The Coming Race

transmission, I could never be a proficient? No, but by a ci­vilised handy breech-loader, which these ingenious mechani­cians could not only make, but no doubt improve; nay, surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, I should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war. Apro­pos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so intelligent, so rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction a mere phil­osophical crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in human nature, such as has been partially, and with complete failure, tried in the upper world by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the neighbouring na­tions as well armed as one’s own subjects; but then, what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, and apparently resembling, in their democratic institutions, my American countrymen? One might invade them without of­fence to the vril nations, our allies, appropriate their terri­tories, extending, perhaps, to the most distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire in which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over those regions there was no sun to set). As for the fantastical notion against conceding fame or renown to an eminent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal of honours insures contest in the pur­suit of them, stimulates angry passions, and mars the felicity of peace — it is opposed to the very elements, not only of the hu­man, but of the brute creation, which are all, if tamable, par­ticipators in the sentiment of praise and emulation. What re­nown would be given to a king who thus extended his empire! I should be deemed a demigod.” Thinking of that, the other fa-

I need not say that, according to the manners of this peo­ple, a Gy can, without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although an An would be considered forward and immod­est to the last degree if he entered the chamber of a Gy with­out previously obtaining her permission to do so. Fortunately I was in the full habiliments I had worn when Zee had de­posited me on the couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well as shocked, by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted.

that silly little child might expose you?” “Hold! Since you in­troduce the subject of perils, it perhaps does not misbecome me to say that my most imminent perils come from yourself, or at least would come if I believed in your love and accepted your addresses. Your father has told me plainly that in that case I should be consumed into a cinder with as little com­punction as if I were the reptile whom Taee blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand.”

After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into a profound melancholy. The curious interest with which I had hitherto examined the life and habits of this marvellous com­munity was at an end. I could not banish from my mind the con­sciousness that I was among a people who, however kind and courteous, could destroy me at any moment without scruple or compunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the people which, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to the contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world, now began to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Even the serene tranquility of the lustrous air preyed on my spirits. I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, or dark­ness. I began to feel that, whatever our dreams of perfectibil­ity, our restless aspirations towards a better, and higher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of the upper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long the very happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire.