Edward Bulwer-Lytton - The Coming Race [1871] (02)

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THE

COMING RACE

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXI

The Right of Translation

is

reserved

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2010 with funding from

Duke

University Libraries

http://www.archive.org/details/comingraceOOIytt

U£cf«^

INSCRIBED

MAX MULLER I

N

TRIBUTE

RESPECT AND ADMIRATION

THE COMING

CHAPTER I

am

a native of

America.

My

ancestors migrated from II.

was not undistinguished

My

I.

in the United States of

,

in the reign of Charles

dence.

RACE.

;

and

my

grandfather

in the "War of Indepen-

family, therefore, enjoyed a

high social position in right of birth also

England

;

somewhat and being

opulent, they were considered disqualified

My

for the public service.

father once ran for

Congress, but was signally defeated by his

After that event he interfered

and lived much of three sons,

in his library.

and sent

little

I

in politics,

was the

eldest

at the age of sixteen to

the old country, partly to complete education, partly to

tailor.

commence A

my

my

literary

commercial

THE COMING RACE.

2

My

training in a mercantile firm at Liverpool. father died shortly after I

being

left

well

off,

and adventure,

was twenty-one

and having a

I resigned, for

of the almighty dollar,

I

—

,

and

taste for travel

a time,

pursuit

all

and became a desultory

wanderer over the face of the In the year 18

;

earth.

happening to be in

,

was invited by a professional engineer, with

whom

had made acquaintance, to

I

visit

the

mine, upon which he was

recesses of the

employed.

The reader narrative,

my

will understand, ere he close this

reason for concealing

clue to

all

the district of which I write, and will perhaps

me for refraining from any description that may tend to its discovery. Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I

thank

accompanied the engineer into the

interior of the

mine, and became

fascinated

its

so

strangely

gloomy wonders, and

friend's

so

interested

explorations, that I prolonged

in the neighbourhood,

and descended

some weeks, into the vaults and

in

my

by

my stay

daily, for

galleries

hol-

lowed by nature and art beneath the surface of

THE COMING RACE. The engineer was persuaded that

the earth.

richer deposits of mineral wealth than

far

had yet

been detected, would be found in a new shaft that had been

commenced under

his operations.

we came one day upon

In piercing this shaft

chasm jagged and seemingly charred as if burst asunder at

volcanic

Down

fires.

He

at the sides,

some distant period by this

tested the atmosphere

my

friend

cage,'

having

chasm

caused himself to be lowered in a first

'

by the

safety-lamp.

When

remained nearly an hour in the abyss.

he returned he was very pale, anxious, different

thoughtful

from

its

a

expression

and with an of

face,

very

ordinary character, which was

open, cheerful, and fearless.

He him

said briefly that the descent appeared to unsafe,

and

leading to

no result

;

suspending further operations in the shaft,

and,

we

returned to the more familiar parts of the mine. All the rest of that day the engineer seemed

preoccupied by some absorbing thought.

was unusually

taciturn,

and there was a

scared,

bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a

who has

seen a ghost.

At

night, as

He man

we two

— THE COMING RACE.

4

we shared

to-

of the mine, I said to

my

wtiv Bitting o o o alone in the lodging gether near the

mouth

friend,

me

"Tell 1

am

sure

Whatever

frankly what you saw in that chasm:

it

was something strange and

it be, it

has

terrible.

your mind in a state

left

of doubt.

In such a case two heads are better

than one.

Confide in me."

The engineer long endeavoured inquiries

but

;

as,

to evade

my

while he spoke, he helped him-

unconsciously out of the brandy-flask to a

self

degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed, for he

was a very temperate man,

gradually melted away. himself to animals, will

tell

himself

you

all.

He who would

should

and drink water.

When

his reserve

imitate

At

last

the

he

keep

dumb

said,

" I

the cage stopped,

found myself on a ridge of rock

I

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. lire

\

Could

it

be any volcanic

in that case, surely I should

have

felt

the

THE COMING RACE. heat.

Still, if

on

was doubt,

this there

the utmost importance to our clear

it

up.

I

and found that

examined the I

5

common

it

was of

safety to

sides of the descent,

could venture to trust myself to

the irregular projections or ledges, at least for

some way.

As

I

cage and clambered down.

I left the

drew near and nearer

became wider, and at

to the light, the

last I saw, to

my

chasm

unspeak-

able amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of

the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach

by what seemed

artificial

gas -lamps placed at

regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city

;

as of rival

and

I

heard confusedly at a distance a

human

voices.

miners are at work in this

could have levelled those lamps "

know, of course, that no

I

could be those voices

The

hum

?

district.

Whose

What human hands

that road and marshalled

1

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.

could

I

Nor indeed

have done so without ropes, as from the

THE COMING RACE.

6

spot

I

had reached

to the

the sides of the rock sank

and

sheer.

culty.

"

I

Now

You

retraced I

my

bottom of the chasm

down

abrupt, smooth,

steps with

have told you

will descend again

some

diffi-

all."

V

" I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not." "

A

trusty companion halves the journey

doubles the courage.

I will

go with you.

and

"We will

provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length

and strength

—and—pardon me—you

drink more to-night.

Our hands and

be steady and firm to-morrow."

must not feet

must

CHAPTER With

the morning

braced,

my

and he was not

friend's nerves less excited

than myself.

Perhaps more

lieved in his

own

doubt of

it

:

II.

story,

for

;

and

by

were

re-

curiosity

he evidently be-

I felt considerable

not that he would have wilfully told

an untruth, but that

I

thought he must have

been under one of those hallucinations which

on our fancy or our nerves in

seize

accustomed

places,

to the formless

and

in

and sound

solitary,

un-

which we give shape

to the

dumb.

"We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent

;

and as the cage held only one

the engineer descended

first

;

at a time,

and when he had

gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the cage re-arose for me.

We

I

soon gained his

had provided ourselves with a strong

rope.

side.

coil of

THE COMING RACE. The the

light struck

my

day before on which

through

seemed

to

me

like that

from

northern

star.

my

on

sight as

it

had done

The hollow

friend's.

came sloped diagonally

it

:

it

a diffused atmospheric light, not

but soft and silvery, as from a

fire,

Quitting the cage,

we descended,

one after the other, easily enough, owing to the juts in the side,

my

which

till

friend

we reached

had previously

the

place

at

and

halted,

which was a projection just spacious enough to

From

allow us to stand abreast.

chasm widened rapidly a vast funnel, and

I

like

saw

He had

the lower

my

hum

as of feet.

my

dull

tramp

eye farther down, I

clearly beheld at a distance the outline of

large building. rock,

it

It

I

—a mingled inde-

and a

as of voices

Straining

companion had

exaggerated nothing.

heard the sounds he had heard scribable

end of

distinctly the valley,

the road, the lamps which described.

this spot the

some

could not be mere natural

was too symmetrical, with huge heavy

Egyptian-like columns, and the whole lighted as

from within. telescope,

I

had about me a small pocket-

and by the aid of

this I could distin-

THE COMING RACE. guish, near the building I

mention, two forms

which seemed human, though

At

sure.

least

could not be

I

they were living, for they moved,

We

and both vanished within the building.

now proceeded

end of the rope we

to attach the

had brought with us

to the ledge

on which we

by the aid of clamps and grappling-hooks,

stood,

with which, as well as with necessary

we

tools,

were provided.

We were almost silent like

men

afraid to speak to each other.

of the rope being thus apparently

the ledge, the other, to which

we

toiled

One end

made

firm to

fastened a frag-

of the rock, rested on the ground below, a

ment

some

distance of

fifty

feet.

and a more active man than having served on board ship

mode

of transit

was more

In a whisper

him. that

We

in our work.

when

I

I

I

was a younger

my companion, in my boyhood,

familiar to

me

and this

than to

claimed the precedence, so

gained the ground

I

might serve to

hold the rope more steady for his descent. got safely to the ground beneath, gineer

now began

to lower himself.

scarcely accomplished ten feet

of

I

and the en-

But he had the descent,

;

THE COMING RACE.

IO

when the secure,

which we had fancied

fastenings,

gave way, or rather the rock

itself

proved

crumbled beneath the strain;

treacherous and

and the unhappy man was precipitated bottom, falling just at

down with

so

my

to tlie

and bringing

feet,

his fall splinters of the rock,

one of

which, fortunately but a small one, struck and for the time

senses

stunned me.

saw

I

beside me,

my

When

recovered

my

companion an inanimate mass

While

utterly extinct.

life

I

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

quarter from which

came,

it

I

to the

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 feet

and

speed.

and I

I

my

had

fled

my

down

travels.

I started to

the valley at

stopped at

flight,

left

in

last,

ashamed

and returned

the body of

my

my utmost of my panic

to the spot

friend.

my

It

on which

was gone

THE COMING RACE. doubtless the monster had already its

den and devoured

grappling-hooks

still

but they afforded

was impossible

II

drawn

into

The rope and the

it.

lay where they

me no

it

had

fallen,

chance of return

to re-attach

them

:

it

to the rock

above, and the sides of the rock were too sheer

and smooth

for

human

steps to clamber.

I

was

alone in this strange world, amidst the bowels of

the earth.

12

CHAPTER Slowly and down

cautiously

I

went

the lamplit road and

building

seemed

I

have

chasms

I

which

my

left

covered with

it

I

way

The road

itself

Alpine pass, skirting rocky the

one

through whose

Deep

link.

lay a vast valley, which pre-

unmistakable

astonished eye the

evidences of art and culture.

none

solitary

had descended formed a

below to the sented to

my

towards the large

described.

like a great

mountains of

III.

a strange

There were

fields

vegetation, similar

have seen above the earth

;

to

the colour of

not green, but rather of a dull leaden hue or

of a golden red.

There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to

have been curbed into

of pure water, others

naphtha.

At

my

artificial

banks

;

some

that shone like pools of

right hand, ravines

and

defiles

3

THE COMING RACE.

1

opened amidst the rocks, with passes between, evidently constructed resembling,

trees ferns,

by

art,

most

the

for

and bordered by gigantic

part,

with exquisite varieties of feathery foliage,

and stems were more

Others

like those of the palm-tree. like the cane-plant,

large clusters of flowers.

but

taller,

bearing

had the

Others, again,

form of enormous fungi, with short thick stems supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which either

rose

or

drooped long slender branches.

The whole scene behind, far as the

and beside me,

before,

eye could reach, was brilliant with

The world without a sun

innumerable lamps.

was bright and warm as an

Italian landscape at

noon, but the air less oppressive, the heat softer.

Nor was the scene habitation.

I

before

me

void of signs of

could distinguish at a

whether on the banks of lake or

way upon

eminences,

vegetation,

buildings that

homes of men. far

off,

forms

I

saw

rivulet, or half-

embedded

amidst

the

must surely be the

could even discover, though

that

appeared

moving amidst the landscape. gaze, I

distance,

to

me human

As

I

paused to

to the right, gliding quickly

through

THE COMING RACE.

14

the

air,

what appeared a small

It soon passed out of

shaped like wings.

sails

sight,

descending amidst the shades of a

me

Right above cavernous

forest.

was no sky, but only a

there

This

roof.

by

boat, impelled

grew higher and

roof

higher at the distance of the landscapes beyond, till it

became imperceptible,

haze formed

itself

my

Continuing

as

an atmosphere of

beneath.

walk,

I started,

—from

a bush

that resembled a great tangle of sea-weeds, in-

and plants of

terspersed with fern-like shrubs

shaped like that of the aloe or

leafage

large

prickly pear,

— a curious animal about the But

shape of a deer. a few paces,

it

as, after

any

species of deer

but

it

variety

now

had seen elk

before the Deluge.

stag,

The

to

graze

it

my

in

me

was not

like

recollection

a

some museum of a

said

to

have existed

creature seemed

enough, and, after inspecting two, began

bounding away

extant above the earth,

brought instantly to

of the

and

turned round and gazed at

inquisitively, I perceived that

plaster cast I

size

me

a

tame

moment

or

on the singular herbage

around undismayed and

careless.

15

CHAPTER I

it

now came

IV.

in full sight of the building.

Yes,

had been made by hands, and hollowed partly

out of a great rock.

