which formed the distant background, the intermediate valleys of + mystic many-coloured herbiage, the flash of waters, many of them like + streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre diffused over all by myriads + of lamps, combined to form a whole of which no words of mine can convey + adequate description; so splendid was it, yet so sombre; so lovely, yet so + awful. + </p> + <p> + But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes. Suddenly + there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of joyous music; then a + winged form soared into the space; another as if in chase of the first, + another and another; others after others, till the crowd grew thick and + the number countless. But how describe the fantastic grace of these forms + in their undulating movements! They appeared engaged in some sport or + amusement; now forming into opposite squadrons; now scattering; now each + group threading the other, soaring, descending, interweaving, severing; + all in measured time to the music below, as if in the dance of the fabled + Peri. + </p> + <p> + I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I ventured to place my + hand on the large wings that lay folded on his breast, and in doing so a + slight shock as of electricity passed through me. I recoiled in fear; my + host smiled, and as if courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly + expanded his pinions. I observed that his garment beneath them became + dilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed to slide into + the wings, and in another moment he had launched himself into the luminous + atmosphere, and hovered there, still, and with outspread wings, as an + eagle that basks in the sun. Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he rushed + downwards into the midst of one of the groups, skimming through the midst, + and as suddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, in one of which + I thought to recognise my host’s daughter, detached themselves from the + rest, and followed him as a bird sportively follows a bird. My eyes, + dazzled with the lights and bewildered by the throngs, ceased to + distinguish the gyrations and evolutions of these winged playmates, till + presently my host re-emerged from the crowd and alighted at my side. + </p> + <p> + The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on my senses; + my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined to be superstitious, + nor hitherto believing that man could be brought into bodily communication + with demons, I felt the terror and the wild excitement with which, in the + Gothic ages, a traveller might have persuaded himself that he witnessed a + ‘sabbat’ of fiends and witches. I have a vague recollection of having + attempted with vehement gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud + incoherent words, to repel my courteous and indulgent host; of his mild + endeavors to calm and soothe me; of his intelligent conjecture that my + fright and bewilderment were occasioned by the difference of form and + movement between us which the wings that had excited my marvelling + curiosity had, in exercise, made still more strongly perceptible; of the + gentle smile with which he had sought to dispel my alarm by dropping the + wings to the ground and endeavouring to show me that they were but a + mechanical contrivance. That sudden transformation did but increase my + horror, and as extreme fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I + sprang at his throat like a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the + ground as by an electric shock, and the last confused images floating + before my sight ere I became wholly insensible, were the form of my host + kneeling beside me with one hand on my forehead, and the beautiful calm + face of his daughter, with large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed + upon my own. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VI. + </h2> + <p> + I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards learned, for many + days, even for some weeks according to our computation of time. When I + recovered I was in a strange room, my host and all his family were + gathered round me, and to my utter amaze my host’s daughter accosted me in + my own language with a slightly foreign accent. + </p> + <p> + “How do you feel?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enough to falter + out, “You know my language? How? Who and what are you?” + </p> + <p> + My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons, who then took from a table + a number of thin metallic sheets on which were traced drawings of various + figures—a house, a tree, a bird, a man, &c. + </p> + <p> + In these designs I recognised my own style of drawing. Under each figure + was written the name of it in my language, and in my writing; and in + another handwriting a word strange to me beneath it. + </p> + <p> + Said the host, “Thus we began; and my daughter Zee, who belongs to the + College of Sages, has been your instructress and ours too.” + </p> + <p> + Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, in my writing, + words first, and then sentences, were inscribed. Under each word and each + sentence strange characters in another hand. Rallying my senses, I + comprehended that thus a rude dictionary had been effected. Had it been + done while I was dreaming? “That is enough now,” said Zee, in a tone of + command. “Repose and take food.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VII. + </h2> + <p> + A room to myself was assigned to me in this vast edifice. It was prettily + and fantastically arranged, but without any of the splendour of metal-work + or gems which was displayed in the more public apartments. The walls were + hung with a variegated matting made from the stalks and fibers of plants, + and the floor carpeted with the same. + </p> + <p> + The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting on balls of + crystal; the coverings, of a thin white substance resembling cotton. There + were sundry shelves containing books. A curtained recess communicated with + an aviary filled with singing-birds, of which I did not recognise + one resembling those I have seen on earth, except a beautiful species of + dove, though this was distinguished from our doves by a tall crest of + bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained to sing in artful tunes, + and greatly exceeded the skill of our piping bullfinches, which can rarely + achieve more than two tunes, and cannot, I believe, sing those in concert. + One might have supposed one’s self at an opera in listening to the voices + in my aviary. There were duets and trios, and quartetts and choruses, all + arranged as in one piece of music. Did I want silence from the birds? I + had but to draw a curtain over the aviary, and their song hushed as they + found themselves left in the dark. Another opening formed a window, not + glazed, but on touching a spring, a shutter ascended from the floor, + formed of some substance less transparent than glass, but still + sufficiently pellucid to allow a softened view of the scene without. To + this window was attached a balcony, or rather hanging garden, wherein grew + many graceful plants and brilliant flowers. The apartment and its + appurtenances had thus a character, if strange in detail, still familiar, + as a whole, to modern notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration + if found attached to the apartments of an English duchess or a fashionable + French author. Before I arrived this was Zee’s chamber; she had hospitably + assigned it to me. + </p> + <p> + Some hours after the waking up which is described in my last chapter, I + was lying alone on my couch trying to fix my thoughts on conjecture as to + the nature and genus of the people amongst whom I was thrown, when my host + and his daughter Zee entered the room. My host, still speaking my native + language, inquired with much politeness, whether it would be agreeable to + me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that I should feel + much honoured and obliged by the opportunity offered me to express my + gratitude for the hospitality and civilities I had received in a country + to which I was a stranger, and to learn enough of its customs and manners + not to offend through ignorance. + </p> + <p> + As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch: but Zee, much to my + confusion, curtly ordered me to lie down again, and there was something in + her voice and eye, gentle as both were, that compelled my obedience. She + then seated herself unconcernedly at the foot of my bed, while her father + took his place on a divan a few feet distant. + </p> + <p> + “But what part of the world do you come from?” asked my host, “that we + should appear so strange to you and you to us? I have seen individual + specimens of nearly all the races differing from our own, except the + primeval savages who dwell in the most desolate and remote recesses of + uncultivated nature, unacquainted with other light than that they obtain + from volcanic fires, and contented to grope their way in the dark, as do + many creeping, crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be a + member of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do you seem to + belong to any civilised people.” + </p> + <p> + I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and replied that I had + the honour to belong to one of the most civilised nations of the earth; + and that, so far as light was concerned, while I admired the ingenuity and + disregard of expense with which my host and his fellow-citizens had + contrived to illumine the regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, yet + I could not conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heaven could + compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented by the necessities + of man. But my host said he had seen specimens of most of the races + differing from his own, save the wretched barbarians he had mentioned. + Now, was it possible that he had never been on the surface of the earth, + or could he only be referring to communities buried within its entrails? + </p> + <p> + My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a degree of + surprise which the people of that race very rarely manifest under any + circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was more intelligent, and + exclaimed, “So you see, my father, that there is truth in the old + tradition; there always is truth in every tradition commonly believed in + all times and by all tribes.” + </p> + <p> + “Zee,” said my host mildly, “you belong to the College of Sages, and ought + to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of the Light-preserving Council, it + is my duty to take nothing for granted till it is proved to the evidence + of my own senses.” Then, turning to me, he asked me several questions + about the surface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon which, though + I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answers seemed not to + satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head quietly, and, changing the + subject rather abruptly, asked how I had come down from what he was + pleased to call one world to the other. I answered, that under the surface + of the earth there were mines containing minerals, or metals, essential to + our wants and our progress in all arts and industries; and I then briefly + explained the manner in which, while exploring one of those mines, I and + my ill-fated friend had obtained a glimpse of the regions into which we + had descended, and how the descent had cost him his life; appealing to the + rope and grappling-hooks that the child had brought to the house in which + I had been at first received, as a witness of the truthfulness of my + story. + </p> + <p> + My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits and modes of life + among the races on the upper earth, more especially among those considered + to be the most advanced in that civilisation which he was pleased to + define “the art of diffusing throughout a community the tranquil happiness + which belongs to a virtuous and well-ordered household.” Naturally + desiring to represent in the most favourable colours the world from which + I came, I touched but slightly, though indulgently, on the antiquated and + decaying institutions of Europe, in order to expatiate on the present + grandeur and prospective pre-eminence of that glorious American Republic, + in which Europe enviously seeks its model and tremblingly foresees its + doom. Selecting for an example of the social life of the United States + that city in which progress advances at the fastest rate, I indulged in an + animated description of the moral habits of New York. Mortified to see, by + the faces of my listeners, that I did not make the favourable impression I + had anticipated, I elevated my theme; dwelling on the excellence of + democratic institutions, their promotion of tranquil happiness by the + government of party, and the mode in which they diffused such happiness + throughout the community by preferring, for the exercise of power and the + acquisition of honours, the lowliest citizens in point of property, + education, and character. Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a + speech, on the purifying influences of American democracy and their + destined spread over the world, made by a certain eloquent senator (for + whose vote in the Senate a Railway Company, to which my two brothers + belonged, had just paid 20,000 dollars), I wound up by repeating its + glowing predictions of the magnificent future that smiled upon mankind—when + the flag of freedom should float over an entire continent, and two hundred + millions of intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily use + of revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrine of the + Patriot Monroe. + </p> + <p> + When I had concluded, my host gently shook his head, and fell into a + musing study, making a sign to me and his daughter to remain silent while + he reflected. And after a time he said, in a very earnest and solemn tone, + “If you think as you say, that you, though a stranger, have received + kindness at the hands of me and mine, I adjure you to reveal nothing to + any other of our people respecting the world from which you came, unless, + on consideration, I give you permission to do so. Do you consent to this + request?” “Of course I pledge my word, to it,” said I, somewhat amazed; + and I extended my right hand to grasp his. But he placed my hand gently on + his forehead and his own right hand on my breast, which is the custom + amongst this race in all matters of promise or verbal obligations. Then + turning to his daughter, he said, “And you, Zee, will not repeat to any + one what the stranger has said, or may say, to me or to you, of a world + other than our own.” Zee rose and kissed her father on the temples, + saying, with a smile, “A Gy’s tongue is wanton, but love can fetter it + fast. And if, my father, you fear lest a chance word from me or yourself + could expose our community to danger, by a desire to explore a world + beyond us, will not a wave of the ‘vril,’ properly impelled, wash even the + memory of what we have heard the stranger say out of the tablets of the + brain?” + </p> + <p> + “What is the vril?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I understood + very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an exact + synonym for vril. I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends + in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, in our + scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, + galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they have arrived at + the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has been conjectured by + many philosophers above ground, and which Faraday thus intimates under the + more cautious term of correlation:— + </p> + <p> + “I have long held an opinion,” says that illustrious experimentalist, + “almost amounting to a conviction, in common, I believe, with many other + lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces + of matter are made manifest, have one common origin; or, in other words, + are so directly related and mutually dependent that they are convertible, + as it were into one another, and possess equivalents of power in their + action.” + </p> +<p> +These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of + vril, which Faraday would perhaps call ‘atmospheric magnetism,’ they can + influence the variations of temperature—in plain words, the weather; + that by operations, akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electro-biology, + odic force, &c., but applied scientifically, through vril conductors, + they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, + to an extent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics. To all such + agencies they give the common name of vril.” + </p> + <p> + Zee asked me if, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of + the mind could be quickened to a degree unknown in the waking state, by + trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one brain could be transmitted + to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly interchanged. I replied, that + there were amongst us stories told of such trance or vision, and that I + had heard much and seen something in mesmeric clairvoyance; but that these + practices had fallen much into disuse or contempt, partly because of the + gross impostures to which they had been made subservient, and partly + because, even where the effects upon certain abnormal constitutions were + genuinely produced, the effects when fairly examined and analysed, were + very unsatisfactory—not to be relied upon for any systematic + truthfulness or any practical purpose, and rendered very mischievous to + credulous persons by the superstitions they tended to produce. Zee + received my answers with much benignant attention, and said that similar + instances of abuse and credulity had been familiar to their own scientific + experience in the infancy of their knowledge, and while the properties of + vril were misapprehended, but that she reserved further discussion on this + subject till I was more fitted to enter into it. She contented herself + with adding, that it was through the agency of vril, while I had been + placed in the state of trance, that I had been made acquainted with the + rudiments of their language; and that she and her father, who alone of the + family, took the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater + proportionate knowledge of my language than I of their own; partly because + my language was much simpler than theirs, comprising far less of complex + ideas; and partly because their organisation was, by hereditary culture, + much more ductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than + mine. At this I secretly demurred; and having had in the course of a + practical life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or in travel, I could + not allow that my cerebral organisation could possibly be duller than that + of people who had lived all their lives by lamplight. However, while I was + thus thinking, Zee quietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead, and sent + me to sleep. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VIII. + </h2> + <p> + When I once more awoke I saw by my bed-side the child who had brought the + rope and grappling-hooks to the house in which I had been first received, + and which, as I afterwards learned, was the residence of the chief + magistrate of the tribe. The child, whose name was Taee (pronounced + Tar-ee), was the magistrate’s eldest son. I found that during my last + sleep or trance I had made still greater advance in the language of the + country, and could converse with comparative ease and fluency. + </p> + <p> + This child was singularly handsome, even for the beautiful race to which + he belonged, with a countenance very manly in aspect for his years, and + with a more vivacious and energetic expression than I had hitherto seen in + the serene and passionless faces of the men. He brought me the tablet on + which I had drawn the mode of my descent, and had also sketched the head + of the horrible reptile that had scared me from my friend’s corpse. + Pointing to that part of the drawing, Taee put to me a few questions + respecting the size and form of the monster, and the cave or chasm from + which it had emerged. His interest in my answers seemed so grave as to + divert him for a while from any curiosity as to myself or my antecedents. + But to my great embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to my host, he was + just beginning to ask me where I came from, when Zee, fortunately entered, + and, overhearing him, said, “Taee, give to our guest any information he + may desire, but ask none from him in return. To question him who he is, + whence he comes, or wherefore he is here, would be a breach of the law + which my father has laid down in this house.” + </p> + <p> + “So be it,” said Taee, pressing his hand to his breast; and from that + moment, till the one in which I saw him last, this child, with whom I + became very intimate, never once put to me any of the questions thus + interdicted. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IX. + </h2> + <p> + It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if they are to + be so called, my mind became better prepared to interchange ideas with my + entertainers, and more fully to comprehend differences of manners and + customs, at first too strange to my experience to be seized by my reason, + that I was enabled to gather the following details respecting the origin + and history of the subterranean population, as portion of one great family + race called the Ana. + </p> + <p> + According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the race + had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in which their + descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their + archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the + lamps were lighted by no human hand. But such legends were considered by + most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions the + earth itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not indeed + in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of transition from one form + of development to another, and subject to many violent revolutions of + nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the upper world + inhabited by the ancestors of this race had been subjected to inundations, + not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a scanty + remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be a record of our + historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier one contended for by + geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, according to the + chronology of this people as compared with that of Newton, it must have + been many thousands of years before the time of Noah. On the other hand, + the account of these writers does not harmonise with the opinions most in + vogue among geological authorities, inasmuch as it places the existence of + a human race upon earth at dates long anterior to that assigned to the + terrestrial formation adapted to the introduction of mammalia. A band of + the ill-fated race, thus invaded by the Flood, had, during the march of + the waters, taken refuge in caverns amidst the loftier rocks, and, + wandering through these hollows, they lost sight of the upper world + forever. Indeed, the whole face of the earth had been changed by this + great revulsion; land had been turned into sea—sea into land. In the + bowels of the inner earth, even now, I was informed as a positive fact, + might be discovered the remains of human habitation—habitation not + in huts and caverns, but in vast cities whose ruins attest the + civilisation of races which flourished before the age of Noah, and are not + to be classified with those genera to which philosophy ascribes the use of + flint and the ignorance of iron. + </p> + <p> + The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts they had + practised above ground—arts of culture and civilisation. Their + earliest want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light + they had lost above it; and at no time, even in the traditional period, do + the races, of which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to + have been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, or + manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their former state to + contend with the rude forces of nature; and indeed the lengthened battle + they had fought with their conqueror Ocean, which had taken centuries in + its spread, had quickened their skill in curbing waters into dikes and + channels. To this skill they owed their preservation in their new abode. + “For many generations,” said my host, with a sort of contempt and horror, + “these primitive forefathers are said to have degraded their rank and + shortened their lives by eating the flesh of animals, many varieties of + which had, like themselves, escaped the Deluge, and sought shelter in the + hollows of the earth; other animals, supposed to be unknown to the upper + world, those hollows themselves produced.” + </p> + <p> + When what we should term the historical age emerged from the twilight of + tradition, the Ana were already established in different communities, and + had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that which the + more advanced nations above the earth now enjoy. They were familiar with + most of our mechanical inventions, including the application of steam as + well as gas. The communities were in fierce competition with each other. + They had their rich and their poor; they had orators and conquerors; they + made war either for a domain or an idea. Though the various states + acknowledged various forms of government, free institutions were beginning + to preponderate; popular assemblies increased in power; republics soon + became general; the democracy to which the most enlightened European + politicians look forward as the extreme goal of political advancement, and + which still prevailed among other subterranean races, whom they despised + as barbarians, the loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I + was visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant experiments + which belong to the infancy of political science. It was the age of envy + and hate, of fierce passions, of constant social changes more or less + violent, of strife between classes, of war between state and state. This + phase of society lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought + to a close, at least among the nobler and more intellectual populations, + by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored in the all-permeating + fluid which they denominate Vril. + </p> + <p> + According to the account I received from Zee, who, as an erudite professor + of the College of Sages, had studied such matters more diligently than any + other member of my host’s family, this fluid is capable of being raised + and disciplined into the mightiest agency over all forms of matter, + animate or inanimate. It can destroy like the flash of lightning; yet, + differently applied, it can replenish or invigorate life, heal, and + preserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure of disease, or rather + for enabling the physical organisation to re-establish the due equilibrium + of its natural powers, and thereby to cure itself. By this agency they + rend way through the most solid substances, and open valleys for culture + through the rocks of their subterranean wilderness. From it they extract + the light which supplies their lamps, finding it steadier, softer, and + healthier than the other inflammable materials they had formerly used. + </p> + <p> + But the effects of the alleged discovery of the means to direct the more + terrible force of vril were chiefly remarkable in their influence upon + social polity. As these effects became familiarly known and skillfully + administered, war between the vril-discoverers ceased, for they brought + the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority in + numbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the hollow of a + rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter the strongest fortress, + or cleave its burning way from the van to the rear of an embattled host. + If army met army, and both had command of this agency, it could be but to + the annihilation of each. The age of war was therefore gone, but with the + cessation of war other effects bearing upon the social state soon became + apparent. Man was so completely at the mercy of man, each whom he + encountered being able, if so willing, to slay him on the instant, that + all notions of government by force gradually vanished from political + systems and forms of law. It is only by force that vast communities, + dispersed through great distances of space, can be kept together; but now + there was no longer either the necessity of self-preservation or the pride + of aggrandisement to make one state desire to preponderate in population + over another. + </p> + <p> + The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few generations, peacefully + split into communities of moderate size. The tribe amongst which I had + fallen was limited to 12,000 families. Each tribe occupied a territory + sufficient for all its wants, and at stated periods the surplus population + departed to seek a realm of its own. There appeared no necessity for any + arbitrary selection of these emigrants; there was always a sufficient + number who volunteered to depart. + </p> + <p> + These subdivided states, petty if we regard either territory or + population,—all appertained to one vast general family. They spoke + the same language, though the dialects might slightly differ. They + intermarried; They maintained the same general laws and customs; and so + important a bond between these several communities was the knowledge of + vril and the practice of its agencies, that the word A-Vril was synonymous + with civilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying “The Civilised Nations,” was + the common name by which the communities employing the uses of vril + distinguished themselves from such of the Ana as were yet in a state of + barbarism. + </p> + <p> + The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treating of was apparently + very complicated, really very simple. It was based upon a principle + recognised in theory, though little carried out in practice, above ground—viz., + that the object of all systems of philosophical thought tends to the + attainment of unity, or the ascent through all intervening labyrinths to + the simplicity of a single first cause or principle. Thus in politics, + even republican writers have agreed that a benevolent autocracy would + insure the best administration, if there were any guarantees for its + continuance, or against its gradual abuse of the powers accorded to it. + This singular community elected therefore a single supreme magistrate + styled Tur; he held his office nominally for life, but he could seldom be + induced to retain it after the first approach of old age. There was indeed + in this society nothing to induce any of its members to covet the cares of + office. No honours, no insignia of higher rank, were assigned to it. The + supreme magistrate was not distinguished from the rest by superior + habitation or revenue. On the other hand, the duties awarded to him were + marvellously light and easy, requiring no preponderant degree of energy or + intelligence. There being no apprehensions of war, there were no armies to + maintain; there being no government of force, there was no police to + appoint and direct. What we call crime was utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; + and there were no courts of criminal justice. The rare instances of civil + disputes were referred for arbitration to friends chosen by either party, + or decided by the Council of Sages, which will be described later. There + were no professional lawyers; and indeed their laws were but amicable + conventions, for there was no power to enforce laws against an offender + who carried in his staff the power to destroy his judges. There were + customs and regulations to compliance with which, for several ages, the + people had tacitly habituated themselves; or if in any instance an + individual felt such compliance hard, he quitted the community and went + elsewhere. There was, in fact, quietly established amid this state, much + the same compact that is found in our private families, in which we + virtually say to any independent grown-up member of the family whom we + receive to entertain, “Stay or go, according as our habits and regulations + suit or displease you.” But though there were no laws such as we call + laws, no race above ground is so law-observing. Obedience to the rule + adopted by the community has become as much an instinct as if it were + implanted by nature. Even in every household the head of it makes a + regulation for its guidance, which is never resisted nor even cavilled at + by those who belong to the family. They have a proverb, the pithiness of + which is much lost in this paraphrase, “No happiness without order, no + order without authority, no authority without unity.” The mildness of all + government among them, civil or domestic, may be signalised by their + idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal or forbidden—viz., + “It is requested not to do so and so.” Poverty among the Ana is as unknown + as crime; not that property is held in common, or that all are equals in + the extent of their possessions or the size and luxury of their + habitations: but there being no difference of rank or position between the + grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pursues his own + inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like a modest, some a + more splendid kind of life; each makes himself happy in his own way. Owing + to this absence of competition, and the limit placed on the population, it + is difficult for a family to fall into distress; there are no hazardous + speculations, no emulators striving for superior wealth and rank. No + doubt, in each settlement all originally had the same proportions of land + dealt out to them; but some, more adventurous than others, had extended + their possessions farther into the bordering wilds, or had improved into + richer fertility the produce of their fields, or entered into commerce or + trade. Thus, necessarily, some had grown richer than others, but none had + become absolutely poor, or wanting anything which their tastes desired. If + they did so, it was always in their power to migrate, or at the worst to + apply, without shame and with certainty of aid, to the rich, for all the + members of the community considered themselves as brothers of one + affectionate and united family. More upon this head will be treated of + incidentally as my narrative proceeds. + </p> + <p> + The chief care of the supreme magistrate was to communicate with certain + active departments charged with the administration of special details. The + most important and essential of such details was that connected with the + due provision of light. Of this department my host, Aph-Lin, was the + chief. Another department, which might be called the foreign, communicated + with the neighbouring kindred states, principally for the purpose of + ascertaining all new inventions; and to a third department all such + inventions and improvements in machinery were committed for trial. + Connected with this department was the College of Sages—a college + especially favoured by such of the Ana as were widowed and childless, and + by the young unmarried females, amongst whom Zee was the most active, and, + if what we call renown or distinction was a thing acknowledged by this + people (which I shall later show it is not), among the more renowned or + distinguished. It is by the female Professors of this College that those + studies which are deemed of least use in practical life—as purely + speculative philosophy, the history of remote periods, and such sciences + as entomology, conchology, &c.—are the more diligently + cultivated. Zee, whose mind, active as Aristotle’s, equally embraced the + largest domains and the minutest details of thought, had written two + volumes on the parasite insect that dwells amid the hairs of a tiger’s* + paw, which work was considered the best authority on that interesting + subject. + </p> + <p> + * The animal here referred to has many points of difference from the tiger + of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader paw, and still more + receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakes and pools, and feeds + principally on fishes, though it does not object to any terrestrial animal + of inferior strength that comes in its way. It is becoming very scarce + even in the wild districts, where it is devoured by gigantic reptiles. I + apprehended that it clearly belongs to the tiger species, since the + parasite animalcule found in its paw, like that in the Asiatic tiger, is a + miniature image of itself. + </p> + <p> + But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtle or elegant + studies. They comprise various others more important, and especially the + properties of vril, to the perception of which their finer nervous + organisation renders the female Professors eminently keen. It is out of + this college that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selects Councillors, + limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of event or + circumstance perplexes his own judgment. + </p> + <p> + There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but all are + carried on so noiselessly, and quietly that the evidence of a government + seems to vanish altogether, and social order to be as regular and + unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature. Machinery is employed to an + inconceivable extent in all the operations of labour within and without + doors, and it is the unceasing object of the department charged with its + administration to extend its efficiency. There is no class of labourers or + servants, but all who are required to assist or control the machinery are + found in the children, from the time they leave the care of their mothers + to the marriageable age, which they place at sixteen for the Gy-ei (the + females), twenty for the Ana (the males). These children are formed into + bands and sections under their own chiefs, each following the pursuits in + which he is most pleased, or for which he feels himself most fitted. Some + take to handicrafts, some to agriculture, some to household work, and some + to the only services of danger to which the population is exposed; for the + sole perils that threaten this tribe are, first, from those occasional + convulsions within the earth, to foresee and guard against which tasks + their utmost ingenuity—irruptions of fire and water, the storms of + subterranean winds and escaping gases. At the borders of the domain, and + at all places where such peril might be apprehended, vigilant inspectors + are stationed with telegraphic communications to the hall in which chosen + sages take it by turns to hold perpetual sittings. These inspectors are + always selected from the elder boys approaching the age of puberty, and on + the principle that at that age observation is more acute and the physical + forces more alert than at any other. The second service of danger, less + grave, is in the destruction of all creatures hostile to the life, or the + culture, or even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these the most formidable are + the vast reptiles, of some of which antediluvian relics are preserved in + our museums, and certain gigantic winged creatures, half bird, half + reptile. These, together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our + tigers or venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children to hunt + and destroy; because, according to the Ana, here ruthlessness is wanted, + and the younger the child the more ruthlessly he will destroy. There is + another class of animals in the destruction of which discrimination is to + be used, and against which children of intermediate age are + appointed—animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage the + produce of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, and a + smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though infinitely more + destructive to crops, and much more cunning in its mode of depredation. It + is the first object of these appointed infants, to tame the more + intelligent of such animals into respect for enclosures signalised by + conspicuous landmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even to + guard the master’s property. It is only where such creatures are found + untamable to this extent that they are destroyed. Life is never taken away + for food or for sport, and never spared where untamably inimical to the + Ana. Concomitantly with these bodily services and tasks, the mental + education of the children goes on till boyhood ceases. It is the general + custom, then, to pass though a course of instruction at the College of + Sages, in which, besides more general studies, the pupil receives special + lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect as he himself selects. + Some, however, prefer to pass this period of probation in travel, or to + emigrate, or to settle down at once into rural or commercial pursuits. No + force is put upon individual inclination. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter X. + </h2> + <p> + The word Ana (pronounced broadly ‘Arna’) corresponds with our plural + ‘men;’ An (pronounced ‘Arn’), the singular, with ‘man.’ The word for woman + is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei for the + plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jy-ei. They have a + proverb to the effect that this difference in pronunciation is symbolical, + for that the female sex is soft in the concrete, but hard to deal with in + the individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of all the rights + of equality with males, for which certain philosophers above ground + contend. + </p> + <p> + In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour impartially with + the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age appropriated to the destruction + of animals irreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequently preferred, as + being by constitution more ruthless under the influence of fear or hate. + In the interval between infancy and the marriageable age familiar + intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageable age it is + renewed, never with worse consequences than those which attend upon + marriage. All arts and vocations allotted to the one sex are open to the + other, and the Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in all those + abstruse and mystical branches of reasoning, for which they say the Ana + are unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the routine of + their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in our own world + constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest points of theological + doctrine, for which few men, actively engaged in worldly business have + sufficient learning or refinement of intellect. Whether owing to early + training in gymnastic exercises, or to their constitutional organisation, + the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana in physical strength (an + important element in the consideration and maintenance of female rights). + They attain to loftier stature, and amid their rounder proportions are + imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy as those of the other sex. Indeed + they assert that, according to the original laws of nature, females were + intended to be larger than males, and maintain this dogma by reference to + the earliest formations of life in insects, and in the most ancient family + of the vertebrata—viz., fishes—in both of which the females + are generally large enough to make a meal of their consorts if they so + desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a readier and more concentred power over + that mysterious fluid or agency which contains the element of destruction, + with a larger portion of that sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. + Thus they cannot only defend themselves against all aggressions from the + males, but could, at any moment when he least expected his danger, + terminate the existence of an offending spouse. To the credit of the Gy-ei + no instance of their abuse of this awful superiority in the art of + destruction is on record for several ages. The last that occurred in the + community I speak of appears (according to their chronology) to have been + about two thousand years ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her + husband; and this abominable act inspired such terror among the males that + they emigrated in a body and left all the Gy-ei to themselves. The history + runs that the widowed Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair, fell upon the + murderess when in her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and + then entered into a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate + forever the exercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate + the same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By this + conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consorts + succeeded in persuading many to return, but those who did return were + mostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt of + their consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejected all + overtures, and, remaining in other communities, were caught up there by + other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss of so + large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warning on the + Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution to which they pledged + themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by long hereditary + disuse, the Gy-ei have lost both the aggressive and defensive superiority + over the Ana which they once possessed, just as in the inferior animals + above the earth many peculiarities in their original formation, intended + by nature for their protection, gradually fade or become inoperative when + not needed under altered circumstances. I should be sorry, however, for + any An who induced a Gy to make the experiment whether he or she were the + stronger. + </p> + <p> + From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain alterations in the + marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat to the advantage of the male. + They now bind themselves in wedlock only for three years; at the end of + each third year either male or female can divorce the other and is free to + marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilege of taking a + second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so please. These + regulations are for the most part a dead letter; divorces and polygamy are + extremely rare, and the marriage state now seems singularly happy and + serene among this astonishing people;—the Gy-ei, notwithstanding + their boastful superiority in physical strength and intellectual + abilities, being much curbed into gentle manners by the dread of + separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much the creatures + of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, likely to exchange for + hazardous novelties faces and manners to which they are reconciled by + habit. But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefully retain, and the + desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of most lady asserters of + woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege, here usurped by men, + of proclaiming their love and urging their suit; in other words, of being + the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a phenomenon as an old maid + does not exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed it is very seldom that a Gy does + not secure any An upon whom she sets her heart, if his affections be not + strongly engaged elsewhere. However coy, reluctant, and prudish, the male + she courts may prove at first, yet her perseverance, her ardour, her + persuasive powers, her command over the mystic agencies of vril, are + pretty sure to run down his neck into what we call “the fatal noose.” + Their argument for the reversal of that relationship of the sexes which + the blind tyranny of man has established on the surface of the earth, + appears cogent, and is advanced with a frankness which might well be + commended to impartial consideration. They say, that of the two the female + is by nature of a more loving disposition than the male—that love + occupies a larger space in her thoughts, and is more essential to her + happiness, and that therefore she ought to be the wooing party; that + otherwise the male is a shy and dubitant creature—that he has often + a selfish predilection for the single state—that he often pretends + to misunderstand tender glances and delicate hints—that, in short, + he must be resolutely pursued and captured. They add, moreover, that + unless the Gy can secure the An of her choice, and one whom she would not + select out of the whole world becomes her mate, she is not only less happy + than she otherwise would be, but she is not so good a being, that her + qualities of heart are not sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a + creature that less lastingly concentrates his affections on one object; + that if he cannot get the Gy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself + to another Gy; and, finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken + care of, it is less necessary to the welfare of his existence that he + should love as well as be loved; he grows contented with his creature + comforts, and the many occupations of thought which he creates for + himself. + </p> + <p> + Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for the + male; for being thus sure that he is truly and ardently loved, and that + the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determination to + secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consent dependent + on such conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure, if not a + blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his own + hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they may be, + he demands a promise of full and unrestrained concession to them. This, in + the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as the + characteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit veneration for + truth, and her word once given is never broken even by the giddiest Gy, + the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact, + notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gy-ei are the + most amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives I have ever seen even in + the happiest households above ground. It is an aphorism among them, that + “where a Gy loves it is her pleasure to obey.” It will be observed that in + the relationship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage, for such is + the moral perfection to which this community has attained, that any + illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as it would be to a + couple of linnets during the time they agree to live in pairs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XI. + </h2> + <p> + Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to the + existence of regions extending below the surface of the earth, and + habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material points of + organism, akin to those in the upper world, than the contradiction thus + presented to the doctrine in which, I believe, most geologists and + philosophers concur—viz., that though with us the sun is the great + source of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the + greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the ratio of a + degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface. But + though the domains of the tribe I speak of were, on the higher ground, so + comparatively near to the surface, that I could account for a temperature, + therein, suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and valleys of + that realm were much less hot than philosophers would deem possible at + such a depth—certainly not warmer than the south of France, or at + least of Italy. And according to all the accounts I received, vast tracts + immeasurably deeper beneath the surface, and in which one might have + thought only salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumerable races + organised like ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account for a + fact which is so at variance with the recognised laws of science, nor + could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did but conjecture + that sufficient allowance had not been made by our philosophers for the + extreme porousness of the interior earth—the vastness of its + cavities and irregularities, which served to create free currents of air + and frequent winds—and for the various modes in which heat is + evaporated and thrown off. She allowed, however, that there was a depth at + which the heat was deemed to be intolerable to such organised life as was + known to the experience of the Vril-ya, though their philosophers believed + that even in such places life of some kind, life sentient, life + intellectual, would be found abundant and thriving, could the philosophers + penetrate to it. “Wherever the All-Good builds,” said she, “there, be + sure, He places inhabitants. He loves not empty dwellings.” She added, + however, that many changes in temperature and climate had been effected by + the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the agency of vril had been + successfully employed in such changes. She described a subtle and + life-giving medium called Lai, which I suspect to be identical with the + ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work all the correlative forces + united under the name of vril; and contended that wherever this medium + could be expanded, as it were, sufficiently for the various agencies of + vril to have ample play, a temperature congenial to the highest forms of + life could be secured. She said also, that it was the belief of their + naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been produced originally + (whether developed from seeds borne from the surface of the earth in the + earlier convulsions of nature, or imported by the tribes that first sought + refuge in cavernous hollows) through the operations of the light + constantly brought to bear on them, and the gradual improvement in + culture. She said also, that since the vril light had superseded all other + light-giving bodies, the colours of flower and foliage had become more + brilliant, and vegetation had acquired larger growth. + </p> + <p> + Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent to + deal with them, I must now devote a few pages to the very interesting + questions connected with the language of the Vril-ya. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XII. + </h2> + <p> + The language of the Vril-ya is peculiarly interesting, because it seems to + me to exhibit with great clearness the traces of the three main + transitions through which language passes in attaining to perfection of + form. + </p> + <p> + One of the most illustrious of recent philologists, Max Muller, in arguing + for the analogy between the strata of language and the strata of the + earth, lays down this absolute dogma: “No language can, by any + possibility, be inflectional without having passed through the + agglutinative and isolating stratum. No language can be agglutinative + without clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum of isolation.”—‘On + the Stratification of Language,’ p. 20. + </p> + <p> + Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of the original + isolating stratum, “as the faithful photograph of man in his + leading-strings trying the muscles of his mind, groping his way, and so + delighted with his first successful grasps that he repeats them again and + again,” (Max Muller, p. 3)—we have, in the language of the Vril-ya, + still “clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum,” the evidences + of the original isolation. It abounds in monosyllables, which are the + foundations of the language. The transition into the agglutinative form + marks an epoch that must have gradually extended through ages, the written + literature of which has only survived in a few fragments of symbolical + mythology and certain pithy sentences which have passed into popular + proverbs. With the extant literature of the Vril-ya the inflectional + stratum commences. No doubt at that time there must have operated + concurrent causes, in the fusion of races by some dominant people, and the + rise of some great literary phenomena by which the form of language became + arrested and fixed. As the inflectional stage prevailed over the + agglutinative, it is surprising to see how much more boldly the original + roots of the language project from the surface that conceals them. In the + old fragments and proverbs of the preceding stage the monosyllables which + compose those roots vanish amidst words of enormous length, comprehending + whole sentences from which no one part can be disentangled from the other + and employed separately. But when the inflectional form of language became + so far advanced as to have its scholars and grammarians, they seem to have + united in extirpating all such polysynthetical or polysyllabic monsters, + as devouring invaders of the aboriginal forms. Words beyond three + syllables became proscribed as barbarous and in proportion as the language + grew thus simplified it increased in strength, in dignity, and in + sweetness. Though now very compressed in sound, it gains in clearness by + that compression. By a single letter, according to its position, they + contrive to express all that with civilised nations in our upper world it + takes the waste, sometimes of syllables, sometimes of sentences, to + express. Let me here cite one or two instances: An (which I will translate + man), Ana (men); the letter ‘s’ is with them a letter implying multitude, + according to where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa, a multitude of + men. The prefix of certain letters in their alphabet invariably denotes + compound significations. For instance, Gl (which with them is a single + letter, as ‘th’ is a single letter with the Greeks) at the commencement of + a word infers an assemblage or union of things, sometimes kindred, + sometimes dissimilar—as Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i. e., an + assemblage of houses). Ata is sorrow; Glata, a public calamity. Aur-an is + the health or wellbeing of a man; Glauran, the wellbeing of the state, the + good of the community; and a word constantly in ther mouths is A-glauran, + which denotes their political creed—viz., that “the first principle + of a community is the good of all.” Aub is invention; Sila, a tone in + music. Glaubsila, as uniting the ideas of invention and of musical + intonation, is the classical word for poetry—abbreviated, in + ordinary conversation, to Glaubs. Na, which with them is, like Gl, but a + single letter, always, when an initial, implies something antagonistic to + life or joy or comfort, resembling in this the Aryan root Nak, expressive + of perishing or destruction. Nax is darkness; Narl, death; Naria, sin or + evil. Nas—an uttermost condition of sin and evil—corruption. + In writing, they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being by any + special name. He is symbolized by what may be termed the heiroglyphic of a + pyramid, /\. In prayer they address Him by a name which they deem too + sacred to confide to a stranger, and I know it not. In conversation they + generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good. The letter V, + symbolical of the inverted pyramid, where it is an initial, nearly always + denotes excellence of power; as Vril, of which I have said so much; Veed, + an immortal spirit; Veed-ya, immortality; Koom, pronounced like the Welsh + Cwm, denotes something of hollowness. Koom itself is a cave; Koom-in, a + hole; Zi-koom, a valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; Bodh-koom, ignorance + (literally, knowledge-void). Koom-posh is their name for the government of + the many, or the ascendancy of the most ignorant or hollow. Posh is an + almost untranslatable idiom, implying, as the reader will see later, + contempt. The closest rendering I can give to it is our slang term, + “bosh;” and this Koom-Posh may be loosely rendered “Hollow-Bosh.” But when + Democracy or Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance into that + popular passion or ferocity which precedes its decease, as (to cite + illustrations from the upper world) during the French Reign of Terror, or + for the fifty years of the Roman Republic preceding the ascendancy of + Augustus, their name for that state of things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife—Glek, + the universal strife. Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus, + Glek-Nas may be construed, “the universal strife-rot.” Their compounds are + very expressive; thus, Bodh being knowledge, and Too a participle that + implies the action of cautiously approaching,—Too-bodh is their word + for Philosophy; Pah is a contemptuous exclamation analogous to our idiom, + “stuff and nonsense;” Pah-bodh (literally stuff and nonsense-knowledge) is + their term for futile and false philosophy, and applied to a species of + metaphysical or speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue, which + consisted in making inquiries that could not be answered, and were not + worth making; such, for instance, as “Why does an An have five toes to his + feet instead of four or six? Did the first An, created by the All-Good, + have the same number of toes as his descendants? In the form by which an + An will be recognised by his friends in the future state of being, will he + retain any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toes or + spiritual toes?” I take these illustrations of Pahbodh, not in irony or + jest, but because the very inquiries I name formed the subject of + controversy by the latest cultivators of that ‘science,’—4000 years + ago. + </p> + <p> + In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently there were eight + cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but the effect of time has + been to reduce these cases, and multiply, instead of these varying + terminations, explanatory propositions. At present, in the Grammar + submitted to my study, there were four cases to nouns, three having + varying terminations, and the fourth a differing prefix. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + SINGULAR. PLURAL. + Nom. An, Man, | Nom. Ana, Men. + Dat. Ano, to Man, | Dat. Anoi, to Men. + Ac. Anan, Man, | Ac. Ananda, Men. + Voc. Hil-an, O Man, | Voc. Hil-Ananda, O Men. +</pre> + <p> + In the elder inflectional literature the dual form existed—it has + long been obsolete. + </p> + <p> + The genitive case with them is also obsolete; the dative supplies its + place: they say the House ‘to’ a Man, instead of the House ‘of’ a Man. + When used (sometimes in poetry), the genitive in the termination is the + same as the nominative; so is the ablative, the preposition that marks it + being a prefix or suffix at option, and generally decided by ear, + according to the sound of the noun. It will be observed that the prefix + Hil marks the vocative case. It is always retained in addressing another, + except in the most intimate domestic relations; its omission would be + considered rude: just as in our of forms of speech in addressing a king it + would have been deemed disrespectful to say “King,” and reverential to say + “O King.” In fact, as they have no titles of honour, the vocative + adjuration supplies the place of a title, and is given impartially to all. + The prefix Hil enters into the composition of words that imply distant + communications, as Hil-ya, to travel. + </p> + <p> + In the conjugation of their verbs, which is much too lengthy a subject to + enter on here, the auxiliary verb Ya, “to go,” which plays so considerable + part in the Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred office, as if it were + a radical in some language from which both had descended. But another + auxiliary or opposite signification also accompanies it and shares its + labours—viz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus Ya enters into the future + tense, and Zi in the preterite of all verbs requiring auxiliaries. Yam, I + shall go—Yiam, I may go—Yani-ya, I shall go (literally, I go + to go), Zam-poo-yan, I have gone (literally, I rest from gone). Ya, as a + termination, implies by analogy, progress, movement, efflorescence. Zi, as + a terminal, denotes fixity, sometimes in a good sense, sometimes in a bad, + according to the word with which it is coupled. Iva-zi, eternal goodness; + Nan-zi, eternal evil. Poo (from) enters as a prefix to words that denote + repugnance, or things from which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust; + Poo-naria, falsehood, the vilest kind of evil. Poosh or Posh I have + already confessed to be untranslatable literally. It is an expression of + contempt not unmixed with pity. This radical seems to have originated from + inherent sympathy between the labial effort and the sentiment that + impelled it, Poo being an utterance in which the breath is exploded from + the lips with more or less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when an + initial, is with them a sound in which the breath is sucked inward, and + thus Zu, pronounced Zoo (which in their language is one letter), is the + ordinary prefix to words that signify something that attracts, pleases, + touches the heart—as Zummer, lover; Zutze, love; Zuzulia, delight. + This indrawn sound of Z seems indeed naturally appropriate to fondness. + Thus, even in our language, mothers say to their babies, in defiance of + grammar, “Zoo darling;” and I have heard a learned professor at Boston + call his wife (he had been only married a month) “Zoo little pet.” + </p> + <p> + I cannot quit this subject, however, without observing by what slight + changes in the dialects favoured by different tribes of the same race, the + original signification and beauty of sounds may become confused and + deformed. Zee told me with much indignation that Zummer (lover) which in + the way she uttered it, seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of her + heart, was, in some not very distant communities of the Vril-ya, vitiated + into the half-hissing, half-nasal, wholly disagreeable, sound of Subber. I + thought to myself it only wanted the introduction of ‘n’ before ‘u’ to + render it into an English word significant of the last quality an amorous + Gy would desire in her Zummer. + </p> + <p> + I will but mention another peculiarity in this language which gives equal + force and brevity to its forms of expressions. + </p> + <p> + A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the alphabet, and is often + used as a prefix word by itself to convey a complex idea of sovereignty or + chiefdom, or presiding principle. For instance, Iva is goodness; Diva, + goodness and happiness united; A-Diva is unerring and absolute truth. I + have already noticed the value of A in A-glauran, so, in vril (to whose + properties they trace their present state of civilisation), A-vril, + denotes, as I have said, civilisation itself. + </p> + <p> + The philologist will have seen from the above how much the language of the + Vril-ya is akin to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic; but, like all languages, it + contains words and forms in which transfers from very opposite sources of + speech have been taken. The very title of Tur, which they give to their + supreme magistrate, indicates theft from a tongue akin to the Turanian. + They say themselves that this is a foreign word borrowed from a title + which their historical records show to have been borne by the chief of a + nation with whom the ancestors of the Vril-ya were, in very remote + periods, on friendly terms, but which has long become extinct, and they + say that when, after the discovery of vril, they remodelled their + political institutions, they expressly adopted a title taken from an + extinct race and a dead language for that of their chief magistrate, in + order to avoid all titles for that office with which they had previous + associations. + </p> + <p> + Should life be spared to me, I may collect into systematic form such + knowledge as I acquired of this language during my sojourn amongst the + Vril-ya. But what I have already said will perhaps suffice to show to + genuine philological students that a language which, preserving so many of + the roots in the aboriginal form, and clearing from the immediate, but + transitory, polysynthetical stage so many rude incumbrances, has attained + to such a union of simplicity and compass in its final inflectional forms, + must have been the gradual work of countless ages and many varieties of + mind ; that it contains the evidence of fusion between congenial races, + and necessitated, in arriving at the shape of which I have given examples, + the continuous culture of a highly thoughtful people. + </p> + <p> + That, nevertheless, the literature which belongs to this language is a + literature of the past; that the present felicitous state of society at + which the Ana have attained forbids the progressive cultivation of + literature, especially in the two main divisions of fiction and history, + —I shall have occasion to show. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIII. + </h2> + <p> + This people have a religion, and, whatever may be said against it, at + least it has these strange peculiarities: firstly, that all believe in the + creed they profess; secondly, that they all practice the precepts which + the creed inculcates. They unite in the worship of one divine Creator and + Sustainer of the universe. They believe that it is one of the properties + of the all-permeating agency of vril, to transmit to the well-spring of + life and intelligence every thought that a living creature can conceive; + and though they do not contend that the idea of a Diety is innate, yet + they say that the An (man) is the only creature, so far as their + observation of nature extends, to whom ‘the capacity of conceiving that + idea,’ with all the trains of thought which open out from it, is + vouchsafed. They hold that this capacity is a privilege that cannot have + been given in vain, and hence that prayer and thanksgiving are acceptable + to the divine Creator, and necessary to the complete development of the + human creature. They offer their devotions both in private and public. Not + being considered one of their species, I was not admitted into the + building or temple in which the public worship is rendered; but I am + informed that the service is exceedingly short, and unattended with any + pomp of ceremony. It is a doctrine with the Vril-ya, that earnest devotion + or complete abstraction from the actual world cannot, with benefit to + itself, be maintained long at a stretch by the human mind, especially in + public, and that all attempts to do so either lead to fanaticism or to + hypocrisy. When they pray in private, it is when they are alone or with + their young children. + </p> + <p> + They say that in ancient times there was a great number of books written + upon speculations as to the nature of the Diety, and upon the forms of + belief or worship supposed to be most agreeable to Him. But these were + found to lead to such heated and angry disputations as not only to shake + the peace of the community and divide families before the most united, but + in the course of discussing the attributes of the Diety, the existence of + the Diety Himself became argued away, or, what was worse, became invested + with the passions and infirmities of the human disputants. “For,” said my + host, “since a finite being like an An cannot possibly define the + Infinite, so, when he endeavours to realise an idea of the Divinity, he + only reduces the Divinity into an An like himself.” During the later ages, + therefore, all theological speculations, though not forbidden, have been + so discouraged as to have fallen utterly into disuse. The Vril-ya unite in + a conviction of a future state, more felicitous and more perfect than the + present. If they have very vague notions of the doctrine of rewards and + punishments, it is perhaps because they have no systems of rewards and + punishments among themselves, for there are no crimes to punish, and their + moral standard is so even that no An among them is, upon the whole, + considered more virtuous than another. If one excels, perhaps in one + virtue, another equally excels in some other virtue; If one has his + prevalent fault or infirmity, so also another has his. In fact, in their + extraordinary mode of life. There are so few temptations to wrong, that + they are good (according to their notions of goodness) merely because they + live. They have some fanciful notions upon the continuance of life, when + once bestowed, even in the vegetable world, as the reader will see in the + next chapter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIV. + </h2> + <p> + Though, as I have said, the Vril-ya discourage all speculations on the + nature of the Supreme Being, they appear to concur in a belief by which + they think to solve that great problem of the existence of evil which has + so perplexed the philosophy of the upper world. They hold that wherever He + has once given life, with the perceptions of that life, however faint it + be, as in a plant, the life is never destroyed; it passes into new and + improved forms, though not in this planet (differing therein from the + ordinary doctrine of metempsychosis), and that the living thing retains + the sense of identity, so that it connects its past life with its future, + and is ‘conscious’ of its progressive improvement in the scale of joy. For + they say that, without this assumption, they cannot, according to the + lights of human reason vouchsafed to them, discover the perfect justice + which must be a constituent quality of the All-Wise and the All-Good. + Injustice, they say, can only emanate from three causes: want of wisdom to + perceive what is just, want of benevolence to desire, want of power to + fulfill it; and that each of these three wants is incompatible in the + All-Wise, the All-Good, the All-Powerful. But that, while even in this + life, the wisdom, the benevolence, and the power of the Supreme Being are + sufficiently apparent to compel our recognition, the justice necessarily + resulting from those attributes, absolutely requires another life, not for + man only, but for every living thing of the inferior orders. That, alike + in the animal and the vegetable world, we see one individual rendered, by + circumstances beyond its control, exceedingly wretched compared to its + neighbours—one only exists as the prey of another—even a plant + suffers from disease till it perishes prematurely, while the plant next to + it rejoices in its vitality and lives out its happy life free from a pang. + That it is an erroneous analogy from human infirmities to reply by saying + that the Supreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making his own + secondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of the First + Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorant conception of the All-Good, to + dismiss with a brief contempt all consideration of justice for the myriad + forms into which He has infused life, and assume that justice is only due + to the single product of the An. There is no small and no great in the + eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant that nothing, however + humble, which feels that it lives and suffers, can perish through the + series of ages, that all its suffering here, if continuous from the moment + of its birth to that of its transfer to another form of being, would be + more brief compared with eternity than the cry of the new-born is compared + to the whole life of a man; and once suppose that this living thing + retains its sense of identity when so transformed (for without that sense + it could be aware of no future being), and though, indeed, the fulfilment + of divine justice is removed from the scope of our ken, yet we have a + right to assume it to be uniform and universal, and not varying and + partial, as it would be if acting only upon general and secondary laws; + because such perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of + knowledge to conceive, perfectness of love to will, and perfectness of + power to complete it. + </p> + <p> + However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tends perhaps to + confirm politically the systems of government which, admitting different + degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfect equality in rank, exquisite + mildness in all relations and intercourse, and tenderness to all created + things which the good of the community does not require them to destroy. + And though their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a cankered + flower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, at least, is not + a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter for no unpleasing reflection + to think that within the abysses of earth, never lit by a ray from the + material heavens, there should have penetrated so luminous a conviction of + the ineffable goodness of the Creator—so fixed an idea that the + general laws by which He acts cannot admit of any partial injustice or + evil, and therefore cannot be comprehended without reference to their + action over all space and throughout all time. And since, as I shall have + occasion to observe later, the intellectual conditions and social systems + of this subterranean race comprise and harmonise great, and apparently + antagonistic, varieties in philosophical doctrine and speculation which + have from time to time been started, discussed, dismissed, and have + re-appeared amongst thinkers or dreamers in the upper world,—so I + may perhaps appropriately conclude this reference to the belief of the + Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient life once given is indestructible + among inferior creatures as well as in man, by an eloquent passage from + the work of that eminent zoologist, Louis Agassiz, which I have only just + met with, many years after I had committed to paper these recollections of + the life of the Vril-ya which I now reduce into something like arrangement + and form: “The relations which individual animals bear to one another are + of such a character that they ought long ago to have been considered as + sufficient proof that no organised being could ever have been called into + existence by other agency than by the direct intervention of a reflective + mind. This argues strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of + an immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and + superior endowments places man so much above the animals; yet the + principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called sense, reason, + or instinct, it presents in the whole range of organised beings a series + of phenomena closely linked together, and upon it are based not only the + higher manifestations of the mind, but the very permanence of the specific + differences which characterise every organism. Most of the arguments in + favour of the immortality of man apply equally to the permanency of this + principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future life in + which man would be deprived of that great source of enjoyment and + intellectual and moral improvement which results from the contemplation of + the harmonies of an organic world would involve a lamentable loss? And may + we not look to a spiritual concert of the combined worlds and ALL their + inhabitants in the presence of their Creator as the highest conception of + paradise?”—‘Essay on Classification,’ sect. xvii. p. 97-99. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XV. + </h2> + <p> + Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter of my host + was the most considerate and thoughtful in her kindness. At her suggestion + I laid aside the habiliments in which I had descended from the upper + earth, and adopted the dress of the Vril-ya, with the exception of the + artful wings which served them, when on foot, as a graceful mantle. But as + many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urban pursuits, did not wear these + wings, this exception created no marked difference between myself and the + race among whom I sojourned, and I was thus enabled to visit the town + without exciting unpleasant curiosity. Out of the household no one + suspected that I had come from the upper world, and I was but regarded as + one of some inferior and barbarous tribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a + guest. + </p> + <p> + The city was large in proportion to the territory round it, which was of + no greater extent than many an English or Hungarian nobleman’s estate; but + the whole if it, to the verge of the rocks which constituted its boundary, + was cultivated to the nicest degree, except where certain allotments of + mountain and pasture were humanely left free to the sustenance of the + harmless animals they had tamed, though not for domestic use. So great is + their kindness towards these humbler creatures, that a sum is devoted from + the public treasury for the purpose of deporting them to other Vril-ya + communities willing to receive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they + become too numerous for the pastures allotted to them in their native + place. They do not, however, multiply to an extent comparable to the ratio + at which, with us, animals bred for slaughter, increase. It seems a law of + nature that animals not useful to man gradually recede from the domains he + occupies, or even become extinct. It is an old custom of the various + sovereign states amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to + leave between each state a neutral and uncultivated border-land. In the + instance of the community I speak of, this tract, being a ridge of savage + rocks, was impassable by foot, but was easily surmounted, whether by the + wings of the inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak + hereafter. Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles + impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always kept + lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special tax, to which all + the communities comprehended in the denomination of Vril-ya contribute in + settled proportions. By these means a considerable commercial traffic with + other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus wealth on + this special community was chiefly agricultural. The community was also + eminent for skill in constructing implements connected with the arts of + husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articles more of + luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on which they set a + higher price than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in concert. These were + brought from a great distance, and were marvellous for beauty of song and + plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was taken by their breeders + and teachers in selection, and that the species had wonderfully improved + during the last few years. I saw no other pet animals among this community + except some very amusing and sportive creatures of the Batrachian species, + resembling frogs, but with very intelligent countenances, which the + children were fond of, and kept in their private gardens. They appear to + have no animals akin to our dogs or horses, though that learned + naturalist, Zee, informed me that such creatures had once existed in those + parts, and might now be found in regions inhabited by other races than the + Vril-ya. She said that they had gradually disappeared from the more + civilised world since the discovery of vril, and the results attending + that discovery had dispensed with their uses. Machinery and the invention + of wings had superseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no + longer wanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when the + ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or + hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as the horse + was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been, + there, of little use either for pastime or burden. The only creature they + use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is much employed + on farms. The nature of the surrounding soil in these districts may be + said to have first suggested the invention of wings and air-boats. The + largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by the city, was + occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house with a separate + garden. The broad main street, in which Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded into a + vast square, in which were placed the College of Sages and all the public + offices; a magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I call naptha + (I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All these public + edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and solidity. They + reminded me of the architectural pictures of Martin. Along the upper + stories of each ran a balcony, or rather a terraced garden, supported by + columns, filled with flowering plants, and tenanted by many kinds of tame + birds. + </p> + <p> + From the square branched several streets, all broad and brilliantly + lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either side. In my excursions in + the town I was never allowed to go alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was my + habitual companion. In this community the adult Gy is seen walking with + any young An as familiarly as if there were no difference of sex. + </p> + <p> + The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attend on a + customer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly intelligent and + courteous, but without the least touch of importunity or cringing. The + shopkeeper himself might or might not be visible; when visible, he seemed + rarely employed on any matter connected with his professional business; + and yet he had taken to that business from special liking for it, and + quite independently of his general sources of fortune. + </p> + <p> + The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beings + after the active age of childhood. Whether by temperament or philosophy, + they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when you take + away from a human being the incentives to action which are found in + cupidity or ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet. + </p> + <p> + In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet to that of + their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in a bold misuse of + terms) their public ‘promenades,’ they employ the latter, also for the + aerial dances I have described, as well as for visiting their country + places, which are mostly placed on lofty heights; and, when still young, + they prefer their wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, to + vehicular conveyances. + </p> + <p> + Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less rapidly than some + birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, and keep up that rate + for five or six hours at a stretch. But the Ana generally, on reaching + middle age, are not fond of rapid movements requiring violent exercise. + Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which our own physicians + will doubtless approve—viz., that regular transpiration through the + pores of the skin is essential to health, they habitually use the + sweating-baths to which we give the name Turkish or Roman, succeeded by + douches of perfumed waters. They have great faith in the salubrious virtue + of certain perfumes. + </p> + <p> + It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four times + a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril.* + </p> + <p> + * I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very similar in its + invigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the virtues of which + are ascribed by many physicians to electricity; but though similar, the + effect of the vril bath was more lasting. + </p> + <p> + They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer of + life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather tends + to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases, + however, they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwing + off their complaint. + </p> + <p> + In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all their + luxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in an atmosphere of music + and fragrance. Every room has its mechanical contrivances for melodious + sounds, usually tuned down to soft-murmured notes, which seem like sweet + whispers from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed to these gentle + sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor, when alone, to + reflection. But they have a notion that to breathe an air filled with + continuous melody and perfume has necessarily an effect at once soothing + and elevating upon the formation of character and the habits of thought. + Though so temperate, and with total abstinence from other animal food than + milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they are delicate and dainty to an + extreme in food and beverage; and in all their sports even the old exhibit + a childlike gaiety. Happiness is the end at which they aim, not as the + excitement of a moment, but as the prevailing condition of the entire + existence; and regard for the happiness of each other is evinced by the + exquisite amenity of their manners. + </p> + <p> + Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of any known + races in the upper world, though I cannot help thinking it a development, + in the course of countless ages of the Brachycephalic type of the Age of + Stone in Lyell’s ‘Elements of Geology,’ C. X., p. 113, as compared with + the Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age of Iron, + correspondent with that now so prevalent amongst us, and called the Celtic + type. It has the same comparative massiveness of forehead, not receding + like the Celtic—the same even roundness in the frontal organs; but + it is far loftier in the apex, and far less pronounced in the hinder + cranial hemisphere where phrenologists place the animal organs. To speak + as a phrenologist, the cranium common to the Vril-ya has the organs of + weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, very largely developed; that + of construction much more pronounced than that of ideality. Those which + are called the moral organs, such as conscientiousness and benevolence, + are amazingly full; amativeness and combativeness are both small; + adhesiveness large; the organ of destructiveness (i.e., of determined + clearance of intervening obstacles) immense, but less than that of + benevolence; and their philoprogenitiveness takes rather the character of + compassion and tenderness to things that need aid or protection than of + the animal love of offspring. I never met with one person deformed or + misshapen. The beauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of + feature, but in a smoothness of surface, which continues without line or + wrinkle to the extreme of old age, and a serene sweetness of expression, + combined with that majesty which seems to come from consciousness of power + and the freedom of all terror, physical or moral. It is that very + sweetness, combined with that majesty, which inspired in a beholder like + myself, accustomed to strive with the passions of mankind, a sentiment of + humiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a painter might + give to a demi-god, a genius, an angel. The males of the Vril-ya are + entirely beardless; the Gy-ei sometimes, in old age, develop a small + moustache. + </p> + <p> + I was surprised to find that the colour of their skin was not uniformly + that which I had remarked in those individuals whom I had first + encountered,—some being much fairer, and even with blue eyes, and + hair of a deep golden auburn, though still of complexions warmer or richer + in tone than persons in the north of Europe. + </p> + <p> + I was told that this admixture of colouring arose from intermarriage with + other and more distant tribes of the Vril-ya, who, whether by the accident + of climate or early distinction of race, were of fairer hues than the + tribes of which this community formed one. It was considered that the + dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of Ana; but they attached no + sentiment of pride to that antiquity, and, on the contrary, believed their + present excellence of breed came from frequent crossing with other + families differing, yet akin; and they encourage such intermarriages, + always provided that it be with the Vril-ya nations. Nations which, not + conforming their manners and institutions to those of the Vril-ya, nor + indeed held capable of acquiring the powers over the vril agencies which + it had taken them generations to attain and transmit, were regarded with + more disdain than the citizens of New York regard the negroes. + </p> + <p> + I learned from Zee, who had more lore in all matters than any male with + whom I was brought into familiar converse, that the superiority of the + Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of their earlier + struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localities in which they + had first settled. “Wherever,” said Zee, moralising, “wherever goes on + that early process in the history of civilisation, by which life is made a + struggle, in which the individual has to put forth all his powers to + compete with his fellow, we invariably find this result—viz., since + in the competition a vast number must perish, nature selects for + preservation only the strongest specimens. With our race, therefore, even + before the discovery of vril, only the highest organisations were + preserved; and there is among our ancient books a legend, once popularly + believed, that we were driven from a region that seems to denote the world + you come from, in order to perfect our condition and attain to the purest + elimination of our species by the severity of the struggles our + forefathers underwent; and that, when our education shall become finally + completed, we are destined to return to the upper world, and supplant all + the inferior races now existing therein.” + </p> + <p> + Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me in private upon the political and + social conditions of that upper world, in which Zee so philosophically + assumed that the inhabitants were to be exterminated one day or other by + the advent of the Vril-ya. They found in my accounts,—in which I + continued to do all I could (without launching into falsehoods so positive + that they would have been easily detected by the shrewdness of my + listeners) to present our powers and ourselves in the most flattering + point of view,—perpetual subjects of comparison between our most + civilised populations and the meaner subterranean races which they + considered hopelessly plunged in barbarism, and doomed to gradual if + certain extinction. But they both agreed in desiring to conceal from their + community all premature opening into the regions lighted by the sun; both + were humane, and shrunk from the thought of annihilating so many millions + of creatures; and the pictures I drew of our life, highly coloured as they + were, saddened them. In vain I boasted of our great men—poets, + philosophers, orators, generals—and defied the Vril-ya to produce + their equals. “Alas,” said Zee, “this predominance of the few over the + many is the surest and most fatal sign of a race incorrigibly savage. See + you not that the primary condition of mortal happiness consists in the + extinction of that strife and competition between individuals, which, no + matter what forms of government they adopt, render the many subordinate to + the few, destroy real liberty to the individual, whatever may be the + nominal liberty of the state, and annul that calm of existence, without + which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained? Our notion is, that + the more we can assimilate life to the existence which our noblest ideas + can conceive to be that of spirits on the other side of the grave, why, + the more we approximate to a divine happiness here, and the more easily we + glide into the conditions of being hereafter. For, surely, all we can + imagine of the life of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence + of self-made cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. + It seems to us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed + without active occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, but + occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the idiosyncrasies + of each, not forced and repugnant—a life gladdened by the + untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral + atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry. Such + is the political state to which all the tribes and families of the Vril-ya + seek to attain, and towards that goal all our theories of government are + shaped. You see how utterly opposed is such a progress to that of the + uncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim at a systematic + perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warring passions aggravated more + and more as their progress storms its way onward. The most powerful of all + the races in our world, beyond the pale of the Vril-ya, esteems itself the + best governed of all political societies, and to have reached in that + respect the extreme end at which political wisdom can arrive, so that the + other nations should tend more or less to copy it. It has established, on + its broadest base, the Koom-Posh—viz., the government of the + ignorant upon the principle of being the most numerous. It has placed the + supreme bliss in the vying with each other in all things, so that the evil + passions are never in repose—vying for power, for wealth, for + eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry it is horrible to hear the + vituperation, the slanders, and calumnies which even the best and mildest + among them heap on each other without remorse or shame.” + </p> + <p> + “Some years ago,” said Aph-Lin, “I visited this people, and their misery + and degradation were the more appalling because they were always boasting + of their felicity and grandeur as compared with the rest of their species. + And there is no hope that this people, which evidently resembles your own, + can improve, because all their notions tend to further deterioration. They + desire to enlarge their dominion more and more, in direct antagonism to + the truth that, beyond a very limited range, it is impossible to secure to + a community the happiness which belongs to a well-ordered family; and the + more they mature a system by which a few individuals are heated and + swollen to a size above the standard slenderness of the millions, the more + they chuckle and exact, and cry out, ‘See by what great exceptions to the + common littleness of our race we prove the magnificent results of our + system!’” + </p> + <p> + “In fact,” resumed Zee, “if the wisdom of human life be to approximate to + the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying off + into the opposite direction than a system which aims at carrying to the + utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see how, by + any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves + even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still expect to be + transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds accustomed to + place happiness in things so much the reverse of godlike, would find the + happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and would long to get back to a world + in which they could quarrel with each other.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVI. + </h2> + <p> + I have spoken so much of the Vril Staff that my reader may expect me to + describe it. This I cannot do accurately, for I was never allowed to + handle it for fear of some terrible accident occasioned by my ignorance of + its use; and I have no doubt that it requires much skill and practice in + the exercise of its various powers. It is hollow, and has in the handle + several stops, keys, or springs by which its force can be altered, + modified, or directed—so that by one process it destroys, by another + it heals—by one it can rend the rock, by another disperse the vapour—by + one it affects bodies, by another it can exercise a certain influence over + minds. It is usually carried in the convenient size of a walking-staff, + but it has slides by which it can be lengthened or shortened at will. When + used for special purposes, the upper part rests in the hollow of the palm + with the fore and middle fingers protruded. I was assured, however, that + its power was not equal in all, but proportioned to the amount of certain + vril properties in the wearer in affinity, or ‘rapport’ with the purposes + to be effected. Some were more potent to destroy, others to heal, &c.; + much also depended on the calm and steadiness of volition in the + manipulator. They assert that the full exercise of vril power can only be + acquired by the constitutional temperament—i.e., by hereditarily + transmitted organisation—and that a female infant of four years old + belonging to the Vril-ya races can accomplish feats which a life spent in + its practice would not enable the strongest and most skilled mechanician, + born out of the pale of the Vril-ya to achieve. All these wands are not + equally complicated; those intrusted to children are much simpler than + those borne by sages of either sex, and constructed with a view to the + special object on which the children are employed; which as I have before + said, is among the youngest children the most destructive. In the wands of + wives and mothers the correlative destroying force is usually abstracted, + the healing power fully charged. I wish I could say more in detail of this + singular conductor of the vril fluid, but its machinery is as exquisite as + its effects are marvellous. + </p> + <p> + I should say, however, that this people have invented certain tubes by + which the vril fluid can be conducted towards the object it is meant to + destroy, throughout a distance almost indefinite; at least I put it + modestly when I say from 500 to 1000 miles. And their mathematical science + as applied to such purpose is so nicely accurate, that on the report of + some observer in an air-boat, any member of the vril department can + estimate unerringly the nature of intervening obstacles, the height to + which the projectile instrument should be raised, and the extent to which + it should be charged, so as to reduce to ashes within a space of time too + short for me to venture to specify it, a capital twice as vast as London. + </p> + <p> + Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians—wonderful for the + adaptation of the inventive faculty to practical uses. + </p> + <p> + I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great public museum, + which occupies a wing in the College of Sages, and in which are hoarded, + as curious specimens of the ignorant and blundering experiments of ancient + times, many contrivances on which we pride ourselves as recent + achievements. In one department, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete + lumber, are tubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an inflammable + powder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and even still more + murderous than our latest improvements. + </p> + <p> + My host spoke of these with a smile of contempt, such as an artillery + officer might bestow on the bows and arrows of the Chinese. In another + department there were models of vehicles and vessels worked by steam, and + of an air-balloon which might have been constructed by Montgolfier. + “Such,” said Zee, with an air of meditative wisdom—“such were the + feeble triflings with nature of our savage forefathers, ere they had even + a glimmering perception of the properties of vril!” + </p> + <p> + This young Gy was a magnificent specimen of the muscular force to which + the females of her country attain. Her features were beautiful, like those + of all her race: never in the upper world have I seen a face so grand and + so faultless, but her devotion to the severer studies had given to her + countenance an expression of abstract thought which rendered it somewhat + stern when in repose; and such a sternness became formidable when observed + in connection with her ample shoulders and lofty stature. She was tall + even for a Gy, and I saw her lift up a cannon as easily as I could lift a + pocket-pistol. Zee inspired me with a profound terror—a terror which + increased when we came into a department of the museum appropriated to + models of contrivances worked by the agency of vril; for here, merely by a + certain play of her vril staff, she herself standing at a distance, she + put into movement large and weighty substances. She seemed to endow them + with intelligence, and to make them comprehend and obey her command. She + set complicated pieces of machinery into movement, arrested the movement + or continued it, until, within an incredibly short time, various kinds of + raw material were reproduced as symmetrical works of art, complete and + perfect. Whatever effect mesmerism or electro-biology produces over the + nerves and muscles of animated objects, this young Gy produced by the + motions of her slender rod over the springs and wheels of lifeless + mechanism. + </p> + <p> + When I mentioned to my companions my astonishment at this influence over + inanimate matter—while owning that, in our world, I had witnessed + phenomena which showed that over certain living organisations certain + other living organisations could establish an influence genuine in itself, + but often exaggerated by credulity or craft—Zee, who was more + interested in such subjects than her father, bade me stretch forth my + hand, and then, placing it beside her own, she called my attention to + certain distinctions of type and character. In the first place, the thumb + of the Gy (and, as I afterwards noticed, of all that race, male or female) + was much larger, at once longer and more massive, than is found with our + species above ground. There is almost, in this, as great a difference as + there is between the thumb of a man and that of a gorilla. Secondly, the + palm is proportionally thicker than ours—the texture of the skin + infinitely finer and softer—its average warmth is greater. More + remarkable than all this, is a visible nerve, perceptible under the skin, + which starts from the wrist skirting the ball of the thumb, and branching, + fork-like, at the roots of the fore and middle fingers. “With your slight + formation of thumb,” said the philosophical young Gy, “and with the + absence of the nerve which you find more or less developed in the hands of + our race, you can never achieve other than imperfect and feeble power over + the agency of vril; but so far as the nerve is concerned, that is not + found in the hands of our earliest progenitors, nor in those of the ruder + tribes without the pale of the Vril-ya. It has been slowly developed in + the course of generations, commencing in the early achievements, and + increasing with the continuous exercise, of the vril power; therefore, in + the course of one or two thousand years, such a nerve may possibly be + engendered in those higher beings of your race, who devote themselves to + that paramount science through which is attained command over all the + subtler forces of nature permeated by vril. But when you talk of matter as + something in itself inert and motionless, your parents or tutors surely + cannot have left you so ignorant as not to know that no form of matter is + motionless and inert: every particle is constantly in motion and + constantly acted upon by agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and + rapid, but vril the most subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the most + powerful. So that, in fact, the current launched by my hand and guided by + my will does but render quicker and more potent the action which is + eternally at work upon every particle of matter, however inert and + stubborn it may seem. If a heap of metal be not capable of originating a + thought of its own, yet, through its internal susceptibility to movement, + it obtains the power to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at + work on it; by which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the vril + power, it is as much compelled to obey as if it were displaced by a + visible bodily force. It is animated for the time being by the soul thus + infused into it, so that one may almost say that it lives and reasons. + Without this we could not make our automata supply the place of servants.” + </p> + <p> + I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of the young Gy to + hazard the risk of arguing with her. I had read somewhere in my schoolboy + days that a wise man, disputing with a Roman Emperor, suddenly drew in his + horns; and when the emperor asked him whether he had nothing further to + say on his side of the question, replied, “Nay, Caesar, there is no + arguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions.” + </p> + <p> + Though I had a secret persuasion that, whatever the real effects of vril + upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved her a very shallow philosopher + as to its extent or its causes, I had no doubt that Zee could have brained + all the Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the other, with a blow of + her fist. Every sensible man knows that it is useless to argue with any + ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; but to argue with a Gy seven + feet high upon the mysteries of vril,—as well argue in a desert, and + with a simoon! + </p> + <p> + Amid the various departments to which the vast building of the College of + Sages was appropriated, that which interested me most was devoted to the + archaeology of the Vril-ya, and comprised a very ancient collection of + portraits. In these the pigments and groundwork employed were of so + durable a nature that even pictures said to be executed at dates as remote + as those in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained much freshness of + colour. In examining this collection, two things especially struck me:—first, + that the pictures said to be between 6000 and 7000 years old were of a + much higher degree of art than any produced within the last 3000 or 4000 + years; and, second, that the portraits within the former period much more + resembled our own upper world and European types of countenance. Some of + them, indeed reminded me of the Italian heads which look out from the + canvases of Titian—speaking of ambition or craft, of care or of + grief, with furrows in which the passions have passed with iron + ploughshare. These were the countenances of men who had lived in struggle + and conflict before the discovery of the latent forces of vril had changed + the character of society—men who had fought with each other for + power or fame as we in the upper world fight. + </p> + <p> + The type of face began to evince a marked change about a thousand years + after the vril revolution, becoming then, with each generation, more + serene, and in that serenity more terribly distinct from the faces of + labouring and sinful men; while in proportion as the beauty and the + grandeur of the countenance itself became more fully developed, the art of + the painter became more tame and monotonous. + </p> + <p> + But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of three portraits + belonging to the pre-historical age, and, according to mythical tradition, + taken by the orders of a philosopher, whose origin and attributes were as + much mixed up with symbolical fable as those of an Indian Budh or a Greek + Prometheus. + </p> + <p> + From this mysterious personage, at once a sage and a hero, all the + principal sections of the Vril-ya race pretend to trace a common origin. + </p> + <p> + The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of his grandfather, and + great-grandfather. They are all at full length. The philosopher is attired + in a long tunic which seems to form a loose suit of scaly armour, + borrowed, perhaps, from some fish or reptile, but the feet and hands are + exposed: the digits in both are wonderfully long, and webbed. He has + little or no perceptible throat, and a low receding forehead, not at all + the ideal of a sage’s. He has bright brown prominent eyes, a very wide + mouth and high cheekbones, and a muddy complexion. According to tradition, + this philosopher had lived to a patriarchal age, extending over many + centuries, and he remembered distinctly in middle life his grandfather as + surviving, and in childhood his great-grandfather; the portrait of the + first he had taken, or caused to be taken, while yet alive—that of + the latter was taken from his effigies in mummy. The portrait of his + grandfather had the features and aspect of the philosopher, only much more + exaggerated: he was not dressed, and the colour of his body was singular; + the breast and stomach yellow, the shoulders and legs of a dull bronze + hue: the great-grandfather was a magnificent specimen of the Batrachian + genus, a Giant Frog, ‘pur et simple.’ + </p> + <p> + Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher + bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form and sententious brevity, this + is notably recorded: “Humble yourselves, my descendants; the father of + your race was a ‘twat’ (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for it + was the same Divine Thought which created your father that develops itself + in exalting you.” + </p> + <p> + Aph-Lin told me this fable while I gazed on the three Batrachian + portraits. I said in reply: “You make a jest of my supposed ignorance and + credulity as an uneducated Tish, but though these horrible daubs may be of + great antiquity, and were intended, perhaps, for some rude caracature, I + presume that none of your race even in the less enlightened ages, ever + believed that the great-grandson of a Frog became a sententious + philosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the lofty Vril-ya, but + of the meanest varieties of the human race, had its origin in a Tadpole.” + </p> + <p> + “Pardon me,” answered Aph-Lin: “in what we call the Wrangling or + Philosophical Period of History, which was at its height about seven + thousand years ago, there was a very distinguished naturalist, who proved + to the satisfaction of numerous disciples such analogical and anatomical + agreements in structure between an An and a Frog, as to show that out of + the one must have developed the other. They had some diseases in common; + they were both subject to the same parasitical worms in the intestines; + and, strange to say, the An has, in his structure, a swimming-bladder, no + longer of any use to him, but which is a rudiment that clearly proves his + descent from a Frog. Nor is there any argument against this theory to be + found in the relative difference of size, for there are still existent in + our world Frogs of a size and stature not inferior to our own, and many + thousand years ago they appear to have been still larger.” + </p> + <p> + “I understand that,” said I, “because Frogs this enormous are, according + to our eminent geologists, who perhaps saw them in dreams, said to have + been distinguished inhabitants of the upper world before the Deluge; and + such Frogs are exactly the creatures likely to have flourished in the + lakes and morasses of your subterranean regions. But pray, proceed.” + </p> + <p> + “In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage asserted another + sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maxim in that age, that the + human reason could only be sustained aloft by being tossed to and fro in + the perpetual motion of contradiction; and therefore another sect of + philosophers maintained the doctrine that the An was not the descendant of + the Frog, but that the Frog was clearly the improved development of the + An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally, was much more symmetrical than + that of the An; beside the beautiful conformation of its lower limbs, its + flanks and shoulders the majority of the Ana in that day were almost + deformed, and certainly ill-shaped. Again, the Frog had the power to live + alike on land and in water—a mighty privilege, partaking of a + spiritual essence denied to the An, since the disuse of his + swimming-bladder clearly proves his degeneration from a higher development + of species. Again, the earlier races of the Ana seem to have been covered + with hair, and, even to a comparatively recent date, hirsute bushes + deformed the very faces of our ancestors, spreading wild over their cheeks + and chins, as similar bushes, my poor Tish, spread wild over yours. But + the object of the higher races of the Ana through countless generations + has been to erase all vestige of connection with hairy vertebrata, and + they have gradually eliminated that debasing capillary excrement by the + law of sexual selection; the Gy-ei naturally preferring youth or the + beauty of smooth faces. But the degree of the Frog in the scale of the + vertebrata is shown in this, that he has no hair at all, not even on his + head. He was born to that hairless perfection which the most beautiful of + the Ana, despite the culture of incalculable ages, have not yet attained. + The wonderful complication and delicacy of a Frog’s nervous system and + arterial circulation were shown by this school to be more susceptible of + enjoyment than our inferior, or at least simpler, physical frame allows us + to be. The examination of a Frog’s hand, if I may use that expression, + accounted for its keener susceptibility to love, and to social life in + general. In fact, gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are still + more so. In short, these two schools raged against each other; one + asserting the An to be the perfected type of the Frog; the other that the + Frog was the highest development of the An. The moralists were divided in + opinion with the naturalists, but the bulk of them sided with the + Frog-preference school. They said, with much plausibility, that in moral + conduct (viz., in the adherence to rules best adapted to the health and + welfare of the individual and the community) there could be no doubt of + the vast superiority of the Frog. All history showed the wholesale + immorality of the human race, the complete disregard, even by the most + renowned amongst them, of the laws which they acknowledged to be essential + to their own and the general happiness and wellbeing. But the severest + critic of the Frog race could not detect in their manners a single + aberration from the moral law tacitly recognised by themselves. And what, + after all, can be the profit of civilisation if superiority in moral + conduct be not the aim for which it strives, and the test by which its + progress should be judged? + </p> + <p> + “In fine, the adherents of this theory presumed that in some remote period + the Frog race had been the improved development of the Human; but that, + from some causes which defied rational conjecture, they had not maintained + their original position in the scale of nature; while the Ana, though of + inferior organisation, had, by dint less of their virtues than their + vices, such as ferocity and cunning, gradually acquired ascendancy, much + as among the human race itself tribes utterly barbarous have, by + superiority in similar vices, utterly destroyed or reduced into + insignificance tribes originally excelling them in mental gifts and + culture. Unhappily these disputes became involved with the religious + notions of that age; and as society was then administered under the + government of the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of course + the most inflammable class—the multitude took the whole question out + of the hands of the philosophers; political chiefs saw that the Frog + dispute, so taken up by the populace, could become a most valuable + instrument of their ambition; and for not less than one thousand years war + and massacre prevailed, during which period the philosophers on both sides + were butchered, and the government of Koom-Posh itself was happily brought + to an end by the ascendancy of a family that clearly established its + descent from the aboriginal tadpole, and furnished despotic rulers to the + various nations of the Ana. These despots finally disappeared, at least + from our communities, as the discovery of vril led to the tranquil + institutions under which flourish all the races of the Vril-ya.” + </p> + <p> + “And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive the dispute; or + do they all recognise the origin of your race in the tadpole?” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, such disputes,” said Zee, with a lofty smile, “belong to the + Pah-bodh of the dark ages, and now only serve for the amusement of + infants. When we know the elements out of which our bodies are composed, + elements in common to the humblest vegetable plants, can it signify + whether the All-Wise combined those elements out of one form more than + another, in order to create that in which He has placed the capacity to + receive the idea of Himself, and all the varied grandeurs of intellect to + which that idea gives birth? The An in reality commenced to exist as An + with the donation of that capacity, and, with that capacity, the sense to + acknowledge that, however through the countless ages his race may improve + in wisdom, it can never combine the elements at its command into the form + of a tadpole.” + </p> + <p> + “You speak well, Zee,” said Aph-Lin; “and it is enough for us shortlived + mortals to feel a reasonable assurance that whether the origin of the An + was a tadpole or not, he is no more likely to become a tadpole again than + the institutions of the Vril-ya are likely to relapse into the heaving + quagmire and certain strife-rot of a Koom-Posh.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVII. + </h2> + <p> + The Vril-ya, being excluded from all sight of the heavenly bodies, and + having no other difference between night and day than that which they deem + it convenient to make for themselves,—do not, of course, arrive at + their divisions of time by the same process that we do; but I found it + easy by the aid of my watch, which I luckily had about me, to compute + their time with great nicety. I reserve for a future work on the science + and literature of the Vril-ya, should I live to complete it, all details + as to the manner in which they arrive at their rotation of time; and + content myself here with saying, that in point of duration, their year + differs very slightly from ours, but that the divisions of their year are + by no means the same. Their day, (including what we call night) consists + of twenty hours of our time, instead of twenty-four, and of course their + year comprises the correspondent increase in the number of days by which + it is summed up. They subdivide the twenty hours of their day thus—eight + hours,* called the “Silent Hours,” for repose; eight hours, called the + “Earnest Time,” for the pursuits and occupations of life; and four hours + called the “Easy Time” (with which what I may term their day closes), + allotted to festivities, sport, recreation, or family converse, according + to their several tastes and inclinations. + </p> + <p> + * For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, years, &c., + in any general reference to subdivisions of time among the Vril-ya; those + terms but loosely corresponding, however, with such subdivisions. + </p> + <p> + But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain, both in the + streets and in the surrounding country, to the limits of their territory, + the same degree of light at all hours. Only, within doors, they lower it + to a soft twilight during the Silent Hours. They have a great horror of + perfect darkness, and their lights are never wholly extinguished. On + occasions of festivity they continue the duration of full light, but + equally keep note of the distinction between night and day, by mechanical + contrivances which answer the purpose of our clocks and watches. They are + very fond of music; and it is by music that these chronometers strike the + principal division of time. At every one of their hours, during their day, + the sounds coming from all the time-pieces in their public buildings, and + caught up, as it were, by those of houses or hamlets scattered amidst the + landscapes without the city, have an effect singularly sweet, and yet + singularly solemn. But during the Silent Hours these sounds are so subdued + as to be only faintly heard by a waking ear. They have no change of + seasons, and, at least on the territory of this tribe, the atmosphere + seemed to me very equable, warm as that of an Italian summer, and humid + rather than dry; in the forenoon usually very still, but at times invaded + by strong blasts from the rocks that made the borders of their domain. But + time is the same to them for sowing or reaping as in the Golden Isles of + the ancient poets. At the same moment you see the younger plants in blade + or bud, the older in ear or fruit. All fruit-bearing plants, however, + after fruitage, either shed or change the colour of their leaves. But that + which interested me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the + ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I found on + minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded the term allotted to + us on the upper earth. What seventy years are to us, one hundred years are + to them. Nor is this the only advantage they have over us in longevity, + for as few among us attain to the age of seventy, so, on the contrary, few + among them die before the age of one hundred; and they enjoy a general + degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a blessing even to the + last. Various causes contribute to this result: the absence of all + alcoholic stimulants; temperance in food; more especially, perhaps, a + serenity of mind undisturbed by anxious occupations and eager passions. + They are not tormented by our avarice or our ambition; they appear + perfectly indifferent even to the desire of fame; they are capable of + great affection, but their love shows itself in a tender and cheerful + complaisance, and, while forming their happiness, seems rarely, if ever, + to constitute their woe. As the Gy is sure only to marry where she herself + fixes her choice, and as here, not less than above ground, it is the + female on whom the happiness of home depends; so the Gy, having chosen the + mate she prefers to all others, is lenient to his faults, consults his + humours, and does her best to secure his attachment. The death of a + beloved one is of course with them, as with us, a cause for sorrow; but + not only is death with them so much more rare before that age in which it + becomes a release, but when it does occur the survivor takes much more + consolation than, I am afraid, the generality of us do, in the certainty + of reunion in another and yet happier life. + </p> + <p> + All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyable longevity, + though, no doubt, much also must be owing to hereditary organisation. + According to their records, however, in those earlier stages of their + society when they lived in communities resembling ours, agitated by fierce + competition, their lives were considerably shorter, and their maladies + more numerous and grave. They themselves say that the duration of life, + too, has increased, and is still on the increase, since their discovery of + the invigorating and medicinal properties of vril, applied for remedial + purposes. They have few professional and regular practitioners of + medicine, and these are chiefly Gy-ei, who, especially if widowed and + childless, find great delight in the healing art, and even undertake + surgical operations in those cases required by accident, or, more rarely, + by disease. + </p> + <p> + They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during the Easy Time + of their day, they are wont to assemble in great numbers for those winged + sports in the air which I have already described. They have also public + halls for music, and even theatres, at which are performed pieces that + appeared to me somewhat to resemble the plays of the Chinese—dramas + that are thrown back into distant times for their events and personages, + in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, and the hero, in + once scene a child, in the next is an old man, and so forth. These plays + are of very ancient composition, and their stories cast in remote times. + They appeared to me very dull, on the whole, but were relieved by + startling mechanical contrivances, and a kind of farcical broad humour, + and detached passages of great vigour and power expressed in language + highly poetical, but somewhat overcharged with metaphor and trope. In + fine, they seemed to me very much what the plays of Shakespeare seemed to + a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps to an Englishman in the + reign of Charles II. + </p> + <p> + The audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted the chief portion, appeared + to enjoy greatly the representation of these dramas, which, for so sedate + and majestic a race of females, surprised me, till I observed that all the + performers were under the age of adolescence, and conjectured truly that + the mothers and sisters came to please their children and brothers. + </p> + <p> + I have said that these dramas are of great antiquity. No new plays, indeed + no imaginative works sufficiently important to survive their immediate + day, appear to have been composed for several generations. In fact, though + there is no lack of new publications, and they have even what may be + called newspapers, these are chiefly devoted to mechanical science, + reports of new inventions, announcements respecting various details of + business—in short, to practical matters. Sometimes a child writes a + little tale of adventure, or a young Gy vents her amorous hopes or fears + in a poem; but these effusions are of very little merit, and are seldom + read except by children and maiden Gy-ei. The most interesting works of a + purely literary character are those of explorations and travels into other + regions of this nether world, which are generally written by young + emigrants, and are read with great avidity by the relations and friends + they have left behind. + </p> + <p> + I could not help expressing to Aph-Lin my surprise that a community in + which mechanical science had made so marvellous a progress, and in which + intellectual civilisation had exhibited itself in realising those objects + for the happiness of the people, which the political philosophers above + ground had, after ages of struggle, pretty generally agreed to consider + unattainable visions, should, nevertheless, be so wholly without a + contemporaneous literature, despite the excellence to which culture had + brought a language at once so rich and simple, vigourous and musical. + </p> + <p> + My host replied—“Do you not perceive that a literature such as you + mean would be wholly incompatible with that perfection of social or + political felicity at which you do us the honour to think we have arrived? + We have at last, after centuries of struggle, settled into a form of + government with which we are content, and in which, as we allow no + differences of rank, and no honours are paid to administrators + distinguishing them from others, there is no stimulus given to individual + ambition. No one would read works advocating theories that involved any + political or social change, and therefore no one writes them. If now and + then an An feels himself dissatisfied with our tranquil mode of life, he + does not attack it; he goes away. Thus all that part of literature (and to + judge by the ancient books in our public libraries, it was once a very + large part), which relates to speculative theories on society is become + utterly extinct. Again, formerly there was a vast deal written respecting + the attributes and essence of the All-Good, and the arguments for and + against a future state; but now we all recognise two facts, that there IS + a Divine Being, and there IS a future state, and we all equally agree that + if we wrote our fingers to the bone, we could not throw any light upon the + nature and conditions of that future state, or quicken our apprehensions + of the attributes and essence of that Divine Being. Thus another part of + literature has become also extinct, happily for our race; for in the time + when so much was written on subjects which no one could determine, people + seemed to live in a perpetual state of quarrel and contention. So, too, a + vast part of our ancient literature consists of historical records of wars + an revolutions during the times when the Ana lived in large and turbulent + societies, each seeking aggrandisement at the expense of the other. You + see our serene mode of life now; such it has been for ages. We have no + events to chronicle. What more of us can be said than that, ‘they were + born, they were happy, they died?’ Coming next to that part of literature + which is more under the control of the imagination, such as what we call + Glaubsila, or colloquially ‘Glaubs,’ and you call poetry, the reasons for + its decline amongst us are abundantly obvious. + </p> + <p> + “We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in that department of + literature which we all still read with pleasure, but of which none would + tolerate imitations, that they consist in the portraiture of passions + which we no longer experience—ambition, vengeance, unhallowed love, + the thirst for warlike renown, and suchlike. The old poets lived in an + atmosphere impregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what they + expressed glowingly. No one can express such passions now, for no one can + feel them, or meet with any sympathy in his readers if he did. Again, the + old poetry has a main element in its dissection of those complex mysteries + of human character which conduce to abnormal vices and crimes, or lead to + signal and extraordinary virtues. But our society, having got rid of + temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has necessarily rendered + the moral average so equal, that there are no very salient virtues. + Without its ancient food of strong passions, vast crimes, heroic + excellences, poetry therefore is, if not actually starved to death, + reduced to a very meagre diet. There is still the poetry of description—description + of rocks, and trees, and waters, and common household life; and our young + Gy-ei weave much of this insipid kind of composition into their love + verses.” + </p> + <p> + “Such poetry,” said I, “might surely be made very charming; and we have + critics amongst us who consider it a higher kind than that which depicts + the crimes, or analyses the passions, of man. At all events, poetry of the + inspired kind you mention is a poetry that nowadays commands more readers + than any other among the people I have left above ground.” + </p> + <p> + “Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains with the + language they employ, and devote themselves to the culture and polish of + words and rhythms of an art?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the gift of poetry may + be inborn, the gift requires as much care to make it available as a block + of metal does to be made into one of your engines.” + </p> + <p> + “And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow all those pains + upon such verbal prettinesses?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing as the bird + does; but to cultivate the song into verbal or artificial prettiness, + probably does need an inducement from without, and our poets find it in + the love of fame—perhaps, now and then, in the want of money.” + </p> + <p> + “Precisely so. But in our society we attach fame to nothing which man, in + that moment of his duration which is called ‘life,’ can perform. We should + soon lose that equality which constitutes the felicitous essence of our + commonwealth if we selected any individual for pre-eminent praise: + pre-eminent praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the moment it were + given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men would immediately + covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envy hate, and with hate + calumny and persecution. Our history tells us that most of the poets and + most of the writers who, in the old time, were favoured with the greatest + praise, were also assailed by the greatest vituperation, and even, on the + whole, rendered very unhappy, partly by the attacks of jealous rivals, + partly by the diseased mental constitution which an acquired sensitiveness + to praise and to blame tends to engender. As for the stimulus of want; in + the first place, no man in our community knows the goad of poverty; and, + secondly, if he did, almost every occupation would be more lucrative than + writing. + </p> + <p> + “Our public libraries contain all the books of the past which time has + preserved; those books, for the reasons above stated, are infinitely + better than any can write nowadays, and they are open to all to read + without cost. We are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior books, + when we can read superior books for nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “With us, novelty has an attraction; and a new book, if bad, is read when + an old book, though good, is neglected.” + </p> + <p> + “Novelty, to barbarous states of society struggling in despair for + something better, has no doubt an attraction, denied to us, who see + nothing to gain in novelties; but after all, it is observed by one of our + great authors four thousand years ago, that ‘he who studies old books will + always find in them something new, and he who reads new books will always + find in them something old.’ But to return to the question you have + raised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstaking labour, + whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, such as have the poetic + temperament, no doubt vent it in song, as you say the bird sings; but for + lack of elaborate culture it fails of an audience, and, failing of an + audience, dies out, of itself, amidst the ordinary avocations of life.” + </p> + <p> + “But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of literature + do not operate against that of science?” + </p> + <p> + “Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth apart + from all consideration of fame, and science with us too is devoted almost + solely to practical uses, essential to our social conversation and the + comforts of our daily life. No fame is asked by the inventor, and none is + given to him; he enjoys an occupation congenial to his tastes, and needing + no wear and tear of the passions. Man must have exercise for his mind as + well as body; and continuous exercise, rather than violent, is best for + both. Our most ingenious cultivators of science are, as a general rule, + the longest lived and the most free from disease. Painting is an amusement + to many, but the art is not what it was in former times, when the great + painters in our various communities vied with each other for the prize of + a golden crown, which gave them a social rank equal to that of the kings + under whom they lived. You will thus doubtless have observed in our + archaeological department how superior in point of art the pictures were + several thousand years ago. Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, + more allied to science than it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable + arts, music is that which flourishes the most amongst us. Still, even in + music the absence of stimulus in praise or fame has served to prevent any + great superiority of one individual over another; and we rather excel in + choral music, with the aid of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we + make great use of the agency of water,* than in single performers.” + </p> + <p> + * This may remind the student of Nero’s invention of a musical machine, by + which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on which he + was employed when the conspiracy against him broke out. + </p> + <p> + “We have had scarcely any original composer for some ages. Our favorite + airs are very ancient in substance, but have admitted many complicated + variations by inferior, though ingenious, musicians.” + </p> + <p> + “Are there no political societies among the Ana which are animated by + those passions, subjected to those crimes, and admitting those disparities + in condition, in intellect, and in morality, which the state of your + tribe, or indeed of the Vril-ya generally, has left behind in its progress + to perfection? If so, among such societies perhaps Poetry and her sister + arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?” + </p> + <p> + “There are such societies in remote regions, but we do not admit them + within the pale of civilised communities; we scarcely even give them the + name of Ana, and certainly not that of Vril-ya. They are savages, living + chiefly in that low stage of being, Koom-Posh, tending necessarily to its + own hideous dissolution in Glek-Nas. Their wretched existence is passed in + perpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight with their + neighbours, they fight among themselves. They are divided into sections, + which abuse, plunder, and sometimes murder each other, and on the most + frivolous points of difference that would be unintelligible to us if we + had not read history, and seen that we too have passed through the same + early state of ignorance and barbarism. Any trifle is sufficient to set + them together by the ears. They pretend to be all equals, and the more + they have struggled to be so, by removing old distinctions, and starting + afresh, the more glaring and intolerable the disparity becomes, because + nothing in hereditary affections and associations is left to soften the + one naked distinction between the many who have nothing and the few who + have much. Of course the many hate the few, but without the few they could + not live. The many are always assailing the few; sometimes they + exterminate the few; but as soon as they have done so, a new few starts + out of the many, and is harder to deal with than the old few. For where + societies are large, and competition to have something is the predominant + fever, there must be always many losers and few gainers. In short, they + are savages groping their way in the dark towards some gleam of light, and + would demand our commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all + savages, they did not provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and + cruelty. Can you imagine that creatures of this kind, armed only with such + miserable weapons as you may see in our museum of antiquities, clumsy iron + tubes charged with saltpetre, have more than once threatened with + destruction a tribe of the Vril-ya, which dwells nearest to them, because + they say they have thirty millions of population—and that tribe may + have fifty thousand—if the latter do not accept their notions of + Soc-Sec (money getting) on some trading principles which they have the + impudence to call ‘a law of civilisation’?” + </p> + <p> + “But thirty millions of population are formidable odds against fifty + thousand!” + </p> + <p> + My host stared at me astonished. “Stranger,” said he, “you could not have + heard me say that this threatened tribe belongs to the Vril-ya; and it + only waits for these savages to declare war, in order to commission some + half-a-dozen small children to sweep away their whole population.” + </p> + <p> + At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much more affinity + with “the savages” than I did with the Vril-ya, and remembering all I had + said in praise of the glorious American institutions, which Aph-Lin + stigmatised as Koom-Posh. Recovering my self-possession, I asked if there + were modes of transit by which I could safely visit this temerarious and + remote people. + </p> + <p> + “You can travel with safety, by vril agency, either along the ground or + amid the air, throughout all the range of the communities with which we + are allied and akin; but I cannot vouch for your safety in barbarous + nations governed by different laws from ours; nations, indeed, so + benighted, that there are among them large numbers who actually live by + stealing from each other, and one could not with safety in the Silent + Hours even leave the doors of one’s own house open.” + </p> + <p> + Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee, who came to + inform us that he, having been deputed to discover and destroy the + enormous reptile which I had seen on my first arrival, had been on the + watch for it ever since his visit to me, and had began to suspect that my + eyes had deceived me, or that the creature had made its way through the + cavities within the rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its kindred + race,—when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a great + devastation of the herbage bordering one of the lakes. “And,” said Taee, + “I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding. So,” (turning to me) + “I thought it might amuse you to accompany me to see the way we destroy + such unpleasant visitors.” As I looked at the face of the young child, and + called to mind the enormous size of the creature he proposed to + exterminate, I felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps fear for + myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosity to witness + the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my unwillingness to lower + myself in the eyes of an infant by betraying apprehensions of personal + safety, prevailed over my first impulse. Accordingly, I thanked Taee for + his courteous consideration for my amusement, and professed my willingness + to set out with him on so diverting an enterprise. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVIII. + </h2> + <p> + As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left the main + road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange and solemn + beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to the verge of + the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some time an + inattentive listener to the talk of my companion. + </p> + <p> + Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by + machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part very + graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sake of + mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of useful + objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that they are + lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace; and their + love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens their + imagination in a way unknown to themselves. + </p> + <p> + In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use of + automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to the operations + of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. It was scarcely + possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparently guiding or + superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, from human forms + endowed with thought. + </p> + <p> + By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused by the + lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of the children + among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from the habit of + having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and + responsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt as + if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. I asked + him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities into which + the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided. + </p> + <p> + “Not exactly,” he said, “because they multiply, of course, every year as + the surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father say + that, according to the last report, there were a million and a half of + communities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions and forms + of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences, about which + you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Ana do. An An + cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does; the Gy-ei + are inquisitive creatures.” + </p> + <p> + “Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or + amount of population that you do?” + </p> + <p> + “No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger—varying + according to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to the degree + of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each community + sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care always that + there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of population + upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no state shall be too + large for a government resembling that of a single well-ordered family. I + imagine that no vril community exceeds thirty-thousand households. But, as + a general rule, the smaller the community, provided there be hands enough + to do justice to the capacities of the territory it occupies, the richer + each individual is, and the larger the sum contributed to the general + treasury,—above all, the happier and the more tranquil is the whole + political body, and the more perfect the products of its industry. The + state which all tribes of the Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in + civilisation, and which has brought the vril force to its fullest + development, is perhaps the smallest. It limits itself to four thousand + families; but every inch of its territory is cultivated to the utmost + perfection of garden ground; its machinery excels that of every other + tribe, and there is no product of its industry in any department which is + not sought for, at extraordinary prices, by each community of our race. + All our tribes make this state their model, considering that we should + reach the highest state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could + unite the greatest degree of happiness with the highest degree of + intellectual achievement; and it is clear that the smaller the society the + less difficult that will be. Ours is too large for it.” + </p> + <p> + This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little state of + Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and which to this day our + mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide and model in all departments + of intellect. But then Athens permitted fierce rivalry and perpetual + change, and was certainly not happy. Rousing myself from the reverie into + which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our talk to the + subjects connected with emigration. + </p> + <p> + “But,” said I, “when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agree + to quit home and found a new community elsewhere, they must necessarily be + very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the machines they + take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form a civilised + state with the comforts and luxuries in which they had been reared.” + </p> + <p> + “You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constant communication + with each other, and settle amongst themselves each year what proportion + of one community will unite with the emigrants of another, so as to form a + state of sufficient size; and the place for emigration is agreed upon at + least a year before, and pioneers sent from each state to level rocks, and + embank waters, and construct houses; so that when the emigrants at last + go, they find a city already made, and a country around it at least + partially cleared. Our hardy life as children make us take cheerfully to + travel and adventure. I mean to emigrate myself when of age.” + </p> + <p> + “Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and barren?” + </p> + <p> + “As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy except when + necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot settle in lands already + occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take the cultivated lands of the other + races of Ana, we must utterly destroy the previous inhabitants. Sometimes, + as it is, we take waste spots, and find that a troublesome, quarrelsome + race of Ana, especially if under the administration of Koom-Posh or + Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks a quarrel with us; then, of + course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy it: there is no coming to + terms of peace with a race so idiotic that it is always changing the form + of government which represents it. Koom-Posh,” said the child, + emphatically, “is bad enough, still it has brains, though at the back of + its head, and is not without a heart; but in Glek-Nas the brain and heart + of the creatures disappear, and they become all jaws, claws, and belly.” + “You express yourself strongly. Allow me to inform you that I myself, and + I am proud to say it, am the citizen of a Koom-Posh.” + </p> + <p> + “I no longer,” answered Taee, “wonder to see you here so far from your + home. What was the condition of your native community before it became a + Koom-Posh?” + </p> + <p> + “A settlement of emigrants—like those settlements which your tribe + sends forth—but so far unlike your settlements, that it was + dependent on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, + crowned with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh.” + </p> + <p> + “Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?” + </p> + <p> + “About 100 years.” + </p> + <p> + “The length of an An’s life—a very young community. In much less + than another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas.” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in its + duration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions so as to + melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that, whether + they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old states is + towards Koom-Posh-erie.” + </p> + <p> + “The old states?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, the old states.” + </p> + <p> + “With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive + land?” + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to that area.” + </p> + <p> + “I see! old states indeed!—so old as to become drivelling if they + don’t pack off that surplus population as we do ours—very old + states!—very, very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very + old men to try to turn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if + you ask them why they attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they + answered that by imitating very young children they could become very + young children themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this + sort a great many thousand years ago—and in every instance a very + old state that played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in + horror of its own self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his + dotage cries out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, + more or less long, that very old state died out of history. A very old + state attempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the + house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his vigour + in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is to run up + a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out, ‘How the wind + blows! How the walls shake!’” + </p> + <p> + “My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices, which + every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert, though he + might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as you appear to + be.” + </p> + <p> + “I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in your + Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother to + stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost? And if the poor old + folks hesitated—say, ‘What do you fear?—see how I do it!’” + </p> + <p> + “Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I make + allowances for your want of that culture which a Koom-Posh alone can + bestow.” + </p> + <p> + “I, in my turn,” answered Taee, with an air of the suave but lofty good + breeding which characterises his race, “not only make allowances for you + as not educated among the Vril-ya, but I entreat you to vouchsafe me your + pardon for the insufficient respect to the habits and opinions of so + amiable a Tish!” + </p> + <p> + I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish by my host + and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet name, literally + signifying a small barbarian; the children apply it endearingly to the + tame species of Frog which they keep in their gardens. + </p> + <p> + We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to point out + to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. “The enemy certainly lies + within these waters,” said Taee. “Observe what shoals of fish are crowded + together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the small ones, who are + their habitual prey and who generally shun them, all forget their + instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. This reptile certainly + must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more devouring than any + other, and are said to be among the few surviving species of the world’s + dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were created. The appetite of a Krek + is insatiable—it feeds alike upon vegetable and animal life; but for + the swift-footed creatures of the elk species it is too slow in its + movements. Its favourite dainty is an An when it can catch him unawares; + and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever it enters their + dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers first cleared this + country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded, and, vril being + then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured. It was impossible to + exterminate them wholly till that discovery which constitutes the power + and sustains the civilisation of our race. But after the uses of vril + became familiar to us, all creatures inimical to us were soon annihilated. + Still, once a-year or so, one of these enormous creatures wanders from the + unreclaimed and savage districts beyond, and within my memory one has + seized upon a young Gy who was bathing in this very lake. Had she been on + land and armed with her staff, it would not have dared even to show + itself; for, like all savage creatures, the reptile has a marvellous + instinct, which warns it against the bearer of the vril wand. How they + teach their young to avoid him, though seen for the first time, is one of + those mysteries which you may ask Zee to explain, for I cannot. The + reptile in this instinct does but resemble our wild birds and animals, + which will not come in reach of a man armed with a gun. When the electric + wires were first put up, partridges struck against them in their flight, + and fell down wounded. No younger generations of partridges meet with a + similar accident. So long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from + its lurking-place; but we must now decoy it forth.” + </p> + <p> + “Will that not be difficult?” + </p> + <p> + “Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one hundred yards + from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In a short time the reptile + will catch sight or scent of you, and perceiving that you are no + vril-bearer, will come forth to devour you. As soon as it is fairly out of + the water, it becomes my prey.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that horrible monster + which could engulf me within its jaws in a second! I beg to decline.” + </p> + <p> + The child laughed. “Fear nothing,” said he; “only sit still.” + </p> + <p> + Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about to take + fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on the shoulder, and, + fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was rooted to the spot. All power of + volition left me. Submissive to the infant’s gesture, I followed him to + the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most + readers have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whether + genuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had ever been + able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but I was a mere + machine at the will of this terrible child. Meanwhile he expanded his + wings, soared aloft, and alighted amidst a copse at the brow of a hill at + some distance. + </p> + <p> + I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation of horror + towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its water, spell-bound. It might be + ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the still surface, + gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towards the centre. At + the same time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced their sense of + the enemy’s approach by splash and leap and bubbling circle. I could + detect their hurried flight hither and thither, some even casting + themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous furrow came moving along the + waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of the reptile emerged—its + jaws bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing themselves hungrily on + the spot where I sat motionless. And now its fore feet were on the strand—now + its enormous breast, scaled on either side as in armour, in the centre + showing its corrugated skin of a dull venomous yellow; and now its whole + length was on the land, a hundred feet or more from the jaw to the tail. + Another stride of those ghastly feet would have brought it to the spot + where I sat. There was but a moment between me and this grim form of + death, when what seemed a flash of lightning shot through the air, smote, + and, for a space of time briefer than that in which a man can draw his + breath, enveloped the monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay + before me a blackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, + but of which even the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly + crumbling into dust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, + ice-cold with a new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe. + </p> + <p> + I felt the child’s hand on my head—fear left me—the spell was + broken—I rose up. “You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy their + enemies,” said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, he contemplated + the smouldering relics of the monster, and said quietly, “I have destroyed + larger creatures, but none with so much pleasure. Yes, it IS a Krek; what + suffering it must have inflicted while it lived!” Then he took up the poor + fishes that had flung themselves ashore, and restored them mercifully to + their native element. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIX. + </h2> + <p> + As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitous way, in + order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I will call the ‘Station,’ + from which emigrants or travellers to other communities commence their + journeys. I had, on a former occasion, expressed a wish to see their + vehicles. These I found to be of two kinds, one for land journeys, one for + aerial voyages: the former were of all sizes and forms, some not larger + than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of one story and containing + several rooms, furnished according to the ideas of comfort or luxury which + are entertained by the Vril-ya. The aerial vehicles were of light + substances, not the least resembling our balloons, but rather our boats + and pleasure-vessels, with helm and rudder, with large wings or paddles, + and a central machine worked by vril. All the vehicles both for land or + air were indeed worked by that potent and mysterious agency. + </p> + <p> + I saw a convoy set out on its journey, but it had few passengers, + containing chiefly articles of merchandise, and was bound to a + neighbouring community; for among all the tribes of the Vril-ya there is + considerable commercial interchange. I may here observe, that their money + currency does not consist of the precious metals, which are too common + among them for that purpose. The smaller coins in ordinary use are + manufactured from a peculiar fossil shell, the comparatively scarce + remnant of some very early deluge, or other convulsion of nature, by which + a species has become extinct. It is minute, and flat as an oyster, and + takes a jewel-like polish. This coinage circulates among all the tribes of + the Vril-ya. Their larger transactions are carried on much like ours, by + bills of exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer the purpose of + our bank-notes. + </p> + <p> + Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among the tribe I + became acquainted with was very considerable, compared with the amount of + population. But I never heard that any one grumbled at it, for it was + devoted to purposes of universal utility, and indeed necessary to the + civilisation of the tribe. The cost of lighting so large a range of + country, of providing for emigration, of maintaining the public buildings + at which the various operations of national intellect were carried on, + from the first education of an infant to the departments in which the + College of Sages were perpetually trying new experiments in mechanical + science; all these involved the necessity for considerable state funds. To + these I must add an item that struck me as very singular. I have said that + all the human labour required by the state is carried on by children up to + the marriageable age. For this labour the state pays, and at a rate + immeasurably higher than our own remuneration to labour even in the United + States. According to their theory, every child, male or female, on + attaining the marriageable age, and there terminating the period of + labour, should have acquired enough for an independent competence during + life. As, no matter what the disparity of fortune in the parents, all the + children must equally serve, so all are equally paid according to their + several ages or the nature of their work. Where the parents or friends + choose to retain a child in their own service, they must pay into the + public fund in the same ratio as the state pays to the children it + employs; and this sum is handed over to the child when the period of + service expires. This practice serves, no doubt, to render the notion of + social equality familiar and agreeable; and if it may be said that all the + children form a democracy, no less truly it may be said that all the + adults form an aristocracy. The exquisite politeness and refinement of + manners among the Vril-ya, the generosity of their sentiments, the + absolute leisure they enjoy for following out their own private pursuits, + the amenities of their domestic intercourse, in which they seem as members + of one noble order that can have no distrust of each other’s word or deed, + all combine to make the Vril-ya the most perfect nobility which a + political disciple of Plato or Sidney could conceive for the ideal of an + aristocratic republic. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XX. + </h2> + <p> + From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have just narrated, the + child paid me frequent visits. He had taken a liking to me, which I + cordially returned. Indeed, as he was not yet twelve years old, and had + not commenced the course of scientific studies with which childhood closes + in that country, my intellect was less inferior to his than to that of the + elder members of his race, especially of the Gy-ei, and most especially of + the accomplished Zee. The children of the Vril-ya, having upon their minds + the weight of so many active duties and grave responsibilities, are not + generally mirthful; but Taee, with all his wisdom, had much of the playful + good-humour one often finds the characteristic of elderly men of genius. + He felt that sort of pleasure in my society which a boy of a similar age + in the upper world has in the company of a pet dog or monkey. It amused + him to try and teach me the ways of his people, as it amuses a nephew of + mine to make his poodle walk on his hind legs or jump through a hoop. I + willingly lent myself to such experiments, but I never achieved the + success of the poodle. I was very much interested at first in the attempt + to ply the wings which the youngest of the Vril-ya use as nimbly and + easily as ours do their legs and arms; but my efforts were attended with + contusions serious enough to make me abandon them in despair. + </p> + <p> + These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the knee, and + in repose thrown back so as to form a very graceful mantle. They are + composed from the feathers of a gigantic bird that abounds in the rocky + heights of the country—the colour mostly white, but sometimes with + reddish streaks. They are fastened round the shoulders with light but + strong springs of steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide through loops + for that purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane. As the + arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the vest or tunic becomes, by + mechanical contrivance inflated with air, increased or diminished at will + by the movement of the arms, and serving to buoy the whole form as on + bladders. The wings and the balloon-like apparatus are highly charged with + vril; and when the body is thus wafted upward, it seems to become + singularly lightened of its weight. I found it easy enough to soar from + the ground; indeed, when the wings were spread it was scarcely possible + not to soar, but then came the difficulty and the danger. I utterly failed + in the power to use and direct the pinions, though I am considered among + my own race unusually alert and ready in bodily exercises, and am a very + practiced swimmer. I could only make the most confused and blundering + efforts at flight. I was the servant of the wings; the wings were not my + servants—they were beyond my control; and when by a violent strain + of muscle, and, I must fairly own, in that abnormal strength which is + given by excessive fright, I curbed their gyrations and brought them near + to the body, it seemed as if I lost the sustaining power stored in them + and the connecting bladders, as when the air is let out of a balloon, and + found myself precipitated again to the earth; saved, indeed, by some + spasmodic flutterings, from being dashed to pieces, but not saved from the + bruises and the stun of a heavy fall. I would, however, have persevered in + my attempts, but for the advice or the commands of the scientific Zee, who + had benevolently accompanied my flutterings, and, indeed, on the last + occasion, flying just under me, received my form as it fell on her own + expanded wings, and preserved me from breaking my head on the roof of the + pyramid from which we had ascended. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” she said, “that your trials are in vain, not from the fault of + the wings and their appurtenances, nor from any imperfectness and + malformation of your own corpuscular system, but from irremediable, + because organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that the + connection between the will and the agencies of that fluid which has been + subjected to the control of the Vril-ya was never established by the first + discoverers, never achieved by a single generation; it has gone on + increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as it has been + uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, at last, it has + become an instinct; and an infant An of our race wills to fly as + intuitively and unconsciously as he wills to walk. He thus plies his + invented or artificial wings with as much safety as a bird plies those + with which it is born. I did not think sufficiently of this when I allowed + you to try an experiment which allured me, for I have longed to have in + you a companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life is becoming + dear to me.” Herewith the Gy’s voice and face softened, and I felt more + seriously alarmed than I had been in my previous flights. + </p> + <p> + Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit mention of a + custom among the Gy-ei which seems to me very pretty and tender in the + sentiment it implies. A Gy wears wings habitually when yet a virgin—she + joins the Ana in their aerial sports—she adventures alone and afar + into the wilder regions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height + of her soarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, she excels + the opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage she wears wings no + more, she suspends them with her own willing hand over the nuptial couch, + never to be resumed unless the marriage tie be severed by divorce or + death. + </p> + <p> + Now when Zee’s voice and eyes thus softened—and at that softening I + prophetically recoiled and shuddered—Taee, who had accompanied us in + our flights, but who, child-like, had been much more amused with my + awkwardness, than sympathising in my fears or aware of my danger, hovered + over us, poised amidst spread wings, and hearing the endearing words of + the young Gy, laughed aloud. Said he, “If the Tish cannot learn the use of + wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you can suspend your own.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXI. + </h2> + <p> + I had for some time observed in my host’s highly informed and powerfully + proportioned daughter that kindly and protective sentiment which, whether + above the earth or below it, an all-wise Providence has bestowed upon the + feminine division of the human race. But until very lately I had ascribed + it to that affection for ‘pets’ which a human female at every age shares + with a human child. I now became painfully aware that the feeling with + which Zee deigned to regard me was different from that which I had + inspired in Taee. But this conviction gave me none of that complacent + gratification which the vanity of man ordinarily conceives from a + flattering appreciation of his personal merits on the part of the fair + sex; on the contrary, it inspired me with fear. Yet of all the Gy-ei in + the community, if Zee were perhaps the wisest and the strongest, she was, + by common repute, the gentlest, and she was certainly the most popularly + beloved. The desire to aid, to succour, to protect, to comfort, to bless, + seemed to pervade her whole being. Though the complicated miseries that + originate in penury and guilt are unknown to the social system of the + Vril-ya, still, no sage had yet discovered in vril an agency which could + banish sorrow from life; and wherever amongst her people sorrow found its + way, there Zee followed in the mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy + fail to secure the love she sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought + all the resources of her lore, and all the consolations of her sympathy, + to bear upon a grief that so needs the solace of a confidant. In the rare + cases, when grave illness seized upon childhood or youth, and the cases, + less rare, when, in the hardy and adventurous probation of infants, some + accident, attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studies + and her sports, and became the healer and nurse. Her favourite flights + were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain where children were + stationed on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the + invasions of devouring animals, so that she might warn them of any peril + which her knowledge detected or foresaw, or be at hand if any harm had + befallen. Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements there + was a concurrent benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learn any + novelty in invention that would be useful to the practitioner of some + special art or craft? she hastened to communicate and explain it. Was some + veteran sage of the College perplexed and wearied with the toil of an + abstruse study? she would patiently devote herself to his aid, work out + details for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile, quicken his + wit with her luminous suggestion, be to him, as it were, his own good + genius made visible as the strengthener and inspirer. The same tenderness + she exhibited to the inferior creatures. I have often known her bring home + some sick and wounded animal, and tend and cherish it as a mother would + tend and cherish her stricken child. Many a time when I sat in the + balcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I have watched her + rising in the air on her radiant wings, and in a few moments groups of + infants below, catching sight of her, would soar upward with joyous sounds + of greeting; clustering and sporting around her, so that she seemed a very + centre of innocent delight. When I have walked with her amidst the rocks + and valleys without the city, the elk-deer would scent or see her from + afar, come bounding up, eager for the caress of her hand, or follow her + footsteps, till dismissed by some musical whisper that the creature had + learned to comprehend. It is the fashion among the virgin Gy-ei to wear on + their foreheads a circlet, or coronet, with gems resembling opals, + arranged in four points or rays like stars. These are lustreless in + ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand they take a clear lambent + flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This serves as an ornament in + their festivities, and as a lamp, if, in their wanderings beyond their + artificial lights, they have to traverse the dark. There are times, when I + have seen Zee’s thoughtful majesty of face lighted up by this crowning + halo, that I could scarcely believe her to be a creature of mortal birth, + and bent my head before her as the vision of a being among the celestial + orders. But never once did my heart feel for this lofty type of the + noblest womanhood a sentiment of human love. Is it that, among the race I + belong to, man’s pride so far influences his passions that woman loses to + him her special charm of woman if he feels her to be in all things + eminently superior to himself? But by what strange infatuation could this + peerless daughter of a race which, in the supremacy of its powers and the + felicity of its conditions, ranked all other races in the category of + barbarians, have deigned to honour me with her preference? In personal + qualifications, though I passed for good-looking amongst the people I came + from, the handsomest of my countrymen might have seemed insignificant and + homely beside the grand and serene type of beauty which characterised the + aspect of the Vril-ya. + </p> + <p> + That novelty, the very difference between myself and those to whom Zee was + accustomed, might serve to bias her fancy was probable enough, and as the + reader will see later, such a cause might suffice to account for the + predilection with which I was distinguished by a young Gy scarcely out of + her childhood, and very inferior in all respects to Zee. But whoever will + consider those tender characteristics which I have just ascribed to the + daughter of Aph-Lin, may readily conceive that the main cause of my + attraction to her was in her instinctive desire to cherish, to comfort, to + protect, and, in protecting, to sustain and to exalt. Thus, when I look + back, I account for the only weakness unworthy of her lofty nature, which + bowed the daughter of the Vril-ya to a woman’s affection for one so + inferior to herself as was her father’s guest. But be the cause what it + may, the consciousness that I had inspired such affection thrilled me with + awe—a moral awe of her very imperfections, of her mysterious powers, + of the inseparable distinctions between her race and my own; and with that + awe, I must confess to my shame, there combined the more material and + ignoble dread of the perils to which her preference would expose me. + </p> + <p> + Under these anxious circumstances, fortunately, my conscience and sense of + honour were free from reproach. It became clearly my duty, if Zee’s + preference continued manifest, to intimate it to my host, with, of course, + all the delicacy which is ever to be preserved by a well-bred man in + confiding to another any degree of favour by which one of the fair sex may + condescend to distinguish him. Thus, at all events, I should be freed from + responsibility or suspicion of voluntary participation in the sentiments + of Zee; and the superior wisdom of my host might probably suggest some + sage extrication from my perilous dilemma. In this resolve I obeyed the + ordinary instinct of civilised and moral man, who, erring though he be, + still generally prefers the right course in those cases where it is + obviously against his inclinations, his interests, and his safety to elect + the wrong one. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXII. + </h2> + <p> + As the reader has seen, Aph-Lin had not favoured my general and + unrestricted intercourse with his countrywomen. Though relying on my + promise to abstain from giving any information as to the world I had left, + and still more on the promise of those to whom had been put the same + request, not to question me, which Zee had exacted from Taee, yet he did + not feel sure that, if I were allowed to mix with the strangers whose + curiosity the sight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard myself + against their inquiries. When I went out, therefore, it was never alone; I + was always accompanied either by one of my host’s family, or my + child-friend Taee. Bra, Aph-Lin’s wife, seldom stirred beyond the gardens + which surrounded the house, and was fond of reading the ancient + literature, which contained something of romance and adventure not to be + found in the writings of recent ages, and presented pictures of a life + unfamiliar to her experience and interesting to her imagination; pictures, + indeed, of a life more resembling that which we lead every day above + ground, coloured by our sorrows, sins, passions, and much to her what the + tales of the Genii or the Arabian Nights are to us. But her love of + reading did not prevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as mistress + of the largest household in the city. She went daily the round of the + chambers, and saw that the automata and other mechanical contrivances were + in order, that the numerous children employed by Aph-Lin, whether in his + private or public capacity, were carefully tended. Bra also inspected the + accounts of the whole estate, and it was her great delight to assist her + husband in the business connected with his office as chief administrator + of the Lighting Department, so that her avocations necessarily kept her + much within doors. The two sons were both completing their education at + the College of Sages; and the elder, who had a strong passion for + mechanics, and especially for works connected with the machinery of + timepieces and automata, had decided on devoting himself to these + pursuits, and was now occupied in constructing a shop or warehouse, at + which his inventions could be exhibited and sold. The younger son + preferred farming and rural occupations; and when not attending the + College, at which he chiefly studied the theories of agriculture, was much + absorbed by his practical application of that science to his father’s + lands. It will be seen by this how completely equality of ranks is + established among this people—a shopkeeper being of exactly the same + grade in estimation as the large landed proprietor. Aph-Lin was the + wealthiest member of the community, and his eldest son preferred keeping a + shop to any other avocation; nor was this choice thought to show any want + of elevated notions on his part. + </p> + <p> + This young man had been much interested in examining my watch, the works + of which were new to him, and was greatly pleased when I made him a + present of it. Shortly after, he returned the gift with interest, by a + watch of his own construction, marking both the time as in my watch and + the time as kept among the Vril-ya. I have that watch still, and it has + been much admired by many among the most eminent watchmakers of London and + Paris. It is of gold, with diamond hands and figures, and it plays a + favorite tune among the Vril-ya in striking the hours: it only requires to + be wound up once in ten months, and has never gone wrong since I had it. + These young brothers being thus occupied, my usual companions in that + family, when I went abroad, were my host or his daughter. Now, agreeably + with the honourable conclusions I had come to, I began to excuse myself + from Zee’s invitations to go out alone with her, and seized an occasion + when that learned Gy was delivering a lecture at the College of Sages to + ask Aph-Lin to show me his country-seat. As this was at some little + distance, and as Aph-Lin was not fond of walking, while I had discreetly + relinquished all attempts at flying, we proceeded to our destination in + one of the aerial boats belonging to my host. A child of eight years old, + in his employ, was our conductor. My host and myself reclined on cushions, + and I found the movement very easy and luxurious. “Aph-Lin,” said I, “you + will not, I trust, be displeased with me, if I ask your permission to + travel for a short time, and visit other tribes or communities of your + illustrious race. I have also a strong desire to see those nations which + do not adopt your institutions, and which you consider as savages. It + would interest me greatly to notice what are the distinctions between them + and the races whom we consider civilised in the world I have left.” + </p> + <p> + “It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone,” said Aph-Lin. + “Even among the Vril-ya you would be exposed to great dangers. Certain + peculiarities of formation and colour, and the extraordinary phenomenon of + hirsute bushes upon your cheeks and chin, denoting in you a species of An + distinct alike from our own race and any known race of barbarians yet + extant, would attract, of course, the special attention of the College of + Sages in whatever community of Vril-ya you visited, and it would depend + upon the individual temper of some individual sage whether you would be + received, as you have been here, hospitably, or whether you would not be + at once dissected for scientific purposes. Know that when the Tur first + took you to his house, and while you were there put to sleep by Taee in + order to recover from your previous pain or fatigue, the sages summoned by + the Tur were divided in opinion whether you were a harmless or an + obnoxious animal. During your unconscious state your teeth were examined, + and they clearly showed that you were not only graminivorous but + carnivorous. Carnivorous animals of your size are always destroyed, as + being of savage and dangerous nature. Our teeth, as you have doubtless + observed,* are not those of the creatures who devour flesh.” + </p> + <p> + * I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist enough to + have distinguished the difference. + </p> + <p> + “It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, that as, in + remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living beings of the brute species, + their teeth must have been fitted for that purpose. But, even if so, they + have been modified by hereditary transmission, and suited to the food on + which we now exist; nor are even the barbarians, who adopt the turbulent + and ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh like beasts of + prey. + </p> + <p> + “In the course of this dispute it was proposed to dissect you; but Taee + begged you off, and the Tur being, by office, averse to all novel + experiments at variance with our custom of sparing life, except where it + is clearly proved to be for the good of the community to take it, sent to + me, whose business it is, as the richest man of the state, to afford + hospitality to strangers from a distance. It was at my option to decide + whether or not you were a stranger whom I could safely admit. Had I + declined to receive you, you would have been handed over to the College of + Sages, and what might there have befallen you I do not like to conjecture. + Apart from this danger, you might chance to encounter some child of four + years old, just put in possession of his vril staff; and who, in alarm at + your strange appearance, and in the impulse of the moment, might reduce + you to a cinder. Taee himself was about to do so when he first saw you, + had his father not checked his hand. Therefore I say you cannot travel + alone, but with Zee you would be safe; and I have no doubt that she would + accompany you on a tour round the neighbouring communities of Vril-ya (to + the savage states, No!): I will ask her.” + </p> + <p> + Now, as my main object in proposing to travel was to escape from Zee, I + hastily exclaimed, “Nay, pray do not! I relinquish my design. You have + said enough as to its dangers to deter me from it; and I can scarcely + think it right that a young Gy of the personal attractions of your lovely + daughter should travel into other regions without a better protector than + a Tish of my insignificant strength and stature.” + </p> + <p> + Aph-Lin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearest approach to + laughter that a full-grown An permits to himself, ere he replied: “Pardon + my discourteous but momentary indulgence of mirth at any observation + seriously made by my guest. I could not but be amused at the idea of Zee, + who is so fond of protecting others that children call her ‘THE GUARDIAN,’ + needing a protector herself against any dangers arising from the audacious + admiration of males. Know that our Gy-ei, while unmarried, are accustomed + to travel alone among other tribes, to see if they find there some An who + may please them more than the Ana they find at home. Zee has already made + three such journeys, but hitherto her heart has been untouched.” + </p> + <p> + Here the opportunity which I sought was afforded to me, and I said, + looking down, and with faltering voice, “Will you, my kind host, promise + to pardon me, if what I am about to say gives offence?” + </p> + <p> + “Say only the truth, and I cannot be offended; or, could I be so, it would + not be for me, but for you to pardon.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should have like to + witness more of the wonders, and enjoy more of the felicity, which belong + to your people, let me return to my own.” + </p> + <p> + “I fear there are reasons why I cannot do that; at all events, not without + permission of the Tur, and he, probably, would not grant it. You are not + destitute of intelligence; you may (though I do not think so) have + concealed the degree of destructive powers possessed by your people; you + might, in short, bring upon us some danger; and if the Tur entertains that + idea, it would clearly be his duty, either to put an end to you, or + enclose you in a cage for the rest of your existence. But why should you + wish to leave a state of society which you so politely allow to be more + felicitous than your own?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Aph-Lin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, and unwittingly, I + should betray your hospitality; lest, in the caprice of will which in our + world is proverbial among the other sex, and from which even a Gy is not + free, your adorable daughter should deign to regard me, though a Tish, as + if I were a civilised An, and—and—and—-” “Court you as + her spouse,” put in Aph-Lin, gravely, and without any visible sign of + surprise or displeasure. + </p> + <p> + “You have said it.” + </p> + <p> + “That would be a misfortune,” resumed my host, after a pause, “and I feel + you have acted as you ought in warning me. It is, as you imply, not + uncommon for an unwedded Gy to conceive tastes as to the object she covets + which appear whimsical to others; but there is no power to compel a young + Gy to any course opposed to that which she chooses to pursue. All we can + to is to reason with her, and experience tells us that the whole College + of Sages would find it vain to reason with a Gy in a matter that concerns + her choice in love. I grieve for you, because such a marriage would be + against the A-glauran, or good of the community, for the children of such + a marriage would adulterate the race: they might even come into the world + with the teeth of carnivorous animals; this could not be allowed: Zee, as + a Gy, cannot be controlled; but you, as a Tish, can be destroyed. I advise + you, then, to resist her addresses; to tell her plainly that you can never + return her love. This happens constantly. Many an An, however, ardently + wooed by one Gy, rejects her, and puts an end to her persecution by + wedding another. The same course is open to you.” + </p> + <p> + “No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring the community, + and exposing it to the chance of rearing carnivorous children.” + </p> + <p> + “That is true. All I can say, and I say it with the tenderness due to a + Tish, and the respect due to a guest, is frankly this—if you yield, + you will become a cinder. I must leave it to you to take the best way you + can to defend yourself. Perhaps you had better tell Zee that she is ugly. + That assurance on the lips of him she woos generally suffices to chill the + most ardent Gy. Here we are at my country-house.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXIII. + </h2> + <p> + I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extreme coolness with + which he stated his inability to control the dangerous caprice of his + daughter, and treated the idea of the reduction into a cinder to which her + amorous flame might expose my too seductive person, took away the pleasure + I should otherwise have had in the contemplation of my host’s + country-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machinery by which his + farming operations were conducted. The house differed in appearance from + the massive and sombre building which Aph-Lin inhabited in the city, and + which seemed akin to the rocks out of which the city itself had been hewn + into shape. The walls of the country-seat were composed by trees placed a + few feet apart from each other, the interstices being filled in with the + transparent metallic substance which serves the purpose of glass among the + Ana. These trees were all in flower, and the effect was very pleasing, if + not in the best taste. We were received at the porch by life-like + automata, who conducted us into a chamber, the like to which I never saw + before, but have often on summer days dreamily imagined. It was a bower—half + room, half garden. The walls were one mass of climbing flowers. The open + spaces, which we call windows, and in which, here, the metallic surfaces + were slided back, commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape + with its lakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering to our + conservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along the sides of the room + were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions for repose. In the centre of + the floor was a cistern and a fountain of that liquid light which I have + presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate hue; it sufficed + without lamps to light up the room with a subdued radiance. All around the + fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, not green (I have never + seen that colour in the vegetation of this country), but a quiet brown, on + which the eye reposes with the same sense of relief as that with which in + the upper world it reposes on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I + have compared to our conservatories) there were singing birds innumerable, + which, while we remained in the room, sang in those harmonies of tune to + which they are, in these parts, so wonderfully trained. The roof was open. + The whole scene had charms for every sense—music form the birds, + fragrance from the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect. + About all was a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, for a + honeymoon, if a Gy bride were a little less formidably armed not only with + the rights of woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a + Gy, so learned, so tall, so stately, so much above the standard of the + creature we call woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of being + reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in that bower + so constructed for dreams of poetic love. + </p> + <p> + The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids which form + the innocent wines of the Vril-ya. + </p> + <p> + “Truly,” said I, “this is a charming residence, and I can scarcely + conceive why you do not settle yourself here instead of amid the gloomier + abodes of the city.” + </p> + <p> + “As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am + compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can only come hither for + short intervals.” + </p> + <p> + “But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to your + office, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept it?” + </p> + <p> + “Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, ‘Be it + requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner of Light,’ so I had no + choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares, which + were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at least endurable. + We are all formed by custom—even the difference of our race from the + savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, which becomes, + through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You see there + are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the responsibilities of chief + magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not been rendered so + light, or if there were any questions as to compliance with his requests.” + </p> + <p> + “Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?” + </p> + <p> + “We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes on as + if each and all governed themselves according to immemorial custom.” + </p> + <p> + “When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide for his + successor?” + </p> + <p> + “The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for many years + is the best person to choose one by whom those duties may be understood, + and he generally names his successor.” + </p> + <p> + “His son, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, and a + father naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if the Tur himself + decline to make a choice, for fear it might be supposed that he owed some + grudge to the person on whom his choice would settle, then there are three + of the College of Sages who draw lots among themselves which shall have + the power to elect the chief. We consider that the judgment of one An of + ordinary capacity is better than the judgment of three or more, however + wise they may be; for among three there would probably be disputes, and + where there are disputes, passion clouds judgment. The worst choice made + by one who has no motive in choosing wrong, is better than the best choice + made by many who have many motives for not choosing right.” + </p> + <p> + “You reverse in your policy the maxims adopted in my country.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you all, in your country, satisfied with your governors?” + </p> + <p> + “All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are sure to be + those most displeasing to others.” + </p> + <p> + “Then our system is better than yours.” “For you it may be; but according + to our system a Tish could not be reduced to a cinder if a female + compelled him to marry her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my native + world.” + </p> + <p> + “Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can’t compel you to marry her. + She can only entice you to do so. Don’t be enticed. Come and look round my + domain.” + </p> + <p> + We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though the Ana keep + no stock for food, there are some animals which they rear for milking and + others for shearing. The former have no resemblance to our cows, nor the + latter to our sheep, nor do I believe such species exist amongst them. + They use the milk of three varieties of animal: one resembles the + antelope, but is much larger, being as tall as a camel; the other two are + smaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other, resemble no + creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleek and of rounded + proportions; their colour that of the dappled deer, with very mild + countenances and beautiful dark eyes. The milk of these three creatures + differs in richness and taste. It is usually diluted with water, and + flavoured with the juice of a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itself + is very nutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves them for + clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italian she-goat than + any other creature, but is considerably larger, has no horns, and is free + from the displeasing odour of our goats. Its fleece is not thick, but very + long and fine; it varies in colour, but is never white, more generally of + a slate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it is usually worn dyed to suit + the taste of the wearer. These animals were exceedingly tame, and were + treated with extraordinary care and affection by the children (chiefly + female) who tended them. + </p> + <p> + We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and fruits. I may + here observe that the main staple of food among these people consists—firstly, + of a kind of corn much larger in ear than our wheat, and which by culture + is perpetually being brought into new varieties of flavour; and, secondly, + of a fruit of about the size of a small orange, which, when gathered, is + hard and bitter. It is stowed away for many months in their warehouses, + and then becomes succulent and tender. Its juice, which is of dark-red + colour, enters into most of their sauces. They have many kinds of fruit of + the nature of the olive, from which delicious oils are extracted. They + have a plant somewhat resembling the sugar-cane, but its juices are less + sweet and of a delicate perfume. They have no bees nor honey-making + insects, but they make much use of a sweet gum that oozes from a + coniferous plant, not unlike the araucaria. Their soil teems also with + esculent roots and vegetables, which it is the aim of their culture to + improve and vary to the utmost. And I never remember any meal among this + people, however it might be confined to the family household, in which + some delicate novelty in such articles of food was not introduced. In + fine, as I before observed, their cookery is exquisite, so diversified and + nutritious that one does not miss animal food; and their own physical + forms suffice to show that with them, at least, meat is not required for + superior production of muscular fibre. They have no grapes—the + drinks extracted from their fruits are innocent and refreshing. Their + staple beverage, however, is water, in the choice of which they are very + fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightest impurity. + </p> + <p> + “My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our produce,” said + Aph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses, “and therefore will inherit + these lands, which constitute the chief part of my wealth. To my elder son + such inheritance would be a great trouble and affliction.” + </p> + <p> + “Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealth + would be a great trouble and affliction?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do not consider + that a fortune much above the average is a heavy burden. We are rather a + lazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing more + cares than we can help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. + For instance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of us like + and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a continued interest + in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we may anticipate + their wants and see that none fall into poverty. There is an old proverb + amongst us which says, ‘The poor man’s need is the rich man’s shame—-’” + </p> + <p> + “Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, even of + the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief.” + </p> + <p> + “If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a Koom-Posh, THAT is + impossible with us, unless an An has, by some extraordinary process, got + rid of all his means, cannot or will not emigrate, and has either tired + out the affectionate aid of this relations or personal friends, or refuses + to accept it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or automaton, and + become a labourer—a servant?” + </p> + <p> + “No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound reason, and + place him, at the expense of the State, in a public building, where every + comfort and every luxury that can mitigate his affliction are lavished + upon him. But an An does not like to be considered out of his mind, and + therefore such cases occur so seldom that the public building I speak of + is now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An whom I + recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem conscious of loss + of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I spoke of wants, I meant such + wants as an An with desires larger than his means sometimes entertains—for + expensive singing-birds, or bigger houses, or country-gardens; and the + obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of him something that he + sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, are obliged to buy a + great many things they do not require, and live on a very large scale + where they might prefer to live on a small one. For instance, the great + size of my house in the town is a source of much trouble to my wife, and + even to myself; but I am compelled to have it thus incommodiously large, + because, as the richest An of the community, I am appointed to entertain + the strangers from the other communities when they visit us, which they do + in great crowds twice-a-year, when certain periodical entertainments are + held, and when relations scattered throughout all the realms of the + Vril-ya joyfully reunite for a time. This hospitality, on a scale so + extensive, is not to my taste, and therefore I should have been happier + had I been less rich. But we must all bear the lot assigned to us in this + short passage through time that we call life. After all, what are a + hundred years, more or less, to the ages through which we must pass + hereafter? Luckily, I have one son who likes great wealth. It is a rare + exception to the general rule, and I own I cannot myself understand it.” + </p> + <p> + After this conversation I sought to return to the subject which continued + to weigh on my heart—viz., the chances of escape from Zee. But my + host politely declined to renew that topic, and summoned our air-boat. On + our way back we were met by Zee, who, having found us gone, on her return + from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings and flown in search of + us. + </p> + <p> + Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as she beheld me, + and, poising herself beside the boat on her large outspread plumes, she + said reproachfully to Aph-Lin—“Oh, father, was it right in you to + hazard the life of your guest in a vehicle to which he is so unaccustomed? + He might, by an incautious movement, fall over the side; and alas; he is + not like us, he has no wings. It were death to him to fall. Dear one!” + (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softer voice), “have you no + thought of me, that you should thus hazard a life which has become almost + a part of mine? Never again be thus rash, unless I am thy companion. What + terror thou hast stricken into me!” + </p> + <p> + I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that he would + indignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of anxiety and affection, + which, under all the circumstances, would, in the world above ground, be + considered immodest in the lips of a young female, addressed to a male not + affianced to her, even if of the same rank as herself. + </p> + <p> + But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, and so + absolutely foremost among those rights do females claim the privilege of + courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thought of reproving his virgin + daughter than he would have thought of disobeying the orders of the Tur. + In that country, custom, as he implied, is all in all. + </p> + <p> + He answered mildly, “Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my belief the + he can take very good care of himself.” + </p> + <p> + “I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. Oh, heart of + my heart, it was in the thought of thy danger that I first felt how much I + loved thee!” + </p> + <p> + Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These words were + spoken loud in the hearing of Zee’s father—in the hearing of the + child who steered. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could + not help replying angrily: “Zee, either you mock me, which, as your + father’s guest, misbecomes you, or the words you utter are improper for a + maiden Gy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed + her with the consent of her parents. How much more improper to address + them to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your affections, and who + can never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence and + awe!” + </p> + <p> + Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. “Be not so + cruel!” exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. “Can love command itself + where it is truly felt? Do you suppose that a maiden Gy will conceal a + sentiment that it elevates her to feel? What a country you must have come + from!” + </p> + <p> + Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, “Among the Tish-a the rights of + your sex do not appear to be established, and at all events my guest may + converse with you more freely if unchecked by the presence of others.” + </p> + <p> + To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender reproachful + glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward. + </p> + <p> + “I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host,” I said bitterly, “in + the perils to which his own daughter exposes me.” + </p> + <p> + “I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairs + is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel to come between her and + her affections.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXIV. + </h2> + <p> + On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in the hall with + a request that he would be present at the funeral obsequies of a relation + who had recently departed from that nether world. + </p> + <p> + Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst this people, and, + glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion to defer an encounter with + Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might be permitted to witness with him the + interment of his relation; unless, indeed, it were regarded as one of + those sacred ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not be + admitted. + </p> + <p> + “The departure of an An to a happier world,” answered my host, “when, as + in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long in this as to have lost + pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful though quiet festival than a sacred + ceremony, and you may accompany me if you will.” + </p> + <p> + Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main street to a house + at some little distance, and, entering the hall, were conducted to a room + on the ground floor, where we found several persons assembled round a + couch on which was laid the deceased. It was an old man, who had, as I was + told, lived beyond his 130th year. To judge by the calm smile on his + countenance, he had passed away without suffering. One of the sons, who + was now the head of the family, and who seemed in vigorous middle life, + though he was considerably more than seventy, stepped forward with a + cheerful face and told Aph-Lin “that the day before he died his father had + seen in a dream his departed Gy, and was eager to be reunited to her, and + restored to youth beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good.” + </p> + <p> + While these two were talking, my attention was drawn to a dark metallic + substance at the farther end of the room. It was about twenty feet in + length, narrow in proportion, and all closed round, save, near the roof, + there were small round holes through which might be seen a red light. From + the interior emanated a rich and sweet perfume; and while I was + conjecturing what purpose this machine was to serve, all the time-pieces + in the town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and as that + sound ceased, music of a more joyous character, but still of a joy subdued + and tranquil, rang throughout the chamber, and from the walls beyond, in a + choral peal. Symphonious with the melody, those in the room lifted their + voices in chant. The words of this hymn were simple. They expressed no + regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to the new world whither the + deceased had preceded the living. Indeed, in their language, the funeral + hymn is called the ‘Birth Song.’ Then the corpse, covered by a long + cerement, was tenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk and borne + towards the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward to see what + happened. A sliding door or panel at one end was lifted up—the body + deposited within, on a shelf—the door reclosed—a spring a the + side touched—a sudden ‘whishing,’ sighing sound heard from within; + and lo! at the other end of the machine the lid fell down, and a small + handful of smouldering dust dropped into a ‘patera’ placed to receive it. + The son took up the ‘patera’ and said (in what I understood afterwards was + the usual form of words), “Behold how great is the Maker! To this little + dust He gave form and life and soul. It needs not this little dust for Him + to renew form and life and soul to the beloved one we shall soon see + again.” + </p> + <p> + Each present bowed his head and pressed his hand to his heart. Then a + young female child opened a small door within the wall, and I perceived, + in the recess, shelves on which were placed many ‘paterae’ like that which + the son held, save that they all had covers. With such a cover a Gy now + approached the son, and placed it over the cup, on which it closed with a + spring. On the lid were engraven the name of the deceased, and these + words:—“Lent to us” (here the date of birth). “Recalled from us” + (here the date of death). + </p> + <p> + The closed door shut with a musical sound, and all was over. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXV. + </h2> + <p> + “And this,” said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed—“this, + I presume, is your usual form of burial?” + </p> + <p> + “Our invariable form,” answered Aph-Lin. “What is it amongst your people?” + </p> + <p> + “We inter the body whole within the earth.” + </p> + <p> + “What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the wife on whose + breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of corruption?” “But if the + soul lives again, can it matter whether the body waste within the earth or + is reduced by that awful mechanism, worked, no doubt by the agency of + vril, into a pinch of dust?” + </p> + <p> + “You answer well,” said my host, “and there is no arguing on a matter of + feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and repulsive, and would serve + to invest death with gloomy and hideous associations. It is something, + too, to my mind, to be able to preserve the token of what has been our + kinsman or friend within the abode in which we live. We thus feel more + sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But our + sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by custom. Custom is not + to be changed by a wise An, any more than it is changed by a wise + Community, without the greatest deliberation, followed by the most earnest + conviction. It is only thus that change ceases to be changeability, and + once made is made for good.” + </p> + <p> + When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the children in his + service and sent them round to several of his friends, requesting their + attendance that day, during the Easy Hours, to a festival in honour of his + kinsman’s recall to the All-Good. This was the largest and gayest assembly + I ever witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was prolonged far into + the Silent Hours. + </p> + <p> + The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially for grand + occasions. This differed from our entertainments, and was not without a + certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the Roman + empire. There was not one great table set out, but numerous small tables, + each appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond that + number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The Ana never laugh + loud, as I have before observed, but the cheerful ring of their voices at + the various tables betokened gaiety of intercourse. As they have no + stimulant drinks, and are temperate in food, though so choice and dainty, + the banquet itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor, + and then came musical entertainments for those who liked them. Many, + however, wandered away:—some of the younger ascended in their wings, + for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; others strolled through + the various apartments, examining the curiosities with which they were + stored, or formed themselves into groups for various games, the favourite + of which is a complicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed + with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the conversation by the + constant companionship of one or the other of my host’s sons, appointed to + keep me from obtrusive questionings. The guests, however, noticed me but + slightly; they had grown accustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often + in the streets, and I had ceased to excite much curiosity. + </p> + <p> + To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to excite my + jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome young An, who (though, as + is the modest custom of the males when addressed by females, he answered + with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young + ladies new to the world are in most civilised countries, except England + and America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and ready to + falter a bashful “Yes” if she had actually proposed. Fervently hoping that + she would, and more and more averse to the idea of reduction to a cinder + after I had seen the rapidity with which a human body can be hurried into + a pinch of dust, I amused myself by watching the manners of the other + young people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was no singular + assertor of a female’s most valued rights. Wherever I turned my eyes, or + lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy was the wooing party, and the An + the coy and reluctant one. The pretty innocent airs which an An gave + himself on being thus courted, the dexterity with which he evaded direct + answers to professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering + compliments addressed to him, would have done honour to the most + accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were subjected greatly to + these seductive influences, and both acquitted themselves with wonderful + honour to their tact and self-control. + </p> + <p> + I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments to the + management of a great property, and who was of an eminently philosophical + temperament,—“I find it difficult to conceive how at your age, and + with all the intoxicating effects on the senses, of music and lights and + perfumes, you can be so cold to that impassioned young Gy who has just + left you with tears in her eyes at your cruelty.” + </p> + <p> + The young An replied with a sigh, “Gentle Tish, the greatest misfortune in + life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with another.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! You are in love with another?” + </p> + <p> + “Alas! Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “And she does not return your love?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but she has + never plainly told me that she loves me.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?” + </p> + <p> + “Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from? Could I so + betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly—so lost to + shame, as to own love to a Gy who has not first owned hers to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex so + far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, ‘I love you,’ till she says it first + to him?” + </p> + <p> + “I can’t say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does, he is + disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised by the Gy-ei. No + Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she would consider that he + audaciously infringed on the rights of her sex, while outraging the + modesty which dignifies his own. It is very provoking,” continued the An, + “for she whom I love has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but + think she likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me because + she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as to the surrender of + her rights. But if so, she cannot really love me, for where a Gy really + loves she forgoes all rights.” + </p> + <p> + “Is this young Gy present?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother.” + </p> + <p> + I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided, and saw a Gy + dressed in robes of bright red, which among this people is a sign that a + Gy as yet prefers a single state. She wears gray, a neutral tint, to + indicate that she is looking about for a spouse; dark purple if she wishes + to intimate that she has made a choice; purple and orange when she is + betrothed or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, and + would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen. + </p> + <p> + Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is difficult + to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young friend’s choice seemed + to me to possess the average of good looks; but there was an expression in + her face that pleased me more than did the faces of the young Gy-ei + generally, because it looked less bold—less conscious of female + rights. I observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from time + to time, sidelong at my young friend. + </p> + <p> + “Courage,” said I, “that young Gy loves you.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?” + </p> + <p> + “Your mother is aware of your attachment?