The Coming Race

The Coming Race

by Edward Bulwer Lytton

Chapter I.

I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My ancestors migrated from England in the
reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family,
therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; and being also opulent, they were
considered disqualified for the public service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally
defeated by his tailor. After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived much in his library.
I was the eldest of three sons, and sent at the age of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete my
literary education, partly to commence my commercial training in a mercantile firm at Liverpool. My
father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having a taste for travel and
adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer
over the face of the earth.

In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a professional engineer, with whom I had
made acquaintance, to visit the recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was employed.

The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my reason for concealing all clue to the
district of which I write, and will perhaps thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to
its discovery.

6Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the engineer into the interior of the
mine, and became so strangely fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend's
explorations, that I prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and descended daily, for some weeks, into
the vaults and galleries hollowed by nature and art beneath the surface of the earth. The engineer was
persuaded that far richer deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been detected, would be found in a new
shaft that had been commenced under his operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm
jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst asunder at some distant period by volcanic fires.
Down this chasm my friend caused himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' having first tested the atmosphere by
the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he returned he was very pale, and with
an anxious, thoughtful expression of face, very different from its ordinary character, which was open,
cheerful, and fearless.

He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and leading to no result; and, suspending
further operations in the shaft, we returned to the more familiar parts of the mine.

All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by some absorbing thought. He was unusually
taciturn, and there was a scared, bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At
night, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together near the mouth of the mine, I said
to my friend,-

"Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was something strange and terrible.
Whatever it be, it has left your mind in a state of doubt. In such a case two heads are better than one.
Confide in me."

The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as, while he spoke, he helped himself
unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, 7for he was a very
temperate man, his reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep himself to himself should imitate
the dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said, "I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I
found myself on a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, shot down to a
considerable depth, the darkness of which my lamp could not have penetrated. But through it, to my
infinite surprise, streamed upward a steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire? In that
case, surely I should have felt the heat. Still, if on this there was doubt, it was of the utmost
importance to our common safety to clear it up. I examined the sides of the descent, and found that I
could venture to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges, at least for some way. I left the
cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I
saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye
could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a
great city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course, that no
rival miners are at work in this district. Whose could be those voices? What human hands could have
levelled that road and marshalled those lamps?

"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell within the bowels of the
earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants
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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.
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.

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>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
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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
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 The Coming Race
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,

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.

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 The Coming Race
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.

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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
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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
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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
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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.,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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 The Coming Race
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
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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?"

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"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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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"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
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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.
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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,
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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).

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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."

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"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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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."
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"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
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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.

End

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