I

at the first glance to

have been of the

should have supposed

form of Egyptian architecture.

It

it

earliest

was fronted

by huge columns, tapering upward from massive plinths,

and with

capitals that, as I

came

nearer,

perceived to be more

ornamental and more

fantastically graceful than

Egyptian architecture

I

As the Corinthian

allows.

leaf of the

capital

acanthus, so the

mimics the

capitals of these

columns imitated the foliage of the vegetation neighbouring them, some

And now

there

came out

—human —was ;

broad

way and

approached.

It

aloe-like,

some

fern-like.

of this building a form

human

stood

on the

looked around, beheld

me and

it

%

It

came within a few yards of me,

THE COMING RACE.

l6

and presence of

and

at the sight

able

awe and tremor

to the ground.

seized me, rooting

me

reminded

It

an indescrib-

it

my

feet

of symbolical

of Genius or Demon that are seen on images © Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern

sepulchres

—images

that borrow the outlines of

man, and are yet of another not gigantic, but

race.

It

tall,

men below

as the tallest

tall

was

the height of giants. Its

seemed

chief covering

me

to

posed of large wings folded over reaching to

its

knees

;

breast

and

its attire

was

its

the rest of

com-

to be

composed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material.

It

of tiara that shone with right

hand a slender

polished

steel.

inspired

my

to

known it

face

my

extant races.

in outline

!

peculiar,

it

—

terror.

It

man

metal like

was the

face

from

distinct

The nearest approach is

the face of

so regular in

mysterious beauty.

more

in its

was that which

and expression

the sculptured sphinx intellectual,

and carried

ewels,

of man, but yet of a type of

our

head a kind

its

staff of bright

But the

awe and

j

wore on

like that of the red

its

calm,

Its colour

man

was

than any

THE COMING RACE.

17

other variety of our species, and yet different

from

it

—a

and a

richer

softer hue,

with large

black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched

The

as a semicircle.

a

nameless something in the aspect, tranquil

though the the features,

expression,

roused

felt

that

this

and beauteous though

that

which the sight of a I

was beardless; but

face

instinct

clanger

tiger or serpent arouses.

manlike image was endowed

with forces inimical to man. a cold shudder

of

As

came over me.

knees and covered

my

face with

drew

it

I

fell

my

near,

on

hands.

my

CHAPTER A

—a of voice — me

voice accosted

musical key I could not

up.

language of which

understand a word, but I

uncovered

The stranger

to call

very quiet and very

in a

my fear.

dispel

V.

(I

my

it

face

and looked

could scarcely bring myself

him man) surveyed me with an eye

seemed to read to the very depths of

He

served to

then placed his

left

hand on

and with the

staff in his right

my

The

shoulder.

In place of

was magical. passed into

eifect of this

me

my

my

my

that

heart.

forehead,

gently touched

double contact

former terror there

a sense of contentment, of joy, of

confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose

and spoke

ened to

me

in

my own

language.

He

list-

with apparent attention, but with a

slight surprise in his looks

as if to signify that I

;

and shook

his head,

was not understood.

He

THE COMING RACE. then took

me by

the

led

me

in silence

The entrance was open

to the building.

there was no door to hall, lighted

hand and

19

We

it.

—indeed

entered an immense

by the same kind of

lustre as in the

scene without, but diffusing a fragrant

The

floor

was

in large tesselated blocks of pre-

and partly covered with a

cious metals,

odour.

A

matlike carpeting.

and around, undulated

strain of as if

sort of

low music, above

from invisible instru-

ments, seeming to belong naturally to the place, just as the sound of to a

murmuring waters belongs

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 mo-

tionless near the threshold.

My

it

twice with his

rapid

staff,

it

put

itself into

a

and gliding movement, skimming noise-

lessly over the floor.

that

and

guide touched

it

Gazing on

then saw was no living form, but a mechanical

automaton.

It

it,

I

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

'

THE COMING RACE.

20

about twelve years resembling

seemed to ing

me a

guide,

they

that

so

On

evidently son and father.

see-

the child uttered a cry, and lifted a staff

my

borne by

like that

At

with features closely

my

of

those

me

old,

guide, as if in menace.

word from the elder he dropped

two then conversed

for

some moments, examin-

ing

me

my

garments, and stroked

The

while they spoke.

curiosity, uttering

a

The

it.

my

sound

child touched

face with evident

like

a

but

laugh,

with an hilarity more subdued than the mirth of our laughter. opened, and

Presently the roof of the

platform descended,

a

hall

seemingly

constructed on the same principle as the

'

lifts

used in hotels and warehouses for mounting from

one story to another.

The stranger placed himself and the the platform, and motioned to

which

I

did.

and alighted

We in

me

child

on

to do the same,

ascended quickly and

safely,

the midst of a corridor with

doorways on either

side.

Through one of these doorways

I

was con-

ducted into a chamber fitted up with an Oriental splendour

;

the walls were tesselated with spars,

THE COMING RACE. and metals, and uncut jewels divans abounded unglazed, were the floor

;

and

21

apertures as for windows, but

;

made

in the chamber, opening to

as I passed along I observed that

these openings led into spacious

commanded views without.

and

cushions

;

of the

balconies,

and

illumined landscape

In cages suspended from the ceiling

there were

of strange

birds

form and bright

plumage, which at our entrance of song, modulated into tune as

A

piping bullfinches.

set is

up

a chorus

that of our

delicious fragrance,

from

censers of gold elaborately sculptured, filled the air.

Several automata, like the one I had seen,

dumb and motionless by the walls. The stranger placed me beside him on a divan, and stood

again spoke to me, and again I spoke, but without the least advance towards understanding each other.

But now I

I

began

to feel the effects of the

had received from the

rock more acutely than

me

There came over

accompanied with head and neck.

I

blow

splinters of the falling

had done

at

first.

a sense of sickly faintness,

acute, lancinating pains in the I

sank back on the

seat,

and

;

THE COMING RACE.

22

strove in vain child,

to

who had

stifle

;

taking one of

approached his it

my

lips to

by

my

my

drowsy, happy calm crept over

How

loner I

but when

I

eyes opened

around tals

—

me all

the same

remained in

woke

his

own, he

pain ceased

me

;

in the gravity

;

a

I fell asleep.

this state I

know

not,

My

I felt perfectly restored.

upon a group

more

with

forehead, breathing on

In a few moments

softly.

me

side to support

hands in both

my

the

this

hitherto seemed to eye

distrust or dislike, knelt

me

On

a groan.

of silent forms, seated

and quietude of Orien-

or less like the first stranger

mantling wings, the same fashion of

garment, the same sphinx-like

faces,

deep dark eyes and red man's colour the same type of race infinitely stronger of

—

;

with the

above

all,

race akin to man's, but

form and grander of aspect,

and inspiring the same unutterable

feeling of

dread.

Yet each countenance was mild and

tranquil,

and even kindly in

strangely enough,

it

its

seemed to

expression.

me

And,

that in this

very calm and benignity consisted the secret of the dread which the countenances inspired.

seemed as void of the

lines

They

and shadows which

THE COMING RACE. and sorrow, and passion and

care

23 sin,

upon

leave

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

seem the peaceful brows of the dead. I felt a

warm hand on my

shoulder

it

;

was

In his eyes there was a sort of lofty

the child's.

we

pity and tenderness, such as that with which

may

gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly.

shrank from that touch I

—

I

shrank from that eye.

was vaguely impressed with a

belief that,

he so pleased, that child could have killed easily as a

man

The

seemed pained at

child

can

kill

I

had

me

as

a bird or a butterfly.

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

could perceive that I was the

I

object of their conversation.

seemed

to be urging

on the being

by

his

when

whom

gesture

I

One

some proposal

had

first

seemed about

in

affecting

to

window, placed himself between if in

protection,

me

met, and this last assent to

the child suddenly quitted his post

other forms, as

especial

it,

by the

me and

the

and spoke quickly

THE COMING RACE.

24

By some

and

eagerly.

felt

that the child I had before so dreaded

my

pleading in

or instinct I

intuition

had ceased

Ere he

behalf.

was

He

another stranger entered the room. older than the rest, though not old

;

appeared

his counte-

nance, less smoothly serene than theirs, though

equally regular in

its features,

me

seemed to

my

have more the touch of a humanity akin to

He

own.

listened quietly

dressed to him,

by

first

others of the group,

to

my

and

the

words ad-

guide, next

lastly

to

by two

by the

child

then turned towards myself, and addressed me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. I fancied that I perfectly

not mistaken.

whence

I

I

understood, and

came.

I

in the rock

my

drew forth one of

its

I

was

comprehended that he inquired extended

my arm and

towards the road which had led

chasm

These

pointed

me from

then an idea seized me.

;

the I

pocket-book and sketched on

blank leaves a rough design of the

ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it

;

then

of

head of the friend.

I

the

cavernous

reptile,

gave

the

rock

lifeless

this primitive

below,

the

form of

my

kind of hieroglyph

THE COMING RACE.

my

to

gravely, it

who,

interrogator,

handed

it

to his

after

inspecting

The being

at first encountered then said a

and the

child,

who approached and

drawing, nodded as

if

I

few words,

looked at

he comprehended

port, and, returning to the

it

next neighbour, and

thus passed round the group.

had

2$

its

my

pur-

window, expanded the

wings attached to his form, shook them once or twice,

and then launched himself into space with-

out.

I started

The

window.

buoyed on

and

up in amaze and hastened child

his wings,

was already

without

seemed that

it

effort

as swift as

of

any

air,

flap to

but which were elevated

over his head, and seemed to bear aloft

the

in

which he did not

fro as a bird does,

to the

his

him

His

own.

eagle's

;

steadily

and

was towards the rock whence

I

I

flight

observed

had de-

scended, of which the outline loomed visible in

the brilliant atmosphere. utes he returned,

In a very few min-

skimming through the opening

from which he had gone, and dropping on the floor the

rope and grappling-hooks

the descent from the chasm.

I

had

left at

Some words

in

a low tone passed between the beings present:

THE COMING RACE.

26

one of the group touched an automaton, which started forward

the last comer,

me

the hand, and led

into the

There the platform by which

corridor.

then

;

who had addressed me by gestures,

me by

took

rose,

and glided from the room

had

I

mounted awaited us; we placed ourselves on and were lowered

it

new companion,

(so

to

tation

separated

side,

and strange

flowers.

these gardens, which

other

by low

walls, or

many

road, were

already seen.

with

it,

from each

tones,

walking slowly along the

forms similar to those

Some

of the

looks,

my

had

I

passers-by, on ob-

evidently

by

and gestures addressing

to

inquiries about myself.

crowd collected round

great interest, as if I were

Yet even

Interspersed amidst

were divided from each

serving me, approached

a

beyond

by gardens bright with rich-coloured vege-

other

him

the hand,

the building into a street stretched

speak) that

buildings on either

their

me by

holding

still

me from

conducted

My

into the hall below.

us,

guide,

In a few moments

examining

some

me

with

rare wild animal.

in gratifying their curiosity they pre-

served a grave and courteous demeanour

;

and

THE COMING RACE. after a

few words from

my

guide,

27

who seemed

to

me

to deprecate obstruction in our road, they

fell

back with a stately inclination of head, and

resumed

their

Midway

ence.

own way with

in this thoroughfare

sides

passed,

we stopped

from those we had

at a building that differed

hitherto

tranquil indiffer-

inasmuch as

it

formed three

of a vast court, at the angles of

were lofty pyramidal towers

in the open

;

which space

between the sides was a circular fountain of colossal dimensions,

and throwing up a dazzling

spray of what seemed to

me

We

fire.

entered

the building through an open doorway and came into

an enormous

groups of children,

work

as at

hall, in all

which were several

apparently employed in

some great

There was a

factory.

huge engine in the wall which was in

full play,

with wheels and cylinders resembling our own steam-engines, except

that

it

was richly orna-

mented with precious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a pale phosphorescent

mosphere of shifting

light.

Many of

were at some mysterious work on others

were seated before

at-

the children

this machinery,

tables.

I

was not

THE COMING RACE.

28

allowed to linger long enough to examine into

Not one young

the nature of their employment. voice

was heard

gaze on us. as

may

—not

one young face turned to

They were

all still

and

indifferent

be ghosts, through the midst of which

pass unnoticed the forms of the living.