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to confide such + weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he may have told it again to + his wife.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind your mother + and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about you. Do not hesitate. I + promise that I will not allow myself to be questioned till I rejoin you.” + </p> + <p> + The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly on the + head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole unobserved behind his + mother and his beloved. I overheard their talk. Bra was speaking; said + she, “There can be no doubt of this: either my son, who is of marriageable + age, will be decoyed into marriage with one of his many suitors, or he + will join those who emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. + If you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should propose.” + </p> + <p> + “I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win his + affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces; and I am not like + Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not enter into his favourite + pursuits, and then he would get tired of me, and at the end of three years + divorce me, and I could never marry another—never.” + </p> + <p> + “It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be so + necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for timepieces, that he + would rather give up the timepieces than divorce his Gy. You see, my dear + Lo,” continued Bra, “that precisely because we are the stronger sex, we + rule the other provided we never show our strength. If you were superior + to my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as his wife, + always let him suppose you thought him superior in that art to yourself. + The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the Gy in all except his own + special pursuit. But if she either excels him in that, or affects not to + admire him for his proficiency in it, he will not love her very long; + perhaps he may even divorce her. But where a Gy really loves, she soon + learns to love all that the An does.” + </p> + <p> + The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down musingly, + then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still silent, and went + through the crowd till she paused by the young An who loved her. I + followed her steps, but discreetly stood at a little distance while I + watched them. Somewhat to my surprise, till I recollected the coy tactics + among the Ana, the lover seemed to receive her advances with an air of + indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps, and, a little + time after, both spread their wings and vanished amid the luminous space + above. + </p> + <p> + Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled with the + crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or homage. It so happened + that I had not seen this great dignitary since the day I had entered his + dominions, and recalling Aph-Lin’s words as to his terrible doubt whether + or not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the sight of his + tranquil countenance. + </p> + <p> + “I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee,” said the Tur, laying his + hand politely on my bended head. “He is very fond of your society, and I + trust you are not displeased with the customs of our people.” + </p> + <p> + I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be an assurance + of my gratitude for the kindness I had received from the Tur, and my + admiration of his countrymen, but the dissecting-knife gleamed before my + mind’s eye and choked my utterance. A softer voice said, “My brother’s + friend must be dear to me.” And looking up I saw a young Gy, who might be + sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and gazing at me with a + very benignant countenance. She had not come to her full growth, and was + scarcely taller than myself (viz., about feet 10 inches), and, thanks to + that comparatively diminutive stature, I thought her the loveliest Gy I + had hitherto seen. I suppose something in my eyes revealed that + impression, for her countenance grew yet more benignant. “Taee tells me,” + she said, “that you have not yet learned to accustom yourself to wings. + That grieves me, for I should have liked to fly with you.” + </p> + <p> + “Alas!” I replied, “I can never hope to enjoy that happiness. I am assured + by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary gift, and it would take + generations before one of my race could poise himself in the air like a + bird.” “Let not that thought vex you too much,” replied this amiable + Princess, “for, after all, there must come a day when Zee and myself must + resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that day comes we might be glad if + the An we chose was also without wings.” + </p> + <p> + The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began to feel at + ease with Taee’s charming sister, and rather startled her by the boldness + of my compliment in replying, “that no An she could choose would ever use + his wings to fly away from her.” It is so against custom for an An to say + such civil things to a Gy till she has declared her passion for him, and + been accepted as his betrothed, that the young maiden stood quite + dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she did not seem displeased. + At last recovering herself, she invited me to accompany her into one of + the less crowded rooms and listen to the songs of the birds. I followed + her steps as she glided before me, and she led me into a chamber almost + deserted. A fountain of naphtha was playing in the centre of the room; + round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls of the room were open on + one side to an aviary in which the birds were chanting their artful + chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of the divans, and I placed myself at + her side. “Taee tells me,” she said, “that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of + his house that you are not to be questioned as to the country you come + from or the reason why you visit us. Is it so?” + </p> + <p> + * Literally “has said, In this house be it requested.” Words synonymous + with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular + people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur that his College of Sages + should dissect me, the decree would have ran blandly thus,—“Be it + requested that, for the good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be + requested to submit himself to dissection.” + </p> + <p> + “It is.” + </p> + <p> + “May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at least if the + Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colour as yourself, and no + taller?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of Aph-Lin, which + is more binding on myself than any one, if I answer questions so innocent. + The Gy-ei in my country are much fairer of hue than I am, and their + average height is at least a head shorter than mine.” + </p> + <p> + “They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I suppose their + superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary disadvantage of size?” + </p> + <p> + “They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still they are + very powerful in my country, and an An has small chance of a happy life if + he be not more or less governed by his Gy.” + </p> + <p> + “You speak feelingly,” said Taee’s sister, in a tone of voice half sad, + half petulant. “You are married, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “No—certainly not.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor betrothed?” + </p> + <p> + “Nor betrothed.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?” + </p> + <p> + “In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first.” + </p> + <p> + “What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!” said the maiden, “and + what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed, never loved + one Gy more than another?” + </p> + <p> + I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, “Pardon me, + but I think we are beginning to infringe upon Aph-Lin’s injunction. This + much only will I answer, and then, I implore you, ask no more. I did once + feel the preference you speak of; I did propose, and the Gy would + willingly have accepted me, but her parents refused their consent.” + </p> + <p> + “Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can interfere with + the choice of their daughters?” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed they can, and do very often.” + </p> + <p> + “I should not like to live in that country,” said the Gy simply; “but I + hope you will never go back to it.” + </p> + <p> + I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with her right + hand, and looked into it tenderly. “Stay with us,” she said; “stay with + us, and be loved.” What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming a + cinder I might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the light + of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and Zee, + flying though the open roof, alighted beside us. She said not a word, but, + taking my arm with her mighty hand, she drew me away, as a mother draws a + naughty child, and led me through the apartments to one of the corridors, + on which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to stairs, we ascended to + my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my forehead, touched my breast + with her staff, and I was instantly plunged into a profound sleep. + </p> + <p> + When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds in the + adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee’s sister, her gentle looks and + caressing words, vividly returned to me; and so impossible is it for one + born and reared in our upper world’s state of society to divest himself of + ideas dictated by vanity and ambition, that I found myself instinctively + building proud castles in the air. + </p> + <p> + “Tish though I be,” thus ran my meditations—“Tish though I be, it is + then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance can captivate. + Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first maiden of this land, the + daughter of the absolute Monarch whose autocracy they so idly seek to + disguise by the republican title of chief magistrate. But for the sudden + swoop of that horrible Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed + to me; and though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a + subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten me with + destruction if I accept his daughter’s hand, yet a Sovereign, whose word + is law, could compel the community to abrogate any custom that forbids + intermarriage with one of a strange race, and which in itself is a + contradiction to their boasted equality of ranks. + </p> + <p> + “It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with such + incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would not have + sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me from the combustion + to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form. And if I were exalted by such an + alliance, who knows but what the Monarch might elect me as his successor? + Why not? Few among this indolent race of philosophers like the burden of + such greatness. All might be pleased to see the supreme power lodged in + the hands of an accomplished stranger who has experience of other and + livelier forms of existence; and once chosen, what reforms I would + institute! What additions to the really pleasant but too monotonous life + of this realm my familiarity with the civilised nations above ground would + effect! I am fond of the sports of the field. Next to war, is not the + chase a king’s pastime? In what varieties of strange game does this nether + world abound? How interesting to strike down creatures that were known + above ground before the Deluge! But how? By that terrible vril, in which, + from want of hereditary transmission, I could never be a proficient? No, + but by a civilised handy breech-loader, which these ingenious mechanicians + could not only make, but no doubt improve; nay, surely I saw one in the + Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, I should discountenance vril altogether, + except in cases of war. Apropos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a + people so intelligent, so rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of + territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction + a mere philosophical crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in + human nature, such as has been partially, and with complete failure, tried + in the upper world by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go + to war with the neighbouring nations as well armed as one’s own subjects; + but then, what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, + and apparently resembling, in their democratic institutions, my American + countrymen? One might invade them without offence to the vril nations, our + allies, appropriate their territories, extending, perhaps, to the most + distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire in which + the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over those regions + there was no sun to set). As for the fantastical notion against conceding + fame or renown to an eminent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal of + honours insures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angry passions, + and mars the felicity of peace—it is opposed to the very elements, + not only of the human, but of the brute creation, which are all, if + tamable, participators in the sentiment of praise and emulation. What + renown would be given to a king who thus extended his empire! I should be + deemed a demigod.” Thinking of that, the other fanatical notion of + regulating this life by reference to one which, no doubt, we Christians + firmly believe in, but never take into consideration, I resolved that + enlightened philosophy compelled me to abolish a heathen religion so + superstitiously at variance with modern thought and practical action. + Musing over these various projects, I felt how much I should have liked at + that moment to brighten my wits by a good glass of whiskey-and-water. Not + that I am habitually a spirit-drinker, but certainly there are times when + a little stimulant of alcoholic nature, taken with a cigar, enlivens the + imagination. Yes; certainly among these herbs and fruits there would be a + liquid from which one could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a + steak cut off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject the + animal food which our first medical men agree in recommending to the + gastric juices of mankind!) one would certainly pass a more exhilarating + hour of repast. Then, too, instead of those antiquated dramas performed by + childish amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our modern + opera and a ‘corps de ballet,’ for which one might find, among the nations + I shall conquer, young females of less formidable height and thews than + the Gy-ei—not armed with vril, and not insisting upon one’s marrying + them. + </p> + <p> + I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, political, social, + and moral, calculated to bestow on the people of the nether world the + blessings of a civilisation known to the races of the upper, that I did + not perceive that Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a deep sigh, + and, raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch. + </p> + <p> + I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a Gy can, + without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although an An would be + considered forward and immodest to the last degree if he entered the + chamber of a Gy without previously obtaining her permission to do so. + Fortunately I was in the full habiliments I had worn when Zee had + deposited me on the couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well as + shocked, by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted. + </p> + <p> + “Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you,” said she, “for I am very + unhappy. I have not slept since we parted.” + </p> + <p> + “A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father’s guest might + well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids. Where was the affection + you pretend to have for me, where was even that politeness on which the + Vril-ya pride themselves, when, taking advantage alike of that physical + strength in which your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our own, + and of those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of vril + invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to humiliation before + your assembled visitors, before Her Royal Highness—I mean, the + daughter of your own chief magistrate,—carrying me off to bed like a + naughty infant, and plunging me into sleep, without asking my consent?” + </p> + <p> + “Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love? Can you + think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends upon love till + it fades away in blissful trust when we know that the heart we have wooed + is won, I could be indifferent to the perils to which the audacious + overtures of that silly little child might expose you?” “Hold! Since you + introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps does not misbecome me to say + that my most imminent perils come from yourself, or at least would come if + I believed in your love and accepted your addresses. Your father has told + me plainly that in that case I should be consumed into a cinder with as + little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee blasted into ashes + with the flash of his wand.” + </p> + <p> + “Do not let that fear chill your heart to me,” exclaimed Zee, dropping on + her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space of her ample palm. “It + is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed as those of the same race wed; + true that the love between us must be pure as that which, in our belief, + exists between lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that boundary at + which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to be together, + wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left my father. He + consents to our union on those terms. I have sufficient influence with the + College of Sages to insure their request to the Tur not to interfere with + the free choice of a Gy; provided that her wedding with one of another + race be but the wedding of souls. Oh, think you that true love needs + ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your side in this + life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows here: I ask here for + a tie which will bind us for ever and for ever in the world of immortals. + Do you reject me?” + </p> + <p> + As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face was changed; + nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a divine light, as that of an + immortal, shining out from its human beauty. But she rather awed me as an + angel than moved me as a woman, and after an embarrassed pause, I faltered + forth evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as delicately as I + could, to point out how humiliating would be my position amongst her race + in the light of a husband who might never be permitted the name of father. + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Zee, “this community does not constitute the whole world. No; + nor do all the populations comprised in the league of the Vril-ya. For thy + sake I will renounce my country and my people. We will fly together to + some region where thou shalt be safe. I am strong enough to bear thee on + my wings across the deserts that intervene. I am skilled enough to cleave + open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build our home. Solitude and a + hut with thee would be to me society and the universe. Or wouldst thou + return to thine own world, above the surface of this, exposed to the + uncertain seasons, and lit but by the changeful orbs which constitute by + thy description the fickle character of those savage regions? I so, speak + the word, and I will force the way for thy return, so that I am thy + companion there, though, there as here, but partner of thy soul, and + fellow traveller with thee to the world in which there is no parting and + no death.” + </p> + <p> + I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once so pure and + so impassioned, with which these words were uttered, and in a voice that + would have rendered musical the roughest sounds in the rudest tongue. And + for a moment it did occur to me that I might avail myself of Zee’s agency + to effect a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But a very brief + space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable and base a + return for such devotion it would be to allure thus away, from her own + people and a home in which I had been so hospitably treated, a creature to + whom our world would be so abhorrent, and for whose barren, if spiritual + love, I could not reconcile myself to renounce the more human affection of + mates less exalted above my erring self. With this sentiment of duty + towards the Gy combined another of duty towards the whole race I belonged + to. Could I venture to introduce into the upper world a being so + formidably gifted—a being that with a movement of her staff could in + less than an hour reduce New York and its glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch + of snuff? Rob her of her staff, with her science she could easily + construct another; and with the deadly lightnings that armed the slender + engine her whole frame was charged. If thus dangerous to the cities and + populations of the whole upper earth, could she be a safe companion to + myself in case her affection should be subjected to change or embittered + by jealousy? These thoughts, which it takes so many words to express, + passed rapidly through my brain and decided my answer. + </p> + <p> + “Zee,” I said, in the softest tones I could command and pressing + respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine vanished—“Zee, I + can find no words to say how deeply I am touched, and how highly I am + honoured, by a love so disinterested and self-immolating. My best return + to it is perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs of + yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are equally opposed + to such a union between those of races so widely differing. On the other + hand, though not deficient in courage among my own people, or amid dangers + with which I am familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of horror, think of + constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal chaos, with all the + elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic gases, at war with each + other, and with the probability that at some moment, while you were busied + in cleaving rocks or conveying vril into lamps, I should be devoured by a + krek which your operations disturbed from its hiding-place. I, a mere + Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, so brilliant, so learned, so potent + as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve that love, for I cannot return it.” + </p> + <p> + Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face away to hide + her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along the room, and paused at + the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as by a new thought, she returned to my + side and said, in a whispered tone,— + </p> + <p> + “You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With perfect + frankness, then, answer me this question. If you cannot love me, do you + love another?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly, I do not.” + </p> + <p> + “You do not love Taee’s sister?” + </p> + <p> + “I never saw her before last night.” “That is no answer. Love is swifter + than vril. You hesitate to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy that + prompts me to caution you. If the Tur’s daughter should declare love to + you—if in her ignorance she confides to her father any preference + that may justify his belief that she will woo you, he will have no option + but to request your immediate destruction, as he is specially charged with + the duty of consulting the good of the community, which could not allow + the daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the Tish-a, in that sense of + marriage which does not confine itself to union of the souls. Alas! there + would then be for you no escape. She has no strength of wing to uphold you + through the air; she has no science wherewith to make a home in the + wilderness. Believe that here my friendship speaks, and that my jealousy + is silent.” + </p> + <p> + With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I thought no more + of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or of the political, social, + and moral reforms I should institute in the capacity of Absolute + Sovereign. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXVI. + </h2> + <p> + After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a profound + melancholy. The curious interest with which I had hitherto examined the + life and habits of this marvellous community was at an end. I could not + banish from my mind the consciousness that I was among a people who, + however kind and courteous, could destroy me at any moment without scruple + or compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the people which, while + new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the contentions, the passions, + the vices of the upper world, now began to oppress me with a sense of + dulness and monotony. Even the serene tranquility of the lustrous air + preyed on my spirits. I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, or + darkness. I began to feel that, whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our + restless aspirations towards a better, and higher, and calmer, sphere of + being, we, the mortals of the upper world, are not trained or fitted to + enjoy for long the very happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire. + </p> + <p> + Now, in this social state of the Vril-ya, it was singular to mark how it + contrived to unite and to harmonise into one system nearly all the objects + which the various philosophers of the upper world have placed before human + hopes as the ideals of a Utopian future. It was a state in which war, with + all its calamities, was deemed impossible,—a state in which the + freedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree, without one + of those animosities which make freedom in the upper world depend on the + perpetual strife of hostile parties. Here the corruption which debases + democracies was as unknown as the discontents which undermine the thrones + of monarchies. Equality here was not a name; it was a reality. Riches were + not persecuted, because they were not envied. Here those problems + connected with the labours of a working class, hitherto insoluble above + ground, and above ground conducing to such bitterness between classes, + were solved by a process the simplest,—a distinct and separate + working class was dispensed with altogether. Mechanical inventions, + constructed on the principles that baffled my research to ascertain, + worked by an agency infinitely more powerful and infinitely more easy of + management than aught we have yet extracted from electricity or steam, + with the aid of children whose strength was never overtasked, but who + loved their employment as sport and pastime, sufficed to create a + Public-wealth so devoted to the general use that not a grumbler was ever + heard of. The vices that rot our cities here had no footing. Amusements + abounded, but they were all innocent. No merry-makings conduced to + intoxication, to riot, to disease. Love existed, and was ardent in + pursuit, but its object, once secured, was faithful. The adulterer, the + profligate, the harlot, were phenomena so unknown in this commonwealth, + that even to find the words by which they were designated one would have + had to search throughout an obsolete literature composed thousands of + years before. They who have been students of theoretical philosophies + above ground, know that all these strange departures from civilised life + do but realise ideas which have been broached, canvassed, ridiculed, + contested for; sometimes partially tried, and still put forth in fantastic + books, but have never come to practical result. Nor were these all the + steps towards theoretical perfectibility which this community had made. It + had been the sober belief of Descartes that the life of man could be + prolonged, not, indeed, on this earth, to eternal duration, but to what he + called the age of the patriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to + 150 years average length. Well, even this dream of sages was here + fulfilled—nay, more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middle life + was preserved even after the term of a century was passed. With this + longevity was combined a greater blessing than itself—that of + continuous health. Such diseases as befell the race were removed with ease + by scientific applications of that agency—life-giving as + life-destroying—which is inherent in vril. Even this idea is not + unknown above ground, though it has generally been confined to enthusiasts + or charlatans, and emanates from confused notions about mesmerism, odic + force, &c. Passing by such trivial contrivances as wings, which every + schoolboy knows has been tried and found wanting, from the mythical or + pre-historical period, I proceed to that very delicate question, urged of + late as essential to the perfect happiness of our human species by the two + most disturbing and potential influences on upper-ground society,—Womankind + and Philosophy. I mean, the Rights of Women. + </p> + <p> + Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of rights + where there are not corresponding powers to enforce them; and above + ground, for some reason or other, man, in his physical force, in the use + of weapons offensive and defensive, when it come to positive personal + contest, can, as a rule of general application, master women. But among + this people there can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as I + have before said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger and stronger than + the An; and her will being also more resolute than his, and will being + essential to the direction of the vril force, she can bring to bear upon + him, more potently than he on herself, the mystical agency which art can + extract from the occult properties of nature. Therefore all that our + female philosophers above ground contend for as to rights of women, is + conceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth. Besides such + physical powers, the Gy-ei have (at least in youth) a keen desire for + accomplishments and learning which exceeds that of the male; and thus they + are the scholars, the professors—the learned portion, in short, of + the community. + </p> + <p> + Of course, in this state of society the female establishes, as I have + shown, her most valued privilege, that of choosing and courting her + wedding partner. Without that privilege she would despise all the others. + Now, above ground, we should not unreasonably apprehend that a female, + thus potent and thus privileged, when she had fairly hunted us down and + married us, would be very imperious and tyrannical. Not so with the Gy-ei: + once married, the wings once suspended, and more amiable, complacent, + docile mates, more sympathetic, more sinking their loftier capacities into + the study of their husbands’ comparatively frivolous tastes and whims, no + poet could conceive in his visions of conjugal bliss. Lastly, among the + more important characteristics of the Vril-ya, as distinguished from our + mankind—lastly, and most important on the bearings of their life and + the peace of their commonwealths, is their universal agreement in the + existence of a merciful beneficent Diety, and of a future world to the + duration of which a century or two are moments too brief to waste upon + thoughts of fame and power and avarice; while with that agreement is + combined another—viz., since they can know nothing as to the nature + of that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme goodness, nor of that future + world beyond the fact of its felicitous existence, so their reason forbids + all angry disputes on insoluble questions. Thus they secure for that state + in the bowels of the earth what no community ever secured under the light + of the stars—all the blessings and consolations of a religion + without any of the evils and calamities which are engendered by strife + between one religion and another. + </p> + <p> + It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of existence + among the Vril-ya is thus, as a whole, immeasurably more felicitous than + that of super-terrestrial races, and, realising the dreams of our most + sanguine philanthropists, almost approaches to a poet’s conception of some + angelical order. And yet, if you would take a thousand of the best and + most philosophical of human beings you could find in London, Paris, + Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them as citizens in the + beatified community, my belief is, that in less than a year they would + either die of ennui, or attempt some revolution by which they would + militate against the good of the community, and be burnt into cinders at + the request of the Tur. + </p> + <p> + Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of this + narrative, any ignorant disparagement of the race to which I belong. I + have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make it clear that the principles + which regulate the social system of the Vril-ya forbid them to produce + those individual examples of human greatness which adorn the annals of the + upper world. Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no + Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan;—where states are so happy that + they fear no danger and desire no change, they cannot give birth to a + Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes, or a Butler; and where + a society attains to a moral standard, in which there are no crimes and no + sorrows from which tragedy can extract its aliment of pity and sorrow, no + salient vices or follies on which comedy can lavish its mirthful satire, + it has lost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or a Moliere, or a Mrs. + Beecher-Stowe. But if I have no desire to disparage my fellow-men above + ground in showing how much the motives that impel the energies and + ambition of individuals in a society of contest and struggle—become + dormant or annulled in a society which aims at securing for the aggregate + the calm and innocent felicity which we presume to be the lot of beatified + immortals; neither, on the other hand, have I the wish to represent the + commonwealths of the Vril-ya as an ideal form of political society, to the + attainment of which our own efforts of reform should be directed. On the + contrary, it is because we have so combined, throughout the series of + ages, the elements which compose human character, that it would be utterly + impossible for us to adopt the modes of life, or to reconcile our passions + to the modes of thought among the Vril-ya,—that I arrived at the + conviction that this people—though originally not only of our human + race, but, as seems to me clear by the roots of their language, descended + from the same ancestors as the Great Aryan family, from which in varied + streams has flowed the dominant civilisation of the world; and having, + according to their myths and their history, passed through phases of + society familiar to ourselves,—had yet now developed into a distinct + species with which it was impossible that any community in the upper world + could amalgamate: and that if they ever emerged from these nether recesses + into the light of day, they would, according to their own traditional + persuasions of their ultimate destiny, destroy and replace our existent + varieties of man. + </p> + <p> + It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be found to conceive + a partiality for so ordinary a type of our super-terrestrial race as + myself, that even if the Vril-ya did appear above ground, we might be + saved from extermination by intermixture of race. But this is too sanguine + a belief. Instances of such ‘mesalliance’ would be as rare as those of + intermarriage between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the Red Indians. Nor + would time be allowed for the operation of familiar intercourse. The + Vril-ya, on emerging, induced by the charm of a sunlit heaven to form + their settlements above ground, would commence at once the work of + destruction, seize upon the territories already cultivated, and clear off, + without scruple, all the inhabitants who resisted that invasion. And + considering their contempt for the institutions of Koom-Posh or Popular + Government, and the pugnacious valour of my beloved countrymen, I believe + that if the Vril-ya first appeared in free America—as, being the + choicest portion of the habitable earth, they would doubtless be induced + to do—and said, “This quarter of the globe we take; Citizens of a + Koom-Posh, make way for the development of species in the Vril-ya,” my + brave compatriots would show fight, and not a soul of them would be left + in this life, to rally round the Stars and Stripes, at the end of a week. + </p> + <p> + I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family assembled, and + she was then reserved and silent. My apprehensions of danger from an + affection I had so little encouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded + away, but my dejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to the + upper world, but I racked my brains in vain for any means to effect it. I + was never permitted to wander forth alone, so that I could not even visit + the spot on which I had alighted, and see if it were possible to reascend + to the mine. Nor even in the Silent Hours, when the household was locked + in sleep, could I have let myself down from the lofty floor in which my + apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata who stood + mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could I ascertain the springs by + which were set in movement the platforms that supplied the place of + stairs. The knowledge how to avail myself of these contrivances had been + purposely withheld from me. Oh, that I could but have learned the use of + wings, so freely here at the service of every infant, then I might have + escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, and buoyed myself aloft + through the chasm of which the perpendicular sides forbade place for human + footing! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXVII. + </h2> + <p> + One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew in at the + open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I was always pleased with + the visits of a child, in whose society, if humbled, I was less eclipsed + than in that of Ana who had completed their education and matured their + understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with him for my + companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which I had descended + into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he were at leisure for a + stroll beyond the streets of the city. His countenance seemed to me graver + than usual as he replied, “I came hither on purpose to invite you forth.” + </p> + <p> + We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from the house + when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were returning from the + fields with baskets full of flowers, and chanting a song in chorus as they + walked. A young Gy sings more often than she talks. They stopped on seeing + us, accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with the courteous + gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their manner towards our weaker + sex. + </p> + <p> + And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in her + courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing that approaches + to that general breadth and loudness of manner which those young ladies of + the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the distinguished epithet of ‘fast’ is + accorded, exhibit towards young gentlemen whom they do not profess to + love. No; the bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary is very much + that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upper world towards + ladies whom they respect but do not woo; deferential, complimentary, + exquisitely polished—what we should call ‘chivalrous.’ + </p> + <p> + Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things addressed + to my ‘amour propre,’ which were said to me by those courteous young + Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would have thought himself + aggrieved, treated with irony, ‘chaffed’ (if so vulgar a slang word may be + allowed on the authority of the popular novelists who use it so freely), + when one fair Gy complimented me on the freshness of my complexion, + another on the choice of colours in my dress, a third, with a sly smile, + on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin’s entertainment. But I knew already + that all such language was what the French call ‘banal,’ and did but + express in the female mouth, below earth, that sort of desire to pass for + amiable with the opposite sex which, above earth, arbitrary custom and + hereditary transmission demonstrate by the mouth of the male. And just as + a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated to such compliments, feels + that she cannot, without impropriety, return them, nor evince any great + satisfaction at receiving them; so I who had learned polite manners at the + house of so wealthy and dignified a Minister of that nation, could but + smile and try to look pretty in bashfully disclaiming the compliments + showered upon me. While we were thus talking, Taee’s sister, it seems, had + seen us from the upper rooms of the Royal Palace at the entrance of the + town, and, precipitating herself on her wings, alighted in the midst of + the group. + </p> + <p> + Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deference of + manner which I have called ‘chivalrous,’ yet not without a certain + abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir Philip + Sydney might have termed ‘rustic,’ “Why do you never come to see us?” + While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to this unlooked-for + question, Taee said quickly and sternly, “Sister, you forget—the + stranger is of my sex. It is not for persons of my sex, having due regard + for reputation and modesty, to lower themselves by running after the + society of yours.” + </p> + <p> + This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gy-ei in + general; but Taee’s sister looked greatly abashed. Poor thing!—and a + PRINCESS too! + </p> + <p> + Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and the group; + and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon us, + with the silent and stately pace peculiar to the Vril-ya. At the sight of + his countenance, the same terror which had seized me when I first beheld + it returned. On that brow, in those eyes, there was that same indefinable + something which marked the being of a race fatal to our own—that + strange expression of serene exemption from our common cares and passions, + of conscious superior power, compassionate and inflexible as that of a + judge who pronounces doom. I shivered, and, inclining low, pressed the arm + of my child-friend, and drew him onward silently. The Tur placed himself + before our path, regarded me for a moment without speaking, then turned + his eye quietly on his daughter’s face, and, with a grave salutation to + her and the other Gy-ei, went through the midst of the group,—still + without a word. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXVIII. + </h2> + <p> + When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road that lay between + the city and the chasm through which I had descended into this region + beneath the light of the stars and sun, I said under my breath, “Child and + friend, there is a look in your father’s face which appals me. I feel as + if, in its awful tranquillity, I gazed upon death.” + </p> + <p> + Taee did not immediately reply. He seemed agitated, and as if debating + with himself by what words to soften some unwelcome intelligence. At last + he said, “None of the Vril-ya fear death: do you?” + </p> + <p> + “The dread of death is implanted in the breasts of the race to which I + belong. We can conquer it at the call of duty, of honour, of love. We can + die for a truth, for a native land, for those who are dearer to us than + ourselves. But if death do really threaten me now and here, where are such + counteractions to the natural instinct which invests with awe and terror + the contemplation of severance between soul and body?” + </p> + <p> + Taee looked surprised, but there was great tenderness in his voice as he + replied, “I will tell my father what you say. I will entreat him to spare + your life.” + </p> + <p> + “He has, then, already decreed to destroy it?” + </p> + <p> + “‘Tis my sister’s fault or folly,” said Taee, with some petulance. “But + she spoke this morning to my father; and, after she had spoken, he + summoned me, as a chief among the children who are commissioned to destroy + such lives as threaten the community, and he said to me, ‘Take thy vril + staff, and seek the stranger who has made himself dear to thee. Be his end + painless and prompt.’” + </p> + <p> + “And,” I faltered, recoiling from the child—“and it is, then, for my + murder that thus treacherously thou hast invited me forth? No, I cannot + believe it. I cannot think thee guilty of such a crime.” + </p> + <p> + “It is no crime to slay those who threaten the good of the community; it + would be a crime to slay the smallest insect that cannot harm us.” + </p> + <p> + “If you mean that I threaten the good of the community because your sister + honours me with the sort of preference which a child may feel for a + strange plaything, it is not necessary to kill me. Let me return to the + people I have left, and by the chasm through which I descended. With a + slight help from you I might do so now. You, by the aid of your wings, + could fasten to the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you found, + and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to the spot from + which I alighted, and I vanish from your world for ever, and as surely as + if I were among the dead.” + </p> + <p> + “The chasm through which you descended! Look round; we stand now on the + very place where it yawned. What see you? Only solid rock. The chasm was + closed, by the orders of Aph-Lin, as soon as communication between him and + yourself was established in your trance, and he learned from your own lips + the nature of the world from which you came. Do you not remember when Zee + bade me not question you as to yourself or your race? On quitting you that + day, Aph-Lin accosted me, and said, ‘No path between the stranger’s home + and ours should be left unclosed, or the sorrow and evil of his home may + descend to ours. Take with thee the children of thy band, smite the sides + of the cavern with your vril staves till the fall of their fragments fills + up every chink through which a gleam of our lamps could force its way.’” + </p> + <p> + As the child spoke, I stared aghast at the blind rocks before me. Huge and + irregular, the granite masses, showing by charred discolouration where + they had been shattered, rose from footing to roof-top; not a cranny! + </p> + <p> + “All hope, then, is gone,” I murmured, sinking down on the craggy wayside, + “and I shall nevermore see the sun.” I covered my face with my hands, and + prayed to Him whose presence I had so often forgotten when the heavens had + declared His handiwork. I felt His presence in the depths of the nether + earth, and amidst the world of the grave. I looked up, taking comfort and + courage from my prayers, and, gazing with a quiet smile into the face of + the child, said, “Now, if thou must slay me, strike.” + </p> + <p> + Taee shook his head gently. “Nay,” he said, “my father’s request is not so + formally made as to leave me no choice. I will speak with him, and may + prevail to save thee. Strange that thou shouldst have that fear of death + which we thought was only the instinct of the inferior creatures, to whom + the convictions of another life has not been vouchsafed. With us, not an + infant knows such a fear. Tell me, my dear Tish,” he continued after a + little pause, “would it reconcile thee more to departure from this form of + life to that form which lies on the other side of the moment called + ‘death,’ did I share thy journey? If so, I will ask my father whether it + be allowable for me to go with thee. I am one of our generation destined + to emigrate, when of age for it, to some regions unknown within this + world. I would just as soon emigrate now to regions unknown, in another + world. The All-Good is no less there than here. Where is he not?” + </p> + <p> + “Child,” said I, seeing by Taee’s countenance that he spoke in serious + earnest, “it is crime in thee to slay me; it were a crime not less in me + to say, ‘Slay thyself.’ The All-Good chooses His own time to give us life, + and his own time to take it away. Let us go back. If, on speaking with thy + father, he decides on my death, give me the longest warning in thy power, + so that I may pass the interval in self-preparation.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXIX. + </h2> + <p> + In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting the night + of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the disturbed slumber into which I had + not long fallen, by a hand on my shoulder. I started and beheld Zee + standing beside me. “Hush,” she said in a whisper; “let no one hear us. + Dost thou think that I have ceased to watch over thy safety because I + could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailed with his + father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages who, in doubtful + matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he has ordained thee + to perish when the world re-awakens to life. I will save thee. Rise and + dress.” + </p> + <p> + Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes I had worn + on quitting the upper world, and which I had exchanged subsequently for + the more picturesque garments of the Vril-ya. The young Gy then moved + towards the casement and stepped into the balcony, while hastily and + wonderingly I donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the balcony, + her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she said softly, “See + how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up the world in which they + dwell. To-morrow the world will be dark to me.” She drew me back into the + room without waiting for my answer, thence into the corridor, from which + we descended into the hall. We passed into the deserted streets and along + the broad upward road which wound beneath the rocks. Here, where there is + neither day nor night, the Silent Hours are unutterably solemn—the + vast space illumined by mortal skill is so wholly without the sight and + stir of mortal life. Soft as were our footsteps, their sounds vexed the + ear, as out of harmony with the universal repose. I was aware in my own + mind, though Zee said it not, that she had decided to assist my return to + the upper world, and that we were bound towards the place from which I had + descended. Her silence infected me and commanded mine. And now we + approached the chasm. It had been re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the + same aspect as when I had emerged from it, but through that closed wall of + rock before which I had last stood with Taee, a new clift had been riven, + and along its blackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered + embers. My upward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet + into the darkness of the hollow void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering + how that grim ascent was to be made. + </p> + <p> + Zee divined my doubt. “Fear not,” said she, with a faint smile; “your + return is assured. I began this work when the Silent Hours commenced, and + all else were asleep; believe that I did not paused till the path back + into thy world was clear. I shall be with thee a little while yet. We do + not part until thou sayest, ‘Go, for I need thee no more.’” + </p> + <p> + My heart smote me with remorse at these words. “Ah!” I exclaimed, “would + that thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I should never say, ‘I need + thee no more.’” + </p> + <p> + “I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them when thou art + gone,” answered the Gy, tenderly. + </p> + <p> + During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned away from me, her + form bent and her head bowed over her breast. Now, she rose to the full + height of her grand stature, and stood fronting me. While she had been + thus averted from my gaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she wore + round her brow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Not only + her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were illumined by the + effulgence of the diadem. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” said she, “put thine arm around me for the first and last time. + Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm.” + </p> + <p> + As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. Clinging to her, I + was borne aloft through the terrible chasm. The starry light from her + forehead shot around and before us through the darkness. Brightly and + steadfastly, and swiftly as an angel may soar heavenward with the soul it + rescues from the grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heard in the + distance the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We halted on + the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and beyond, in the + vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of the miners. Then I released my + hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, passionately, but as with a + mother’s passion, and said, as the tears gushed from her eyes, “Farewell + for ever. Thou wilt not let me go into thy world—thou canst never + return to mine. Ere our household shake off slumber, the rocks will have + again closed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, nor perhaps by + others, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, and with kindness. + When I reach the life that lies beyond this speck in time, I shall look + round for thee. Even there, the world consigned to thyself and thy people + may have rocks and gulfs which divide it from that in which I rejoin those + of my race that have gone before, and I may be powerless to cleave way to + regain thee as I have cloven way to lose.” + </p> + <p> + Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings, and saw the + rays of her starry diadem receding far and farther through the gloom. + </p> + <p> + I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I rose and took + my way with slow footsteps towards the place in which I heard the sounds + of men. The miners I encountered were strange to me, of another nation + than my own. They turned to look at me with some surprise, but finding + that I could not answer their brief questions in their own language, they + returned to their work and suffered me to pass on unmolested. In fine, I + regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled by other interrogatories;—save + those of a friendly official to whom I was known, and luckily he was too + busy to talk much with me. I took care not to return to my former lodging, + but hastened that very day to quit a neighbourhood where I could not long + have escaped inquiries to which I could have given no satisfactory + answers. I regained in safety my own country, in which I have been long + peacefully settled, and engaged in practical business, till I retired on a + competent fortune, three years ago. I have been little invited and little + tempted to talk of the rovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhat + disappointed, as most men are, in matters connected with household love + and domestic life, I often think of the young Gy as I sit alone at night, + and wonder how I could have rejected such a love, no matter what dangers + attended it, or by what conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I + think of a people calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight + and deemed uninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing our most + disciplined modes of force, and virtues to which our life, social and + political, becomes antagonistic in proportion as our civilisation + advances,—the more devoutly I pray that ages may yet elapse before + there emerge into sunlight our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, + frankly told by my physician that I am afflicted by a complaint which, + though it gives little pain and no perceptible notice of its + encroachments, may at any moment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my + fellow-men to place on record these forewarnings of The Coming Race. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + +***** This file should be named 1951-h.htm or 1951-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1951/ + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/1951.txt b/1951.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc57d5a --- /dev/null +++ b/1951.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5389 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Coming Race + +Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Release Date: February 18, 2006 [EBook #1951] +Last Updated: July 19, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + + + + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + + + + + +THE COMING RACE + +by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton + + + + +Chapter I. + + +I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My ancestors +migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather +was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, +therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; +and being also opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public +service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by +his tailor. After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived +much in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sent at the age +of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete my literary education, +partly to commence my commercial training in a mercantile firm at +Liverpool. My father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left +well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for +a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory +wanderer over the face of the earth. + +In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a +professional engineer, with whom I had made acquaintance, to visit the +recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was employed. + +The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my reason for +concealing all clue to the district of which I write, and will perhaps +thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to its +discovery. + +Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the +engineer into the interior of the mine, and became so strangely +fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend's +explorations, that I prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and +descended daily, for some weeks, into the vaults and galleries hollowed +by nature and art beneath the surface of the earth. The engineer was +persuaded that far richer deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been +detected, would be found in a new shaft that had been commenced under +his operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm +jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst asunder at some +distant period by volcanic fires. Down this chasm my friend caused +himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' having first tested the atmosphere +by the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he +returned he was very pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression +of face, very different from its ordinary character, which was open, +cheerful, and fearless. + +He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and leading to +no result; and, suspending further operations in the shaft, we returned +to the more familiar parts of the mine. + +All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by some +absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there was a scared, +bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At +night, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together +near the mouth of the mine, I said to my friend,-- + +"Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was something +strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has left your mind in a state +of doubt. In such a case two heads are better than one. Confide in me." + + +The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he +spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a +degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a very temperate +man, his reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep himself to +himself should imitate the dumb animals, and drink water. At last he +said, "I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on +a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, +shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which my lamp could +not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinite surprise, streamed +upward a steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire? In that +case, surely I should have felt the heat. Still, if on this there was +doubt, it was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it +up. I examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture +to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some +way. I left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer to +the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable +amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far +as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at +regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard +confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course, +that no rival miners are at work in this district. Whose could be those +voices? What human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled +those lamps? + +"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell +within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the +thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether +valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot +I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down +abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. Now +I have told you all." + +"You will descend again?" + +"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not." + +"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. I will +go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and +strength--and--pardon me--you must not drink more to-night, our hands +and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow." + + + +Chapter II. + + +With the morning my friend's nerves were rebraced, and he was not +less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for he evidently +believed in his own story, and I felt considerable doubt of it; not that +he would have wilfully told an untruth, but that I thought he must have +been under one of those hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our +nerves in solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to +the formless and sound to the dumb. + +We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the cage +held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and when he had +gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage rearose for me. +I soon gained his side. We had provided ourselves with a strong coil of +rope. + +The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my +friend's. The hollow through which it came sloped diagonally: it seemed +to me a diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft +and silvery, as from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we descended, +one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till +we reached the place at which my friend had previously halted, and which +was a projection just spacious enough to allow us to stand abreast. From +this spot the chasm widened rapidly like the lower end of a vast funnel, +and I saw distinctly the valley, the road, the lamps which my companion +had described. He had exaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had +heard--a mingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull tramp as of +feet. Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a distance the +outline of some large building. It could not be mere natural rock, it +was too symmetrical, with huge heavy Egyptian-like columns, and the +whole lighted as from within. I had about me a small pocket-telescope, +and by the aid of this, I could distinguish, near the building I +mention, two forms which seemed human, though I could not be sure. At +least they were living, for they moved, and both vanished within the +building. We now proceeded to attach the end of the rope we had brought +with us to the ledge on which we stood, by the aid of clamps and +grappling hooks, with which, as well as with necessary tools, we were +provided. + +We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraid to speak to +each other. One end of the rope being thus apparently made firm to the +ledge, the other, to which we fastened a fragment of the rock, rested on +the ground below, a distance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and +a more active man than my companion, and having served on board ship in +my boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to me than to him. In +a whisper I claimed the precedence, so that when I gained the ground I +might serve to hold the rope more steady for his descent. I got safely +to the ground beneath, and the engineer now began to lower himself. +But he had scarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when the +fastenings, which we had fancied so secure, gave way, or rather the +rock itself proved treacherous and crumbled beneath the strain; and the +unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom, falling just at my feet, +and bringing down with his fall splinters of the rock, one of which, +fortunately but a small one, struck and for the time stunned me. When I +recovered my senses I saw my companion an inanimate mass beside me, +life utterly extinct. While I was bending over his corpse in grief and +horror, I heard close at hand a strange sound between a snort and a +hiss; and turning instinctively to the quarter from which it came, I saw +emerging from a dark fissure in the rock a vast and terrible head, +with open jaws and dull, ghastly, hungry eyes--the head of a monstrous +reptile resembling that of the crocodile or alligator, but infinitely +larger than the largest creature of that kind I had ever beheld in my +travels. I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my utmost +speed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight, and +returned to the spot on which I had left the body of my friend. It +was gone; doubtless the monster had already drawn it into its den and +devoured it. The rope and the grappling-hooks still lay where they had +fallen, but they afforded me no chance of return; it was impossible to +re-attach them to the rock above, and the sides of the rock were too +sheer and smooth for human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strange +world, amidst the bowels of the earth. + + + +Chapter III. + + +Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplit road and +towards the large building I have described. The road itself seemed like +a great Alpine pass, skirting rocky mountains of which the one through +whose chasm I had descended formed a link. Deep below to the left lay +a vast valley, which presented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable +evidences of art and culture. There were fields covered with a strange +vegetation, similar to none I have seen above the earth; the colour of +it not green, but rather of a dull and leaden hue or of a golden red. + +There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved into +artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shone like pools of +naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles opened amidst the rocks, +with passes between, evidently constructed by art, and bordered by trees +resembling, for the most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties +of feathery foliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others were +more like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of flowers. +Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, with short thick stems +supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which either rose or drooped long +slender branches. The whole scene behind, before, and beside me far as +the eye could reach, was brilliant with innumerable lamps. The world +without a sun was bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but +the air less oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before me +void of signs of habitation. I could distinguish at a distance, whether +on the banks of the lake or rivulet, or half-way upon eminences, +embedded amidst the vegetation, buildings that must surely be the homes +of men. I could even discover, though far off, forms that appeared to +me human moving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to +the right, gliding quickly through the air, what appeared a small +boat, impelled by sails shaped like wings. It soon passed out of sight, +descending amidst the shades of a forest. Right above me there was no +sky, but only a cavernous roof. This roof grew higher and higher at the +distance of the landscapes beyond, till it became imperceptible, as an +atmosphere of haze formed itself beneath. + +Continuing my walk, I started,--from a bush that resembled a great +tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubs and plants of +large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or prickly-pear,--a curious +animal about the size and shape of a deer. But as, after bounding away +a few paces, it turned round and gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived +that it was not like any species of deer now extant above the earth, +but it brought instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had seen +in some museum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existed before +the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, after inspecting me a +moment or two, began to graze on the singular herbiage around undismayed +and careless. + + + +Chapter IV. + + +I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been made by +hands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I should have supposed +it at the first glance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptian +architecture. It was fronted by huge columns, tapering upward from +massive plinths, and with capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived +to be more ornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptian +architecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of the +acanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated the foliage of the +vegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like, some fern-like. And now +there came out of this building a form--human;--was it human? It stood +on the broad way and looked around, beheld me and approached. It +came within a few yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it an +indescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to the ground. +It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon that are seen on +Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres--images that +borrow the outlines of man, and are yet of another race. It was tall, +not gigantic, but tall as the tallest man below the height of giants. + +Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings folded +over its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of its attire was +composed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material. +It wore on its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carried +in its right hand a slender staff of bright metal like polished steel. +But the face! it was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was +the face of man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant +races. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression is the +face of the sculptured sphinx--so regular in its calm, intellectual, +mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more like that of the red +man than any other variety of our species, and yet different from it--a +richer and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and +brows arched as a semicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless +something in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteous +though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight of +a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowed +with forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came over +me. I fell on my knees and covered my face with my hands. + + + +Chapter V. + + +A voice accosted me--a very quiet and very musical key of voice--in a +language of which I could not understand a word, but it served to +dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could +scarcely bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that +seemed to read to the very depths of my heart. He then placed his left +hand on my forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my +shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my +former terror there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of +confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in +my own language. He listened to me with apparent attention, but with a +slight surprise in his looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that +I was not understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence +to the building. The entrance was open--indeed there was no door to it. +We entered an immense hall, lighted by the same kind of lustre as in the +scene without, but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large +tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of +matlike carpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated as +if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place, +just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or +the warble of birds to vernal groves. + +A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar +fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold. My guide touched +it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding +movement, skimming noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw +that it was no living form, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two +minutes after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by +curtains at the other end of the hall, when through the same opening +advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with features closely +resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to me evidently son +and father. On seeing me the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff +like that borne by my guide, as if in menace. At a word from the elder +he dropped it. The two then conversed for some moments, examining me +while they spoke. The child touched my garments, and stroked my face +with evident curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an +hilarity more subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently the roof +of the hall opened, and a platform descended, seemingly constructed +on the same principle as the 'lifts' used in hotels and warehouses for +mounting from one story to another. + +The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and motioned +to me to do the same, which I did. We ascended quickly and safely, and +alighted in the midst of a corridor with doorways on either side. + +Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber fitted up +with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselated with spars, and +metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; apertures as for +windows but unglazed, were made in the chamber opening to the floor; +and as I passed along I observed that these openings led into spacious +balconies, and commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In +cages suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and +bright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, modulated +into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A delicious fragrance, +from censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air. Several +automata, like the one I had seen, stood dumb and motionless by the +walls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan and again spoke +to me, and again I spoke, but without the least advance towards +understanding each other. + +But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received from the +splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I had done at first. + +There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompanied with acute, +lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sank back on the seat and +strove in vain to stifle a groan. On this the child, who had hitherto +seemed to eye me with distrust or dislike, knelt by my side to support +me; taking one of my hands in both his own, he approached his lips to +my forehead, breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; a +drowsy, heavy calm crept over me; I fell asleep. + +How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke I felt +perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silent forms, seated +around me in the gravity and quietude of Orientals--all more or less +like the first stranger; the same mantling wings, the same fashion of +garment, the same sphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red +man's colour; above all, the same type of race--race akin to man's, but +infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect--and inspiring the +same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each countenance was mild and +tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it +seemed to me that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret +of the dread which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of the +lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon +the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or as, in the +eyes of Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of the dead. + +I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child's. In his eyes there +was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as that with which we may +gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly. I shrank from that touch--I +shrank from that eye. I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he +so pleased, that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill +a bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, quitted +me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. The others continued +to converse with each other in a low tone, and by their glances towards +me I could perceive that I was the object of their conversation. One +in especial seemed to be urging some proposal affecting me on the being +whom I had first met, and this last by his gesture seemed about to +assent to it, when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window, +placed himself between me and the other forms, as if in protection, and +spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or instinct I felt that +the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in my behalf. Ere he had +ceased another stranger entered the room. He appeared older than the +rest, though not old; his countenance less smoothly serene than theirs, +though equally regular in its features, seemed to me to have more the +touch of a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly to the words +addressed to him, first by my guide, next by two others of the group, +and lastly by the child; then turned towards myself, and addressed +me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. These I fancied that I +perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. I comprehended that he +inquired whence I came. I extended my arm, and pointed towards the road +which had led me from the chasm in the rock; then an idea seized me. +I drew forth my pocket-book, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a +rough design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it; +then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, the lifeless +form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my +interrogator, who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next +neighbour, and it thus passed round the group. The being I had at first +encountered then said a few words, and the child, who approached and +looked at my drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, +returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to his form, shook +them once or twice, and then launched himself into space without. I +started up in amaze and hastened to the window. The child was already in +the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a +bird does, but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him +steadily aloft without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift +as an eagle's; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence I +had descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant +atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned, skimming through the +opening from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope and +grappling-hooks I had left at the descent from the chasm. Some words in +a low tone passed between the being present; one of the group touched an +automaton, which started forward and glided from the room; then the last +comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me by the hand, +and led me into the corridor. There the platform by which I had mounted +awaited us; we placed ourselves on it and were lowered into the hall +below. My new companion, still holding me by the hand, conducted me from +the building into a street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with +buildings on either side, separated from each other by gardens bright +with rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. Interspersed amidst +these gardens, which were divided from each other by low walls, or +walking slowly along the road, were many forms similar to those I had +already seen. Some of the passers-by, on observing me, approached my +guide, evidently by their tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him +inquiries about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us, +examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wild animal. +Yet even in gratifying their curiosity they preserved a grave and +courteous demeanour; and after a few words from my guide, who seemed to +me to deprecate obstruction in our road, they fell back with a +stately inclination of head, and resumed their own way with tranquil +indifference. Midway in this thoroughfare we stopped at a building that +differed from those we had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three +sides of a vast court, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidal +towers; in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of +colossal dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of what seemed to +me fire. We entered the building through an open doorway and came +into an enormous hall, in which were several groups of children, all +apparently employed in work as at some great factory. There was a huge +engine in the wall which was in full play, with wheels and cylinders +resembling our own steam-engines, except that it was richly ornamented +with precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a pale +phosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of the children were +at some mysterious work on this machinery, others were seated before +tables. I was not allowed to linger long enough to examine into the +nature of their employment. Not one young voice was heard--not one young +face turned to gaze on us. They were all still and indifferent as may +be ghosts, through the midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the +living. + +Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted +in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the colours, +like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects described on these walls +appeared to my glance as intended to illustrate events in the history of +the race amidst which I was admitted. In all there were figures, most +of them like the manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same +fashion of garb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigies +of various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, with backgrounds +depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as my imperfect knowledge of +the pictorial art would allow me to form an opinion, these paintings +seemed very accurate in design and very rich in colouring, showing +a perfect knowledge of perspective, but their details not +arranged according to the rules of composition acknowledged by our +artists--wanting, as it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague, +scattered, confused, bewildering--they were like heterogeneous fragments +of a dream of art. + +We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was assembled what I +afterwards knew to be the family of my guide, seated at a table spread +as for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of my guide's wife, his +daughter, and two sons. I recognised at once the difference between +the two sexes, though the two females were of taller stature and ampler +proportions than the males; and their countenances, if still more +symmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness and +timidity of expression which give charm to the face of woman as seen on +the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughter wore wings longer +than those of the males. + +My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seated rose, +and with that peculiar mildness of look and manner which I have before +noticed, and which is, in truth, the common attribute of this formidable +race, they saluted me according to their fashion, which consists in +laying the right hand very gently on the head and uttering a soft +sibilant monosyllable--S.Si, equivalent to "Welcome." + +The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped a golden +platter before me from one of the dishes. + +While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled more +at the delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), my companions +conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance +of any direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scrutiny of my +appearance. Yet I was the first creature of that variety of the human +race to which I belong that they had ever beheld, and was consequently +regarded by them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all +rudeness is unknown to this people, and the youngest child is taught to +despise any vehement emotional demonstration. When the meal was ended, +my guide again took me by the hand, and, re-entering the gallery, +touched a metallic plate inscribed with strange figures, and which I +rightly conjectured to be of the nature of our telegraphs. A platform +descended, but this time we mounted to a much greater height than in the +former building, and found ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions, +and which in its general character had much that might be familiar to +the associations of a visitor from the upper world. There were shelves +on the wall containing what appeared to be books, and indeed were so; +mostly very small, like our diamond duodecimos, shaped in the fashion +of our volumes, and bound in sheets of fine metal. There were several +curious-looking pieces of mechanism scattered about, apparently models, +such as might be seen in the study of any professional mechanician. Four +automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these people, answer the +ordinary purposes of domestic service) stood phantom-like at each angle +in the wall. In a recess was a low couch, or bed with pillows. A window, +with curtains of some fibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large +balcony. My host stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were +on the uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; the view beyond +was of a wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe:--the vast +ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distant background, the +intermediate valleys of mystic many-coloured herbiage, the flash of +waters, many of them like streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre +diffused over all by myriads of lamps, combined to form a whole of which +no words of mine can convey adequate description; so splendid was it, +yet so sombre; so lovely, yet so awful. + +But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes. +Suddenly there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of joyous +music; then a winged form soared into the space; another as if in chase +of the first, another and another; others after others, till the crowd +grew thick and the number countless. But how describe the fantastic +grace of these forms in their undulating movements! They appeared +engaged in some sport or amusement; now forming into opposite squadrons; +now scattering; now each group threading the other, soaring, descending, +interweaving, severing; all in measured time to the music below, as if +in the dance of the fabled Peri. + +I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I ventured to place my +hand on the large wings that lay folded on his breast, and in doing so a +slight shock as of electricity passed through me. I recoiled in fear; +my host smiled, and as if courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly +expanded his pinions. I observed that his garment beneath them became +dilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed to slide +into the wings, and in another moment he had launched himself into the +luminous atmosphere, and hovered there, still, and with outspread wings, +as an eagle that basks in the sun. Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he +rushed downwards into the midst of one of the groups, skimming through +the midst, and as suddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, +in one of which I thought to recognise my host's daughter, detached +themselves from the rest, and followed him as a bird sportively follows +a bird. My eyes, dazzled with the lights and bewildered by the throngs, +ceased to distinguish the gyrations and evolutions of these winged +playmates, till presently my host re-emerged from the crowd and alighted +at my side. + +The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on my +senses; my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined to be +superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could be brought into +bodily communication with demons, I felt the terror and the wild +excitement with which, in the Gothic ages, a traveller might have +persuaded himself that he witnessed a 'sabbat' of fiends and witches. +I have a vague recollection of having attempted with vehement +gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud incoherent words, to +repel my courteous and indulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and +soothe me; of his intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment +were occasioned by the difference of form and movement between us which +the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had, in exercise, +made still more strongly perceptible; of the gentle smile with which he +had sought to dispel my alarm by dropping the wings to the ground and +endeavouring to show me that they were but a mechanical contrivance. +That sudden transformation did but increase my horror, and as extreme +fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I sprang at his throat like +a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the ground as by an electric +shock, and the last confused images floating before my sight ere I +became wholly insensible, were the form of my host kneeling beside +me with one hand on my forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his +daughter, with large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed upon my own. + + + +Chapter VI. + + +I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards learned, for many +days, even for some weeks according to our computation of time. When +I recovered I was in a strange room, my host and all his family were +gathered round me, and to my utter amaze my host's daughter accosted me +in my own language with a slightly foreign accent. + +"How do you feel?" she asked. + +It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enough to falter +out, "You know my language? How? Who and what are you?" + +My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons, who then took from a +table a number of thin metallic sheets on which were traced drawings of +various figures--a house, a tree, a bird, a man, &c. + +In these designs I recognised my own style of drawing. Under each figure +was written the name of it in my language, and in my writing; and in +another handwriting a word strange to me beneath it. + +Said the host, "Thus we began; and my daughter Zee, who belongs to the +College of Sages, has been your instructress and ours too." + +Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, in my +writing, words first, and then sentences, were inscribed. Under each +word and each sentence strange characters in another hand. Rallying my +senses, I comprehended that thus a rude dictionary had been effected. +Had it been done while I was dreaming? "That is enough now," said Zee, +in a tone of command. "Repose and take food." + + + +Chapter VII. + + +A room to myself was assigned to me in this vast edifice. It was +prettily and fantastically arranged, but without any of the splendour +of metal-work or gems which was displayed in the more public apartments. +The walls were hung with a variegated matting made from the stalks and +fibers of plants, and the floor carpeted with the same. + +The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting on balls of +crystal; the coverings, of a thin white substance resembling cotton. +There were sundry shelves containing books. A curtained recess +communicated with an aviary filled with singing-birds, of which I +did not recognise one resembling those I have seen on earth, except a +beautiful species of dove, though this was distinguished from our doves +by a tall crest of bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained +to sing in artful tunes, and greatly exceeded the skill of our piping +bullfinches, which can rarely achieve more than two tunes, and cannot, I +believe, sing those in concert. One might have supposed one's self at +an opera in listening to the voices in my aviary. There were duets +and trios, and quartetts and choruses, all arranged as in one piece of +music. Did I want silence from the birds? I had but to draw a curtain +over the aviary, and their song hushed as they found themselves left in +the dark. Another opening formed a window, not glazed, but on touching a +spring, a shutter ascended from the floor, formed of some substance +less transparent than glass, but still sufficiently pellucid to allow +a softened view of the scene without. To this window was attached a +balcony, or rather hanging garden, wherein grew many graceful plants +and brilliant flowers. The apartment and its appurtenances had thus a +character, if strange in detail, still familiar, as a whole, to modern +notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration if found attached +to the apartments of an English duchess or a fashionable French author. +Before I arrived this was Zee's chamber; she had hospitably assigned it +to me. + +Some hours after the waking up which is described in my last chapter, I +was lying alone on my couch trying to fix my thoughts on conjecture as +to the nature and genus of the people amongst whom I was thrown, when my +host and his daughter Zee entered the room. My host, still speaking +my native language, inquired with much politeness, whether it would be +agreeable to me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that +I should feel much honoured and obliged by the opportunity offered me to +express my gratitude for the hospitality and civilities I had received +in a country to which I was a stranger, and to learn enough of its +customs and manners not to offend through ignorance. + +As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch: but Zee, much to my +confusion, curtly ordered me to lie down again, and there was something +in her voice and eye, gentle as both were, that compelled my obedience. +She then seated herself unconcernedly at the foot of my bed, while her +father took his place on a divan a few feet distant. + +"But what part of the world do you come from?" asked my host, "that we +should appear so strange to you and you to us? I have seen individual +specimens of nearly all the races differing from our own, except the +primeval savages who dwell in the most desolate and remote recesses of +uncultivated nature, unacquainted with other light than that they obtain +from volcanic fires, and contented to grope their way in the dark, as do +many creeping, crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be a +member of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do you seem to +belong to any civilised people." + +I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and replied that I had +the honour to belong to one of the most civilised nations of the earth; +and that, so far as light was concerned, while I admired the ingenuity +and disregard of expense with which my host and his fellow-citizens had +contrived to illumine the regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, +yet I could not conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heaven +could compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented by the +necessities of man. But my host said he had seen specimens of most of +the races differing from his own, save the wretched barbarians he had +mentioned. Now, was it possible that he had never been on the surface +of the earth, or could he only be referring to communities buried within +its entrails? + +My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a degree of +surprise which the people of that race very rarely manifest under any +circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was more intelligent, +and exclaimed, "So you see, my father, that there is truth in the old +tradition; there always is truth in every tradition commonly believed in +all times and by all tribes." + +"Zee," said my host mildly, "you belong to the College of Sages, and +ought to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of the Light-preserving +Council, it is my duty to take nothing for granted till it is proved to +the evidence of my own senses." Then, turning to me, he asked me several +questions about the surface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon +which, though I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answers +seemed not to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head quietly, and, +changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how I had come down from +what he was pleased to call one world to the other. I answered, that +under the surface of the earth there were mines containing minerals, +or metals, essential to our wants and our progress in all arts and +industries; and I then briefly explained the manner in which, while +exploring one of those mines, I and my ill-fated friend had obtained a +glimpse of the regions into which we had descended, and how the descent +had cost him his life; appealing to the rope and grappling-hooks +that the child had brought to the house in which I had been at first +received, as a witness of the truthfulness of my story. + +My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits and modes of +life among the races on the upper earth, more especially among those +considered to be the most advanced in that civilisation which he was +pleased to define "the art of diffusing throughout a community the +tranquil happiness which belongs to a virtuous and well-ordered +household." Naturally desiring to represent in the most favourable +colours the world from which I came, I touched but slightly, though +indulgently, on the antiquated and decaying institutions of Europe, in +order to expatiate on the present grandeur and prospective pre-eminence +of that glorious American Republic, in which Europe enviously seeks its +model and tremblingly foresees its doom. Selecting for an example of the +social life of the United States that city in which progress advances +at the fastest rate, I indulged in an animated description of the moral +habits of New York. Mortified to see, by the faces of my listeners, that +I did not make the favourable impression I had anticipated, I elevated +my theme; dwelling on the excellence of democratic institutions, their +promotion of tranquil happiness by the government of party, and the +mode in which they diffused such happiness throughout the community by +preferring, for the exercise of power and the acquisition of honours, +the lowliest citizens in point of property, education, and character. +Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a speech, on the purifying +influences of American democracy and their destined spread over the +world, made by a certain eloquent senator (for whose vote in the Senate +a Railway Company, to which my two brothers belonged, had just paid +20,000 dollars), I wound up by repeating its glowing predictions of the +magnificent future that smiled upon mankind--when the flag of freedom +should float over an entire continent, and two hundred millions of +intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily use of +revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrine of the +Patriot Monroe. + +When I had concluded, my host gently shook his head, and fell into a +musing study, making a sign to me and his daughter to remain silent +while he reflected. And after a time he said, in a very earnest and +solemn tone, "If you think as you say, that you, though a stranger, have +received kindness at the hands of me and mine, I adjure you to reveal +nothing to any other of our people respecting the world from which you +came, unless, on consideration, I give you permission to do so. Do you +consent to this request?" "Of course I pledge my word, to it," said +I, somewhat amazed; and I extended my right hand to grasp his. But +he placed my hand gently on his forehead and his own right hand on my +breast, which is the custom amongst this race in all matters of promise +or verbal obligations. Then turning to his daughter, he said, "And you, +Zee, will not repeat to any one what the stranger has said, or may say, +to me or to you, of a world other than our own." Zee rose and kissed her +father on the temples, saying, with a smile, "A Gy's tongue is wanton, +but love can fetter it fast. And if, my father, you fear lest a chance +word from me or yourself could expose our community to danger, by a +desire to explore a world beyond us, will not a wave of the 'vril,' +properly impelled, wash even the memory of what we have heard the +stranger say out of the tablets of the brain?" + +"What is the vril?" I asked. + +Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I understood +very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an +exact synonym for vril. I should call it electricity, except that it +comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, +in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as +magnetism, galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they have +arrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has been +conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and which Faraday thus +intimates under the more cautious term of correlation:-- + +"I have long held an opinion," says that illustrious experimentalist, +"almost amounting to a conviction, in common, I believe, with many other +lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the +forces of matter are made manifest, have one common origin; or, in other +words, are so directly related and mutually dependent that they are +convertible, as it were into one another, and possess equivalents of +power in their action." + +These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of vril, +which Faraday would perhaps call 'atmospheric magnetism,' they can +influence the variations of temperature--in plain words, the weather; +that by operations, akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electro- +biology, odic force, &c., but applied scientifically, through vril +conductors, they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal +and vegetable, to an extent not surpassed in the romances of our +mystics. To all such agencies they give the common name of vril." + +Zee asked me if, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of +the mind could be quickened to a degree unknown in the waking state, +by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one brain could be +transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly interchanged. +I replied, that there were amongst us stories told of such trance +or vision, and that I had heard much and seen something in mesmeric +clairvoyance; but that these practices had fallen much into disuse or +contempt, partly because of the gross impostures to which they had +been made subservient, and partly because, even where the effects upon +certain abnormal constitutions were genuinely produced, the effects when +fairly examined and analysed, were very unsatisfactory--not to be relied +upon for any systematic truthfulness or any practical purpose, and +rendered very mischievous to credulous persons by the superstitions +they tended to produce. Zee received my answers with much benignant +attention, and said that similar instances of abuse and credulity had +been familiar to their own scientific experience in the infancy of their +knowledge, and while the properties of vril were misapprehended, but +that she reserved further discussion on this subject till I was more +fitted to enter into it. She contented herself with adding, that it +was through the agency of vril, while I had been placed in the state +of trance, that I had been made acquainted with the rudiments of their +language; and that she and her father, who alone of the family, took +the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater proportionate +knowledge of my language than I of their own; partly because my language +was much simpler than theirs, comprising far less of complex ideas; and +partly because their organisation was, by hereditary culture, much more +ductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. At +this I secretly demurred; and having had in the course of a practical +life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or in travel, I could not +allow that my cerebral organisation could possibly be duller than that +of people who had lived all their lives by lamplight. However, while I +was thus thinking, Zee quietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead, +and sent me to sleep. + + + +Chapter VIII. + + +When I once more awoke I saw by my bed-side the child who had brought +the rope and grappling-hooks to the house in which I had been first +received, and which, as I afterwards learned, was the residence of +the chief magistrate of the tribe. The child, whose name was Taee +(pronounced Tar-ee), was the magistrate's eldest son. I found that +during my last sleep or trance I had made still greater advance in the +language of the country, and could converse with comparative ease and +fluency. + +This child was singularly handsome, even for the beautiful race to which +he belonged, with a countenance very manly in aspect for his years, and +with a more vivacious and energetic expression than I had hitherto seen +in the serene and passionless faces of the men. He brought me the tablet +on which I had drawn the mode of my descent, and had also sketched the +head of the horrible reptile that had scared me from my friend's corpse. +Pointing to that part of the drawing, Taee put to me a few questions +respecting the size and form of the monster, and the cave or chasm from +which it had emerged. His interest in my answers seemed so grave as +to divert him for a while from any curiosity as to myself or my +antecedents. But to my great embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to +my host, he was just beginning to ask me where I came from, when Zee, +fortunately entered, and, overhearing him, said, "Taee, give to our +guest any information he may desire, but ask none from him in return. To +question him who he is, whence he comes, or wherefore he is here, would +be a breach of the law which my father has laid down in this house." + +"So be it," said Taee, pressing his hand to his breast; and from that +moment, till the one in which I saw him last, this child, with whom I +became very intimate, never once put to me any of the questions thus +interdicted. + + + +Chapter IX. + + +It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if they are to +be so called, my mind became better prepared to interchange ideas with +my entertainers, and more fully to comprehend differences of manners +and customs, at first too strange to my experience to be seized by my +reason, that I was enabled to gather the following details respecting +the origin and history of the subterranean population, as portion of one +great family race called the Ana. + +According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the +race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in which their +descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their +archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the +lamps were lighted by no human hand. But such legends were considered by +most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions +the earth itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not +indeed in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of transition +from one form of development to another, and subject to many violent +revolutions of nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the +upper world inhabited by the ancestors of this race had been subjected +to inundations, not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, +save a scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be +a record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier one +contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, +according to the chronology of this people as compared with that of +Newton, it must have been many thousands of years before the time of +Noah. On the other hand, the account of these writers does not harmonise +with the opinions most in vogue among geological authorities, inasmuch +as it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dates long +anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation adapted to the +introduction of mammalia. A band of the ill-fated race, thus invaded by +the Flood, had, during the march of the waters, taken refuge in caverns +amidst the loftier rocks, and, wandering through these hollows, they +lost sight of the upper world forever. Indeed, the whole face of the +earth had been changed by this great revulsion; land had been turned +into sea--sea into land. In the bowels of the inner earth, even now, +I was informed as a positive fact, might be discovered the remains of +human habitation--habitation not in huts and caverns, but in vast cities +whose ruins attest the civilisation of races which flourished before +the age of Noah, and are not to be classified with those genera to which +philosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignorance of iron. + +The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts they had +practised above ground--arts of culture and civilisation. Their earliest +want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light they had +lost above it; and at no time, even in the traditional period, do the +races, of which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to +have been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, or +manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their former state +to contend with the rude forces of nature; and indeed the lengthened +battle they had fought with their conqueror Ocean, which had taken +centuries in its spread, had quickened their skill in curbing waters +into dikes and channels. To this skill they owed their preservation in +their new abode. "For many generations," said my host, with a sort +of contempt and horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to have +degraded their rank and shortened their lives by eating the flesh of +animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves, escaped the +Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of the earth; other animals, +supposed to be unknown to the upper world, those hollows themselves +produced." + +When what we should term the historical age emerged from the twilight +of tradition, the Ana were already established in different communities, +and had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that +which the more advanced nations above the earth now enjoy. They +were familiar with most of our mechanical inventions, including the +application of steam as well as gas. The communities were in fierce +competition with each other. They had their rich and their poor; they +had orators and conquerors; they made war either for a domain or +an idea. Though the various states acknowledged various forms of +government, free institutions were beginning to preponderate; popular +assemblies increased in power; republics soon became general; the +democracy to which the most enlightened European politicians look +forward as the extreme goal of political advancement, and which +still prevailed among other subterranean races, whom they despised as +barbarians, the loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was +visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant experiments +which belong to the infancy of political science. It was the age of envy +and hate, of fierce passions, of constant social changes more or less +violent, of strife between classes, of war between state and state. This +phase of society lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought +to a close, at least among the nobler and more intellectual +populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored in the +all-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril. + +According to the account I received from Zee, who, as an erudite +professor of the College of Sages, had studied such matters more +diligently than any other member of my host's family, this fluid is +capable of being raised and disciplined into the mightiest agency over +all forms of matter, animate or inanimate. It can destroy like the flash +of lightning; yet, differently applied, it can replenish or invigorate +life, heal, and preserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure +of disease, or rather for enabling the physical organisation to +re-establish the due equilibrium of its natural powers, and thereby +to cure itself. By this agency they rend way through the most solid +substances, and open valleys for culture through the rocks of their +subterranean wilderness. From it they extract the light which supplies +their lamps, finding it steadier, softer, and healthier than the other +inflammable materials they had formerly used. + +But the effects of the alleged discovery of the means to direct the more +terrible force of vril were chiefly remarkable in their influence upon +social polity. As these effects became familiarly known and skillfully +administered, war between the vril-discoverers ceased, for they brought +the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority in +numbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the hollow +of a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter the strongest +fortress, or cleave its burning way from the van to the rear of an +embattled host. If army met army, and both had command of this agency, +it could be but to the annihilation of each. The age of war was +therefore gone, but with the cessation of war other effects bearing +upon the social state soon became apparent. Man was so completely at +the mercy of man, each whom he encountered being able, if so willing, +to slay him on the instant, that all notions of government by force +gradually vanished from political systems and forms of law. It is only +by force that vast communities, dispersed through great distances of +space, can be kept together; but now there was no longer either the +necessity of self-preservation or the pride of aggrandisement to make +one state desire to preponderate in population over another. + +The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few generations, +peacefully split into communities of moderate size. The tribe amongst +which I had fallen was limited to 12,000 families. Each tribe occupied +a territory sufficient for all its wants, and at stated periods the +surplus population departed to seek a realm of its own. There appeared +no necessity for any arbitrary selection of these emigrants; there was +always a sufficient number who volunteered to depart. + +These subdivided states, petty if we regard either territory or +population,--all appertained to one vast general family. They spoke +the same language, though the dialects might slightly differ. They +intermarried; They maintained the same general laws and customs; and so +important a bond between these several communities was the knowledge +of vril and the practice of its agencies, that the word A-Vril was +synonymous with civilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying "The Civilised +Nations," was the common name by which the communities employing the +uses of vril distinguished themselves from such of the Ana as were yet +in a state of barbarism. + +The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treating of was apparently +very complicated, really very simple. It was based upon a principle +recognised in theory, though little carried out in practice, above +ground--viz., that the object of all systems of philosophical thought +tends to the attainment of unity, or the ascent through all intervening +labyrinths to the simplicity of a single first cause or principle. +Thus in politics, even republican writers have agreed that a benevolent +autocracy would insure the best administration, if there were any +guarantees for its continuance, or against its gradual abuse of the +powers accorded to it. This singular community elected therefore a +single supreme magistrate styled Tur; he held his office nominally +for life, but he could seldom be induced to retain it after the first +approach of old age. There was indeed in this society nothing to induce +any of its members to covet the cares of office. No honours, no insignia +of higher rank, were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate was not +distinguished from the rest by superior habitation or revenue. On the +other hand, the duties awarded to him were marvellously light and easy, +requiring no preponderant degree of energy or intelligence. There being +no apprehensions of war, there were no armies to maintain; there being +no government of force, there was no police to appoint and direct. What +we call crime was utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; and there were no +courts of criminal justice. The rare instances of civil disputes were +referred for arbitration to friends chosen by either party, or decided +by the Council of Sages, which will be described later. There were +no professional lawyers; and indeed their laws were but amicable +conventions, for there was no power to enforce laws against an offender +who carried in his staff the power to destroy his judges. There were +customs and regulations to compliance with which, for several ages, +the people had tacitly habituated themselves; or if in any instance an +individual felt such compliance hard, he quitted the community and went +elsewhere. There was, in fact, quietly established amid this state, +much the same compact that is found in our private families, in which we +virtually say to any independent grown-up member of the family whom +we receive to entertain, "Stay or go, according as our habits and +regulations suit or displease you." But though there were no laws such +as we call laws, no race above ground is so law-observing. Obedience to +the rule adopted by the community has become as much an instinct as +if it were implanted by nature. Even in every household the head of it +makes a regulation for its guidance, which is never resisted nor even +cavilled at by those who belong to the family. They have a proverb, +the pithiness of which is much lost in this paraphrase, "No happiness +without order, no order without authority, no authority without unity." +The mildness of all government among them, civil or domestic, may be +signalised by their idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal or +forbidden--viz., "It is requested not to do so and so." Poverty among +the Ana is as unknown as crime; not that property is held in common, or +that all are equals in the extent of their possessions or the size and +luxury of their habitations: but there being no difference of rank or +position between the grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each +pursues his own inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like +a modest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself happy in +his own way. Owing to this absence of competition, and the limit placed +on the population, it is difficult for a family to fall into distress; +there are no hazardous speculations, no emulators striving for superior +wealth and rank. No doubt, in each settlement all originally had the +same proportions of land dealt out to them; but some, more adventurous +than others, had extended their possessions farther into the bordering +wilds, or had improved into richer fertility the produce of their +fields, or entered into commerce or trade. Thus, necessarily, some +had grown richer than others, but none had become absolutely poor, or +wanting anything which their tastes desired. If they did so, it was +always in their power to migrate, or at the worst to apply, without +shame and with certainty of aid, to the rich, for all the members of +the community considered themselves as brothers of one affectionate and +united family. More upon this head will be treated of incidentally as my +narrative proceeds. + +The chief care of the supreme magistrate was to communicate with certain +active departments charged with the administration of special details. +The most important and essential of such details was that connected with +the due provision of light. Of this department my host, Aph-Lin, was +the chief. Another department, which might be called the foreign, +communicated with the neighbouring kindred states, principally for the +purpose of ascertaining all new inventions; and to a third department +all such inventions and improvements in machinery were committed for +trial. Connected with this department was the College of Sages--a +college especially favoured by such of the Ana as were widowed and +childless, and by the young unmarried females, amongst whom Zee was +the most active, and, if what we call renown or distinction was a thing +acknowledged by this people (which I shall later show it is not), among +the more renowned or distinguished. It is by the female Professors +of this College that those studies which are deemed of least use in +practical life--as purely speculative philosophy, the history of remote +periods, and such sciences as entomology, conchology, &c.