The Coming Race ................................................................................................................................................1

Edward Bulwer Lytton .............................................................................................................................1

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 twentyone; and

being left well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the

In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by a professional engineer, with whom I had made

acquaintance, to visit the recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he was employed.

The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, my reason for concealing all clue to the district of

which I write, and will perhaps thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to its discovery.

Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the engineer into the interior of the mine, and

became so strangely fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend's explorations, that I

prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and descended daily, for some weeks, into the vaults and galleries

hollowed by nature and art beneath the surface of the earth. The engineer was persuaded that far richer

deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been detected, would be found in a new shaft that had been

commenced under his operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm jagged and seemingly

charred at the sides, as if burst asunder at some distant period by volcanic fires. Down this chasm my friend

caused himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' having first tested the atmosphere by the safetylamp. 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

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

"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 brandyflask to a degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he was a very

temperate man, his reserve gradually melted away. He who would keep himself to himself should imitate the

dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said, "I will tell you all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on

a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction, shot down to a considerable depth, the

darkness of which my lamp could not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinite surprise, streamed

upward a steady brilliant light. Could it be any volcanic fire? In that case, surely I should have felt the heat.

Still, if on this there was doubt, it was of the utmost importance to our common safety to clear it up. I

examined the sides of the descent, and found that I could venture to trust myself to the irregular projection of

ledges, at least for some way. I left the cage and clambered down. As I drew nearer and nearer to the light,

the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the

abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gaslamps 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

"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell within the bowels of the earth,

began to seize me. I shuddered at the thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether

valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to the bottom of the

chasm the sides of the rock sank down abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty.

"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. I will go with you. We will provide

ourselves with ropes of suitable length and strength and pardon me you must not drink more tonight.

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

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

The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before on my friend's. The hollow through which it came

sloped diagonally: it seemed to me a diffused atmospheric light, not like that from fire, but soft and silvery, as

from a northern star. Quitting the cage, we descended, one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in

the side, till we reached the place at which my friend had previously halted, and which was a projection just

spacious enough to allow us to stand abreast. From this spot the chasm widened rapidly like the lower end of

a vast funnel, and I saw distinctly the valley, the road, the lamps which my companion had described. He had

exaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had heard a mingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull

tramp as of feet. Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at a distance the outline of some large

building. It could not be mere natural rock, it was too symmetrical, with huge heavy Egyptianlike columns,

and the whole lighted as from within. I had about me a small pockettelescope, 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,

We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraid to speak to each other. One end of the rope

being thus apparently made firm to the ledge, the other, to which we fastened a fragment of the rock, rested

on the ground below, a distance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and a more active man than my

companion, and having served on board ship in my boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to me

than to him. In a whisper I claimed the precedence, so that when I gained the ground I might serve to hold the

rope more steady for his descent. I got safely to the ground beneath, and the engineer now began to lower

himself. But he had scarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when the fastenings, which we had fancied

so secure, gave way, or rather the rock itself proved treacherous and crumbled beneath the strain; and the

unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom, falling just at my feet, and bringing down with his fall splinters

of the rock, one of which, fortunately but a small one, struck and for the time stunned me. When I recovered

my senses I saw my companion an inanimate mass beside me, life utterly extinct. While I was bending over

his corpse in grief and horror, I heard close at hand a strange sound between a snort and a hiss; and turning

instinctively to the quarter from which it came, I saw emerging from a dark fissure in the rock a vast and

terrible head, with open jaws and dull, ghastly, hungry eyes the head of a monstrous reptile resembling that

of the crocodile or alligator, but infinitely larger than the largest creature of that kind I had ever beheld in my

travels. I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my utmost speed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my

panic and my flight, and returned to the spot on which I had left the body of my friend. It was gone; doubtless

the monster had already drawn it into its den and devoured it. the rope and the grappling hooks still lay

where they had fallen, but they afforded me no chance of return; it was impossible to reattach 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

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

There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved into artificial banks; some of pure water,

others that shone like pools of naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles opened amidst the rocks, with

passes between, evidently constructed by art, and bordered by trees resembling, for the most part, gigantic

ferns, with exquisite varieties of feathery foliage, and stems like those of the palmtree. Others were more

like the caneplant, but taller, bearing large clusters of flowers. Others, again, had the form of enormous

fungi, with short thick stems supporting a wide domelike 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 halfway 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

Continuing my walk, I started, from a bush that resembled a great tangle of seaweeds, interspersed with

fernlike shrubs and plants of large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or pricklypear, 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,

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 aloelike, some fernlike. And now there came out of this building a

form human; was it human? It stood on the broad way and looked around, beheld me and approached. It

came within a few yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it an indescribable awe and tremor seized me,

rooting my feet to the ground. It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon that are seen on

Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres images that borrow the outlines of man, and are

yet of another race. It was tall, not gigantic, but tall as the tallest man below the height of giants.

Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings folded over its breast and reaching to its

knees; the rest of its attire was composed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material. It wore

on its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carried in its right hand a slender staff of bright metal

like polished steel. But the face! it was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was the face of man, but

yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant races. The nearest approach to it in outline and

expression is the face of the sculptured sphinx so regular in its calm, intellectual, mysterious beauty. Its

colour was peculiar, more like that of the red man than any other variety of our species, and yet different

from it a richer and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched as a semicircle.

The face was beardless; but a nameless something in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and

beauteous though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight of a tiger or serpent arouses. I

felt that this manlike image was endowed with forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came

A voice accosted me a very quiet and very musical key of voice in a language of which I could not

understand a word, but it served to dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could

scarcely bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that seemed to read to the very depths of my

heart. He then placed his left hand on my forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my

shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my former terror there passed into me a

sense of contentment, of joy, of confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in my own

language. He listened to me with apparent attention, but with a slight surprise in his looks; and shook his

head, as if to signify that I was not understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence to the

building. The entrance was open indeed there was no door to it. We entered an immense hall, lighted by the

same kind of lustre as in the scene without, but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large tesselated

blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of matlike carpeting. A strain of low music, above

and around, undulated as if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place, just as the

sound of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or the warble of birds to vernal groves.

A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar fashion, was standing motionless near the

threshold. My guide touched it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding movement,

skimming noiselessly over the floor. Gazing on it, I then saw that it was no living form, but a mechanical

automaton. It might be two minutes after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened by curtains at

the other end of the hall, when through the same opening advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with

features closely resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to me evidently son and father. On seeing

me the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff like that borne by my guide, as if in menace. At a word from the

elder he dropped it. The two then conversed for some moments, examining me while they spoke. The child

touched my garments, and stroked my face with evident curiosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an

hilarity more subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently the roof of the hall opened, and a platform

descended, seemingly constructed on the same principle as the 'lifts' used in hotels and warehouses for

The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, and motioned to me to do the same, which I did.

We ascended quickly and safely, and alighted in the midst of a corridor with doorways on either side.

Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamber fitted up with an oriental splendour; the

walls were tesselated with spars, and metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divans abounded; apertures as

for windows but unglazed, were made in the chamber opening to the floor; and as I passed along I observed

that these openings led into spacious balconies, and commanded views of the illumined landscape without. In

cages suspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form and bright plumage, which at our entrance

set up a chorus of song, modulated into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. A delicious fragrance, from

censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air. Several automata, like the one I had seen, stood dumb

and motionless by the walls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan and again spoke to me, and again

But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had received from the splinters of the falling rock more

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,

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 sphinxlike faces, with the

deep dark eyes and red man's colour; above all, the same type of race race akin to man's, but infinitely

stronger of form and grandeur of aspect and inspiring the same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each

countenance was mild and tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it seemed to me

that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret of the dread which the countenances inspired. They

seemed as void of the lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin, leave upon the faces of

men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or as, in the eyes of Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of

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 pocketbook, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a

rough design of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it; then of the cavernous rock below, the

head of the reptile, the lifeless form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my interrogator,

who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thus passed round the group. The

being I had at first encountered then said a few words, and the child, who approached and looked at my

drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, returning to the window, expanded the wings

attached to his form, shook them once or twice, and then launched himself into space without. I started up in

amaze and hastened to the window. The child was already in the air, buoyed on his wings, which he did not

flap to and fro as a bird does, but which were elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him steadily aloft

without effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift as an eagle's; and I observed that it was towards the rock

whence I had descended, of which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant atmosphere. In a very few

minutes he returned, skimming through the opening from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the

rope and grapplinghooks 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 richcoloured 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 passersby, on observing me, approached my guide, evidently by their

tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him inquiries about myself. In a few moments a crowd collected

around us, examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wild animal. Yet even in gratifying their

curiosity they preserved a grave and courteous demeanour; and after a few words from my guide, who

seemed to me to deprecate obstruction in our road, they fell back with a stately inclination of head, and

resumed their own way with tranquil indifference. Midway in this thoroughfare we stopped at a building that

differed from those we had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three sides of a vast court, at the angles of

which were lofty pyramidal towers; in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of colossal

dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of what seemed to me fire. We entered the building through an

open doorway and came into an enormous hall, in which were several groups of children, all apparently

employed in work as at some great factory. There was a huge engine in the wall which was in full play, with

wheels and cylinders resembling our own steamengines, 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

Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted in compartments, with a barbaric mixture

of gold in the colours, like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjects described on these walls appeared to my

glance as intended to illustrate events in the history of the race amidst which I was admitted. In all there were

figures, most of them like the manlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same fashion of garb, nor all

with wings. There were also the effigies of various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, with

backgrounds depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as my imperfect knowledge of the pictorial art would

allow me to form an opinion, these paintings seemed very accurate in design and very rich in colouring,

showing a perfect knowledge of perspective, but their details not arranged according to the rules of

composition acknowledged by our artists wanting, as it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague,

scattered, confused, bewildering they were like heterogeneous fragments of a dream of art.

We now came into a room of moderate size, in which was assembled what I afterwards knew to be the family

of my guide, seated at a table spread as for repast. The forms thus grouped were those of my guide's wife, his

daughter, and two sons. I recognised at once the difference between the two sexes, though the two females

were of taller stature and ampler proportions than the males; and their countenances, if still more symmetrical

in outline and contour, were devoid of the softness and timidity of expression which give charm to the face of

woman as seen on the earth above. The wife wore no wings, the daughter wore wings longer than those of the

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

The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heaped a golden platter before me from one of the

While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelled more at the delicacy than the strangeness of

their flavour), my companions conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect, with polite avoidance of any

direct reference to myself, or any obtrusive scrutiny of my appearance. Yet I was the first creature of that

variety of the human race to which I belong that they had ever beheld, and was consequently regarded by

them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But all rudeness is unknown to this people, and the

youngest child is taught to despise any vehement emotional demonstration. when the meal was ended, my

guide again took me by the hand, and, reentering 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 curiouslooking 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

phantomlike 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 manycoloured herbiage, the flash of waters, many

of them like streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre diffused over all by myriads of lamps, combined to

form a whole of which no words of mine can convey adequate description; so splendid was it, yet so sombre;

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

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

The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast on my senses; my mind itself began to wander.

Though not inclined to be superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could be brought into bodily

communication with demons, I felt the terror and the wild excitement with which, in the Gothic ages, a

traveller might have persuaded himself that he witnessed a 'sabbat' of fiends and witches. I have a vague

recollection of having attempted with vehement gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud incoherent

words, to repel my courteous and indulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and soothe me; of his

intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment were occasioned by the difference of form and

movement between us which the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had, in exercise, made still

more strongly perceptible; of the gentle smile with which he had sought to dispel my alarm by dropping the

wings to the ground and endeavouring to show me that they were but a mechanical contrivance. That sudden

transformation did but increase my horror, and as extreme fright often shows itself by extreme daring, I

sprang at his throat like a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to the ground as by an electric shock, and the

last confused images floating before my sight ere I became wholly insensible, were the form of my host

kneeling beside me with one hand on my forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his daughter, with large,

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

It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enough to falter out, "You know my language?

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,

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

Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, in my writing, words first, and then sentences,

were inscribed. Under each word and each sentence strange characters in another hand. Rallying my senses, I

comprehended that thus a rude dictionary had been effected. Had it been done while I was dreaming? "That is

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 metalwork 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

The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting on balls of crystal; the coverings, of a thin white

substance resembling cotton. There were sundry shelves containing books. A curtained recess communicated

with an aviary filled with singing birds, of which I did not recognise one resembling those I have seen on

earth, except a beautiful species of dove, though this was distinguished from our doves by a tall crest of

bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained to sing in artful tunes, and greatly exceeded the skill of our

piping bullfinches, which can rarely achieve more than two tunes, and cannot, I believe, sing those in concert.

One might have supposed one's self at an opera in listening to the voices in my aviary. There were duets and

trios, and quartetts and choruses, all arranged as in one piece of music. Did I want silence from the birds? I

had but to draw a curtain over the aviary, and their song hushed as they found themselves left in the dark.