Quitting this

my

hall,

guide led

me

through a

gallery richly painted in compartments, with a

barbaric mixture of gold in the colours, like pictures

The

by Louis Cranach.

on these walls appeared to

subjects described

my glance

as intended

to illustrate events in the history of the race

amidst which figures, I

had

I

was admitted.

most of them

like the

there were

same fashion of

There were also the

animals

of various

all

manlike creatures

seen, but not all in the

garb, nor all with wings. effigies

In

and

birds

wholly

strange to me, with backgrounds depicting landscapes or buildings.

knowledge of the to

So

far as

pictorial art

my

imperfect

would allow me

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

THE COMING

were, a centre

it

was vague,

confused,

scattered,

artists

so that the effect

;

they were like heterogeneous

dream of

29

acknowledged by our

of composition

wanting, as

RACE.

bewildering

fragments of a

art.

We now

came

room of moderate

into a

which was assembled what to be the family of

my

I

size,

afterwards

in

knew

guide, seated at a table

The forms thus grouped

spread as for repast.

were those of

my

two

recognised at once the difference

sons.

I

between the two were of

taller

than the males

guide's wife, his daughter,

sexes,

and

more symmetrical

though the two females

and ampler proportions

stature ;

and

their countenances, if

in outline

still

and contour, were

devoid of the softness and timidity of expression which give

charm

to

as seen

on the earth above.

wings,

the

daughter

the face of

woman

The wife wore no

wore wings longer than

those of the males.

My

guide uttered a few words, on which

all

the persons seated rose, and with that peculiar

mildness of look and manner which I have before noticed,

and which

is,

in

truth,

the

common

THE COMING RACE.

30

attribute of this formidable race, they saluted

me

according to their fashion, which consists in laying the right hand very gently on the head and uttering a soft sibilant monosyllable

valent to "

—

S.Si, equi-

Welcome."

The mistress of the house then seated me be-

from one of the "While

I

dishes.

ate (and

to me, I marvelled

though the viands were new

more

at the delicacy than the

strangeness of their flavour),

versed quietly, and, so far as polite avoidance of

any

any obtrusive scrutiny of

I

was the

beheld, as

first

my companions I

con-

could detect, with

direct reference to myself,

or

human

me

and heaped a golden platter before

side her,

my appearance.

Yet

creature of that variety of the

race to which I belong that they

had ever

and was consequently regarded by them

a most curious and abnormal phenomenon.

But

all

rudeness

the youngest

is

unknown

child

is

to this people,

taught

to

despise

vehement emotional demonstration. meal was ended,

my

guide again took

hand, and, re-entering the

gallery,

When me by

and any the the

touched a

metallic plate inscribed with strange figures,

and

THE COMING RACE. which

I rightly

I

conjectured to be of the nature

of our telegraphs. this time

3

A

we mounted

platform descended, but

to a

much

greater height

than in the former building, and found ourselves

room of moderate dimensions, and which

in a its

general character had

much

in

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

mostly very small, like our diamond

so;

duodecimos, shaped in the fashion of our volumes,

and bound in several

fine sheets of metal.

curious

-

looking

of

pieces

There were

mechanism

scattered about, apparently models, such as might

be seen in the study of any professional mechanician.

Four automata (mechanical contriv-

ances which, with these people, answer the ordin-

ary purposes of domestic service) stood phantomlike at each angle in the wall.

In a recess was

A 'window,

a low couch, or bed with pillows.

with curtains of some fibrous material drawn aside,

opened upon a large balcony.

stepped out into the balcony

We

;

I

My

host

followed him.

were on the uppermost story of one of the

THE COMING

32

angular pyramids

RACE.

the view beyond was of a

;

wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe, the vast ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distant background, the intermediate valleys of mystic many-coloured

many

waters, flame,

them

of

serene

the

herbage, the

of

streams of roseate

like

lustre

flash

over

diffused

all

by

myriads of lamps, combined to form a whole of

which no words of mine can convey adequate description

so splendid

;

was

it,

yet so sombre

;

so lovely, yet so awful.

But

my

attention was soon diverted from these

Suddenly there

nether landscapes.

arose, as

the streets below, a burst of joyous music

a winged form soared into the space in chase of the after

others,

number

till

movements

;

another, as

another and another; others

But how describe the

fan-

of these forms in their undulating !

They appeared engaged

amusement

squadrons

then

;

the crowd grew thick and the

countless.

tastic grace

sport or

first,

;

from

now

;

now forming

scattering

;

now

in

some

into opposite

each

group

threading the other, soaring, descending, inter-

weaving, severing

;

all

in

measured time

to the

THE COMING music below, as

if

RACE.

33

in the dance of the fabled

Peri.

my

turned

I

wonder.

gaze on

my

host in a feverish

ventured to place

I

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. and, as

if

my host smiled, gratify my curiosity,

I recoiled in fear

courteously to

slowly expanded his pinions. his

I

observed that

garment beneath then became dilated as a

bladder that slide

he

;

fills

with

into the wings,

had

launched

air.

The arms seemed

to

and in another moment

himself into

atmosphere, and hovered there,

the

luminous

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 again

soaring

one of which daughter,

aloft.

I

suddenly

Thereon, three forms, in

thought to recognise

my

detached themselves from the

and followed him a bird.

as

My

as

host's rest,

a bird sportively follows

eyes, dazzled

with the lights and

bewildered by the throngs, ceased to distinguish c

THE COMING RACE.

34

the gyrations and evolutions of these

playmates,

my

presently

till

The strangeness

my

operate fast on

senses

;

Though not

to wander. stitious,

of all I

re-emerged

host

from the crowd and alighted at

my

winged

side.

had seen began now to

my mind

itself

began

inclined to be super-

nor hitherto believing that

man

could be

brought into bodily communication with demons, I

felt

the terror and the wild excitement with

Gothic ages, a traveller might

which, in the

have persuaded himself that he witnessed sabbat of fiends and witches.

a

have a vague

I

having attempted with vehement

recollection of

and forms of exorcism, and loud

gesticulation,

incoherent words, to repel

my

courteous

and

indulgent host

;

of his mild endeavours 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 curiosity had, in exercise,

perceptible

had sought

;

made

my

still

marvelling

more strongly

of the gentle smile with which he to dispel

my

alarm by dropping the

wings to the ground and endeavouring to show

THE COMING RACE.

me

35

that they were but a mechanical contrivance.

That sudden transformation did but increase horror,

and as extreme

by extreme wild beast.

On an

instant I

became wholly

was

electric shock,

images floating

before

insensible,

host kneeling beside forehead,

shows

itself

daring, I sprang at his throat like a

ground as by an fused

fright often

my

me

felled to the

and the

my

last con-

sight

ere

were the form of

with one hand on

and the beautiful calm

face of

I

my my his

daughter, with large, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed

upon

my

own.

36

CHAPTER I

remained

in tins unconscious state, as I after-

wards learned,

many

for

weeks, according to our

When

I

host and

recovered all

me, and to accosted

VI.

his

my

me

in

was

I

days, even

in a strange

amaze

my own

some

computation of time. room,

my

gathered round

family were

utter

for

my

host's

daughter

language with but a

slightly foreign accent.

How

" It

do you

1

feel

" she asked

was some moments before

I

could overcome

my surprise enough to falter out, "You know my language How Who and what are you " My host smiled and motioned to one of his ?

sons,

thin

who

1

?

then took from a table a number of

metallic

sheets

on

drawings of various figures bird, a

man, &c.

which

—a

were

traced

house, a tree,

a

THE COMING RACE. In these designs

and

me

of

it

my

in

my own

recognised

Under each

drawing.

name

I

figure

style of

was written the

my

language, and in

in another handwriting a

beneath

37

writing

word strange

to

it.

Said the host,

"

who

daughter Zee,

Thus we began belongs to

;

and

my

the College of

Sages, has been your instructress and ours too."

Zee then placed before

on which, in

sheets,

my

and then sentences, were

me

other

Rallying

another hand.

words

writing,

my

first,

Under each

inscribed.

word and each sentence strange

metallic

characters in

senses,

I

compre-

hended that thus a rude dictionary had been effected.

ing of

%

"

Had That

command.

it

is

"

been done while

I

was dream-

enough now," said Zee, in a tone Repose and take food."

38

CHAPTER A room edifice.

to myself It

was

VII.

was assigned prettily

to

and

me

in this vast

fantastically

ar-

ranged, but without any of the splendour of metal-

work

or

gems which was displayed

more

in the

public apartments.

The walls were hung with a

variegated matting

made from the

fibres of plants,

and the

stalks

floor carpeted

and

with the

same.

The bed was without

curtains, its supports of

iron resting on balls of crystal

;

the coverings, of

There

a thin white substance resembling cotton.

were sundry shelves containing books.

A

tained recess communicated with an aviary

with singing-birds, of which one resembling those

I

I

curfilled

did not recognise

have seen on earth, except

a beautiful species of dove, though this was distinguished from our doves by a

tall crest

of bluish

THE COMING RACE.

39

All these birds had been trained to sing

plumes.

and greatly exceeded the

in artful tunes,

skill of

our piping bullfinches, which can rarely achieve

more than two

tunes,

sing

I believe,

One might have supposed

those in concert.

one's

an opera in listening to the voices in

self at

There were duets and

aviary. tettes

and cannot,

and choruses,

Did

music.

I

all

want

trios,

my

and quar-

arranged as in one piece of

to silence the birds

\

I

had

but to draw a curtain over the aviary, and their

song hushed as they found themselves

left in

the

Another opening formed a window, not

dark.

glazed, but on touching a spring, a shutter as-

cended from the less

floor,

formed of some substance

transparent than glass, but

pellucid

to allow a softened

still

sufficiently

view of the scene

window was attached

without.

To

cony, or

rather hanging- garden, wherein grew

many

this

graceful plants

apartment and

its

and

brilliant flowers.

The

appurtenances had thus a

character, if strange in detail,

whole, to

a bal-

still

familiar, as a

modern notions of luxury, and would

have excited admiration

if

found attached to the

apartments of an English duchess or a fashionable

THE COMING RACE.

40

French author.

chamber;

Before

arrived this

I

was

had hospitably assigned

she

Zee's it

to

is

de-

me.

Some hours scribed in

my

my

after the

last chapter, I

couch trying to

fix

I

thoughts on conjec-

was thrown, when

my

daughter Zee entered the room.

his still

speaking

much to

whom

my

was lying alone on

and genus of the people

ture as to the nature

amongst

waking up which

my

politeness,

me

My

host,

native language, inquired, with

whether

it

would be agreeable

to converse, or if I preferred solitude.

obliged

by the opportunity

I

much honoured and

replied, that I should feel

my

host and

offered

me

to express

gratitude for the hospitality and civilities I

had received in a country stranger,

and

to learn

which

to

enough of

its

I

was a

customs and

manners not to offend through ignorance.

As couch

I spoke, I ;

ordered

but Zee,

me

had of course

much

to lie

to

down

my

risen

from

my

confusion, curtly

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

THE COMING RACE.

41

bed, while her father took his place on a divan a few feet distant. "

But what part of the world do you come

my

from," asked

so strange to you,

host, " that

and you

we

to us

individual specimens of nearly

all

should appear %

I

have seen

the races differ-

ing from our own, except the primeval savages

who

dwell in the most desolate and remote re-

cesses of uncultivated nature,

unacquainted with

other light than that they obtain from volcanic fires,

and contented

many

dark, as do

member

way

creeping, crawling,

But

flying things.

to grope their

certainly

in the

and even

you cannot be a

of those barbarous tribes, nor,

on the

other hand, do you seem to belong to any civilised people." I

was somewhat nettled

and replied that

I

at this last observation,

had the honour

to belong to

one of the most civilised nations of the earth

and

that, so far as light

was concerned, while

I

admired the ingenuity and disregard of expense with which

my

host

and

his fellow-citizens

had

contrived to illumine the regions unpenetrated

by the rays

of the sun, yet I could not conceive

THE COMING RACE.