--are the more +diligently cultivated. Zee, whose mind, active as Aristotle's, equally +embraced the largest domains and the minutest details of thought, had +written two volumes on the parasite insect that dwells amid the hairs +of a tiger's* paw, which work was considered the best authority on that +interesting subject. + +* The animal here referred to has many points of difference from the +tiger of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader paw, and +still more receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakes and pools, +and feeds principally on fishes, though it does not object to any +terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes in its way. It is +becoming very scarce even in the wild districts, where it is devoured +by gigantic reptiles. I apprehended that it clearly belongs to the tiger +species, since the parasite animalcule found in its paw, like that in +the Asiatic tiger, is a miniature image of itself. + +But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtle or +elegant studies. They comprise various others more important, and +especially the properties of vril, to the perception of which their +finer nervous organisation renders the female Professors eminently keen. +It is out of this college that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selects +Councillors, limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of +event or circumstance perplexes his own judgment. + +There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but all are +carried on so noiselessly, and quietly that the evidence of a government +seems to vanish altogether, and social order to be as regular and +unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature. Machinery is employed to an +inconceivable extent in all the operations of labour within and without +doors, and it is the unceasing object of the department charged with its +administration to extend its efficiency. There is no class of labourers +or servants, but all who are required to assist or control the machinery +are found in the children, from the time they leave the care of their +mothers to the marriageable age, which they place at sixteen for the +Gy-ei (the females), twenty for the Ana (the males). These children are +formed into bands and sections under their own chiefs, each following +the pursuits in which he is most pleased, or for which he feels himself +most fitted. Some take to handicrafts, some to agriculture, some to +household work, and some to the only services of danger to which the +population is exposed; for the sole perils that threaten this tribe are, +first, from those occasional convulsions within the earth, to foresee +and guard against which tasks their utmost ingenuity--irruptions of fire +and water, the storms of subterranean winds and escaping gases. At +the borders of the domain, and at all places where such peril might +be apprehended, vigilant inspectors are stationed with telegraphic +communications to the hall in which chosen sages take it by turns to +hold perpetual sittings. These inspectors are always selected from the +elder boys approaching the age of puberty, and on the principle that at +that age observation is more acute and the physical forces more alert +than at any other. The second service of danger, less grave, is in the +destruction of all creatures hostile to the life, or the culture, or +even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these the most formidable are the vast +reptiles, of some of which antediluvian relics are preserved in our +museums, and certain gigantic winged creatures, half bird, half reptile. +These, together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigers +or venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children to hunt and +destroy; because, according to the Ana, here ruthlessness is wanted, +and the younger the child the more ruthlessly he will destroy. There is +another class of animals in the destruction of which discrimination +is to be used, and against which children of intermediate age are +appointed--animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage the +produce of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, and +a smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though infinitely more +destructive to crops, and much more cunning in its mode of depredation. +It is the first object of these appointed infants, to tame the more +intelligent of such animals into respect for enclosures signalised by +conspicuous landmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even +to guard the master's property. It is only where such creatures are +found untamable to this extent that they are destroyed. Life is never +taken away for food or for sport, and never spared where untamably +inimical to the Ana. Concomitantly with these bodily services and tasks, +the mental education of the children goes on till boyhood ceases. It is +the general custom, then, to pass though a course of instruction at +the College of Sages, in which, besides more general studies, the pupil +receives special lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect +as he himself selects. Some, however, prefer to pass this period of +probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settle down at once +into rural or commercial pursuits. No force is put upon individual +inclination. + + + +Chapter X. + + +The word Ana (pronounced broadly 'Arna') corresponds with our plural +'men;' An (pronounced 'Arn'), the singular, with 'man.' The word for +woman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms itself into Gy-ei for +the plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jy-ei. They have +a proverb to the effect that this difference in pronunciation is +symbolical, for that the female sex is soft in the concrete, but hard to +deal with in the individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of +all the rights of equality with males, for which certain philosophers +above ground contend. + +In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour impartially +with the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age appropriated to the +destruction of animals irreclaimably hostile, the girls are frequently +preferred, as being by constitution more ruthless under the influence of +fear or hate. In the interval between infancy and the marriageable age +familiar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the marriageable +age it is renewed, never with worse consequences than those which attend +upon marriage. All arts and vocations allotted to the one sex are open +to the other, and the Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in all +those abstruse and mystical branches of reasoning, for which they say +the Ana are unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the +routine of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in our +own world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest points of +theological doctrine, for which few men, actively engaged in worldly +business have sufficient learning or refinement of intellect. +Whether owing to early training in gymnastic exercises, or to their +constitutional organisation, the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana +in physical strength (an important element in the consideration and +maintenance of female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amid +their rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy +as those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to the +original laws of nature, females were intended to be larger than males, +and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest formations of life +in insects, and in the most ancient family of the vertebrata--viz., +fishes--in both of which the females are generally large enough to make +a meal of their consorts if they so desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a +readier and more concentred power over that mysterious fluid or agency +which contains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of that +sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannot only defend +themselves against all aggressions from the males, but could, at any +moment when he least expected his danger, terminate the existence of an +offending spouse. To the credit of the Gy-ei no instance of their abuse +of this awful superiority in the art of destruction is on record for +several ages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of appears +(according to their chronology) to have been about two thousand years +ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her husband; and this +abominable act inspired such terror among the males that they emigrated +in a body and left all the Gy-ei to themselves. The history runs that +the widowed Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when +in her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then entered +into a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever the +exercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate the +same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By this +conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consorts +succeeded in persuading many to return, but those who did return were +mostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt of +their consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejected +all overtures, and, remaining in other communities, were caught up there +by other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss +of so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warning +on the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution to which they +pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by long +hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lost both the aggressive and defensive +superiority over the Ana which they once possessed, just as in the +inferior animals above the earth many peculiarities in their original +formation, intended by nature for their protection, gradually fade or +become inoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. I should +be sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to make the experiment +whether he or she were the stronger. + +From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain alterations in +the marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat to the advantage of the +male. They now bind themselves in wedlock only for three years; at the +end of each third year either male or female can divorce the other and +is free to marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilege +of taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so please. +These regulations are for the most part a dead letter; divorces and +polygamy are extremely rare, and the marriage state now seems +singularly happy and serene among this astonishing people;--the Gy-ei, +notwithstanding their boastful superiority in physical strength and +intellectual abilities, being much curbed into gentle manners by the +dread of separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much the +creatures of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, likely +to exchange for hazardous novelties faces and manners to which they +are reconciled by habit. But there is one privilege the Gy-ei carefully +retain, and the desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of most +lady asserters of woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege, +here usurped by men, of proclaiming their love and urging their suit; +in other words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a +phenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gy-ei. Indeed it +is very seldom that a Gy does not secure any An upon whom she sets her +heart, if his affections be not strongly engaged elsewhere. However coy, +reluctant, and prudish, the male she courts may prove at first, yet her +perseverance, her ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over the +mystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck into +what we call "the fatal noose." Their argument for the reversal of that +relationship of the sexes which the blind tyranny of man has established +on the surface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced with a +frankness which might well be commended to impartial consideration. +They say, that of the two the female is by nature of a more loving +disposition than the male--that love occupies a larger space in her +thoughts, and is more essential to her happiness, and that therefore +she ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male is a shy and +dubitant creature--that he has often a selfish predilection for the +single state--that he often pretends to misunderstand tender glances +and delicate hints--that, in short, he must be resolutely pursued and +captured. They add, moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An of +her choice, and one whom she would not select out of the whole world +becomes her mate, she is not only less happy than she otherwise would +be, but she is not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not +sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature that less lastingly +concentrates his affections on one object; that if he cannot get the +Gy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself to another Gy; and, +finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care of, it is less +necessary to the welfare of his existence that he should love as well +as be loved; he grows contented with his creature comforts, and the many +occupations of thought which he creates for himself. + +Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for the +male; for being thus sure that he is truly and ardently loved, and that +the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determination +to secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consent +dependent on such conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure, +if not a blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his +own hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they may +be, he demands a promise of full and unrestrained concession to them. +This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as the +characteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit veneration +for truth, and her word once given is never broken even by the giddiest +Gy, the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact, +notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gy-ei are the +most amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives I have ever seen even +in the happiest households above ground. It is an aphorism among them, +that "where a Gy loves it is her pleasure to obey." It will be observed +that in the relationship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage, +for such is the moral perfection to which this community has attained, +that any illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as it +would be to a couple of linnets during the time they agree to live in +pairs. + + + +Chapter XI. + + +Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to the +existence of regions extending below the surface of the earth, and +habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material points +of organism, akin to those in the upper world, than the contradiction +thus presented to the doctrine in which, I believe, most geologists +and philosophers concur--viz., that though with us the sun is the great +source of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the +greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the ratio of +a degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface. +But though the domains of the tribe I speak of were, on the higher +ground, so comparatively near to the surface, that I could account for a +temperature, therein, suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and +valleys of that realm were much less hot than philosophers would deem +possible at such a depth--certainly not warmer than the south of France, +or at least of Italy. And according to all the accounts I received, vast +tracts immeasurably deeper beneath the surface, and in which one might +have thought only salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumerable +races organised like ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account +for a fact which is so at variance with the recognised laws of science, +nor could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did but +conjecture that sufficient allowance had not been made by our +philosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior earth--the +vastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served to create free +currents of air and frequent winds--and for the various modes in which +heat is evaporated and thrown off. She allowed, however, that there was +a depth at which the heat was deemed to be intolerable to such organised +life as was known to the experience of the Vril-ya, though their +philosophers believed that even in such places life of some kind, life +sentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant and thriving, could +the philosophers penetrate to it. "Wherever the All-Good builds," +said she, "there, be sure, He places inhabitants. He loves not empty +dwellings." She added, however, that many changes in temperature and +climate had been effected by the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the +agency of vril had been successfully employed in such changes. She +described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which I suspect +to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work all +the correlative forces united under the name of vril; and contended that +wherever this medium could be expanded, as it were, sufficiently for the +various agencies of vril to have ample play, a temperature congenial to +the highest forms of life could be secured. She said also, that it was +the belief of their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been +produced originally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surface +of the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or imported by +the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows) through the +operations of the light constantly brought to bear on them, and the +gradual improvement in culture. She said also, that since the vril light +had superseded all other light-giving bodies, the colours of flower and +foliage had become more brilliant, and vegetation had acquired larger +growth. + +Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent to +deal with them, I must now devote a few pages to the very interesting +questions connected with the language of the Vril-ya. + + + +Chapter XII. + + +The language of the Vril-ya is peculiarly interesting, because it seems +to me to exhibit with great clearness the traces of the three main +transitions through which language passes in attaining to perfection of +form. + +One of the most illustrious of recent philologists, Max Muller, in +arguing for the analogy between the strata of language and the strata +of the earth, lays down this absolute dogma: "No language can, by +any possibility, be inflectional without having passed through the +agglutinative and isolating stratum. No language can be agglutinative +without clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum of +isolation."--'On the Stratification of Language,' p. 20. + +Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of the +original isolating stratum, "as the faithful photograph of man in his +leading-strings trying the muscles of his mind, groping his way, and so +delighted with his first successful grasps that he repeats them again +and again," (Max Muller, p. 3)--we have, in the language of the Vril-ya, +still "clinging with its roots to the underlying stratum," the evidences +of the original isolation. It abounds in monosyllables, which are the +foundations of the language. The transition into the agglutinative +form marks an epoch that must have gradually extended through ages, +the written literature of which has only survived in a few fragments of +symbolical mythology and certain pithy sentences which have passed +into popular proverbs. With the extant literature of the Vril-ya the +inflectional stratum commences. No doubt at that time there must have +operated concurrent causes, in the fusion of races by some dominant +people, and the rise of some great literary phenomena by which the +form of language became arrested and fixed. As the inflectional stage +prevailed over the agglutinative, it is surprising to see how much more +boldly the original roots of the language project from the surface that +conceals them. In the old fragments and proverbs of the preceding stage +the monosyllables which compose those roots vanish amidst words of +enormous length, comprehending whole sentences from which no one part +can be disentangled from the other and employed separately. But when +the inflectional form of language became so far advanced as to have its +scholars and grammarians, they seem to have united in extirpating all +such polysynthetical or polysyllabic monsters, as devouring invaders of +the aboriginal forms. Words beyond three syllables became proscribed +as barbarous and in proportion as the language grew thus simplified it +increased in strength, in dignity, and in sweetness. Though now very +compressed in sound, it gains in clearness by that compression. By a +single letter, according to its position, they contrive to express +all that with civilised nations in our upper world it takes the waste, +sometimes of syllables, sometimes of sentences, to express. Let me here +cite one or two instances: An (which I will translate man), Ana (men); +the letter 's' is with them a letter implying multitude, according to +where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa, a multitude of men. The +prefix of certain letters in their alphabet invariably denotes compound +significations. For instance, Gl (which with them is a single letter, as +'th' is a single letter with the Greeks) at the commencement of a word +infers an assemblage or union of things, sometimes kindred, sometimes +dissimilar--as Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i. e., an assemblage of +houses). Ata is sorrow; Glata, a public calamity. Aur-an is the health +or wellbeing of a man; Glauran, the wellbeing of the state, the good of +the community; and a word constantly in ther mouths is A-glauran, which +denotes their political creed--viz., that "the first principle of a +community is the good of all." Aub is invention; Sila, a tone in music. +Glaubsila, as uniting the ideas of invention and of musical intonation, +is the classical word for poetry--abbreviated, in ordinary conversation, +to Glaubs. Na, which with them is, like Gl, but a single letter, always, +when an initial, implies something antagonistic to life or joy or +comfort, resembling in this the Aryan root Nak, expressive of perishing +or destruction. Nax is darkness; Narl, death; Naria, sin or evil. +Nas--an uttermost condition of sin and evil--corruption. In writing, +they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being by any special +name. He is symbolized by what may be termed the heiroglyphic of a +pyramid, /\. In prayer they address Him by a name which they deem too +sacred to confide to a stranger, and I know it not. In conversation they +generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good. The letter +V, symbolical of the inverted pyramid, where it is an initial, nearly +always denotes excellence of power; as Vril, of which I have said so +much; Veed, an immortal spirit; Veed-ya, immortality; Koom, pronounced +like the Welsh Cwm, denotes something of hollowness. Koom itself is +a cave; Koom-in, a hole; Zi-koom, a valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; +Bodh-koom, ignorance (literally, knowledge-void). Koom-posh is their +name for the government of the many, or the ascendancy of the most +ignorant or hollow. Posh is an almost untranslatable idiom, implying, as +the reader will see later, contempt. The closest rendering I can give to +it is our slang term, "bosh;" and this Koom-Posh may be loosely rendered +"Hollow-Bosh." But when Democracy or Koom-Posh degenerates from popular +ignorance into that popular passion or ferocity which precedes its +decease, as (to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the +French Reign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the Roman Republic +preceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their name for that state of +things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife--Glek, the universal strife. Nas, as I +before said, is corruption or rot; thus, Glek-Nas may be construed, "the +universal strife-rot." Their compounds are very expressive; thus, +Bodh being knowledge, and Too a participle that implies the action of +cautiously approaching,--Too-bodh is their word for Philosophy; Pah is +a contemptuous exclamation analogous to our idiom, "stuff and nonsense;" +Pah-bodh (literally stuff and nonsense-knowledge) is their term for +futile and false philosophy, and applied to a species of metaphysical or +speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue, which consisted in making +inquiries that could not be answered, and were not worth making; such, +for instance, as "Why does an An have five toes to his feet instead of +four or six? Did the first An, created by the All-Good, have the same +number of toes as his descendants? In the form by which an An will be +recognised by his friends in the future state of being, will he retain +any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toes or spiritual +toes?" I take these illustrations of Pahbodh, not in irony or jest, but +because the very inquiries I name formed the subject of controversy by +the latest cultivators of that 'science,'--4000 years ago. + +In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently there were +eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but the effect +of time has been to reduce these cases, and multiply, instead of these +varying terminations, explanatory propositions. At present, in the +Grammar submitted to my study, there were four cases to nouns, three +having varying terminations, and the fourth a differing prefix. + + SINGULAR. PLURAL. + Nom. An, Man, | Nom. Ana, Men. + Dat. Ano, to Man, | Dat. Anoi, to Men. + Ac. Anan, Man, | Ac. Ananda, Men. + Voc. Hil-an, O Man, | Voc. Hil-Ananda, O Men. + +In the elder inflectional literature the dual form existed--it has long +been obsolete. + +The genitive case with them is also obsolete; the dative supplies its +place: they say the House 'to' a Man, instead of the House 'of' a Man. +When used (sometimes in poetry), the genitive in the termination is the +same as the nominative; so is the ablative, the preposition that marks +it being a prefix or suffix at option, and generally decided by ear, +according to the sound of the noun. It will be observed that the +prefix Hil marks the vocative case. It is always retained in addressing +another, except in the most intimate domestic relations; its omission +would be considered rude: just as in our of forms of speech in +addressing a king it would have been deemed disrespectful to say "King," +and reverential to say "O King." In fact, as they have no titles of +honour, the vocative adjuration supplies the place of a title, and is +given impartially to all. The prefix Hil enters into the composition of +words that imply distant communications, as Hil-ya, to travel. + +In the conjugation of their verbs, which is much too lengthy a subject +to enter on here, the auxiliary verb Ya, "to go," which plays so +considerable part in the Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred +office, as if it were a radical in some language from which both +had descended. But another auxiliary or opposite signification also +accompanies it and shares its labours--viz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus +Ya enters into the future tense, and Zi in the preterite of all verbs +requiring auxiliaries. Yam, I shall go--Yiam, I may go--Yani-ya, I shall +go (literally, I go to go), Zam-poo-yan, I have gone (literally, I +rest from gone). Ya, as a termination, implies by analogy, progress, +movement, efflorescence. Zi, as a terminal, denotes fixity, sometimes in +a good sense, sometimes in a bad, according to the word with which it +is coupled. Iva-zi, eternal goodness; Nan-zi, eternal evil. Poo (from) +enters as a prefix to words that denote repugnance, or things from +which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust; Poo-naria, falsehood, +the vilest kind of evil. Poosh or Posh I have already confessed to be +untranslatable literally. It is an expression of contempt not unmixed +with pity. This radical seems to have originated from inherent sympathy +between the labial effort and the sentiment that impelled it, Poo being +an utterance in which the breath is exploded from the lips with more or +less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when an initial, is with them a +sound in which the breath is sucked inward, and thus Zu, pronounced Zoo +(which in their language is one letter), is the ordinary prefix to words +that signify something that attracts, pleases, touches the heart--as +Zummer, lover; Zutze, love; Zuzulia, delight. This indrawn sound of +Z seems indeed naturally appropriate to fondness. Thus, even in our +language, mothers say to their babies, in defiance of grammar, "Zoo +darling;" and I have heard a learned professor at Boston call his wife +(he had been only married a month) "Zoo little pet." + +I cannot quit this subject, however, without observing by what slight +changes in the dialects favoured by different tribes of the same race, +the original signification and beauty of sounds may become confused and +deformed. Zee told me with much indignation that Zummer (lover) which in +the way she uttered it, seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of +her heart, was, in some not very distant communities of the Vril-ya, +vitiated into the half-hissing, half-nasal, wholly disagreeable, sound +of Subber. I thought to myself it only wanted the introduction of 'n' +before 'u' to render it into an English word significant of the last +quality an amorous Gy would desire in her Zummer. + +I will but mention another peculiarity in this language which gives +equal force and brevity to its forms of expressions. + +A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the alphabet, and +is often used as a prefix word by itself to convey a complex idea of +sovereignty or chiefdom, or presiding principle. For instance, Iva is +goodness; Diva, goodness and happiness united; A-Diva is unerring and +absolute truth. I have already noticed the value of A in A-glauran, +so, in vril (to whose properties they trace their present state of +civilisation), A-vril, denotes, as I have said, civilisation itself. + +The philologist will have seen from the above how much the language +of the Vril-ya is akin to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic; but, like all +languages, it contains words and forms in which transfers from very +opposite sources of speech have been taken. The very title of Tur, which +they give to their supreme magistrate, indicates theft from a tongue +akin to the Turanian. They say themselves that this is a foreign word +borrowed from a title which their historical records show to have been +borne by the chief of a nation with whom the ancestors of the Vril-ya +were, in very remote periods, on friendly terms, but which has long +become extinct, and they say that when, after the discovery of vril, +they remodelled their political institutions, they expressly adopted a +title taken from an extinct race and a dead language for that of their +chief magistrate, in order to avoid all titles for that office with +which they had previous associations. + +Should life be spared to me, I may collect into systematic form such +knowledge as I acquired of this language during my sojourn amongst the +Vril-ya. But what I have already said will perhaps suffice to show to +genuine philological students that a language which, preserving so many +of the roots in the aboriginal form, and clearing from the immediate, +but transitory, polysynthetical stage so many rude incumbrances, has +attained to such a union of simplicity and compass in its final +inflectional forms, must have been the gradual work of countless ages +and many varieties of mind ; that it contains the evidence of fusion +between congenial races, and necessitated, in arriving at the shape of +which I have given examples, the continuous culture of a highly +thoughtful people. + +That, nevertheless, the literature which belongs to this language is a +literature of the past; that the present felicitous state of society at +which the Ana have attained forbids the progressive cultivation of +literature, especially in the two main divisions of fiction and history, +--I shall have occasion to show. + + + + +Chapter XIII. + + +This people have a religion, and, whatever may be said against it, at +least it has these strange peculiarities: firstly, that all believe in +the creed they profess; secondly, that they all practice the precepts +which the creed inculcates. They unite in the worship of one divine +Creator and Sustainer of the universe. They believe that it is one of +the properties of the all-permeating agency of vril, to transmit to +the well-spring of life and intelligence every thought that a living +creature can conceive; and though they do not contend that the idea of a +Diety is innate, yet they say that the An (man) is the only creature, +so far as their observation of nature extends, to whom 'the capacity +of conceiving that idea,' with all the trains of thought which open out +from it, is vouchsafed. They hold that this capacity is a privilege that +cannot have been given in vain, and hence that prayer and thanksgiving +are acceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to the complete +development of the human creature. They offer their devotions both in +private and public. Not being considered one of their species, I was +not admitted into the building or temple in which the public worship is +rendered; but I am informed that the service is exceedingly short, and +unattended with any pomp of ceremony. It is a doctrine with the Vril-ya, +that earnest devotion or complete abstraction from the actual world +cannot, with benefit to itself, be maintained long at a stretch by the +human mind, especially in public, and that all attempts to do so either +lead to fanaticism or to hypocrisy. When they pray in private, it is +when they are alone or with their young children. + +They say that in ancient times there was a great number of books written +upon speculations as to the nature of the Diety, and upon the forms of +belief or worship supposed to be most agreeable to Him. But these were +found to lead to such heated and angry disputations as not only to shake +the peace of the community and divide families before the most united, +but in the course of discussing the attributes of the Diety, the +existence of the Diety Himself became argued away, or, what was +worse, became invested with the passions and infirmities of the human +disputants. "For," said my host, "since a finite being like an An cannot +possibly define the Infinite, so, when he endeavours to realise an idea +of the Divinity, he only reduces the Divinity into an An like himself." +During the later ages, therefore, all theological speculations, though +not forbidden, have been so discouraged as to have fallen utterly +into disuse. The Vril-ya unite in a conviction of a future state, more +felicitous and more perfect than the present. If they have very vague +notions of the doctrine of rewards and punishments, it is perhaps +because they have no systems of rewards and punishments among +themselves, for there are no crimes to punish, and their moral standard +is so even that no An among them is, upon the whole, considered more +virtuous than another. If one excels, perhaps in one virtue, another +equally excels in some other virtue; If one has his prevalent fault or +infirmity, so also another has his. In fact, in their extraordinary +mode of life. There are so few temptations to wrong, that they are good +(according to their notions of goodness) merely because they live. +They have some fanciful notions upon the continuance of life, when once +bestowed, even in the vegetable world, as the reader will see in the +next chapter. + + + +Chapter XIV. + + +Though, as I have said, the Vril-ya discourage all speculations on the +nature of the Supreme Being, they appear to concur in a belief by which +they think to solve that great problem of the existence of evil which +has so perplexed the philosophy of the upper world. They hold that +wherever He has once given life, with the perceptions of that life, +however faint it be, as in a plant, the life is never destroyed; it +passes into new and improved forms, though not in this planet (differing +therein from the ordinary doctrine of metempsychosis), and that the +living thing retains the sense of identity, so that it connects its past +life with its future, and is 'conscious' of its progressive improvement +in the scale of joy. For they say that, without this assumption, they +cannot, according to the lights of human reason vouchsafed to them, +discover the perfect justice which must be a constituent quality of the +All-Wise and the All-Good. Injustice, they say, can only emanate +from three causes: want of wisdom to perceive what is just, want of +benevolence to desire, want of power to fulfill it; and that each of +these three wants is incompatible in the All-Wise, the All-Good, +the All-Powerful. But that, while even in this life, the wisdom, +the benevolence, and the power of the Supreme Being are sufficiently +apparent to compel our recognition, the justice necessarily resulting +from those attributes, absolutely requires another life, not for man +only, but for every living thing of the inferior orders. That, alike in +the animal and the vegetable world, we see one individual rendered, by +circumstances beyond its control, exceedingly wretched compared to its +neighbours--one only exists as the prey of another--even a plant suffers +from disease till it perishes prematurely, while the plant next to it +rejoices in its vitality and lives out its happy life free from a pang. +That it is an erroneous analogy from human infirmities to reply by +saying that the Supreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making +his own secondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of +the First Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorant conception of the +All-Good, to dismiss with a brief contempt all consideration of justice +for the myriad forms into which He has infused life, and assume that +justice is only due to the single product of the An. There is no small +and no great in the eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant that +nothing, however humble, which feels that it lives and suffers, can +perish through the series of ages, that all its suffering here, if +continuous from the moment of its birth to that of its transfer to +another form of being, would be more brief compared with eternity than +the cry of the new-born is compared to the whole life of a man; and once +suppose that this living thing retains its sense of identity when so +transformed (for without that sense it could be aware of no future +being), and though, indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed +from the scope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it to be +uniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it would be +if acting only upon general and secondary laws; because such perfect +justice flows of necessity from perfectness of knowledge to conceive, +perfectness of love to will, and perfectness of power to complete it. + +However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tends perhaps to +confirm politically the systems of government which, admitting different +degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfect equality in rank, exquisite +mildness in all relations and intercourse, and tenderness to all created +things which the good of the community does not require them to destroy. +And though their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a +cankered flower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, +at least, is not a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter for no +unpleasing reflection to think that within the abysses of earth, never +lit by a ray from the material heavens, there should have penetrated so +luminous a conviction of the ineffable goodness of the Creator--so +fixed an idea that the general laws by which He acts cannot admit of any +partial injustice or evil, and therefore cannot be comprehended without +reference to their action over all space and throughout all time. And +since, as I shall have occasion to observe later, the intellectual +conditions and social systems of this subterranean race comprise and +harmonise great, and apparently antagonistic, varieties in philosophical +doctrine and speculation which have from time to time been started, +discussed, dismissed, and have re-appeared amongst thinkers or dreamers +in the upper world,--so I may perhaps appropriately conclude this +reference to the belief of the Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient +life once given is indestructible among inferior creatures as well as +in man, by an eloquent passage from the work of that eminent zoologist, +Louis Agassiz, which I have only just met with, many years after I had +committed to paper these recollections of the life of the Vril-ya which +I now reduce into something like arrangement and form: "The relations +which individual animals bear to one another are of such a character +that they ought long ago to have been considered as sufficient proof +that no organised being could ever have been called into existence by +other agency than by the direct intervention of a reflective mind. +This argues strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of +an immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and +superior endowments places man so much above the animals; yet the +principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called sense, reason, +or instinct, it presents in the whole range of organised beings a series +of phenomena closely linked together, and upon it are based not only +the higher manifestations of the mind, but the very permanence of the +specific differences which characterise every organism. Most of the +arguments in favour of the immortality of man apply equally to the +permanency of this principle in other living beings. May I not add that +a future life in which man would be deprived of that great source of +enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement which results from +the contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world would involve +a lamentable loss? And may we not look to a spiritual concert of the +combined worlds and ALL their inhabitants in the presence of +their Creator as the highest conception of paradise?"--'Essay on +Classification,' sect. xvii. p. 97-99. + + + +Chapter XV. + + +Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter of my +host was the most considerate and thoughtful in her kindness. At her +suggestion I laid aside the habiliments in which I had descended +from the upper earth, and adopted the dress of the Vril-ya, with the +exception of the artful wings which served them, when on foot, as a +graceful mantle. But as many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urban +pursuits, did not wear these wings, this exception created no marked +difference between myself and the race among whom I sojourned, and I was +thus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant curiosity. +Out of the household no one suspected that I had come from the upper +world, and I was but regarded as one of some inferior and barbarous +tribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a guest. + +The city was large in proportion to the territory round it, which was of +no greater extent than many an English or Hungarian nobleman's estate; +but the whole if it, to the verge of the rocks which constituted its +boundary, was cultivated to the nicest degree, except where certain +allotments of mountain and pasture were humanely left free to the +sustenance of the harmless animals they had tamed, though not for +domestic use. So great is their kindness towards these humbler +creatures, that a sum is devoted from the public treasury for the +purpose of deporting them to other Vril-ya communities willing to +receive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they become too numerous +for the pastures allotted to them in their native place. They do not, +however, multiply to an extent comparable to the ratio at which, with +us, animals bred for slaughter, increase. It seems a law of nature that +animals not useful to man gradually recede from the domains he occupies, +or even become extinct. It is an old custom of the various sovereign +states amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to leave +between each state a neutral and uncultivated border-land. In the +instance of the community I speak of, this tract, being a ridge of +savage rocks, was impassable by foot, but was easily surmounted, whether +by the wings of the inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak +hereafter. Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles +impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always kept +lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special tax, to which all +the communities comprehended in the denomination of Vril-ya contribute +in settled proportions. By these means a considerable commercial traffic +with other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus +wealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The community +was also eminent for skill in constructing implements connected with the +arts of husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articles +more of luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on which +they set a higher price than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in +concert. These were brought from a great distance, and were marvellous +for beauty of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was +taken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the species +had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I saw no other +pet animals among this community except some very amusing and sportive +creatures of the Batrachian species, resembling frogs, but with very +intelligent countenances, which the children were fond of, and kept in +their private gardens. They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs +or horses, though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that such +creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be found in +regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya. She said that they +had gradually disappeared from the more civilised world since the +discovery of vril, and the results attending that discovery had +dispensed with their uses. Machinery and the invention of wings had +superseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer +wanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when the +ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or +hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as the horse +was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been, +there, of little use either for pastime or burden. The only creature +they use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is much +employed on farms. The nature of the surrounding soil in these +districts may be said to have first suggested the invention of wings and +air-boats. The largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by +the city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house with a +separate garden. The broad main street, in which Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded +into a vast square, in which were placed the College of Sages and all +the public offices; a magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I +call naptha (I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All these +public edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and solidity. +They reminded me of the architectural pictures of Martin. Along the +upper stories of each ran a balcony, or rather a terraced garden, +supported by columns, filled with flowering plants, and tenanted by +many kinds of tame birds. + +From the square branched several streets, all broad and brilliantly +lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either side. In my excursions +in the town I was never allowed to go alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was +my habitual companion. In this community the adult Gy is seen walking +with any young An as familiarly as if there were no difference of sex. + +The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attend on a +customer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly intelligent +and courteous, but without the least touch of importunity or cringing. +The shopkeeper himself might or might not be visible; when visible, he +seemed rarely employed on any matter connected with his professional +business; and yet he had taken to that business from special liking for +it, and quite independently of his general sources of fortune. + +The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beings +after the active age of childhood. Whether by temperament or philosophy, +they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when you +take away from a human being the incentives to action which are found in +cupidity or ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet. + +In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet to that +of their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in a bold misuse of +terms) their public 'promenades,' they employ the latter, also for the +aerial dances I have described, as well as for visiting their country +places, which are mostly placed on lofty heights; and, when still young, +they prefer their wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, to +vehicular conveyances. + +Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less rapidly than +some birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, and keep up +that rate for five or six hours at a stretch. But the Ana generally, on +reaching middle age, are not fond of rapid movements requiring violent +exercise. Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which our +own physicians will doubtless approve--viz., that regular transpiration +through the pores of the skin is essential to health, they habitually +use the sweating-baths to which we give the name Turkish or Roman, +succeeded by douches of perfumed waters. They have great faith in the +salubrious virtue of certain perfumes. + +It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four times +a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril.* + +* I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very similar in its +invigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the virtues +of which are ascribed by many physicians to electricity; but though +similar, the effect of the vril bath was more lasting. + +They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer of +life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather +tends to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases, +however, they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwing +off their complaint. + +In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all their +luxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in an atmosphere of +music and fragrance. Every room has its mechanical contrivances for +melodious sounds, usually tuned down to soft-murmured notes, which seem +like sweet whispers from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed to +these gentle sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor, when +alone, to reflection. But they have a notion that to breathe an air +filled with continuous melody and perfume has necessarily an effect +at once soothing and elevating upon the formation of character and the +habits of thought. Though so temperate, and with total abstinence from +other animal food than milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they are +delicate and dainty to an extreme in food and beverage; and in all their +sports even the old exhibit a childlike gaiety. Happiness is the end at +which they aim, not as the excitement of a moment, but as the prevailing +condition of the entire existence; and regard for the happiness of each +other is evinced by the exquisite amenity of their manners. + +Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of any +known races in the upper world, though I cannot help thinking it a +development, in the course of countless ages of the Brachycephalic type +of the Age of Stone in Lyell's 'Elements of Geology,' C. X., p. 113, as +compared with the Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age of +Iron, correspondent with that now so prevalent amongst us, and called +the Celtic type. It has the same comparative massiveness of forehead, +not receding like the Celtic--the same even roundness in the frontal +organs; but it is far loftier in the apex, and far less pronounced +in the hinder cranial hemisphere where phrenologists place the animal +organs. To speak as a phrenologist, the cranium common to the Vril-ya +has the organs of weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, very +largely developed; that of construction much more pronounced than +that of ideality. Those which are called the moral organs, such as +conscientiousness and benevolence, are amazingly full; amativeness +and combativeness are both small; adhesiveness large; the organ of +destructiveness (i.e., of determined clearance of intervening +obstacles) immense, but less than that of benevolence; and their +philoprogenitiveness takes rather the character of compassion and +tenderness to things that need aid or protection than of the animal love +of offspring. I never met with one person deformed or misshapen. The +beauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of feature, but in +a smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle to the +extreme of old age, and a serene sweetness of expression, combined with +that majesty which seems to come from consciousness of power and the +freedom of all terror, physical or moral. It is that very sweetness, +combined with that majesty, which inspired in a beholder like myself, +accustomed to strive with the passions of mankind, a sentiment of +humiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a painter +might give to a demi-god, a genius, an angel. The males of the Vril-ya +are entirely beardless; the Gy-ei sometimes, in old age, develop a small +moustache. + +I was surprised to find that the colour of their skin was not uniformly +that which I had remarked in those individuals whom I had first +encountered,--some being much fairer, and even with blue eyes, and hair +of a deep golden auburn, though still of complexions warmer or richer in +tone than persons in the north of Europe. + +I was told that this admixture of colouring arose from intermarriage +with other and more distant tribes of the Vril-ya, who, whether by the +accident of climate or early distinction of race, were of fairer hues +than the tribes of which this community formed one. It was considered +that the dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of Ana; but they +attached no sentiment of pride to that antiquity, and, on the contrary, +believed their present excellence of breed came from frequent crossing +with other families differing, yet akin; and they encourage such +intermarriages, always provided that it be with the Vril-ya nations. +Nations which, not conforming their manners and institutions to those +of the Vril-ya, nor indeed held capable of acquiring the powers over +the vril agencies which it had taken them generations to attain and +transmit, were regarded with more disdain than the citizens of New York +regard the negroes. + +I learned from Zee, who had more lore in all matters than any male with +whom I was brought into familiar converse, that the superiority of +the Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of their +earlier struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localities +in which they had first settled. "Wherever," said Zee, moralising, +"wherever goes on that early process in the history of civilisation, by +which life is made a struggle, in which the individual has to put forth +all his powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find this +result--viz., since in the competition a vast number must perish, nature +selects for preservation only the strongest specimens. With our +race, therefore, even before the discovery of vril, only the highest +organisations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books a +legend, once popularly believed, that we were driven from a region +that seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our +condition and attain to the purest elimination of our species by the +severity of the struggles our forefathers underwent; and that, when our +education shall become finally completed, we are destined to return +to the upper world, and supplant all the inferior races now existing +therein." + +Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me in private upon the +political and social conditions of that upper world, in which Zee so +philosophically assumed that the inhabitants were to be exterminated +one day or other by the advent of the Vril-ya. They found in my +accounts,--in which I continued to do all I could (without launching +into falsehoods so positive that they would have been easily detected by +the shrewdness of my listeners) to present our powers and ourselves in +the most flattering point of view,--perpetual subjects of comparison +between our most civilised populations and the meaner subterranean races +which they considered hopelessly plunged in barbarism, and doomed to +gradual if certain extinction. But they both agreed in desiring to +conceal from their community all premature opening into the regions +lighted by the sun; both were humane, and shrunk from the thought of +annihilating so many millions of creatures; and the pictures I drew of +our life, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain I boasted +of our great men--poets, philosophers, orators, generals--and defied the +Vril-ya to produce their equals. "Alas," said Zee, "this predominance +of the few over the many is the surest and most fatal sign of a race +incorrigibly savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortal +happiness consists in the extinction of that strife and competition +between individuals, which, no matter what forms of government they +adopt, render the many subordinate to the few, destroy real liberty to +the individual, whatever may be the nominal liberty of the state, and +annul that calm of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily, +cannot be attained? Our notion is, that the more we can assimilate life +to the existence which our noblest ideas can conceive to be that of +spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more we approximate +to a divine happiness here, and the more easily we glide into the +conditions of being hereafter. For, surely, all we can imagine of the +life of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence of self-made +cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems +to us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without +active occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, +but occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the +idiosyncrasies of each, not forced and repugnant--a life gladdened by +the untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral +atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry. +Such is the political state to which all the tribes and families of +the Vril-ya seek to attain, and towards that goal all our theories of +government are shaped. You see how utterly opposed is such a progress to +that of the uncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim at +a systematic perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warring passions +aggravated more and more as their progress storms its way onward. The +most powerful of all the races in our world, beyond the pale of the +Vril-ya, esteems itself the best governed of all political societies, +and to have reached in that respect the extreme end at which political +wisdom can arrive, so that the other nations should tend more or less to +copy it. It has established, on its broadest base, the Koom-Posh--viz., +the government of the ignorant upon the principle of being the most +numerous. It has placed the supreme bliss in the vying with each other +in all things, so that the evil passions are never in repose--vying for +power, for wealth, for eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry it +is horrible to hear the vituperation, the slanders, and calumnies which +even the best and mildest among them heap on each other without remorse +or shame." + +"Some years ago," said Aph-Lin, "I visited this people, and their +misery and degradation were the more appalling because they were always +boasting of their felicity and grandeur as compared with the rest of +their species. And there is no hope that this people, which evidently +resembles your own, can improve, because all their notions tend to +further deterioration. They desire to enlarge their dominion more and +more, in direct antagonism to the truth that, beyond a very limited +range, it is impossible to secure to a community the happiness which +belongs to a well-ordered family; and the more they mature a system +by which a few individuals are heated and swollen to a size above the +standard slenderness of the millions, the more they chuckle and exact, +and cry out, 'See by what great exceptions to the common littleness of +our race we prove the magnificent results of our system!'" + +"In fact," resumed Zee, "if the wisdom of human life be to approximate +to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying +off into the opposite direction than a system which aims at carrying +to the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see +how, by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit +themselves even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still +expect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, +minds accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of +godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and would +long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with each +other." + + + +Chapter XVI. + + +I have spoken so much of the Vril Staff that my reader may expect me +to describe it. This I cannot do accurately, for I was never allowed to +handle it for fear of some terrible accident occasioned by my ignorance +of its use; and I have no doubt that it requires much skill and practice +in the exercise of its various powers. It is hollow, and has in the +handle several stops, keys, or springs by which its force can be +altered, modified, or directed--so that by one process it destroys, by +another it heals--by one it can rend the rock, by another disperse the +vapour--by one it affects bodies, by another it can exercise a certain +influence over minds. It is usually carried in the convenient size of +a walking-staff, but it has slides by which it can be lengthened or +shortened at will. When used for special purposes, the upper part rests +in the hollow of the palm with the fore and middle fingers protruded. +I was assured, however, that its power was not equal in all, but +proportioned to the amount of certain vril properties in the wearer in +affinity, or 'rapport' with the purposes to be effected. Some were more +potent to destroy, others to heal, &c.; much also depended on the calm +and steadiness of volition in the manipulator. They assert that the +full exercise of vril power can only be acquired by the constitutional +temperament--i.e., by hereditarily transmitted organisation--and that +a female infant of four years old belonging to the Vril-ya races can +accomplish feats which a life spent in its practice would not enable +the strongest and most skilled mechanician, born out of the pale of the +Vril-ya to achieve. All these wands are not equally complicated; those +intrusted to children are much simpler than those borne by sages of +either sex, and constructed with a view to the special object on which +the children are employed; which as I have before said, is among the +youngest children the most destructive. In the wands of wives and +mothers the correlative destroying force is usually abstracted, the +healing power fully charged. I wish I could say more in detail of this +singular conductor of the vril fluid, but its machinery is as exquisite +as its effects are marvellous. + +I should say, however, that this people have invented certain tubes by +which the vril fluid can be conducted towards the object it is meant +to destroy, throughout a distance almost indefinite; at least I put +it modestly when I say from 500 to 1000 miles. And their mathematical +science as applied to such purpose is so nicely accurate, that on +the report of some observer in an air-boat, any member of the vril +department can estimate unerringly the nature of intervening obstacles, +the height to which the projectile instrument should be raised, and the +extent to which it should be charged, so as to reduce to ashes within a +space of time too short for me to venture to specify it, a capital twice +as vast as London. + +Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians--wonderful for the +adaptation of the inventive faculty to practical uses. + +I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great public museum, +which occupies a wing in the College of Sages, and in which are hoarded, +as curious specimens of the ignorant and blundering experiments of +ancient times, many contrivances on which we pride ourselves as recent +achievements. In one department, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete +lumber, are tubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an +inflammable powder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and +even still more murderous than our latest improvements. + +My host spoke of these with a smile of contempt, such as an artillery +officer might bestow on the bows and arrows of the Chinese. In another +department there were models of vehicles and vessels worked by steam, +and of an air-balloon which might have been constructed by Montgolfier. +"Such," said Zee, with an air of meditative wisdom--"such were the +feeble triflings with nature of our savage forefathers, ere they had +even a glimmering perception of the properties of vril!" + +This young Gy was a magnificent specimen of the muscular force to which +the females of her country attain. Her features were beautiful, like +those of all her race: never in the upper world have I seen a face so +grand and so faultless, but her devotion to the severer studies had +given to her countenance an expression of abstract thought which +rendered it somewhat stern when in repose; and such a sternness became +formidable when observed in connection with her ample shoulders and +lofty stature. She was tall even for a Gy, and I saw her lift up a +cannon as easily as I could lift a pocket-pistol. Zee inspired me with a +profound terror--a terror which increased when we came into a department +of the museum appropriated to models of contrivances worked by the +agency of vril; for here, merely by a certain play of her vril staff, +she herself standing at a distance, she put into movement large and +weighty substances. She seemed to endow them with intelligence, and to +make them comprehend and obey her command. She set complicated pieces of +machinery into movement, arrested the movement or continued it, until, +within an incredibly short time, various kinds of raw material were +reproduced as symmetrical works of art, complete and perfect. Whatever +effect mesmerism or electro-biology produces over the nerves and muscles +of animated objects, this young Gy produced by the motions of her +slender rod over the springs and wheels of lifeless mechanism. + +When I mentioned to my companions my astonishment at this influence +over inanimate matter--while owning that, in our world, I had witnessed +phenomena which showed that over certain living organisations certain +other living organisations could establish an influence genuine in +itself, but often exaggerated by credulity or craft--Zee, who was more +interested in such subjects than her father, bade me stretch forth my +hand, and then, placing it beside her own, she called my attention to +certain distinctions of type and character. In the first place, the +thumb of the Gy (and, as I afterwards noticed, of all that race, male or +female) was much larger, at once longer and more massive, than is found +with our species above ground. There is almost, in this, as great a +difference as there is between the thumb of a man and that of a gorilla. +Secondly, the palm is proportionally thicker than ours--the texture of +the skin infinitely finer and softer--its average warmth is greater. +More remarkable than all this, is a visible nerve, perceptible under the +skin, which starts from the wrist skirting the ball of the thumb, and +branching, fork-like, at the roots of the fore and middle fingers. "With +your slight formation of thumb," said the philosophical young Gy, "and +with the absence of the nerve which you find more or less developed in +the hands of our race, you can never achieve other than imperfect +and feeble power over the agency of vril; but so far as the nerve is +concerned, that is not found in the hands of our earliest progenitors, +nor in those of the ruder tribes without the pale of the Vril-ya. It has +been slowly developed in the course of generations, commencing in the +early achievements, and increasing with the continuous exercise, of the +vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousand years, such +a nerve may possibly be engendered in those higher beings of your +race, who devote themselves to that paramount science through which +is attained command over all the subtler forces of nature permeated +by vril. But when you talk of matter as something in itself inert +and motionless, your parents or tutors surely cannot have left you so +ignorant as not to know that no form of matter is motionless and inert: +every particle is constantly in motion and constantly acted upon by +agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and rapid, but vril the +most subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the most powerful. So that, +in fact, the current launched by my hand and guided by my will does but +render quicker and more potent the action which is eternally at work +upon every particle of matter, however inert and stubborn it may seem. +If a heap of metal be not capable of originating a thought of its own, +yet, through its internal susceptibility to movement, it obtains the +power to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at work on it; by +which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the vril power, it is +as much compelled to obey as if it were displaced by a visible bodily +force. It is animated for the time being by the soul thus infused into +it, so that one may almost say that it lives and reasons. Without this +we could not make our automata supply the place of servants." + +I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of the young Gy +to hazard the risk of arguing with her. I had read somewhere in my +schoolboy days that a wise man, disputing with a Roman Emperor, suddenly +drew in his horns; and when the emperor asked him whether he had nothing +further to say on his side of the question, replied, "Nay, Caesar, there +is no arguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions." + +Though I had a secret persuasion that, whatever the real effects of +vril upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved her a very shallow +philosopher as to its extent or its causes, I had no doubt that Zee +could have brained all the Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the +other, with a blow of her fist. Every sensible man knows that it is +useless to argue with any ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; +but to argue with a Gy seven feet high upon the mysteries of vril,--as +well argue in a desert, and with a simoon! + +Amid the various departments to which the vast building of the College +of Sages was appropriated, that which interested me most was devoted to +the archaeology of the Vril-ya, and comprised a very ancient collection +of portraits. In these the pigments and groundwork employed were of +so durable a nature that even pictures said to be executed at dates as +remote as those in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained much +freshness of colour. In examining this collection, two things especially +struck me:--first, that the pictures said to be between 6000 and 7000 +years old were of a much higher degree of art than any produced within +the last 3000 or 4000 years; and, second, that the portraits within the +former period much more resembled our own upper world and European types +of countenance. Some of them, indeed reminded me of the Italian heads +which look out from the canvases of Titian--speaking of ambition or +craft, of care or of grief, with furrows in which the passions have +passed with iron ploughshare. These were the countenances of men who had +lived in struggle and conflict before the discovery of the latent forces +of vril had changed the character of society--men who had fought with +each other for power or fame as we in the upper world fight. + +The type of face began to evince a marked change about a thousand years +after the vril revolution, becoming then, with each generation, more +serene, and in that serenity more terribly distinct from the faces of +labouring and sinful men; while in proportion as the beauty and the +grandeur of the countenance itself became more fully developed, the art +of the painter became more tame and monotonous. + +But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of three portraits +belonging to the pre-historical age, and, according to mythical +tradition, taken by the orders of a philosopher, whose origin and +attributes were as much mixed up with symbolical fable as those of an +Indian Budh or a Greek Prometheus. + +From this mysterious personage, at once a sage and a hero, all the +principal sections of the Vril-ya race pretend to trace a common origin. + +The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of his grandfather, and +great-grandfather. They are all at full length. The philosopher is +attired in a long tunic which seems to form a loose suit of scaly +armour, borrowed, perhaps, from some fish or reptile, but the feet and +hands are exposed: the digits in both are wonderfully long, and webbed. +He has little or no perceptible throat, and a low receding forehead, not +at all the ideal of a sage's. He has bright brown prominent eyes, a very +wide mouth and high cheekbones, and a muddy complexion. According to +tradition, this philosopher had lived to a patriarchal age, extending +over many centuries, and he remembered distinctly in middle life his +grandfather as surviving, and in childhood his great-grandfather; the +portrait of the first he had taken, or caused to be taken, while yet +alive--that of the latter was taken from his effigies in mummy. +The portrait of his grandfather had the features and aspect of the +philosopher, only much more exaggerated: he was not dressed, and the +colour of his body was singular; the breast and stomach yellow, the +shoulders and legs of a dull bronze hue: the great-grandfather was a +magnificent specimen of the Batrachian genus, a Giant Frog, 'pur et +simple.' + +Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher +bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form and sententious brevity, this +is notably recorded: "Humble yourselves, my descendants; the father of +your race was a 'twat' (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for +it was the same Divine Thought which created your father that develops +itself in exalting you." + +Aph-Lin told me this fable while I gazed on the three Batrachian +portraits. I said in reply: "You make a jest of my supposed ignorance +and credulity as an uneducated Tish, but though these horrible daubs +may be of great antiquity, and were intended, perhaps, for some +rude caracature, I presume that none of your race even in the less +enlightened ages, ever believed that the great-grandson of a Frog became +a sententious philosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the +lofty Vril-ya, but of the meanest varieties of the human race, had its +origin in a Tadpole." + +"Pardon me," answered Aph-Lin: "in what we call the Wrangling or +Philosophical Period of History, which was at its height about seven +thousand years ago, there was a very distinguished naturalist, who +proved to the satisfaction of numerous disciples such analogical and +anatomical agreements in structure between an An and a Frog, as to +show that out of the one must have developed the other. They had some +diseases in common; they were both subject to the same parasitical worms +in the intestines; and, strange to say, the An has, in his structure, a +swimming-bladder, no longer of any use to him, but which is a rudiment +that clearly proves his descent from a Frog. Nor is there any argument +against this theory to be found in the relative difference of size, for +there are still existent in our world Frogs of a size and stature not +inferior to our own, and many thousand years ago they appear to have +been still larger." + +"I understand that," said I, "because Frogs this enormous are, according +to our eminent geologists, who perhaps saw them in dreams, said to have +been distinguished inhabitants of the upper world before the Deluge; and +such Frogs are exactly the creatures likely to have flourished in the +lakes and morasses of your subterranean regions. But pray, proceed." + +"In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage asserted another +sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maxim in that age, that +the human reason could only be sustained aloft by being tossed to and +fro in the perpetual motion of contradiction; and therefore another +sect of philosophers maintained the doctrine that the An was not the +descendant of the Frog, but that the Frog was clearly the improved +development of the An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally, was much +more symmetrical than that of the An; beside the beautiful conformation +of its lower limbs, its flanks and shoulders the majority of the Ana in +that day were almost deformed, and certainly ill-shaped. Again, the Frog +had the power to live alike on land and in water--a mighty privilege, +partaking of a spiritual essence denied to the An, since the disuse +of his swimming-bladder clearly proves his degeneration from a higher +development of species. Again, the earlier races of the Ana seem to +have been covered with hair, and, even to a comparatively recent date, +hirsute bushes deformed the very faces of our ancestors, spreading wild +over their cheeks and chins, as similar bushes, my poor Tish, spread +wild over yours. But the object of the higher races of the Ana through +countless generations has been to erase all vestige of connection with +hairy vertebrata, and they have gradually eliminated that debasing +capillary excrement by the law of sexual selection; the Gy-ei naturally +preferring youth or the beauty of smooth faces. But the degree of the +Frog in the scale of the vertebrata is shown in this, that he has +no hair at all, not even on his head. He was born to that hairless +perfection which the most beautiful of the Ana, despite the culture of +incalculable ages, have not yet attained. The wonderful complication and +delicacy of a Frog's nervous system and arterial circulation were shown +by this school to be more susceptible of enjoyment than our inferior, or +at least simpler, physical frame allows us to be. The examination of +a Frog's hand, if I may use that expression, accounted for its keener +susceptibility to love, and to social life in general. In fact, +gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are still more so. In +short, these two schools raged against each other; one asserting the An +to be the perfected type of the Frog; the other that the Frog was the +highest development of the An. The moralists were divided in +opinion with the naturalists, but the bulk of them sided with the +Frog-preference school. They said, with much plausibility, that in moral +conduct (viz., in the adherence to rules best adapted to the health and +welfare of the individual and the community) there could be no doubt +of the vast superiority of the Frog. All history showed the wholesale +immorality of the human race, the complete disregard, even by the +most renowned amongst them, of the laws which they acknowledged to be +essential to their own and the general happiness and wellbeing. But the +severest critic of the Frog race could not detect in their manners a +single aberration from the moral law tacitly recognised by themselves. +And what, after all, can be the profit of civilisation if superiority in +moral conduct be not the aim for which it strives, and the test by which +its progress should be judged? + +"In fine, the adherents of this theory presumed that in some remote +period the Frog race had been the improved development of the Human; but +that, from some causes which defied rational conjecture, they had not +maintained their original position in the scale of nature; while the +Ana, though of inferior organisation, had, by dint less of their virtues +than their vices, such as ferocity and cunning, gradually acquired +ascendancy, much as among the human race itself tribes utterly barbarous +have, by superiority in similar vices, utterly destroyed or reduced +into insignificance tribes originally excelling them in mental gifts +and culture. Unhappily these disputes became involved with the religious +notions of that age; and as society was then administered under the +government of the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of +course the most inflammable class--the multitude took the whole question +out of the hands of the philosophers; political chiefs saw that the +Frog dispute, so taken up by the populace, could become a most valuable +instrument of their ambition; and for not less than one thousand years +war and massacre prevailed, during which period the philosophers on both +sides were butchered, and the government of Koom-Posh itself was happily +brought to an end by the ascendancy of a family that clearly established +its descent from the aboriginal tadpole, and furnished despotic rulers +to the various nations of the Ana. These despots finally disappeared, at +least from our communities, as the discovery of vril led to the tranquil +institutions under which flourish all the races of the Vril-ya." + +"And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive the dispute; or +do they all recognise the origin of your race in the tadpole?" + +"Nay, such disputes," said Zee, with a lofty smile, "belong to the +Pah-bodh of the dark ages, and now only serve for the amusement of +infants. When we know the elements out of which our bodies are composed, +elements in common to the humblest vegetable plants, can it signify +whether the All-Wise combined those elements out of one form more than +another, in order to create that in which He has placed the capacity to +receive the idea of Himself, and all the varied grandeurs of intellect +to which that idea gives birth? The An in reality commenced to exist +as An with the donation of that capacity, and, with that capacity, the +sense to acknowledge that, however through the countless ages his race +may improve in wisdom, it can never combine the elements at its command +into the form of a tadpole." + +"You speak well, Zee," said Aph-Lin; "and it is enough for us shortlived +mortals to feel a reasonable assurance that whether the origin of the +An was a tadpole or not, he is no more likely to become a tadpole again +than the institutions of the Vril-ya are likely to relapse into the +heaving quagmire and certain strife-rot of a Koom-Posh." + + +Chapter XVII. + + +The Vril-ya, being excluded from all sight of the heavenly bodies, and +having no other difference between night and day than that which they +deem it convenient to make for themselves,--do not, of course, arrive at +their divisions of time by the same process that we do; but I found it +easy by the aid of my watch, which I luckily had about me, to compute +their time with great nicety. I reserve for a future work on the science +and literature of the Vril-ya, should I live to complete it, all details +as to the manner in which they arrive at their rotation of time; and +content myself here with saying, that in point of duration, their year +differs very slightly from ours, but that the divisions of their year +are by no means the same. Their day, (including what we call night) +consists of twenty hours of our time, instead of twenty-four, and of +course their year comprises the correspondent increase in the number of +days by which it is summed up. They subdivide the twenty hours of their +day thus--eight hours,* called the "Silent Hours," for repose; eight +hours, called the "Earnest Time," for the pursuits and occupations of +life; and four hours called the "Easy Time" (with which what I may term +their day closes), allotted to festivities, sport, recreation, or family +converse, according to their several tastes and inclinations. + +* For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, years, +&c., in any general reference to subdivisions of time among the Vril-ya; +those terms but loosely corresponding, however, with such subdivisions. + +But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain, both +in the streets and in the surrounding country, to the limits of their +territory, the same degree of light at all hours. Only, within doors, +they lower it to a soft twilight during the Silent Hours. They have +a great horror of perfect darkness, and their lights are never wholly +extinguished. On occasions of festivity they continue the duration of +full light, but equally keep note of the distinction between night and +day, by mechanical contrivances which answer the purpose of our clocks +and watches. They are very fond of music; and it is by music that these +chronometers strike the principal division of time. At every one +of their hours, during their day, the sounds coming from all the +time-pieces in their public buildings, and caught up, as it were, by +those of houses or hamlets scattered amidst the landscapes without the +city, have an effect singularly sweet, and yet singularly solemn. +But during the Silent Hours these sounds are so subdued as to be only +faintly heard by a waking ear. They have no change of seasons, and, at +least on the territory of this tribe, the atmosphere seemed to me very +equable, warm as that of an Italian summer, and humid rather than dry; +in the forenoon usually very still, but at times invaded by strong +blasts from the rocks that made the borders of their domain. But time +is the same to them for sowing or reaping as in the Golden Isles of the +ancient poets. At the same moment you see the younger plants in blade or +bud, the older in ear or fruit. All fruit-bearing plants, however, after +fruitage, either shed or change the colour of their leaves. But that +which interested me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the +ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I found on +minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded the term allotted to +us on the upper earth. What seventy years are to us, one hundred +years are to them. Nor is this the only advantage they have over us in +longevity, for as few among us attain to the age of seventy, so, on the +contrary, few among them die before the age of one hundred; and they +enjoy a general degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a +blessing even to the last. Various causes contribute to this result: +the absence of all alcoholic stimulants; temperance in food; more +especially, perhaps, a serenity of mind undisturbed by anxious +occupations and eager passions. They are not tormented by our avarice +or our ambition; they appear perfectly indifferent even to the desire of +fame; they are capable of great affection, but their love shows +itself in a tender and cheerful complaisance, and, while forming their +happiness, seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe. As the Gy is +sure only to marry where she herself fixes her choice, and as here, not +less than above ground, it is the female on whom the happiness of home +depends; so the Gy, having chosen the mate she prefers to all others, is +lenient to his faults, consults his humours, and does her best to secure +his attachment. The death of a beloved one is of course with them, as +with us, a cause for sorrow; but not only is death with them so much +more rare before that age in which it becomes a release, but when it +does occur the survivor takes much more consolation than, I am afraid, +the generality of us do, in the certainty of reunion in another and yet +happier life. + +All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyable +longevity, though, no doubt, much also must be owing to hereditary +organisation. According to their records, however, in those earlier +stages of their society when they lived in communities resembling ours, +agitated by fierce competition, their lives were considerably shorter, +and their maladies more numerous and grave. They themselves say that +the duration of life, too, has increased, and is still on the increase, +since their discovery of the invigorating and medicinal properties of +vril, applied for remedial purposes. They have few professional and +regular practitioners of medicine, and these are chiefly Gy-ei, who, +especially if widowed and childless, find great delight in the healing +art, and even undertake surgical operations in those cases required by +accident, or, more rarely, by disease. + +They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during the Easy +Time of their day, they are wont to assemble in great numbers for those +winged sports in the air which I have already described. They have also +public halls for music, and even theatres, at which are performed +pieces that appeared to me somewhat to resemble the plays of the +Chinese--dramas that are thrown back into distant times for their events +and personages, in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, +and the hero, in once scene a child, in the next is an old man, and so +forth. These plays are of very ancient composition, and their stories +cast in remote times. They appeared to me very dull, on the whole, +but were relieved by startling mechanical contrivances, and a kind of +farcical broad humour, and detached passages of great vigour and power +expressed in language highly poetical, but somewhat overcharged with +metaphor and trope. In fine, they seemed to me very much what the plays +of Shakespeare seemed to a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps +to an Englishman in the reign of Charles II. + +The audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted the chief portion, appeared +to enjoy greatly the representation of these dramas, which, for so +sedate and majestic a race of females, surprised me, till I observed +that all the performers were under the age of adolescence, and +conjectured truly that the mothers and sisters came to please their +children and brothers. + +I have said that these dramas are of great antiquity. No new plays, +indeed no imaginative works sufficiently important to survive their +immediate day, appear to have been composed for several generations. In +fact, though there is no lack of new publications, and they have even +what may be called newspapers, these are chiefly devoted to mechanical +science, reports of new inventions, announcements respecting various +details of business--in short, to practical matters. Sometimes a child +writes a little tale of adventure, or a young Gy vents her amorous hopes +or fears in a poem; but these effusions are of very little merit, +and are seldom read except by children and maiden Gy-ei. The most +interesting works of a purely literary character are those of +explorations and travels into other regions of this nether world, +which are generally written by young emigrants, and are read with great +avidity by the relations and friends they have left behind. + +I could not help expressing to Aph-Lin my surprise that a community in +which mechanical science had made so marvellous a progress, and in +which intellectual civilisation had exhibited itself in realising +those objects for the happiness of the people, which the political +philosophers above ground had, after ages of struggle, pretty generally +agreed to consider unattainable visions, should, nevertheless, be so +wholly without a contemporaneous literature, despite the excellence +to which culture had brought a language at once so rich and simple, +vigourous and musical. + +My host replied--"Do you not perceive that a literature such as you mean +would be wholly incompatible with that perfection of social or political +felicity at which you do us the honour to think we have arrived? We have +at last, after centuries of struggle, settled into a form of government +with which we are content, and in which, as we allow no differences of +rank, and no honours are paid to administrators distinguishing them from +others, there is no stimulus given to individual ambition. No one would +read works advocating theories that involved any political or social +change, and therefore no one writes them. If now and then an An feels +himself dissatisfied with our tranquil mode of life, he does not attack +it; he goes away. Thus all that part of literature (and to judge by the +ancient books in our public libraries, it was once a very large part), +which relates to speculative theories on society is become utterly +extinct. Again, formerly there was a vast deal written respecting +the attributes and essence of the All-Good, and the arguments for and +against a future state; but now we all recognise two facts, that there +IS a Divine Being, and there IS a future state, and we all equally agree +that if we wrote our fingers to the bone, we could not throw any light +upon the nature and conditions of that future state, or quicken our +apprehensions of the attributes and essence of that Divine Being. Thus +another part of literature has become also extinct, happily for our +race; for in the time when so much was written on subjects which no one +could determine, people seemed to live in a perpetual state of quarrel +and contention. So, too, a vast part of our ancient literature consists +of historical records of wars an revolutions during the times when the +Ana lived in large and turbulent societies, each seeking aggrandisement +at the expense of the other. You see our serene mode of life now; such +it has been for ages. We have no events to chronicle. What more of us +can be said than that, 'they were born, they were happy, they died?' +Coming next to that part of literature which is more under the control +of the imagination, such as what we call Glaubsila, or colloquially +'Glaubs,' and you call poetry, the reasons for its decline amongst us +are abundantly obvious. + +"We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in that department +of literature which we all still read with pleasure, but of which none +would tolerate imitations, that they consist in the portraiture of +passions which we no longer experience--ambition, vengeance, unhallowed +love, the thirst for warlike renown, and suchlike. The old poets lived +in an atmosphere impregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what +they expressed glowingly. No one can express such passions now, for no +one can feel them, or meet with any sympathy in his readers if he did. +Again, the old poetry has a main element in its dissection of those +complex mysteries of human character which conduce to abnormal vices and +crimes, or lead to signal and extraordinary virtues. But our society, +having got rid of temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has +necessarily rendered the moral average so equal, that there are no +very salient virtues. Without its ancient food of strong passions, vast +crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if not actually starved +to death, reduced to a very meagre diet. There is still the poetry of +description--description of rocks, and trees, and waters, and common +household life; and our young Gy-ei weave much of this insipid kind of +composition into their love verses." + +"Such poetry," said I, "might surely be made very charming; and we have +critics amongst us who consider it a higher kind than that which depicts +the crimes, or analyses the passions, of man. At all events, poetry of +the inspired kind you mention is a poetry that nowadays commands more +readers than any other among the people I have left above ground." + +"Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains with the +language they employ, and devote themselves to the culture and polish of +words and rhythms of an art?" + +"Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the gift of poetry +may be inborn, the gift requires as much care to make it available as a +block of metal does to be made into one of your engines." + +"And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow all those pains +upon such verbal prettinesses?" + +"Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing as the bird +does; but to cultivate the song into verbal or artificial prettiness, +probably does need an inducement from without, and our poets find it in +the love of fame--perhaps, now and then, in the want of money." + +"Precisely so. But in our society we attach fame to nothing which man, +in that moment of his duration which is called 'life,' can perform. We +should soon lose that equality which constitutes the felicitous essence +of our commonwealth if we selected any individual for pre-eminent +praise: pre-eminent praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the +moment it were given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other +men would immediately covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envy +hate, and with hate calumny and persecution. Our history tells us that +most of the poets and most of the writers who, in the old time, were +favoured with the greatest praise, were also assailed by the greatest +vituperation, and even, on the whole, rendered very unhappy, partly +by the attacks of jealous rivals, partly by the diseased mental +constitution which an acquired sensitiveness to praise and to blame +tends to engender. As for the stimulus of want; in the first place, no +man in our community knows the goad of poverty; and, secondly, if he +did, almost every occupation would be more lucrative than writing. + +"Our public libraries contain all the books of the past which time has +preserved; those books, for the reasons above stated, are infinitely +better than any can write nowadays, and they are open to all to read +without cost. We are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior +books, when we can read superior books for nothing." + +"With us, novelty has an attraction; and a new book, if bad, is read +when an old book, though good, is neglected." + +"Novelty, to barbarous states of society struggling in despair for +something better, has no doubt an attraction, denied to us, who see +nothing to gain in novelties; but after all, it is observed by one of +our great authors four thousand years ago, that 'he who studies old +books will always find in them something new, and he who reads new books +will always find in them something old.' But to return to the question +you have raised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstaking +labour, whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, such as have +the poetic temperament, no doubt vent it in song, as you say the bird +sings; but for lack of elaborate culture it fails of an audience, +and, failing of an audience, dies out, of itself, amidst the ordinary +avocations of life." + +"But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of +literature do not operate against that of science?" + +"Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth +apart from all consideration of fame, and science with us too is devoted +almost solely to practical uses, essential to our social conversation +and the comforts of our daily life. No fame is asked by the inventor, +and none is given to him; he enjoys an occupation congenial to his +tastes, and needing no wear and tear of the passions. Man must have +exercise for his mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather +than violent, is best for both. Our most ingenious cultivators of +science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the most free from +disease. Painting is an amusement to many, but the art is not what it +was in former times, when the great painters in our various communities +vied with each other for the prize of a golden crown, which gave them a +social rank equal to that of the kings under whom they lived. You +will thus doubtless have observed in our archaeological department how +superior in point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago. +Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, more allied to science than +it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable arts, music is that which +flourishes the most amongst us. Still, even in music the absence of +stimulus in praise or fame has served to prevent any great superiority +of one individual over another; and we rather excel in choral music, +with the aid of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great +use of the agency of water,* than in single performers." + +* This may remind the student of Nero's invention of a musical machine, +by which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on +which he was employed when the conspiracy against him broke out. + +"We have had scarcely any original composer for some ages. Our favorite +airs are very ancient in substance, but have admitted many complicated +variations by inferior, though ingenious, musicians." + +"Are there no political societies among the Ana which are animated +by those passions, subjected to those crimes, and admitting those +disparities in condition, in intellect, and in morality, which the state +of your tribe, or indeed of the Vril-ya generally, has left behind in +its progress to perfection? If so, among such societies perhaps Poetry +and her sister arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?" + +"There are such societies in remote regions, but we do not admit them +within the pale of civilised communities; we scarcely even give them the +name of Ana, and certainly not that of Vril-ya. They are savages, living +chiefly in that low stage of being, Koom-Posh, tending necessarily to +its own hideous dissolution in Glek-Nas. Their wretched existence is +passed in perpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight +with their neighbours, they fight among themselves. They are divided +into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimes murder each +other, and on the most frivolous points of difference that would be +unintelligible to us if we had not read history, and seen that we too +have passed through the same early state of ignorance and barbarism. Any +trifle is sufficient to set them together by the ears. They pretend to +be all equals, and the more they have struggled to be so, by removing +old distinctions, and starting afresh, the more glaring and intolerable +the disparity becomes, because nothing in hereditary affections and +associations is left to soften the one naked distinction between the +many who have nothing and the few who have much. Of course the many hate +the few, but without the few they could not live. The many are always +assailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the few; but as soon as +they have done so, a new few starts out of the many, and is harder +to deal with than the old few. For where societies are large, and +competition to have something is the predominant fever, there must be +always many losers and few gainers. In short, they are savages groping +their way in the dark towards some gleam of light, and would demand our +commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages, they did not +provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and cruelty. Can you +imagine that creatures of this kind, armed only with such miserable +weapons as you may see in our museum of antiquities, clumsy iron tubes +charged with saltpetre, have more than once threatened with destruction +a tribe of the Vril-ya, which dwells nearest to them, because they say +they have thirty millions of population--and that tribe may have fifty +thousand--if the latter do not accept their notions of Soc-Sec (money +getting) on some trading principles which they have the impudence to +call 'a law of civilisation'?" + +"But thirty millions of population are formidable odds against fifty +thousand!" + +My host stared at me astonished. "Stranger," said he, "you could not +have heard me say that this threatened tribe belongs to the Vril-ya; and +it only waits for these savages to declare war, in order to commission +some half-a-dozen small children to sweep away their whole population." + +At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much more affinity +with "the savages" than I did with the Vril-ya, and remembering all I +had said in praise of the glorious American institutions, which Aph-Lin +stigmatised as Koom-Posh. Recovering my self-possession, I asked +if there were modes of transit by which I could safely visit this +temerarious and remote people. + +"You can travel with safety, by vril agency, either along the ground or +amid the air, throughout all the range of the communities with which +we are allied and akin; but I cannot vouch for your safety in barbarous +nations governed by different laws from ours; nations, indeed, so +benighted, that there are among them large numbers who actually live by +stealing from each other, and one could not with safety in the Silent +Hours even leave the doors of one's own house open." + +Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee, who came +to inform us that he, having been deputed to discover and destroy the +enormous reptile which I had seen on my first arrival, had been on the +watch for it ever since his visit to me, and had began to suspect that +my eyes had deceived me, or that the creature had made its way through +the cavities within the rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its +kindred race,--when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a great +devastation of the herbage bordering one of the lakes. "And," said Taee, +"I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding. So," (turning to +me) "I thought it might amuse you to accompany me to see the way we +destroy such unpleasant visitors." As I looked at the face of the young +child, and called to mind the enormous size of the creature he proposed +to exterminate, I felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps +fear for myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosity +to witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my +unwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant by betraying +apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my first impulse. +Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteous consideration for my +amusement, and professed my willingness to set out with him on so +diverting an enterprise. + + + +Chapter XVIII. + + +As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the left the +main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the strange and +solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by numberless lamps, to the +verge of the horizon, fascinated my eyes, and rendered me for some time +an inattentive listener to the talk of my companion. + +Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by +machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and for the most part very +graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the sake +of mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of +useful objects. Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that +they are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace; +and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens +their imagination in a way unknown to themselves. + +In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use +of automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to the +operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with reason. It +was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I beheld, apparently +guiding or superintending the rapid movements of vast engines, from +human forms endowed with thought. + +By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became roused by +the lively and acute remarks of my companion. The intelligence of the +children among this race is marvellously precocious, perhaps from the +habit of having intrusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and +responsibilities of middle age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt +as if talking with some superior and observant man of my own years. I +asked him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities +into which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided. + +"Not exactly," he said, "because they multiply, of course, every year as +the surplus of each community is drafted off. But I heard my father say +that, according to the last report, there were a million and a half of +communities speaking our language, and adopting our institutions and +forms of life and government; but, I believe, with some differences, +about which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the Ana +do. An An cares less for things that do not concern him than a Gy does; +the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures." + +"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or +amount of population that you do?" + +"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger--varying +according to the extent of the country they appropriate, or to the +degree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each +community sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care +always that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of +population upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no +state shall be too large for a government resembling that of a +single well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds +thirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the smaller +the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the +capacities of the territory it occupies, the richer each individual is, +and the larger the sum contributed to the general treasury,--above all, +the happier and the more tranquil is the whole political body, and the +more perfect the products of its industry. The state which all tribes of +the Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and which +has brought the vril force to its fullest development, is perhaps the +smallest. It limits itself to four thousand families; but every inch of +its territory is cultivated to the utmost perfection of garden ground; +its machinery excels that of every other tribe, and there is no +product of its industry in any department which is not sought for, at +extraordinary prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes make +this state their model, considering that we should reach the highest +state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could unite the greatest +degree of happiness with the highest degree of intellectual achievement; +and it is clear that the smaller the society the less difficult that +will be. Ours is too large for it." + +This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little state of +Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and which to this +day our mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide and model in all +departments of intellect. But then Athens permitted fierce rivalry and +perpetual change, and was certainly not happy. Rousing myself from the +reverie into which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our +talk to the subjects connected with emigration. + +"But," said I, "when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agree +to quit home and found a new community elsewhere, they must necessarily +be very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the machines +they take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form a +civilised state with the comforts and luxuries in which they had been +reared." + +"You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constant +communication with each other, and settle amongst themselves each +year what proportion of one community will unite with the emigrants of +another, so as to form a state of sufficient size; and the place for +emigration is agreed upon at least a year before, and pioneers sent from +each state to level rocks, and embank waters, and construct houses; so +that when the emigrants at last go, they find a city already made, and a +country around it at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as children +make us take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigrate +myself when of age." + +"Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and barren?" + +"As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy except +when necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot settle in lands +already occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take the cultivated lands +of the other races of Ana, we must utterly destroy the previous +inhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we take waste spots, and find that +a troublesome, quarrelsome race of Ana, especially if under the +administration of Koom-Posh or Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks +a quarrel with us; then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy +it: there is no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic that +it is always changing the form of government which represents it. +Koom-Posh," said the child, emphatically, "is bad enough, still it has +brains, though at the back of its head, and is not without a heart; but +in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of the creatures disappear, and they +become all jaws, claws, and belly." "You express yourself strongly. +Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am the +citizen of a Koom-Posh." + +"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so far from your +home. What was the condition of your native community before it became a +Koom-Posh?" + +"A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribe +sends forth--but so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependent +on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crowned +with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh." + +"Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?" + +"About 100 years." + +"The length of an An's life--a very young community. In much less than +another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas." + +"Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in its +duration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions so +as to melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that, +whether they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old states +is towards Koom-Posh-erie." + +"The old states?" + +"Yes, the old states." + +"With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive +land?" + +"On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to that +area." + +"I see! old states indeed!--so old as to become drivelling if they don't +pack off that surplus population as we do ours--very old states!--very, +very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very old men to try to +turn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if you ask them why +they attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they answered that +by imitating very young children they could become very young children +themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a great +many thousand years ago--and in every instance a very old state that +played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in horror of its +own self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his dotage cries +out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, more or +less long, that very old state died out of history. A very old state +attempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the +house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his +vigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is +to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out, +'How the wind blows! How the walls shake!'" + +"My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices, +which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert, +though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as you +appear to be." + +"I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in your +Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother +to stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost? And if the poor old +folks hesitated--say, 'What do you fear?--see how I do it!'" + +"Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I make +allowances for your want of that culture which a Koom-Posh alone can +bestow." + +"I, in my turn," answered Taee, with an air of the suave but lofty good +breeding which characterises his race, "not only make allowances for +you as not educated among the Vril-ya, but I entreat you to vouchsafe me +your pardon for the insufficient respect to the habits and opinions of +so amiable a Tish!" + +I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish by my +host and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet name, literally +signifying a small barbarian; the children apply it endearingly to the +tame species of Frog which they keep in their gardens. + +We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to point +out to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. "The enemy certainly +lies within these waters," said Taee. "Observe what shoals of fish are +crowded together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the small +ones, who are their habitual prey and who generally shun them, all +forget their instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. This +reptile certainly must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more +devouring than any other, and are said to be among the few surviving +species of the world's dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were created. +The appetite of a Krek is insatiable--it feeds alike upon vegetable and +animal life; but for the swift-footed creatures of the elk species it +is too slow in its movements. Its favourite dainty is an An when it can +catch him unawares; and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever +it enters their dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers first +cleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded, +and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured. It +was impossible to exterminate them wholly till that discovery which +constitutes the power and sustains the civilisation of our race. But +after the uses of vril became familiar to us, all creatures inimical +to us were soon annihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of these +enormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts +beyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who was +bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed with her +staff, it would not have dared even to show itself; for, like all savage +creatures, the reptile has a marvellous instinct, which warns it against +the bearer of the vril wand. How they teach their young to avoid him, +though seen for the first time, is one of those mysteries which you may +ask Zee to explain, for I cannot. The reptile in this instinct does but +resemble our wild birds and animals, which will not come in reach of a +man armed with a gun. When the electric wires were first put up, +partridges struck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded. +No younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident. So +long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its lurking-place; +but we must now decoy it forth." + +"Will that not be difficult?" + +"Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one hundred +yards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In a short time the +reptile will catch sight or scent of you, and perceiving that you are no +vril-bearer, will come forth to devour you. As soon as it is fairly out +of the water, it becomes my prey." + +"Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that horrible +monster which could engulf me within its jaws in a second! I beg to +decline." + +The child laughed. "Fear nothing," said he; "only sit still." + +Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about to take +fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on the shoulder, and, +fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was rooted to the spot. All power of +volition left me. Submissive to the infant's gesture, I followed him +to the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most +readers have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whether +genuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had ever been +able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but I was a mere +machine at the will of this terrible child. Meanwhile he expanded his +wings, soared aloft, and alighted amidst a copse at the brow of a hill +at some distance. + +I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation of +horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its water, spell-bound. It +might be ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the still +surface, gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towards +the centre. At the same time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced +their sense of the enemy's approach by splash and leap and bubbling +circle. I could detect their hurried flight hither and thither, some +even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous furrow came +moving along the waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of the +reptile emerged--its jaws bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing +themselves hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its fore +feet were on the strand--now its enormous breast, scaled on either +side as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugated skin of a dull +venomous yellow; and now its whole length was on the land, a hundred +feet or more from the jaw to the tail. Another stride of those ghastly +feet would have brought it to the spot where I sat. There was but a +moment between me and this grim form of death, when what seemed a flash +of lightning shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time +briefer than that in which a man can draw his breath, enveloped +the monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me a +blackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but of which +even the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly crumbling into +dust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, ice-cold with +a new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe. + +I felt the child's hand on my head--fear left me--the spell was +broken--I rose up. "You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy their +enemies," said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, he contemplated +the smouldering relics of the monster, and said quietly, "I have +destroyed larger creatures, but none with so much pleasure. Yes, it IS +a Krek; what suffering it must have inflicted while it lived!" Then he +took up the poor fishes that had flung themselves ashore, and restored +them mercifully to their native element. + + + +Chapter XIX. + + +As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitous way, +in order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I will call the +'Station,' from which emigrants or travellers to other communities +commence their journeys. I had, on a former occasion, expressed a wish +to see their vehicles. These I found to be of two kinds, one for land +journeys, one for aerial voyages: the former were of all sizes and +forms, some not larger than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of +one story and containing several rooms, furnished according to the ideas +of comfort or luxury which are entertained by the Vril-ya. The aerial +vehicles were of light substances, not the least resembling our +balloons, but rather our boats and pleasure-vessels, with helm and +rudder, with large wings or paddles, and a central machine worked by +vril. All the vehicles both for land or air were indeed worked by that +potent and mysterious agency. + +I saw a convoy set out on its journey, but it had few passengers, +containing chiefly articles of merchandise, and was bound to a +neighbouring community; for among all the tribes of the Vril-ya there +is considerable commercial interchange. I may here observe, that their +money currency does not consist of the precious metals, which are too +common among them for that purpose. The smaller coins in ordinary use +are manufactured from a peculiar fossil shell, the comparatively scarce +remnant of some very early deluge, or other convulsion of nature, by +which a species has become extinct. It is minute, and flat as an oyster, +and takes a jewel-like polish. This coinage circulates among all the +tribes of the Vril-ya. Their larger transactions are carried on much +like ours, by bills of exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer +the purpose of our bank-notes. + +Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among the tribe I +became acquainted with was very considerable, compared with the amount +of population. But I never heard that any one grumbled at it, for it was +devoted to purposes of universal utility, and indeed necessary to the +civilisation of the tribe. The cost of lighting so large a range +of country, of providing for emigration, of maintaining the public +buildings at which the various operations of national intellect were +carried on, from the first education of an infant to the departments in +which the College of Sages were perpetually trying new experiments in +mechanical science; all these involved the necessity for considerable +state funds. To these I must add an item that struck me as very +singular. I have said that all the human labour required by the state is +carried on by children up to the marriageable age. For this labour the +state pays, and at a rate immeasurably higher than our own remuneration +to labour even in the United States. According to their theory, every +child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age, and there +terminating the period of labour, should have acquired enough for an +independent competence during life. As, no matter what the disparity of +fortune in the parents, all the children must equally serve, so all +are equally paid according to their several ages or the nature of their +work. Where the parents or friends choose to retain a child in their +own service, they must pay into the public fund in the same ratio as the +state pays to the children it employs; and this sum is handed over to +the child when the period of service expires. This practice serves, no +doubt, to render the notion of social equality familiar and agreeable; +and if it may be said that all the children form a democracy, no less +truly it may be said that all the adults form an aristocracy. The +exquisite politeness and refinement of manners among the Vril-ya, the +generosity of their sentiments, the absolute leisure they enjoy for +following out their own private pursuits, the amenities of their +domestic intercourse, in which they seem as members of one noble order +that can have no distrust of each other's word or deed, all combine to +make the Vril-ya the most perfect nobility which a political disciple +of Plato or Sidney could conceive for the ideal of an aristocratic +republic. + + + +Chapter XX. + + +From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have just narrated, +the child paid me frequent visits. He had taken a liking to me, which I +cordially returned. Indeed, as he was not yet twelve years old, and +had not commenced the course of scientific studies with which childhood +closes in that country, my intellect was less inferior to his than to +that of the elder members of his race, especially of the Gy-ei, and most +especially of the accomplished Zee. The children of the Vril-ya, +having upon their minds the weight of so many active duties and grave +responsibilities, are not generally mirthful; but Taee, with all +his wisdom, had much of the playful good-humour one often finds the +characteristic of elderly men of genius. He felt that sort of pleasure +in my society which a boy of a similar age in the upper world has in the +company of a pet dog or monkey. It amused him to try and teach me the +ways of his people, as it amuses a nephew of mine to make his poodle +walk on his hind legs or jump through a hoop. I willingly lent myself to +such experiments, but I never achieved the success of the poodle. I was +very much interested at first in the attempt to ply the wings which the +youngest of the Vril-ya use as nimbly and easily as ours do their legs +and arms; but my efforts were attended with contusions serious enough to +make me abandon them in despair. + +These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the knee, +and in repose thrown back so as to form a very graceful mantle. They are +composed from the feathers of a gigantic bird that abounds in the rocky +heights of the country--the colour mostly white, but sometimes with +reddish streaks. They are fastened round the shoulders with light but +strong springs of steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide through +loops for that purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane. +As the arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the vest or tunic +becomes, by mechanical contrivance inflated with air, increased or +diminished at will by the movement of the arms, and serving to buoy the +whole form as on bladders. The wings and the balloon-like apparatus are +highly charged with vril; and when the body is thus wafted upward, it +seems to become singularly lightened of its weight. I found it easy +enough to soar from the ground; indeed, when the wings were spread it +was scarcely possible not to soar, but then came the difficulty and the +danger. I utterly failed in the power to use and direct the pinions, +though I am considered among my own race unusually alert and ready in +bodily exercises, and am a very practiced swimmer. I could only make the +most confused and blundering efforts at flight. I was the servant of the +wings; the wings were not my servants--they were beyond my control; +and when by a violent strain of muscle, and, I must fairly own, in that +abnormal strength which is given by excessive fright, I curbed their +gyrations and brought them near to the body, it seemed as if I lost the +sustaining power stored in them and the connecting bladders, as when the +air is let out of a balloon, and found myself precipitated again to the +earth; saved, indeed, by some spasmodic flutterings, from being dashed +to pieces, but not saved from the bruises and the stun of a heavy fall. +I would, however, have persevered in my attempts, but for the advice or +the commands of the scientific Zee, who had benevolently accompanied my +flutterings, and, indeed, on the last occasion, flying just under me, +received my form as it fell on her own expanded wings, and preserved +me from breaking my head on the roof of the pyramid from which we had +ascended. + +"I see," she said, "that your trials are in vain, not from the fault +of the wings and their appurtenances, nor from any imperfectness and +malformation of your own corpuscular system, but from irremediable, +because organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that the +connection between the will and the agencies of that fluid which has +been subjected to the control of the Vril-ya was never established by +the first discoverers, never achieved by a single generation; it has +gone on increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as it +has been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, at last, +it has become an instinct; and an infant An of our race wills to fly +as intuitively and unconsciously as he wills to walk. He thus plies his +invented or artificial wings with as much safety as a bird plies those +with which it is born. I did not think sufficiently of this when I +allowed you to try an experiment which allured me, for I have longed to +have in you a companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life +is becoming dear to me." Herewith the Gy's voice and face softened, and +I felt more seriously alarmed than I had been in my previous flights. + +Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit mention of a +custom among the Gy-ei which seems to me very pretty and tender in the +sentiment it implies. A Gy wears wings habitually when yet a virgin--she +joins the Ana in their aerial sports--she adventures alone and afar into +the wilder regions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height of +her soarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, she excels +the opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage she wears wings +no more, she suspends them with her own willing hand over the nuptial +couch, never to be resumed unless the marriage tie be severed by divorce +or death. + +Now when Zee's voice and eyes thus softened--and at that softening I +prophetically recoiled and shuddered--Taee, who had accompanied us in +our flights, but who, child-like, had been much more amused with my +awkwardness, than sympathising in my fears or aware of my danger, +hovered over us, poised amidst spread wings, and hearing the endearing +words of the young Gy, laughed aloud. Said he, "If the Tish cannot +learn the use of wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you can +suspend your own." + + + +Chapter XXI. + + +I had for some time observed in my host's highly informed and powerfully +proportioned daughter that kindly and protective sentiment which, +whether above the earth or below it, an all-wise Providence has bestowed +upon the feminine division of the human race. But until very lately I +had ascribed it to that affection for 'pets' which a human female at +every age shares with a human child. I now became painfully aware that +the feeling with which Zee deigned to regard me was different from that +which I had inspired in Taee. But this conviction gave me none of that +complacent gratification which the vanity of man ordinarily conceives +from a flattering appreciation of his personal merits on the part of +the fair sex; on the contrary, it inspired me with fear. Yet of all +the Gy-ei in the community, if Zee were perhaps the wisest and the +strongest, she was, by common repute, the gentlest, and she was +certainly the most popularly beloved. The desire to aid, to succour, to +protect, to comfort, to bless, seemed to pervade her whole being. Though +the complicated miseries that originate in penury and guilt are unknown +to the social system of the Vril-ya, still, no sage had yet discovered +in vril an agency which could banish sorrow from life; and wherever +amongst her people sorrow found its way, there Zee followed in the +mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy fail to secure the love she +sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought all the resources of her +lore, and all the consolations of her sympathy, to bear upon a grief +that so needs the solace of a confidant. In the rare cases, when grave +illness seized upon childhood or youth, and the cases, less rare, +when, in the hardy and adventurous probation of infants, some accident, +attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studies and +her sports, and became the healer and nurse. Her favourite flights +were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain where children were +stationed on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the +invasions of devouring animals, so that she might warn them of any peril +which her knowledge detected or foresaw, or be at hand if any harm had +befallen. Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements there +was a concurrent benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learn any +novelty in invention that would be useful to the practitioner of some +special art or craft? she hastened to communicate and explain it. Was +some veteran sage of the College perplexed and wearied with the toil of +an abstruse study? she would patiently devote herself to his aid, work +out details for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile, quicken +his wit with her luminous suggestion, be to him, as it were, his own +good genius made visible as the strengthener and inspirer. The same +tenderness she exhibited to the inferior creatures. I have often known +her bring home some sick and wounded animal, and tend and cherish it as +a mother would tend and cherish her stricken child. Many a time when I +sat in the balcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I have +watched her rising in the air on her radiant wings, and in a few moments +groups of infants below, catching sight of her, would soar upward with +joyous sounds of greeting; clustering and sporting around her, so that +she seemed a very centre of innocent delight. When I have walked with +her amidst the rocks and valleys without the city, the elk-deer would +scent or see her from afar, come bounding up, eager for the caress +of her hand, or follow her footsteps, till dismissed by some musical +whisper that the creature had learned to comprehend. It is the fashion +among the virgin Gy-ei to wear on their foreheads a circlet, or coronet, +with gems resembling opals, arranged in four points or rays like stars. +These are lustreless in ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand +they take a clear lambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This +serves as an ornament in their festivities, and as a lamp, if, in their +wanderings beyond their artificial lights, they have to traverse the +dark. There are times, when I have seen Zee's thoughtful majesty of face +lighted up by this crowning halo, that I could scarcely believe her to +be a creature of mortal birth, and bent my head before her as the vision +of a being among the celestial orders. But never once did my heart feel +for this lofty type of the noblest womanhood a sentiment of human love. +Is it that, among the race I belong to, man's pride so far influences +his passions that woman loses to him her special charm of woman if he +feels her to be in all things eminently superior to himself? But by what +strange infatuation could this peerless daughter of a race which, in the +supremacy of its powers and the felicity of its conditions, ranked all +other races in the category of barbarians, have deigned to honour me +with her preference? In personal qualifications, though I passed for +good-looking amongst the people I came from, the handsomest of my +countrymen might have seemed insignificant and homely beside the grand +and serene type of beauty which characterised the aspect of the Vril-ya. + +That novelty, the very difference between myself and those to whom Zee +was accustomed, might serve to bias her fancy was probable enough, and +as the reader will see later, such a cause might suffice to account for +the predilection with which I was distinguished by a young Gy scarcely +out of her childhood, and very inferior in all respects to Zee. But +whoever will consider those tender characteristics which I have just +ascribed to the daughter of Aph-Lin, may readily conceive that the main +cause of my attraction to her was in her instinctive desire to cherish, +to comfort, to protect, and, in protecting, to sustain and to exalt. +Thus, when I look back, I account for the only weakness unworthy of +her lofty nature, which bowed the daughter of the Vril-ya to a woman's +affection for one so inferior to herself as was her father's guest. But +be the cause what it may, the consciousness that I had inspired such +affection thrilled me with awe--a moral awe of her very imperfections, +of her mysterious powers, of the inseparable distinctions between her +race and my own; and with that awe, I must confess to my shame, there +combined the more material and ignoble dread of the perils to which her +preference would expose me. + +Under these anxious circumstances, fortunately, my conscience and sense +of honour were free from reproach. It became clearly my duty, if Zee's +preference continued manifest, to intimate it to my host, with, of +course, all the delicacy which is ever to be preserved by a well-bred +man in confiding to another any degree of favour by which one of the +fair sex may condescend to distinguish him. Thus, at all events, +I should be freed from responsibility or suspicion of voluntary +participation in the sentiments of Zee; and the superior wisdom of +my host might probably suggest some sage extrication from my perilous +dilemma. In this resolve I obeyed the ordinary instinct of civilised and +moral man, who, erring though he be, still generally prefers the right +course in those cases where it is obviously against his inclinations, +his interests, and his safety to elect the wrong one. + + + +Chapter XXII. + + +As the reader has seen, Aph-Lin had not favoured my general and +unrestricted intercourse with his countrywomen. Though relying on my +promise to abstain from giving any information as to the world I had +left, and still more on the promise of those to whom had been put the +same request, not to question me, which Zee had exacted from Taee, yet +he did not feel sure that, if I were allowed to mix with the strangers +whose curiosity the sight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard +myself against their inquiries. When I went out, therefore, it was never +alone; I was always accompanied either by one of my host's family, or +my child-friend Taee. Bra, Aph-Lin's wife, seldom stirred beyond the +gardens which surrounded the house, and was fond of reading the ancient +literature, which contained something of romance and adventure not to be +found in the writings of recent ages, and presented pictures of a +life unfamiliar to her experience and interesting to her imagination; +pictures, indeed, of a life more resembling that which we lead every day +above ground, coloured by our sorrows, sins, passions, and much to her +what the tales of the Genii or the Arabian Nights are to us. But her +love of reading did not prevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as +mistress of the largest household in the city. She went daily the +round of the chambers, and saw that the automata and other mechanical +contrivances were in order, that the numerous children employed by +Aph-Lin, whether in his private or public capacity, were carefully +tended. Bra also inspected the accounts of the whole estate, and it was +her great delight to assist her husband in the business connected with +his office as chief administrator of the Lighting Department, so that +her avocations necessarily kept her much within doors. The two sons were +both completing their education at the College of Sages; and the +elder, who had a strong passion for mechanics, and especially for works +connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, had decided on +devoting himself to these pursuits, and was now occupied in constructing +a shop or warehouse, at which his inventions could be exhibited and +sold. The younger son preferred farming and rural occupations; and when +not attending the College, at which he chiefly studied the theories +of agriculture, was much absorbed by his practical application of that +science to his father's lands. It will be seen by this how completely +equality of ranks is established among this people--a shopkeeper being +of exactly the same grade in estimation as the large landed proprietor. +Aph-Lin was the wealthiest member of the community, and his eldest son +preferred keeping a shop to any other avocation; nor was this choice +thought to show any want of elevated notions on his part. + +This young man had been much interested in examining my watch, the works +of which were new to him, and was greatly pleased when I made him a +present of it. Shortly after, he returned the gift with interest, by a +watch of his own construction, marking both the time as in my watch and +the time as kept among the Vril-ya. I have that watch still, and it has +been much admired by many among the most eminent watchmakers of London +and Paris. It is of gold, with diamond hands and figures, and it plays a +favorite tune among the Vril-ya in striking the hours: it only requires +to be wound up once in ten months, and has never gone wrong since I had +it. These young brothers being thus occupied, my usual companions in +that family, when I went abroad, were my host or his daughter. Now, +agreeably with the honourable conclusions I had come to, I began to +excuse myself from Zee's invitations to go out alone with her, and +seized an occasion when that learned Gy was delivering a lecture at the +College of Sages to ask Aph-Lin to show me his country-seat. As this was +at some little distance, and as Aph-Lin was not fond of walking, while I +had discreetly relinquished all attempts at flying, we proceeded to our +destination in one of the aerial boats belonging to my host. A child of +eight years old, in his employ, was our conductor. My host and myself +reclined on cushions, and I found the movement very easy and luxurious. +"Aph-Lin," said I, "you will not, I trust, be displeased with me, if I +ask your permission to travel for a short time, and visit other tribes +or communities of your illustrious race. I have also a strong desire to +see those nations which do not adopt your institutions, and which you +consider as savages. It would interest me greatly to notice what are the +distinctions between them and the races whom we consider civilised in +the world I have left." + +"It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone," said Aph-Lin. +"Even among the Vril-ya you would be exposed to great dangers. Certain +peculiarities of formation and colour, and the extraordinary phenomenon +of hirsute bushes upon your cheeks and chin, denoting in you a species +of An distinct alike from our own race and any known race of barbarians +yet extant, would attract, of course, the special attention of the +College of Sages in whatever community of Vril-ya you visited, and it +would depend upon the individual temper of some individual sage whether +you would be received, as you have been here, hospitably, or whether you +would not be at once dissected for scientific purposes. Know that when +the Tur first took you to his house, and while you were there put to +sleep by Taee in order to recover from your previous pain or fatigue, +the sages summoned by the Tur were divided in opinion whether you were +a harmless or an obnoxious animal. During your unconscious state your +teeth were examined, and they clearly showed that you were not only +graminivorous but carnivorous. Carnivorous animals of your size are +always destroyed, as being of savage and dangerous nature. Our teeth, as +you have doubtless observed,* are not those of the creatures who devour +flesh." + +* I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist enough to +have distinguished the difference. + +"It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, that as, in +remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living beings of the brute species, +their teeth must have been fitted for that purpose. But, even if so, +they have been modified by hereditary transmission, and suited to the +food on which we now exist; nor are even the barbarians, who adopt the +turbulent and ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh +like beasts of prey. + +"In the course of this dispute it was proposed to dissect you; but +Taee begged you off, and the Tur being, by office, averse to all novel +experiments at variance with our custom of sparing life, except where it +is clearly proved to be for the good of the community to take it, sent +to me, whose business it is, as the richest man of the state, to afford +hospitality to strangers from a distance. It was at my option to decide +whether or not you were a stranger whom I could safely admit. Had I +declined to receive you, you would have been handed over to the College +of Sages, and what might there have befallen you I do not like to +conjecture. Apart from this danger, you might chance to encounter some +child of four years old, just put in possession of his vril staff; and +who, in alarm at your strange appearance, and in the impulse of the +moment, might reduce you to a cinder. Taee himself was about to do so +when he first saw you, had his father not checked his hand. Therefore I +say you cannot travel alone, but with Zee you would be safe; and I have +no doubt that she would accompany you on a tour round the neighbouring +communities of Vril-ya (to the savage states, No!): I will ask her." + +Now, as my main object in proposing to travel was to escape from Zee, I +hastily exclaimed, "Nay, pray do not! I relinquish my design. You have +said enough as to its dangers to deter me from it; and I can scarcely +think it right that a young Gy of the personal attractions of your +lovely daughter should travel into other regions without a better +protector than a Tish of my insignificant strength and stature." + +Aph-Lin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearest approach +to laughter that a full-grown An permits to himself, ere he replied: +"Pardon my discourteous but momentary indulgence of mirth at any +observation seriously made by my guest. I could not but be amused at the +idea of Zee, who is so fond of protecting others that children call her +'THE GUARDIAN,' needing a protector herself against any dangers arising +from the audacious admiration of males. Know that our Gy-ei, while +unmarried, are accustomed to travel alone among other tribes, to see if +they find there some An who may please them more than the Ana they find +at home. Zee has already made three such journeys, but hitherto her +heart has been untouched." + +Here the opportunity which I sought was afforded to me, and I said, +looking down, and with faltering voice, "Will you, my kind host, promise +to pardon me, if what I am about to say gives offence?" + +"Say only the truth, and I cannot be offended; or, could I be so, it +would not be for me, but for you to pardon." + +"Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should have like +to witness more of the wonders, and enjoy more of the felicity, which +belong to your people, let me return to my own." + +"I fear there are reasons why I cannot do that; at all events, not +without permission of the Tur, and he, probably, would not grant it. You +are not destitute of intelligence; you may (though I do not think +so) have concealed the degree of destructive powers possessed by your +people; you might, in short, bring upon us some danger; and if the Tur +entertains that idea, it would clearly be his duty, either to put an end +to you, or enclose you in a cage for the rest of your existence. But why +should you wish to leave a state of society which you so politely allow +to be more felicitous than your own?" + +"Oh, Aph-Lin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, and unwittingly, I +should betray your hospitality; lest, in the caprice of will which in +our world is proverbial among the other sex, and from which even a Gy +is not free, your adorable daughter should deign to regard me, though a +Tish, as if I were a civilised An, and--and--and---" "Court you as +her spouse," put in Aph-Lin, gravely, and without any visible sign of +surprise or displeasure. + +"You have said it." + +"That would be a misfortune," resumed my host, after a pause, "and I +feel you have acted as you ought in warning me. It is, as you imply, +not uncommon for an unwedded Gy to conceive tastes as to the object she +covets which appear whimsical to others; but there is no power to compel +a young Gy to any course opposed to that which she chooses to pursue. +All we can to is to reason with her, and experience tells us that the +whole College of Sages would find it vain to reason with a Gy in a +matter that concerns her choice in love. I grieve for you, because such +a marriage would be against the A-glauran, or good of the community, for +the children of such a marriage would adulterate the race: they might +even come into the world with the teeth of carnivorous animals; this +could not be allowed: Zee, as a Gy, cannot be controlled; but you, as a +Tish, can be destroyed. I advise you, then, to resist her addresses; +to tell her plainly that you can never return her love. This happens +constantly. Many an An, however, ardently wooed by one Gy, rejects her, +and puts an end to her persecution by wedding another. The same course +is open to you." + +"No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring the community, +and exposing it to the chance of rearing carnivorous children." + +"That is true. All I can say, and I say it with the tenderness due to a +Tish, and the respect due to a guest, is frankly this--if you yield, you +will become a cinder. I must leave it to you to take the best way you +can to defend yourself. Perhaps you had better tell Zee that she is +ugly. That assurance on the lips of him she woos generally suffices to +chill the most ardent Gy. Here we are at my country-house." + + + +Chapter XXIII. + + +I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extreme coolness +with which he stated his inability to control the dangerous caprice of +his daughter, and treated the idea of the reduction into a cinder to +which her amorous flame might expose my too seductive person, took away +the pleasure I should otherwise have had in the contemplation of my +host's country-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machinery +by which his farming operations were conducted. The house differed in +appearance from the massive and sombre building which Aph-Lin inhabited +in the city, and which seemed akin to the rocks out of which the city +itself had been hewn into shape. The walls of the country-seat +were composed by trees placed a few feet apart from each other, the +interstices being filled in with the transparent metallic substance +which serves the purpose of glass among the Ana. These trees were all in +flower, and the effect was very pleasing, if not in the best taste. We +were received at the porch by life-like automata, who conducted us +into a chamber, the like to which I never saw before, but have often on +summer days dreamily imagined. It was a bower--half room, half garden. +The walls were one mass of climbing flowers. The open spaces, which +we call windows, and in which, here, the metallic surfaces were slided +back, commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape with its +lakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering to our +conservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along the sides of the +room were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions for repose. In the +centre of the floor was a cistern and a fountain of that liquid light +which I have presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate +hue; it sufficed without lamps to light up the room with a subdued +radiance. All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, +not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of this +country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with the same +sense of relief as that with which in the upper world it reposes +on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I have compared to our +conservatories) there were singing birds innumerable, which, while we +remained in the room, sang in those harmonies of tune to which they are, +in these parts, so wonderfully trained. The roof was open. The whole +scene had charms for every sense--music form the birds, fragrance from +the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect. About all was +a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, for a honeymoon, if a Gy +bride were a little less formidably armed not only with the rights +of woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a Gy, so +learned, so tall, so stately, so much above the standard of the creature +we call woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of being +reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in that +bower so constructed for dreams of poetic love. + +The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids which +form the innocent wines of the Vril-ya. + +"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I can scarcely +conceive why you do not settle yourself here instead of amid the +gloomier abodes of the city." + +"As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am +compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can only come hither for +short intervals." + +"But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to your +office, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept it?" + +"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, 'Be +it requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner of Light,' so I had +no choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares, +which were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at least +endurable. We are all formed by custom--even the difference of our race +from the savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, which +becomes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You +see there are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the responsibilities +of chief magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not been +rendered so light, or if there were any questions as to compliance with +his requests." + +"Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?" + +"We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes on +as if each and all governed themselves according to immemorial custom." + +"When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide for his +successor?" + +"The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for many years +is the best person to choose one by whom those duties may be understood, +and he generally names his successor." + +"His son, perhaps?" + +"Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, and a +father naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if the Tur himself +decline to make a choice, for fear it might be supposed that he owed +some grudge to the person on whom his choice would settle, then there +are three of the College of Sages who draw lots among themselves which +shall have the power to elect the chief. We consider that the judgment +of one An of ordinary capacity is better than the judgment of three or +more, however wise they may be; for among three there would probably +be disputes, and where there are disputes, passion clouds judgment. The +worst choice made by one who has no motive in choosing wrong, is better +than the best choice made by many who have many motives for not choosing +right." + +"You reverse in your policy the maxims adopted in my country." + +"Are you all, in your country, satisfied with your governors?" + +"All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are sure to be +those most displeasing to others." + +"Then our system is better than yours." "For you it may be; but +according to our system a Tish could not be reduced to a cinder if a +female compelled him to marry her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my +native world." + +"Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can't compel you to marry her. +She can only entice you to do so. Don't be enticed. Come and look round +my domain." + +We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though the Ana keep +no stock for food, there are some animals which they rear for milking +and others for shearing. The former have no resemblance to our cows, +nor the latter to our sheep, nor do I believe such species exist amongst +them. They use the milk of three varieties of animal: one resembles the +antelope, but is much larger, being as tall as a camel; the other two +are smaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other, resemble +no creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleek and of rounded +proportions; their colour that of the dappled deer, with very mild +countenances and beautiful dark eyes. The milk of these three creatures +differs in richness and taste. It is usually diluted with water, and +flavoured with the juice of a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itself +is very nutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves them +for clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italian she-goat +than any other creature, but is considerably larger, has no horns, +and is free from the displeasing odour of our goats. Its fleece is not +thick, but very long and fine; it varies in colour, but is never white, +more generally of a slate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it is +usually worn dyed to suit the taste of the wearer. These animals were +exceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care and affection +by the children (chiefly female) who tended them. + +We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and fruits. +I may here observe that the main staple of food among these people +consists--firstly, of a kind of corn much larger in ear than our wheat, +and which by culture is perpetually being brought into new varieties of +flavour; and, secondly, of a fruit of about the size of a small orange, +which, when gathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for many +months in their warehouses, and then becomes succulent and tender. Its +juice, which is of dark-red colour, enters into most of their sauces. +They have many kinds of fruit of the nature of the olive, from which +delicious oils are extracted. They have a plant somewhat resembling the +sugar-cane, but its juices are less sweet and of a delicate perfume. +They have no bees nor honey-making insects, but they make much use of a +sweet gum that oozes from a coniferous plant, not unlike the araucaria. +Their soil teems also with esculent roots and vegetables, which it is +the aim of their culture to improve and vary to the utmost. And I never +remember any meal among this people, however it might be confined to +the family household, in which some delicate novelty in such articles of +food was not introduced. In fine, as I before observed, their cookery is +exquisite, so diversified and nutritious that one does not miss animal +food; and their own physical forms suffice to show that with them, at +least, meat is not required for superior production of muscular fibre. +They have no grapes--the drinks extracted from their fruits are innocent +and refreshing. Their staple beverage, however, is water, in the choice +of which they are very fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightest +impurity. + +"My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our produce," said +Aph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses, "and therefore will +inherit these lands, which constitute the chief part of my wealth. To my +elder son such inheritance would be a great trouble and affliction." + +"Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealth +would be a great trouble and affliction?" + +"Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do not consider +that a fortune much above the average is a heavy burden. We are rather a +lazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing more +cares than we can help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. +For instance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of us +like and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a continued +interest in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we may +anticipate their wants and see that none fall into poverty. There is +an old proverb amongst us which says, 'The poor man's need is the rich +man's shame---'" + +"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, even +of the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief." + +"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a Koom-Posh, THAT +is impossible with us, unless an An has, by some extraordinary process, +got rid of all his means, cannot or will not emigrate, and has either +tired out the affectionate aid of this relations or personal friends, or +refuses to accept it." + +"Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or automaton, and +become a labourer--a servant?" + +"No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound reason, +and place him, at the expense of the State, in a public building, where +every comfort and every luxury that can mitigate his affliction are +lavished upon him. But an An does not like to be considered out of his +mind, and therefore such cases occur so seldom that the public building +I speak of is now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An +whom I recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem conscious +of loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I spoke of wants, I +meant such wants as an An with desires larger than his means sometimes +entertains--for expensive singing-birds, or bigger houses, or +country-gardens; and the obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of +him something that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, +are obliged to buy a great many things they do not require, and live on +a very large scale where they might prefer to live on a small one. For +instance, the great size of my house in the town is a source of much +trouble to my wife, and even to myself; but I am compelled to have it +thus incommodiously large, because, as the richest An of the community, +I am appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities +when they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year, when +certain periodical entertainments are held, and when relations scattered +throughout all the realms of the Vril-ya joyfully reunite for a time. +This hospitality, on a scale so extensive, is not to my taste, and +therefore I should have been happier had I been less rich. But we must +all bear the lot assigned to us in this short passage through time that +we call life. After all, what are a hundred years, more or less, to the +ages through which we must pass hereafter? Luckily, I have one son who +likes great wealth. It is a rare exception to the general rule, and I +own I cannot myself understand it." + +After this conversation I sought to return to the subject which +continued to weigh on my heart--viz., the chances of escape from Zee. +But my host politely declined to renew that topic, and summoned our +air-boat. On our way back we were met by Zee, who, having found us gone, +on her return from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings and +flown in search of us. + +Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as she beheld +me, and, poising herself beside the boat on her large outspread plumes, +she said reproachfully to Aph-Lin--"Oh, father, was it right in you +to hazard the life of your guest in a vehicle to which he is so +unaccustomed? He might, by an incautious movement, fall over the side; +and alas; he is not like us, he has no wings. It were death to him to +fall. Dear one!" (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softer +voice), "have you no thought of me, that you should thus hazard a life +which has become almost a part of mine? Never again be thus rash, unless +I am thy companion. What terror thou hast stricken into me!" + +I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that he would +indignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of anxiety and +affection, which, under all the circumstances, would, in the world above +ground, be considered immodest in the lips of a young female, addressed +to a male not affianced to her, even if of the same rank as herself. + +But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, and so +absolutely foremost among those rights do females claim the privilege +of courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thought of reproving his +virgin daughter than he would have thought of disobeying the orders of +the Tur. In that country, custom, as he implied, is all in all. + +He answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my belief +the he can take very good care of himself." + +"I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. Oh, heart of +my heart, it was in the thought of thy danger that I first felt how much +I loved thee!" + +Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These words were +spoken loud in the hearing of Zee's father--in the hearing of the child +who steered. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could not +help replying angrily: "Zee, either you mock me, which, as your father's +guest, misbecomes you, or the words you utter are improper for a maiden +Gy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed her +with the consent of her parents. How much more improper to address them +to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your affections, and who +can never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence and +awe!" + +Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. "Be not +so cruel!" exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. "Can love command +itself where it is truly felt? Do you suppose that a maiden Gy will +conceal a sentiment that it elevates her to feel? What a country you +must have come from!" + +Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tish-a the rights of +your sex do not appear to be established, and at all events my guest may +converse with you more freely if unchecked by the presence of others." + +To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender +reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward. + +"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I said bitterly, +"in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me." + +"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairs +is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel to come between her and +her affections." + + + +Chapter XXIV. + + +On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in the hall +with a request that he would be present at the funeral obsequies of a +relation who had recently departed from that nether world. + +Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst this people, +and, glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion to defer an encounter +with Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might be permitted to witness with him +the interment of his relation; unless, indeed, it were regarded as one +of those sacred ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not +be admitted. + +"The departure of an An to a happier world," answered my host, "when, as +in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long in this as to have lost +pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful though quiet festival than a sacred +ceremony, and you may accompany me if you will." + +Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main street to a house +at some little distance, and, entering the hall, were conducted to a +room on the ground floor, where we found several persons assembled round +a couch on which was laid the deceased. It was an old man, who had, as I +was told, lived beyond his 130th year. To judge by the calm smile on his +countenance, he had passed away without suffering. One of the sons, who +was now the head of the family, and who seemed in vigorous middle life, +though he was considerably more than seventy, stepped forward with a +cheerful face and told Aph-Lin "that the day before he died his father +had seen in a dream his departed Gy, and was eager to be reunited to +her, and restored to youth beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good." + +While these two were talking, my attention was drawn to a dark metallic +substance at the farther end of the room. It was about twenty feet in +length, narrow in proportion, and all closed round, save, near the roof, +there were small round holes through which might be seen a red light. +From the interior emanated a rich and sweet perfume; and while I was +conjecturing what purpose this machine was to serve, all the time-pieces +in the town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and as +that sound ceased, music of a more joyous character, but still of a joy +subdued and tranquil, rang throughout the chamber, and from the walls +beyond, in a choral peal. Symphonious with the melody, those in the room +lifted their voices in chant. The words of this hymn were simple. They +expressed no regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to the new world +whither the deceased had preceded the living. Indeed, in their language, +the funeral hymn is called the 'Birth Song.' Then the corpse, covered +by a long cerement, was tenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk +and borne towards the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward to +see what happened. A sliding door or panel at one end was lifted up--the +body deposited within, on a shelf--the door reclosed--a spring a the +side touched--a sudden 'whishing,' sighing sound heard from within; +and lo! at the other end of the machine the lid fell down, and a small +handful of smouldering dust dropped into a 'patera' placed to receive +it. The son took up the 'patera' and said (in what I understood +afterwards was the usual form of words), "Behold how great is the Maker! +To this little dust He gave form and life and soul. It needs not this +little dust for Him to renew form and life and soul to the beloved one +we shall soon see again." + +Each present bowed his head and pressed his hand to his heart. Then a +young female child opened a small door within the wall, and I perceived, +in the recess, shelves on which were placed many 'paterae' like that +which the son held, save that they all had covers. With such a cover +a Gy now approached the son, and placed it over the cup, on which it +closed with a spring. On the lid were engraven the name of the deceased, +and these words:--"Lent to us" (here the date of birth). "Recalled from +us" (here the date of death). + +The closed door shut with a musical sound, and all was over. + + + +Chapter XXV. + + +"And this," said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed--"this, I +presume, is your usual form of burial?" + +"Our invariable form," answered Aph-Lin. "What is it amongst your +people?" + +"We inter the body whole within the earth." + +"What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the wife on +whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of corruption?" "But +if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body waste within +the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism, worked, no doubt by the +agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?" + +"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on a matter +of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and repulsive, and would +serve to invest death with gloomy and hideous associations. It is +something, too, to my mind, to be able to preserve the token of what has +been our kinsman or friend within the abode in which we live. We thus +feel more sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But +our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by custom. Custom +is not to be changed by a wise An, any more than it is changed by a +wise Community, without the greatest deliberation, followed by the +most earnest conviction. It is only thus that change ceases to be +changeability, and once made is made for good." + +When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the children in his +service and sent them round to several of his friends, requesting their +attendance that day, during the Easy Hours, to a festival in honour of +his kinsman's recall to the All-Good. This was the largest and gayest +assembly I ever witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was +prolonged far into the Silent Hours. + +The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially for grand +occasions. This differed from our entertainments, and was not without +a certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the +Roman empire. There was not one great table set out, but numerous small +tables, each appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond +that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The Ana never +laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the cheerful ring of their +voices at the various tables betokened gaiety of intercourse. As they +have no stimulant drinks, and are temperate in food, though so choice +and dainty, the banquet itself did not last long. The tables sank +through the floor, and then came musical entertainments for those who +liked them. Many, however, wandered away:--some of the younger ascended +in their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; others +strolled through the various apartments, examining the curiosities with +which they were stored, or formed themselves into groups for various +games, the favourite of which is a complicated kind of chess played by +eight persons. I mixed with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the +conversation by the constant companionship of one or the other of my +host's sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The +guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown accustomed to +my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets, and I had ceased to +excite much curiosity. + +To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to excite my +jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome young An, who (though, +as is the modest custom of the males when addressed by females, he +answered with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy +as young ladies new to the world are in most civilised countries, except +England and America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and +ready to falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed. Fervently +hoping that she would, and more and more averse to the idea of reduction +to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity with which a human body can be +hurried into a pinch of dust, I amused myself by watching the manners of +the other young people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was +no singular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever I turned +my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy was the wooing +party, and the An the coy and reluctant one. The pretty innocent airs +which an An gave himself on being thus courted, the dexterity with which +he evaded direct answers to professions of attachment, or turned into +jest the flattering compliments addressed to him, would have done honour +to the most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were subjected +greatly to these seductive influences, and both acquitted themselves +with wonderful honour to their tact and self-control. + +I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments to +the management of a great property, and who was of an eminently +philosophical temperament,--"I find it difficult to conceive how at your +age, and with all the intoxicating effects on the senses, of music and +lights and perfumes, you can be so cold to that impassioned young Gy who +has just left you with tears in her eyes at your cruelty." + +The young An replied with a sigh, "Gentle Tish, the greatest misfortune +in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with another." + +"Oh! You are in love with another?" + +"Alas! Yes." + +"And she does not return your love?" + +"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but she has +never plainly told me that she loves me." + +"Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?" + +"Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from? Could I so +betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly--so lost to shame, +as to own love to a Gy who has not first owned hers to me?" + +"Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex +so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, 'I love you,' till she says it +first to him?" + +"I can't say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does, he is +disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised by the Gy-ei. +No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she would consider that +he audaciously infringed on the rights of her sex, while outraging the +modesty which dignifies his own. It is very provoking," continued the +An, "for she whom I love has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot +but think she likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me +because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as to the +surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really love me, for where +a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights." + +"Is this young Gy present?" + +"Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother." + +I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided, and saw +a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this people is a sign +that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She wears gray, a neutral tint, +to indicate that she is looking about for a spouse; dark purple if she +wishes to intimate that she has made a choice; purple and orange when +she is betrothed or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, +and would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen. + +Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is +difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young friend's +choice seemed to me to possess the average of good looks; but there was +an expression in her face that pleased me more than did the faces of the +young Gy-ei generally, because it looked less bold--less conscious of +female rights. I observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, +from time to time, sidelong at my young friend. + +"Courage," said I, "that young Gy loves you." + +"Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?" + +"Your mother is aware of your attachment?" + +"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to confide +such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he may have told it +again to his wife." + +"Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind your +mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about you. Do not +hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself to be questioned till I +rejoin you." + +The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly on the +head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole unobserved behind his +mother and his beloved. I overheard their talk. Bra was speaking; +said she, "There can be no doubt of this: either my son, who is of +marriageable age, will be decoyed into marriage with one of his many +suitors, or he will join those who emigrate to a distance and we shall +see him no more. If you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should +propose." + +"I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win his +affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces; and I am not +like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not enter into his favourite +pursuits, and then he would get tired of me, and at the end of three +years divorce me, and I could never marry another--never." + +"It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be so +necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for timepieces, that he +would rather give up the timepieces than divorce his Gy. You see, my +dear Lo," continued Bra, "that precisely because we are the stronger +sex, we rule the other provided we never show our strength. If you were +superior to my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as +his wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that art to +yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the Gy in all +except his own special pursuit. But if she either excels him in that, +or affects not to admire him for his proficiency in it, he will not love +her very long; perhaps he may even divorce her. But where a Gy really +loves, she soon learns to love all that the An does." + +The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down musingly, +then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still silent, and went +through the crowd till she paused by the young An who loved her. I +followed her steps, but discreetly stood at a little distance while +I watched them. Somewhat to my surprise, till I recollected the coy +tactics among the Ana, the lover seemed to receive her advances with an +air of indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps, +and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished amid the +luminous space above. + +Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled with the +crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or homage. It so happened +that I had not seen this great dignitary since the day I had entered +his dominions, and recalling Aph-Lin's words as to his terrible doubt +whether or not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the +sight of his tranquil countenance. + +"I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee," said the Tur, laying +his hand politely on my bended head. "He is very fond of your society, +and I trust you are not displeased with the customs of our people." + +I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be an +assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received from the Tur, +and my admiration of his countrymen, but the dissecting-knife gleamed +before my mind's eye and choked my utterance. A softer voice said, "My +brother's friend must be dear to me." And looking up I saw a young +Gy, who might be sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and +gazing at me with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to her +full growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about feet 10 +inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutive stature, I thought +her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I suppose something in my eyes +revealed that impression, for her countenance grew yet more benignant. +"Taee tells me," she said, "that you have not yet learned to accustom +yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should have liked to fly with +you." + +"Alas!" I replied, "I can never hope to enjoy that happiness. I am +assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary gift, and it +would take generations before one of my race could poise himself in the +air like a bird." "Let not that thought vex you too much," replied this +amiable Princess, "for, after all, there must come a day when Zee and +myself must resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that day comes we +might be glad if the An we chose was also without wings." + +The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began to feel +at ease with Taee's charming sister, and rather startled her by the +boldness of my compliment in replying, "that no An she could choose +would ever use his wings to fly away from her." It is so against custom +for an An to say such civil things to a Gy till she has declared her +passion for him, and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young +maiden stood quite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she +did not seem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me to +accompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen to the songs +of the birds. I followed her steps as she glided before me, and she led +me into a chamber almost deserted. A fountain of naphtha was playing in +the centre of the room; round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls +of the room were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds +were chanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of the +divans, and I placed myself at her side. "Taee tells me," she said, +"that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house that you are not to be +questioned as to the country you come from or the reason why you visit +us. Is it so?" + +* Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words synonymous +with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular +people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur that his College of Sages +should dissect me, the decree would have ran blandly thus,--"Be it +requested that, for the good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be +requested to submit himself to dissection." + +"It is." + +"May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at least if the +Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colour as yourself, and no +taller?" + +"I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of Aph-Lin, +which is more binding on myself than any one, if I answer questions so +innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are much fairer of hue than I am, and +their average height is at least a head shorter than mine." + +"They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I suppose +their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary disadvantage +of size?" + +"They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still they are +very powerful in my country, and an An has small chance of a happy life +if he be not more or less governed by his Gy." + +"You speak feelingly," said Taee's sister, in a tone of voice half sad, +half petulant. "You are married, of course." + +"No--certainly not." + +"Nor betrothed?" + +"Nor betrothed." + +"Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?" + +"In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first." + +"What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!" said the maiden, "and +what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed, never +loved one Gy more than another?" + +I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, "Pardon +me, but I think we are beginning to infringe upon Aph-Lin's injunction. +This much only will I answer, and then, I implore you, ask no more. I +did once feel the preference you speak of; I did propose, and the +Gy would willingly have accepted me, but her parents refused their +consent." + +"Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can interfere +with the choice of their daughters?" + +"Indeed they can, and do very often." + +"I should not like to live in that country," said the Gy simply; "but I +hope you will never go back to it." + +I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with her right +hand, and looked into it tenderly. "Stay with us," she said; "stay with +us, and be loved." What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming +a cinder I might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the +light of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and +Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside us. She said not a +word, but, taking my arm with her mighty hand, she drew me away, as a +mother draws a naughty child, and led me through the apartments to one +of the corridors, on which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to +stairs, we ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my +forehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantly plunged +into a profound sleep. + +When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds in the +adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee's sister, her gentle looks and +caressing words, vividly returned to me; and so impossible is it for one +born and reared in our upper world's state of society to divest +himself of ideas dictated by vanity and ambition, that I found myself +instinctively building proud castles in the air. + +"Tish though I be," thus ran my meditations--"Tish though I be, it is +then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance can captivate. +Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first maiden of this land, the +daughter of the absolute Monarch whose autocracy they so idly seek to +disguise by the republican title of chief magistrate. But for the sudden +swoop of that horrible Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed +to me; and though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a +subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten me with +destruction if I accept his daughter's hand, yet a Sovereign, whose word +is law, could compel the community to abrogate any custom that forbids +intermarriage with one of a strange race, and which in itself is a +contradiction to their boasted equality of ranks. + +"It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with such +incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would not have +sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me from the +combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form. And if I were exalted +by such an alliance, who knows but what the Monarch might elect me as +his successor? Why not? Few among this indolent race of philosophers +like the burden of such greatness. All might be pleased to see the +supreme power lodged in the hands of an accomplished stranger who has +experience of other and livelier forms of existence; and once chosen, +what reforms I would institute! What additions to the really pleasant +but too monotonous life of this realm my familiarity with the civilised +nations above ground would effect! I am fond of the sports of the field. +Next to war, is not the chase a king's pastime? In what varieties of +strange game does this nether world abound? How interesting to strike +down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge! But how? +By that terrible vril, in which, from want of hereditary transmission, I +could never be a proficient? No, but by a civilised handy breech-loader, +which these ingenious mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt +improve; nay, surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, +I should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war. Apropos +of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so intelligent, so +rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for +10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction a mere philosophical +crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in human nature, such as +has been partially, and with complete failure, tried in the upper world +by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the +neighbouring nations as well armed as one's own subjects; but then, +what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, and +apparently resembling, in their democratic institutions, my American +countrymen? One might invade them without offence to the vril nations, +our allies, appropriate their territories, extending, perhaps, to the +most distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire +in which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over +those regions there was no sun to set). As for the fantastical notion +against conceding fame or renown to an eminent individual, because, +forsooth, bestowal of honours insures contest in the pursuit of them, +stimulates angry passions, and mars the felicity of peace--it is opposed +to the very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute creation, +which are all, if tamable, participators in the sentiment of praise and +emulation. What renown would be given to a king who thus extended his +empire! I should be deemed a demigod." Thinking of that, the other +fanatical notion of regulating this life by reference to one which, +no doubt, we Christians firmly believe in, but never take into +consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled me to +abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance with modern +thought and practical action. Musing over these various projects, I felt +how much I should have liked at that moment to brighten my wits by +a good glass of whiskey-and-water. Not that I am habitually a +spirit-drinker, but certainly there are times when a little stimulant +of alcoholic nature, taken with a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes; +certainly among these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from +which one could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cut +off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject the animal +food which our first medical men agree in recommending to the gastric +juices of mankind!) one would certainly pass a more exhilarating hour +of repast. Then, too, instead of those antiquated dramas performed +by childish amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our +modern opera and a 'corps de ballet,' for which one might find, among +the nations I shall conquer, young females of less formidable height and +thews than the Gy-ei--not armed with vril, and not insisting upon one's +marrying them. + +I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, political, +social, and moral, calculated to bestow on the people of the nether +world the blessings of a civilisation known to the races of the upper, +that I did not perceive that Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a +deep sigh, and, raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch. + +I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a Gy can, +without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although an An would be +considered forward and immodest to the last degree if he entered the +chamber of a Gy without previously obtaining her permission to do +so. Fortunately I was in the full habiliments I had worn when Zee had +deposited me on the couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well +as shocked, by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted. + +"Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you," said she, "for I am very +unhappy. I have not slept since we parted." + +"A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father's guest might +well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids. Where was the affection +you pretend to have for me, where was even that politeness on which the +Vril-ya pride themselves, when, taking advantage alike of that physical +strength in which your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our +own, and of those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of +vril invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to humiliation +before your assembled visitors, before Her Royal Highness--I mean, the +daughter of your own chief magistrate,--carrying me off to bed like a +naughty infant, and plunging me into sleep, without asking my consent?" + +"Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love? Can you +think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends upon love +till it fades away in blissful trust when we know that the heart we +have wooed is won, I could be indifferent to the perils to which the +audacious overtures of that silly little child might expose you?" "Hold! +Since you introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps does not misbecome +me to say that my most imminent perils come from yourself, or at least +would come if I believed in your love and accepted your addresses. Your +father has told me plainly that in that case I should be consumed into +a cinder with as little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee +blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand." + +"Do not let that fear chill your heart to me," exclaimed Zee, dropping +on her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space of her ample palm. +"It is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed as those of the same race +wed; true that the love between us must be pure as that which, in our +belief, exists between lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that +boundary at which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to +be together, wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left +my father. He consents to our union on those terms. I have sufficient +influence with the College of Sages to insure their request to the Tur +not to interfere with the free choice of a Gy; provided that her wedding +with one of another race be but the wedding of souls. Oh, think you that +true love needs ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your +side in this life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows here: +I ask here for a tie which will bind us for ever and for ever in the +world of immortals. Do you reject me?" + +As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face was +changed; nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a divine light, as +that of an immortal, shining out from its human beauty. But she rather +awed me as an angel than moved me as a woman, and after an embarrassed +pause, I faltered forth evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as +delicately as I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position +amongst her race in the light of a husband who might never be permitted +the name of father. + +"But," said Zee, "this community does not constitute the whole world. +No; nor do all the populations comprised in the league of the Vril-ya. +For thy sake I will renounce my country and my people. We will fly +together to some region where thou shalt be safe. I am strong enough to +bear thee on my wings across the deserts that intervene. I am skilled +enough to cleave open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build +our home. Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the +universe. Or wouldst thou return to thine own world, above the surface +of this, exposed to the uncertain seasons, and lit but by the changeful +orbs which constitute by thy description the fickle character of those +savage regions? I so, speak the word, and I will force the way for thy +return, so that I am thy companion there, though, there as here, but +partner of thy soul, and fellow traveller with thee to the world in +which there is no parting and no death." + +I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once so pure +and so impassioned, with which these words were uttered, and in a voice +that would have rendered musical the roughest sounds in the rudest +tongue. And for a moment it did occur to me that I might avail myself of +Zee's agency to effect a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But +a very brief space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable +and base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus away, +from her own people and a home in which I had been so hospitably +treated, a creature to whom our world would be so abhorrent, and +for whose barren, if spiritual love, I could not reconcile myself to +renounce the more human affection of mates less exalted above my erring +self. With this sentiment of duty towards the Gy combined another of +duty towards the whole race I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce +into the upper world a being so formidably gifted--a being that with a +movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New York and its +glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her of her staff, with +her science she could easily construct another; and with the deadly +lightnings that armed the slender engine her whole frame was charged. If +thus dangerous to the cities and populations of the whole upper earth, +could she be a safe companion to myself in case her affection should be +subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts, which +it takes so many words to express, passed rapidly through my brain and +decided my answer. + +"Zee," I said, in the softest tones I could command and pressing +respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine vanished--"Zee, I +can find no words to say how deeply I am touched, and how highly I am +honoured, by a love so disinterested and self-immolating. My best return +to it is perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs +of yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are equally +opposed to such a union between those of races so widely differing. On +the other hand, though not deficient in courage among my own people, or +amid dangers with which I am familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of +horror, think of constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal +chaos, with all the elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic +gases, at war with each other, and with the probability that at some +moment, while you were busied in cleaving rocks or conveying vril into +lamps, I should be devoured by a krek which your operations disturbed +from its hiding-place. I, a mere Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, +so brilliant, so learned, so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve +that love, for I cannot return it." + +Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face away to hide +her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along the room, and paused at +the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as by a new thought, she returned to +my side and said, in a whispered tone,-- + +"You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With perfect +frankness, then, answer me this question. If you cannot love me, do you +love another?" + +"Certainly, I do not." + +"You do not love Taee's sister?" + +"I never saw her before last night." "That is no answer. Love is swifter +than vril. You hesitate to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy +that prompts me to caution you. If the Tur's daughter should declare +love to you--if in her ignorance she confides to her father any +preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you, he will +have no option but to request your immediate destruction, as he is +specially charged with the duty of consulting the good of the community, +which could not allow the daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the +Tish-a, in that sense of marriage which does not confine itself to union +of the souls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She has +no strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has no science +wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believe that here my +friendship speaks, and that my jealousy is silent." + +With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I thought no +more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or of the political, +social, and moral reforms I should institute in the capacity of Absolute +Sovereign. + + + +Chapter XXVI. + + +After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a profound +melancholy. The curious interest with which I had hitherto examined the +life and habits of this marvellous community was at an end. I could not +banish from my mind the consciousness that I was among a people who, +however kind and courteous, could destroy me at any moment without +scruple or compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the +people which, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the +contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world, now began +to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Even the serene +tranquility of the lustrous air preyed on my spirits. I longed for a +change, even to winter, or storm, or darkness. I began to feel that, +whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards +a better, and higher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of +the upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the very +happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire. + +Now, in this social state of the Vril-ya, it was singular to mark how +it contrived to unite and to harmonise into one system nearly all the +objects which the various philosophers of the upper world have placed +before human hopes as the ideals of a Utopian future. It was a state in +which war, with all its calamities, was deemed impossible,--a state in +which the freedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree, +without one of those animosities which make freedom in the upper world +depend on the perpetual strife of hostile parties. Here the corruption +which debases democracies was as unknown as the discontents which +undermine the thrones of monarchies. Equality here was not a name; it +was a reality. Riches were not persecuted, because they were not envied. +Here those problems connected with the labours of a working class, +hitherto insoluble above ground, and above ground conducing to such +bitterness between classes, were solved by a process the simplest,--a +distinct and separate working class was dispensed with altogether. +Mechanical inventions, constructed on the principles that baffled my +research to ascertain, worked by an agency infinitely more powerful and +infinitely more easy of management than aught we have yet extracted from +electricity or steam, with the aid of children whose strength was +never overtasked, but who loved their employment as sport and pastime, +sufficed to create a Public-wealth so devoted to the general use that +not a grumbler was ever heard of. The vices that rot our cities here +had no footing. Amusements abounded, but they were all innocent. No +merry-makings conduced to intoxication, to riot, to disease. Love +existed, and was ardent in pursuit, but its object, once secured, was +faithful. The adulterer, the profligate, the harlot, were phenomena so +unknown in this commonwealth, that even to find the words by which they +were designated one would have had to search throughout an obsolete +literature composed thousands of years before. They who have been +students of theoretical philosophies above ground, know that all these +strange departures from civilised life do but realise ideas which have +been broached, canvassed, ridiculed, contested for; sometimes partially +tried, and still put forth in fantastic books, but have never come +to practical result. Nor were these all the steps towards theoretical +perfectibility which this community had made. It had been the sober +belief of Descartes that the life of man could be prolonged, not, +indeed, on this earth, to eternal duration, but to what he called the +age of the patriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to 150 years +average length. Well, even this dream of sages was here fulfilled--nay, +more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middle life was preserved even +after the term of a century was passed. With this longevity was combined +a greater blessing than itself--that of continuous health. Such diseases +as befell the race were removed with ease by scientific applications of +that agency--life-giving as life-destroying--which is inherent in vril. +Even this idea is not unknown above ground, though it has generally +been confined to enthusiasts or charlatans, and emanates from confused +notions about mesmerism, odic force, &c. Passing by such trivial +contrivances as wings, which every schoolboy knows has been tried and +found wanting, from the mythical or pre-historical period, I proceed to +that very delicate question, urged of late as essential to the perfect +happiness of our human species by the two most disturbing and potential +influences on upper-ground society,--Womankind and Philosophy. I mean, +the Rights of Women. + +Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of rights +where there are not corresponding powers to enforce them; and above +ground, for some reason or other, man, in his physical force, in the use +of weapons offensive and defensive, when it come to positive personal +contest, can, as a rule of general application, master women. But among +this people there can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as +I have before said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger and stronger +than the An; and her will being also more resolute than his, and will +being essential to the direction of the vril force, she can bring to +bear upon him, more potently than he on herself, the mystical agency +which art can extract from the occult properties of nature. Therefore +all that our female philosophers above ground contend for as to rights +of women, is conceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth. +Besides such physical powers, the Gy-ei have (at least in youth) a keen +desire for accomplishments and learning which exceeds that of the male; +and thus they are the scholars, the professors--the learned portion, in +short, of the community. + +Of course, in this state of society the female establishes, as I have +shown, her most valued privilege, that of choosing and courting her +wedding partner. Without that privilege she would despise all the +others. Now, above ground, we should not unreasonably apprehend that a +female, thus potent and thus privileged, when she had fairly hunted us +down and married us, would be very imperious and tyrannical. Not so with +the Gy-ei: once married, the wings once suspended, and more amiable, +complacent, docile mates, more sympathetic, more sinking their loftier +capacities into the study of their husbands' comparatively frivolous +tastes and whims, no poet could conceive in his visions of conjugal +bliss. Lastly, among the more important characteristics of the Vril-ya, +as distinguished from our mankind--lastly, and most important on the +bearings of their life and the peace of their commonwealths, is their +universal agreement in the existence of a merciful beneficent Diety, and +of a future world to the duration of which a century or two are moments +too brief to waste upon thoughts of fame and power and avarice; while +with that agreement is combined another--viz., since they can know +nothing as to the nature of that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme +goodness, nor of that future world beyond the fact of its felicitous +existence, so their reason forbids all angry disputes on insoluble +questions. Thus they secure for that state in the bowels of the earth +what no community ever secured under the light of the stars--all the +blessings and consolations of a religion without any of the evils and +calamities which are engendered by strife between one religion and +another. + +It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of +existence among the Vril-ya is thus, as a whole, immeasurably more +felicitous than that of super-terrestrial races, and, realising the +dreams of our most sanguine philanthropists, almost approaches to a +poet's conception of some angelical order. And yet, if you would take +a thousand of the best and most philosophical of human beings you could +find in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them +as citizens in the beatified community, my belief is, that in less than +a year they would either die of ennui, or attempt some revolution by +which they would militate against the good of the community, and be +burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur. + +Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of this +narrative, any ignorant disparagement of the race to which I belong. I +have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make it clear that the principles +which regulate the social system of the Vril-ya forbid them to produce +those individual examples of human greatness which adorn the annals of +the upper world. Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no +Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan;--where states are so happy that +they fear no danger and desire no change, they cannot give birth to a +Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes, or a Butler; and +where a society attains to a moral standard, in which there are no +crimes and no sorrows from which tragedy can extract its aliment of pity +and sorrow, no salient vices or follies on which comedy can lavish its +mirthful satire, it has lost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or +a Moliere, or a Mrs. Beecher-Stowe. But if I have no desire to disparage +my fellow-men above ground in showing how much the motives that impel +the energies and ambition of individuals in a society of contest and +struggle--become dormant or annulled in a society which aims at securing +for the aggregate the calm and innocent felicity which we presume to be +the lot of beatified immortals; neither, on the other hand, have I the +wish to represent the commonwealths of the Vril-ya as an ideal form of +political society, to the attainment of which our own efforts of reform +should be directed. On the contrary, it is because we have so combined, +throughout the series of ages, the elements which compose human +character, that it would be utterly impossible for us to adopt the modes +of life, or to reconcile our passions to the modes of thought among +the Vril-ya,--that I arrived at the conviction that this people--though +originally not only of our human race, but, as seems to me clear by the +roots of their language, descended from the same ancestors as the Great +Aryan family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant +civilisation of the world; and having, according to their myths +and their history, passed through phases of society familiar to +ourselves,--had yet now developed into a distinct species with which it +was impossible that any community in the upper world could amalgamate: +and that if they ever emerged from these nether recesses into the light +of day, they would, according to their own traditional persuasions of +their ultimate destiny, destroy and replace our existent varieties of +man. + +It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be found to +conceive a partiality for so ordinary a type of our super-terrestrial +race as myself, that even if the Vril-ya did appear above ground, we +might be saved from extermination by intermixture of race. But this is +too sanguine a belief. Instances of such 'mesalliance' would be as rare +as those of intermarriage between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the +Red Indians. Nor would time be allowed for the operation of familiar +intercourse. The Vril-ya, on emerging, induced by the charm of a sunlit +heaven to form their settlements above ground, would commence at once +the work of destruction, seize upon the territories already cultivated, +and clear off, without scruple, all the inhabitants who resisted +that invasion. And considering their contempt for the institutions of +Koom-Posh or Popular Government, and the pugnacious valour of my +beloved countrymen, I believe that if the Vril-ya first appeared in free +America--as, being the choicest portion of the habitable earth, they +would doubtless be induced to do--and said, "This quarter of the globe +we take; Citizens of a Koom-Posh, make way for the development of +species in the Vril-ya," my brave compatriots would show fight, and not +a soul of them would be left in this life, to rally round the Stars and +Stripes, at the end of a week. + +I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family assembled, +and she was then reserved and silent. My apprehensions of danger from an +affection I had so little encouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded +away, but my dejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to the +upper world, but I racked my brains in vain for any means to effect it. +I was never permitted to wander forth alone, so that I could not even +visit the spot on which I had alighted, and see if it were possible to +reascend to the mine. Nor even in the Silent Hours, when the household +was locked in sleep, could I have let myself down from the lofty floor +in which my apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata +who stood mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could I ascertain +the springs by which were set in movement the platforms that supplied +the place of stairs. The knowledge how to avail myself of these +contrivances had been purposely withheld from me. Oh, that I could but +have learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every +infant, then I might have escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, +and buoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which the perpendicular +sides forbade place for human footing! + + + +Chapter XXVII. + + +One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew in at the +open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I was always pleased +with the visits of a child, in whose society, if humbled, I was less +eclipsed than in that of Ana who had completed their education and +matured their understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with +him for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which I +had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he were +at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city. His countenance +seemed to me graver than usual as he replied, "I came hither on purpose +to invite you forth." + +We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from the +house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were returning +from the fields with baskets full of flowers, and chanting a song in +chorus as they walked. A young Gy sings more often than she talks. They +stopped on seeing us, accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with +the courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their manner +towards our weaker sex. + +And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in +her courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing that +approaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner which those +young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the distinguished epithet +of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards young gentlemen whom they do not +profess to love. No; the bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary +is very much that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upper +world towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo; deferential, +complimentary, exquisitely polished--what we should call 'chivalrous.' + +Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things addressed +to my 'amour propre,' which were said to me by those courteous young +Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would have thought himself +aggrieved, treated with irony, 'chaffed' (if so vulgar a slang word +may be allowed on the authority of the popular novelists who use it +so freely), when one fair Gy complimented me on the freshness of my +complexion, another on the choice of colours in my dress, a third, with +a sly smile, on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin's entertainment. But +I knew already that all such language was what the French call 'banal,' +and did but express in the female mouth, below earth, that sort of +desire to pass for amiable with the opposite sex which, above earth, +arbitrary custom and hereditary transmission demonstrate by the mouth of +the male. And just as a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated +to such compliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, return +them, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so I who +had learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy and dignified +a Minister of that nation, could but smile and try to look pretty in +bashfully disclaiming the compliments showered upon me. While we were +thus talking, Taee's sister, it seems, had seen us from the upper rooms +of the Royal Palace at the entrance of the town, and, precipitating +herself on her wings, alighted in the midst of the group. + +Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deference +of manner which I have called 'chivalrous,' yet not without a certain +abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir Philip +Sydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Why do you never come to see +us?" While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to this +unlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, "Sister, you +forget--the stranger is of my sex. It is not for persons of my sex, +having due regard for reputation and modesty, to lower themselves by +running after the society of yours." + +This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gy-ei in +general; but Taee's sister looked greatly abashed. Poor thing!--and a +PRINCESS too! + +Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and the group; +and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon us, +with the silent and stately pace peculiar to the Vril-ya. At the sight +of his countenance, the same terror which had seized me when I first +beheld it returned. On that brow, in those eyes, there was that same +indefinable something which marked the being of a race fatal to our +own--that strange expression of serene exemption from our common cares +and passions, of conscious superior power, compassionate and inflexible +as that of a judge who pronounces doom. I shivered, and, inclining low, +pressed the arm of my child-friend, and drew him onward silently. The +Tur placed himself before our path, regarded me for a moment without +speaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter's face, and, with +a grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went through the midst of +the group,--still without a word. + + + +Chapter XXVIII. + + +When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road that lay between +the city and the chasm through which I had descended into this region +beneath the light of the stars and sun, I said under my breath, "Child +and friend, there is a look in your father's face which appals me. I +feel as if, in its awful tranquillity, I gazed upon death." + +Taee did not immediately reply. He seemed agitated, and as if debating +with himself by what words to soften some unwelcome intelligence. At +last he said, "None of the Vril-ya fear death: do you?" + +"The dread of death is implanted in the breasts of the race to which I +belong. We can conquer it at the call of duty, of honour, of love. We +can die for a truth, for a native land, for those who are dearer to us +than ourselves. But if death do really threaten me now and here, where +are such counteractions to the natural instinct which invests with awe +and terror the contemplation of severance between soul and body?" + +Taee looked surprised, but there was great tenderness in his voice as +he replied, "I will tell my father what you say. I will entreat him to +spare your life." + +"He has, then, already decreed to destroy it?" + +"'Tis my sister's fault or folly," said Taee, with some petulance. +"But she spoke this morning to my father; and, after she had spoken, +he summoned me, as a chief among the children who are commissioned to +destroy such lives as threaten the community, and he said to me, 'Take +thy vril staff, and seek the stranger who has made himself dear to thee. +Be his end painless and prompt.'" + +"And," I faltered, recoiling from the child--"and it is, then, for my +murder that thus treacherously thou hast invited me forth? No, I cannot +believe it. I cannot think thee guilty of such a crime." + +"It is no crime to slay those who threaten the good of the community; it +would be a crime to slay the smallest insect that cannot harm us." + +"If you mean that I threaten the good of the community because your +sister honours me with the sort of preference which a child may feel for +a strange plaything, it is not necessary to kill me. Let me return to +the people I have left, and by the chasm through which I descended. With +a slight help from you I might do so now. You, by the aid of your wings, +could fasten to the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you +found, and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to the +spot from which I alighted, and I vanish from your world for ever, and +as surely as if I were among the dead." + +"The chasm through which you descended! Look round; we stand now on the +very place where it yawned. What see you? Only solid rock. The chasm was +closed, by the orders of Aph-Lin, as soon as communication between him +and yourself was established in your trance, and he learned from +your own lips the nature of the world from which you came. Do you not +remember when Zee bade me not question you as to yourself or your +race? On quitting you that day, Aph-Lin accosted me, and said, 'No path +between the stranger's home and ours should be left unclosed, or the +sorrow and evil of his home may descend to ours. Take with thee the +children of thy band, smite the sides of the cavern with your vril +staves till the fall of their fragments fills up every chink through +which a gleam of our lamps could force its way.'" + +As the child spoke, I stared aghast at the blind rocks before me. Huge +and irregular, the granite masses, showing by charred discolouration +where they had been shattered, rose from footing to roof-top; not a +cranny! + +"All hope, then, is gone," I murmured, sinking down on the craggy +wayside, "and I shall nevermore see the sun." I covered my face with my +hands, and prayed to Him whose presence I had so often forgotten when +the heavens had declared His handiwork. I felt His presence in the +depths of the nether earth, and amidst the world of the grave. I looked +up, taking comfort and courage from my prayers, and, gazing with a quiet +smile into the face of the child, said, "Now, if thou must slay me, +strike." + +Taee shook his head gently. "Nay," he said, "my father's request is not +so formally made as to leave me no choice. I will speak with him, and +may prevail to save thee. Strange that thou shouldst have that fear of +death which we thought was only the instinct of the inferior creatures, +to whom the convictions of another life has not been vouchsafed. +With us, not an infant knows such a fear. Tell me, my dear Tish," +he continued after a little pause, "would it reconcile thee more to +departure from this form of life to that form which lies on the other +side of the moment called 'death,' did I share thy journey? If so, I +will ask my father whether it be allowable for me to go with thee. I am +one of our generation destined to emigrate, when of age for it, to some +regions unknown within this world. I would just as soon emigrate now to +regions unknown, in another world. The All-Good is no less there than +here. Where is he not?" + +"Child," said I, seeing by Taee's countenance that he spoke in serious +earnest, "it is crime in thee to slay me; it were a crime not less in +me to say, 'Slay thyself.' The All-Good chooses His own time to give us +life, and his own time to take it away. Let us go back. If, on speaking +with thy father, he decides on my death, give me the longest warning in +thy power, so that I may pass the interval in self-preparation." + + + +Chapter XXIX. + + +In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting the +night of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the disturbed slumber into +which I had not long fallen, by a hand on my shoulder. I started and +beheld Zee standing beside me. "Hush," she said in a whisper; "let no +one hear us. Dost thou think that I have ceased to watch over thy safety +because I could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailed +with his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages who, +in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he has +ordained thee to perish when the world re-awakens to life. I will save +thee. Rise and dress." + +Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes I had +worn on quitting the upper world, and which I had exchanged subsequently +for the more picturesque garments of the Vril-ya. The young Gy then +moved towards the casement and stepped into the balcony, while hastily +and wonderingly I donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the +balcony, her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she said +softly, "See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up the +world in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will be dark to me." She +drew me back into the room without waiting for my answer, thence into +the corridor, from which we descended into the hall. We passed into the +deserted streets and along the broad upward road which wound beneath the +rocks. Here, where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hours +are unutterably solemn--the vast space illumined by mortal skill is +so wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft as were +our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of harmony with the +universal repose. I was aware in my own mind, though Zee said it not, +that she had decided to assist my return to the upper world, and that +we were bound towards the place from which I had descended. Her silence +infected me and commanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It had +been re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when I had +emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock before which I +had last stood with Taee, a new clift had been riven, and along its +blackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered embers. My +upward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet into the +darkness of the hollow void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering how +that grim ascent was to be made. + +Zee divined my doubt. "Fear not," said she, with a faint smile; "your +return is assured. I began this work when the Silent Hours commenced, +and all else were asleep; believe that I did not paused till the path +back into thy world was clear. I shall be with thee a little while yet. +We do not part until thou sayest, 'Go, for I need thee no more.'" + +My heart smote me with remorse at these words. "Ah!" I exclaimed, "would +that thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I should never say, 'I +need thee no more.'" + +"I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them when thou art +gone," answered the Gy, tenderly. + +During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned away from me, her +form bent and her head bowed over her breast. Now, she rose to the full +height of her grand stature, and stood fronting me. While she had been +thus averted from my gaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she wore +round her brow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Not +only her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were illumined by +the effulgence of the diadem. + +"Now," said she, "put thine arm around me for the first and last time. +Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm." + +As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. Clinging to her, +I was borne aloft through the terrible chasm. The starry light from her +forehead shot around and before us through the darkness. Brightly and +steadfastly, and swiftly as an angel may soar heavenward with the soul +it rescues from the grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heard +in the distance the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We +halted on the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and beyond, +in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of the miners. Then I +released my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, passionately, but as +with a mother's passion, and said, as the tears gushed from her eyes, +"Farewell for ever. Thou wilt not let me go into thy world--thou canst +never return to mine. Ere our household shake off slumber, the rocks +will have again closed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, nor +perhaps by others, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, and +with kindness. When I reach the life that lies beyond this speck in +time, I shall look round for thee. Even there, the world consigned to +thyself and thy people may have rocks and gulfs which divide it from +that in which I rejoin those of my race that have gone before, and I may +be powerless to cleave way to regain thee as I have cloven way to lose." + +Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings, and saw the +rays of her starry diadem receding far and farther through the gloom. + +I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I rose and +took my way with slow footsteps towards the place in which I heard the +sounds of men. The miners I encountered were strange to me, of another +nation than my own. They turned to look at me with some surprise, but +finding that I could not answer their brief questions in their own +language, they returned to their work and suffered me to pass on +unmolested. In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled +by other interrogatories;--save those of a friendly official to whom I +was known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with me. I took care +not to return to my former lodging, but hastened that very day to quit +a neighbourhood where I could not long have escaped inquiries to which +I could have given no satisfactory answers. I regained in safety my own +country, in which I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged in +practical business, till I retired on a competent fortune, three years +ago. I have been little invited and little tempted to talk of the +rovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhat disappointed, as most men +are, in matters connected with household love and domestic life, I often +think of the young Gy as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I could +have rejected such a love, no matter what dangers attended it, or by +what conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of a people +calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight and deemed +uninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing our most disciplined modes +of force, and virtues to which our life, social and political, becomes +antagonistic in proportion as our civilisation advances,--the more +devoutly I pray that ages may yet elapse before there emerge into +sunlight our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, frankly told by +my physician that I am afflicted by a complaint which, though it gives +little pain and no perceptible notice of its encroachments, may at any +moment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellow-men to place on +record these forewarnings of The Coming Race. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING RACE *** + +***** This file should be named 1951.txt or 1951.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/5/1951/ + +Produced by Fred Ihde and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1951.zip b/1951.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d223566 --- /dev/null +++ b/1951.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e9557d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1951 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1951) diff --git a/old/cmgrc10.txt b/old/cmgrc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0004ee0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cmgrc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5921 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton +#5 in our series by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Coming Race + +by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +November, 1999 [Etext #1951] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton +******This file should be named cmgrc10.txt or cmgrc10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, cmgrc11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, cmgrc10a.txt + + +Entered for Project Gutenberg by +Fred Ihde +fred1@sirius.com + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp sunsite.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Entered for Project Gutenberg by +Fred Ihde +fred1@sirius.com + + + + + +The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton + + + + +Chapter I. + + +I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My +ancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; +and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of +Independence. My family, therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high +social position in right of birth; and being also opulent, they +were considered disqualified for the public service. My father +once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor. +After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived +much in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sent +at the age of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete my +literary education, partly to commence my commercial training +in a mercantile firm at Liverpool. My father died shortly +after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having a +taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all +pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer +over the face of the earth. + +In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a +professional engineer, with whom I had made acquaintance, to +visit the recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was +employed. + +The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my +reason for concealing all clue to the district of which I +write, and will perhaps thank me for refraining from any +description that may tend to its discovery. + +6Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied +the engineer into the interior of the mine, and became so +strangely fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested +in my friend's explorations, that I prolonged my stay in the +neighbourhood, and descended daily, for some weeks, into the +vaults and galleries hollowed by nature and art beneath the +surface of the earth. The engineer was persuaded that far +richer deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been detected, +would be found in a new shaft that had been commenced under his +operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a +chasm jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst +asunder at some distant period by volcanic fires. Down this +chasm my friend caused himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' +having first tested the atmosphere by the safety-lamp. He +remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he returned he was +very pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression of face, +very different from its ordinary character, which was open, +cheerful, and fearless. + +He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and +leading to no result; and, suspending further operations in the +shaft, we returned to the more familiar parts of the mine. + +All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by +some absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there +was a scared, bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who +has seen a ghost. At night, as we two were sitting alone in +the lodging we shared together near the mouth of the mine, I +said to my friend,- + +"Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was +something strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has left +your mind in a state of doubt. In such a case two heads are +better than one. Confide in me." + + +The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, +while he spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of the +brandy-flask to a degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, +7for he was a very temperate man, his reserve gradually melted +away. He who would keep himself to himself should imitate the +dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said, "I will tell +you all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on a ridge of +rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, +shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which my +lamp could not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinite +surprise, streamed upward a steady brilliant light. Could it +be any volcanic fire? In that case, surely I should have felt +the heat. Still, if on this there was doubt, it was of the +utmost importance to our common safety to clear it up. I +examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could +venture to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, +at least for some way. I left the cage and clambered down. As +I drew nearer and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, +and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road +at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could +reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regular +intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard +confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of +course, that no rival miners are at work in this district. +Whose could be those voices? What human hands could have +levelled that road and marshalled those lamps? + +"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or +fiends dwell within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. +I shuddered at the thought of descending further and braving +the inhabitants of this nether valley. Nor indeed could I have +done so without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to the +bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down abrupt, +smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. +Now I have told you all." + +"You will descend again?" + +"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not." + +"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. +8I will go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of +suitable length and strength- and- pardon me- you must not +drink more to-night. our hands and feet must be steady and +firm tomorrow." + + +Chapter II. + +With the morning my friend's nerves were rebraced, and he was +not less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; for +he evidently believed in his own story, and I felt considerable +doubt of it; not that he would have wilfully told an untruth, +but that I thought he must have been under one of those +hallucinations which seize on our fancy or our nerves in +solitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to +the formless and sound to the dumb. + +We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as the +cage held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; and +when he had gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the +cage rearose for me. I soon gained his side. We had provided +ourselves with a strong coil of rope. + +The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on +my friend's. The hollow through which it came sloped +diagonally: it seemed to me a diffused atmospheric light, not +like that from fire, but soft and silvery, as from a northern +star. Quitting the cage, we descended, one after the other, +easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till we reached +the place at which my friend had previously halted, and which +was a projection just spacious enough to allow us to stand +abreast. From this spot the chasm widened rapidly like the +lower end of a vast funnel, and I saw distinctly the valley, +the road, the lamps which my companion had described. He had +exaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had heard- a +mingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull tramp as of +9feet. Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a +distance the outline of some large building. It could not be +mere natural rock, it was too symmetrical, with huge heavy +Egyptian-like columns, and the whole lighted as from within. I +had about me a small pocket-telescope, and by the aid of this, +I could distinguish, near the building I mention, two forms +which seemed human, though I could not be sure. At least they +were living, for they moved, and both vanished within the +building. We now proceeded to attach the end of the rope we +had brought with us to the ledge on which we stood, by the aid +of clamps and grappling hooks, with which, as well as with +necessary tools, we were provided. + +We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraid +to speak to each other. One end of the rope being thus +apparently made firm to the ledge, the other, to which we +fastened a fragment of the rock, rested on the ground below, a +distance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and a more +active man than my companion, and having served on board ship +in my boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to me +than to him. In a whisper I claimed the precedence, so that +when I gained the ground I might serve to hold the rope more +steady for his descent. I got safely to the ground beneath, +and the engineer now began to lower himself. But he had +scarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when the +fastenings, which we had fancied so secure, gave way, or rather +the rock itself proved treacherous and crumbled beneath the +strain; and the unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom, +falling just at my feet, and bringing down with his fall +splinters of the rock, one of which, fortunately but a small +one, struck and for the time stunned me. When I recovered my +senses I saw my companion an inanimate mass beside me, life +utterly extinct. While I was bending over his corpse in grief +and horror, I heard close at hand a strange sound between a +snort and a hiss; and turning instinctively to the quarter from +10which it came, I saw emerging from a dark fissure in the rock a +vast and terrible head, with open jaws and dull, ghastly, +hungry eyes- the head of a monstrous reptile resembling that of +the crocodile or alligator, but infinitely larger than the +largest creature of that kind I had ever beheld in my travels. +I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my utmost +speed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight, +and returned to the spot on which I had left the body of my +friend. It was gone; doubtless the monster had already drawn +it into its den and devoured it. the rope and the grappling- +hooks still lay where they had fallen, but they afforded me no +chance of return; it was impossible to re-attach them to the +rock above, and the sides of the rock were too sheer and smooth +for human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strange world, +amidst the bowels of the earth. + + + +Chapter III. + + +Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplit +road and towards the large building I have described. The road +itself seemed like a great Alpine pass, skirting rocky +mountains of which the one through whose chasm I had descended +formed a link. Deep below to the left lay a vast valley, which +presented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable evidences of +art and culture. There were fields covered with a strange +vegetation, similar to none I have seen above the earth; the +colour of it not green, but rather of a dull and leaden hue or +of a golden red. + +There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved +into artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shone +like pools of naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles +opened amidst the rocks, with passes between, evidently +constructed by art, and bordered by trees resembling, for the +11most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties of feathery +foliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others were +more like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of +flowers. Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, with +short thick stems supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which +either rose or drooped long slender branches. The whole scene +behind, before, and beside me far as the eye could reach, was +brilliant with innumerable lamps. The world without a sun was +bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but the air +less oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before me +void of signs of habitation. I could distinguish at a +distance, whether on the banks of the lake or rivulet, or +half-way upon eminences, embedded amidst the vegetation, +buildings that must surely be the homes of men. I could even +discover, though far off, forms that appeared to me human +moving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to the +right, gliding quickly through the air, what appeared a small +boat, impelled by sails shaped like wings. It soon passed out +of sight, descending amidst the shades of a forest. Right +above me there was no sky, but only a cavernous roof. This +roof grew higher and higher at the distance of the landscapes +beyond, till it became imperceptible, as an atmosphere of haze +formed itself beneath. + +Continuing my walk, I started,- from a bush that resembled a +great tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubs +and plants of large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or +prickly-pear,- a curious animal about the size and shape of a +deer. But as, after bounding away a few paces, it turned round +and gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived that it was not like +any species of deer now extant above the earth, but it brought +instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had seen in some +museum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existed +before the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, after +inspecting me a moment or two, began to graze on the singular +herbiage around undismayed and careless. + + +12 +Chapter IV. + + +I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been +made by hands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I +should have supposed it at the first glance to have been of the +earliest form of Egyptian architecture. It was fronted by huge +columns, tapering upward from massive plinths, and with +capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived to be more +ornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptian +architecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf +of the acanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated the +foliage of the vegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like, +some fern-like. And now there came out of this building a +form- human;- was it human? It stood on the broad way and +looked around, beheld me and approached. It came within a few +yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it an +indescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to the +ground. It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon +that are seen on Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of +Eastern sepulchres- images that borrow the outlines of man, and +are yet of another race. It was tall, not gigantic, but tall +as the tallest man below the height of giants. + +Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings +folded over its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of +its attire was composed of an under tunic and leggings of some +thin fibrous material. It wore on its head a kind of tiara +that shone with jewels, and carried in its right hand a slender +staff of bright metal like polished steel. But the face! it +was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was the face +of man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant +races. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression is +the face of the sculptured sphinx- so regular in its calm, +intellectual, mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more +13like that of the red man than any other variety of our species, +and yet different from it- a richer and a softer hue, with +large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched as a +semicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless something +in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteous +though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the +sight of a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike +image was endowed with forces inimical to man. As it drew +near, a cold shudder came over me. I fell on my knees and +covered my face with my hands. + + +Chapter V. + + +A voice accosted me- a very quiet and very musical key of +voice- in a language of which I could not understand a word, +but it served to dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and +looked up. The stranger (I could scarcely bring myself to call +him man) surveyed me with an eye that seemed to read to the +very depths of my heart. He then placed his left hand on my +forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my +shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In +place of my former terror there passed into me a sense of +contentment, of joy, of confidence in myself and in the being +before me. I rose and spoke in my own language. He listened +to me with apparent attention, but with a slight surprise in +his looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that I was not +understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence +to the building. The entrance was open- indeed there was no +door to it. We entered an immense hall, lighted by the same +kind of lustre as in the scene without, but diffusing a +fragrant odour. The floor was in large tesselated blocks of +precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of matlike +14carpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated +as if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally +to the place, just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs to +a rocky landscape, or the warble of birds to vernal groves. + +A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of +similar fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold. +My guide touched it twice with his staff, and it put itself +into a rapid and gliding movement, skimming noiselessly over +the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw that it was no living +form, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two minutes +after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by +curtains at the other end of the hall, when through the same +opening advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with features +closely resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to me +evidently son and father. On seeing me the child uttered a +cry, and lifted a staff like that borne by my guide, as if in +menace. At a word from the elder he dropped it. The two then +conversed for some moments, examining me while they spoke. The +child touched my garments, and stroked my face with evident +curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an hilarity +more subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently the +roof of the hall opened, and a platform descended, seemingly +constructed on the same principle as the 'lifts' used in hotels +and warehouses for mounting from one story to another. + +The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and +motioned to me to do the same, which I did. We ascended +quickly and safely, and alighted in the midst of a corridor +with doorways on either side. + +Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber +fitted up with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselated +with spars, and metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans +abounded; apertures as for windows but unglazed, were made in +the chamber opening to the floor; and as I passed along I +15observed that these openings led into spacious balconies, and +commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In cages +suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and +bright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song, +modulated into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A +delicious fragrance, from censers of gold elaborately sculptured, +filled the air. Several automata, like the one I had seen, +stood dumb and motionless by the walls. The stranger placed me +beside him on a divan and again spoke to me, and again I spoke, +but without the least advance towards understanding each other. + +But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received +from the splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I had +done at first. + +There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompanied +with acute, lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sank +back on the seat and strove in vain to stifle a groan. On this +the child, who had hitherto seemed to eye me with distrust or +dislike, knelt by my side to support me; taking one of my hands +in both his own, he approached his lips to my forehead, +breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; a +drowsy, heavy calm crept over me; I fell asleep. + +How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke I +felt perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silent +forms, seated around me in the gravity and quietude of +Orientals- all more or less like the first stranger; the same +mantling wings, the same fashion of garment, the same +sphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red man's +colour; above all, the same type of race- race akin to man's, +but infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect- and +inspiring the same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each +countenance was mild and tranquil, and even kindly in +expression. And, strangely enough, it seemed to me that in +this very calm and benignity consisted the secret of the dread +which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of the +lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, +16leave upon the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured +gods, or as, in the eyes of Christian mourners, seem the +peaceful brows of the dead. + +I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child's. In his +eyes there was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as +that with which we may gaze on some suffering bird or +butterfly. I shrank from that touch- I shrank from that eye. +I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he so pleased, +that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill a +bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, +quitted me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. The +others continued to converse with each other in a low tone, and +by their glances towards me I could perceive that I was the +object of their conversation. One in especial seemed to be +urging some proposal affecting me on the being whom I had first +met, and this last by his gesture seemed about to assent to it, +when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window, placed +himself between me and the other forms, as if in protection, +and spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or instinct I +felt that the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in my +behalf. Ere he had ceased another stranger entered the room. +He appeared older than the rest, though not old; his +countenance less smoothly serene than theirs, though equally +regular in its features, seemed to me to have more the touch of +a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly to the words +addressed to him, first by my guide, next by two others of the +group, and lastly by the child; then turned towards myself, and +addressed me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. These I +fancied that I perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. I +comprehended that he inquired whence I came. I extended my +arm, and pointed towards the road which had led me from the +chasm in the rock; then an idea seized me. I drew forth my +pocket-book, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a rough +design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to +it; then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile, +17the lifeless form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of +hieroglyph to my interrogator, who, after inspecting it +gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thus passed +round the group. The being I had at first encountered then +said a few words, and the child, who approached and looked at +my drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, +returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to his +form, shook them once or twice, and then launched himself into +space without. I started up in amaze and hastened to the +window. The child was already in the air, buoyed on his wings, +which he did not flap to and fro as a bird does, but which were +elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him steadily aloft +without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift as an +eagle's; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence I +had descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the +brilliant atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned, +skimming through the opening from which he had gone, and +dropping on the floor the rope and grappling-hooks I had left +at the descent from the chasm. Some words in a low tone passed +between the being present; one of the group touched an +automaton, which started forward and glided from the room; then +the last comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me +by the hand, and led me into the corridor. There the platform +by which I had mounted awaited us; we placed ourselves on it +and were lowered into the hall below. My new companion, still +holding me by the hand, conducted me from the building into a +street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with buildings +on either side, separated from each other by gardens bright +with rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. +Interspersed amidst these gardens, which were divided from each +other by low walls, or walking slowly along the road, were many +forms similar to those I had already seen. Some of the +passers-by, on observing me, approached my guide, evidently by +their tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him inquiries +18about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us, +examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wild +animal. Yet even in gratifying their curiosity they preserved +a grave and courteous demeanour; and after a few words from my +guide, who seemed to me to deprecate obstruction in our road, +they fell back with a stately inclination of head, and resumed +their own way with tranquil indifference. Midway in this +thoroughfare we stopped at a building that differed from those +we had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three sides of a +vast court, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidal towers; +in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of +colossal dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of what +seemed to me fire. We entered the building through an open +doorway and came into an enormous hall, in which were several +groups of children, all apparently employed in work as at some +great factory. There was a huge engine in the wall which was +in full play, with wheels and cylinders resembling our own +steam-engines, except that it was richly ornamented with +precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a pale +phosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of the +children were at some mysterious work on this machinery, others +were seated before tables. I was not allowed to linger long +enough to examine into the nature of their employment. Not one +young voice was heard- not one young face turned to gaze on us. +They were all still and indifferent as may be ghosts, through +the midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the living. + +Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly +painted in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the +colours, like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects +described on these walls appeared to my glance as intended to +illustrate events in the history of the race amidst which I was +admitted. In all there were figures, most of them like the +manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same fashion +of garb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigies of +19various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, with +backgrounds depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as my +imperfect knowledge of the pictorial art would allow me to form +an opinion, these paintings seemed very accurate in design and +very rich in colouring, showing a perfect knowledge of +perspective, but their details not arranged according to the +rules of composition acknowledged by our artists- wanting, as +it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague, scattered, +confused, bewildering- they were like heterogeneous fragments +of a dream of art. + +We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was +assembled what I afterwards knew to be the family of my guide, +seated at a table spread as for repast. The forms thus grouped +were those of my guide's wife, his daughter, and two sons. I +recognised at once the difference between the two sexes, though +the two females were of taller stature and ampler proportions +than the males; and their countenances, if still more +symmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness +and timidity of expression which give charm to the face of +woman as seen on the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the +daughter wore wings longer than those of the males. + +My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seated +rose, and with that peculiar mildness of look and manner which +I have before noticed, and which is, in truth, the common +attribute of this formidable race, they saluted me according to +their fashion, which consists in laying the right hand very +gently on the head and uttering a soft sibilant monosyllable- +S.Si, equivalent to "Welcome." + +The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped +a golden platter before me from one of the dishes. + +While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled +more at the delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), my +companions conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect, +with polite avoidance of any direct reference to myself, or any +20obtrusive scrutiny of my appearance. Yet I was the first +creature of that variety of the human race to which I belong +that they had ever beheld, and was consequently regarded by +them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all +rudeness is unknown to this people, and the youngest child is +taught to despise any vehement emotional demonstration. when +the meal was ended, my guide again took me by the hand, and, +re-entering the gallery, touched a metallic plate inscribed +with strange figures, and which I rightly conjectured to be of +the nature of our telegraphs. A platform descended, but this +time we mounted to a much greater height than in the former +building, and found ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions, +and which in its general character had much that might be +familiar to the associations of a visitor from the upper world. +There were shelves on the wall containing what appeared to be +books, and indeed were so; mostly very small, like our diamond +duodecimos, shaped in the fashion of our volumes, and bound in +sheets of fine metal. There were several curious-looking +pieces of mechanism scattered about, apparently models, such as +might be seen in the study of any professional mechanician. +Four automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these +people, answer the ordinary purposes of domestic service) stood +phantom-like at each angle in the wall. In a recess was a low +couch, or bed with pillows. A window, with curtains of some +fibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large balcony. My +host stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were on +the uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; the view +beyond was of a wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe:- +the vast ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distant +background, the intermediate valleys of mystic many-coloured +herbiage, the flash of waters, many of them like streams of +roseate flame, the serene lustre diffused over all by myriads +of lamps, combined to form a whole of which no words of mine +21can convey adequate description; so splendid was it, yet so +sombre; so lovely, yet so awful. + +But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes. +Suddenly there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of +joyous music; then a winged form soared into the space; another +as if in chase of the first, another and another; others after +others, till the crowd grew thick and the number countless. +But how describe the fantastic grace of these forms in their +undulating movements! They appeared engaged in some sport or +amusement; now forming into opposite squadrons; now scattering; +now each group threading the other, soaring, descending, +interweaving, severing; all in measured time to the music +below, as if in the dance of the fabled Peri. + +I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I ventured +to place my hand on the large wings that lay folded on his +breast, and in doing so a slight shock as of electricity passed +through me. I recoiled in fear; my host smiled, and as if +courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly expanded his +pinions. I observed that his garment beneath them became +dilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed to +slide into the wings, and in another moment he had launched +himself into the luminous atmosphere, and hovered there, still, +and with outspread wings, as an eagle that basks in the sun. +Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he rushed downwards into the +midst of one of the groups, skimming through the midst, and as +suddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, in one of +which I thought to recognise my host's daughter, detached +themselves from the rest, and followed him as a bird sportively +follows a bird. My eyes, dazzled with the lights and +bewildered by the throngs, ceased to distinguish the gyrations +and evolutions of these winged playmates, till presently my +host re-emerged from the crowd and alighted at my side. + +The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on +my senses; my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined +22to be superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could be +brought into bodily communication with demons, I felt the +terror and the wild excitement with which, in the Gothic ages, +a traveller might have persuaded himself that he witnessed a +'sabbat' of fiends and witches. I have a vague recollection of +having attempted with vehement gesticulation, and forms of +exorcism, and loud incoherent words, to repel my courteous and +indulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and soothe me; of +his intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment were +occasioned by the difference of form and movement between us +which the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had, +in exercise, made still more strongly perceptible; of the +gentle smile with which he had sought to dispel my alarm by +dropping the wings to the ground and endeavouring to show me +that they were but a mechanical contrivance. That sudden +transformation did but increase my horror, and as extreme +fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I sprang at his +throat like a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the +ground as by an electric shock, and the last confused images +floating before my sight ere I became wholly insensible, were +the form of my host kneeling beside me with one hand on my +forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his daughter, with +large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed upon my own. + + +Chapter VI. + + +I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards learned, +for many days, even for some weeks according to our computation +of time. When I recovered I was in a strange room, my host and +all his family were gathered round me, and to my utter amaze my +host's daughter accosted me in my own language with a slightly +foreign accent. + +"How do you feel?" she asked. + +23It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enough +to falter out, "You know my language? How? Who and what are +you?" + +My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons, who then took +from a table a number of thin metallic sheets on which were +traced drawings of various figures- a house, a tree, a bird, a +man, &c. + +In these designs I recognised my own style of drawing. Under +each figure was written the name of it in my language, and in +my writing; and in another handwriting a word strange to me +beneath it. + +Said the host, "Thus we began; and my daughter Zee, who belongs +to the College of Sages, has been your instructress and ours +too." + +Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, in +my writing, words first, and then sentences, were inscribed. +Under each word and each sentence strange characters in another +hand. Rallying my senses, I comprehended that thus a rude +dictionary had been effected. Had it been done while I was +dreaming? "That is enough now," said Zee, in a tone of command. +"Repose and take food." + + +Chapter VII. + + +A room to myself was assigned to me in this vast edifice. It +was prettily and fantastically arranged, but without any of the +splendour of metal-work or gems which was displayed in the more +public apartments. The walls were hung with a variegated +matting made from the stalks and fibers of plants, and the +floor carpeted with the same. + +The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting on +balls of crystal; the coverings, of a thin white substance +resembling cotton. There were sundry shelves containing books. +24A curtained recess communicated with an aviary filled with +singing- birds, of which I did not recognise one resembling +those I have seen on earth, except a beautiful species of dove, +though this was distinguished from our doves by a tall crest of +bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained to sing in +artful tunes, and greatly exceeded the skill of our piping +bullfinches, which can rarely achieve more than two tunes, and +cannot, I believe, sing those in concert. One might have +supposed one's self at an opera in listening to the voices in +my aviary. There were duets and trios, and quartetts and +choruses, all arranged as in one piece of music. Did I want +silence from the birds? I had but to draw a curtain over the +aviary, and their song hushed as they found themselves left in +the dark. Another opening formed a window, not glazed, but on +touching a spring, a shutter ascended from the floor, formed of +some substance less transparent than glass, but still +sufficiently pellucid to allow a softened view of the scene +without. To this window was attached a balcony, or rather +hanging garden, wherein grew many graceful plants and brilliant +flowers. The apartment and its appurtenances had thus a +character, if strange in detail, still familiar, as a whole, to +modern notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration if +found attached to the apartments of an English duchess or a +fashionable French author. Before I arrived this was Zee's +chamber; she had hospitably assigned it to me. + +Some hours after the waking up which is described in my last +chapter, I was lying alone on my couch trying to fix my +thoughts on conjecture as to the nature and genus of the people +amongst whom I was thrown, when my host and his daughter Zee +entered the room. My host, still speaking my native language, +inquired with much politeness, whether it would be agreeable to +me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that I +should feel much honoured and obliged by the opportunity +offered me to express my gratitude for the hospitality and +civilities I had received in a country to which I was a stranger, +25and to learn enough of its customs and manners not to offend +through ignorance. + +As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch: but Zee, much +to my confusion, curtly ordered me to lie down again, and there +was something in her voice and eye, gentle as both were, that +compelled my obedience. She then seated herself unconcernedly +at the foot of my bed, while her father took his place on a +divan a few feet distant. + +"But what part of the world do you come from?" asked my host, +"that we should appear so strange to you and you to us? I have +seen individual specimens of nearly all the races differing +from our own, except the primeval savages who dwell in the most +desolate and remote recesses of uncultivated nature, unacquainted +with other light than that they obtain from volcanic fires, and +contented to grope their way in the dark, as do many creeping, +crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be a +member of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do +you seem to belong to any civilised people." + +I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and replied +that I had the honour to belong to one of the most civilised +nations of the earth; and that, so far as light was concerned, +while I admired the ingenuity and disregard of expense with +which my host and his fellow-citizens had contrived to illumine +the regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, yet I could +not conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heaven +could compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented by +the necessities of man. But my host said he had seen specimens +of most of the races differing from his own, save the wretched +barbarians he had mentioned. Now, was it possible that he had +never been on the surface of the earth, or could he only be +referring to communities buried within its entrails? + +My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a +degree of surprise which the people of that race very rarely +26manifest under any circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But +Zee was more intelligent, and exclaimed, "So you see, my +father, that there is truth in the old tradition; there always +is truth in every tradition commonly believed in all times and +by all tribes." + +"Zee," said my host mildly, "you belong to the College of +Sages, and ought to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of the +Light-preserving Council, it is my duty to take nothing for +granted till it is proved to the evidence of my own senses." +Then, turning to me, he asked me several questions about the +surface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon which, +though I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answers +seemed not to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head +quietly, and, changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how I +had come down from what he was pleased to call one world to the +other. I answered, that under the surface of the earth there +were mines containing minerals, or metals, essential to our +wants and our progress in all arts and industries; and I then +briefly explained the manner in which, while exploring one of +those mines, I and my ill-fated friend had obtained a glimpse +of the regions into which we had descended, and how the descent +had cost him his life; appealing to the rope and grappling- +hooks that the child had brought to the house in which I had +been at first received, as a witness of the truthfulness of my +story. + +My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits and +modes of life among the races on the upper earth, more +especially among those considered to be the most advanced in +that civilisation which he was pleased to define "the art of +diffusing throughout a community the tranquil happiness which +belongs to a virtuous and well-ordered household." Naturally +desiring to represent in the most favourable colours the world +from which I came, I touched but slightly, though indulgently, +on the antiquated and decaying institutions of Europe, in order +27to expatiate on the present grandeur and prospective +pre-eminence of that glorious American Republic, in which +Europe enviously seeks its model and tremblingly foresees its +doom. Selecting for an example of the social life of the +United States that city in which progress advances at the +fastest rate, I indulged in an animated description of the +moral habits of New York. Mortified to see, by the faces of my +listeners, that I did not make the favourable impression I had +anticipated, I elevated my theme; dwelling on the excellence of +democratic institutions, their promotion of tranquil happiness +by the government of party, and the mode in which they diffused +such happiness throughout the community by preferring, for the +exercise of power and the acquisition of honours, the lowliest +citizens in point of property, education, and character. +Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a speech, on the +purifying influences of American democracy and their destined +spread over the world, made by a certain eloquent senator (for +whose vote in the Senate a Railway Company, to which my two +brothers belonged, had just paid 20,000 dollars), I wound up by +repeating its glowing predictions of the magnificent future +that smiled upon mankind- when the flag of freedom should float +over an entire continent, and two hundred millions of +intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily use +of revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrine +of the Patriot Monroe. + +When I had concluded, my host gently shook his head, and fell +into a musing study, making a sign to me and his daughter to +remain silent while he reflected. And after a time he said, in +a very earnest and solemn tone, "If you think as you say, that +you, though a stranger, have received kindness at the hands of +me and mine, I adjure you to reveal nothing to any other of our +people respecting the world from which you came, unless, on +consideration, I give you permission to do so. Do you consent +to this request?" + +28"Of course I pledge my word, to it," said I, somewhat amazed; +and I extended my right hand to grasp his. But he placed my +hand gently on his forehead and his own right hand on my +breast, which is the custom amongst this race in all matters of +promise or verbal obligations. Then turning to his daughter, +he said, "And you, Zee, will not repeat to any one what the +stranger has said, or may say, to me or to you, of a world +other than our own." Zee rose and kissed her father on the +temples, saying, with a smile, "A Gy's tongue is wanton, but +love can fetter it fast. And if, my father, you fear lest a +chance word from me or yourself could expose our community to +danger, by a desire to explore a world beyond us, will not a +wave of the 'vril,' properly impelled, wash even the memory of +what we have heard the stranger say out of the tablets of the +brain?" + +"What is the vril?" I asked. + +Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I +understood very little, for there is no word in any language I +know which is an exact synonym for vril. I should call it +electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold +branches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientific +nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, +galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they have +arrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has +been conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and which +Faraday thus intimates under the more cautious term of +correlation:- + +"I have long held an opinion," says that illustrious +experimentalist, "almost amounting to a conviction, in common, +I believe, with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that +the various forms under which the forces of matter are made +manifest, have one common origin; or, in other words, are so +directly related and mutually dependent that they are +convertible, as it were into one another, and possess +equivalents of power in their action." + +29These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of +vril, which Faraday would perhaps call 'atmospheric magnetism,' +they can influence the variations of temperature- in plain +words, the weather; that by operations, akin to those ascribed +to mesmerism, electro-biology, odic force, &c., but applied +scientifically, through vril conductors, they can exercise +influence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to an +extent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics. To all +such agencies they give the common name of vril. Zee asked me +if, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of the +mind could be quickened to a degree unknown in the waking +state, by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one brain +could be transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly +interchanged. I replied, that there were amongst us stories +told of such trance or vision, and that I had heard much and +seen something in mesmeric clairvoyance; but that these +practices had fallen much into disuse or contempt, partly +because of the gross impostures to which they had been made +subservient, and partly because, even where the effects upon +certain abnormal constitutions were genuinely produced, the +effects when fairly examined and analysed, were very +unsatisfactory- not to be relied upon for any systematic +truthfulness or any practical purpose, and rendered very +mischievous to credulous persons by the superstitions they +tended to produce. Zee received my answers with much benignant +attention, and said that similar instances of abuse and +credulity had been familiar to their own scientific experience +in the infancy of their knowledge, and while the properties of +vril were misapprehended, but that she reserved further +discussion on this subject till I was more fitted to enter into +it. She contented herself with adding, that it was through the +agency of vril, while I had been placed in the state of trance, +that I had been made acquainted with the rudiments of their +language; and that she and her father, who alone of the family, +30took the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater +proportionate knowledge of my language than I of their own; +partly because my language was much simpler than theirs, +comprising far less of complex ideas; and partly because their +organisation was, by hereditary culture, much more ductile and +more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. At this +I secretly demurred; and having had in the course of a +practical life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or in +travel, I could not allow that my cerebral organisation could +possibly be duller than that of people who had lived all their +lives by lamplight. However, while I was thus thinking, Zee +quietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead, and sent me to +sleep. + + +Chapter VIII. + + +When I once more awoke I saw by my bed-side the child who had +brought the rope and grappling-hooks to the house in which I +had been first received, and which, as I afterwards learned, +was the residence of the chief magistrate of the tribe. The +child, whose name was Taee (pronounced Tar-ee), was the +magistrate's eldest son. I found that during my last sleep or +trance I had made still greater advance in the language of the +country, and could converse with comparative ease and fluency. + +This child was singularly handsome, even for the beautiful race +to which he belonged, with a countenance very manly in aspect +for his years, and with a more vivacious and energetic +expression than I had hitherto seen in the serene and +passionless faces of the men. He brought me the tablet on +which I had drawn the mode of my descent, and had also sketched +the head of the horrible reptile that had scared me from my +friend's corpse. Pointing to that part of the drawing, Taee put +31to me a few questions respecting the size and form of the +monster, and the cave or chasm from which it had emerged. His +interest in my answers seemed so grave as to divert him for a +while from any curiosity as to myself or my antecedents. But +to my great embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to my host, +he was just beginning to ask me where I came from, when Zee, +fortunately entered, and, overhearing him, said, "Taee, give to +our guest any information he may desire, but ask none from him +in return. To question him who he is, whence he comes, or +wherefore he is here, would be a breach of the law which my +father has laid down in this house." + +"So be it," said Taee, pressing his hand to his breast; and from +that moment, till the one in which I saw him last, this child, +with whom I became very intimate, never once put to me any of +the questions thus interdicted. + + +Chapter IX. + + +It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if +they are to be so called, my mind became better prepared to +interchange ideas with my entertainers, and more fully to +comprehend differences of manners and customs, at first too +strange to my experience to be seized by my reason, that I was +enabled to gather the following details respecting the origin +and history of the subterranean population, as portion of one +great family race called the Ana. + +According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of +the race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in +which their descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still +preserved in their archives, and in those myths were legends of +a vaulted dome in which the lamps were lighted by no human +hand. But such legends were considered by most commentators as +allegorical fables. According to these traditions the earth +32itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not +indeed in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of +transition from one form of development to another, and subject +to many violent revolutions of nature. By one of such +revolutions, that portion of the upper world inhabited by the +ancestors of this race had been subjected to inundations, not +rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a +scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be a +record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier +one contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to +conjecture; though, according to the chronology of this people +as compared with that of Newton, it must have been many +thousands of years before the time of Noah. On the other hand, +the account of these writers does not harmonise with the +opinions most in vogue among geological authorities, inasmuch +as it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dates +long anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation +adapted to the introduction of mammalia. A band of the +ill-fated race, thus invaded by the Flood, had, during the +march of the waters, taken refuge in caverns amidst the loftier +rocks, and, wandering through these hollows, they lost sight of +the upper world forever. Indeed, the whole face of the earth +had been changed by this great revulsion; land had been turned +into sea- sea into land. In the bowels of the inner earth, +even now, I was informed as a positive fact, might be +discovered the remains of human habitation- habitation not in +huts and caverns, but in vast cities whose ruins attest the +civilisation of races which flourished before the age of Noah, +and are not to be classified with those genera to which +philosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignorance of iron. + +The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts +they had practised above ground- arts of culture and +civilisation. Their earliest want must have been that of +supplying below the earth the light they had lost above it; and +at no time, even in the traditional period, do the races, of +which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to have +33been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, +or manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their +former state to contend with the rude forces of nature; and +indeed the lengthened battle they had fought with their +conqueror Ocean, which had taken centuries in its spread, had +quickened their skill in curbing waters into dikes and channels. +To this skill they owed their preservation in their new abode. +"For many generations," said my host, with a sort of contempt +and horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to have +degraded their rank and shortened their lives by eating the +flesh of animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves, +escaped the Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of the +earth; other animals, supposed to be unknown to the upper world, +those hollows themselves produced." + +When what we should term the historical age emerged from the +twilight of tradition, the Ana were already established in +different communities, and had attained to a degree of +civilisation very analogous to that which the more advanced +nations above the earth now enjoy. They were familiar with +most of our mechanical inventions, including the application of +steam as well as gas. The communities were in fierce +competition with each other. They had their rich and their +poor; they had orators and conquerors; they made war either for +a domain or an idea. Though the various states acknowledged +various forms of government, free institutions were beginning +to preponderate; popular assemblies increased in power; +republics soon became general; the democracy to which the most +enlightened European politicians look forward as the extreme +goal of political advancement, and which still prevailed among +other subterranean races, whom they despised as barbarians, the +loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was +visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant +experiments which belong to the infancy of political science. +It was the age of envy and hate, of fierce passions, of +34constant social changes more or less violent, of strife between +classes, of war between state and state. This phase of society +lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought to a +close, at least among the nobler and more intellectual +populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers +stored in the all-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril. + +According to the account I received from Zee, who, as an +erudite professor of the College of Sages, had studied such +matters more diligently than any other member of my host's +family, this fluid is capable of being raised and disciplined +into the mightiest agency over all forms of matter, animate or +inanimate. It can destroy like the flash of lightning; yet, +differently applied, it can replenish or invigorate life, heal, +and preserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure of +disease, or rather for enabling the physical organisation to +re-establish the due equilibrium of its natural powers, and +thereby to cure itself. By this agency they rend way through +the most solid substances, and open valleys for culture through +the rocks of their subterranean wilderness. From it they +extract the light which supplies their lamps, finding it +steadier, softer, and healthier than the other inflammable +materials they had formerly used. + +But the effects of the alleged discovery of the means to direct +the more terrible force of vril were chiefly remarkable in +their influence upon social polity. As these effects became +familiarly known and skillfully administered, war between the +vril-discoverers ceased, for they brought the art of +destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority in +numbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the +hollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter +the strongest fortress, or cleave its burning way from the van +to the rear of an embattled host. If army met army, and both +had command of this agency, it could be but to the annihilation +of each. The age of war was therefore gone, but with the +35cessation of war other effects bearing upon the social state +soon became apparent. Man was so completely at the mercy of +man, each whom he encountered being able, if so willing, to +slay him on the instant, that all notions of government by +force gradually vanished from political systems and forms of +law. It is only by force that vast communities, dispersed +through great distances of space, can be kept together; but now +there was no longer either the necessity of self-preservation +or the pride of aggrandisement to make one state desire to +preponderate in population over another. + +The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few generations, +peacefully split into communities of moderate size. The tribe +amongst which I had fallen was limited to 12,000 families. +Each tribe occupied a territory sufficient for all its wants, +and at stated periods the surplus population departed to seek a +realm of its own. There appeared no necessity for any +arbitrary selection of these emigrants; there was always a +sufficient number who volunteered to depart. + +These subdivided states, petty if we regard either territory or +population,- all appertained to one vast general family. They +spoke the same language, though the dialects might slightly +differ. They intermarried; They maintained the same general +laws and customs; and so important a bond between these several +communities was the knowledge of vril and the practice of its +agencies, that the word A-Vril was synonymous with +civilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying "The Civilised Nations," +was the common name by which the communities employing the uses +of vril distinguished themselves from such of the Ana as were +yet in a state of barbarism. + +The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treating of was +apparently very complicated, really very simple. It was based +upon a principle recognised in theory, though little carried +out in practice, above ground- viz., that the object of all +systems of philosophical thought tends to the attainment of +unity, or the ascent through all intervening labyrinths to the +simplicity of a single first cause or principle. Thus in +36politics, even republican writers have agreed that a benevolent +autocracy would insure the best administration, if there were +any guarantees for its continuance, or against its gradual +abuse of the powers accorded to it. This singular community +elected therefore a single supreme magistrate styled Tur; he +held his office nominally for life, but he could seldom be +induced to retain it after the first approach of old age. +There was indeed in this society nothing to induce any of its +members to covet the cares of office. No honours, no insignia +of higher rank, were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate +was not distinguished from the rest by superior habitation or +revenue. On the other hand, the duties awarded to him were +marvellously light and easy, requiring no preponderant degree +of energy or intelligence. There being no apprehensions of +war, there were no armies to maintain; there being no +government of force, there was no police to appoint and direct. +What we call crime was utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; and +there were no courts of criminal justice. The rare instances +of civil disputes were referred for arbitration to friends +chosen by either party, or decided by the Council of Sages, +which will be described later. There were no professional +lawyers; and indeed their laws were but amicable conventions, +for there was no power to enforce laws against an offender who +carried in his staff the power to destroy his judges. There +were customs and regulations to compliance with which, for +several ages, the people had tacitly habituated themselves; or +if in any instance an individual felt such compliance hard, he +quitted the community and went elsewhere. There was, in fact, +quietly established amid this state, much the same compact that +is found in our private families, in which we virtually say to +any independent grown-up member of the family whom we receive +to entertain, "Stay or go, according as our habits and +regulations suit or displease you." But though there were no +laws such as we call laws, no race above ground is so +37law-observing. Obedience to the rule adopted by the community +has become as much an instinct as if it were implanted by +nature. Even in every household the head of it makes a +regulation for its guidance, which is never resisted nor even +cavilled at by those who belong to the family. They have a +proverb, the pithiness of which is much lost in this +paraphrase, "No happiness without order, no order without +authority, no authority without unity." The mildness of all +government among them, civil or domestic, may be signalised by +their idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal or +forbidden- viz., "It is requested not to do so and so." Poverty +among the Ana is as unknown as crime; not that property is held +in common, or that all are equals in the extent of their +possessions or the size and luxury of their habitations: but +there being no difference of rank or position between the +grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pursues his +own inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like a +modest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself +happy in his own way. Owing to this absence of competition, +and the limit placed on the population, it is difficult for a +family to fall into distress; there are no hazardous +speculations, no emulators striving for superior wealth and +rank. No doubt, in each settlement all originally had the same +proportions of land dealt out to them; but some, more +adventurous than others, had extended their possessions farther +into the bordering wilds, or had improved into richer fertility +the produce of their fields, or entered into commerce or trade. +Thus, necessarily, some had grown richer than others, but none +had become absolutely poor, or wanting anything which their +tastes desired. If they did so, it was always in their power +to migrate, or at the worst to apply, without shame and with +certainty of aid, to the rich, for all the members of the +community considered themselves as brothers of one affectionate +and united family. More upon this head will be treated of +incidentally as my narrative proceeds. +38 +The chief care of the supreme magistrate was to communicate +with certain active departments charged with the administration +of special details. The most important and essential of such +details was that connected with the due provision of light. Of +this department my host, Aph-Lin, was the chief. Another +department, which might be called the foreign, communicated +with the neighbouring kindred states, principally for the +purpose of ascertaining all new inventions; and to a third +department all such inventions and improvements in machinery +were committed for trial. Connected with this department was +the College of Sages- a college especially favoured by such of +the Ana as were widowed and childless, and by the young +unmarried females, amongst whom Zee was the most active, and, +if what we call renown or distinction was a thing acknowledged +by this people (which I shall later show it is not), among the +more renowned or distinguished. It is by the female Professors +of this College that those studies which are deemed of least +use in practical life- as purely speculative philosophy, the +history of remote periods, and such sciences as entomology, +conchology, &c.- are the more diligently cultivated. Zee, +whose mind, active as Aristotle's, equally embraced the largest +domains and the minutest details of thought, had written two +volumes on the parasite insect that dwells amid the hairs of a +tiger's* paw, which work was considered the best authority on +that interesting subject. + +* The animal here referred to has many points of difference from +the tiger of the upper world. It is larger, and with a broader +paw, and still more receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakes +and pools, and feeds principally on fishes, though it does not +object to any terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes in +its way. It is becoming very scarce even in the wild districts, +where it is devoured by gigantic reptiles. I apprehended that it +clearly belongs to the tiger species, since the parasite animalcule +found in its paw, like that in the Asiatic tiger, is a miniature +image of itself. + +But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtle +or elegant studies. They comprise various others more +39important, and especially the properties of vril, to the +perception of which their finer nervous organisation renders +the female Professors eminently keen. It is out of this +college that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selects Councillors, +limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of +event or circumstance perplexes his own judgment. + +There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but all +are carried on so noiselessly, and quietly that the evidence of +a government seems to vanish altogether, and social order to be +as regular and unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature. +Machinery is employed to an inconceivable extent in all the +operations of labour within and without doors, and it is the +unceasing object of the department charged with its +administration to extend its efficiency. There is no class of +labourers or servants, but all who are required to assist or +control the machinery are found in the children, from the time +they leave the care of their mothers to the marriageable age, +which they place at sixteen for the Gy-ei (the females), twenty +for the Ana (the males). These children are formed into bands +and sections under their own chiefs, each following the +pursuits in which he is most pleased, or for which he feels +himself most fitted. Some take to handicrafts, some to +agriculture, some to household work, and some to the only +services of danger to which the population is exposed; for the +sole perils that threaten this tribe are, first, from those +occasional convulsions within the earth, to foresee and guard +against which tasks their utmost ingenuity- irruptions of fire +and water, the storms of subterranean winds and escaping gases. +At the borders of the domain, and at all places where such +peril might be apprehended, vigilant inspectors are stationed +with telegraphic communications to the hall in which chosen +sages take it by turns to hold perpetual sittings. These +inspectors are always selected from the elder boys approaching +the age of puberty, and on the principle that at that age +observation is more acute and the physical forces more alert +than at any other. The second service of danger, less grave, +40is in the destruction of all creatures hostile to the life, or +the culture, or even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these the +most formidable are the vast reptiles, of some of which +antediluvian relics are preserved in our museums, and certain +gigantic winged creatures, half bird, half reptile. These, +together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigers +or venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children to +hunt and destroy; because, according to the Ana, here +ruthlessness is wanted, and the younger the child the more +ruthlessly he will destroy. There is another class of animals +in the destruction of which discrimination is to be used, and +against which children of intermediate age are appointed- +animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage the +produce of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, +and a smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though +infinitely more destructive to crops, and much more cunning in +its mode of depredation. It is the first object of these +appointed infants, to tame the more intelligent of such animals +into respect for enclosures signalised by conspicuous +landmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even to +guard the master's property. It is only where such creatures +are found untamable to this extent that they are destroyed. +Life is never taken away for food or for sport, and never +spared where untamably inimical to the Ana. Concomitantly with +these bodily services and tasks, the mental education of the +children goes on till boyhood ceases. It is the general custom, +then, to pass though a course of instruction at the College of +Sages, in which, besides more general studies, the pupil receives +special lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect as he +himself selects. Some, however, prefer to pass this period of +probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settle down at once +into rural or commercial pursuits. No force is put upon +individual inclination. + +41 +Chapter X. + + +The word Ana (pronounced broadly 'Arna') corresponds with our +plural 'men;' An (pronounced 'Arn'), the singular, with 'man.' +The word for woman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it forms +itself into Gy-ei for the plural, but the G becomes soft in the +plural like Jy-ei. They have a proverb to the effect that this +difference in pronunciation is symbolical, for that the female +sex is soft in the concrete, but hard to deal with in the +individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of all the +rights of equality with males, for which certain philosophers +above ground contend. + +In childhood they perform the offices of work and labour +impartially with the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier age +appropriated to the destruction of animals irreclaimably +hostile, the girls are frequently preferred, as being by +constitution more ruthless under the influence of fear or hate. +In the interval between infancy and the marriageable age +familiar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At the +marriageable age it is renewed, never with worse consequences +than those which attend upon marriage. All arts and vocations +allotted to the one sex are open to the other, and the Gy-ei +arrogate to themselves a superiority in all those abstruse and +mystical branches of reasoning, for which they say the Ana are +unfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the routine +of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in our +own world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlest +points of theological doctrine, for which few men, actively +engaged in worldly business have sufficient learning or +refinement of intellect. Whether owing to early training in +gymnastic exercises, or to their constitutional organisation, +the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana in physical strength +(an important element in the consideration and maintenance of +female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amid their +42rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy as +those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to +the original laws of nature, females were intended to be larger +than males, and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest +formations of life in insects, and in the most ancient family of +the vertebrata- viz., fishes- in both of which the females are +generally large enough to make a meal of their consorts if they +so desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a readier and more +concentred power over that mysterious fluid or agency which +contains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of +that sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannot +only defend themselves against all aggressions from the males, +but could, at any moment when he least expected his danger, +terminate the existence of an offending spouse. To the credit +of the Gy-ei no instance of their abuse of this awful +superiority in the art of destruction is on record for several +ages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of +appears (according to their chronology) to have been about two +thousand years ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew her +husband; and this abominable act inspired such terror among the +males that they emigrated in a body and left all the Gy-ei to +themselves. The history runs that the widowed Gy-ei, thus +reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when in her sleep +(and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then entered into a +solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever the +exercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate the +same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By +this conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the +fugitive consorts succeeded in persuading many to return, but +those who did return were mostly the elder ones. The younger, +either from too craven a doubt of their consorts, or too high an +estimate of their own merits, rejected all overtures, and, +remaining in other communities, were caught up there by other +mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss +43of so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary +warning on the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolution +to which they pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly +considered that, by long hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lost +both the aggressive and defensive superiority over the Ana which +they once possessed, just as in the inferior animals above the +earth many peculiarities in their original formation, intended +by nature for their protection, gradually fade or become +inoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. I +should be sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to make +the experiment whether he or she were the stronger. + +>From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certain +alterations in the marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhat +to the advantage of the male. They now bind themselves in +wedlock only for three years; at the end of each third year +either male or female can divorce the other and is free to +marry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilege + +of taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she so +please. These regulations are for the most part a dead letter; +divorces and polygamy are extremely rare, and the marriage +state now seems singularly happy and serene among this +astonishing people;- the Gy-ei, notwithstanding their boastful +superiority in physical strength and intellectual abilities, +being much curbed into gentle manners by the dread of +separation or of a second wife, and the Ana being very much the +creatures of custom, and not, except under great aggravation, +likely to exchange for hazardous novelties faces and manners to +which they are reconciled by habit. But there is one privilege +the Gy-ei carefully retain, and the desire for which perhaps +forms the secret motive of most lady asserters of woman rights +above ground. They claim the privilege, here usurped by men, +of proclaiming their love and urging their suit; in other +words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a +44phenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gy-ei. +Indeed it is very seldom that a Gy does not secure any An upon +whom she sets her heart, if his affections be not strongly +engaged elsewhere. However coy, reluctant, and prudish, the +male she courts may prove at first, yet her perseverance, her +ardour, her persuasive powers, her command over the mystic +agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck into +what we call "the fatal noose." Their argument for the reversal +of that relationship of the sexes which the blind tyranny of +man has established on the surface of the earth, appears +cogent, and is advanced with a frankness which might well be +commended to impartial consideration. They say, that of the +two the female is by nature of a more loving disposition than +the male- that love occupies a larger space in her thoughts, +and is more essential to her happiness, and that therefore she +ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male is a shy +and dubitant creature- that he has often a selfish predilection +for the single state- that he often pretends to misunderstand +tender glances and delicate hints- that, in short, he must be +resolutely pursued and captured. They add, moreover, that +unless the Gy can secure the An of her choice, and one whom she +would not select out of the whole world becomes her mate, she +is not only less happy than she otherwise would be, but she is +not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not +sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a creature that less +lastingly concentrates his affections on one object; that if he +cannot get the Gy whom he prefers he easily reconciles himself +to another Gy; and, finally, that at the worst, if he is loved +and taken care of, it is less necessary to the welfare of his +existence that he should love as well as be loved; he grows +contented with his creature comforts, and the many occupations +of thought which he creates for himself. + +Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works +well for the male; for being thus sure that he is truly and +ardently loved, and that the more coy and reluctant he shows +45himself, the more determination to secure him increases, he +generally contrives to make his consent dependent on such +conditions as he thinks the best calculated to insure, if not a +blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his +own hobbies, his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever +they may be, he demands a promise of full and unrestrained +concession to them. This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy +readily promises; and as the characteristic of this +extraordinary people is an implicit veneration for truth, and +her word once given is never broken even by the giddiest Gy, +the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In +fact, notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the +Gy-ei are the most amiable, conciliatory, and submissive wives +I have ever seen even in the happiest households above ground. +It is an aphorism among them, that "where a Gy loves it is her +pleasure to obey." It will be observed that in the relationship +of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage, for such is the +moral perfection to which this community has attained, that any +illicit connection is as little possible amongst them as it +would be to a couple of linnets during the time they agree to +live in pairs. + + +Chapter XI. + + +Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense +to the existence of regions extending below the surface of the +earth, and habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in +all material points of organism, akin to those in the upper +world, than the contradiction thus presented to the doctrine in +which, I believe, most geologists and philosophers concur- +viz., that though with us the sun is the great source of heat, +yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the +greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the +46ratio of a degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet +below the surface. But though the domains of the tribe I speak +of were, on the higher ground, so comparatively near to the +surface, that I could account for a temperature, therein, +suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and valleys of +that realm were much less hot than philosophers would deem +possible at such a depth- certainly not warmer than the south of +France, or at least of Italy. And according to all the accounts +I received, vast tracts immeasurably deeper beneath the surface, +and in which one might have thought only salamanders could +exist, were inhabited by innumerable races organised like +ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account for a fact +which is so at variance with the recognised laws of science, nor +could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did but +conjecture that sufficient allowance had not been made by our +philosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior earth- +the vastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served to +create free currents of air and frequent winds- and for the +various modes in which heat is evaporated and thrown off. She +allowed, however, that there was a depth at which the heat was +deemed to be intolerable to such organised life as was known to +the experience of the Vril-ya, though their philosophers +believed that even in such places life of some kind, life +sentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant and +thriving, could the philosophers penetrate to it. "Wherever the +All-Good builds," said she, "there, be sure, He places +inhabitants. He loves not empty dwellings." She added, +however, that many changes in temperature and climate had been +effected by the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the agency of +vril had been successfully employed in such changes. She +described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which I +suspect to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, +wherein work all the correlative forces united under the name of +vril; and contended that wherever this medium could be expanded, +as it were, sufficiently for the various agencies of vril to +47have ample play, a temperature congenial to the highest forms of +life could be secured. She said also, that it was the belief of +their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been produced +originally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surface +of the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or imported +by the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows) +through the operations of the light constantly brought to bear +on them, and the gradual improvement in culture. She said also, +that since the vril light had superseded all other light-giving +bodies, the colours of flower and foliage had become more +brilliant, and vegetation had acquired larger growth. + +Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better +competent to deal with them, I must now devote a few pages to +the very interesting questions connected with the language of +the Vril-ya. + + +Chapter XII. + + +The language of the Vril-ya is peculiarly interesting, because +it seems to me to exhibit with great clearness the traces of +the three main transitions through which language passes in +attaining to perfection of form. + +One of the most illustrious of recent philologists, Max Muller, +in arguing for the analogy between the strata of language and +the strata of the earth, lays down this absolute dogma: "No +language can, by any possibility, be inflectional without +having passed through the agglutinative and isolating stratum. +No language can be agglutinative without clinging with its +roots to the underlying stratum of isolation."