Another opening formed a window, not glazed, but on touching a spring, a shutter ascended from the floor,

formed of some substance less transparent than glass, but still sufficiently pellucid to allow a softened view

of the scene without. To this window was attached a balcony, or rather hanging garden, wherein grew many

graceful plants and brilliant flowers. The apartment and its appurtenances had thus a character, if strange in

detail, still familiar, as a whole, to modern notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration if found

attached to the apartments of an English duchess or a fashionable French author. Before I arrived this was

Some hours after the waking up which is described in my last chapter, I was lying alone on my couch trying

to fix my thoughts on conjecture as to the nature and genus of the people amongst whom I was thrown, when

my host and his daughter Zee entered the room. My host, still speaking my native language, inquired with

much politeness, whether it would be agreeable to me to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that I

should feel much honoured and obliged by the opportunity offered me to express my gratitude for the

hospitality and civilities I had received in a country to which I was a stranger, and to learn enough of its

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

"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,

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 fellowcitizens 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

My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a degree of surprise which the people of that

race very rarely manifest under any circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was more intelligent,

and exclaimed, "So you see, my father, that there is truth in the old tradition; there always is truth in every

"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 Lightpreserving 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 illfated friend had obtained a glimpse of the regions into which we had descended,

and how the descent had cost him his life; appealing to the rope and grappling hooks that the child had

brought to the house in which I had been at first received, as a witness of the truthfulness of my story.

My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits and modes of life among the races on the upper earth,

more especially among those considered to be the most advanced in that civilisation which he was pleased to

define "the art of diffusing throughout a community the tranquil happiness which belongs to a virtuous and

wellordered household." Naturally desiring to represent in the most favourable colours the world from

which I came, I touched but slightly, though indulgently, on the antiquated and decaying institutions of

Europe, in order to expatiate on the present grandeur and prospective preeminence 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

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

"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?"

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, 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

"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

These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of vril, which Faraday would perhaps call

'atmospheric magnetism,' they can influence the variations of temperature in plain words, the weather; that

by operations, akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electrobiology, odic force, but applied scientifically,

through vril conductors, they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to an

extent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics. To all such agencies they give the common name of vril.

Zee asked me if, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of the mind could be quickened to a

degree unknown in the waking state, by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one brain could be

transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly interchanged. I replied, that there were amongst us

stories told of such trance or vision, and that I had heard much and seen something in mesmeric clairvoyance;

but that these practices had fallen much into disuse or contempt, partly because of the gross impostures to

which they had been made subservient, and partly because, even where the effects upon certain abnormal

constitutions were genuinely produced, the effects when fairly examined and analysed, were very

unsatisfactory not to be relied upon for any systematic truthfulness or any practical purpose, and rendered

very mischievous to credulous persons by the superstitions they tended to produce. Zee received my answers

with much benignant attention, and said that similar instances of abuse and credulity had been familiar to

their own scientific experience in the infancy of their knowledge, and while the properties of vril were

misapprehended, but that she reserved further discussion on this subject till I was more fitted to enter into it.

She contented herself with adding, that it was through the agency of vril, while I had been placed in the state

of trance, that I had been made acquainted with the rudiments of their language; and that she and her father,

who alone of the family, took the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater proportionate

knowledge of my language than I of their own; partly because my language was much simpler than theirs,

comprising far less of complex ideas; and partly because their organisation was, by hereditary culture, much

more ductile and more readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. At this I secretly demurred; and

having had in the course of a practical life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or in travel, I could not allow

that my cerebral organisation could possibly be duller than that of people who had lived all their lives by

lamplight. However, while I was thus thinking, Zee quietly pointed her forefinger at my forehead, and sent

When I once more awoke I saw by my bedside the child who had brought the rope and grapplinghooks 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 Taree), 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

This child was singularly handsome, even for the beautiful race to which he belonged, with a countenance

very manly in aspect for his years, and with a more vivacious and energetic expression than I had hitherto

seen in the serene and passionless faces of the men. He brought me the tablet on which I had drawn the mode

of my descent, and had also sketched the head of the horrible reptile that had scared me from my friend's

corpse. Pointing to that part of the drawing, Taee put to me a few questions respecting the size and form of

the monster, and the cave or chasm from which it had emerged. His interest in my answers seemed so grave

as to divert him for a while from any curiosity as to myself or my antecedents. But to my great

embarrassment, seeing how I was pledged to my host, he was just beginning to ask me where I came from,

when Zee, fortunately entered, and, overhearing him, said, "Taee, give to our guest any information he may

desire, but ask none from him in return. To question him who he is, whence he comes, or wherefore he is

here, would be a breach of the law which my father has laid down in this house."

"So be it," said Taee, pressing his hand to his breast; and from that moment, till the one in which I saw him

last, this child, with whom I became very intimate, never once put to me any of the questions thus interdicted.

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

According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the race had once tenanted a world above the

surface of that in which their descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their archives,

and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the lamps were lighted by no human hand. But

such legends were considered by most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions the

earth itself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was not indeed in its infancy, but in the throes and

travail of transition from one form of development to another, and subject to many violent revolutions of

nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the upper world inhabited by the ancestors of this race had

been subjected to inundations, not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a scanty remnant,

were submerged and perished. Whether this be a record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some

earlier one contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, according to the chronology of

this people as compared with that of Newton, it must have been many thousands of years before the time of

Noah. On the other hand, the account of these writers does not harmonise with the opinions most in vogue

among geological authorities, inasmuch as it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dates long

anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation adapted to the introduction of mammalia. A band of the

illfated 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

The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the arts they had practised above ground arts of

culture and civilisation. Their earliest want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light they

had lost above it; and at no time, even in the traditional period, do the races, of which the one I now

sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to have been unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases, or

manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in their former state to contend with the rude forces of

nature; and indeed the lengthened battle they had fought with their conqueror Ocean, which had taken

centuries in its spread, had quickened their skill in curbing waters into dikes and channels. To this skill they

owed their preservation in their new abode. "For many generations," said my host, with a sort of contempt

and horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to have degraded their rank and shortened their lives by

eating the flesh of animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves, escaped the Deluge, and sought

shelter in the hollows of the earth; other animals, supposed to be unknown to the upper world, those hollows

When what we should term the historical age emerged from the twilight of tradition, the Ana were already

established in different communities, and had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that which

the more advanced nations above the earth now enjoy. They were familiar with most of our mechanical

inventions, including the application of steam as well as gas. The communities were in fierce competition

with each other. They had their rich and their poor; they had orators and conquerors; they made war either for

a domain or an idea. Though the various states acknowledged various forms of government, free institutions

were beginning to preponderate; popular assemblies increased in power; republics soon became general; the

democracy to which the most enlightened European politicians look forward as the extreme goal of political

advancement, and which still prevailed among other subterranean races, whom they despised as barbarians,

the loftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and

ignorant experiments which belong to the infancy of political science. It was the age of envy and hate, of

fierce passions, of constant social changes more or less violent, of strife between classes, of war between

state and state. This phase of society lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought to a close, at

least among the nobler and more intellectual populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored

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 reestablish

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

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 vrildiscoverers ceased, for they brought the art of destruction to such

perfection as to annul all superiority in numbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in the hollow of

a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter the strongest fortress, or cleave its burning way from the

van to the rear of an embattled host. If army met army, and both had command of this agency, it could be but

to the annihilation of each. The age of war was therefore gone, but with the cessation of war other effects

bearing upon the social state soon became apparent. Man was so completely at the mercy of man, each whom

he encountered being able, if so willing, to slay him on the instant, that all notions of government by force

gradually vanished from political systems and forms of law. It is only by force that vast communities,

dispersed through great distances of space, can be kept together; but now there was no longer either the

necessity of selfpreservation or the pride of aggrandisement to make one state desire to preponderate in

The Vrildiscoverers 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

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 AVril was synonymous with

civilisation; and Vrilya, 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

The government of the tribe of Vrilya I am treating of was apparently very complicated, really very simple.

It was based upon a principle recognised in theory, though little carried out in practice, above ground viz.,

that the object of all systems of philosophical thought tends to the attainment of unity, or the ascent through

all intervening labyrinths to the simplicity of a single first cause or principle. Thus in politics, even

republican writers have agreed that a benevolent autocracy would insure the best administration, if there were

any guarantees for its continuance, or against its gradual abuse of the powers accorded to it. This singular

community elected therefore a single supreme magistrate styled Tur; he held his office nominally for life, but

he could seldom be induced to retain it after the first approach of old age. There was indeed in this society

nothing to induce any of its members to covet the cares of office. No honours, no insignia of higher rank,

were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate was not distinguished from the rest by superior habitation or

revenue. On the other hand, the duties awarded to him were marvellously light and easy, requiring no

preponderant degree of energy or intelligence. There being no apprehensions of war, there were no armies to

maintain; there being no government of force, there was no police to appoint and direct. What we call crime

was utterly unknown to the Vrilya; 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 grownup

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

lawobserving. Obedience to the rule adopted by the community has become as much an instinct as if it were

implanted by nature. Even in every household the head of it makes a regulation for its guidance, which is

never resisted nor even cavilled at by those who belong to the family. They have a proverb, the pithiness of

which is much lost in this paraphrase, "No happiness without order, no order without authority, no authority

without unity." The mildness of all government among them, civil or domestic, may be signalised by their

idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal or forbidden viz., "It is requested not to do so and so."

Poverty among the Ana is as unknown as crime; not that property is held in common, or that all are equals in

the extent of their possessions or the size and luxury of their habitations: but there being no difference of rank

or position between the grades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pursues his own inclinations

without creating envy or vying; some like a modest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself

happy in his own way. Owing to this absence of competition, and the limit placed on the population, it is

difficult for a family to fall into distress; there are no hazardous speculations, no emulators striving for

superior wealth and rank. No doubt, in each settlement all originally had the same proportions of land dealt

out to them; but some, more adventurous than others, had extended their possessions farther into the

bordering wilds, or had improved into richer fertility the produce of their fields, or entered into commerce or

trade. Thus, necessarily, some had grown richer than others, but none had become absolutely poor, or

wanting anything which their tastes desired. If they did so, it was always in their power to migrate, or at the

worst to apply, without shame and with certainty of aid, to the rich, for all the members of the community

considered themselves as brothers of one affectionate and united family. More upon this head will be treated

of incidentally as my narrative proceeds. The chief care of the supreme magistrate was to communicate with

certain active departments charged with the administration of special details. The most important and

essential of such details was that connected with the due provision of light. Of this department my host,

AphLin, 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, 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

* 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

But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtle or elegant studies. They comprise various

others more important, and especially the properties of vril, to the perception of which their finer nervous

organisation renders the female Professors eminently keen. It is out of this college that the Tur, or chief

magistrate, selects Councillors, limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of event or

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 Gyei (the females), twenty for the Ana (the

males). These children are formed into bands and sections under their own chiefs, each following the pursuits

in which he is most pleased, or for which he feels himself most fitted. Some take to handicrafts, some to

agriculture, some to household work, and some to the only services of danger to which the population is

exposed; for the sole perils that threaten this tribe are, first, from those occasional convulsions within the

earth, to foresee and guard against which tasks their utmost ingenuity irruptions of fire and water, the storms

of subterranean winds and escaping gases. At the borders of the domain, and at all places where such peril

might be apprehended, vigilant inspectors are stationed with telegraphic communications to the hall in which

chosen sages take it by turns to hold perpetual sittings. These inspectors are always selected from the elder

boys approaching the age of puberty, and on the principle that at that age observation is more acute and the

physical forces more alert than at any other. The second service of danger, less grave, is in the destruction of

all creatures hostile to the life, or the culture, or even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these the most formidable

are the vast reptiles, of some of which antediluvian relics are preserved in our museums, and certain gigantic

winged creatures, half bird, half reptile. These, together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigers

or venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children to hunt and destroy; because, according to the Ana,

here ruthlessness is wanted, and the younger the child the more ruthlessly he will destroy. There is another

class of animals in the destruction of which discrimination is to be used, and against which children of

intermediate age are appointed animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage the produce of his

labour, varieties of the elk and deer species, and a smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, though infinitely

more destructive to crops, and much more cunning in its mode of depredation. It is the first object of these

appointed infants, to tame the more intelligent of such animals into respect for enclosures signalised by

conspicuous landmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even to guard the master's property. It is

only where such creatures are found untamable to this extent that they are destroyed. Life is never taken away

for food or for sport, and never spared where untamably inimical to the Ana. Concomitantly with these bodily

services and tasks, the mental education of the children goes on till boyhood ceases. It is the general custom,

then, to pass though a course of instruction at the College of Sages, in which, besides more general studies,

the pupil receives special lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect as he himself selects. Some,

however, prefer to pass this period of probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settle down at once into rural or