42

how any who had once

beheld the orbs of heaven

could compare to their lustre the

artificial lights

invented by the necessities of man.

my

But

host said he had seen specimens of most of the races differing from his own, save the wretched

Now, was

barbarians he had mentioned.

pos-

it

he had never been on the surface of

sible that

the earth, or could he only be referring to com-

munities buried within

My

host

was

for

its entrails

\

some moments

silent

;

his

countenance showed a degree of surprise which the people of that race very rarely manifest under

any

circumstances,

But Zee was more you

see,

tradition

tion

my ;

howsoever

intelligent,

extraordinary.

and exclaimed, " So

father, that there is truth in the old

there always

commonly

is

believed in

truth in every tradiall

times and by

all

tribes."

" Zee," said

my

host, mildly, "

you belong

to

the College of Sages, and ought to be wiser than I

am

;

but, as chief of the Light-preserving

cil, it is

it is

my

duty to take nothing

proved to the evidence of

Then, turning to me, he asked

Coun-

for granted

my own me

till

senses."

several ques-

THE COMING RACE.

43

tions about the surface of the earth

venly bodies; upon which, though

him

seemed not to head

his

my

to the best of

knowledge,

and the heaI

answered

my

He

satisfy nor convince him.

how

he was pleased to

shook

changing the subject rather

quietly, and,

abruptly, asked

answers

I

call

had come down from what one world to the other.

I

answered, that under the surface of the earth there were mines containing minerals, or metals, essential to our

and industries

manner

;

wants and our progress in

and

I

then briefly explained the

in which, while exploring one of these

my

mines, I and

ill-fated friend

had obtained a

glimpse of the regions into which scended, and life

;

all arts

how

we had

de-

him

his

the descent had cost

appealing to the rope and grappling-hooks

that the

which

I

child

had brought

had been

house in

the

at first received, as a witness

of the truthfulness of

My

to

my

story.

host then proceeded to question

the habits and modes of

life

among

the upper earth, more especially sidered to be the tion which he

as to

the races on

among

those con-

most advanced in that

was pleased

me

civilisa-

to define " the art of

THE COMING RACE.

44

diffusing throughout a

community the

tranquil

happiness which belongs to a virtuous and well-

Naturally desiring to repre-

ordered household."

sent in the most favourable colours the world

from which

I

indulgently,

came,

on

I

touched but

the

slightly,

antiquated

though

and decaying

institutions of Europe, in order to expatiate on the

present grandeur and prospective pre-eminence of that glorious American Republic, in which Europe

enviously seeks sees its

its

model and tremblingly

fore-

Selecting for an example of the

doom.

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,

listeners, that I

pression I

had

did not

make

by the

faces of

my

the favourable im-

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 com-

munity by

preferring, for the exercise of

and the acquisition of honours, the

power

lowliest citi-

zens in point of property, education, and charac-

THE COMING RACE. ter.

45

Fortunately recollecting the peroration of

a speech, on the purifying influences of American

democracy and world,

their destined

made by

spread over the

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

freedom should

float

— when

the flag of

over an entire continent,

and two hundred millions of

intelligent citizens,

accustomed from infancy to the daily use of should apply to a cowering universe

revolvers,

the doctrine of the Patriot Monroe.

When

I

had concluded,

his head,

and

a sign to

me and

fell

while he reflected.

into a

my

host gently shook

musing study, making

his daughter to

And

after a

remain

time he

silent

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 I adjure

you

me and

to reveal nothing to

mine,

any other of

our people respecting the world from which you

came, unless, on consideration,

I

give you per-

THE COMING RACE.

46 mission to request "

do

on

Of course

to

this

I

my word

pledge

to

it,"

said

I,

my right hand grasp his. But he placed my hand gently his forehead and his own right hand on my

breast,

in

consent

%

somewhat amazed to

Do you

so.

which

is

;

and

I

extended

the custom amongst this race

matters of promise or verbal obligations.

all

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

of a world other than our own."

me

or to you,

Zee rose and

kissed her father on the temples, saying, with

a smile, "

A

Gy's tongue

can fetter

it

fast.

lest a

And

chance word from

is

if,

wanton, but love

my

me

father,

you

fear

or yourself could

expose our community to danger, by a desire to explore a world beyond us, will not a vril,

of

wave

properly impelled, wash even the

of the

memory

what we have heard the stranger say out

the tablets of the brain "

What

is vril ?

of

\

" I asked.

Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of

which

I

understood very

little,

for there is

THE COMING RACE. no word in any language

synonym

exact city,

for vril.

except that

it

I

I

47

know which

should

is

an

call it electri-

comprehends in

its

manifold

branches other forces of nature, to which, in our nomenclature, differing names are as-

scientific

These

signed, such as magnetism, galvanism, &c.

people consider that in vril they have arrived at the unity in natural energic agencies, which has

many

been conjectured by

above

philosophers

ground, and which Faraday thus intimates under the more cautious term of correlation

:

" I have long held an opinion," says that trious experimentalist, " almost

conviction, in

lovers

common,

of natural

I believe,

illus-

amounting with

many

to a

other

knowledge, that the various

forms under which the forces of

made manifest have one common

matter are

origin

;

or,

in

other words, are so directly related and mutually

dependent, that they are convertible, as into one another,

it

were,

and possess equivalents of power

in their action."

These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of

haps

call

'

vril,

which Faraday would per-

atmospheric magnetism/ they can influ-

THE COMING RACE.

48

— in

ence the variations of temperature

words, the weather

that

;

by other

plain

operations,

akin to those ascribed to mesmerism, electro-biology,

odic force,

through

&c, but applied

vril conductors,

scientifically

they can exercise

influ-

ence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to

an extent not surpassed in the romances

To

of our mystics.

the

common name

my

world,

of the

known in

it

all

such agencies they give

Zee asked

of vril.

was not known that

mind could be quickened in the

waking

state,

all

me

if,

in

the faculties

to a degree un-

by trance

or vision,

which the thoughts of one brain could be

transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidly interchanged.

amongst us

and that of

the

I

I replied,

stories told of

that there were

such trance or vision,

had heard much and seen something

mode

effected, as in

these practices

in

which they were

mesmeric clairvoyance

had

fallen

much

artificially ;

but that

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 pro-

THE COMING RACE. duced, the

effects,

when

49

examined and

fairly

analysed, were very unsatisfactory

upon

relied

any

for

— not

to be

any systematic truthfulness or

practical purpose,

and rendered very mis-

chievous to credulous persons by the superstitions

they tended to produce. swers with

my

Zee received

much benignant

attention,

an-

and said

that similar instances of abuse and credulity had

been familiar to their own

scientific

experience in

and while the

the infancy of their knowledge,

properties of vril were misapprehended, but that

she reserved further discussion on this subject till I

was more

fitted to enter into

tented herself with adding, that the agency of

vril,

while

I

it

She con-

it.

was through

had been placed

the state of trance, that I had been

made

in

ac-

quainted with the rudiments of their language;

and that she and her

father,

family, took the pains to

who, alone of the

watch the experiment,

had acquired a greater proportionate knowledge of

my

language than

because theirs,

my

I

of their

language was

comprising far

less of

much

own

simpler

complex ideas

partly because their organisation was,

D

partly

;

by

than ;

and

heredit-

THE COMING RACE.

50

ary culture,

much more

ductile

and more readily

capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. this I secretly

demurred

course of a practical

my

to

sharpen

travel, I could

in the

my

wits,

not allow

cerebral organisation could possibly be

duller than that of people lives

and having had,

life,

whether at home or in that

;

At

by lamplight.

who had

lived

However, while

I

all their

was thus

thinking, Zee quietly pointed her forefinger at

my

forehead and sent

me

to sleep.

5i

CHAPTER When

once more awoke

I

who had brought

the child

VIII. saw by

I

received,

and which,

bedside

the rope and grap-

pling-hooks to the house in which first

my I

had been

as I afterwards learned,

was the residence of the chief magistrate of the

The

tribe.

nounced son. I

I

child,

Tar-ee),

whose name was Tae

was

the

found that during

had made

still

of the country, tive ease

and

magistrate's

my

(pro-

eldest

last sleep or trance

greater advance in the language

and could converse with compara-

fluency.

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

countenance very manly in aspect for his years,

and with a more vivacious and energetic expression than

I

had hitherto seen

passionless faces of the men.

in the serene

He

brought

and

me

THE COMING RACE.

52

the tablet on which I had descent,

and had

rible reptile that

also sketched the

Tae put

my

head of the hor-

had scared me from

me

to

my

friend's

a few questions respecting the

and form of the monster, and the cave or

chasm from which in

of

Pointing to that part of the drawing,

corpse.

size

drawn the mode

my

it

had emerged.

His interest

answers seemed so grave as to divert him

from any curiosity as to myself or

for a while

But

antecedents.

how

seeing

I

to

great embarrassment,

was pledged

just beginning to ask

when Zee

my

my

to

my

me where

host,

he was

came from,

I

fortunately entered, and, overhearing

him, said, " Tae, give to our guest any informa-

may

tion he

desire,

but ask none from him in

To question him who he

return.

comes, or wherefore he of the law which

my

is

here,

whence he

is,

would be a breach

down

father has laid

for

this house."

" So be

heart

which

;

it,"

said Tae, pressing his

and from that moment, I

saw him

last, this

till

child,

hand

the one in

whom I to me any

with

became very intimate, never once put of the questions thus interdicted.

to his

53

CHAPTER It

was not

trances, if

some time, and

for

they are so to be

became better prepared

my

entertainers,

differences of

strange to reason, that

until,

by repeated

called,

my mind

to interchange ideas with

and more

fully to

comprehend

manners and customs, at

my I

IX.

first

too

by

my

experience to be seized

was enabled

to gather the follow-

ing details respecting the origin and history of this subterranean population,

as portion of one

great family race called the Ana.

According to the

earliest traditions, the

remote

progenitors of the race had once tenanted a world

above the surface of that in which their descendants dwelt.

Myths

of that world were

still

pre-

served in their archives, and in those myths were

legends of a vaulted

were lighted by no

dome

in

human

which the lamps hand.

But such

THE COMING RACE.

54

legends were considered by most commentators

According to these

as allegorical fables. tions the earth

itself,

traditions ascend,

at the date to

was not indeed

tradi-

which the

in its infancy,

but in the throes and travail of transition from

oue form of development to another, and subject to

one

many

violent revolutions of nature.

of such

revolutions,

that

portion

of the

upper world inhabited by the ancestors of

had

race

been

subjected

inundations,

this

not

and uncontrollable, in which

rapid, but gradual all,

to

By

save a scanty remnant, were submerged and

Whether

perished. torical

this be a record of our his-

and sacred Deluge, or of some

contended for by geologists, conjecture

;

I

earlier

one

do not pretend to

though, according to the chronology

of this people as

compared with that of Newton,

it

must have been many thousands of years before

On

the time of Noah.

the other hand, the account

of these writers does not harmonise with the opinions most in vogue

inasmuch as race

it

among

geological authorities,

places the existence of a

upon earth

human

at dates long anterior to that

assigned to the terrestrial formation adapted to

THE COMING RACE.

A

the introduction of mammalia. ill-fated race,

55

band

of the

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

upper world for

ever.

sight of the

lost

Indeed, the whole face of

the earth had been changed by this great revulsion

land had been turned into sea

;

into

In the bowels of the inner earth even

land.

now,

—sea

I

was informed

as a positive fact,

discovered the remains of

human

might be

habitation

habitation not in huts and caverns, but in vast

whose ruins

cities

attest the civilisation of races

which flourished before the age of Noah, and are not to be classified with those genera to which philosophy ascribes the use of

flint

and the igno-

rance of iron.

The ledge

fugitives

of

oround

—

earliest

the

had

carried with

arts

they had

arts of culture

and

them the knowpractised

above

civilisation.