- 'On the +Stratification of Language,' p. 20. + +Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of +the original isolating stratum, "as the faithful photograph of +man in his leading-strings trying the muscles of his mind, +groping his way, and so delighted with his first successful +48grasps that he repeats them again and again," (Max Muller, p. +13)- we have, in the language of the Vril-ya, still "clinging +with its roots to the underlying stratum," the evidences of the +original isolation. It abounds in monosyllables, which are the +foundations of the language. The transition into the +agglutinative form marks an epoch that must have gradually +extended through ages, the written literature of which has only +survived in a few fragments of symbolical mythology and certain +pithy sentences which have passed into popular proverbs. With +the extant literature of the Vril-ya the inflectional stratum +commences. No doubt at that time there must have operated +concurrent causes, in the fusion of races by some dominant +people, and the rise of some great literary phenomena by which +the form of language became arrested and fixed. As the +inflectional stage prevailed over the agglutinative, it is +surprising to see how much more boldly the original roots of the +language project from the surface that conceals them. In the +old fragments and proverbs of the preceding stage the +monosyllables which compose those roots vanish amidst words of +enormous length, comprehending whole sentences from which no one +part can be disentangled from the other and employed separately. +But when the inflectional form of language became so far +advanced as to have its scholars and grammarians, they seem to +have united in extirpating all such polysynthetical or +polysyllabic monsters, as devouring invaders of the aboriginal +forms. Words beyond three syllables became proscribed as +barbarous and in proportion as the language grew thus simplified +it increased in strength, in dignity, and in sweetness. Though +now very compressed in sound, it gains in clearness by that +compression. By a single letter, according to its position, +they contrive to express all that with civilised nations in our +49upper world it takes the waste, sometimes of syllables, +sometimes of sentences, to express. Let me here cite one or two +instances: An (which I will translate man), Ana (men); the +letter 's' is with them a letter implying multitude, according +to where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa, a multitude of +men. The prefix of certain letters in their alphabet invariably +denotes compound significations. For instance, Gl (which with +them is a single letter, as 'th' is a single letter with the +Greeks) at the commencement of a word infers an assemblage or +union of things, sometimes kindred, sometimes dissimilar- as +Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i. e., an assemblage of houses). +Ata is sorrow; Glata, a public calamity. Aur-an is the health +or wellbeing of a man; Glauran, the wellbeing of the state, the +good of the community; and a word constantly in ther mouths is +A-glauran, which denotes their political creed- viz., that "the +first principle of a community is the good of all." Aub is +invention; Sila, a tone in music. Glaubsila, as uniting the +ideas of invention and of musical intonation, is the classical +word for poetry- abbreviated, in ordinary conversation, to +Glaubs. Na, which with them is, like Gl, but a single letter, +always, when an initial, implies something antagonistic to life +or joy or comfort, resembling in this the Aryan root Nak, +expressive of perishing or destruction. Nax is darkness; Narl, +death; Naria, sin or evil. Nas- an uttermost condition of sin +and evil- corruption. In writing, they deem it irreverent to +express the Supreme Being by any special name. He is symbolized +by what may be termed the heiroglyphic of a pyramid, /\. In +prayer they address Him by a name which they deem too sacred to +confide to a stranger, and I know it not. In conversation they +generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good. The +letter V, symbolical of the inverted pyramid, where it is an +initial, nearly always denotes excellence of power; as Vril, of +which I have said so much; Veed, an immortal spirit; Veed-ya, +immortality; Koom, pronounced like the Welsh Cwm, denotes +50something of hollowness. Koom itself is a cave; Koom-in, a hole; +Zi-koom, a valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; Bodh-koom, +ignorance (literally, knowledge-void). Koom-posh is their name +for the government of the many, or the ascendancy of the most +ignorant or hollow. Posh is an almost untranslatable idiom, +implying, as the reader will see later, contempt. The closest +rendering I can give to it is our slang term, "bosh;" and this +Koom-Posh may be loosely rendered "Hollow-Bosh." But when +Democracy or Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance into +that popular passion or ferocity which precedes its decease, as +(to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the French +Reign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the Roman Republic +preceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their name for that state +of things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife- Glek, the universal strife. +Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus, Glek-Nas may +be construed, "the universal strife-rot." Their compounds are +very expressive; thus, Bodh being knowledge, and Too a +participle that implies the action of cautiously approaching,- +Too-bodh is their word for Philosophy; Pah is a contemptuous +exclamation analogous to our idiom, "stuff and nonsense;" +Pah-bodh (literally stuff and nonsense-knowledge) is their term +for futile and false philosophy, and applied to a species of +metaphysical or speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue, +which consisted in making inquiries that could not be answered, +and were not worth making; such, for instance, as "Why does an +An have five toes to his feet instead of four or six? Did the +first An, created by the All-Good, have the same number of toes +as his descendants? In the form by which an An will be +recognised by his friends in the future state of being, will he +retain any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toes +or spiritual toes?" I take these illustrations of Pahbodh, not +in irony or jest, but because the very inquiries I name formed +the subject of controversy by the latest cultivators of that +'science,'- 4000 years ago. +51 +In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently there +were eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but +the effect of time has been to reduce these cases, and +multiply, instead of these varying terminations, explanatory +propositions. At present, in the Grammar submitted to my +study, there were four cases to nouns, three having varying +terminations, and the fourth a differing prefix. + + SINGULAR. PLURAL. +Nom. An, Man, | Nom. Ana, Men. +Dat. Ano, to Man, | Dat. Anoi, to Men. +Ac. Anan, Man, | Ac. Ananda, Men. +Voc. Hil-an, O Man, | Voc. Hil-Ananda, O Men. + +In the elder inflectional literature the dual form existed- it +has long been obsolete. + +The genitive case with them is also obsolete; the dative +supplies its place: they say the House 'to' a Man, instead of +the House 'of' a Man. When used (sometimes in poetry), the +genitive in the termination is the same as the nominative; so +is the ablative, the preposition that marks it being a prefix +or suffix at option, and generally decided by ear, according to +the sound of the noun. It will be observed that the prefix Hil +marks the vocative case. It is always retained in addressing +another, except in the most intimate domestic relations; its +omission would be considered rude: just as in our of forms of +speech in addressing a king it would have been deemed +disrespectful to say "King," and reverential to say "O King." +In fact, as they have no titles of honour, the vocative +adjuration supplies the place of a title, and is given +impartially to all. The prefix Hil enters into the composition +of words that imply distant communications, as Hil-ya, to +travel. + +In the conjugation of their verbs, which is much too lengthy a +subject to enter on here, the auxiliary verb Ya, "to go," which +plays so considerable part in the Sanskrit, appears and +performs a kindred office, as if it were a radical in some +language from which both had descended. But another auxiliary +52or opposite signification also accompanies it and shares its +labours- viz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus Ya enters into the +future tense, and Zi in the preterite of all verbs requiring +auxiliaries. Yam, I shall go- Yiam, I may go- Yani-ya, I shall +go (literally, I go to go), Zam-poo-yan, I have gone +(literally, I rest from gone). Ya, as a termination, implies +by analogy, progress, movement, efflorescence. Zi, as a +terminal, denotes fixity, sometimes in a good sense, sometimes +in a bad, according to the word with which it is coupled. +Iva-zi, eternal goodness; Nan-zi, eternal evil. Poo (from) +enters as a prefix to words that denote repugnance, or things +from which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust; Poo-naria, +falsehood, the vilest kind of evil. Poosh or Posh I have +already confessed to be untranslatable literally. It is an +expression of contempt not unmixed with pity. This radical +seems to have originated from inherent sympathy between the +labial effort and the sentiment that impelled it, Poo being an +utterance in which the breath is exploded from the lips with +more or less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when an initial, +is with them a sound in which the breath is sucked inward, and +thus Zu, pronounced Zoo (which in their language is one +letter), is the ordinary prefix to words that signify something +that attracts, pleases, touches the heart- as Zummer, lover; +Zutze, love; Zuzulia, delight. This indrawn sound of Z seems +indeed naturally appropriate to fondness. Thus, even in our +language, mothers say to their babies, in defiance of grammar, +"Zoo darling;" and I have heard a learned professor at Boston +call his wife (he had been only married a month) "Zoo little +pet." + +I cannot quit this subject, however, without observing by what +slight changes in the dialects favoured by different tribes of +the same race, the original signification and beauty of sounds +may become confused and deformed. Zee told me with much +indignation that Zummer (lover) which in the way she uttered +it, seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of her heart, +was, in some not very distant communities of the Vril-ya, +53vitiated into the half-hissing, half-nasal, wholly +disagreeable, sound of Subber. I thought to myself it only +wanted the introduction of 'n' before 'u' to render it into an +English word significant of the last quality an amorous Gy +would desire in her Zummer. + +I will but mention another peculiarity in this language which +gives equal force and brevity to its forms of expressions. + +A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the alphabet, +and is often used as a prefix word by itself to convey a +complex idea of sovereignty or chiefdom, or presiding +principle. For instance, Iva is goodness; Diva, goodness and +happiness united; A-Diva is unerring and absolute truth. I +have already noticed the value of A in A-glauran, so, in vril +(to whose properties they trace their present state of +civilisation), A-vril, denotes, as I have said, civilisation +itself. + +The philologist will have seen from the above how much the +language of the Vril-ya is akin to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic; +but, like all languages, it contains words and forms in which +transfers from very opposite sources of speech have been taken. +The very title of Tur, which they give to their supreme +magistrate, indicates theft from a tongue akin to the Turanian. +They say themselves that this is a foreign word borrowed from a +title which their historical records show to have been borne by +the chief of a nation with whom the ancestors of the Vril-ya +were, in very remote periods, on friendly terms, but which has +long become extinct, and they say that when, after the +discovery of vril, they remodelled their political +institutions, they expressly adopted a title taken from an +extinct race and a dead language for that of their chief +magistrate, in order to avoid all titles for that office with +which they had previous associations. + +Should life be spared to me, I may collect into systematic form +such knowledge as I acquired of this language during my sojourn +amongst the Vril-ya. But what I have already said will perhaps +suffice to show to genuine philological students that a +54language which, preserving so many of the roots in the +aboriginal form, and clearing from the immediate, but +transitory, polysynthetical stage so many rude incumbrances, +s from popular ignorance into +that popular passion or ferocity which precedes its decease, as +(to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the French +Reign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the Roman Republic +preceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their name for that state +of things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife- Glek, the universal strife. +Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus, Glek-Nas may +be construed, "the universal strife-rot." Their compounds are +very expressive; thuat which the Ana have attained +forbids the progressive cultivation of literature, especially +in the two main divisions of fiction and history,- I shall have +occasion to show later. + + +Chapter XIII. + + +This people have a religion, and, whatever may be said against +it, at least it has these strange peculiarities: firstly, that +all believe in the creed they profess; secondly, that they all +practice the precepts which the creed inculcates. They unite +in the worship of one divine Creator and Sustainer of the +universe. They believe that it is one of the properties of the +all-permeating agency of vril, to transmit to the well-spring +of life and intelligence every thought that a living creature +can conceive; and though they do not contend that the idea of a +Diety is innate, yet they say that the An (man) is the only +creature, so far as their observation of nature extends, to +whom 'the capacity of conceiving that idea,' with all the +trains of thought which open out from it, is vouchsafed. They +hold that this capacity is a privilege that cannot have been +given in vain, and hence that prayer and thanksgiving are +55acceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to the complete +development of the human creature. They offer their devotions +both in private and public. Not being considered one of their +species, I was not admitted into the building or temple in +which the public worship is rendered; but I am informed that +the service is exceedingly short, and unattended with any pomp +of ceremony. It is a doctrine with the Vril-ya, that earnest +devotion or complete abstraction from the actual world cannot, +with benefit to itself, be maintained long at a stretch by the +human mind, especially in public, and that all attempts to do +so either lead to fanaticism or to hypocrisy. When they pray +in private, it is when they are alone or with their young +children. + +They say that in ancient times there was a great number of +books written upon speculations as to the nature of the Diety, +and upon the forms of belief or worship supposed to be most +agreeable to Him. But these were found to lead to such heated +and angry disputations as not only to shake the peace of the +community and divide families before the most united, but in +the course of discussing the attributes of the Diety, the +existence of the Diety Himself became argued away, or, what was +worse, became invested with the passions and infirmities of the +human disputants. "For," said my host, "since a finite being +like an An cannot possibly define the Infinite, so, when he +endeavours to realise an idea of the Divinity, he only reduces +the Divinity into an An like himself." During the later ages, +therefore, all theological speculations, though not forbidden, +have been so discouraged as to have fallen utterly into disuse. +The Vril-ya unite in a conviction of a future state, more +felicitous and more perfect than the present. If they have +very vague notions of the doctrine of rewards and punishments, +it is perhaps because they have no systems of rewards and +punishments among themselves, for there are no crimes to +punish, and their moral standard is so even that no An among +56them is, upon the whole, considered more virtuous than another. +If one excels, perhaps in one virtue, another equally excels in +some other virtue; If one has his prevalent fault or infirmity, +so also another has his. In fact, in their extraordinary mode +of life. there are so few temptations to wrong, that they are +good (according to their notions of goodness) merely because +they live. They have some fanciful notions upon the +continuance of life, when once bestowed, even in the vegetable +world, as the reader will see in the next chapter. + + +Chapter XIV. + + +Though, as I have said, the Vril-ya discourage all speculations +on the nature of the Supreme Being, they appear to concur in a +belief by which they think to solve that great problem of the +existence of evil which has so perplexed the philosophy of the +upper world. They hold that wherever He has once given life, +with the perceptions of that life, however faint it be, as in a +plant, the life is never destroyed; it passes into new and +improved forms, though not in this planet (differing therein +from the ordinary doctrine of metempsychosis), and that the +living thing retains the sense of identity, so that it connects +its past life with its future, and is 'conscious' of its +progressive improvement in the scale of joy. For they say +that, without this assumption, they cannot, according to the +lights of human reason vouchsafed to them, discover the perfect +justice which must be a constituent quality of the All-Wise and +the All-Good. Injustice, they say, can only emanate from three +causes: want of wisdom to perceive what is just, want of +benevolence to desire, want of power to fulfill it; and that +each of these three wants is incompatible in the All-Wise, the +57All-Good, the All-Powerful. But that, while even in this life, +the wisdom, the benevolence, and the power of the Supreme Being +are sufficiently apparent to compel our recognition, the +justice necessarily resulting from those attributes, absolutely +requires another life, not for man only, but for every living +thing of the inferior orders. That, alike in the animal and +the vegetable world, we see one individual rendered, by +circumstances beyond its control, exceedingly wretched compared +to its neighbours- one only exists as the prey of another- even +a plant suffers from disease till it perishes prematurely, +while the plant next to it rejoices in its vitality and lives +out its happy life free from a pang. That it is an erroneous +analogy from human infirmities to reply by saying that the +Supreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making his own +secondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of +the First Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorant +conception of the All-Good, to dismiss with a brief contempt +all consideration of justice for the myriad forms into which He +has infused life, and assume that justice is only due to the +single product of the An. There is no small and no great in +the eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant that +nothing, however humble, which feels that it lives and suffers, +can perish through the series of ages, that all its suffering +here, if continuous from the moment of its birth to that of its +transfer to another form of being, would be more brief compared +with eternity than the cry of the new-born is compared to the +whole life of a man; and once suppose that this living thing +retains its sense of identity when so transformed (for without +that sense it could be aware of no future being), and though, +indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed from the +scope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it to be +uniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it would +be if acting only upon general and secondary laws; because such +perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of +knowledge to conceive, perfectness of love to will, and +perfectness of power to complete it. +58 +However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tends +perhaps to confirm politically the systems of government which, +admitting different degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfect +equality in rank, exquisite mildness in all relations and +intercourse, and tenderness to all created things which the good +of the community does not require them to destroy. And though +their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a cankered +flower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, at +least, is not a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter for +no unpleasing reflection to think that within the abysses of +earth, never lit by a ray from the material heavens, there +should have penetrated so luminous a conviction of the ineffable +goodness of the Creator- so fixed an idea that the general laws +by which He acts cannot admit of any partial injustice or evil, +and therefore cannot be comprehended without reference to their +action over all space and throughout all time. And since, as I +shall have occasion to observe later, the intellectual +conditions and social systems of this subterranean race comprise +and harmonise great, and apparently antagonistic, varieties in +philosophical doctrine and speculation which have from time to +time been started, discussed, dismissed, and have re-appeared +amongst thinkers or dreamers in the upper world,- so I may +perhaps appropriately conclude this reference to the belief of +the Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient life once given is +indestructible among inferior creatures as well as in man, by an +eloquent passage from the work of that eminent zoologist, Louis +Agassiz, which I have only just met with, many years after I had +committed to paper these recollections of the life of the +Vril-ya which I now reduce into something like arrangement and +form: "The relations which individual animals bear to one +another are of such a character that they ought long ago to have +been considered as sufficient proof that no organised being +could ever have been called into existence by other agency than +59by the direct intervention of a reflective mind. This argues +strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of an +immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and +superior endowments places man so much above the animals; yet +the principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called +sense, reason, or instinct, it presents in the whole range of +organised beings a series of phenomena closely linked together, +and upon it are based not only the higher manifestations of the +mind, but the very permanence of the specific differences which +characterise every organism. Most of the arguments in favour of +the immortality of man apply equally to the permanency of this +principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future +life in which man would be deprived of that great source of +enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement which results +from the contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world +would involve a lamentable loss? And may we not look to a +spiritual concert of the combined worlds and ALL their +inhabitants in the presence of their Creator as the highest +conception of paradise?"- 'Essay on Classification,' sect. +xvii. p. 97-99. + + +Chapter XV. + + +Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter +of my host was the most considerate and thoughtful in her +kindness. At her suggestion I laid aside the habiliments in +which I had descended from the upper earth, and adopted the +dress of the Vril-ya, with the exception of the artful wings +which served them, when on foot, as a graceful mantle. But as +many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urban pursuits, did not +wear these wings, this exception created no marked difference +between myself and the race among whom I sojourned, and I was +thus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant +60curiosity. Out of the household no one suspected that I had +come from the upper world, and I was but regarded as one of +some inferior and barbarous tribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a +guest. + +The city was large in proportion to the territory round it, +which was of no greater extent than many an English or +Hungarian nobleman's estate; but the whole if it, to the verge +of the rocks which constituted its boundary, was cultivated to +the nicest degree, except where certain allotments of mountain +and pasture were humanely left free to the sustenance of the +harmless animals they had tamed, though not for domestic use. +So great is their kindness towards these humbler creatures, +that a sum is devoted from the public treasury for the purpose +of deporting them to other Vril-ya communities willing to +receive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they become too +numerous for the pastures allotted to them in their native +place. They do not, however, multiply to an extent comparable +to the ratio at which, with us, animals bred for slaughter, +increase. It seems a law of nature that animals not useful to +man gradually recede from the domains he occupies, or even +become extinct. It is an old custom of the various sovereign +states amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to +leave between each state a neutral and uncultivated +border-land. In the instance of the community I speak of, this +tract, being a ridge of savage rocks, was impassable by foot, +but was easily surmounted, whether by the wings of the +inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak hereafter. +Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles +impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always +kept lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special +tax, to which all the communities comprehended in the +denomination of Vril-ya contribute in settled proportions. By +these means a considerable commercial traffic with other +states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus +wealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The +61community was also eminent for skill in constructing implements +connected with the arts of husbandry. In exchange for such +merchandise it obtained articles more of luxury than necessity. +There were few things imported on which they set a higher price +than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in concert. These were +brought from a great distance, and were marvellous for beauty +of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was +taken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the +species had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I +saw no other pet animals among this community except some very +amusing and sportive creatures of the Batrachian species, +resembling frogs, but with very intelligent countenances, which +the children were fond of, and kept in their private gardens. +They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs or horses, +though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that such +creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be +found in regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya. +She said that they had gradually disappeared from the more +civilised world since the discovery of vril, and the results +attending that discovery had dispensed with their uses. +Machinery and the invention of wings had superseded the horse +as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer wanted either +for protection or the chase, as it had been when the ancestors +of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or +hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as +the horse was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse +could have been, there, of little use either for pastime or +burden. The only creature they use for the latter purpose is a +kind of large goat which is much employed on farms. The nature +of the surrounding soil in these districts may be said to have +first suggested the invention of wings and air-boats. The +largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by the +city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house +with a separate garden. The broad main street, in which +Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded into a vast square, in which were +62placed the College of Sages and all the public offices; a +magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I call naptha +(I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All these +public edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and +solidity. They reminded me of the architectural pictures of +Martin. Along the upper stories of each ran a balcony, or +rather a terraced garden, supported by columns, filled with +flowering plants, and tenanted by many kinds of tame birds. +>From the square branched several streets, all broad and +brilliantly lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either +side. In my excursions in the town I was never allowed to go +alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was my habitual companion. In +this community the adult Gy is seen walking with any young An +as familiarly as if there were no difference of sex. + +The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attend +on a customer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly +intelligent and courteous, but without the least touch of +importunity or cringing. The shopkeeper himself might or might +not be visible; when visible, he seemed rarely employed on any +matter connected with his professional business; and yet he had +taken to that business from special liking for it, and quite +independently of his general sources of fortune. + +The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of +beings after the active age of childhood. Whether by +temperament or philosophy, they rank repose among the chief +blessings of life. Indeed, when you take away from a human +63being the incentives to action which are found in cupidity or +ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet. + +In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet +to that of their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in +a bold misuse of terms) their public 'promenades,' they employ +the latter, also for the aerial dances I have described, as +well as for visiting their country places, which are mostly +placed on lofty heights; and, when still young, they prefer +their wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, to +vehicular conveyances. + +Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less +rapidly than some birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty miles +an hour, and keep up that rate for five or six hours at a +stretch. But the Ana generally, on reaching middle age, are +not fond of rapid movements requiring violent exercise. +Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which our own +physicians will doubtless approve- viz., that regular +transpiration through the pores of the skin is essential to +health, they habitually use the sweating-baths to which we give +the name Turkish or Roman, succeeded by douches of perfumed +waters. They have great faith in the salubrious virtue of +certain perfumes. + +It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps +four times a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with +vril.* + +* I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very +similar in its invigorating powers to that of the baths at +Gastein, the virtues of which are ascribed by many physicians +to electricity; but though similar, the effect of the vril bath +was more lasting. + +They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great +sustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the normal state +of health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality. +For nearly all their diseases, however, they resort to it as +the chief assistant to nature in throwing off their complaint. + +In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all +their luxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in an +atmosphere of music and fragrance. Every room has its +64mechanical contrivances for melodious sounds, usually tuned +down to soft-murmured notes, which seem like sweet whispers +from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed to these +gentle sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor, +when alone, to reflection. But they have a notion that to +breathe an air filled with continuous melody and perfume has +necessarily an effect at once soothing and elevating upon the +formation of character and the habits of thought. Though so +temperate, and with total abstinence from other animal food +than milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they are delicate +and dainty to an extreme in food and beverage; and in all their +sports even the old exhibit a childlike gaiety. Happiness is +the end at which they aim, not as the excitement of a moment, +but as the prevailing condition of the entire existence; and +regard for the happiness of each other is evinced by the +exquisite amenity of their manners. + +Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of +any known races in the upper world, though I cannot help +thinking it a development, in the course of countless ages of +the Brachycephalic type of the Age of Stone in Lyell's +'Elements of Geology,' C. X., p. 113, as compared with the +Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age of Iron, +correspondent with that now so prevalent amongst us, and called +the Celtic type. It has the same comparative massiveness of +forehead, not receding like the Celtic- the same even roundness +in the frontal organs; but it is far loftier in the apex, and +far less pronounced in the hinder cranial hemisphere where +phrenologists place the animal organs. To speak as a +phrenologist, the cranium common to the Vril-ya has the organs +of weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, very largely +developed; that of construction much more pronounced than that +of ideality. Those which are called the moral organs, such as +conscientiousness and benevolence, are amazingly full; +amativeness and combativeness are both small; adhesiveness +large; the organ of destructiveness (i.e., of determined +65clearance of intervening obstacles) immense, but less than that +of benevolence; and their philoprogenitiveness takes rather the +character of compassion and tenderness to things that need aid +or protection than of the animal love of offspring. I never +met with one person deformed or misshapen. The beauty of their +countenances is not only in symmetry of feature, but in a +smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle +to the extreme of old age, and a serene sweetness of +expression, combined with that majesty which seems to come from +consciousness of power and the freedom of all terror, physical +or moral. It is that very sweetness, combined with that +majesty, which inspired in a beholder like myself, accustomed +to strive with the passions of mankind, a sentiment of +humiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a +painter might give to a demi-god, a genius, an angel. The +males of the Vril-ya are entirely beardless; the Gy-ei +sometimes, in old age, develop a small moustache. + +I was surprised to find that the colour of their skin was not +uniformly that which I had remarked in those individuals whom I +had first encountered,- some being much fairer, and even with +blue eyes, and hair of a deep golden auburn, though still of +complexions warmer or richer in tone than persons in the north +of Europe. + +I was told that this admixture of colouring arose from +intermarriage with other and more distant tribes of the +Vril-ya, who, whether by the accident of climate or early +distinction of race, were of fairer hues than the tribes of +which this community formed one. It was considered that the +dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of Ana; but they +attached no sentiment of pride to that antiquity, and, on the +contrary, believed their present excellence of breed came from +frequent crossing with other families differing, yet akin; and +they encourage such intermarriages, always provided that it be +with the Vril-ya nations. Nations which, not conforming their +66manners and institutions to those of the Vril-ya, nor indeed +held capable of acquiring the powers over the vril agencies +which it had taken them generations to attain and transmit, +were regarded with more disdain than the citizens of New York +regard the negroes. + +I learned from Zee, who had more lore in all matters than any +male with whom I was brought into familiar converse, that the +superiority of the Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in +the intensity of their earlier struggles against obstacles in +nature amidst the localities in which they had first settled. +"Wherever," said Zee, moralising, "wherever goes on that early +process in the history of civilisation, by which life is made a +struggle, in which the individual has to put forth all his +powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find this +result- viz., since in the competition a vast number must +perish, nature selects for preservation only the strongest +specimens. With our race, therefore, even before the discovery +of vril, only the highest organisations were preserved; and +there is among our ancient books a legend, once popularly +believed, that we were driven from a region that seems to +denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our +condition and attain to the purest elimination of our species +by the severity of the struggles our forefathers underwent; and +that, when our education shall become finally completed, we are +destined to return to the upper world, and supplant all the +inferior races now existing therein." + +Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me in private upon the +political and social conditions of that upper world, in which +Zee so philosophically assumed that the inhabitants were to be +exterminated one day or other by the advent of the Vril-ya. +They found in my accounts,- in which I continued to do all I +could (without launching into falsehoods so positive that they +would have been easily detected by the shrewdness of my +listeners) to present our powers and ourselves in the most +flattering point of view,- perpetual subjects of comparison +67between our most civilised populations and the meaner +subterranean races which they considered hopelessly plunged in +barbarism, and doomed to gradual if certain extinction. But +they both agreed in desiring to conceal from their community +all premature opening into the regions lighted by the sun; both +were humane, and shrunk from the thought of annihilating so +many millions of creatures; and the pictures I drew of our +life, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain I +boasted of our great men- poets, philosophers, orators, +generals- and defied the Vril-ya to produce their equals. +"Alas," said Zee, "this predominance of the few over the many +is the surest and most fatal sign of a race incorrigibly +savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortal +happiness consists in the extinction of that strife and +competition between individuals, which, no matter what forms of +government they adopt, render the many subordinate to the few, +destroy real liberty to the individual, whatever may be the +nominal liberty of the state, and annul that calm of existence, +without which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained? +Our notion is, that the more we can assimilate life to the +existence which our noblest ideas can conceive to be that of +spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more we +approximate to a divine happiness here, and the more easily we +glide into the conditions of being hereafter. For, surely, all +we can imagine of the life of gods, or of blessed immortals, +supposes the absence of self-made cares and contentious +passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems to us that it +must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without active +occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, but +occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the +idiosyncrasies of each, not forced and repugnant- a life +gladdened by the untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, +in which the moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, +and strife and rivalry. Such is the political state to which +68all the tribes and families of the Vril-ya seek to attain, and +towards that goal all our theories of government are shaped. +You see how utterly opposed is such a progress to that of the +uncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim at a +systematic perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warring +passions aggravated more and more as their progress storms its +way onward. The most powerful of all the races in our world, +beyond the pale of the Vril-ya, esteems itself the best +governed of all political societies, and to have reached in +that respect the extreme end at which political wisdom can +arrive, so that the other nations should tend more or less to +copy it. It has established, on its broadest base, the +Koom-Posh- viz., the government of the ignorant upon the +principle of being the most numerous. It has placed the +supreme bliss in the vying with each other in all things, so +that the evil passions are never in repose- vying for power, +for wealth, for eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry it +is horrible to hear the vituperation, the slanders, and +calumnies which even the best and mildest among them heap on +each other without remorse or shame." + +"Some years ago," said Aph-Lin, "I visited this people, and +their misery and degradation were the more appalling because +they were always boasting of their felicity and grandeur as +compared with the rest of their species. And there is no hope +that this people, which evidently resembles your own, can +improve, because all their notions tend to further +deterioration. They desire to enlarge their dominion more and +more, in direct antagonism to the truth that, beyond a very +limited range, it is impossible to secure to a community the +happiness which belongs to a well-ordered family; and the more +they mature a system by which a few individuals are heated and +swollen to a size above the standard slenderness of the millions, +the more they chuckle and exact, and cry out, 'See by what great +exceptions to the common littleness of our race we prove the +magnificent results of our system!'" +69 +"In fact," resumed Zee, "if the wisdom of human life be to +approximate to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no +more direct flying off into the opposite direction than a system +which aims at carrying to the utmost the inequalities and +turbulences of mortals. Nor do I see how, by any forms of +religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves even to +appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still expect to be +transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds +accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of +godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and +would long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with +each other." + + +Chapter XVI. + + +I have spoken so much of the Vril Staff that my reader may +expect me to describe it. This I cannot do accurately, for I +was never allowed to handle it for fear of some terrible +accident occasioned by my ignorance of its use; and I have no +doubt that it requires much skill and practice in the exercise +of its various powers. It is hollow, and has in the handle +several stops, keys, or springs by which its force can be +altered, modified, or directed- so that by one process it +destroys, by another it heals- by one it can rend the rock, by +another disperse the vapour- by one it affects bodies, by +another it can exercise a certain influence over minds. It is +usually carried in the convenient size of a walking-staff, but +it has slides by which it can be lengthened or shortened at +will. When used for special purposes, the upper part rests in +the hollow of the palm with the fore and middle fingers +protruded. I was assured, however, that its power was not +equal in all, but proportioned to the amount of certain vril +70properties in the wearer in affinity, or 'rapport' with the +purposes to be effected. Some were more potent to destroy, +others to heal, &c.; much also depended on the calm and +steadiness of volition in the manipulator. They assert that +the full exercise of vril power can only be acquired by the +constitutional temperament- i.e., by hereditarily transmitted +organisation- and that a female infant of four years old +belonging to the Vril-ya races can accomplish feats which a +life spent in its practice would not enable the strongest and +most skilled mechanician, born out of the pale of the Vril-ya +to achieve. All these wands are not equally complicated; those +intrusted to children are much simpler than those borne by +sages of either sex, and constructed with a view to the special +object on which the children are employed; which as I have +before said, is among the youngest children the most +destructive. In the wands of wives and mothers the correlative +destroying force is usually abstracted, the healing power fully +charged. I wish I could say more in detail of this singular +conductor of the vril fluid, but its machinery is as exquisite +as its effects are marvellous. + +I should say, however, that this people have invented certain +tubes by which the vril fluid can be conducted towards the +object it is meant to destroy, throughout a distance almost +indefinite; at least I put it modestly when I say from 500 to +600 miles. And their mathematical science as applied to such +purpose is so nicely accurate, that on the report of some +observer in an air-boat, any member of the vril department can +estimate unerringly the nature of intervening obstacles, the +height to which the projectile instrument should be raised, and +the extent to which it should be charged, so as to reduce to +ashes within a space of time too short for me to venture to +specify it, a capital twice as vast as London. + +Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians- wonderful for +the adaptation of the inventive faculty to practical uses. +71 +I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great public +museum, which occupies a wing in the College of Sages, and in +which are hoarded, as curious specimens of the ignorant and +blundering experiments of ancient times, many contrivances on +which we pride ourselves as recent achievements. In one +department, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete lumber, are +tubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an inflammable +powder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and even +still more murderous than our latest improvements. + +My host spoke of these with a smile of contempt, such as an +artillery officer might bestow on the bows and arrows of the +Chinese. In another department there were models of vehicles +and vessels worked by steam, and of an air-balloon which might +have been constructed by Montgolfier. "Such," said Zee, with +an air of meditative wisdom- "such were the feeble triflings +with nature of our savage forefathers, ere they had even a +glimmering perception of the properties of vril!" + +This young Gy was a magnificent specimen of the muscular force +to which the females of her country attain. Her features were +beautiful, like those of all her race: never in the upper world +have I seen a face so grand and so faultless, but her devotion +to the severer studies had given to her countenance an +expression of abstract thought which rendered it somewhat stern +when in repose; and such a sternness became formidable when +observed in connection with her ample shoulders and lofty +stature. She was tall even for a Gy, and I saw her lift up a +cannon as easily as I could lift a pocket-pistol. Zee inspired +me with a profound terror- a terror which increased when we +came into a department of the museum appropriated to models of +contrivances worked by the agency of vril; for here, merely by +a certain play of her vril staff, she herself standing at a +distance, she put into movement large and weighty substances. +She seemed to endow them with intelligence, and to make them +72comprehend and obey her command. She set complicated pieces of +machinery into movement, arrested the movement or continued it, +until, within an incredibly short time, various kinds of raw +material were reproduced as symmetrical works of art, complete +and perfect. Whatever effect mesmerism or electro-biology +produces over the nerves and muscles of animated objects, this +young Gy produced by the motions of her slender rod over the +springs and wheels of lifeless mechanism. + +When I mentioned to my companions my astonishment at this +influence over inanimate matter- while owning that, in our +world, I had witnessed phenomena which showed that over certain +living organisations certain other living organisations could +establish an influence genuine in itself, but often exaggerated +by credulity or craft- Zee, who was more interested in such +subjects than her father, bade me stretch forth my hand, and +then, placing it beside her own, she called my attention to +certain distinctions of type and character. In the first +place, the thumb of the Gy (and, as I afterwards noticed, of +all that race, male or female) was much larger, at once longer +and more massive, than is found with our species above ground. +There is almost, in this, as great a difference as there is +between the thumb of a man and that of a gorilla. Secondly, +the palm is proportionally thicker than ours- the texture of +the skin infinitely finer and softer- its average warmth is +greater. More remarkable than all this, is a visible nerve, +perceptible under the skin, which starts from the wrist +skirting the ball of the thumb, and branching, fork-like, at +the roots of the fore and middle fingers. "With your slight +formation of thumb," said the philosophical young Gy, "and with +the absence of the nerve which you find more or less developed +in the hands of our race, you can never achieve other than +imperfect and feeble power over the agency of vril; but so far +as the nerve is concerned, that is not found in the hands of +our earliest progenitors, nor in those of the ruder tribes +without the pale of the Vril-ya. It has been slowly developed +73in the course of generations, commencing in the early +achievements, and increasing with the continuous exercise, of +the vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousand +years, such a nerve may possibly be engendered in those higher +beings of your race, who devote themselves to that paramount +science through which is attained command over all the subtler +forces of nature permeated by vril. But when you talk of +matter as something in itself inert and motionless, your +parents or tutors surely cannot have left you so ignorant as +not to know that no form of matter is motionless and inert: +every particle is constantly in motion and constantly acted +upon by agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and rapid, +but vril the most subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the most +powerful. So that, in fact, the current launched by my hand +and guided by my will does but render quicker and more potent +the action which is eternally at work upon every particle of +matter, however inert and stubborn it may seem. If a heap of +metal be not capable of originating a thought of its own, yet, +through its internal susceptibility to movement, it obtains the +power to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at work +on it; by which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the +vril power, it is as much compelled to obey as if it were +displaced by a visible bodily force. It is animated for the +time being by the soul thus infused into it, so that one may +almost say that it lives and reasons. Without this we could +not make our automata supply the place of servants. + +I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of the +young Gy to hazard the risk of arguing with her. I had read +somewhere in my schoolboy days that a wise man, disputing with +a Roman Emperor, suddenly drew in his horns; and when the +emperor asked him whether he had nothing further to say on his +side of the question, replied, "Nay, Caesar, there is no +arguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions." +74 +Though I had a secret persuasion that, whatever the real +effects of vril upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved her +a very shallow philosopher as to its extent or its causes, I +had no doubt that Zee could have brained all the Fellows of the +Royal Society, one after the other, with a blow of her fist. +Every sensible man knows that it is useless to argue with any +ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; but to argue with +a Gy seven feet high upon the mysteries of vril,- as well argue +in a desert, and with a simoon! + +Amid the various departments to which the vast building of the +College of Sages was appropriated, that which interested me +most was devoted to the archaeology of the Vril-ya, and +comprised a very ancient collection of portraits. In these the +pigments and groundwork employed were of so durable a nature +that even pictures said to be executed at dates as remote as +those in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained much +freshness of colour. In examining this collection, two things +especially struck me:- first, that the pictures said to be +between 6000 and 7000 years old were of a much higher degree of +art than any produced within the last 3000 or 4000 years; and, +second, that the portraits within the former period much more +resembled our own upper world and European types of +countenance. Some of them, indeed reminded me of the Italian +heads which look out from the canvases of Titian- speaking of +ambition or craft, of care or of grief, with furrows in which +the passions have passed with iron ploughshare. These were the +countenances of men who had lived in struggle and conflict +before the discovery of the latent forces of vril had changed +the character of society- men who had fought with each other +for power or fame as we in the upper world fight. + +The type of face began to evince a marked change about a +thousand years after the vril revolution, becoming then, with +each generation, more serene, and in that serenity more +75terribly distinct from the faces of labouring and sinful men; +while in proportion as the beauty and the grandeur of the +countenance itself became more fully developed, the art of the +painter became more tame and monotonous. + +But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of three +portraits belonging to the pre-historical age, and, according +to mythical tradition, taken by the orders of a philosopher, +whose origin and attributes were as much mixed up with +symbolical fable as those of an Indian Budh or a Greek +Prometheus. + +>From this mysterious personage, at once a sage and a hero, all +the principal sections of the Vril-ya race pretend to trace a +common origin. + +The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of his +grandfather, and great-grandfather. They are all at full +length. The philosopher is attired in a long tunic which seems +to form a loose suit of scaly armour, borrowed, perhaps, from +some fish or reptile, but the feet and hands are exposed: the +digits in both are wonderfully long, and webbed. He has little +or no perceptible throat, and a low receding forehead, not at +all the ideal of a sage's. He has bright brown prominent eyes, +a very wide mouth and high cheekbones, and a muddy complexion. +According to tradition, this philosopher had lived to a +patriarchal age, extending over many centuries, and he +remembered distinctly in middle life his grandfather as +surviving, and in childhood his great-grandfather; the portrait +of the first he had taken, or caused to be taken, while yet +alive- that of the latter was taken from his effigies in mummy. +The portrait of his grandfather had the features and aspect of +the philosopher, only much more exaggerated: he was not +dressed, and the colour of his body was singular; the breast +and stomach yellow, the shoulders and legs of a dull bronze +hue: the great-grandfather was a magnificent specimen of the +Batrachian genus, a Giant Frog, 'pur et simple.' + +Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the +philosopher bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form and +76sententious brevity, this is notably recorded: "Humble +yourselves, my descendants; the father of your race was a +'twat' (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for it was +the same Divine Thought which created your father that develops +itself in exalting you." + +Aph-Lin told me this fable while I gazed on the three +Batrachian portraits. I said in reply: "You make a jest of my +supposed ignorance and credulity as an uneducated Tish, but +though these horrible daubs may be of great antiquity, and were +intended, perhaps, for some rude caracature, I presume that +none of your race even in the less enlightened ages, ever +believed that the great-grandson of a Frog became a sententious +philosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the lofty +Vril-ya, but of the meanest varieties of the human race, had +its origin in a Tadpole." + +"Pardon me," answered Aph-Lin: "in what we call the Wrangling +or Philosophical Period of History, which was at its height +about seven thousand years ago, there was a very distinguished +naturalist, who proved to the satisfaction of numerous +disciples such analogical and anatomical agreements in +structure between an An and a Frog, as to show that out of the +one must have developed the other. They had some diseases in +common; they were both subject to the same parasitical worms in +the intestines; and, strange to say, the An has, in his +structure, a swimming-bladder, no longer of any use to him, but +which is a rudiment that clearly proves his descent from a +Frog. Nor is there any argument against this theory to be +found in the relative difference of size, for there are still +existent in our world Frogs of a size and stature not inferior +to our own, and many thousand years ago they appear to have +been still larger." + +"I understand that," said I, "because Frogs this enormous are, +according to our eminent geologists, who perhaps saw them in +dreams, said to have been distinguished inhabitants of the +upper world before the Deluge; and such Frogs are exactly the +creatures likely to have flourished in the lakes and morasses +of your subterranean regions. But pray, proceed." +77 +"In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage asserted +another sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maxim +in that age, that the human reason could only be sustained +aloft by being tossed to and fro in the perpetual motion of +contradiction; and therefore another sect of philosophers +maintained the doctrine that the An was not the descendant of +the Frog, but that the Frog was clearly the improved +development of the An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally, +was much more symmetrical than that of the An; beside the +beautiful conformation of its lower limbs, its flanks and +shoulders the majority of the Ana in that day were almost +deformed, and certainly ill-shaped. Again, the Frog had the +power to live alike on land and in water- a mighty privilege, +partaking of a spiritual essence denied to the An, since the +disuse of his swimming-bladder clearly proves his degeneration +from a higher development of species. Again, the earlier races +of the Ana seem to have been covered with hair, and, even to a +comparatively recent date, hirsute bushes deformed the very +faces of our ancestors, spreading wild over their cheeks and +chins, as similar bushes, my poor Tish, spread wild over yours. +But the object of the higher races of the Ana through countless +generations has been to erase all vestige of connection with +hairy vertebrata, and they have gradually eliminated that +debasing capillary excrement by the law of sexual selection; +the Gy-ei naturally preferring youth or the beauty of smooth +faces. But the degree of the Frog in the scale of the +vertebrata is shown in this, that he has no hair at all, not +even on his head. He was born to that hairless perfection +which the most beautiful of the Ana, despite the culture of +incalculable ages, have not yet attained. The wonderful +complication and delicacy of a Frog's nervous system and +arterial circulation were shown by this school to be more +susceptible of enjoyment than our inferior, or at least +simpler, physical frame allows us to be. The examination of a +Frog's hand, if I may use that expression, accounted for its +78keener susceptibility to love, and to social life in general. +In fact, gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are still +more so. In short, these two schools raged against each other; +one asserting the An to be the perfected type of the Frog; the +other that the Frog was the highest development of the An. The +moralists were divided in opinion with the naturalists, but the +bulk of them sided with the Frog-preference school. They said, +with much plausibility, that in moral conduct (viz., in the +adherence to rules best adapted to the health and welfare of +the individual and the community) there could be no doubt of +the vast superiority of the Frog. All history showed the +wholesale immorality of the human race, the complete disregard, +even by the most renowned amongst them, of the laws which they +acknowledged to be essential to their own and the general +happiness and wellbeing. But the severest critic of the Frog +race could not detect in their manners a single aberration from +the moral law tacitly recognised by themselves. And what, after +all, can be the profit of civilisation if superiority in moral +conduct be not the aim for which it strives, and the test by which +its progress should be judged? + +"In fine, the adherents of this theory presumed that in some +remote period the Frog race had been the improved development +of the Human; but that, from some causes which defied rational +conjecture, they had not maintained their original position in +the scale of nature; while the Ana, though of inferior +organisation, had, by dint less of their virtues than their +vices, such as ferocity and cunning, gradually acquired +ascendancy, much as among the human race itself tribes utterly +barbarous have, by superiority in similar vices, utterly +destroyed or reduced into insignificance tribes originally +excelling them in mental gifts and culture. Unhappily these +disputes became involved with the religious notions of that +age; and as society was then administered under the government +of the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of course +79the most inflammable class- the multitude took the whole +question out of the hands of the philosophers; political chiefs +saw that the Frog dispute, so taken up by the populace, could +become a most valuable instrument of their ambition; and for +not less than one thousand years war and massacre prevailed, +during which period the philosophers on both sides were +butchered, and the government of Koom-Posh itself was happily +brought to an end by the ascendancy of a family that clearly +established its descent from the aboriginal tadpole, and +furnished despotic rulers to the various nations of the Ana. +These despots finally disappeared, at least from our +communities, as the discovery of vril led to the tranquil +institutions under which flourish all the races of the +Vril-ya." + +"And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive the +dispute; or do they all recognise the origin of your race in +the tadpole?" + +"Nay, such disputes," said Zee, with a lofty smile, "belong to +the Pah-bodh of the dark ages, and now only serve for the +amusement of infants. When we know the elements out of which +our bodies are composed, elements in common to the humblest +vegetable plants, can it signify whether the All-Wise combined +those elements out of one form more than another, in order to +create that in which He has placed the capacity to receive the +idea of Himself, and all the varied grandeurs of intellect to +which that idea gives birth? The An in reality commenced to +exist as An with the donation of that capacity, and, with that +capacity, the sense to acknowledge that, however through the +countless ages his race may improve in wisdom, it can never +combine the elements at its command into the form of a +tadpole." + +"You speak well, Zee," said Aph-Lin; "and it is +enough for us shortlived mortals to feel a reasonable +assurance that whether the origin of the An was a tadpole +or not, he is no more likely to become a tadpole +again than the institutions of the Vril-ya are likely to +relapse into the heaving quagmire and certain strife-rot +of a Koom-Posh." + +80 +Chapter XVII. + + +The Vril-ya, being excluded from all sight of the heavenly +bodies, and having no other difference between night and day +than that which they deem it convenient to make for +themselves,- do not, of course, arrive at their divisions of +time by the same process that we do; but I found it easy by the +aid of my watch, which I luckily had about me, to compute their +time with great nicety. I reserve for a future work on the +science and literature of the Vril-ya, should I live to +complete it, all details as to the manner in which they +arrive at their rotation of time; and content myself here +with saying, that in point of duration, their year differs +very slightly from ours, but that the divisions of their year +are by no means the same. Their day, (including what we call +night) consists of twenty hours of our time, instead of +twenty-four, and of course their year comprises the +correspondent increase in the number of days by which it is +summed up. They subdivide the twenty hours of their day +thus- eight hours,* called the "Silent Hours," for repose; +eight hours, called the "Earnest Time," for the pursuits and +occupations of life; and four hours called the "Easy Time" +(with which what I may term their day closes), allotted to +festivities, sport, recreation, or family converse, according +to their several tastes and inclinations. + +* For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, +years, &c., in any general reference to subdivisions of time +among the Vril-ya; those terms but loosely corresponding, +however, with such subdivisions. + +But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain, +both in the streets and in the surrounding country, to the +limits of their territory, the same degree of light at all +hours. Only, within doors, they lower it to a soft twilight +during the Silent Hours. They have a great horror of perfect +81darkness, and their lights are never wholly extinguished. On +occasions of festivity they continue the duration of full +light, but equally keep note of the distinction between night +and day, by mechanical contrivances which answer the purpose of +our clocks and watches. They are very fond of music; and it is +by music that these chronometers strike the principal division +of time. At every one of their hours, during their day, the +sounds coming from all the time-pieces in their public +buildings, and caught up, as it were, by those of houses or +hamlets scattered amidst the landscapes without the city, have +an effect singularly sweet, and yet singularly solemn. But +during the Silent Hours these sounds are so subdued as to be +only faintly heard by a waking ear. They have no change of +seasons, and, at least on the territory of this tribe, the +atmosphere seemed to me very equable, warm as that of an +Italian summer, and humid rather than dry; in the forenoon +usually very still, but at times invaded by strong blasts from +the rocks that made the borders of their domain. But time is +the same to them for sowing or reaping as in the Golden Isles +of the ancient poets. At the same moment you see the younger +plants in blade or bud, the older in ear or fruit. All +fruit-bearing plants, however, after fruitage, either shed or +change the colour of their leaves. But that which interested +me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the +ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I +found on minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded +the term allotted to us on the upper earth. What seventy years +are to us, one hundred years are to them. Nor is this the only +advantage they have over us in longevity, for as few among us +attain to the age of seventy, so, on the contrary, few among +them die before the age of one hundred; and they enjoy a +general degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a +blessing even to the last. Various causes contribute to this +result: the absence of all alcoholic stimulants; temperance in +82food; more especially, perhaps, a serenity of mind undisturbed +by anxious occupations and eager passions. They are not +tormented by our avarice or our ambition; they appear perfectly +indifferent even to the desire of fame; they are capable of +great affection, but their love shows itself in a tender and +cheerful complaisance, and, while forming their happiness, +seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe. As the Gy is +sure only to marry where she herself fixes her choice, and as +here, not less than above ground, it is the female on whom the +happiness of home depends; so the Gy, having chosen the mate +she prefers to all others, is lenient to his faults, consults +his humours, and does her best to secure his attachment. The +death of a beloved one is of course with them, as with us, a +cause for sorrow; but not only is death with them so much more +rare before that age in which it becomes a release, but when it +does occur the survivor takes much more consolation than, I am +afraid, the generality of us do, in the certainty of reunion in +another and yet happier life. + +All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyable +longevity, though, no doubt, much also must be owing to +hereditary organisation. According to their records, however, +in those earlier stages of their society when they lived in +communities resembling ours, agitated by fierce competition, +their lives were considerably shorter, and their maladies more +numerous and grave. They themselves say that the duration of +life, too, has increased, and is still on the increase, since +their discovery of the invigorating and medicinal properties of +vril, applied for remedial purposes. They have few +professional and regular practitioners of medicine, and these +are chiefly Gy-ei, who, especially if widowed and childless, +find great delight in the healing art, and even undertake +surgical operations in those cases required by accident, or, +more rarely, by disease. + +They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during the +Easy Time of their day, they are wont to assemble in great +numbers for those winged sports in the air which I have already +83described. They have also public halls for music, and even +theatres, at which are performed pieces that appeared to me +somewhat to resemble the plays of the Chinese- dramas that are +thrown back into distant times for their events and personages, +in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, and the +hero, in once scene a child, in the next is an old man, and so +forth. These plays are of very ancient composition, and their +stories cast in remote times. They appeared to me very dull, +on the whole, but were relieved by startling mechanical +contrivances, and a kind of farcical broad humour, and detached +passages of great vigour and power expressed in language highly +poetical, but somewhat overcharged with metaphor and trope. In +fine, they seemed to me very much what the plays of Shakespeare +seemed to a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps to an +Englishman in the reign of Charles II. + +The audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted the chief portion, +appeared to enjoy greatly the representation of these dramas, +which, for so sedate and majestic a race of females, surprised +me, till I observed that all the performers were under the age +of adolescence, and conjectured truly that the mothers and +sisters came to please their children and brothers. + +I have said that these dramas are of great antiquity. No new +plays, indeed no imaginative works sufficiently important to +survive their immediate day, appear to have been composed for +several generations. In fact, though there is no lack of new +publications, and they have even what may be called newspapers, +these are chiefly devoted to mechanical science, reports of new +inventions, announcements respecting various details of +business- in short, to practical matters. Sometimes a child +writes a little tale of adventure, or a young Gy vents her +amorous hopes or fears in a poem; but these effusions are of +very little merit, and are seldom read except by children and +maiden Gy-ei. The most interesting works of a purely literary +character are those of explorations and travels into other +regions of this nether world, which are generally written by +84young emigrants, and are read with great avidity by the +relations and friends they have left behind. + +I could not help expressing to Aph-Lin my surprise that a +community in which mechanical science had made so marvellous a +progress, and in which intellectual civilisation had exhibited +itself in realising those objects for the happiness of the +people, which the political philosophers above ground had, after +ages of struggle, pretty generally agreed to consider +unattainable visions, should, nevertheless, be so wholly +without a contemporaneous literature, despite the excellence to +which culture had brought a language at once so rich and +simple, vigourous and musical. + +My host replied- "Do you not percieve that a literature such as +you mean would be wholly incompatible with that perfection of +social or political felicity at which you do us the honour to +think we have arrived? We have at last, after centuries of +struggle, settled into a form of government with which we are +content, and in which, as we allow no differences of rank, and +no honours are paid to administrators distinguishing them from +others, there is no stimulus given to individual ambition. No +one would read works advocating theories that involved any +political or social change, and therefore no one writes them. +If now and then an An feels himself dissatisfied with our +tranquil mode of life, he does not attack it; he goes away. +Thus all that part of literature (and to judge by the ancient +books in our public libraries, it was once a very large part), +which relates to speculative theories on society is become +utterly extinct. Again, formerly there was a vast deal written +respecting the attributes and essence of the All-Good, and the +arguments for and against a future state; but now we all +recognise two facts, that there IS a Divine Being, and there IS +a future state, and we all equally agree that if we wrote our +fingers to the bone, we could not throw any light upon the +nature and conditions of that future state, or quicken our +apprehensions of the attributes and essence of that Divine +85Being. Thus another part of literature has become also +extinct, happily for our race; for in the time when so much was +written on subjects which no one could determine, people seemed +to live in a perpetual state of quarrel and contention. So, +too, a vast part of our ancient literature consists of +historical records of wars an revolutions during the times when +the Ana lived in large and turbulent societies, each seeking +aggrandisement at the expense of the other. You see our serene +mode of life now; such it has been for ages. We have no events +to chronicle. What more of us can be said than that, 'they +were born, they were happy, they died?' Coming next to that +part of literature which is more under the control of the +imagination, such as what we call Glaubsila, or colloquially +'Glaubs,' and you call poetry, the reasons for its decline +amongst us are abundantly obvious. + +"We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in that +department of literature which we all still read with pleasure, +but of which none would tolerate imitations, that they consist +in the portraiture of passions which we no longer experience- +ambition, vengeance, unhallowed love, the thirst for warlike +renown, and suchlike. The old poets lived in an atmosphere +impregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what they +expressed glowingly. No one can express such passions now, for +no one can feel them, or meet with any sympathy in his readers +if he did. Again, the old poetry has a main element in its +dissection of those complex mysteries of human character which +conduce to abnormal vices and crimes, or lead to signal and +extraordinary virtues. But our society, having got rid of +temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has necessarily +rendered the moral average so equal, that there are no very +salient virtues. Without its ancient food of strong passions, +vast crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if not +actually starved to death, reduced to a very meagre diet. +There is still the poetry of description- description of rocks, +and trees, and waters, and common household life; and our young +Gy-ei weave much of this insipid kind of composition into their +love verses." +86 +"Such poetry," said I, "might surely be made very charming; and +we have critics amongst us who consider it a higher kind than +that which depicts the crimes, or analyses the passions, of +man. At all events, poetry of the inspired kind you mention is +a poetry that nowadays commands more readers than any other +among the people I have left above ground." + +"Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains with +the language they employ, and devote themselves to the culture +and polish of words and rhythms of an art?" + +"Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the gift +of poetry may be inborn, the gift requires as much care to make +it available as a block of metal does to be made into one of +your engines." + +"And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow all +those pains upon such verbal prettinesses?" + +"Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing as +the bird does; but to cultivate the song into verbal or +artificial prettiness, probably does need an inducement from +without, and our poets find it in the love of fame- perhaps, +now and then, in the want of money." + +"Precisely so. But in our society we attach fame to nothing +which man, in that moment of his duration which is called +'life,' can perform. We should soon lose that equality which +constitutes the felicitous essence of our commonwealth if we +selected any individual for pre-eminent praise: pre-eminent +praise would confer pre-eminent power, and the moment it were +given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men would +immediately covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envy +hate, and with hate calumny and persecution. Our history tells +us that most of the poets and most of the writers who, in the +old time, were favoured with the greatest praise, were also +assailed by the greatest vituperation, and even, on the whole, +87rendered very unhappy, partly by the attacks of jealous rivals, +partly by the diseased mental constitution which an acquired +sensitiveness to praise and to blame tends to engender. As for +the stimulus of want; in the first place, no man in our +community knows the goad of poverty; and, secondly, if he did, +almost every occupation would be more lucrative than writing. + +"Our public libraries contain all the books of the past which +time has preserved; those books, for the reasons above stated, +are infinitely better than any can write nowadays, and they are +open to all to read without cost. We are not such fools as to +pay for reading inferior books, when we can read superior books +for nothing." + +"With us, novelty has an attraction; and a new book, if bad, is +read when an old book, though good, is neglected." + +"Novelty, to barbarous states of society struggling in despair +for something better, has no doubt an attraction, denied to us, +who see nothing to gain in novelties; but after all, it is +observed by one of our great authors four thousand years ago, +that 'he who studies old books will always find in them +something new, and he who reads new books will always find in +them something old.' But to return to the question you have +raised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstaking +labour, whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, such +as have the poetic temperament, no doubt vent it in song, as +you say the bird sings; but for lack of elaborate culture it +fails of an audience, and, failing of an audience, dies out, of +itself, amidst the ordinary avocations of life." + +"But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of +literature do not operate against that of science?" + +"Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of +truth apart from all consideration of fame, and science with us +too is devoted almost solely to practical uses, essential to +our social conversation and the comforts of our daily life. No +88fame is asked by the inventor, and none is given to him; he +enjoys an occupation congenial to his tastes, and needing no +wear and tear of the passions. Man must have exercise for his +mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather than +violent, is best for both. Our most ingenious cultivators of +science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the most +free from disease. Painting is an amusement to many, but the +art is not what it was in former times, when the great painters +in our various communities vied with each other for the prize +of a golden crown, which gave them a social rank equal to that +of the kings under whom they lived. You will thus doubtless +have observed in our archaeological department how superior in +point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago. +Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, more allied to +science than it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable +arts, music is that which flourishes the most amongst us. +Still, even in music the absence of stimulus in praise or fame +has served to prevent any great superiority of one individual +over another; and we rather excel in choral music, with the aid +of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great use +of the agency of water,* than in single performers." + +* This may remind the student of Nero's invention of a musical +machine, by which water was made to perform the part of an +orchestra, and on which he was employed when the conspiracy +against him broke out. + +"We have had scarcely any original composer for some ages. Our +favorite airs are very ancient in substance, but have admitted +many complicated variations by inferior, though ingenious, +musicians." + +"Are there no political societies among the Ana which are +animated by those passions, subjected to those crimes, and +admitting those disparities in condition, in intellect, and in +morality, which the state of your tribe, or indeed of the +Vril-ya generally, has left behind in its progress to +perfection? If so, among such societies perhaps Poetry and her +sister arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?" +89 +"There are such societies in remote regions, but we do not +admit them within the pale of civilised communities; we +scarcely even give them the name of Ana, and certainly not that +of Vril-ya. They are savages, living chiefly in that low stage +of being, Koom-Posh, tending necessarily to its own hideous +dissolution in Glek-Nas. Their wretched existence is passed in +perpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight +with their neighbours, they fight among themselves. They are +divided into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimes +murder each other, and on the most frivolous points of +difference that would be unintelligible to us if we had not +read history, and seen that we too have passed through the same +early state of ignorance and barbarism. Any trifle is +sufficient to set them together by the ears. They pretend to +be all equals, and the more they have struggled to be so, by +removing old distinctions, and starting afresh, the more +glaring and intolerable the disparity becomes, because nothing +in hereditary affections and associations is left to soften the +one naked distinction between the many who have nothing and the +few who have much. Of course the many hate the few, but +without the few they could not live. The many are always +assailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the few; but as +soon as they have done so, a new few starts out of the many, +and is harder to deal with than the old few. For where +societies are large, and competition to have something is the +predominant fever, there must be always many losers and few +gainers. In short, they are savages groping their way in the +dark towards some gleam of light, and would demand our +commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages, they +did not provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and +cruelty. Can you imagine that creatures of this kind, armed +only with such miserable weapons as you may see in our museum +of antiquities, clumsy iron tubes charged with saltpetre, have +more than once threatened with destruction a tribe of the +90Vril-ya, which dwells nearest to them, because they say they +have thirty millions of population- and that tribe may have +fifty thousand- if the latter do not accept their notions of +Soc-Sec (money getting) on some trading principles which they +have the impudence to call 'a law of civilisation'?" + +"But thirty millions of population are formidable odds against +fifty thousand!" + +My host stared at me astonished. "Stranger," said he, "you +could not have heard me say that this threatened tribe belongs +to the Vril-ya; and it only waits for these savages to declare +war, in order to commission some half-a-dozen small children to +sweep away their whole population." + +At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much more +affinity with "the savages" than I did with the Vril-ya, and +remembering all I had said in praise of the glorious American +institutions, which Aph-Lin stigmatised as Koom-Posh. +Recovering my self-possession, I asked if there were modes of +transit by which I could safely visit this temerarious and +remote people. + +"You can travel with safety, by vril agency, either along the +ground or amid the air, throughout all the range of the +communities with which we are allied and akin; but I cannot +vouch for your safety in barbarous nations governed by +different laws from ours; nations, indeed, so benighted, that +there are among them large numbers who actually live by +stealing from each other, and one could not with safety in the +Silent Hours even leave the doors of one's own house open." + +Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee, +who came to inform us that he, having been deputed to discover +and destroy the enormous reptile which I had seen on my first +arrival, had been on the watch for it ever since his visit to +me, and had began to suspect that my eyes had deceived me, or +that the creature had made its way through the cavities within +91the rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its kindred race,- +when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a great +devastation of the herbage bordering one of the lakes. "And," +said Taee, "I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding. +So," (turning to me) "I thought it might amuse you to accompany +me to see the way we destroy such unpleasant visitors." As I +looked at the face of the young child, and called to mind the +enormous size of the creature he proposed to exterminate, I +felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps fear for +myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosity +to witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my +unwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant by +betraying apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my +first impulse. Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteous +consideration for my amusement, and professed my willingness to +set out with him on so diverting an enterprise. + + +Chapter XVIII. + + +As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to the +left the main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the +strange and solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, by +numberless lamps, to the verge of the horizon, fascinated my +eyes, and rendered me for some time an inattentive listener to +the talk of my companion. + +Along our way various operations of agriculture were being +carried on by machinery, the forms of which were new to me, and +for the most part very graceful; for among these people art +being so cultivated for the sake of mere utility, exhibits +itself in adorning or refining the shapes of useful objects. +Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that they +are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most +92commonplace; and their love of utility leads them to beautify +its tools, and quickens their imagination in a way unknown to +themselves. + +In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great use +of automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant to +the operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted with +reason. It was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures I +beheld, apparently guiding or superintending the rapid +movements of vast engines, from human forms endowed with +thought. + +By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention became +roused by the lively and acute remarks of my companion. The +intelligence of the children among this race is marvellously +precocious, perhaps from the habit of having intrusted to them, +at so early an age, the toils and responsibilities of middle +age. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt as if talking +with some superior and observant man of my own years. I asked +him if he could form any estimate of the number of communities +into which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided. + +"Not exactly," he said, "because they multiply, of course, +every year as the surplus of each community is drafted off. +But I heard my father say that, according to the last +report,there were a million and a half of communities speaking +our language, and adopting our institutions and forms of life +and government; but, I believe, with some differences, about +which you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of the +Ana do. An An cares less for things that do not concern him +than a Gy does; the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures." + +"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of +families or amount of population that you do?" + +"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger- +varying according to the extent of the country they +appropriate, or to the degree of excellence to which they have +brought their machinery. Each community sets its own limit +according to circumstances, taking care always that there shall +93never arise any class of poor by the pressure of population +upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no state +shall be too large for a government resembling that of a single +well-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds +thirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the +smaller the community, provided there be hands enough to do +justice to the capacities of the territory it occupies, the +richer each individual is, and the larger the sum contributed +to the general treasury,- above all, the happier and the more +tranquil is the whole political body, and the more perfect the +products of its industry. The state which all tribes of the +Vril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, and +which has brought the vril force to its fullest development, is +perhaps the smallest. It limits itself to four thousand +families; but every inch of its territory is cultivated to the +utmost perfection of garden ground; its machinery excels that +of every other tribe, and there is no product of its industry +in any department which is not sought for, at extraordinary +prices, by each community of our race. All our tribes make +this state their model, considering that we should reach the +highest state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we could +unite the greatest degree of happiness with the highest degree +of intellectual achievement; and it is clear that the smaller +the society the less difficult that will be. Ours is too large +for it." + +This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that little +state of Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, and +which to this day our mightiest nations regard as the supreme +guide and model in all departments of intellect. But then +Athens permitted fierce rivalry and perpetual change, and was +certainly not happy. Rousing myself from the reverie into +which these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our talk +to the subjects connected with emigration. + +"But," said I, "when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among +94you agree to quit home and found a new community elsewhere, +they must necessarily be very few, and scarcely sufficient, +even with the help of the machines they take with them, to +clear the ground, and build towns, and form a civilised state +with the comforts and luxuries in which they had been reared." + +"You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constant +communication with each other, and settle amongst themselves +each year what proportion of one community will unite with the +emigrants of another, so as to form a state of sufficient size; +and the place for emigration is agreed upon at least a year +before, and pioneers sent from each state to level rocks, and +embank waters, and construct houses; so that when the emigrants +at last go, they find a city already made, and a country around +it at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as children make +us take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigrate +myself when of age." + +"Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited and +barren?" + +"As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy +except when necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannot +settle in lands already occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we take +the cultivated lands of the other races of Ana, we must utterly +destroy the previous inhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we take +waste spots, and find that a troublesome, quarrelsome race of +Ana, especially if under the administration of Koom-Posh or +Glek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks a quarrel with us; +then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy it: there +is no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic that it +is always changing the form of government which represents it. +Koom-Posh," said the child, emphatically, "is bad enough, still +it has brains, though at the back of its head, and is not +without a heart; but in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of the +creatures disappear, and they become all jaws, claws, and +belly." + +95"You express yourself strongly. Allow me to inform you that I +myself, and I am proud to say it, am the citizen of a Koom-Posh." + +"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so far +from your home. What was the condition of your native +community before it became a Koom-Posh?" + +"A settlement of emigrants- like those settlements which your +tribe sends forth- but so far unlike your settlements, that it +was dependent on the state from which it came. It shook off +that yoke, and, crowned with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh." + +"Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?" + +"About 100 years." + +"The length of an An's life- a very young community. In much +less than another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas." + +"Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such +faith in its duration, that they are all gradually shaping +their institutions so as to melt into ours, and their most +thoughtful politicians say that, whether they like it or not, +the inevitable tendency of these old states is towards +Koom-Posh-erie." + +"The old states?" + +"Yes, the old states." + +"With populations very small in proportion to the area of +productive land?" + +"On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to +that area." + +"I see! old states indeed!- so old as to become drivelling if +they don't pack off that surplus population as we do ours- very +old states!- very, very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise +for very old men to try to turn head-over-heels as very young +children do? And if you ask them why they attempted such +antics, should you not laugh if they answered that by imitating +very young children they could become very young children +themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort +a great many thousand years ago- and in every instance a very +96old state that played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. +Then, in horror of its own self, it cried out for a master, as +an old man in his dotage cries out for a nurse; and after a +succession of masters or nurses, more or less long, that very +old state died out of history. A very old state attempting +Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the house +to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his +vigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of +rebuilding is to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his +successors whine out, 'How the wind blows! How the walls +shake!'" + +"My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened +prejudices, which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh could +easily controvert, though he might not be so precociously +learned in ancient history as you appear to be." + +"I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated +in your Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather or +great-great-grandmother to stand on his or her head with the +feet uppermost? And if the poor old folks hesitated- say, 'What +do you fear?- see how I do it!'" + +"Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, +I make allowances for your want of that culture which a +Koom-Posh alone can bestow." + +"I, in my turn," answered Taee, with an air of the suave but +lofty good breeding which characterises his race, "not only +make allowances for you as not educated among the Vril-ya, but +I entreat you to vouchsafe me your pardon for the insufficient +respect to the habits and opinions of so amiable a Tish!" + +I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tish +by my host and his family, as being a polite and indeed a pet +name, literally signifying a small barbarian; the children +apply it endearingly to the tame species of Frog which they +keep in their gardens. + +We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to +97point out to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. "The +enemy certainly lies within these waters," said Taee. "Observe +what shoals of fish are crowded together at the margin. Even +the great fishes with the small ones, who are their habitual +prey and who generally shun them, all forget their instincts in +the presence of a common destroyer. This reptile certainly +must belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more devouring +than any other, and are said to be among the few surviving +species of the world's dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were +created. The appetite of a Krek is insatiable- it feeds alike +upon vegetable and animal life; but for the swift-footed +creatures of the elk species it is too slow in its movements. +Its favourite dainty is an An when it can catch him unawares; +and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever it enters +their dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers first +cleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, +abounded, and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race +were devoured. It was impossible to exterminate them wholly +till that discovery which constitutes the power and sustains +the civilisation of our race. But after the uses of vril +became familiar to us, all creatures inimical to us were soon +annihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of these enormous +creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts +beyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who +was bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed +with her staff, it would not have dared even to show itself; +for, like all savage creatures, the reptile has a marvellous +instinct, which warns it against the bearer of the vril wand. +How they teach their young to avoid him, though seen for the +first time, is one of those mysteries which you may ask Zee to +explain, for I cannot.