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 Gyei for

the plural, but the G becomes soft in the plural like Jyei. 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 Gyei are in the fullest enjoyment of all the rights of equality with males, for which

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 Gyei 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 matteroffact 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 Gyei are usually superior to the

Ana in physical strength (an important element in the consideration and maintenance of female rights). They

attain to loftier stature, and amid their rounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy as

those of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according to the original laws of nature, females were intended

to be larger than males, and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliest formations of life in insects, and

in the most ancient family of the vertebrata viz., fishes in both of which the females are generally large

enough to make a meal of their consorts if they so desire. Above all, the Gyei 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 Gyei 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 Gyei to themselves. The history runs that the widowed Gyei,

thus reduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when in her sleep (and therefore unarmed), and killed her,

and then entered into a solemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever the exercise of their

extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate the same obligation for ever and ever on their female children. By

this conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to the fugitive consorts succeeded in persuading many to

return, but those who did return were mostly the elder ones. The younger, either from too craven a doubt of

their consorts, or too high an estimate of their own merits, rejected all overtures, and, remaining in other

communities, were caught up there by other mates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the loss

of so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutary warning on the Gyei, and confirmed them in

the pious resolution to which they pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularly considered that, by long

hereditary disuse, the Gyei 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

>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 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 Gyei, 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 Gyei carefully retain, and the desire for which perhaps forms the secret motive of most

lady asserters of woman rights above ground. They claim the privilege, here usurped by men, of proclaiming

their love and urging their suit; in other words, of being the wooing party rather than the wooed. Such a

phenomenon as an old maid does not exist among the Gyei. Indeed it is very seldom that a Gy does not

secure any An upon whom she sets her heart, if his affections be not strongly engaged elsewhere. However

coy, reluctant, and prudish, the male she courts may prove at first, yet her perseverance, her ardour, her

persuasive powers, her command over the mystic agencies of vril, are pretty sure to run down his neck into

what we call "the fatal noose." Their argument for the reversal of that relationship of the sexes which the

blind tyranny of man has established on the surface of the earth, appears cogent, and is advanced with a

frankness which might well be commended to impartial consideration. They say, that of the two the female is

by nature of a more loving disposition than the male that love occupies a larger space in her thoughts, and is

more essential to her happiness, and that therefore she ought to be the wooing party; that otherwise the male

is a shy and dubitant creature that he has often a selfish predilection for the single state that he often

pretends to misunderstand tender glances and delicate hints that, in short, he must be resolutely pursued and

captured. They add, moreover, that unless the Gy can secure the An of her choice, and one whom she would

not select out of the whole world becomes her mate, she is not only less happy than she otherwise would be,

but she is not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not sufficiently developed; whereas the An is a

creature that less lastingly concentrates his affections on one object; that if he cannot get the Gy whom he

prefers he easily reconciles himself to another Gy; and, finally, that at the worst, if he is loved and taken care

of, it is less necessary to the welfare of his existence that he should love as well as be loved; he grows

contented with his creature comforts, and the many occupations of thought which he creates for himself.

Whatever may be said as to this reasoning, the system works well for the male; for being thus sure that he is

truly and ardently loved, and that the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the more determination to

secure him increases, he generally contrives to make his consent dependent on such conditions as he thinks

the best calculated to insure, if not a blissful, at least a peaceful life. Each individual An has his own hobbies,

his own ways, his own predilections, and, whatever they may be, he demands a promise of full and

unrestrained concession to them. This, in the pursuit of her object, the Gy readily promises; and as the

characteristic of this extraordinary people is an implicit veneration for truth, and her word once given is never

broken even by the giddiest Gy, the conditions stipulated for are religiously observed. In fact,

notwithstanding all their abstract rights and powers, the Gyei 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

Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to the existence of regions extending below

the surface of the earth, and habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material points of organism,

akin to those in the upper world, than the contradiction thus presented to the doctrine in which, I believe,

most geologists and philosophers concur viz., that though with us the sun is the great source of heat, yet the

deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the

ratio of a degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface. But though the domains of the

tribe I speak of were, on the higher ground, so comparatively near to the surface, that I could account for a

temperature, therein, suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines and valleys of that realm were much less

hot than philosophers would deem possible at such a depth certainly not warmer than the south of France, or

at least of Italy. And according to all the accounts I received, vast tracts immeasurably deeper beneath the

surface, and in which one might have thought only salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumerable

races organised like ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account for a fact which is so at variance with

the recognised laws of science, nor could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did but conjecture

that sufficient allowance had not been made by our philosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior

earth the vastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served to create free currents of air and frequent

winds and for the various modes in which heat is evaporated and thrown off. She allowed, however, that

there was a depth at which the heat was deemed to be intolerable to such organised life as was known to the

experience of the Vrilya, though their philosophers believed that even in such places life of some kind, life

sentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant and thriving, could the philosophers penetrate to it.

"Wherever the AllGood 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 Vrilya, and that the agency of vril had been successfully employed in such changes. She described a

subtle and lifegiving medium called Lai, which I suspect to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr.

Lewins, wherein work all the correlative forces united under the name of vril; and contended that wherever

this medium could be expanded, as it were, sufficiently for the various agencies of vril to have ample play, a

temperature congenial to the highest forms of life could be secured. She said also, that it was the belief of

their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been produced originally (whether developed from seeds

borne from the surface of the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or imported by the tribes that first

sought refuge in cavernous hollows) through the operations of the light constantly brought to bear on them,

and the gradual improvement in culture. She said also, that since the vril light had superseded all other

lightgiving bodies, the colours of flower and foliage had become more brilliant, and vegetation had acquired

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 Vrilya.

The language of the Vrilya 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

Taking then the Chinese language as the best existing type of the original isolating stratum, "as the faithful

photograph of man in his leadingstrings trying the muscles of his mind, groping his way, and so delighted

with his first successful grasps that he repeats them again and again," (Max Muller, p. ) we have, in the

language of the Vrilya, 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 Vrilya the inflectional stratum commences.

No doubt at that time there must have operated concurrent causes, in the fusion of races by some dominant

people, and the rise of some great literary phenomena by which the form of language became arrested and

fixed. As the inflectional stage prevailed over the agglutinative, it is surprising to see how much more boldly

the original roots of the language project from the surface that conceals them. In the old fragments and

proverbs of the preceding stage the monosyllables which compose those roots vanish amidst words of

enormous length, comprehending whole sentences from which no one part can be disentangled from the other

and employed separately. But when the inflectional form of language became so far advanced as to have its

scholars and grammarians, they seem to have united in extirpating all such polysynthetical or polysyllabic

monsters, as devouring invaders of the aboriginal forms. Words beyond three syllables became proscribed as

barbarous and in proportion as the language grew thus simplified it increased in strength, in dignity, and in

sweetness. Though now very compressed in sound, it gains in clearness by that compression. By a single

letter, according to its position, they contrive to express all that with civilised nations in our upper world it

takes the waste, sometimes of syllables, sometimes of sentences, to express. Let me here cite one or two

instances: An (which I will translate man), Ana (men); the letter 's' is with them a letter implying multitude,

according to where it is placed; Sana means mankind; Ansa, a multitude of men. The prefix of certain letters

in their alphabet invariably denotes compound significations. For instance, Gl (which with them is a single

letter, as 'th' is a single letter with the Greeks) at the commencement of a word infers an assemblage or union

of things, sometimes kindred, sometimes dissimilar as Oon, a house; Gloon, a town (i. e., an assemblage of

houses). Ata is sorrow; Glata, a public calamity. Auran 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 Aglauran, 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 AllGood.

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; Veedya, immortality; Koom,

pronounced like the Welsh Cwm, denotes something of hollowness. Koom itself is a cave; Koomin, a hole;

Zikoom, a valley; Koomzi, vacancy or void; Bodhkoom, ignorance (literally, knowledgevoid).

Koomposh 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 KoomPosh may be loosely rendered "HollowBosh." But

when Democracy or KoomPosh 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 GlekNas. Ek is strife Glek, the universal strife. Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus,

GlekNas may be construed, "the universal striferot." Their compounds are very expressive; thus, Bodh

being knowledge, and Too a participle that implies the action of cautiously approaching, Toobodh is their

word for Philosophy; Pah is a contemptuous exclamation analogous to our idiom, "stuff and nonsense;"

Pahbodh (literally stuff and nonsenseknowledge) 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 AllGood, have the same

number of toes as his descendants? In the form by which an An will be recognised by his friends in the future

state of being, will he retain any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toes or spiritual toes?" I take these

illustrations of Pahbodh, not in irony or jest, but because the very inquiries I name formed the subject of

controversy by the latest cultivators of that 'science,' 4000 years ago. In the declension of nouns I was

informed that anciently there were eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); but the effect of

time has been to reduce these cases, and multiply, instead of these varying terminations, explanatory

propositions. At present, in the Grammar submitted to my study, there were four cases to nouns, three having

SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. An, Man, | Nom. Ana, Men. Dat. Ano, to Man, | Dat. Anoi, to Men. Ac. Anan,

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 Hilya, to travel.

In the conjugation of their verbs, which is much too lengthy a subject to enter on here, the auxiliary verb Ya,

"to go," which plays so considerable part in the Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred office, as if it were a

radical in some language from which both had descended. But another auxiliary or opposite signification also

accompanies it and shares its labours viz., Zi, to stay or repose. Thus Ya enters into the future tense, and Zi

in the preterite of all verbs requiring auxiliaries. Yam, I shall go Yiam, I may go Yaniya, I shall go

(literally, I go to go), Zampooyan, 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. Ivazi, eternal goodness; Nanzi, eternal

evil. Poo (from) enters as a prefix to words that denote repugnance, or things from which we ought to be

averse. Poopra, disgust; Poonaria, 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

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 Vrilya,

vitiated into the halfhissing, halfnasal, 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

I will but mention another peculiarity in this language which gives equal force and brevity to its forms of

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; ADiva is unerring and absolute truth. I have already noticed the value

of A in Aglauran, so, in vril (to whose properties they trace their present state of civilisation), Avril,

The philologist will have seen from the above how much the language of the Vrilya is akin to the Aryan or

IndoGermanic; 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 Vrilya 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

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 Vrilya. But what I have already said will perhaps suffice to show to genuine

philological students that a language which, preserving so many of the roots in the aboriginal form, and

clearing from the immediate, but transitory, polysynthetical stage so many rude incumbrances, 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 GlekNas. Ek is strife Glek, the universal

strife. Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus, GlekNas may be construed, "the universal striferot."

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.

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 allpermeating agency of vril, to transmit to the wellspring of life and

intelligence every thought that a living creature can conceive; and though they do not contend that the idea of

a Diety is innate, yet they say that the An (man) is the only creature, so far as their observation of nature

extends, to whom 'the capacity of conceiving that idea,' with all the trains of thought which open out from it,

is vouchsafed. They hold that this capacity is a privilege that cannot have been given in vain, and hence that

prayer and thanksgiving are acceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to the complete development of

the human creature. They offer their devotions both in private and public. Not being considered one of their

species, I was not admitted into the building or temple in which the public worship is rendered; but I am

informed that the service is exceedingly short, and unattended with any pomp of ceremony. It is a doctrine

with the Vrilya, 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

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 Vrilya unite in a conviction of a future state,

more felicitous and more perfect than the present. If they have very vague notions of the doctrine of rewards

and punishments, it is perhaps because they have no systems of rewards and punishments among themselves,

for there are no crimes to punish, and their moral standard is so even that no An among them is, upon the

whole, considered more virtuous than another. If one excels, perhaps in one virtue, another equally excels in

some other virtue; If one has his prevalent fault or infirmity, so also another has his. In fact, in their

extraordinary mode of life. there are so few temptations to wrong, that they are good (according to their

notions of goodness) merely because they live. They have some fanciful notions upon the continuance of life,

when once bestowed, even in the vegetable world, as the reader will see in the next chapter.

Though, as I have said, the Vrilya 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 AllWise and the AllGood. 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 AllWise, the AllGood, the AllPowerful. 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 AllGood, 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 LifeGiver. 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

newborn is compared to the whole life of a man; and once suppose that this living thing retains its sense of

identity when so transformed (for without that sense it could be aware of no future being), and though,

indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed from the scope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it

to be uniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it would be if acting only upon general and

secondary laws; because such perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of knowledge to conceive,

perfectness of love to will, and perfectness of power to complete it. However fantastic this belief of the

Vrilya 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 reappeared amongst

thinkers or dreamers in the upper world, so I may perhaps appropriately conclude this reference to the belief

of the Vrilya, that selfconscious 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 Vrilya

which I now reduce into something like arrangement and form: "The relations which individual animals bear

to one another are of such a character that they ought long ago to have been considered as sufficient proof

that no organised being could ever have been called into existence by other agency than by the direct

intervention of a reflective mind. This argues strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of an

immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and superior endowments places man so much

above the animals; yet the principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called sense, reason, or instinct,

it presents in the whole range of organised beings a series of phenomena closely linked together, and upon it

are based not only the higher manifestations of the mind, but the very permanence of the specific differences

which characterise every organism. Most of the arguments in favour of the immortality of man apply equally

to the permanency of this principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future life in which man would

be deprived of that great source of enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement which results from the

contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world would involve a lamentable loss? And may we not look

to a spiritual concert of the combined worlds and ALL their inhabitants in the presence of their Creator as the

highest conception of paradise?" 'Essay on Classification,' sect. xvii. p. 9799.