Their

want must have been that

below the earth the light they had

and

of supplying lost

above

it

at no time, even in the traditional period, do

the races, of which the one

I

now

sojourned with

THE COMING

56

formed a

tribe,

RACE.

seem to have been unacquainted

with the art of extracting light from gases, or

They had been

manganese, or petroleum.

tomed

in their

former state to contend with the

rude forces of nature battle

and indeed the lengthened

;

they had fought

with their conqueror

Ocean, which had taken centuries in

had quickened

its

spread,

their skill in curbing waters into

To

dikes and channels.

preservation

accus-

in their

generations," said

my

this skill

they owed their

"For many

new

abode.

host,

with a sort of con-

tempt and horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to have degraded their rank

ened their lives by eating the

many

varieties

and

short-

flesh of animals,

of which had, like

themselves,

escaped the Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of the earth

be

unknown

;

other animals, supposed to

to the upper world, those hollows

themselves produced."

When what we

should term the historical age

emerged from the twilight of

tradition, the

Ana

were already established in different communities,

and had attained

to a degree of civilisation

very analogous to that which the more advanced

THE COMING RACE.

now

nations above the earth

57

They were

enjoy.

most of our mechanical inventions,

familiar with

including the application of steam as well as gas.

The communities were

in fierce competition

They had

each other.

their rich

and their poor

they had orators and conquerors

war

either for a

various

states

domain

with

;

;

they made

Though the

or an idea.

acknowledged various forms of

government, free institutions were beginning to preponderate

power

;

mocracy

;

popular assemblies increased in

republics soon to

became general

among

de-

which the most enlightened European

politicians look forward as the political

the

;

extreme goal of

advancement, and which other

subterranean

still

races,

prevailed

whom

they

despised as barbarians, the loftier family of Ana, to

which belonged

the

tribe

was

I

visiting,

looked back to as one of the crude and ignorant experiments which belong to of political science.

It

the

infancy

was the age of envy and

hate, of fierce passions, of constant social changes

more

or less violent, of strife

war between

state

and

between

state.

society lasted, however, for

some

classes, of

This phase of ages,

and was

THE COMING RACE.

58

finally

brought to a

close, at least

among the nobler

and more intellectual populations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powers stored in the

permeating

which they denominate

fluid

According to the account

I received

all-

Vril.

from Zee,

who, as an erudite professor in the College of

had studied such matters more diligently

Sages,

than any other member of fluid

is

into

the

matter,

mightiest

agency over

animate or inanimate. ;

and on

it

all

It

forms of

can destroy

yet, differently applied,

can replenish or invigorate

serve,

host's family, this

capable of being raised and disciplined

like the flash of lightning it

my

life,

heal,

and pre-

they chiefly rely for the cure of

disease, or rather for enabling the physical organi-

sation to re-establish the due equilibrium of its

natural powers, and thereby to cure this solid

itself.

By

agency they rend way through the most substances,

and open valleys

for

culture

through the rocks of their subterranean wilderness.

From

it

they extract the light which sup-

plies their lamps, finding it steadier, softer,

and

healthier than the other inflammable materials

they had formerly used.

THE COMING RACE. But the

means

59

effects of the alleged discovery of

to direct the

more

the

terrible force of vril

were chiefly remarkable in their influence upon social

iarly

As

polity.

known and

tween the

Vril

these

effects

became famil-

skilfully administered, -

discoverers

ceased,

war be-

for

they

brought the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority in numbers, discipline,

or military

skill.

of a rod directed

The

fire

lodged in the hollow

by the hand

of a child could

shatter the strongest fortress, or cleave its burn-

ing

way from

host.

If

the van to the rear of an embattled

army met army, and both had command

of this agency,

it

could be but to the annihilation

The age of war was

of each.

therefore gone, but

with the cessation of war other

upon

the

social

Man was so each whom willing,

to

state

effects

soon became

bearing

apparent.

completely at the mercy of man,

he encountered being slay

him on the

able,

if

instant, that

so all

notions of government by force gradually vanished from political systems and forms of law. It is

only by force that vast communities, dis-

persed through great distances of space, can be

THE COMING RACE.

60

kept together

;

but

now

was no longer

there

either the necessity of self-preservation or

pride of aggrandisement to

make one

the

state desire

to preponderate in population over another.

The

Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a

few generations, peacefully of moderate

had

fallen

The

size.

was limited

split into

communities

amongst which

tribe

to 12,000 families.

occupied a territory sufficient for

tribe

I

Each all

its

wants, and at stated periods the surplus popula-

There

tion departed to seek a realm of its own.

appeared no necessity for any arbitrary selection of these emigrants

;

number who volunteered These subdivided either to

was always a

there

to depart.

petty

states,

territory or population,

—

slightly differ.

tained the

and

though

language,

if

all

we

regard

appertained

They spoke the

one vast general family.

same

sufficient

the

might

dialects

They intermarried

;

they main-

same general laws and customs

so important a

bond between these

communities was the knowledge of practice of its agencies, that the

synonymous with

civilisation

;

vril

several

and the

word A- Vril was

and

Vril-ya, signi-

THE COMING RACE.

"The

fying

was the common

Civilised Nations,"

name by which

6

the communities employing the

uses of vril distinguished themselves from such of the

Ana

as

were yet in a state of barbarism.

The government of the

tribe of Vril-ya I

am

treating of was apparently very complicated, really

very simple.

It

was based upon a

cognised in theory, though practice, all

above ground

—

little

viz.,

principle re-

carried out in

that the object of

systems of philosophical thought tends to the

attainment of unity, or the ascent through

all in-

tervening 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

against

gradual abuse of the powers accorded

to

it.

its

for its continuance, or

This singular community elected therefore

a single supreme magistrate styled Tur his office nominally for

be induced to retain old age.

he held

but he could seldom

after the first

approach of

There was indeed in this society nothing

to induce

of office.

it

life,

;

any of

No

its

members

to covet the cares

honours, no insignia of higher rank,

THE COMING RACE.

62

were assigned to

The supreme magistrate

it.

was not distinguished from the

On

habitation or revenue. duties

and

rest

by superior

the other hand, the

awarded to him were marvellously

easy, requiring

light

no preponderant degree of There being no appre-

energy or intelligence.

hensions of war, there were no armies to maintain

;

being no government of

no police to appoint and

What we

direct.

unknown

crime was utterly

to the Vril-ya

;

instances

disputes

of civil

decided

will

by the

be described

fessional lawyers

;

and

were referred

chosen by either party,

for arbitration to friends

or

call

The

there were no courts of criminal justice. rare

was

force, there

Council

of

Sages,

which

There were no pro-

later.

and indeed

their laws

were

but amicable conventions, for there was no power to enforce laws against

in

his staff the

power

an offender who carried 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.

THE COMING RACE. There was, in state,

much

fact,

63

quietly established

the same compact that

we

our private families, in which

amid

this

found in

is

virtually say to

any independent grown-up member of the family

whom we

receive

entertain, " Stay or go,

and

according as our habits and regulations suit or

But though there were no laws

displease you."

such as

we

call laws,

law-observing.

no race above ground

as if

it

guidance, which

much an

is

it

instinct

makes a regulation

They have a proverb, the

to the family.

pithiness of which

in this paraphrase,

lost

for

never resisted nor even

by those who belong

cavilled at

much

as

were implanted by nature. Even in every

household the head of its

so

Obedience to the rule adopted by

community has become

the

is

"

No

is

happiness

without order, no order without authority, no

The mildness

authority without unity."

government

may

among them,

civil

or

domestic,

be signalised by their idiomatic expressions

for such terms as illegal or forbidden is

of all

requested not to do

among

the

property

is

Ana

is

as

—

so-and-so."

unknown

as crime

held in common, or that

all

viz., " It

Poverty ;

not that

are equals

THE COMING RACE.

64

and

in the extent of their possessions or the size

luxury of their habitations

:

but there being no

rank or position between the grades

difference of

of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pur-

own

sues his or vying

;

some

splendid kind of in his

own way.

petition, it

envy

inclinations without creating

life

;

some a more

a modest,

like

each makes himself happy

Owing

to this absence of

com-

and the limit placed on the population, for a family to fall into distress

is difficult

there are no hazardous speculations, no emulators striving for superior wealth

each settlement

in

proportions

some,

all

and rank.

more adventurous than

doubt,

had the same

originally

land dealt out to

of

No them

others,

but

;

had ex-

tended their possessions farther into the bordering wilds, or had improved into richer fertility the

produce

commerce or

of

their

fields,

Thus,

trade.

had grown richer than

become absolutely which it

their

was always

the

tastes

poor,

necessarily,

or

power

into

some

but none had

others,

desired.

in their

entered

or

wanting anything If

they did

so,

to migrate, or at

worst to apply, without shame and with

THE COMING RACE. certainty of aid, to the rich bers of the

65

mem-

for all the

;

community considered themselves

as

brothers of one affectionate and united family.

More upon tally as

The to

my

this

head

will be treated of inciden-

narrative proceeds.

chief care of the

supreme magistrate was

communicate with certain active departments

charged with the administration of special details.

The most important and

details

was that connected with the due provision

of light.

was the

Of chief.

this

department

essential of such

my

host,

Aph-Lin,

Another department, which might

be called the foreign, communicated with the

neighbouring kindred

states, principally for the

purpose of ascertaining

all

new

inventions

;

and

such inventions and

to a third department, all

improvements in machinery were committed Connected with

trial.

College of Sages

such of the

—a

Ana

this

department was the

college especially favoured

as were

for

widowed and

by

childless,

and by the young unmarried females, amongst

whom call

Zee was the most active, and,

renown

or distinction

if

what we

was a thing acknow-

ledged by this people (which

I

shall later

show

THE COMING RACE.

66

among

not),

it is

guished.

It is

the most renowned or distin-

by the female Professors of

this

f'olWe that those studies which are deemed of least use in practical life

—

as purely speculative

philosophy, the history of remote periods, and

such sciences as entomology, conchology, &c. the more diligently cultivated.

Zee,

—

are

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,

work was considered the

best authority on that

But the researches

interesting subject.

which

of the

sages are not confined to such subtle or elegant

They comprise various

studies.

and

portant,

others

more im-

especially the properties of vril, to

* The animal here referred to has many points of difference from the tiger of the upper world. paw, and

and

still

pools,

more receding

It is larger,

frontal.

and feeds principally on

It

and with a broader

haunts the sides of lakes

fishes,

though

any

terrestrial

way.

It is

becoming very scarce even in the wild

it is

it

does not ob-

animal of inferior strength that comes in

ject to

devoured by gigantic

reptiles.

I

districts,

apprehend that

it

its

where clearly

belongs to the tiger species, since the parasite animalcule found in

its

paw, like that found in the Asiatic

image of

itself.

tiger's, is a

miniature

THE COMING RACE.

6j

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

which novelty of

three, in the rare instances in

event or circumstance perplexes his

own judgment.

There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but

all

are carried

on so noiselessly

and quietly that the evidence of a government seems to vanish altogether, and be as regular and unobtrusive as of nature.

Machinery

is

social order to

were a law

if it

employed

to an incon-

ceivable extent in all the operations of labour

within and without doors, and

it is

the unceasing-

object of the department charged with istration to extend its efficiency.

of labourers or servants, but all to assist or control the

its

There

who

is

admin-

no

class

are required

machinery are found in

the children, from the time they leave the care of their mothers to the marriageable

ao;e,

which

they place at sixteen for the Gy-ei (the females),

twenty

for the

Ana

(the males).

are formed into bands

own

chiefs,

and

These children

sections

under their

each following the pursuits in which

THE COMING

68

he

is

most

most pleased, or

agriculture,

some

is

some

to handicrafts,

within

and some

danger to which the popu-

the

from those occasional convulearth,

and guard

foresee

to

against which tasks their utmost ingenuity

ruptions of

fire

peril

—

ir-

and water, the storms of subter-

ranean winds and escaping gases. of the

to

exposed; for the sole perils that threaten

this tribe are, first,

sions

himself

feels

to household work,

to the only services of

lation

which he

for

Some take

fitted.