* + +* The reptile in this instinct does but resemble our wild birds +and animals, which will not come in reach of a man armed with +a gun. When the electric wires were first put up, partridges +struck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded. No +younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident. + +98So long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its +lurking-place; but we must now decoy it forth." + +"Will that not be difficult?" + +"Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about one +hundred yards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. In +a short time the reptile will catch sight or scent of you, and +perceiving that you are no vril-bearer, will come forth to +devour you. As soon as it is fairly out of the water, it +becomes my prey." + +"Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to that +horrible monster which could engulf me within its jaws in a +second! I beg to decline." + +The child laughed. "Fear nothing," said he; "only sit still." + +Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was about +to take fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly on +the shoulder, and, fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I was +rooted to the spot. All power of volition left me. Submissive +to the infant's gesture, I followed him to the crag he had +indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most readers +have seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whether +genuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft had +ever been able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, but +I was a mere machine at the will of this terrible child. +Meanwhile he expanded his wings, soared aloft, and alighted +amidst a copse at the brow of a hill at some distance. + +I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable +sensation of horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on its +water, spell-bound. It might be ten or fifteen minutes, to me +it seemed ages, before the still surface, gleaming under the +lamplight, began to be agitated towards the centre. At the +same time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced their +sense of the enemy's approach by splash and leap and bubbling +circle. I could detect their hurried flight hither and +thither, some even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, +99undulous furrow came moving along the waters, nearer and +nearer, till the vast head of the reptile emerged- its jaws +bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing themselves +hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its fore +feet were on the strand- now its enormous breast, scaled on +either side as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugated +skin of a dull venomous yellow; and now its whole length was on +the land, a hundred feet or more from the jaw to the tail. +Another stride of those ghastly feet would have brought it to +the spot where I sat. There was but a moment between me and +this grim form of death, when what seemed a flash of lightning +shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time briefer +than that in which a man can draw his breath, enveloped the +monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me a +blackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but +of which even the outlines of form were burned away, and +rapidly crumbling into dust and ashes. I remained still +seated, still speechless, ice-cold with a new sensation of +dread; what had been horror was now awe. + +I felt the child's hand on my head- fear left me- the spell was +broken- I rose up. "You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroy +their enemies," said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank, +he contemplated the smouldering relics of the monster, and said +quietly, "I have destroyed larger creatures, but none with so +much pleasure. Yes, it IS a Krek; what suffering it must have +inflicted while it lived!" Then he took up the poor fishes that +had flung themselves ashore, and restored them mercifully to +their native element. + + +Chapter XIX. + + +As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitous +way, in order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I will +100call the 'Station,' from which emigrants or travellers to other +communities commence their journeys. I had, on a former +occasion, expressed a wish to see their vehicles. These I +found to be of two kinds, one for land journeys, one for aerial +voyages: the former were of all sizes and forms, some not +larger than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of one +story and containing several rooms, furnished according to the +ideas of comfort or luxury which are entertained by the +Vril-ya. The aerial vehicles were of light substances, not the +least resembling our balloons, but rather our boats and +pleasure-vessels, with helm and rudder, with large wings or +paddles, and a central machine worked by vril. All the +vehicles both for land or air were indeed worked by that potent +and mysterious agency. + +I saw a convoy set out on its journey, but it had few +passengers, containing chiefly articles of merchandise, and was +bound to a neighbouring community; for among all the tribes of +the Vril-ya there is considerable commercial interchange. I +may here observe, that their money currency does not consist of +the precious metals, which are too common among them for that +purpose. The smaller coins in ordinary use are manufactured +from a peculiar fossil shell, the comparatively scarce remnant +of some very early deluge, or other convulsion of nature, by +which a species has become extinct. It is minute, and flat as +an oyster, and takes a jewel-like polish. This coinage +circulates among all the tribes of the Vril-ya. Their larger +transactions are carried on much like ours, by bills of +exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer the purpose of +our bank-notes. + +Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among the +tribe I became acquainted with was very considerable, compared +with the amount of population. But I never heard that any one +grumbled at it, for it was devoted to purposes of universal +utility, and indeed necessary to the civilisation of the tribe. +The cost of lighting so large a range of country, of providing +101for emigration, of maintaining the public buildings at which +the various operations of national intellect were carried on, +from the first education of an infant to the departments in +which the College of Sages were perpetually trying new +experiments in mechanical science; all these involved the +necessity for considerable state funds. To these I must add an +item that struck me as very singular. I have said that all the +human labour required by the state is carried on by children up +to the marriageable age. For this labour the state pays, and +at a rate immeasurably higher than our own remuneration to +labour even in the United States. According to their theory, +every child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age, +and there terminating the period of labour, should have +acquired enough for an independent competence during life. As, +no matter what the disparity of fortune in the parents, all the +children must equally serve, so all are equally paid according +to their several ages or the nature of their work. Where the +parents or friends choose to retain a child in their own +service, they must pay into the public fund in the same ratio +as the state pays to the children it employs; and this sum is +handed over to the child when the period of service expires. +This practice serves, no doubt, to render the notion of social +equality familiar and agreeable; and if it may be said that all +the children form a democracy, no less truly it may be said +that all the adults form an aristocracy. The exquisite +politeness and refinement of manners among the Vril-ya, the +generosity of their sentiments, the absolute leisure they enjoy +for following out their own private pursuits, the amenities of +their domestic intercourse, in which they seem as members of +one noble order that can have no distrust of each other's word +or deed, all combine to make the Vril-ya the most perfect +nobility which a political disciple of Plato or Sidney could +conceive for the ideal of an aristocratic republic. +102 + +Chapter XX. + + +>From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have just +narrated, the child paid me frequent visits. He had taken a +liking to me, which I cordially returned. Indeed, as he was +not yet twelve years old, and had not commenced the course of +scientific studies with which childhood closes in that country, +my intellect was less inferior to his than to that of the elder +members of his race, especially of the Gy-ei, and most +especially of the accomplished Zee. The children of the +Vril-ya, having upon their minds the weight of so many active +duties and grave responsibilities, are not generally mirthful; +but Taee, with all his wisdom, had much of the playful +good-humour one often finds the characteristic of elderly men +of genius. He felt that sort of pleasure in my society which a +boy of a similar age in the upper world has in the company of a +pet dog or monkey. It amused him to try and teach me the ways +of his people, as it amuses a nephew of mine to make his poodle +walk on his hind legs or jump through a hoop. I willingly lent +myself to such experiments, but I never achieved the success of +the poodle. I was very much interested at first in the attempt +to ply the wings which the youngest of the Vril-ya use as +nimbly and easily as ours do their legs and arms; but my +efforts were attended with contusions serious enough to make me +abandon them in despair. + +These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the +knee, and in repose thrown back so as to form a very graceful +mantle. They are composed from the feathers of a gigantic bird +that abounds in the rocky heights of the country- the colour +mostly white, but sometimes with reddish streaks. They are +fastened round the shoulders with light but strong springs of +steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide through loops for +that purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane. +As the arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the vest or +103tunic becomes, by mechanical contrivance inflated with air, +increased or diminished at will by the movement of the arms, +and serving to buoy the whole form as on bladders. The wings +and the balloon-like apparatus are highly charged with vril; +and when the body is thus wafted upward, it seems to become +singularly lightened of its weight. I found it easy enough to +soar from the ground; indeed, when the wings were spread it was +scarcely possible not to soar, but then came the difficulty and +the danger. I utterly failed in the power to use and direct +the pinions, though I am considered among my own race unusually +alert and ready in bodily exercises, and am a very practiced +swimmer. I could only make the most confused and blundering +efforts at flight. I was the servant of the wings; the wings +were not my servants- they were beyond my control; and when by +a violent strain of muscle, and, I must fairly own, in that +abnormal strength which is given by excessive fright, I curbed +their gyrations and brought them near to the body, it seemed as +if I lost the sustaining power stored in them and the +connecting bladders, as when the air is let out of a balloon, +and found myself precipitated again to the earth; saved, +indeed, by some spasmodic flutterings, from being dashed to +pieces, but not saved from the bruises and the stun of a heavy +fall. I would, however, have persevered in my attempts, but +for the advice or the commands of the scientific Zee, who had +benevolently accompanied my flutterings, and, indeed, on the +last occasion, flying just under me, received my form as it +fell on her own expanded wings, and preserved me from breaking +my head on the roof of the pyramid from which we had ascended. + +"I see," she said, "that your trials are in vain, not from the +fault of the wings and their appurtenances, nor from any +imperfectness and malformation of your own corpuscular system, +but from irremediable, because organic, defect in your power of +volition. Learn that the connection between the will and the +agencies of that fluid which has been subjected to the control +104of the Vril-ya was never established by the first discoverers, +never achieved by a single generation; it has gone on +increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as it +has been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, +at last, it has become an instinct; and an infant An of our +race wills to fly as intuitively and unconsciously as he wills +to walk. He thus plies his invented or artificial wings with +as much safety as a bird plies those with which it is born. I +did not think sufficiently of this when I allowed you to try an +experiment which allured me, for I have longed to have in you a +companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life is +becoming dear to me." Herewith the Gy's voice and face +softened, and I felt more seriously alarmed than I had been in +my previous flights. + +Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit +mention of a custom among the Gy-ei which seems to me very +pretty and tender in the sentiment it implies. A Gy wears +wings habitually when yet a virgin- she joins the Ana in their +aerial sports- she adventures alone and afar into the wilder +regions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height of her +soarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, she +excels the opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage she +wears wings no more, she suspends them with her own willing +hand over the nuptial couch, never to be resumed unless the +marriage tie be severed by divorce or death. + +Now when Zee's voice and eyes thus softened- and at that +softening I prophetically recoiled and shuddered- Taee, who had +accompanied us in our flights, but who, child-like, had been +much more amused with my awkwardness, than sympathising in my +fears or aware of my danger, hovered over us, poised amidst +spread wings, and hearing the endearing words of the young Gy, +laughed aloud. Said he, "If the Tish cannot learn the use of +wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you can suspend +your own." + +105 +Chapter XXI. + + +I had for some time observed in my host's highly informed and +powerfully proportioned daughter that kindly and protective +sentiment which, whether above the earth or below it, an +all-wise Providence has bestowed upon the feminine division of +the human race. But until very lately I had ascribed it to +that affection for 'pets' which a human female at every age +shares with a human child. I now became painfully aware that +the feeling with which Zee deigned to regard me was different +from that which I had inspired in Taee. But this conviction +gave me none of that complacent gratification which the vanity +of man ordinarily conceives from a flattering appreciation of +his personal merits on the part of the fair sex; on the +contrary, it inspired me with fear. Yet of all the Gy-ei in +the community, if Zee were perhaps the wisest and the +strongest, she was, by common repute, the gentlest, and she was +certainly the most popularly beloved. The desire to aid, to +succour, to protect, to comfort, to bless, seemed to pervade +her whole being. Though the complicated miseries that +originate in penury and guilt are unknown to the social system +of the Vril-ya, still, no sage had yet discovered in vril an +agency which could banish sorrow from life; and wherever +amongst her people sorrow found its way, there Zee followed in +the mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy fail to secure +the love she sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought all +the resources of her lore, and all the consolations of her +sympathy, to bear upon a grief that so needs the solace of a +confidant. In the rare cases, when grave illness seized upon +childhood or youth, and the cases, less rare, when, in the +hardy and adventurous probation of infants, some accident, +attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studies +and her sports, and became the healer and nurse. Her favourite +106flights were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain +where children were stationed on guard against outbreaks of +warring forces in nature, or the invasions of devouring animals, +so that she might warn them of any peril which her knowledge +detected or foresaw, or be at hand if any harm had befallen. +Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements there +was a concurrent benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learn +any novelty in invention that would be useful to the +practitioner of some special art or craft? she hastened to +communicate and explain it. Was some veteran sage of the +College perplexed and wearied with the toil of an abstruse +study? she would patiently devote herself to his aid, work out +details for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile, +quicken his wit with her luminous suggestion, be to him, as it +were, his own good genius made visible as the strengthener and +inspirer. The same tenderness she exhibited to the inferior +creatures. I have often known her bring home some sick and +wounded animal, and tend and cherish it as a mother would tend +and cherish her stricken child. Many a time when I sat in the +balcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I have +watched her rising in the air on her radiant wings, and in a few +moments groups of infants below, catching sight of her, would +soar upward with joyous sounds of greeting; clustering and +sporting around her, so that she seemed a very centre of +innocent delight. When I have walked with her amidst the rocks +and valleys without the city, the elk-deer would scent or see +her from afar, come bounding up, eager for the caress of her +hand, or follow her footsteps, till dismissed by some musical +whisper that the creature had learned to comprehend. It is the +fashion among the virgin Gy-ei to wear on their foreheads a +circlet, or coronet, with gems resembling opals, arranged in +four points or rays like stars. These are lustreless in +ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand they take a clear +lambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This serves as +an ornament in their festivities, and as a lamp, if, in +107their wanderings beyond their artificial lights, they have +to traverse the dark. There are times, when I have seen Zee's +thoughtful majesty of face lighted up by this crowning halo, +that I could scarcely believe her to be a creature of mortal +birth, and bent my head before her as the vision of a being among +the celestial orders. But never once did my heart feel for this +lofty type of the noblest womanhood a sentiment of human love. +Is it that, among the race I belong to, man's pride so far +influences his passions that woman loses to him her special charm +of woman if he feels her to be in all things eminently superior +to himself? But by what strange infatuation could this peerless +daughter of a race which, in the supremacy of its powers and the +felicity of its conditions, ranked all other races in the category +of barbarians, have deigned to honour me with her preference? In +personal qualifications, though I passed for good-looking amongst +the people I came from, the handsomest of my countrymen might have +seemed insignificant and homely beside the grand and serene type +of beauty which characterised the aspect of the Vril-ya. + +That novelty, the very difference between myself and those to +whom Zee was accustomed, might serve to bias her fancy was +probable enough, and as the reader will see later, such a cause +might suffice to account for the predilection with which I was +distinguished by a young Gy scarcely out of her childhood, and +very inferior in all respects to Zee. But whoever will +consider those tender characteristics which I have just +ascribed to the daughter of Aph-Lin, may readily conceive that +the main cause of my attraction to her was in her instinctive +desire to cherish, to comfort, to protect, and, in protecting, +to sustain and to exalt. Thus, when I look back, I account for +the only weakness unworthy of her lofty nature, which bowed the +daughter of the Vril-ya to a woman's affection for one so +inferior to herself as was her father's guest. But be the +cause what it may, the consciousness that I had inspired such +108affection thrilled me with awe- a moral awe of her very +imperfections, of her mysterious powers, of the inseparable +distinctions between her race and my own; and with that awe, I +must confess to my shame, there combined the more material and +ignoble dread of the perils to which her preference would +expose me. + +Under these anxious circumstances, fortunately, my conscience +and sense of honour were free from reproach. It became clearly +my duty, if Zee's preference continued manifest, to intimate it +to my host, with, of course, all the delicacy which is ever to +be preserved by a well-bred man in confiding to another any +degree of favour by which one of the fair sex may condescend to +distinguish him. Thus, at all events, I should be freed from +responsibility or suspicion of voluntary participation in the +sentiments of Zee; and the superior wisdom of my host might +probably suggest some sage extrication from my perilous +dilemma. In this resolve I obeyed the ordinary instinct of +civilised and moral man, who, erring though he be, still +generally prefers the right course in those cases where it is +obviously against his inclinations, his interests, and his +safety to elect the wrong one. + + +Chapter XXII. + + +As the reader has seen, Aph-Lin had not favoured my general and +unrestricted intercourse with his countrywomen. Though relying +on my promise to abstain from giving any information as to the +109world I had left, and still more on the promise of those to +whom had been put the same request, not to question me, which +Zee had exacted from Taee, yet he did not feel sure that, if I +were allowed to mix with the strangers whose curiosity the +sight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard myself +against their inquiries. When I went out, therefore, it was +never alone; I was always accompanied either by one of my +host's family, or my child-friend Taee. Bra, Aph-Lin's wife, +seldom stirred beyond the gardens which surrounded the house, +and was fond of reading the ancient literature, which contained +something of romance and adventure not to be found in the +writings of recent ages, and presented pictures of a life +unfamiliar to her experience and interesting to her +imagination; pictures, indeed, of a life more resembling that +which we lead every day above ground, coloured by our sorrows, +sins, passions, and much to her what the tales of the Genii or +the Arabian Nights are to us. But her love of reading did not +prevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as mistress of the +largest household in the city. She went daily the round of the +chambers, and saw that the automata and other mechanical +contrivances were in order, that the numerous children employed +by Aph-Lin, whether in his private or public capacity, were +carefully tended. Bra also inspected the accounts of the whole +estate, and it was her great delight to assist her husband in +the business connected with his office as chief administrator +of the Lighting Department, so that her avocations necessarily +kept her much within doors. The two sons were both completing +their education at the College of Sages; and the elder, who had +a strong passion for mechanics, and especially for works +connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, had +decided on devoting himself to these pursuits, and was now +occupied in constructing a shop or warehouse, at which his +inventions could be exhibited and sold. The younger son +110preferred farming and rural occupations; and when not attending +the College, at which he chiefly studied the theories of +agriculture, was much absorbed by his practical application of +that science to his father's lands. It will be seen by this +how completely equality of ranks is established among this +people- a shopkeeper being of exactly the same grade in +estimation as the large landed proprietor. Aph-Lin was the +wealthiest member of the community, and his eldest son +preferred keeping a shop to any other avocation; nor was this +choice thought to show any want of elevated notions on his part. + +This young man had been much interested in examining my watch, +the works of which were new to him, and was greatly pleased +when I made him a present of it. Shortly after, he returned +the gift with interest, by a watch of his own construction, +marking both the time as in my watch and the time as kept among +the Vril-ya. I have that watch still, and it has been much +admired by many among the most eminent watchmakers of London +and Paris. It is of gold, with diamond hands and figures, and +it plays a favorite tune among the Vril-ya in striking the +hours: it only requires to be wound up once in ten months, and +has never gone wrong since I had it. These young brothers +being thus occupied, my usual companions in that family, when I +went abroad, were my host or his daughter. Now, agreeably with +the honourable conclusions I had come to, I began to excuse +myself from Zee's invitations to go out alone with her, and +seized an occasion when that learned Gy was delivering a +lecture at the College of Sages to ask Aph-Lin to show me his +country-seat. As this was at some little distance, and as +Aph-Lin was not fond of walking, while I had discreetly +relinquished all attempts at flying, we proceeded to our +destination in one of the aerial boats belonging to my host. A +child of eight years old, in his employ, was our conductor. My +host and myself reclined on cushions, and I found the movement +very easy and luxurious. + +111"Aph-Lin," said I, "you will not, I trust, be displeased with +me, if I ask your permission to travel for a short time, and +visit other tribes or communities of your illustrious race. I +have also a strong desire to see those nations which do not +adopt your institutions, and which you consider as savages. It +would interest me greatly to notice what are the distinctions +between them and the races whom we consider civilised in the +world I have left." + +"It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone," said +Aph-Lin. "Even among the Vril-ya you would be exposed to great +dangers. Certain peculiarities of formation and colour, and +the extraordinary phenomenon of hirsute bushes upon your cheeks +and chin, denoting in you a species of An distinct alike from +our own race and any known race of barbarians yet extant, would +attract, of course, the special attention of the College of +Sages in whatever community of Vril-ya you visited, and it +would depend upon the individual temper of some individual sage +whether you would be received, as you have been here, +hospitably, or whether you would not be at once dissected for +scientific purposes. Know that when the Tur first took you to +his house, and while you were there put to sleep by Taee in +order to recover from your previous pain or fatigue, the sages +summoned by the Tur were divided in opinion whether you were a +harmless or an obnoxious animal. During your unconscious state +your teeth were examined, and they clearly showed that you were +not only graminivorous but carnivorous. Carnivorous animals of +your size are always destroyed, as being of savage and +dangerous nature. Our teeth, as you have doubtless observed,* +are not those of the creatures who devour flesh." + +* I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist +enough to have distinguished the difference. + +"It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, that +as, in remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living beings of the +brute species, their teeth must have been fitted for that +purpose. But, even if so, they have been modified by +112hereditary transmission, and suited to the food on which we now +exist; nor are even the barbarians, who adopt the turbulent and +ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh like +beasts of prey. + +"In the course of this dispute it was proposed to dissect you; +but Taee begged you off, and the Tur being, by office, averse +to all novel experiments at variance with our custom of sparing +life, except where it is clearly proved to be for the good of +the community to take it, sent to me, whose business it is, as +the richest man of the state, to afford hospitality to +strangers from a distance. It was at my option to decide +whether or not you were a stranger whom I could safely admit. +Had I declined to receive you, you would have been handed over +to the College of Sages, and what might there have befallen you +I do not like to conjecture. Apart from this danger, you might +chance to encounter some child of four years old, just put in +possession of his vril staff; and who, in alarm at your strange +appearance, and in the impulse of the moment, might reduce you +to a cinder. Taee himself was about to do so when he first saw +you, had his father not checked his hand. Therefore I say you +cannot travel alone, but with Zee you would be safe; and I have +no doubt that she would accompany you on a tour round the +neighbouring communities of Vril-ya (to the savage states, +No!): I will ask her." + +Now, as my main object in proposing to travel was to escape +from Zee, I hastily exclaimed, "Nay, pray do not! I relinquish +my design. You have said enough as to its dangers to deter me +from it; and I can scarcely think it right that a young Gy of +the personal attractions of your lovely daughter should travel +into other regions without a better protector than a Tish of my +insignificant strength and stature." + +Aph-Lin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearest +approach to laughter that a full-grown An permits to himself, +ere he replied: "Pardon my discourteous but momentary +indulgence of mirth at any observation seriously made by my +113guest. I could not but be amused at the idea of Zee, who is so +fond of protecting others that children call her 'THE +GUARDIAN,' needing a protector herself against any dangers +arising from the audacious admiration of males. Know that our +Gy-ei, while unmarried, are accustomed to travel alone among +other tribes, to see if they find there some An who may please +them more than the Ana they find at home. Zee has already made +three such journeys, but hitherto her heart has been untouched." + +Here the opportunity which I sought was afforded to me, and I +said, looking down, and with faltering voice, "Will you, my +kind host, promise to pardon me, if what I am about to say +gives offence?" + +"Say only the truth, and I cannot be offended; or, could I be +so, it would not be for me, but for you to pardon." + +"Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should have +like to witness more of the wonders, and enjoy more of the +felicity, which belong to your people, let me return to my +own." + +"I fear there are reasons why I cannot do that; at all events, +not without permission of the Tur, and he, probably, would not +grant it. You are not destitute of intelligence; you may +(though I do not think so) have concealed the degree of +destructive powers possessed by your people; you might, in +short, bring upon us some danger; and if the Tur entertains +that idea, it would clearly be his duty, either to put an end +to you, or enclose you in a cage for the rest of your +existence. But why should you wish to leave a state of society +which you so politely allow to be more felicitous than your +own?" + +"Oh, Aph-Lin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, and +unwittingly, I should betray your hospitality; lest, in the +caprice of will which in our world is proverbial among the +other sex, and from which even a Gy is not free, your adorable +daughter should deign to regard me, though a Tish, as if I were +a civilised An, and- and- and---" +114 +"Court you as her spouse," put in Aph-Lin, gravely, and without +any visible sign of surprise or displeasure. + +"You have said it." + +"That would be a misfortune," resumed my host, after a pause, +"and I feel you have acted as you ought in warning me. It is, +as you imply, not uncommon for an unwedded Gy to conceive +tastes as to the object she covets which appear whimsical to +others; but there is no power to compel a young Gy to any +course opposed to that which she chooses to pursue. All we can +to is to reason with her, and experience tells us that the +whole College of Sages would find it vain to reason with a Gy +in a matter that concerns her choice in love. I grieve for +you, because such a marriage would be against the A-glauran, or +good of the community, for the children of such a marriage +would adulterate the race: they might even come into the world +with the teeth of carnivorous animals; this could not be +allowed: Zee, as a Gy, cannot be controlled; but you, as a +Tish, can be destroyed. I advise you, then, to resist her +addresses; to tell her plainly that you can never return her +love. This happens constantly. Many an An, however, ardently +wooed by one Gy, rejects her, and puts an end to her +persecution by wedding another. The same course is open to +you." + +"No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring the +community, and exposing it to the chance of rearing carnivorous +children." + +"That is true. All I can say, and I say it with the tenderness +due to a Tish, and the respect due to a guest, is frankly this- +if you yield, you will become a cinder. I must leave it to you +to take the best way you can to defend yourself. Perhaps you +had better tell Zee that she is ugly. That assurance on the +lips of him she woos generally suffices to chill the most +ardent Gy. Here we are at my country-house." +115 + +Chapter XXIII. + + +I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extreme +coolness with which he stated his inability to control the +dangerous caprice of his daughter, and treated the idea of the +reduction into a cinder to which her amorous flame might expose +my too seductive person, took away the pleasure I should +otherwise have had in the contemplation of my host's +country-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machinery +by which his farming operations were conducted. The house +differed in appearance from the massive and sombre building +which Aph-Lin inhabited in the city, and which seemed akin to +the rocks out of which the city itself had been hewn into +shape. The walls of the country-seat were composed by trees +placed a few feet apart from each other, the interstices being +filled in with the transparent metallic substance which serves +the purpose of glass among the Ana. These trees were all in +flower, and the effect was very pleasing, if not in the best +taste. We were received at the porch by life-like automata, +who conducted us into a chamber, the like to which I never saw +before, but have often on summer days dreamily imagined. It +was a bower- half room, half garden. The walls were one mass +of climbing flowers. The open spaces, which we call windows, +and in which, here, the metallic surfaces were slided back, +commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape with its +lakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering to +our conservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along the +sides of the room were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions +for repose. In the centre of the floor was a cistern and a +fountain of that liquid light which I have presumed to be +naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate hue; it sufficed +without lamps to light up the room with a subdued radiance. +All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, +not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of +116this country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with +the same sense of relief as that with which in the upper world +it reposes on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I have +compared to our conservatories) there were singing birds +innumerable, which, while we remained in the room, sang in +those harmonies of tune to which they are, in these parts, so +wonderfully trained. The roof was open. The whole scene had +charms for every sense- music form the birds, fragrance from +the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect. +About all was a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, +for a honeymoon, if a Gy bride were a little less formidably +armed not only with the rights of woman, but with the powers of +man! But when one thinks of a Gy, so learned, so tall, so +stately, so much above the standard of the creature we call +woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of being +reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in +that bower so constructed for dreams of poetic love. + +The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids +which form the innocent wines of the Vril-ya. + +"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I can +scarcely conceive why you do not settle yourself here instead +of amid the gloomier abodes of the city." + +"As responsible to the community for the administration of +light, I am compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can +only come hither for short intervals." + +"But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to +your office, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept +it?" + +"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He +said, 'Be it requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner +of Light,' so I had no choice; but having held the office now +for a long time, the cares, which were at first unwelcome, have +become, if not pleasing, at least endurable. We are all formed +by custom- even the difference of our race from the savage is +but the transmitted continuance of custom, which becomes, +117through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You +see there are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the +responsibilities of chief magistrate, but no one would do so if +his duties had not been rendered so light, or if there were any +questions as to compliance with his requests." + +"Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?" + +"We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything +goes on as if each and all governed themselves according to +immemorial custom." + +"When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide +for his successor?" + +"The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for +many years is the best person to choose one by whom those +duties may be understood, and he generally names his +successor." + +"His son, perhaps?" + +"Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, +and a father naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if +the Tur himself decline to make a choice, for fear it might be +supposed that he owed some grudge to the person on whom his +choice would settle, then there are three of the College of +Sages who draw lots among themselves which shall have the power +to elect the chief. We consider that the judgment of one An of +ordinary capacity is better than the judgment of three or more, +however wise they may be; for among three there would probably +be disputes, and where there are disputes, passion clouds +judgment. The worst choice made by one who has no motive in +choosing wrong, is better than the best choice made by many who +have many motives for not choosing right." + +"You reverse in your policy the maxims adopted in my country." + +"Are you all, in your country, satisfied with your governors?" + +"All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are +sure to be those most displeasing to others." + +"Then our system is better than yours." +118 +"For you it may be; but according to our system a Tish could +not be reduced to a cinder if a female compelled him to marry +her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my native world." + +"Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can't compel you to +marry her. She can only entice you to do so. Don't be +enticed. Come and look round my domain." + +We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though the +Ana keep no stock for food, there are some animals which they +rear for milking and others for shearing. The former have no +resemblance to our cows, nor the latter to our sheep, nor do I +believe such species exist amongst them. They use the milk of +three varieties of animal: one resembles the antelope, but is +much larger, being as tall as a camel; the other two are +smaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other, +resemble no creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleek +and of rounded proportions; their colour that of the dappled +deer, with very mild countenances and beautiful dark eyes. The +milk of these three creatures differs in richness and taste. +It is usually diluted with water, and flavoured with the juice +of a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itself is very +nutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves them +for clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italian +she-goat than any other creature, but is considerably larger, +has no horns, and is free from the displeasing odour of our +goats. Its fleece is not thick, but very long and fine; it +varies in colour, but is never white, more generally of a +slate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it is usually worn +dyed to suit the taste of the wearer. These animals were +exceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care and +affection by the children (chiefly female) who tended them. + +We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and +fruits. I may here observe that the main staple of food among +these people consists- firstly, of a kind of corn much larger +119in ear than our wheat, and which by culture is perpetually +being brought into new varieties of flavour; and, secondly, of +a fruit of about the size of a small orange, which, when +gathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for many +months in their warehouses, and then becomes succulent and +tender. Its juice, which is of dark-red colour, enters into +most of their sauces. They have many kinds of fruit of the +nature of the olive, from which delicious oils are extracted. +They have a plant somewhat resembling the sugar-cane, but its +juices are less sweet and of a delicate perfume. They have no +bees nor honey-making insects, but they make much use of a +sweet gum that oozes from a coniferous plant, not unlike the +araucaria. Their soil teems also with esculent roots and +vegetables, which it is the aim of their culture to improve and +vary to the utmost. And I never remember any meal among this +people, however it might be confined to the family household, +in which some delicate novelty in such articles of food was not +introduced. In fine, as I before observed, their cookery is +exquisite, so diversified and nutritious that one does not miss +animal food; and their own physical forms suffice to show that +with them, at least, meat is not required for superior +production of muscular fibre. They have no grapes- the drinks +extracted from their fruits are innocent and refreshing. Their +staple beverage, however, is water, in the choice of which they +are very fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightest +impurity. + +"My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our +produce," said Aph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses, +"and therefore will inherit these lands, which constitute the +chief part of my wealth. To my elder son such inheritance +would be a great trouble and affliction." + +"Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of +vast wealth would be a great trouble and affliction?" + +"Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do not +120consider that a fortune much above the average is a heavy +burden. We are rather a lazy people after the age of +childhood, and do not like undergoing more cares than we can +help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. For +instance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of us +like and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a +continued interest in the affairs of any of our poorer +countrymen, so that we may anticipate their wants and see that +none fall into poverty. There is an old proverb amongst us +which says, 'The poor man's need is the rich man's shame---'" + +"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that +some, even of the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief." + +"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a +Koom-Posh, THAT is impossible with us, unless an An has, by +some extraordinary process, got rid of all his means, cannot or +will not emigrate, and has either tired out the affectionate +aid of this relations or personal friends, or refuses to accept +it." + +"Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant or +automaton, and become a labourer- a servant?" + +"No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsound +reason, and place him, at the expense of the State, in a public +building, where every comfort and every luxury that can +mitigate his affliction are lavished upon him. But an An does +not like to be considered out of his mind, and therefore such +cases occur so seldom that the public building I speak of is +now a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An whom I +recollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seem +conscious of loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When I +spoke of wants, I meant such wants as an An with desires larger +than his means sometimes entertains- for expensive +singing-birds, or bigger houses, or country-gardens; and the +obvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of him something +that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, are +121obliged to buy a great many things they do not require, and +live on a very large scale where they might prefer to live on a +small one. For instance, the great size of my house in the +town is a source of much trouble to my wife, and even to +myself; but I am compelled to have it thus incommodiously +large, because, as the richest An of the community, I am +appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities +when they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year, +when certain periodical entertainments are held, and when +relations scattered throughout all the realms of the Vril-ya +joyfully reunite for a time. This hospitality, on a scale so +extensive, is not to my taste, and therefore I should have been +happier had I been less rich. But we must all bear the lot +assigned to us in this short passage through time that we call +life. After all, what are a hundred years, more or less, to +the ages through which we must pass hereafter? Luckily, I have +one son who likes great wealth. It is a rare exception to the +general rule, and I own I cannot myself understand it." + +After this conversation I sought to return to the subject which +continued to weigh on my heart- viz., the chances of escape +from Zee. But my host politely declined to renew that topic, +and summoned our air-boat. On our way back we were met by Zee, +who, having found us gone, on her return from the College of +Sages, had unfurled her wings and flown in search of us. + +Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as she +beheld me, and, poising herself beside the boat on her large +outspread plumes, she said reproachfully to Aph-Lin- "Oh, +father, was it right in you to hazard the life of your guest in +a vehicle to which he is so unaccustomed? He might, by an +incautious movement, fall over the side; and alas; he is not +like us, he has no wings. It were death to him to fall. Dear +one!" (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softer +voice), "have you no thought of me, that you should thus hazard +122a life which has become almost a part of mine? Never again be +thus rash, unless I am thy companion. What terror thou hast +stricken into me!" + +I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that he +would indignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of +anxiety and affection, which, under all the circumstances, +would, in the world above ground, be considered immodest in the +lips of a young female, addressed to a male not affianced to +her, even if of the same rank as herself. + +But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, and +so absolutely foremost among those rights do females claim the +privilege of courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thought +of reproving his virgin daughter than he would have thought of +disobeying the orders of the Tur. In that country, custom, as +he implied, is all in all. + +He answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my +belief the he can take very good care of himself." + +"I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. +Oh, heart of my heart, it was in the thought of thy danger that +I first felt how much I loved thee!" + +Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These +words were spoken loud in the hearing of Zee's father- in the +hearing of the child who steered. I blushed with shame for +them, and for her, and could not help replying angrily: "Zee, +either you mock me, which, as your father's guest, misbecomes +you, or the words you utter are improper for a maiden Gy to +address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed her +with the consent of her parents. How much more improper to +address them to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your +affections, and who can never regard you with other sentiments +than those of reverence and awe!" + +Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. + +123"Be not so cruel!" exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. +"Can love command itself where it is truly felt? Do you suppose +that a maiden Gy will conceal a sentiment that it elevates her +to feel? What a country you must have come from!" + +Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tish-a the +rights of your sex do not appear to be established, and at all +events my guest may converse with you more freely if unchecked +by the presence of others." + +To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender +reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward. + +"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I said +bitterly, "in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me." + +"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her +love affairs is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel +to come between her and her affections." + + +Chapter XXIV. + + +On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in the +hall with a request that he would be present at the funeral +obsequies of a relation who had recently departed from that +nether world. + +Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst this +people, and, glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion to +defer an encounter with Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might be +permitted to witness with him the interment of his relation; +unless, indeed, it were regarded as one of those sacred +ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not be +admitted. + +"The departure of an An to a happier world," answered my host, +"when, as in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long in +124this as to have lost pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful +though quiet festival than a sacred ceremony, and you may +accompany me if you will." + +Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main street +to a house at some little distance, and, entering the hall, +were conducted to a room on the ground floor, where we found +several persons assembled round a couch on which was laid the +deceased. It was an old man, who had, as I was told, lived +beyond his 130th year. To judge by the calm smile on his +countenance, he had passed away without suffering. One of the +sons, who was now the head of the family, and who seemed in +vigorous middle life, though he was considerably more than +seventy, stepped forward with a cheerful face and told Aph-Lin +"that the day before he died his father had seen in a dream his +departed Gy, and was eager to be reunited to her, and restored +to youth beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good." + +While these two were talking, my attention was drawn to a dark +metallic substance at the farther end of the room. It was +about twenty feet in length, narrow in proportion, and all +closed round, save, near the roof, there were small round holes +through which might be seen a red light. From the interior +emanated a rich and sweet perfume; and while I was conjecturing +what purpose this machine was to serve, all the time-pieces in +the town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and +as that sound ceased, music of a more joyous character, but +still of a joy subdued and tranquil, rang throughout the +chamber, and from the walls beyond, in a choral peal. +Symphonious with the melody, those in the room lifted their +voices in chant. The words of this hymn were simple. They +expressed no regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to the +new world whither the deceased had preceded the living. +Indeed, in their language, the funeral hymn is called the +'Birth Song.' Then the corpse, covered by a long cerement, was +tenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk and borne +towards the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward to +125see what happened. A sliding door or panel at one end was +lifted up- the body deposited within, on a shelf- the door +reclosed- a spring a the side touched- a sudden 'whishing,' +sighing sound heard from within; and lo! at the other end of +the machine the lid fell down, and a small handful of +smouldering dust dropped into a 'patera' placed to receive it. +The son took up the 'patera' and said (in what I understood +afterwards was the usual form of words), "Behold how great is +the Maker! To this little dust He gave form and life and soul. +It needs not this little dust for Him to renew form and life +and soul to the beloved one we shall soon see again." + +Each present bowed his head and pressed his hand to his heart. +Then a young female child opened a small door within the wall, +and I perceived, in the recess, shelves on which were placed +many 'paterae' like that which the son held, save that they all +had covers. With such a cover a Gy now approached the son, and +placed it over the cup, on which it closed with a spring. On +the lid were engraven the name of the deceased, and these +words:- "Lent to us" (here the date of birth). "Recalled from +us" (here the date of death). + +The closed door shut with a musical sound, and all was over. + + +Chapter XXV. + + +"And this," said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed- +"this, I presume, is your usual form of burial?" + +"Our invariable form," answered Aph-Lin. "What is it amongst +your people?" + +"We inter the body whole within the earth." + +"What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the +wife on whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of +corruption?" +126 +"But if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body +waste within the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism, +worked, no doubt by the agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?" + +"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on a +matter of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and +repulsive, and would serve to invest death with gloomy and +hideous associations. It is something, too, to my mind, to be +able to preserve the token of what has been our kinsman or +friend within the abode in which we live. We thus feel more +sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But +our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by +custom. Custom is not to be changed by a wise An, any more +than it is changed by a wise Community, without the greatest +deliberation, followed by the most earnest conviction. It is +only thus that change ceases to be changeability, and once made +is made for good. + +When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the +children in his service and sent them round to several of his +friends, requesting their attendance that day, during the Easy +Hours, to a festival in honour of his kinsman's recall to the +All-Good. This was the largest and gayest assembly I ever +witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was prolonged far +into the Silent Hours. + +The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially +for grand occasions. This differed from our entertainments, +and was not without a certain resemblance to those we read of +in the luxurious age of the Roman empire. There was not one +great table set out, but numerous small tables, each +appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond +that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The +Ana never laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the +cheerful ring of their voices at the various tables betokened +gaiety of intercourse. As they have no stimulant drinks, and +are temperate in food, though so choice and dainty, the banquet +itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor, +127and then came musical entertainments for those who liked them. +Many, however, wandered away:- some of the younger ascended in +their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; +others strolled through the various apartments, examining the +curiosities with which they were stored, or formed themselves +into groups for various games, the favourite of which is a +complicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed +with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the conversation +by the constant companionship of one or the other of my host's +sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The +guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown +accustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets, +and I had ceased to excite much curiosity. + +To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to +excite my jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome +young An, who (though, as is the modest custom of the males +when addressed by females, he answered with downcast eyes and +blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young ladies new to +the world are in most civilised countries, except England and +America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and ready +to falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed. +Fervently hoping that she would, and more and more averse to +the idea of reduction to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity +with which a human body can be hurried into a pinch of dust, I +amused myself by watching the manners of the other young +people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was no +singular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever I +turned my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy +was the wooing party, and the An the coy and reluctant one. +The pretty innocent airs which an An gave himself on being thus +courted, the dexterity with which he evaded direct answers to +professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering +compliments addressed to him, would have done honour to the +128most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were +subjected greatly to these seductive influences, and both +acquitted themselves with wonderful honour to their tact and +self-control. + +I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments +to the management of a great property, and who was of an +eminently philosophical temperament,- "I find it difficult to +conceive how at your age, and with all the intoxicating effects +on the senses, of music and lights and perfumes, you can be so +cold to that impassioned young Gy who has just left you with +tears in her eyes at your cruelty." + +The young An replied with a sigh, "Gentle Tish, the greatest +misfortune in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with +another." + +"Oh! You are in love with another?" + +"Alas! Yes." + +"And she does not return your love?" + +"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but +she has never plainly told me that she loves me." + +"Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?" + +"Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from? +Could I so betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly- +so lost to shame, as to own love to a Gy who has not first +owned hers to me?" + +"Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of +your sex so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, 'I love +you,' till she says it first to him?" + +"I can't say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does, +he is disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised +by the Gy-ei. No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she +would consider that he audaciously infringed on the rights of +her sex, while outraging the modesty which dignifies his own. +It is very provoking," continued the An, "for she whom I love +has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but think she +likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me +because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as +129to the surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really +love me, for where a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights." + +"Is this young Gy present?" + +"Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother." + +I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided, +and saw a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this +people is a sign that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She +wears gray, a neutral tint, to indicate that she is looking +about for a spouse; dark purple if she wishes to intimate that +she has made a choice; purple and orange when she is betrothed +or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, and +would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen. + +Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is +difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young +friend's choice seemed to me to possess the average of good +looks; but there was an expression in her face that pleased me +more than did the faces of the young Gy-ei generally, because +it looked less bold- less conscious of female rights. I +observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from time +to time, sidelong at my young friend. + +"Courage," said I, "that young Gy loves you." + +"Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?" + +"Your mother is aware of your attachment?" + +"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to +confide such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he +may have told it again to his wife." + +"Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind +your mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about +you. Do not hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself +to be questioned till I rejoin you." + +The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly +on the head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole +unobserved behind his mother and his beloved. I overheard +their talk. +130 +Bra was speaking; said she, "There can be no doubt of this: +either my son, who is of marriageable age, will be decoyed into +marriage with one of his many suitors, or he will join those +who emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. If +you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should propose." + +"I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win +his affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces; +and I am not like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not +enter into his favourite pursuits, and then he would get tired +of me, and at the end of three years divorce me, and I could +never marry another- never." + +"It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be +so necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for +timepieces, that he would rather give up the timepieces than +divorce his Gy. You see, my dear Lo," continued Bra, "that +precisely because we are the stronger sex, we rule the other +provided we never show our strength. If you were superior to +my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as his +wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that +art to yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the +Gy in all except his own special pursuit. But if she either +excels him in that, or affects not to admire him for his +proficiency in it, he will not love her very long; perhaps he +may even divorce her. But where a Gy really loves, she soon +learns to love all that the An does." + +The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down +musingly, then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still +silent, and went through the crowd till she paused by the young +An who loved her. I followed her steps, but discreetly stood +at a little distance while I watched them. Somewhat to my +surprise, till I recollected the coy tactics among the Ana, the +lover seemed to receive her advances with an air of +indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps, +131and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished +amid the luminous space above. + +Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled +with the crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or +homage. It so happened that I had not seen this great +dignitary since the day I had entered his dominions, and +recalling Aph-Lin's words as to his terrible doubt whether or +not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the sight +of his tranquil countenance. + +"I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee," said the Tur, +laying his hand politely on my bended head. "He is very fond +of your society, and I trust you are not displeased with the +customs of our people." + +I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be +an assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received +from the Tur, and my admiration of his countrymen, but the +dissecting-knife gleamed before my mind's eye and choked my +utterance. A softer voice said, "My brother's friend must be +dear to me." And looking up I saw a young Gy, who might be +sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and gazing at +me with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to her +full growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about 5 +feet 10 inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutive +stature, I thought her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I +suppose something in my eyes revealed that impression, for her +countenance grew yet more benignant. +"Taee tells me," she said, "that you have not yet learned to +accustom yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should have +liked to fly with you." + +"Alas!" I replied, "I can never hope to enjoy that happiness. +I am assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary +gift, and it would take generations before one of my race could +poise himself in the air like a bird." + +132"Let not that thought vex you too much," replied this amiable +Princess, "for, after all, there must come a day when Zee and +myself must resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that day +comes we might be glad if the An we chose was also without +wings." + +The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began +to feel at ease with Taee's charming sister, and rather +startled her by the boldness of my compliment in replying, +"that no An she could choose would ever use his wings to fly +away from her." It is so against custom for an An to say such +civil things to a Gy till she has declared her passion for him, +and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young maiden stood +quite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she did not +seem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me to +accompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen to +the songs of the birds. I followed her steps as she glided +before me, and she led me into a chamber almost deserted. A +fountain of naphtha was playing in the centre of the room; +round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls of the room +were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds were +chanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of +the divans, and I placed myself at her side. "Taee tells me," +she said, "that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house that +you are not to be questioned as to the country you come from or +the reason why you visit us. Is it so?" + +* Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words +synonymous with law, as implying forcible obligation, are +avoided by this singular people. Even had it been decreed by +the Tur that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decree +would have ran blandly thus,- "Be it requested that, for the +good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to +submit himself to dissection." + +"It is." + +"May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at +least if the Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colour +as yourself, and no taller?" + +"I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of +Aph-Lin, which is more binding on myself than any one, if I +133answer questions so innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are much +fairer of hue than I am, and their average height is at least a +head shorter than mine." + +"They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I +suppose their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary +disadvantage of size?" + +"They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still +they are very powerful in my country, and an An has small +chance of a happy life if he be not more or less governed by +his Gy." + +"You speak feelingly," said Taee's sister, in a tone of voice +half sad, half petulant. "You are married, of course." + +"No- certainly not." + +"Nor betrothed?" + +"Nor betrothed." + +"Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?" + +"In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first." + +"What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!" said the maiden, +"and what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed, +never loved one Gy more than another?" + +I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, +"Pardon me, but I think we are beginning to infringe upon +Aph-Lin's injunction. This much only will I answer, and then, +I implore you, ask no more. I did once feel the preference you +speak of; I did propose, and the Gy would willingly have +accepted me, but her parents refused their consent." + +"Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can +interfere with the choice of their daughters?" + +"Indeed they can, and do very often." + +"I should not like to live in that country, said the Gy simply; +"but I hope you will never go back to it." + +I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with +her right hand, and looked into it tenderly. "Stay with us," +she said; "stay with us, and be loved." +134 +What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming a cinder I +might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the +light of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of +wings; and Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside +us. She said not a word, but, taking my arm with her mighty +hand, she drew me away, as a mother draws a naughty child, and +led me through the apartments to one of the corridors, on +which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to stairs, we +ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my +forehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantly +plunged into a profound sleep. + +When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds +in the adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee's sister, her +gentle looks and caressing words, vividly returned to me; and +so impossible is it for one born and reared in our upper +world's state of society to divest himself of ideas dictated by +vanity and ambition, that I found myself instinctively building +proud castles in the air. + +"Tish though I be," thus ran my meditations- "Tish though I be, +it is then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance +can captivate. Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first +maiden of this land, the daughter of the absolute Monarch whose +autocracy they so idly seek to disguise by the republican title +of chief magistrate. But for the sudden swoop of that horrible +Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed to me; and +though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a +subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten +me with destruction if I accept his daughter's hand, yet a +Sovereign, whose word is law, could compel the community to +abrogate any custom that forbids intermarriage with one of a +strange race, and which in itself is a contradiction to their +boasted equality of ranks. + +"It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with +such incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would +135not have sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me +from the combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form. +And if I were exalted by such an alliance, who knows but what +the Monarch might elect me as his successor? Why not? Few among +this indolent race of philosophers like the burden of such +greatness. All might be pleased to see the supreme power +lodged in the hands of an accomplished stranger who has +experience of other and livelier forms of existence; and once +chosen, what reforms I would institute! What additions to the +really pleasant but too monotonous life of this realm my +familiarity with the civilised nations above ground would +effect! I am fond of the sports of the field. Next to war, is +not the chase a king's pastime? In what varieties of strange +game does this nether world abound? How interesting to strike +down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge! +But how? By that terrible vril, in which, from want of +hereditary transmission, I could never be a proficient? No, but +by a civilised handy breech-loader, which these ingenious +mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt improve; nay, +surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, I +should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war. +Apropos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so +intelligent, so rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of +territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this +restriction a mere philosophical crotchet, at variance with the +aspiring element in human nature, such as has been partially, +and with complete failure, tried in the upper world by the late +Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the +neighbouring nations as well armed as one's own subjects; but +then, what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted +with vril, and apparently resembling, in their democratic +institutions, my American countrymen? One might invade them +without offence to the vril nations, our allies, appropriate +their territories, extending, perhaps, to the most distant +136regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire in +which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that +over those regions there was no sun to set). As for the +fantastical notion against conceding fame or renown to an +eminent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal of honours +insures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angry +passions, and mars the felicity of peace- it is opposed to the +very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute +creation, which are all, if tamable, participators in the +sentiment of praise and emulation. What renown would be given +to a king who thus extended his empire! I should be deemed a +demigod." Thinking of that, the other fanatical notion of +regulating this life by reference to one which, no doubt, we +Christians firmly believe in, but never take into +consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled +me to abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance +with modern thought and practical action. Musing over these +various projects, I felt how much I should have liked at that +moment to brighten my wits by a good glass of whiskey-and-water. +Not that I am habitually a spirit-drinker, but certainly there +are times when a little stimulant of alcoholic nature, taken +with a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes; certainly among +these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from which one +could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cut +off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject +the animal food which our first medical men agree in +recommending to the gastric juices of mankind!) one would +certainly pass a more exhilirating hour of repast. Then, too, +instead of those antiquated dramas performed by childish +amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our +modern opera and a 'corps de ballet,' for which one might find, +among the nations I shall conquer, young females of less +formidable height and thews than the Gy-ei- not armed with +vril, and not insisting upon one's marrying them. + +I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, +137political, social, and moral, calculated to bestow on the +people of the nether world the blessings of a civilisation +known to the races of the upper, that I did not perceive that +Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a deep sigh, and, +raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch. + +I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a +Gy can, without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although +an An would be considered forward and immodest to the last +degree if he entered the chamber of a Gy without previously +obtaining her permission to do so. Fortunately I was in the +full habiliments I had worn when Zee had deposited me on the +couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well as shocked, +by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted. + +"Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you," said she, "for I am +very unhappy. I have not slept since we parted." + +"A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father's +guest might well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids. +Where was the affection you pretend to have for me, where was +even that politeness on which the Vril-ya pride themselves, +when, taking advantage alike of that physical strength in which +your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our own, and of +those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of +vril invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to +humiliation before your assembled visitors, before Her Royal +Highness- I mean, the daughter of your own chief magistrate,- +carrying me off to bed like a naughty infant, and plunging me +into sleep, without asking my consent?" + +"Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love? +Can you think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends +upon love till it fades away in blissful trust when we know that +the heart we have wooed is won, I could be indifferent to the +perils to which the audacious overtures of that silly little +child might expose you?" + +138"Hold! Since you introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps +does not misbecome me to say that my most imminent perils come +from yourself, or at least would come if I believed in your +love and accepted your addresses. Your father has told me +plainly that in that case I should be consumed into a cinder +with as little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee +blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand." + +"Do not let that fear chill your heart to me," exclaimed Zee, +dropping on her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space +of her ample palm. "It is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed +as those of the same race wed; true that the love between us +must be pure as that which, in our belief, exists between +lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that boundary at +which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to be +together, wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left +my father. He consents to our union on those terms. I have +sufficient influence with the College of Sages to insure their +request to the Tur not to interfere with the free choice of a +Gy; provided that her wedding with one of another race be but +the wedding of souls. Oh, think you that true love needs +ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your side +in this life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows +here: I ask here for a tie which will bind us for ever and for +ever in the world of immortals. Do you reject me?" + +As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face +was changed; nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a +divine light, as that of an immortal, shining out from its +human beauty. But she rather awed me as an angel than moved me +as a woman, and after an embarrassed pause, I faltered forth +evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as delicately as +I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position +amongst her race in the light of a husband who might never be +permitted the name of father. + +"But," said Zee, "this community does not constitute the whole +world. No; nor do all the populations comprised in the league +139of the Vril-ya. For thy sake I will renounce my country and my +people. We will fly together to some region where thou shalt +be safe. I am strong enough to bear thee on my wings across +the deserts that intervene. I am skilled enough to cleave +open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build our home. +Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the +universe. Or wouldst thou return to thine own world, above the +surface of this, exposed to the uncertain seasons, and lit but +by the changeful orbs which constitute by thy description the +fickle character of those savage regions? I so, speak the word, +and I will force the way for thy return, so that I am thy +companion there, though, there as here, but partner of thy +soul, and fellow traveller with thee to the world in which +there is no parting and no death." + +I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once +so pure and so impassioned, with which these words were +uttered, and in a voice that would have rendered musical the +roughest sounds in the rudest tongue. And for a moment it did +occur to me that I might avail myself of Zee's agency to effect +a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But a very brief +space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable and +base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus +away, from her own people and a home in which I had been so +hospitably treated, a creature to whom our world would be so +abhorrent, and for whose barren, if spiritual love, I could not +reconcile myself to renounce the more human affection of mates +less exalted above my erring self. With this sentiment of duty +towards the Gy combined another of duty towards the whole race +I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce into the upper +world a being so formidably gifted- a being that with a +movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New +York and its glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her +of her staff, with her science she could easily construct +another; and with the deadly lightnings that armed the slender +engine her whole frame was charged. If thus dangerous to the +140cities and populations of the whole upper earth, could she be a +safe companion to myself in case her affection should be +subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts, +which it takes so many words to express, passed rapidly through +my brain and decided my answer. + +"Zee," I said, in the softest tones I could command and +pressing respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine +vanished- "Zee, I can find no words to say how deeply I am +touched, and how highly I am honoured, by a love so +disinterested and self-immolating. My best return to it is +perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs +of yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are +equally opposed to such a union between those of races so +widely differing. On the other hand, though not deficient in +courage among my own people, or amid dangers with which I am +familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of horror, think of +constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal chaos, +with all the elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic +gases, at war with each other, and with the probability that at +some moment, while you were busied in cleaving rocks or +conveying vril into lamps, I should be devoured by a krek which +your operations disturbed from its hiding-place. I, a mere +Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, so brilliant, so learned, +so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve that love, for I +cannot return it." + +Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face +away to hide her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along +the room, and paused at the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as +by a new thought, she returned to my side and said, in a +whispered tone,- + +"You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With +perfect frankness, then, answer me this question. If you +cannot love me, do you love another?" + +"Certainly, I do not." + +"You do not love Taee's sister?" + +"I never saw her before last night." + +141"That is no answer. Love is swifter than vril. You hesitate +to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy that prompts me +to caution you. If the Tur's daughter should declare love to +you- if in her ignorance she confides to her father any +preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you, +he will have no option but to request your immediate +destruction, as he is specially charged with the duty of +consulting the good of the community, which could not allow the +daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the Tish-a, in that +sense of marriage which does not confine itself to union of the +souls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She has +no strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has no +science wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believe +that here my friendship speaks, and that my jealousy is +silent." + +With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I +thought no more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or +of the political, social, and moral reforms I should institute +in the capacity of Absolute Sovereign. + + +Chapter XXVI. + + +After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a +profound melancholy. The curious interest with which I had +hitherto examined the life and habits of this marvellous +community was at an end. I could not banish from my mind the +consciousness that I was among a people who, however kind and +courteous, could destroy me at any moment without scruple or +compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the people +which, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the +contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world, now +began to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Even +the serene tranquility of the lustrous air preyed on my +142spirits. I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, or +darkness. I began to feel that, whatever our dreams of +perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards a better, and +higher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of the +upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the +very happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire. + +Now, in this social state of the Vril-ya, it was singular to +mark how it contrived to unite and to harmonise into one system +nearly all the objects which the various philosophers of the +upper world have placed before human hopes as the ideals of a +Utopian future. It was a state in which war, with all its +calamities, was deemed impossible,- a state in which the +freedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree, +without one of those animosities which make freedom in the +upper world depend on the perpetual strife of hostile parties. +Here the corruption which debases democracies was as unknown as +the discontents which undermine the thrones of monarchies. +Equality here was not a name; it was a reality. Riches were +not persecuted, because they were not envied. Here those +problems connected with the labours of a working class, +hitherto insoluble above ground, and above ground conducing to +such bitterness between classes, were solved by a process the +simplest,- a distinct and separate working class was dispensed +with altogether. Mechanical inventions, constructed on the +principles that baffled my research to ascertain, worked by an +agency infinitely more powerful and infinitely more easy of +management than aught we have yet extracted from electricity or +steam, with the aid of children whose strength was never +overtasked, but who loved their employment as sport and +pastime, sufficed to create a Public-wealth so devoted to the +general use that not a grumbler was ever heard of. The vices +that rot our cities here had no footing. Amusements abounded, +but they were all innocent. No merry-makings conduced to +intoxication, to riot, to disease. Love existed, and was +143ardent in pursuit, but its object, once secured, was faithful. +The adulterer, the profligate, the harlot, were phenomena so +unknown in this commonwealth, that even to find the words by +which they were designated one would have had to search +throughout an obsolete literature composed thousands of years +before. They who have been students of theoretical +philosophies above ground, know that all these strange +departures from civilised life do but realise ideas which have +been broached, canvassed, ridiculed, contested for; sometimes +partially tried, and still put forth in fantastic books, but +have never come to practical result. Nor were these all the +steps towards theoretical perfectibility which this community +had made. It had been the sober belief of Descartes that the +life of man could be prolonged, not, indeed, on this earth, to +eternal duration, but to what he called the age of the +patriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to 150 years +average length. Well, even this dream of sages was here +fulfilled- nay, more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middle +life was preserved even after the term of a century was passed. +With this longevity was combined a greater blessing than +itself- that of continuous health. Such diseases as befell the +race were removed with ease by scientific applications of that +agency- life-giving as life-destroying- which is inherent in +vril. Even this idea is not unknown above ground, though it +has generally been confined to enthusiasts or charlatans, and +emanates from confused notions about mesmerism, odic force, &c. +Passing by such trivial contrivances as wings, which every +schoolboy knows has been tried and found wanting, from the +mythical or pre-historical period, I proceed to that very +delicate question, urged of late as essential to the perfect +happiness of our human species by the two most disturbing and +potential influences on upper-ground society,- Womankind and +Philosophy. I mean, the Rights of Women. + +Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of +rights where there are not corresponding powers to enforce +144them; and above ground, for some reason or other, man, in his +physical force, in the use of weapons offensive and defensive, +when it come to positive personal contest, can, as a rule of +general application, master women. But among this people there +can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as I have +before said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger and +stronger than the An; and her will being also more resolute +than his, and will being essential to the direction of the vril +force, she can bring to bear upon him, more potently than he on +herself, the mystical agency which art can extract from the +occult properties of nature. Therefore all that our female +philosophers above ground contend for as to rights of women, is +conceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth. +Besides such physical powers, the Gy-ei have (at least in +youth) a keen desire for accomplishments and learning which +exceeds that of the male; and thus they are the scholars, the +professors- the learned portion, in short, of the community. + +Of course, in this state of society the female establishes, as +I have shown, her most valued privilege, that of choosing and +courting her wedding partner. Without that privilege she would +despise all the others. Now, above ground, we should not +unreasonably apprehend that a female, thus potent and thus +privileged, when she had fairly hunted us down and married us, +would be very imperious and tyrannical. Not so with the Gy-ei: +once married, the wings once suspended, and more amiable, +complacent, docile mates, more sympathetic, more sinking their +loftier capacities into the study of their husbands' +comparatively frivolous tastes and whims, no poet could +conceive in his visions of conjugal bliss. Lastly, among the +more important characteristics of the Vril-ya, as distinguished +from our mankind- lastly, and most important on the bearings of +their life and the peace of their commonwealths, is their +universal agreement in the existence of a merciful beneficent +Diety, and of a future world to the duration of which a century +145or two are moments too brief to waste upon thoughts of fame and +power and avarice; while with that agreement is combined +another- viz., since they can know nothing as to the nature of +that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme goodness, nor of that +future world beyond the fact of its felicitous existence, so +their reason forbids all angry disputes on insoluble questions. +Thus they secure for that state in the bowels of the earth what +no community ever secured under the light of the stars- all the +blessings and consolations of a religion without any of the +evils and calamities which are engendered by strife between one +religion and another. + +It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of +existence among the Vril-ya is thus, as a whole, immeasurably +more felicitous than that of super-terrestrial races, and, +realising the dreams of our most sanguine philanthropists, +almost approaches to a poet's conception of some angelical +order. And yet, if you would take a thousand of the best and +most philosophical of human beings you could find in London, +Paris, Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them as +citizens in the beatified community, my belief is, that in less +than a year they would either die of ennui, or attempt some +revolution by which they would militate against the good of the +community, and be burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur. + +Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of +this narrative, any ignorant disparagement of the race to which +I belong. I have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make it +clear that the principles which regulate the social system of +the Vril-ya forbid them to produce those individual examples of +human greatness which adorn the annals of the upper world. +Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no +Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan;- where states are so happy +that they fear no danger and desire no change, they cannot give +birth to a Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes, +or a Butler; and where a society attains to a moral standard, +146in which there are no crimes and no sorrows from which tragedy +can extract its aliment of pity and sorrow, no salient vices or +follies on which comedy can lavish its mirthful satire, it has +lost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or a Moliere, or a +Mrs. Beecher-Stowe. But if I have no desire to disparage my +fellow-men above ground in showing how much the motives that +impel the energies and ambition of individuals in a society of +contest and struggle- become dormant or annulled in a society +which aims at securing for the aggregate the calm and innocent +felicity which we presume to be the lot of beatified immortals; +neither, on the other hand, have I the wish to represent the +commonwealths of the Vril-ya as an ideal form of political +society, to the attainment of which our own efforts of reform +should be directed. On the contrary, it is because we have so +combined, throughout the series of ages, the elements which +compose human character, that it would be utterly impossible +for us to adopt the modes of life, or to reconcile our passions +to the modes of thought among the Vril-ya,- that I arrived at +the conviction that this people- though originally not only of +our human race, but, as seems to me clear by the roots of their +language, descended from the same ancestors as the Great Aryan +family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant +civilisation of the world; and having, according to their myths +and their history, passed through phases of society familiar to +ourselves,- had yet now developed into a distinct species with +which it was impossible that any community in the upper world +could amalgamate: and that if they ever emerged from these +nether recesses into the light of day, they would, according to +their own traditional persuasions of their ultimate destiny, +destroy and replace our existent varieties of man. + +It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be found +to conceive a partiality for so ordinary a type of our +super-terrestrial race as myself, that even if the Vril-ya did +147appear above ground, we might be saved from extermination by +intermixture of race. But this is too sanguine a belief. +Instances of such 'mesalliance' would be as rare as those of +intermarriage between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the Red +Indians. Nor would time be allowed for the operation of +familiar intercourse. The Vril-ya, on emerging, induced by the +charm of a sunlit heaven to form their settlements above +ground, would commence at once the work of destruction, seize +upon the territories already cultivated, and clear off, without +scruple, all the inhabitants who resisted that invasion. And +considering their contempt for the institutions of Koom-Posh or +Popular Government, and the pugnacious valour of my beloved +countrymen, I believe that if the Vril-ya first appeared in +free America- as, being the choicest portion of the habitable +earth, they would doubtless be induced to do- and said, "This +quarter of the globe we take; Citizens of a Koom-Posh, make way +for the development of species in the Vril-ya," my brave +compatriots would show fight, and not a soul of them would be +left in this life, to rally round the Stars and Stripes, at the +end of a week. + +I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family +assembled, and she was then reserved and silent. My +apprehensions of danger from an affection I had so little +encouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded away, but my +dejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to the +upper world, but I racked my brains in vain for any means to +effect it. I was never permitted to wander forth alone, so +that I could not even visit the spot on which I had alighted, +and see if it were possible to reascend to the mine. Nor even +in the Silent Hours, when the household was locked in sleep, +could I have let myself down from the lofty floor in which my +apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata +who stood mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could I +ascertain the springs by which were set in movement the +platforms that supplied the place of stairs. The knowledge how +148to avail myself of these contrivances had been purposely +withheld from me. Oh, that I could but have learned the use of +wings, so freely here at the service of every infant, then I +might have escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, and +buoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which the +perpendicular sides forbade place for human footing! + + +Chapter XXVII. + + +One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew +in at the open window and alighted on the couch beside me. I +was always pleased with the visits of a child, in whose +society, if humbled, I was less eclipsed than in that of Ana +who had completed their education and matured their +understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with him +for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which +I had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if +he were at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city. +His countenance seemed to me graver than usual as he replied, +"I came hither on purpose to invite you forth." + +We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from +the house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were +returning from the fields with baskets full of flowers, and +chanting a song in chorus as they walked. A young Gy sings +more often than she talks. They stopped on seeing us, +accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with the +courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their +manner towards our weaker sex. + +And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in +her courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing +that approaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner +which those young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the +149distinguished epithet of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards +young gentlemen whom they do not profess to love. No; the +bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary is very much +that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upper +world towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo; +deferential, complimentary, exquisitely polished- what we +should call 'chivalrous.' + +Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things +addressed to my 'amour propre,' which were said to me by those +courteous young Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would +have thought himself aggrieved, treated with irony, 'chaffed' +(if so vulgar a slang word may be allowed on the authority of +the popular novelists who use it so freely), when one fair Gy +complimented me on the freshness of my complexion, another on +the choice of colours in my dress, a third, with a sly smile, +on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin's entertainment. But I +knew already that all such language was what the French call +'banal,' and did but express in the female mouth, below earth, +that sort of desire to pass for amiable with the opposite sex +which, above earth, arbitrary custom and hereditary +transmission demonstrate by the mouth of the male. And just as +a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated to such +compliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, return +them, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so I +who had learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy and +dignified a Minister of that nation, could but smile and try to +look pretty in bashfully disclaiming the compliments showered +upon me. While we were thus talking, Taee's sister, it seems, +had seen us from the upper rooms of the Royal Palace at the +entrance of the town, and, precipitating herself on her wings, +alighted in the midst of the group. + +Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable +deference of manner which I have called 'chivalrous,' yet not +without a certain abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the +weaker sex, Sir Philip Sydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Why +do you never come to see us?" +150 +While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to this +unlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, "Sister, +you forget- the stranger is of my sex. It is not for persons +of my sex, having due regard for reputation and modesty, to +lower themselves by running after the society of yours." + +This speech was received with evident approval by the young +Gy-ei in general; but Taee's sister looked greatly abashed. +Poor thing!- and a PRINCESS too! + +Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and +the group; and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate +coming close upon us, with the silent and stately pace peculiar +to the Vril-ya. At the sight of his countenance, the same +terror which had seized me when I first beheld it returned. On +that brow, in those eyes, there was that same indefinable +something which marked the being of a race fatal to our own- +that strange expression of serene exemption from our common +cares and passions, of conscious superior power, compassionate +and inflexible as that of a judge who pronounces doom. I +shivered, and, inclining low, pressed the arm of my +child-friend, and drew him onward silently. The Tur placed +himself before our path, regarded me for a moment without +speaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter's face, +and, with a grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went +through the midst of the group,- still without a word. + + +Chapter XXVIII. + + +When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road that +lay between the city and the chasm through which I had +descended into this region beneath the light of the stars and +sun, I said under my breath, "Child and friend, there is a look +151in your father's face which appals me. I feel as if, in its +awful tranquillity, I gazed upon death." + +Taee did not immediately reply. He seemed agitated, and as if +debating with himself by what words to soften some unwelcome +intelligence. At last he said, "None of the Vril-ya fear +death: do you?" + +"The dread of death is implanted in the breasts of the race to +which I belong. We can conquer it at the call of duty, of +honour, of love. We can die for a truth, for a native land, +for those who are dearer to us than ourselves. But if death do +really threaten me now and here, where are such counteractions +to the natural instinct which invests with awe and terror the +contemplation of severance between soul and body?" + +Taee looked surprised, but there was great tenderness in his +voice as he replied, "I will tell my father what you say. I +will entreat him to spare your life." + +"He has, then, already decreed to destroy it?" + +"'Tis my sister's fault or folly," said Taee, with some +petulance. "But she spoke this morning to my father; and, +after she had spoken, he summoned me, as a chief among the +children who are commissioned to destroy such lives as threaten +the community, and he said to me, 'Take thy vril staff, and +seek the stranger who has made himself dear to thee. Be his +end painless and prompt.'" + +"And," I faltered, recoiling from the child- "and it is, then, +for my murder that thus treacherously thou hast invited me +forth? No, I cannot believe it. I cannot think thee guilty +of such a crime." + +"It is no crime to slay those who threaten the good of the +community; it would be a crime to slay the smallest insect that +cannot harm us." + +"If you mean that I threaten the good of the community because +your sister honours me with the sort of preference which a +child may feel for a strange plaything, it is not necessary to +kill me. Let me return to the people I have left, and by the +chasm through which I descended. With a slight help from you I +152might do so now. You, by the aid of your wings, could fasten +to the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you found, +and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to the +spot from which I alighted, and I vanish from your world for +ever, and as surely as if I were among the dead." + +"The chasm through which you descended! Look round; we stand +now on the very place where it yawned. What see you? Only +solid rock. The chasm was closed, by the orders of Aph-Lin, as +soon as communication between him and yourself was established +in your trance, and he learned from your own lips the nature of +the world from which you came. Do you not remember when Zee +bade me not question you as to yourself or your race? On +quitting you that day, Aph-Lin accosted me, and said, 'No path +between the stranger's home and ours should be left unclosed, +or the sorrow and evil of his home may descend to ours. Take +with thee the children of thy band, smite the sides of the +cavern with your vril staves till the fall of their fragments +fills up every chink through which a gleam of our lamps could +force its way.'" + +As the child spoke, I stared aghast at the blind rocks before +me. Huge and irregular, the granite masses, showing by charred +discolouration where they had been shattered, rose from footing +to roof-top; not a cranny! + +"All hope, then, is gone," I murmured, sinking down on the +craggy wayside, "and I shall nevermore see the sun." I covered +my face with my hands, and prayed to Him whose presence I had +so often forgotten when the heavens had declared His handiwork. +I felt His presence in the depths of the nether earth, and +amidst the world of the grave. I looked up, taking comfort and +courage from my prayers, and, gazing with a quiet smile into +the face of the child, said, "Now, if thou must slay me, +strike." + +Taee shook his head gently. "Nay," he said, "my father's +request is not so formally made as to leave me no choice. I +will speak with him, and may prevail to save thee. Strange +153that thou shouldst have that fear of death which we thought was +only the instinct of the inferior creatures, to whom the +convictions of another life has not been vouchsafed. With us, +not an infant knows such a fear. Tell me, my dear Tish," he +continued after a little pause, "would it reconcile thee more +to departure from this form of life to that form which lies on +the other side of the moment called 'death,' did I share thy +journey? If so, I will ask my father whether it be allowable +for me to go with thee. I am one of our generation destined to +emigrate, when of age for it, to some regions unknown within +this world. I would just as soon emigrate now to regions +unknown, in another world. The All-Good is no less there than +here. Where is he not?" + +"Child," said I, seeing by Taee's countenance that he spoke in +serious earnest, "it is crime in thee to slay me; it were a +crime not less in me to say, 'Slay thyself.' The All-Good +chooses His own time to give us life, and his own time to take +it away. Let us go back. If, on speaking with thy father, he +decides on my death, give me the longest warning in thy power, +so that I may pass the interval in self-preparation." + + +Chapter XXIX. + + +In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and +constituting the night of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the +disturbed slumber into which I had not long fallen, by a hand +on my shoulder. I started and beheld Zee standing beside me. + +154"Hush," she said in a whisper; let no one hear us. Dost thou +think that I have ceased to watch over thy safety because I +could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailed +with his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three +sages who, in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by +their advice he has ordained thee to perish when the world +re-awakens to life. I will save thee. Rise and dress." + +Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes +I had worn on quitting the upper world, and which I had +exchanged subsequently for the more picturesque garments of the +Vril-ya. The young Gy then moved towards the casement and +stepped into the balcony, while hastily and wonderingly I +donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the balcony, +her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she said +softly, "See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up +the world in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will be +dark to me." She drew me back into the room without waiting for +my answer, thence into the corridor, from which we descended +into the hall. We passed into the deserted streets and along +the broad upward road which wound beneath the rocks. Here, +where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hours are +unutterably solemn- the vast space illumined by mortal skill is +so wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft as +were our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of +harmony with the universal repose. I was aware in my own mind, +though Zee said it not, that she had decided to assist my +return to the upper world, and that we were bound towards the +place from which I had descended. Her silence infected me and +commanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It had been +re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when I +had emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock +before which I had last stood with Taee, a new clift had been +riven, and along its blackened sides still glimmered sparks and +smouldered embers. My upward gaze could not, however, +155penetrate more than a few feet into the darkness of the hollow +void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering how that grim ascent +was to be made. + +Zee divined my doubt. "Fear not," said she, with a faint +smile; "your return is assured. I began this work when the +Silent Hours commenced, and all else were asleep; believe that +I did not paused till the path back into thy world was clear. +I shall be with thee a little while yet. We do not part until +thou sayest, 'Go, for I need thee no more.'" + +My heart smote me with remorse at these words. "Ah!" I exclaimed, +"would that thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I should +never say, "I need thee no more.'" + +"I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them when +thou art gone," answered the Gy, tenderly. + +During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned away +from me, her form bent and her head bowed over her breast. +Now, she rose to the full height of her grand stature, and +stood fronting me. While she had been thus averted from my +gaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she wore round her +brow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Not +only her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were +illumined by the effulgence of the diadem. + +"Now," said she, "put thine arm around me for the first and +last time. Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm." + +As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. +Clinging to her, I was borne aloft through the terrible chasm. +The starry light from her forehead shot around and before us +through the darkness. Brightly and steadfastly, and swiftly as +an angel may soar heavenward with the soul it rescues from the +grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heard in the distance +the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We halted +on the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and +beyond, in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of the +miners. +156 +Then I released my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, +passionately, but as with a mother's passion, and said, as the +tears gushed from her eyes, "Farewell for ever. Thou wilt not +let me go into thy world- thou canst never return to mine. Ere +our household shake off slumber, the rocks will have again +closed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, nor perhaps by +others, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, and +with kindness. When I reach the life that lies beyond this +speck in time, I shall look round for thee. Even there, the +world consigned to thyself and thy people may have rocks and +gulfs which divide it from that in which I rejoin those of my +race that have gone before, and I may be powerless to cleave +way to regain thee as I have cloven way to lose." + +Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings, +and saw the rays of her starry diadem receding far and farther +through the gloom. + +I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I +rose and took my way with slow footsteps towards the place in +which I heard the sounds of men. The miners I encountered were +strange to me, of another nation than my own. They turned to +look at me with some surprise, but finding that I could not +answer their brief questions in their own language, they +returned to their work and suffered me to pass on unmolested. +In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled by +other interrogatories;- save those of a friendly official to +whom I was known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with +me. I took care not to return to my former lodging, but +hastened that very day to quit a neighbourhood where I could +not long have escaped inquiries to which I could have given no +satisfactory answers. I regained in safety my own country, in +which I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged in +practical business, till I retired on a competent fortune, +three years ago. I have been little invited and little tempted +to talk of the rovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhat +157disappointed, as most men are, in matters connected with +household love and domestic life, I often think of the young Gy +as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I could have rejected +such a love, no matter what dangers attended it, or by what +conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of a +people calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight +and deemed uninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing our +most disciplined modes of force, and virtues to which our life, +social and political, becomes antagonistic in proportion as our +civilisation advances,- the more devoutly I pray that ages may +yet elapse before there emerge into sunlight our inevitable +destroyers. Being, however, frankly told by my physician that +I am afflicted by a complaint which, though it gives little +pain and no perceptible notice of its encroachments, may at any +moment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellow-men to +place on record these forewarnings of The Coming Race. + + + + + +Project Gutenberg Etext The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton + diff --git a/old/cmgrc10.zip b/old/cmgrc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..81e7c48 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cmgrc10.zip |