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 Vrilya, with the exception of the artful wings which served them,

when on foot, as a graceful mantle. But as many of the Vrilya, when occupied in urban pursuits, did not

wear these wings, this exception created no marked difference between myself and the race among whom I

sojourned, and I was thus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant curiosity. Out of the

household no one suspected that I had come from the upper world, and I was but regarded as one of some

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 Vrilya 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 Vrilya are

distributed, to leave between each state a neutral and uncultivated borderland. 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 airboats, 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 Vrilya contribute in settled proportions. By these means a

considerable commercial traffic with other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus wealth

on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The community was also eminent for skill in constructing

implements connected with the arts of husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articles more

of luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on which they set a higher price than birds taught to

pipe artful tunes in concert. These were brought from a great distance, and were marvellous for beauty of

song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was taken by their breeders and teachers in selection,

and that the species had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I saw no other pet animals among

this community except some very amusing and sportive creatures of the Batrachian species, resembling frogs,

but with very intelligent countenances, which the children were fond of, and kept in their private gardens.

They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs or horses, though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me

that such creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be found in regions inhabited by other

races than the Vrilya. 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 Vrilya 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

airboats. 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 AphLin dwelt,

expanded into a vast square, in which were placed the College of Sages and all the public offices; a

magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I call naptha (I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre.

All these public edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and solidity. They reminded me of the

architectural pictures of Martin. Along the upper stories of each ran a balcony, or rather a terraced garden,

supported by columns, filled with flowering plants, and tenanted by many kinds of tame birds. >From the

square branched several streets, all broad and brilliantly lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either

side. In my excursions in the town I was never allowed to go alone; AphLin 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

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

The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beings after the active age of childhood.

Whether by temperament or philosophy, they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when you

take away from a human being the incentives to action which are found in cupidity or ambition, it seems to

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

Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less rapidly than some birds, yet from twentyfive 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 sweatingbaths to which we give the name Turkish or

Roman, succeeded by douches of perfumed waters. They have great faith in the salubrious virtue of certain

It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four times ayear when in health, to use a bath

* 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

They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the

normal state of health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases, however,

they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwing off their complaint.

In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all their luxuries are innocent. They may be said

to dwell in an atmosphere of music and fragrance. Every room has its mechanical contrivances for melodious

sounds, usually tuned down to softmurmured 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

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 Vrilya has the organs of weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, very largely developed; that of

construction much more pronounced than that of ideality. Those which are called the moral organs, such as

conscientiousness and benevolence, are amazingly full; amativeness and combativeness are both small;

adhesiveness large; the organ of destructiveness (i.e., of determined clearance of intervening obstacles)

immense, but less than that of benevolence; and their philoprogenitiveness takes rather the character of

compassion and tenderness to things that need aid or protection than of the animal love of offspring. I never

met with one person deformed or misshapen. The beauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of

feature, but in a smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle to the extreme of old age,

and a serene sweetness of expression, combined with that majesty which seems to come from consciousness

of power and the freedom of all terror, physical or moral. It is that very sweetness, combined with that

majesty, which inspired in a beholder like myself, accustomed to strive with the passions of mankind, a

sentiment of humiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a painter might give to a demigod, a

genius, an angel. The males of the Vrilya are entirely beardless; the Gyei sometimes, in old age, develop a

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

Vrilya, 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 darkred 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 Vrilya nations. Nations which, not

conforming their manners and institutions to those of the Vrilya, 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

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 Vrilya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of their earlier

struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localities in which they had first settled. "Wherever," said

Zee, moralising, "wherever goes on that early process in the history of civilisation, by which life is made a

struggle, in which the individual has to put forth all his powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find

this result viz., since in the competition a vast number must perish, nature selects for preservation only the

strongest specimens. With our race, therefore, even before the discovery of vril, only the highest

organisations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books a legend, once popularly believed, that

we were driven from a region that seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect our condition

and attain to the purest elimination of our species by the severity of the struggles our forefathers underwent;

and that, when our education shall become finally completed, we are destined to return to the upper world,

AphLin 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 Vrilya. They found in my accounts, in which I continued to do all I could (without

launching into falsehoods so positive that they would have been easily detected by the shrewdness of my

listeners) to present our powers and ourselves in the most flattering point of view, perpetual subjects of

comparison between our most civilised populations and the meaner subterranean races which they considered

hopelessly plunged in barbarism, and doomed to gradual if certain extinction. But they both agreed in

desiring to conceal from their community all premature opening into the regions lighted by the sun; both

were humane, and shrunk from the thought of annihilating so many millions of creatures; and the pictures I

drew of our life, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain I boasted of our great men poets,

philosophers, orators, generals and defied the Vrilya 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 selfmade cares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems to

us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without active occupations to the intellectual or

spiritual powers, but occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to the idiosyncrasies of each, not

forced and repugnant a life gladdened by the untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, in which the

moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry. Such is the political state to which

all the tribes and families of the Vrilya 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 Vrilya, 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 KoomPosh 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

"Some years ago," said AphLin, "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 wellordered family; and the more they mature a system by which a few

individuals are heated and swollen to a size above the standard slenderness of the millions, the more they

chuckle and exact, and cry out, 'See by what great exceptions to the common littleness of our race we prove

the magnificent results of our system!'" "In fact," resumed Zee, "if the wisdom of human life be to

approximate to the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flying off into the opposite

direction than a system which aims at carrying to the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor

do I see how, by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves even to appreciate the

joys of immortals to which they still expect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds

accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of godlike, would find the happiness of gods

exceedingly dull, and would long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with each other."

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 walkingstaff, but it has slides by which it can be lengthened or

shortened at will. When used for special purposes, the upper part rests in the hollow of the palm with the fore

and middle fingers protruded. I was assured, however, that its power was not equal in all, but proportioned to

the amount of certain vril properties in the wearer in affinity, or 'rapport' with the purposes to be effected.

Some were more potent to destroy, others to heal, much also depended on the calm and steadiness of volition

in the manipulator. They assert that the full exercise of vril power can only be acquired by the constitutional

temperament i.e., by hereditarily transmitted organisation and that a female infant of four years old

belonging to the Vrilya 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 Vrilya 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 miles. And their mathematical science as applied to such purpose is so nicely

accurate, that on the report of some observer in an airboat, 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

Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians wonderful for the adaptation of the inventive faculty to

practical uses. I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great public museum, which occupies a

wing in the College of Sages, and in which are hoarded, as curious specimens of the ignorant and blundering

experiments of ancient times, many contrivances on which we pride ourselves as recent achievements. In one

department, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete lumber, are tubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an

inflammable powder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and even still more murderous than our

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 airballoon 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

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 pocketpistol. Zee inspired me with a profound terror a terror

which increased when we came into a department of the museum appropriated to models of contrivances

worked by the agency of vril; for here, merely by a certain play of her vril staff, she herself standing at a

distance, she put into movement large and weighty substances. She seemed to endow them with intelligence,

and to make them comprehend and obey her command. She set complicated pieces of machinery into

movement, arrested the movement or continued it, until, within an incredibly short time, various kinds of raw

material were reproduced as symmetrical works of art, complete and perfect. Whatever effect mesmerism or

electrobiology produces over the nerves and muscles of animated objects, this young Gy produced by the

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, forklike, 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 Vrilya. It has been slowly

developed in the course of generations, commencing in the early achievements, and increasing with the

continuous exercise, of the vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousand years, such a nerve

may possibly be engendered in those higher beings of your race, who devote themselves to that paramount

science through which is attained command over all the subtler forces of nature permeated by vril. But when

you talk of matter as something in itself inert and motionless, your parents or tutors surely cannot have left

you so ignorant as not to know that no form of matter is motionless and inert: every particle is constantly in

motion and constantly acted upon by agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and rapid, but vril the most

subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the most powerful. So that, in fact, the current launched by my hand and

guided by my will does but render quicker and more potent the action which is eternally at work upon every

particle of matter, however inert and stubborn it may seem. If a heap of metal be not capable of originating a

thought of its own, yet, through its internal susceptibility to movement, it obtains the power to receive the

thought of the intellectual agent at work on it; by which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of the vril

power, it is as much compelled to obey as if it were displaced by a visible bodily force. It is animated for the

time being by the soul thus infused into it, so that one may almost say that it lives and reasons. Without this

I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of the young Gy to hazard the risk of arguing with her. I

had read somewhere in my schoolboy days that a wise man, disputing with a Roman Emperor, suddenly drew

in his horns; and when the emperor asked him whether he had nothing further to say on his side of the

question, replied, "Nay, Caesar, there is no arguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions." Though I

had a secret persuasion that, whatever the real effects of vril upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved her

a very shallow philosopher as to its extent or its causes, I had no doubt that Zee could have brained all the

Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the other, with a blow of her fist. Every sensible man knows that it is

useless to argue with any ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; but to argue with a Gy seven feet

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 Vrilya, and comprised a very ancient

collection of portraits. In these the pigments and groundwork employed were of so durable a nature that even

pictures said to be executed at dates as remote as those in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained much

freshness of colour. In examining this collection, two things especially struck me: first, that the pictures said

to be between 6000 and 7000 years old were of a much higher degree of art than any produced within the last

3000 or 4000 years; and, second, that the portraits within the former period much more resembled our own

upper world and European types of countenance. Some of them, indeed reminded me of the Italian heads

which look out from the canvases of Titian speaking of ambition or craft, of care or of grief, with furrows in

which the passions have passed with iron ploughshare. These were the countenances of men who had lived in

struggle and conflict before the discovery of the latent forces of vril had changed the character of society

men who had fought with each other for power or fame as we in the upper world fight.

The type of face began to evince a marked change about a thousand years after the vril revolution, becoming

then, with each generation, more serene, and in that serenity more terribly distinct from the faces of labouring

and sinful men; while in proportion as the beauty and the grandeur of the countenance itself became more

But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of three portraits belonging to the prehistorical 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 Vrilya race

The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of his grandfather, and greatgrandfather. 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 greatgrandfather; 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 greatgrandfather was a magnificent specimen of the

Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical

form and sententious brevity, this is notably recorded: "Humble yourselves, my descendants; the father of

your race was a 'twat' (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for it was the same Divine Thought which

AphLin 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 greatgrandson of a Frog became a sententious

philosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the lofty Vrilya, but of the meanest varieties of the human

"Pardon me," answered AphLin: "in what we call the Wrangling or Philosophical Period of History, which

was at its height about seven thousand years ago, there was a very distinguished naturalist, who proved to the

satisfaction of numerous disciples such analogical and anatomical agreements in structure between an An and

a Frog, as to show that out of the one must have developed the other. They had some diseases in common;

they were both subject to the same parasitical worms in the intestines; and, strange to say, the An has, in his

structure, a swimmingbladder, 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

"I understand that," said I, "because Frogs this enormous are, according to our eminent geologists, who

perhaps saw them in dreams, said to have been distinguished inhabitants of the upper world before the

Deluge; and such Frogs are exactly the creatures likely to have flourished in the lakes and morasses of your

subterranean regions. But pray, proceed." "In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage asserted

another sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maxim in that age, that the human reason could only be

sustained aloft by being tossed to and fro in the perpetual motion of contradiction; and therefore another sect

of philosophers maintained the doctrine that the An was not the descendant of the Frog, but that the Frog was

clearly the improved development of the An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally, was much more

symmetrical than that of the An; beside the beautiful conformation of its lower limbs, its flanks and shoulders

the majority of the Ana in that day were almost deformed, and certainly illshaped. 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 swimmingbladder 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 Gyei naturally

preferring youth or the beauty of smooth faces. But the degree of the Frog in the scale of the vertebrata is

shown in this, that he has no hair at all, not even on his head. He was born to that hairless perfection which

the most beautiful of the Ana, despite the culture of incalculable ages, have not yet attained. The wonderful

complication and delicacy of a Frog's nervous system and arterial circulation were shown by this school to be

more susceptible of enjoyment than our inferior, or at least simpler, physical frame allows us to be. The

examination of a Frog's hand, if I may use that expression, accounted for its keener susceptibility to love, and

to social life in general. In fact, gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are still more so. In short, these

two schools raged against each other; one asserting the An to be the perfected type of the Frog; the other that

the Frog was the highest development of the An. The moralists were divided in opinion with the naturalists,

but the bulk of them sided with the Frogpreference 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 KoomPosh, who, being the most ignorant, were of course the

most inflammable class the multitude took the whole question out of the hands of the philosophers; political

chiefs saw that the Frog dispute, so taken up by the populace, could become a most valuable instrument of

their ambition; and for not less than one thousand years war and massacre prevailed, during which period the

philosophers on both sides were butchered, and the government of KoomPosh 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

"And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive the dispute; or do they all recognise the origin of

"Nay, such disputes," said Zee, with a lofty smile, "belong to the Pahbodh 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 AllWise 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

"You speak well, Zee," said AphLin; "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 Vrilya are likely to relapse into the heaving quagmire and certain striferot

The Vrilya, 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 Vrilya, 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 twentyfour, 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

* For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days, years, in any general reference to subdivisions of

time among the Vrilya; those terms but loosely corresponding, however, with such subdivisions.