RACE.

domain, and at

At

the borders

places where

all

such

might be apprehended, vigilant inspectors

are stationed with telegraphic

communication to

the hall in which chosen sages take to hold perpetual sittings.

by turns

it

These inspectors are

always selected from the elder boys approaching the age of puberty, and on the principle that at that age observation sical forces

more

is

alert

more acute and the phy-

second service of danger,

less grave, is in

struction of all creatures hostile to the culture,

or even the

these the of

The

than at any other.

the de-

life,

or the

comfort, of the Ana.

most formidable are the vast

some of which antediluvian

relics are

Of

reptiles,

preserved

THE COMING RACE. in

69

our museums, and certain gigantic winged

creatures, half bird, half reptile.

with

wild animals, corresponding to our

lesser

tigers

or

These, together

venomous

serpents,

it

left

is

younger children to hunt and destroy

;

according to the Ana, here ruthlessness

is

and the younger a will destroy.

child the

There

is

to

the

because,

wanted,

more ruthlessly he

another class of animals

in the destruction of which discrimination

is

to

be used, and against which children of intermediate age are appointed

threaten the

life

of

— animals

that do not

man, but ravage the produce

of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species,

and a smaller creature much akin though

infinitely

more

destructive

and much more cunning in tion.

to our rabbit,

its

mode

to

of depreda-

It is the first object of these

infants, to

tame the more

crops,

appointed

intelligent of such ani-

mals 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

found untamable to destroyed.

Life

is

where such creatures are this extent that they are

never taken away for food

THE COMING RACE.

70 or

for sport,

and never spared where untam-

ably inimical to the Ana. these

bodily

services

and

Concomitantly with tasks,

education of the children goes on ceases.

mental

the till

boyhood

It is the general custom, then, to pass

through 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

once into rural or commercial pursuits.

No

is

put upon individual inclination.

at

force

/I

CHAPTER

X.

The word Ana (pronounced broadly Arna) responds with our plural

Am),

;

An

is

Gy

(pronounced hard, as in Guy)

itself into

becomes

soft

(pronounced

The word

the singular, with man.

woman forms

men

cor-

for ;

Gy-ei for the plural, but the

in the plural, like Jy-ei.

have a proverb to the

it

G

They

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.

enjoyment of males,

for

all

The Gy-ei the rights

which certain

are in the fullest

of equality

philosophers

with above

ground contend. In childhood they perform the

offices of

work

and labour impartially with the boys; and, deed,

in

the

earlier

age

in-

appropriated to the

destruction of animals irreclaimably hostile, the

THE COMING RACE.

72

girls are frequently preferred,

stitution

more

ruthless

as being

by con-

under the influence of

In the interval between infancy

fear or hate.

and the marriageable age familiar intercourse between the sexes riageable age

it

consequences

than

marriage. the one

All

sex

is

arts

are

At the mar-

suspended.

is

renewed, never with worse

which

those

attend

and vocations

upon

allotted

to

open to the other, and the

Gy-ei arrogate to themselves a superiority in all

those

abstruse

and

mystical

reasoning, for which they say the

by a

fitted

branches

Ana

of

are un-

duller sobriety of understanding, or

the routine of their matter-of-fact occupations, just as

young

ladies in our

own world

constitute

themselves authorities in the subtlest points of theological doctrine, for which

few men, actively

engaged in worldly business, have ing or refinement of intellect. to early training in gymnastic their

sufficient learn-

Whether owing exercises or to

constitutional organisation, the Gy-ei are

usually superior to the

Ana

in physical strength

(an important element in the consideration

maintenance of female

rights).

They

and

attain to

THE COMING RACE. stature,

loftier

portions

and amid

pro-

embedded sinews and muscles

are

that,

rounder

their

hardy as those of the other assert

73

as

Indeed they

sex.

according to the original laws of

nature, females were intended to be larger than

and maintain

males,

this

the earliest formations of

dogma by life

reference to

in insects,

and

the most ancient family of the vertebrata fishes

viz.,

— in both of which the females are generally

large if

—

in

enough to make a meal of

Above

they so desire.

readier

all,

their consorts

the Gy-ei have a

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

Thus

tion.

selves

they can not only defend them-

against

all

but could, at any

aggressions from

moment when he

To the

the males,

least suspected

his danger, terminate the existence of

ing spouse.

dissimula-

an offendno

credit of the Gy-ei

in-

stance of their abuse of this awful superiority in

the art of destruction

The

is

on record

last that occurred in the

for several ages.

community

I

speak

of appears (according to their chronology) to have

THE COMING RACE.

74

A

been about two thousand years ago. in a

fit

of jealousy, slew her

husband

;

Gy, then,

and

this

abominable act inspired such terror among the males that they emigrated in a body and

The history runs that

the Gy-ei to themselves. the

widowed

Gy-ei, thus reduced to despair,

upon the murderess when fore

left all

fell

in her sleep (and there-

unarmed), and killed her, and then entered

into a solemn obligation

amongst themselves

to

abrogate for ever 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

consorts succeeded in

spatched to the fugitive

persuading

many to

deputation de-

return, but those

re-

The younger,

turn were mostly the elder ones. either

who did

from too craven a doubt of their consorts,

or too high an estimate of their

rejected

all

own

overtures, and, remaining

merits,

in

other

communities, were caught up there by other mates, with off.

whom

But the

perhaps they were no better

loss of so

large a portion of the

male youth operated as a salutary warning on the Gy-ei, and confirmed

them

in the pious re-

THE COMING RACE. solution to

Indeed

75

which they had pledged themselves. popularly considered that, by

now

it is

long hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have

both

lost

the aggressive and the defensive superiority over

Ana which

the

they once possessed, just as in

the inferior animals above the earth

by nature or

their

in

liarities

many

formation,

original

for their protection,

pecu-

intended

gradually fade

become inoperative when not needed under

altered circumstances. ever, for

any

An who

I

should be sorry, how-

induced a

Gy

to

make

the

experiment whether he or she were the stronger. the incident I have narrated, the

From

Ana

date certain alterations in the marriage customs, tending, perhaps,

the male.

somewhat

;

at the

in

wedlock

end of each third year

male or female can divorce the other and

is free

the

advantage of

They now bind themselves

only for three years either

to the

An

to

marry

again.

At

the end of ten years

has the privilege of taking a second wife,

allowing the

first

to retire if she so please.

These

regulations are for the most part a dead letter;

divorces and

polygamy

the marriage state

are extremely rare,

now seems

singularly

and

happy

THE COMING RACE.

?6

and serene among

this astonishing people

;

—the

Gy-ei, notwithstanding their boastful superiority

being

and

strength

in physical

much curbed

intellectual

into gentle

abilities,

manners by the

dread of separation or of a second wife, and the

Ana

being very

much

and

not, except

under great aggravation, liking

to

the creatures of custom,

exchange for hazardous novelties faces and

manners to which they are reconciled by

But there

is

one privilege the Gy-ei carefully

which perhaps forms the

retain,

and the desire

secret

motive of most lady asserters of

for

They claim the

rights above ground.

here usurped

and urging

habit.

by men,

their suit

woman

privilege,

of proclaiming their love ;

in other words, of being

the wooing party rather than the

w ooed. T

Such

a phenomenon as an old maid does not exist

among

the Gy-ei.

Indeed

it is

very seldom that

Gy does

not secure any

An upon whom

her heart,

if his affections

be not strongly engaged

a

elsewhere.

However

the male she courts

coy, reluctant,

may

prove at

she sets

and prudish, first,

yet her

perseverance, her ardour, her persuasive powers,

her

command

over the mystic agencies of

vril,

are

THE COMING RACE. pretty sure to run call

"the

down

fatal noose."

his

JJ

neck into what we

Their argument for the

reversal of that relationship of the sexes

the blind tyranny of

man

which

has established on the

surface of the earth, appears cogent,

and

is

ad-

vanced with a frankness which might well be

commended

to

say, that of the

impartial

They

consideration.

two the female

is

by nature of a

more loving disposition than the male

—that love

occupies a larger space in her thoughts, and

more fore

and that

essential to her happiness,

she ought to be

otherwise the male

is

the

there;

that

a shy and dubitant crea-

—that he has often the —that he ture

wooing party

is

a selfish predilection for

single state

often pretends to mis-

understand tender glances and delicate hints that, in short, he

captured.

must be

resolutely pursued

and

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

happy than she otherwise would

not only less be,

but she

is

not so good a being, that her qualities of heart are not sufficiently developed

;

whereas the

An

THE COMING RACE.

78 is

a creature that less lastingly concentrates his

affections

the self

on one object; that

Gy whom

worst,

if

he

he cannot get

he prefers he easily reconciles him-

another

to

if

is

Gy

;

and, finally, that

loved and taken care

the

at

of, it is less

necessary to the welfare of his existence that he

should love as well as he loved

;

he grows con-

tented with his creature comforts, and the

occupations

of

many

thought which he creates

for

himself.

Whatever may be

said as to this reasoning, the

system works well for the male sure that he

is

truly

;

for

being thus

and ardently loved, and that

the more coy and reluctant he shows himself, the

more the 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.

hobbies, his

own ways,

whatever they full

Each individual An has

may

his

be,

own

he demands a promise of

in the pursuit of her object, the ;

and

own

predilections, and,

and unrestrained concession

mises

his

to them.

Gy

This,

readily pro-

as the characteristic of this extraordi-

THE COMING RACE. nary people

is

an implicit veneration

and her word once given

by

79 for truth,

never broken even

is

the giddiest Gy, the conditions stipulated for

In

are religiously observed.

ing

all their

abstract rights

fact,

notwithstand-

and powers, the Gy-ei and submissive

are the

most amiable,

wives

have ever seen even in the happiest house-

I

holds above ground.

It is

them, that " where a It will

to obey."

conciliatory,

Gy

an aphorism among

loves

it

is

her pleasure

be observed that in the rela-

tionship of the sexes I have spoken only of marriage, for

this

such

is

the moral perfection to which

community has

nection

is

would be

attained, that

as little possible

any

illicit

amongst them

conas

it

to a couple of linnets during the time

they agreed

to live in pairs.

So

CHAPTER

XI.

Nothing had more perplexed me reconcile

my

in seeking to

sense to the existence of regions

extending below the surface of the earth, and habitable all

by

beings, if dissimilar from,

still,

material points of organism, akin to those in

the upper world, than

the

contradiction

presented to the doctrine in which,

I

that though with us the sun of heat, yet the deeper

it is

every

foot,

the surface. tribe I

said,

is

—

viz.,

the great source

we go beneath

of the earth, the greater being,

is

thus

believe,

most geologists and philosophers concur

for

in

the crust

the increasing heat,

found in the ratio of a degree

commencing from

fifty feet

below

But though the domains of the

speak of were, on the higher ground, so

comparatively near to the surface, that I could

account for a temperature, therein, suitable to

THE COMING RACE. organic

life,

yet even the ravines and valleys of

that realm were

would deem

8

much

less

hot than philosophers

possible at such a depth

—

certainly

not warmer than the south of France, or at least

And

of Italy.

according to

vast tracts

received,

all

the accounts I

immeasurably deeper be-

neath the surface, and in which one mio;ht have

thought only salamanders could

exist,

were

in-

habited by innumerable races organised like ourselves.

I

for a fact

cannot pretend in any

which

is

way

towards a solution of

jecture

it.

and

irregularities,

free currents of air

the various

help

had not been

philosophers for the extreme por-

ousness of the interior earth cavities

much

She did but con-

that sufficient allowance

made by our

account

so at variance with the recog-

nised laws of science, nor could Zee

me

to

modes

and thrown

off.

was a depth

at

—the vastness

its

which served to create

and frequent winds in

of

which heat

is

—and

for

evaporated

She allowed, however, that there

which the heat was deemed

intolerable to such organised life as

to be

was known

to

the experience of the Yril-ya, though their philo-

sophers believed that even in such places F

life

of

THE COMING RACE.

82

some kind,

life

sentient, life intellectual,

would

be found abundant and thriving, could the philosophers penetrate to

"Wherever the

it.

builds," said she, " there, be sure,

Good

inhabitants.

He

loves

He

All-

places

not empty dwellings."

She added, however, that many changes in temperature and climate had been effected skill

of the Vril-ya,

by the

and that the agency of

had been successfully employed

vril

in such changes.

She described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai,

which

I

suspect to be identical with

the ethereal oxygen of all

Dr Lewins, wherein work

the correlative forces united under the

of vril; and contended that wherever this

could be expanded, as

it

name

medium

were, sufficiently for the

various agencies of vril to have ample play, a

temperature congenial to the highest forms of could be secured.

She said

also,

that

belief of their naturalists that flowers

tation

it

life

was the

and vege-

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

THE COMING RACE. light constantly brought to bear

8$

on them, and the

gradual improvement in culture.

