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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. 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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 |