But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain, both in the streets and in the surrounding country,

to the limits of their territory, the same degree of light at all hours. Only, within doors, they lower it to a soft

twilight during the Silent Hours. They have a great horror of perfect darkness, and their lights are never

wholly extinguished. On occasions of festivity they continue the duration of full light, but equally keep note

of the distinction between night and day, by mechanical contrivances which answer the purpose of our clocks

and watches. They are very fond of music; and it is by music that these chronometers strike the principal

division of time. At every one of their hours, during their day, the sounds coming from all the timepieces 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 fruitbearing plants, however, after fruitage, either shed or change the

colour of their leaves. But that which interested me most in reckoning up their divisions of time was the

ascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. I found on minute inquiry that this very

considerably exceeded the term allotted to us on the upper earth. What seventy years are to us, one hundred

years are to them. Nor is this the only advantage they have over us in longevity, for as few among us attain to

the age of seventy, so, on the contrary, few among them die before the age of one hundred; and they enjoy a

general degree of health and vigour which makes life itself a blessing even to the last. Various causes

contribute to this result: the absence of all alcoholic stimulants; temperance in food; more especially, perhaps,

a serenity of mind undisturbed by anxious occupations and eager passions. They are not tormented by our

avarice or our ambition; they appear perfectly indifferent even to the desire of fame; they are capable of great

affection, but their love shows itself in a tender and cheerful complaisance, and, while forming their

happiness, seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe. As the Gy is sure only to marry where she herself

fixes her choice, and as here, not less than above ground, it is the female on whom the happiness of home

depends; so the Gy, having chosen the mate she prefers to all others, is lenient to his faults, consults his

humours, and does her best to secure his attachment. The death of a beloved one is of course with them, as

with us, a cause for sorrow; but not only is death with them so much more rare before that age in which it

becomes a release, but when it does occur the survivor takes much more consolation than, I am afraid, the

generality of us do, in the certainty of reunion in another and yet happier life.

All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyable longevity, though, no doubt, much also must be

owing to hereditary organisation. According to their records, however, in those earlier stages of their society

when they lived in communities resembling ours, agitated by fierce competition, their lives were considerably

shorter, and their maladies more numerous and grave. They themselves say that the duration of life, too, has

increased, and is still on the increase, since their discovery of the invigorating and medicinal properties of

vril, applied for remedial purposes. They have few professional and regular practitioners of medicine, and

these are chiefly Gyei, who, especially if widowed and childless, find great delight in the healing art, and

even undertake surgical operations in those cases required by accident, or, more rarely, by disease.

They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during the Easy Time of their day, they are wont to

assemble in great numbers for those winged sports in the air which I have already described. They have also

public halls for music, and even theatres, at which are performed pieces that appeared to me somewhat to

resemble the plays of the Chinese dramas that are thrown back into distant times for their events and

personages, in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, and the hero, in once scene a child, in the

next is an old man, and so forth. These plays are of very ancient composition, and their stories cast in remote

times. They appeared to me very dull, on the whole, but were relieved by startling mechanical contrivances,

and a kind of farcical broad humour, and detached passages of great vigour and power expressed in language

highly poetical, but somewhat overcharged with metaphor and trope. In fine, they seemed to me very much

what the plays of Shakespeare seemed to a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps to an Englishman in

The audience, of which the Gyei 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

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 Gyei. The most interesting works of a purely literary character are those of

explorations and travels into other regions of this nether world, which are generally written by young

emigrants, and are read with great avidity by the relations and friends they have left behind.

I could not help expressing to AphLin 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

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 AllGood, and the arguments for and against a future state; but

now we all recognise two facts, that there IS a Divine Being, and there IS a future state, and we all equally

agree that if we wrote our fingers to the bone, we could not throw any light upon the nature and conditions of

that future state, or quicken our apprehensions of the attributes and essence of that Divine Being. Thus

another part of literature has become also extinct, happily for our race; for in the time when so much was

written on subjects which no one could determine, people seemed to live in a perpetual state of quarrel and

contention. So, too, a vast part of our ancient literature consists of historical records of wars an revolutions

during the times when the Ana lived in large and turbulent societies, each seeking aggrandisement at the

expense of the other. You see our serene mode of life now; such it has been for ages. We have no events to

chronicle. What more of us can be said than that, 'they were born, they were happy, they died?' Coming next

to that part of literature which is more under the control of the imagination, such as what we call Glaubsila, or

colloquially 'Glaubs,' and you call poetry, the reasons for its decline amongst us are abundantly obvious.

"We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in that department of literature which we all still read with

pleasure, but of which none would tolerate imitations, that they consist in the portraiture of passions which

we no longer experience ambition, vengeance, unhallowed love, the thirst for warlike renown, and suchlike.

The old poets lived in an atmosphere impregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what they expressed

glowingly. No one can express such passions now, for no one can feel them, or meet with any sympathy in

his readers if he did. Again, the old poetry has a main element in its dissection of those complex mysteries of

human character which conduce to abnormal vices and crimes, or lead to signal and extraordinary virtues.

But our society, having got rid of temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has necessarily rendered the

moral average so equal, that there are no very salient virtues. Without its ancient food of strong passions, vast

crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if not actually starved to death, reduced to a very meagre diet.

There is still the poetry of description description of rocks, and trees, and waters, and common household

life; and our young Gyei weave much of this insipid kind of composition into their love verses." "Such

poetry," said I, "might surely be made very charming; and we have critics amongst us who consider it a

higher kind than that which depicts the crimes, or analyses the passions, of man. At all events, poetry of the

inspired kind you mention is a poetry that nowadays commands more readers than any other among the

"Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains with the language they employ, and devote

"Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the gift of poetry may be inborn, the gift requires as much

care to make it available as a block of metal does to be made into one of your engines."

"And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow all those pains upon such verbal prettinesses?"

"Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing as the bird does; but to cultivate the song into

verbal or artificial prettiness, probably does need an inducement from without, and our poets find it in the

"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 preeminent praise: preeminent praise would confer

preeminent power, and the moment it were given, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men

would immediately covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envy hate, and with hate calumny and

persecution. Our history tells us that most of the poets and most of the writers who, in the old time, were

favoured with the greatest praise, were also assailed by the greatest vituperation, and even, on the whole,

rendered very unhappy, partly by the attacks of jealous rivals, partly by the diseased mental constitution

which an acquired sensitiveness to praise and to blame tends to engender. As for the stimulus of want; in the

first place, no man in our community knows the goad of poverty; and, secondly, if he did, almost every

"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

"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

"But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of literature do not operate against that of

"Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth apart from all consideration of fame,

and science with us too is devoted almost solely to practical uses, essential to our social conversation and the

comforts of our daily life. No fame is asked by the inventor, and none is given to him; he enjoys an

occupation congenial to his tastes, and needing no wear and tear of the passions. Man must have exercise for

his mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather than violent, is best for both. Our most ingenious

cultivators of science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the most free from disease. Painting is an

amusement to many, but the art is not what it was in former times, when the great painters in our various

communities vied with each other for the prize of a golden crown, which gave them a social rank equal to that

of the kings under whom they lived. You will thus doubtless have observed in our archaeological department

how superior in point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago. Perhaps it is because music is, in

reality, more allied to science than it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurable arts, music is that which

flourishes the most amongst us. Still, even in music the absence of stimulus in praise or fame has served to

prevent any great superiority of one individual over another; and we rather excel in choral music, with the aid

of our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great use of the agency of water,* than in single

* 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 Vrilya generally, has left behind in its progress to perfection? If so, among such societies

perhaps Poetry and her sister arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?" "There are such societies in

remote regions, but we do not admit them within the pale of civilised communities; we scarcely even give

them the name of Ana, and certainly not that of Vrilya. They are savages, living chiefly in that low stage of

being, KoomPosh, tending necessarily to its own hideous dissolution in GlekNas. Their wretched existence

is passed in perpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight with their neighbours, they fight

among themselves. They are divided into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimes murder each other,

and on the most frivolous points of difference that would be unintelligible to us if we had not read history,

and seen that we too have passed through the same early state of ignorance and barbarism. Any trifle is

sufficient to set them together by the ears. They pretend to be all equals, and the more they have struggled to

be so, by removing old distinctions, and starting afresh, the more glaring and intolerable the disparity

becomes, because nothing in hereditary affections and associations is left to soften the one naked distinction

between the many who have nothing and the few who have much. Of course the many hate the few, but

without the few they could not live. The many are always assailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the

few; but as soon as they have done so, a new few starts out of the many, and is harder to deal with than the

old few. For where societies are large, and competition to have something is the predominant fever, there

must be always many losers and few gainers. In short, they are savages groping their way in the dark towards

some gleam of light, and would demand our commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages, they did

not provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and cruelty. Can you imagine that creatures of this kind,

armed only with such miserable weapons as you may see in our museum of antiquities, clumsy iron tubes

charged with saltpetre, have more than once threatened with destruction a tribe of the Vrilya, 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 SocSec (money getting) on some trading principles

My host stared at me astonished. "Stranger," said he, "you could not have heard me say that this threatened

tribe belongs to the Vrilya; and it only waits for these savages to declare war, in order to commission some

At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much more affinity with "the savages" than I did with the

Vrilya, and remembering all I had said in praise of the glorious American institutions, which AphLin

stigmatised as KoomPosh. Recovering my selfpossession, I asked if there were modes of transit by which I

"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

Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee, who came to inform us that he, having been

deputed to discover and destroy the enormous reptile which I had seen on my first arrival, had been on the

watch for it ever since his visit to me, and had began to suspect that my eyes had deceived me, or that the

creature had made its way through the cavities within the rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its kindred

race, when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a great devastation of the herbage bordering one of the

lakes. "And," said Taee, "I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding. So," (turning to me) "I thought it

might amuse you to accompany me to see the way we destroy such unpleasant visitors." As I looked at the

face of the young child, and called to mind the enormous size of the creature he proposed to exterminate, I

felt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps fear for myself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But

my curiosity to witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and my unwillingness to lower myself in

the eyes of an infant by betraying apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my first impulse.

Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteous consideration for my amusement, and professed my

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

Along our way various operations of agriculture were being carried on by machinery, the forms of which

were new to me, and for the most part very graceful; for among these people art being so cultivated for the

sake of mere utility, exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes of useful objects. Precious metals and

gems are so profuse among them, that they are lavished on things devoted to purposes the most

commonplace; and their love of utility leads them to beautify its tools, and quickens their imagination in a

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,

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 Vrilya 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 Gyei are inquisitive creatures."

"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or amount of population that you do?"

"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger varying according to the extent of the country

they appropriate, or to the degree of excellence to which they have brought their machinery. Each community

sets its own limit according to circumstances, taking care always that there shall never arise any class of poor

by the pressure of population upon the productive powers of the domain; and that no state shall be too large

for a government resembling that of a single wellordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceeds

thirtythousand 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 Vrilya

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

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

"But," said I, "when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among you agree to quit home and found a new

community elsewhere, they must necessarily be very few, and scarcely sufficient, even with the help of the

machines they take with them, to clear the ground, and build towns, and form a civilised state with the

"You mistake. All the tribes of the Vrilya 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

"As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroy except when necessary to our wellbeing. Of course,

we cannot settle in lands already occupied by the Vrilya; 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 KoomPosh or

GlekNas, 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. KoomPosh," 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 GlekNas the brain and heart of the creatures

"You express yourself strongly. Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am the

"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so far from your home. What was the condition of

"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

"The length of an An's life a very young community. In much less than another 100 years your KoomPosh

"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 KoomPosherie."