She said

also,

that since the vril light had superseded all other light-giving foliage

bodies,

the

had become more

had acquired

colours

of flower and

brilliant,

and vegetation

larger growth.

Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent to deal with them,

now

I

must

devote a few pages to the very interesting

questions connected with the language Vril-ya.

of the

84

CHAPTER The language

of the Vril-ya

ing, because it

seems to

me

XII.

is

peculiarly interest-

to exhibit with great

clearness the traces of the three

main

transitions

through which language passes in attaining to perfection of form.

One gists,

of the most illustrious of recent philolo-

Max

Miiller, in

between the strata of

down

the earth, lays

arguing for the analogy

lano-uao-e

©

©

and the

this absolute

strata of

dogma

:

"

No

language can, by any possibility, be inflectional without having passed through the agglutinative

and

No

language © © can be ag© glutinative without clinging with its roots to isolating © stratum.

the underlying stratum of isolation." Stratification

of Language'

—

'

On

the

p. 20.

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

" as the faithful photograph of

man

in his leading-

THE COMING RACE.

85

strings trying the muscles of his mind, groping his

way, and so delighted with his

grasps that he repeats

first

them again and

we have,

in the language of theVril-ya,

ing with

its roots to

still

—

"cling-

abounds

It

which are the foundations of the

in monosyllables,

The

again,""""

the underlying stratum," the

evidences of the original isolation.

language.

successful

transition into the agglutinative

form marks an epoch that must have gradually extended through ages, the written literature of

which has only survived in a few fragments of symbolical mythology and certain pithy sentences

which have passed into popular proverbs.

With

the extant literature of the Vril-ya the inflectional

stratum

No

commences.

doubt at that time

must have operated concurrent

there

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

As

fixed.

the inflectional stage prevailed over

the agglutinative,

much more

it

is

surprising

to

see

how

boldly the original roots of the lan-

guage project from the surface that coDceals *

Max

Muller,

'

Stratification of Language,' p. 13.

THE COMING RACE.

86

them.

In the old fragments and proverbs of the

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

mous length, comprehending whole

sentences from

which no one part can be disentangled from the

But when the

other and employed separately.

form of language became so

inflectional

vanced as to have

and grammarians,

scholars

its

far ad-

they seem to have united in extirpating

all

such

polysynthetical or polysyllabic monsters, as de-

"Words

vouring invaders of the aboriginal forms.

beyond three

syllables

became proscribed

as bar-

barous, and in proportion as the language

thus

simplified

dignity,

it

increased

and in sweetness.

compressed in sound,

By

that compression.

it

in

grew

strength,

in

Though now very

gains in clearness

a single

letter,

by

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,

or

to

express.

two instances

man),

Ana

An

:

(men)

;

the

Let

me

here

cite

one

(which I will translate letter s is

with them

a letter implying multitude, according to where

THE COMING RACE. placed

is

it

87

Sana means mankind

;

The

multitude of men.

letter,

Greeks)

the

as th

a single letter with

is

commencement

at the

times kindred, sometimes dissimilar Gloon, a town

;

houses).

man

Ata

Aur-an

ity. ;

the

is

mouths

health

community Sila, a

is

Oon, a

an assemblage of

weilbeing of a

or

and k word constantly

viz.,

is

the good of

that " the

tone in music.

the classical

word

is,

like

first

all."

principle of

Aub

is

inven-

Glaubsila, as uniting

and of musical intonation,

for poetry

ordinary conversation,

with them

;

A-glauran, which denotes their

the ideas of invention is

— as

Glata, a public calam-

;

—

political creed

;

word

Glauran, the weilbeing of the state, the

in tlieir

tion

(i. e.,

sorrow

is

good of the community

a

of a

an assemblage or union of things, some-

infers

house

compound

For instance, Gl (which with them

significations.

a single

a

prefix of certain letters

in tlieir alphabet invariably denotes

is

Ansa,

;

to

— abbreviated,

Glaubs.

Gl, but a single

in

Na, which letter,

al-

ways, when an

initial,

nistic to life or

joy or comfort, resembling in this

implies something antago-

the Aryan root Nak, expressive of perishing or

THE COMING RACE.

88

destruction.

Nax

sin or evil.

Nas

and

evil

is

darkness; Narl, death; Nana,

—an uttermost

— corruption.

In writing, they deem

irreverent to express the

name.

special

condition of sin

Supreme Being by any

He-' is symbolised

by what may

be termed the hieroglyphic of a pyramid, A.

Him

prayer they address

deem

it

and

V, symbolical of the

where

an

is

it

much

;

power

always denotes

nearly

which

Veed, an immortal

spirit

immortality

Cwm,

initial,

;

;

Koom, pronounced

I

have said

;

Yeed-ya,

like the

denotes something of hollo wness.

itself is

a cave

;

The

inverted pyramid,

as Vril, of

excellence or so

I

In conversation they generally use

not.

a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good. letter

In

by a name which they

too sacred to confide to a stranger,

know

it

Koom-in, a hole

;

Welsh

Koom

Zi-koom, a

valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; Bodh-koom,

ignorance (literally, knowledge-void). is

their

name

for the

Koom-Posh

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.

rendering

I

can give to

it

is

The

closest

our slang term,

THE COMING RACE. " bosh

;

"

and thus Koom-Posh may be loosely

rendered " Hollow-Bosh." or

89

But when Democracy

Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance which pre-

into that popular passion or ferocity

cedes

its

decease, as

the upper world)

(to

cite illustrations

from

during the French Eeign of

Roman Re-

Terror, or for the fifty years of the

public preceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their

name strife

Ek

for that state of things is Glek-Nas.

— Glek, the universal

said, is corruption or rot

;

Nas, as

strife.

thus Glek-Nas

construed,

" the

compounds

are very expressive

universal

I before

may

strife - rot."

thus,

;

is

be

Their

Bodh being

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

word

Philosophy

for

;

Pah

—Too-bodh

is

is

a contemptu-

ous exclamation analogous to our idiom, "stuff

and nonsense

;

Pah-bodh

"

nonsense-knowledge) false

philosophy,

metaphysical

or

is

(literally,

their

term

and applied speculative

to

stuff-and-

for futile or

a

species of

ratiocination

merly in vogue, which consisted in making quiries

tli at

for-

in-

could not be answered, and were not

worth making

;

such, for instance, as, "

Why does

THE COMING RACE.

90

an

An

or six

have ?

five toes to his feet instead of four

Did the

first

An, created by the All-

Good, have the same number of toes as his descendants

In the form by which an

?

recognised

by

An will

be

his friends in the future state of

being, will he retain

any

toes at

all,

and,

will they be material toes or spiritual toes

if so,

V

I

take these illustrations of Pah-bodh, 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

In the declension of nouns

I

ago.

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 prepositions.

mitted to

my

At

present, in the

Grammar

sub-

study, there were four cases to

nouns, three having varying terminations, and the fourth a differing prefix.

THE COMING RACE.

91

dual

In the elder inflectional literature the

form existed

—

it

The genitive

has long been obsolete.

case with

the dative supplies to

a

Man, instead

its

them

place

of the

:

is

also obsolete

they say the House

When

House of a Man.

used (sometimes in poetry), the genitive in the termination

is

the same as the nominative

the ablative, the preposition that marks

so is

;

it

being

a prefix or suffix at option, and generally decided

by

ear,

according to the sound of the noun.

will be observed that the prefix Hil

vocative case.

It is

It

marks the

always retained in addressing

except in the most intimate domestic

another, relations

;

its

omission would be considered rude

:

just as in our old forms of speech in addressing a

king

it

would have been deemed

disrespectful to

say " King," and reverential to say " fact, as

King."

In

they have no titles of honour, the vocative

adjuration supplies the place of a

given impartially to

all.

The

title,

and

is

prefix Hil enters

into the composition of words that imply distant

communications, as Hil-ya, to travel. In

much

the conjugation of their verbs, which

is

too lengthy a subject to enter on here, the

THE COMING RACE.

92

auxiliary verb Ya, " to go," which plays so consi-

derable part in the Sanskrit, appears and performs a kindred

office,

as if

it

were a radical in some

But

language from which both had descended.

another auxiliary of opposite signification also

accompanies

it

and shares

Thus Ya enters

stay or repose. tense,

labours

its

and Zi in the

—

to

viz., Zi,

into the future

preterite of all verbs requir-

ing auxiliaries.

Yam,

Yani-ya,

I shall

go

poo-yan,

I

I

go

—Yiam,

(literally,

have gone

I

may

I

go

go to go) Zam-

(literally, I rest

from gone).

Ya, as a termination, implies by analogy, progress,

movement,

Zi, as a terminal, de-

efflorescence.

notes fixity, sometimes in a good sense, sometimes in a bad, according to the

word with which

goodness

coupled.

Iva-zi, eternal

nal

Poo (from) enters

evil.

;

it is

Nan-zi, eter-

as a prefix to

words

that denote repugnance, or things from which

ought to be averse.

Poo-pra, disgust

falsehood, the vilest kind of evil. I

;

we

Poo-naria,

Poosh or Posh

have already confessed to be untranslatable

literally.

It

unmixed with

is

an expression of contempt not

pity.

This radical seems to have

orginated from inherent sympathy between the

THE COMING RACE.

93

and the sentiment that impelled

it,

Poo being an utterance in which the breath

is

labial

effort

exploded from the

On

mence.

with more or

lips

less

when an

the other hand, Z,

with them a sound in which the breath

vehe-

initial, is is

sucked

inward, and thus Zu, pronounced Zoo (which in their language to

one

is

letter), is

the ordinary prefix

words that signify something that

pleases, touches the

Zutze,

love

heart

as

Zummer,

lover

This indrawn

delight.

Zuzulia,

;

—

attracts,

sound of Z seems indeed naturally appropriate Thus, even in our language, mothers

to fondness.

in

say to their babies, "

Zoo darling

fessor at

;

"

Boston

and

"

of

grammar,

have heard a learned pro-

call his

married a month) I

I

defiance

Zoo

wife (he had been only

little pet."

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

become confused and deformed. with

much

indignation

which, in the

way

may told me

and beauty of sounds

that

she uttered

Zee

Zummer it,

(lover)

seemed slowly

taken down to the very depths of her heart,

THE COMING RACE.

94

some not very distant communities of

was, in

the Vril-ya, vitiated into the half-hissing, half-

wholly disagreeable, sound of Subber.

nasal,

thought to myself

n before u

of

word

it

to

only wanted the introduction

render

it

into

significant of the last quality

Gy would I will

I

desire in her

an English

an amorous

Zummer.

but mention another peculiarity in this

language which gives equal force and brevity to forms of expressions.

its

A

with them, as with

is

the alphabet, and

by

itself to

is

us, the first letter of

often used as a prefix

convey a complex idea of sovereignty

or chiefdom, or presiding principle.

Iva

is

united I

goodness ;

word

For instance,

Diva, goodness and happiness

;

A -Diva

is

unerring and absolute truth.

have already noticed the value of A in A-glauran,

so,

in vril (to

present state as I

have

The

it

of

said,

civilisation),

or

A -vril,

their

denotes,

civilisation itself.

philologist will

how much Aryan

whose properties they trace

have seen from the above

the language of the Vril-ya

Indo-G ermanic

;

is

akin to the

but, like all languages,

contains words and forms in which transfers

THE COMING RACE.

95

from very opposite sources of speech have been taken.

The very

to their

supreme magistrate, indicates theft from

title

which they give

of Tur,

They say them-

a tongue akin to the Turanian. selves that this

a

title

which

is

a foreign

word borrowed from show

their historical records

to

been borne by the chief of a nation with

have

whom

the ancestors of the Vril-ya were, in very remote periods, on friendly terms, but

become

which has long

and they say that when,

extinct,

the discovery of

vril,

litical institutions,

after

they remodelled their po-

they expressly adopted a

title

taken from an extinct race and a dead language for that of their chief magistrate,

avoid

all titles

had previous Should

life

for that office

suffice to

be spared to me, I

may

my

I

But what I have already said

show

to

acquired of

will

perhaps

genuine philological students

roots in the aboriginal form,

immediate,

collect into

sojourn amongst the

that a language which, preserving so

the

to

associations.

language during

Vril-ya.

order

with which they

systematic form such knowledge as this

in

many

of the

and clearing from

but transitory,

polysynthetical

THE COMING RACE.