"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

headoverheels as very young children do? And if you ask them why they attempted such antics, should

you not laugh if they answered that by imitating very young children they could become very young children

themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a great many thousand years ago and in

every instance a very old state that played at KoomPosh soon tumbled into GlekNas. 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

KoomPosherie 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

KoomPosh could easily controvert, though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as you

"I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated in your KoomPosh, ask his

greatgreatgrandfather or greatgreatgrandmother to stand on his or her head with the feet uppermost?

"Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I make allowances for your want of that culture

"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 Vrilya, 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

We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused to point out to me the ravages made in fields

skirting it. "The enemy certainly lies within these waters," said Taee. "Observe what shoals of fish are

crowded together at the margin. Even the great fishes with the small ones, who are their habitual prey and

who generally shun them, all forget their instincts in the presence of a common destroyer. This reptile

certainly must belong to the class of Kreka, 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 swiftfooted

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 ayear or so, one of these

enormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts beyond, and within my memory one

has seized upon a young Gy who was bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armed with her

staff, it would not have dared even to show itself; for, like all savage creatures, the reptile has a marvellous

instinct, which warns it against the bearer of the vril wand. How they teach their young to avoid him, though

seen for the first time, is one of those mysteries which you may ask Zee to explain, for I cannot.*

* The reptile in this instinct does but resemble our wild birds and animals, which will not come in reach of a

man armed with a gun. When the electric wires were first put up, partridges struck against them in their

flight, and fell down wounded. No younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident.

So long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from its lurkingplace; but we must now decoy it forth."

"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

vrilbearer, 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

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 electrobiology, 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

I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribable sensation of horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed

on its water, spellbound. It might be ten or fifteen minutes, to me it seemed ages, before the still surface,

gleaming under the lamplight, began to be agitated towards the centre. At the same time the shoals of fish

near the margin evinced their sense of the enemy's approach by splash and leap and bubbling circle. I could

detect their hurried flight hither and thither, some even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark, undulous

furrow came moving along the waters, nearer and nearer, till the vast head of the reptile emerged its jaws

bristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing themselves hungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now

its fore feet were on the strand now its enormous breast, scaled on either side as in armour, in the centre

showing its corrugated skin of a dull venomous yellow; and now its whole length was on the land, a hundred

feet or more from the jaw to the tail. Another stride of those ghastly feet would have brought it to the spot

where I sat. There was but a moment between me and this grim form of death, when what seemed a flash of

lightning shot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time briefer than that in which a man can draw his

breath, enveloped the monster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me a blackened, charred,

smouldering mass, a something gigantic, but of which even the outlines of form were burned away, and

rapidly crumbling into dust and ashes. I remained still seated, still speechless, icecold with a new sensation

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

Vrilya 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.

As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitous way, in order to show me what, to use a

familiar term, I will call the 'Station,' from which emigrants or travellers to other communities commence

their journeys. I had, on a former occasion, expressed a wish to see their vehicles. These I found to be of two

kinds, one for land journeys, one for aerial voyages: the former were of all sizes and forms, some not larger

than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of one story and containing several rooms, furnished

according to the ideas of comfort or luxury which are entertained by the Vrilya. The aerial vehicles were of

light substances, not the least resembling our balloons, but rather our boats and pleasurevessels, with helm

and rudder, with large wings or paddles, and a central machine worked by vril. All the vehicles both for land

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 Vrilya 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 jewellike polish. This coinage circulates among all the tribes of the Vrilya. Their larger transactions

are carried on much like ours, by bills of exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer the purpose of our

Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among the tribe I became acquainted with was very

considerable, compared with the amount of population. But I never heard that any one grumbled at it, for it

was devoted to purposes of universal utility, and indeed necessary to the civilisation of the tribe. The cost of

lighting so large a range of country, of providing for emigration, of maintaining the public buildings at which

the various operations of national intellect were carried on, from the first education of an infant to the

departments in which the College of Sages were perpetually trying new experiments in mechanical science;

all these involved the necessity for considerable state funds. To these I must add an item that struck me as

very singular. I have said that all the human labour required by the state is carried on by children up to the

marriageable age. For this labour the state pays, and at a rate immeasurably higher than our own

remuneration to labour even in the United States. According to their theory, every child, male or female, on

attaining the marriageable age, and there terminating the period of labour, should have acquired enough for

an independent competence during life. As, no matter what the disparity of fortune in the parents, all the

children must equally serve, so all are equally paid according to their several ages or the nature of their work.

Where the parents or friends choose to retain a child in their own service, they must pay into the public fund

in the same ratio as the state pays to the children it employs; and this sum is handed over to the child when

the period of service expires. This practice serves, no doubt, to render the notion of social equality familiar

and agreeable; and if it may be said that all the children form a democracy, no less truly it may be said that all

the adults form an aristocracy. The exquisite politeness and refinement of manners among the Vrilya, 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 Vrilya the most perfect nobility which a

political disciple of Plato or Sidney could conceive for the ideal of an aristocratic republic.

>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 Gyei, and most especially of

the accomplished Zee. The children of the Vrilya, 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 goodhumour 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 Vrilya use as nimbly and easily as ours do their legs and arms; but my efforts were

These wings, as I before said, are very large, reaching to the knee, and in repose thrown back so as to form a

very graceful mantle. They are composed from the feathers of a gigantic bird that abounds in the rocky

heights of the country the colour mostly white, but sometimes with reddish streaks. They are fastened round

the shoulders with light but strong springs of steel; and, when expanded, the arms slide through loops for that

purpose, forming, as it were, a stout central membrane. As the arms are raised, a tubular lining beneath the

vest or tunic becomes, by mechanical contrivance inflated with air, increased or diminished at will by the

movement of the arms, and serving to buoy the whole form as on bladders. The wings and the balloonlike

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

"I see," she said, "that your trials are in vain, not from the fault of the wings and their appurtenances, nor

from any imperfectness and malformation of your own corpuscular system, but from irremediable, because

organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that the connection between the will and the agencies of that

fluid which has been subjected to the control of the Vrilya was never established by the first discoverers,

never achieved by a single generation; it has gone on increasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as

it has been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that, at last, it has become an instinct; and an infant

An of our race wills to fly as intuitively and unconsciously as he wills to walk. He thus plies his invented or

artificial wings with as much safety as a bird plies those with which it is born. I did not think sufficiently of

this when I allowed you to try an experiment which allured me, for I have longed to have in you a

companion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life is becoming dear to me." Herewith the Gy's voice

and face softened, and I felt more seriously alarmed than I had been in my previous flights.

Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit mention of a custom among the Gyei 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

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, childlike, 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."

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 allwise 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 Gyei 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 Vrilya, still, no sage had yet

discovered in vril an agency which could banish sorrow from life; and wherever amongst her people sorrow

found its way, there Zee followed in the mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy fail to secure the love she

sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought all the resources of her lore, and all the consolations of her

sympathy, to bear upon a grief that so needs the solace of a confidant. In the rare cases, when grave illness

seized upon childhood or youth, and the cases, less rare, when, in the hardy and adventurous probation of

infants, some accident, attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studies and her sports, and

became the healer and nurse. Her favourite flights were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain where

children were stationed on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the invasions of devouring

animals, so that she might warn them of any peril which her knowledge detected or foresaw, or be at hand if

any harm had befallen. Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements there was a concurrent

benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learn any novelty in invention that would be useful to the

practitioner of some special art or craft? she hastened to communicate and explain it. Was some veteran sage

of the College perplexed and wearied with the toil of an abstruse study? she would patiently devote herself to

his aid, work out details for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile, quicken his wit with her luminous

suggestion, be to him, as it were, his own good genius made visible as the strengthener and inspirer. The

same tenderness she exhibited to the inferior creatures. I have often known her bring home some sick and

wounded animal, and tend and cherish it as a mother would tend and cherish her stricken child. Many a time

when I sat in the balcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I have watched her rising in the

air on her radiant wings, and in a few moments groups of infants below, catching sight of her, would soar

upward with joyous sounds of greeting; clustering and sporting around her, so that she seemed a very centre

of innocent delight. When I have walked with her amidst the rocks and valleys without the city, the elkdeer

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 Gyei to wear on their foreheads a circlet, or coronet, with gems resembling opals, arranged in four

points or rays like stars. These are lustreless in ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand they take a clear

lambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This serves as an ornament in their festivities, and as a lamp,

if, in their wanderings beyond their artificial lights, they have to traverse the dark. There are times, when I

have seen Zee's thoughtful majesty of face lighted up by this crowning halo, that I could scarcely believe her

to be a creature of mortal birth, and bent my head before her as the vision of a being among the celestial

orders. But never once did my heart feel for this lofty type of the noblest womanhood a sentiment of human

love. Is it that, among the race I belong to, man's pride so far influences his passions that woman loses to him

her special charm of woman if he feels her to be in all things eminently superior to himself? But by what

strange infatuation could this peerless daughter of a race which, in the supremacy of its powers and the

felicity of its conditions, ranked all other races in the category of barbarians, have deigned to honour me with

her preference? In personal qualifications, though I passed for goodlooking amongst the people I came

from, the handsomest of my countrymen might have seemed insignificant and homely beside the grand and

That novelty, the very difference between myself and those to whom Zee was accustomed, might serve to

bias her fancy was probable enough, and as the reader will see later, such a cause might suffice to account for

the predilection with which I was distinguished by a young Gy scarcely out of her childhood, and very

inferior in all respects to Zee. But whoever will consider those tender characteristics which I have just

ascribed to the daughter of AphLin, 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

Vrilya to a woman's affection for one so inferior to herself as was her father's guest. But be the cause what it

may, the consciousness that I had inspired such affection thrilled me with awe a moral awe of her very

imperfections, of her mysterious powers, of the inseparable distinctions between her race and my own; and

with that awe, I must confess to my shame, there combined the more material and ignoble dread of the perils

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 wellbred 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

As the reader has seen, AphLin had not favoured my general and unrestricted intercourse with his

countrywomen. Though relying on my promise to abstain from giving any information as to the world I had

left, and still more on the promise of those to whom had been put the same request, not to question me, which

Zee had exacted from Taee, yet he did not feel sure that, if I were allowed to mix with the strangers whose

curiosity the sight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard myself against their inquiries. When I went

out, therefore, it was never alone; I was always accompanied either by one of my host's family, or my

childfriend Taee. Bra, AphLin'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 AphLin, whether in

his private or public capacity, were carefully tended. Bra also inspected the accounts of the whole estate, and

it was her great delight to assist her husband in the business connected with his office as chief administrator

of the Lighting Department, so that her avocations necessarily kept her much within doors. The two sons

were both completing their education at the College of Sages; and the elder, who had a strong passion for

mechanics, and especially for works connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, had decided

on devoting himself to these pursuits, and was now occupied in constructing a shop or warehouse, at which

his inventions could be exhibited and sold. The younger son preferred farming and rural occupations; and

when not attending the College, at which he chiefly studied the theories of agriculture, was much absorbed by

his practical application of that science to his father's lands. It will be seen by this how completely equality of

ranks is established among this people a shopkeeper being of exactly the same grade in estimation as the

large landed proprietor. AphLin 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

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 Vrilya.

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

Vrilya 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 AphLin to show me his countryseat. As

this was at some little distance, and as AphLin 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

"AphLin," said I, "you will not, I trust, be displeased with me, if I ask your permission to travel for a short

time, and visit other tribes or communities of your illustrious race. I have also a strong desire to see those

nations which do not adopt your institutions, and which you consider as savages. It would interest me greatly

to notice what are the distinctions between them and the races whom we consider civilised in the world I have

"It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone," said AphLin. "Even among the Vrilya 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 Vrilya 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

* I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologist enough to have distinguished the difference.

"It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, that as, in remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living

beings of the brute species, their teeth must have been fitted for that purpose. But, even if so, they have been

modified by hereditary transmission, and suited to the food on which we now exist; nor are even the

barbarians, who adopt the turbulent and ferocious institutions of GlekNas, devourers of flesh like beasts of

"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 Vrilya (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."

AphLin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearest approach to laughter that a fullgrown An

permits to himself, ere he replied: "Pardon my discourteous but momentary indulgence of mirth at any

observation seriously made by my guest. I could not but be amused at the idea of Zee, who is so fond of

protecting others that children call her 'THE GUARDIAN,' needing a protector herself against any dangers

arising from the audacious admiration of males. Know that our Gyei, 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

"Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should have like to witness more of the wonders, and enjoy

"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

"Oh, AphLin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, and unwittingly, I should betray your hospitality; lest, in

the caprice of will which in our world is proverbial among the other sex, and from which even a Gy is not

free, your adorable daughter should deign to regard me, though a Tish, as if I were a civilised An, and and

and" "Court you as her spouse," put in AphLin, gravely, and without any visible sign of surprise or

"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 Aglauran, 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

"No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring the community, and exposing it to the chance of

"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 countryhouse."

I confess that my conversation with AphLin, 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 countryseat, 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 AphLin 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 countryseat 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 lifelike 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 flowerbeds, interspersed with cushions for repose. In the centre of the floor was a

cistern and a fountain of that liquid light which I have presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a

roseate hue; it sufficed without lamps to light up the room with a subdued radiance. All around the fountain

was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of this

country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with the same sense of relief as that with which in the

upper world it reposes on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I have compared to our conservatories)

there were singing birds innumerable, which, while we remained in the room, sang in those harmonies of tune

to which they are, in these parts, so wonderfully trained. The roof was open. The whole scene had charms for

every sense music form the birds, fragrance from the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect.

About all was a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought, for a honeymoon, if a Gy bride were a little less

formidably armed not only with the rights of woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a

Gy, so learned, so tall, so stately, so much above the standard of the creature we call woman as was Zee, no!

even if I had felt no fear of being reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in that bower so

The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids which form the innocent wines of the

"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I can scarcely conceive why you do not settle yourself here

"As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am compelled to reside chiefly in the city,

"But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to your office, and it involves some trouble,

"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, 'Be it requested that AphLin shall be

the Commissioner of Light,' so I had no choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares,

which were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at least endurable. We are all formed by

custom even the difference of our race from the savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, which

becomes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You see there are Ana who even reconcile

themselves to the responsibilities of chief magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not been

rendered so light, or if there were any questions as to compliance with his requests."

"We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes on as if each and all governed

"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

"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

"All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some are sure to be those most displeasing to others."

"Then our system is better than yours." "For you it may be; but according to our system a Tish could not be

reduced to a cinder if a female compelled him to marry her; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my native world."

"Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can't compel you to marry her. She can only entice you to do so.

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

shegoat 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 slatelike 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

We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains and fruits. I may here observe that the main staple

of food among these people consists firstly, of a kind of corn much larger in ear than our wheat, and which

by culture is perpetually being brought into new varieties of flavour; and, secondly, of a fruit of about the size

of a small orange, which, when gathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for many months in their

warehouses, and then becomes succulent and tender. Its juice, which is of darkred 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 sugarcane, but its juices are less sweet and of a

delicate perfume. They have no bees nor honeymaking 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 AphLin as we passed through the

storehouses, "and therefore will inherit these lands, which constitute the chief part of my wealth. To my elder

"Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealth would be a great trouble and

"Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vrilya who do not consider that a fortune much above the

average is a heavy burden. We are rather a lazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing

more cares than we can help, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. For instance, it marks us out

for public offices, which none of us like and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking a continued

interest in the affairs of any of our poorer countrymen, so that we may anticipate their wants and see that

none fall into poverty. There is an old proverb amongst us which says, 'The poor man's need is the rich man's

"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow that some, even of the Vrilya, know want, and need

"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in a KoomPosh, 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 singingbirds, or bigger houses, or countrygardens; and the obvious way to satisfy such wants is

to buy of him something that he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, are obliged to buy a great

many things they do not require, and live on a very large scale where they might prefer to live on a small one.

For instance, the great size of my house in the town is a source of much trouble to my wife, and even to

myself; but I am compelled to have it thus incommodiously large, because, as the richest An of the

community, I am appointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities when they visit us, which

they do in great crowds twiceayear, when certain periodical entertainments are held, and when relations

scattered throughout all the realms of the Vrilya 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 airboat.

On our way back we were met by Zee, who, having found us gone, on her return from the College of Sages,

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 AphLin "Oh, father, was it right in you to

hazard the life of your guest in a vehicle to which he is so unaccustomed? He might, by an incautious

movement, fall over the side; and alas; he is not like us, he has no wings. It were death to him to fall. Dear

one!" (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softer voice), "have you no thought of me, that you should

thus hazard a life which has become almost a part of mine? Never again be thus rash, unless I am thy

I glanced furtively at AphLin, 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

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 AphLin 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

He answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is my belief the he can take very good care of

"I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care. Oh, heart of my heart, it was in the thought of thy

Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. These words were spoken loud in the hearing of Zee's

father in the hearing of the child who steered. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could not help

replying angrily: "Zee, either you mock me, which, as your father's guest, misbecomes you, or the words you

utter are improper for a maiden Gy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed her with the

consent of her parents. How much more improper to address them to a Tish, who has never presumed to

solicit your affections, and who can never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence and awe!"

"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

Here AphLin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tisha 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

To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled

"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I said bitterly, "in the perils to which his own daughter

"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairs is to confirm her purpose. She allows

On alighting from the airboat, a child accosted AphLin 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 burialplace or cemetery amongst this people, and, glad to seize even so melancholy

an occasion to defer an encounter with Zee, I asked AphLin 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

"The departure of an An to a happier world," answered my host, "when, as in the case of my kinsman, he has

lived so long in this as to have lost pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful though quiet festival than a sacred

Preceded by the childmessenger, 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 AphLin "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

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 timepieces in the

town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and as that sound ceased, music of a more joyous

character, but still of a joy subdued and tranquil, rang throughout the chamber, and from the walls beyond, in

a choral peal. Symphonious with the melody, those in the room lifted their voices in chant. The words of this

hymn were simple. They expressed no regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to the new world whither the

deceased had preceded the living. Indeed, in their language, the funeral hymn is called the 'Birth Song.' Then

the corpse, covered by a long cerement, was tenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk and borne towards

the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward to see what happened. A sliding door or panel at one end

was lifted up the body deposited within, on a shelf the door reclosed a spring a the side touched a

sudden 'whishing,' sighing sound heard from within; and lo! at the other end of the machine the lid fell down,

and a small handful of smouldering dust dropped into a 'patera' placed to receive it. The son took up the

'patera' and said (in what I understood afterwards was the usual form of words), "Behold how great is the

Maker! To this little dust He gave form and life and soul. It needs not this little dust for Him to renew form

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).

"And this," said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed "this, I presume, is your usual form of burial?"

"What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the wife on whose breast you have slept, to the

loathsomeness of corruption?" "But if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body waste within the

earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism, worked, no doubt by the agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?"

"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on a matter of feeling; but to me your custom is

horrible and repulsive, and would serve to invest death with gloomy and hideous associations. It is

something, too, to my mind, to be able to preserve the token of what has been our kinsman or friend within

the abode in which we live. We thus feel more sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But our

sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by custom. Custom is not to be changed by a wise An, any

more than it is changed by a wise Community, without the greatest deliberation, followed by the most earnest

conviction. It is only thus that change ceases to be changeability, and once made is made for good.

When we regained the house, AphLin 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 AllGood. This was the largest and gayest assembly I ever witnessed during my

The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially for grand occasions. This differed from our

entertainments, and was not without a certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the

Roman empire. There was not one great table set out, but numerous small tables, each appropriated to eight

guests. It is considered that beyond that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The Ana never

laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the cheerful ring of their voices at the various tables betokened

gaiety of intercourse. As they have no stimulant drinks, and are temperate in food, though so choice and

dainty, the banquet itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor, and then came musical

entertainments for those who liked them. Many, however, wandered away: some of the younger ascended in

their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; others strolled through the various apartments,

examining the curiosities with which they were stored, or formed themselves into groups for various games,

the favourite of which is a complicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed with the crowd, but

was prevented joining in the conversation by the constant companionship of one or the other of my host's

sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they

had grown accustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets, and I had ceased to excite much

To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to excite my jealousy by marked attentions to a

very handsome young An, who (though, as is the modest custom of the males when addressed by females, he

answered with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young ladies new to the world

are in most civilised countries, except England and America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and

ready to falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed. Fervently hoping that she would, and more and

more averse to the idea of reduction to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity with which a human body can be

hurried into a pinch of dust, I amused myself by watching the manners of the other young people. I had the

satisfaction of observing that Zee was no singular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever I turned

my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy was the wooing party, and the An the coy and reluctant

one. The pretty innocent airs which an An gave himself on being thus courted, the dexterity with which he

evaded direct answers to professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering compliments addressed to

him, would have done honour to the most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were subjected

greatly to these seductive influences, and both acquitted themselves with wonderful honour to their tact and

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

"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but she has never plainly told me that she loves

"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 unAnly 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

"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 Gyei. No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she would consider that he

audaciously infringed on the rights of her sex, while outraging the modesty which dignifies his own. It is very

provoking," continued the An, "for she whom I love has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but think

she likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me because she fears I would ask some

unreasonable settlement as to the surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really love me, for where a Gy

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

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 Gyei generally, because it

looked less bold less conscious of female rights. I observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from

"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be unAnly to confide such weakness to a mother. I have told

"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

The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly on the head, and allowed me to quit his side.

I stole unobserved behind his mother and his beloved. I overheard their talk. Bra was speaking; said she,

"There can be no doubt of this: either my son, who is of marriageable age, will be decoyed into marriage with

one of his many suitors, or he will join those who emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. If you

"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 preeminence 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

The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down musingly, then a smile crept over her lips,

and she rose, still silent, and went through the crowd till she paused by the young An who loved her. I

followed her steps, but discreetly stood at a little distance while I watched them. Somewhat to my surprise,

till I recollected the coy tactics among the Ana, the lover seemed to receive her advances with an air of

indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps, and, a little time after, both spread their wings

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 AphLin's words as to his terrible doubt whether or not I should be dissected, a

"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 dissectingknife 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

"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

"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

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 AphLin 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

* 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

"May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at least if the Gyei in your country are of the same

"I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of AphLin, which is more binding on myself than any

one, if I answer questions so innocent. The Gyei in my country are much fairer of hue than I am, and their

"They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I suppose their superior vril force makes up for

"They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still they are very powerful in my country, and an An

"You speak feelingly," said Taee's sister, in a tone of voice half sad, half petulant. "You are married, of

"What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!" said the maiden, "and what want of modesty in your sex! But

I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, "Pardon me, but I think we are beginning to

infringe upon AphLin'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

"Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can interfere with the choice of their daughters?"

"I should not like to live in that country, said the Gy simply; "but I hope you will never go back to it."

I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with her right hand, and looked into it tenderly.

"Stay with us," she said; "stay with us, and be loved." What I might have answered, what dangers of

becoming a cinder I might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the light of the naphtha fountain

was obscured by the shadow of wings; and Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside us. She said not

a word, but, taking my arm with her mighty hand, she drew me away, as a mother draws a naughty child, and

led me through the apartments to one of the corridors, on which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to

stairs, we ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my forehead, touched my breast with her

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

"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 AphLin, who is only a subordinate minister, a mere

Commissioner of Light, to threaten me with destruction if I accept his daughter's hand, yet a Sovereign,

whose word is law, could compel the community to abrogate any custom that forbids intermarriage with one

of a strange race, and which in itself is a contradiction to their boasted equality of ranks.

"It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with such incredulous scorn of the interference of

parents, would not have sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me from the combustion to which

AphLin 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 breechloader, which these ingenious mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt

improve; nay, surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, I should discountenance vril

altogether, except in cases of war. Apropos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so intelligent, so

rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction a

mere philosophical crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in human nature, such as has been

partially, and with complete failure, tried in the upper world by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one

would not go to war with the neighbouring nations as well armed as one's own subjects; but then, what of

those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, and apparently resembling, in their democratic

institutions, my American countrymen? One might invade them without offence to the vril nations, our allies,

appropriate their territories, extending, perhaps, to the most distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule

over an empire in which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over those regions there was no

sun to set). As for the fantastical notion against conceding fame or renown to an eminent individual, because,

forsooth, bestowal of honours insures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angry passions, and mars the

felicity of peace it is opposed to the very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute creation, which

are all, if tamable, participators in the sentiment of praise and emulation. What renown would be given to a

king who thus extended his empire! I should be deemed a demigod." Thinking of that, the other fanatical

notion of regulating this life by reference to one which, no doubt, we Christians firmly believe in, but never

take into consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled me to abolish a heathen religion so

superstitiously at variance with modern thought and practical action. Musing over these various projects, I

felt how much I should have liked at that moment to brighten my wits by a good glass of

whiskeyandwater. Not that I am habitually a spiritdrinker, 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 Gyei not armed with vril, and

I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, political, social, and moral, calculated to bestow on the

people of the nether world the blessings of a civilisation known to the races of the upper, that I did not

perceive that Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a deep sigh, and, raising my eyes, beheld her standing

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

"Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you," said she, "for I am very unhappy. I have not slept since we

"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 Vrilya 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 fingerends, 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

"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

"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

As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face was changed; nothing of sternness left to its

grandeur; a divine light, as that of an immortal, shining out from its human beauty. But she rather awed me as

an angel than moved me as a woman, and after an embarrassed pause, I faltered forth evasive expressions of

gratitude, and sought, as delicately as I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position amongst

her race in the light of a husband who might never be permitted the name of father.

"But," said Zee, "this community does not constitute the whole world. No; nor do all the populations

comprised in the league of the Vrilya. For thy sake I will renounce my country and my people. We will fly

together to some region where thou shalt be safe. I am strong enough to bear thee on my wings across the

deserts that intervene. I am skilled enough to cleave open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build our

home. Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the universe. Or wouldst thou return to thine

own world, above the surface of this, exposed to the uncertain seasons, and lit but by the changeful orbs

which constitute by thy description the fickle character of those savage regions? I so, speak the word, and I

will force the way for thy return, so that I am thy companion there, though, there as here, but partner of thy

soul, and fellow traveller with thee to the world in which there is no parting and no death."

I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once so pure and so impassioned, with which these

words were uttered, and in a voice that would have rendered musical the roughest sounds in the rudest

tongue. And for a moment it did occur to me that I might avail myself of Zee's agency to effect a safe and

speedy return to the upper world. But a very brief space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable

and base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus away, from her own people and a home in

which I had been so hospitably treated, a creature to whom our world would be so abhorrent, and for whose

barren, if spiritual love, I could not reconcile myself to renounce the more human affection of mates less

exalted above my erring self. With this sentiment of duty towards the Gy combined another of duty towards

the whole race I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce into the upper world a being so formidably gifted

a being that with a movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New York and its glorious

KoomPosh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her of her staff, with her science she could easily construct another;

and with the deadly lightnings that armed the slender engine her whole frame was charged. If thus dangerous

to the cities and populations of the whole upper earth, could she be a safe companion to myself in case her

affection should be subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts, which it takes so many

"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 selfimmolating. 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 hidingplace. I, a mere Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, so brilliant, so learned, so

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

"You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With perfect frankness, then, answer me this question.

"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 Vrilya to wed a son of the Tisha, 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 Vrilya, or of the political, social, and moral reforms I should institute in the capacity of Absolute

After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a profound melancholy. The curious interest with

which I had hitherto examined the life and habits of this marvellous community was at an end. I could not

banish from my mind the consciousness that I was among a people who, however kind and courteous, could

destroy me at any moment without scruple or compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the people

which, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper

world, now began to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Even the serene tranquility of the

lustrous air preyed on my spirits. I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, or darkness. I began to feel

that, whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards a better, and higher, and calmer,

sphere of being, we, the mortals of the upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the very

Now, in this social state of the Vrilya, it was singular to mark how it contrived to unite and to harmonise

into one system nearly all the objects which the various philosophers of the upper world have placed before

human hopes as the ideals of a Utopian future. It was a state in which war, with all its calamities, was deemed

impossible, a state in which the freedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree, without one of

those animosities which make freedom in the upper world depend on the perpetual strife of hostile parties.

Here the corruption which debases democracies was as unknown as the discontents which undermine the

thrones of monarchies. Equality here was not a name; it was a reality. Riches were not persecuted, because

they were not envied. Here those problems connected with the labours of a working class, hitherto insoluble

above ground, and above ground conducing to such bitterness between classes, were solved by a process the

simplest, a distinct and separate working class was dispensed with altogether. Mechanical inventions,

constructed on the principles that baffled my research to ascertain, worked by an agency infinitely more

powerful and infinitely more easy of management than aught we have yet extracted from electricity or steam,

with the aid of children whose strength was never overtasked, but who loved their employment as sport and

pastime, sufficed to create a Publicwealth 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

merrymakings conduced to intoxication, to riot, to disease. Love existed, and was ardent in pursuit, but its

object, once secured, was faithful. The adulterer, the profligate, the harlot, were phenomena so unknown in

this commonwealth, that even to find the words by which they were designated one would have had to search

throughout an obsolete literature composed thousands of years before. They who have been students of

theoretical philosophies above ground, know that all these strange departures from civilised life do but realise

ideas which have been broached, canvassed, ridiculed, contested for; sometimes partially tried, and still put

forth in fantastic books, but have never come to practical result. Nor were these all the steps towards

theoretical perfectibility which this community had made. It had been the sober belief of Descartes that the

life of man could be prolonged, not, indeed, on this earth, to eternal duration, but to what he called the age of

the patriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to 150 years average length. Well, even this dream of

sages was here fulfilled nay, more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middle life was preserved even after the

term of a century was passed. With this longevity was combined a greater blessing than itself that of

continuous health. Such diseases as befell the race were removed with ease by scientific applications of that

agency lifegiving as lifedestroying 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, Passing by such trivial contrivances as wings, which every schoolboy

knows has been tried and found wanting, from the mythical or prehistorical 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 upperground society, Womankind and Philosophy. I mean, the

Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of rights where there are not corresponding powers to

enforce them; and above ground, for some reason or other, man, in his physical force, in the use of weapons

offensive and defensive, when it come to positive personal contest, can, as a rule of general application,

master women. But among this people there can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as I have

before said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger and stronger than the An; and her will being also more

resolute than his, and will being essential to the direction of the vril force, she can bring to bear upon him,

more potently than he on herself, the mystical agency which art can extract from the occult properties of

nature. Therefore all that our female philosophers above ground contend for as to rights of women, is

conceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth. Besides such physical powers, the Gyei 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

Gyei: 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 Vrilya, as distinguished from our mankind lastly, and most important on the bearings

of their life and the peace of their commonwealths, is their universal agreement in the existence of a merciful

beneficent Diety, and of a future world to the duration of which a century or two are moments too brief to

waste upon thoughts of fame and power and avarice; while with that agreement is combined another viz.,

since they can know nothing as to the nature of that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme goodness, nor of

that future world beyond the fact of its felicitous existence, so their reason forbids all angry disputes on

insoluble questions. Thus they secure for that state in the bowels of the earth what no community ever

secured under the light of the stars all the blessings and consolations of a religion without any of the evils

It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of existence among the Vrilya is thus, as a whole,

immeasurably more felicitous than that of superterrestrial races, and, realising the dreams of our most

sanguine philanthropists, almost approaches to a poet's conception of some angelical order. And yet, if you

would take a thousand of the best and most philosophical of human beings you could find in London, Paris,

Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them as citizens in the beatified community, my belief is, that in

less than a year they would either die of ennui, or attempt some revolution by which they would militate

against the good of the community, and be burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur.

Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of this narrative, any ignorant disparagement of

the race to which I belong. I have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make it clear that the principles which

regulate the social system of the Vrilya forbid them to produce those individual examples of human

greatness which adorn the annals of the upper world. Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no

Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan; where states are so happy that they fear no danger and desire no

change, they cannot give birth to a Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes, or a Butler; and

where a society attains to a moral standard, in which there are no crimes and no sorrows from which tragedy

can extract its aliment of pity and sorrow, no salient vices or follies on which comedy can lavish its mirthful

satire, it has lost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or a Moliere, or a Mrs. BeecherStowe. But if I

have no desire to disparage my fellowmen 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

Vrilya 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 Vrilya, 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

It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be found to conceive a partiality for so ordinary a type

of our superterrestrial race as myself, that even if the Vrilya did appear above ground, we might be saved

from extermination by intermixture of race. But this is too sanguine a belief. Instances of such 'mesalliance'

would be as rare as those of intermarriage between the AngloSaxon emigrants and the Red Indians. Nor

would time be allowed for the operation of familiar intercourse. The Vrilya, 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 KoomPosh or Popular

Government, and the pugnacious valour of my beloved countrymen, I believe that if the Vrilya 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 KoomPosh, make way for the

development of species in the Vrilya," my brave compatriots would show fight, and not a soul of them

would be left in this life, to rally round the Stars and Stripes, at the end of a week.

I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family assembled, and she was then reserved and silent.

My apprehensions of danger from an affection I had so little encouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded

away, but my dejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to the upper world, but I racked my brains in

vain for any means to effect it. I was never permitted to wander forth alone, so that I could not even visit the

spot on which I had alighted, and see if it were possible to reascend to the mine. Nor even in the Silent Hours,

when the household was locked in sleep, could I have let myself down from the lofty floor in which my

apartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automata who stood mockingly at my beck beside the

wall, nor could I ascertain the springs by which were set in movement the platforms that supplied the place of

stairs. The knowledge how to avail myself of these contrivances had been purposely withheld from me. Oh,

that I could but have learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every infant, then I might have

escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, and buoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which the

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

We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from the house when we encountered five or six

young Gyei, 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 Gyei in their manner towards

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 AngloSaxon race, to whom the distinguished epithet of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards young

gentlemen whom they do not profess to love. No; the bearing of the Gyei towards males in ordinary is very

much that of highbred 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 Gyei. 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 AphLin'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 highbred 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,

Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deference of manner which I have called

'chivalrous,' yet not without a certain abruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir Philip

Sydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Why do you never come to see us?" While I was deliberating on the right

answer to give to this unlookedfor 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

This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gyei in general; but Taee's sister looked

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 Vrilya. 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 childfriend, 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 Gyei, went through the midst of the group, still without a word.

When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road that lay between the city and the chasm through

which I had descended into this region beneath the light of the stars and sun, I said under my breath, "Child

and friend, there is a look in your father's face which appals me. I feel as if, in its awful tranquillity, I gazed

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 Vrilya 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

"'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

"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

"If you mean that I threaten the good of the community because your sister honours me with the sort of

preference which a child may feel for a strange plaything, it is not necessary to kill me. Let me return to the

people I have left, and by the chasm through which I descended. With a slight help from you I might do so

now. You, by the aid of your wings, could fasten to the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you found,

and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to the spot from which I alighted, and I vanish from

"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 AphLin, 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, AphLin 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

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 rooftop; not a

"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

Taee shook his head gently. "Nay," he said, "my father's request is not so formally made as to leave me no

choice. I will speak with him, and may prevail to save thee. Strange that thou shouldst have that fear of death

which we thought was only the instinct of the inferior creatures, to whom the convictions of another life has

not been vouchsafed. With us, not an infant knows such a fear. Tell me, my dear Tish," he continued after a

little pause, "would it reconcile thee more to departure from this form of life to that form which lies on the

other side of the moment called 'death,' did I share thy journey? If so, I will ask my father whether it be

allowable for me to go with thee. I am one of our generation destined to emigrate, when of age for it, to some

regions unknown within this world. I would just as soon emigrate now to regions unknown, in another world.

"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 AllGood 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 selfpreparation."

In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting the night of the Vrilya, 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

"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 reawakens 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 Vrilya. 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 Vrilya has lighted up the world in which they dwell. Tomorrow 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 reopened; not presenting, indeed, the

same aspect as when I had emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock before which I had last stood

with Taee, a new clift had been riven, and along its blackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered

embers. My upward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet into the darkness of the hollow

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

My heart smote me with remorse at these words. "Ah!" I exclaimed, "would that thou wert of my race or I of

"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

"Now," said she, "put thine arm around me for the first and last time. Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm."

As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. Clinging to her, I was borne aloft through the

terrible chasm. The starry light from her forehead shot around and before us through the darkness. Brightly

and steadfastly, and swiftly as an angel may soar heavenward with the soul it rescues from the grave, went

the flight of the Gy, till I heard in the distance the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We halted

on the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and beyond, in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of

the miners. Then I released my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, passionately, but as with a mother's

passion, and said, as the tears gushed from her eyes, "Farewell for ever. Thou wilt not let me go into thy

world thou canst never return to mine. Ere our household shake off slumber, the rocks will have again

closed over the chasm not to be reopened 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

Her voice ceased. I heard the swanlike sough of her wings, and saw the rays of her starry diadem receding

I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I rose and took my way with slow footsteps

towards the place in which I heard the sounds of men. The miners I encountered were strange to me, of

another nation than my own. They turned to look at me with some surprise, but finding that I could not

answer their brief questions in their own language, they returned to their work and suffered me to pass on

unmolested. In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled by other interrogatories; save those of a

friendly official to whom I was known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with me. I took care not to

return to my former lodging, but hastened that very day to quit a neighbourhood where I could not long have

escaped inquiries to which I could have given no satisfactory answers. I regained in safety my own country,

in which I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged in practical business, till I retired on a competent

fortune, three years ago. I have been little invited and little tempted to talk of the rovings and adventures of

my youth. Somewhat disappointed, as most men are, in matters connected with household love and domestic

life, I often think of the young Gy as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I could have rejected such a love,

no matter what dangers attended it, or by what conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of a people

calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight and deemed uninhabitable by our sages, powers

surpassing our most disciplined modes of force, and virtues to which our life, social and political, becomes

antagonistic in proportion as our civilisation advances, the more devoutly I pray that ages may yet elapse

before there emerge into sunlight our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, frankly told by my physician

that I am afflicted by a complaint which, though it gives little pain and no perceptible notice of its

encroachments, may at any moment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellowmen to place on record