96

many

stage so

riule

incumbrances, has attained

to such a union of simplicity its

final inflectional forms,

and compass

must have been the

gradual work of countless ages and of

mind

that

;

it

the

and necessitated, in

races,

at the shape

examples,

many varieties

contains the evidence of fusion

between congenial arriving

in

of

continuous

which

have given

I

culture

of a

highly

thoughtful people. That, nevertheless, the literature which belongs to this

language

is

a literature of the past

;

that

the present felicitous state of society at which the

Ana have

attained forbids the progressive cul-

tivation of literature, especially in the divisions of fiction

occasion to

show

and

later.

history,

—

I

two main

shall

have

97

CHAPTER This people have a be said against peculiarities

:

religion, and,

at least

it,

firstly,

creed they profess

XIII.

it

whatever

lias

these strange

all

believe in the

that they

secondly, that they

;

may

all

the precepts which the creed inculcates.

practise

They

unite in the worship of the one divine Creator

They

and Sustainer of the universe. it is

one of the properties of the all-permeating

agency of life

believe that

and

vril,

to transmit to the well-spring of

intelligence every thought that a living

creature can conceive;

and though they do not

contend that the idea of a Deity they say that the

An

(man)

is

is

innate, yet

the only creature,

so far as their observation of nature extends, to

whom all is

the capacity

of conceiving that idea, with

the trains of thought which open out from

vouchsafed.

They hold that G

this capacity

it,

is

a

THE COMING RACE.

98

privilege that cannot have been given in vain,

and hence that prayer and thanksgiving are acceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to

human

the complete development of the

They

ture.

and

offer their

public.

species, I

devotions both in private

Not being considered one

was not admitted

I

short,

am

of their

into the building or

temple in which the public worship

but

crea-

informed that the service

is

is

rendered;

exceedingly

and unattended with any pomp of ceremony.

It is a doctrine

with the Vril-ya, that earnest devo-

tion or complete abstraction from the actual world

cannot, with benefit to at a stretch

public,

itself,

be maintained long

by the human mind,

and that

all

attempts to do so either lead

When

to fanaticism or to hypocrisy. in private,

young

it is

when they

are alone or with their

number

in

ancient times there was a

of books written

as to the nature of the Deity,

upon speculations

and upon the forms

of belief or worship supposed to be to

they pray

children.

They say that great

especially in

Him.

But these were found

most agreeable

to lead to such

heated and angry disputations as not only to

THE COMING RACE.

99

shake the peace of the community and divide families before the

most united, but in the course

of discussing the attributes of the Deity, the existence of the Deity Himself

away,

became argued

what was worse, became invested with

or,

the passions and infirmities of the " For," said

putants.

being like an finite, so,

An

my

human

host, " since

dis-

a finite

cannot possibly define the In-

when he endeavours

to realise an idea

of the Divinity, he only reduces the Divinity into

an

An

like himself."

During; the later ages, there-

fore, all theological speculations,

though not

for-

bidden, have been so discouraged as to have fallen utterly into disuse.

The Vril-ya unite state,

more

present.

felicitous

in a conviction of a future

and more perfect than the

they have very vague notions of the

If

doctrine of rewards and punishments,

it

is

per-

haps because they have no systems of rewards

and punishments among themselves, are no crimes to punish,

ard

is

so

even that no

and

for

there

their moral stand-

An among them

is,

upon the whole, considered more virtuous than another.

If

one excels, perhaps, in one virtue,

THE COMING RACE.

100

another equally excels in some other virtue;

if

one has his prevalent fault or infirmity, so also another has

In

his.

nary mode of

life,

fact,

notions of goodness)

tinuance of

life,

their

extraordi-

there are so few temptations

to wrong, that they are

They have some

in

good (according

to their

merely because they

fanciful notions

live.

upon the con-

when once bestowed, even

in

the vegetable world, as the reader will see in the

next chapter.

IOI

CHAPTER Though,

as I

have

XIV.

said, the Vril-ya

speculations on the nature of the

discourage

all

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

He

the upper world.

They hold

has once given

with the perceptions of that

life,

life,

however faint

never destroyed

;

it

it

that wherever

be, as in a plant, the life is

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

future,

ment

and

is

it

connects

conscious of

in the scale of joy.

its

its

past

life

with

its

progressive improve-

For they say

that, with-

out this assumption, they cannot, according to the lights of

human

reason vouchsafed to them,

THE COMING RACE.

102

discover the perfect justice which stituent quality of the All-Wise Injustice,

causes

want of benevolence fulfil

it

;

a con-

and the All-Good.

they say, can only emanate from three

want of wisdom

:

must be

to perceive

what

is just,

want of power

to

and that each of these three wants

is

to desire,

incompatible in the All- Wise, the All-Good, the All-Powerful.

But

that, while

even in this

life,

the wisdom, the benevolence, and the power of the

Supreme Being

are sufficiently apparent to

compel our recognition, the justice necessarily

re-

sulting 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 dividual rendered, control,

— one

—even

other

by circumstances beyond

its

compared to

its

exceedingly wretched

neighbours

in-

only exists as the prey of an-

a plant suffers from disease

till

it

perishes prematurely, while the plant next to

it

rejoices in its vitality free

from a pang.

and

That

lives out its

it is

happy

life

an erroneous analogy

from human infirmities to reply by saying that the

Supreme Being only

acts

by general

laws, thereby

THE COMING RACE. making

own secondary

his

103

causes so potent as to

the essential kindness of the First Cause

mar

and a

still

AH -Good,

of the

tempt

meaner and more ignorant conception

all

consideration of justice for the myriad

forms into which that justice

is

There

An.

He

has infused

is

no small and no great

and

suffers,

in the eyes

But once grant that

however humble, which

nothing,

and assume

life,

only due to the single product of the

of the divine Life-Giver.

lives

with a brief con-

to dismiss

feels that

can perish through the series of

ages, that all its suffering here, if continuous

the

moment

of

it

from

birth to that of its transfer to

its

another form of being, would be more brief com-

pared with eternity than the cry of the new-born is

compared

to the

whole

life

of a

man; and once

suppose that this living thing retains identity

sense

it

when

so transferred

its

sense of

without that

(for

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 not varying and

and universal,

partial, as it

would be

acting only upon general secondary laws

;

if

because

THE COMING RACE.

104

such perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of knowledge to conceive, perfectness of love to will,

and perfectness of power to complete

However

may the

this belief of the Vril-ya

fantastic

be, it tends

systems

of

it.

perhaps to confirm politically

government which,

admitting

differing degrees of wealth, yet establishes per-

in rank, exquisite mildness in all

fect equality

relations

and

and tenderness to

intercourse,

all

community

created things which the good of the

And though

does not require them to destroy.

their notion of compensation to a tortured insect

may seem

or a cankered flower

very wild crotchet, yet, at chievous one

;

and

it

some of us a

to

least, it is

may

not a mis-

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

—

laws by which

so fixed an idea that the general

He

acts

partial injustice or evil,

cannot

admit of any

and therefore cannot be

comprehended without reference to over

all

space and throughout

all

their action

time.

And

THE COMING since, as I shall

RACE.

10$

have occasion to observe

later,

the intellectual conditions and social systems of this subterranean race

comprise and harmonise

and apparently antagonistic,

great,

philosophical

doctrine

and

in

varieties

speculation

which

have from time to time been started, discussed, dismissed,

and have re-appeared amongst thinkers

or dreamers in the upper world,

—

so I

may perhaps

appropriately conclude this reference to the belief of the Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient

once given

is

indestructible

tures as well as in

among

I

zoologist,

Louis

have only just met with,

many

had committed to paper those

years. after

I

collections

of the

now form

inferior crea-

man, by an eloquent passage

from the work of that eminent Agassiz, which

life

life

of the Vril-ya

re-

which

I

reduce into something like arrangement and :

"

bear to

The

relations

which individual animals

one another are of such a

that they ought long ago to sidered

as

sufficient

character

have been con-

proof that

no

organised

being could ever have been called into existence

by other agency than by the of a reflective mind.

direct intervention

This argues strongly in

THE COMING RACE.

106

favour of the existence in every animal of an

immaterial principle similar to that which by excellence so

its

and superior endowments places man

much above

animals

;

yet the principle un-

and whether

questionably exists,

sense, reason, or instinct,

it

it

be

called

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

differ-

ences 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.

that a future

life

in

May

I

not add

which man would be de-

prived 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 con-

ception of paradise sect, jcvii.

p. 97-99.

?

"

—

'

Essay on

Classification,'

io7

CHAPTER Kind

me

to

as I found all in tins household, the

young daughter of siderate

my

and thoughtful

host was the most conin her kindness.

suo-crestion I laid aside the I

XV.

had descended from

At her

habiliments in which

upper earth, and

the

adopted the dress of the Vril-ya, with the exception of the artful wings which served them,

on

But

a graceful mantle.

foot, as

the Vril-ya,

when occupied

in

as

when

many

of

urban pursuits, did

not wear these wings, this exception created no

marked

difference

among which to visit the

I

between myself and the race

sojourned, and

I

was thus enabled

town without exciting unpleasant

curiosity.

Out of the household no one suspected

that I had

come from the upper world, and

I

was

but regarded as one of some inferior and barbarous tribe

whom Aph-Lin

entertained as a guest.

THE COMING RACE.

108

The

was large

city

tory round

than

it,

many an

estate

;

in proportion to the terri-

which was of no greater extent English or Hungarian nobleman's

the whole

but

of

it,

the rocks which constituted cultivated

the

to

nicest

the verge of

to

its

boundary, was except where

degree,

certain allotments of

mountain and pasture were

humanely

to

left

free

the

sustenance of

the

harmless animals they had tamed, though not

So great

domestic use.

for

is

their kindness

towards these humbler creatures, that a sum is

from

devoted

purpose of

the

colonies),

merous

for

treasury for the

deporting them to

communities willing

new

public

to

receive

other

them

Vril-ya (chiefly

whenever they become too nu-

the

their native place.

pastures allotted

They do

not,

to

them

in

however, mul-

tiply to an extent comparable to the

ratio

at

which, with us, animals bred for slaughter, increase.

It

useful to

seems a law of nature that animals not

man

gradually recede from the domains

he occupies, or even become extinct.

It is

an

old custom of the various sovereign states amidst

which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to

THE COMING RACE.

IO9

leave between each state a neutral and unculti-

vated border-land.

In the instance of the com-

munity

this tract, being a ridge of

I

speak

of,

savage rocks, was impassable by easily surmounted,

inhabitants

or

whether by the wings of the

Eoads through

intercommunicating

tracts

I

shall

were also cut

it

for the transit of vehicles impelled

special

but was

the air-boats, of which

speak hereafter.

lighted,

foot,

by

were

These

vril.

always

kept

and the expense thereof defrayed by a tax, to which all the communities com-

prehended in the denomination of Vril-ya con-

By

tribute in settled proportions.

these

means a

considerable commercial traffic with other states,

both near and distant, was carried on. surplus wealth of this

for

skill

The

community was

The community was

chiefly agricultural.

eminent

special

in

constructing

implements

connected with the arts of husbandry.

change for such merchandise

more of luxury than

it

necessity.

also

In ex-

obtained articles

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

HO

THE COMING RACE.

were marvellous I

for

beauty of song and plumage.

understood that extraordinary care was taken

by

their breeders

and teachers

in selection,

and

that the species had wonderfully improved during

the last few years.

among

this

I

saw no other pet animals

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,

They appear

kept in their private gardens.

have no animals akin to our dogs or

though that learned

and

naturalist, Zee,

to

horses,

informed

me

that such creatures had once existed in those parts,

and might now be found in regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya.

She said that they

had gradually disappeared from the more ised world since the discovery of vril, results attending that discovery

with their uses.

civil-

and the

had dispensed

Machinery and the invention of

wings had superseded the horse as a beast of

burden

;

and the dog was no longer wanted

for protection or the chase, as it

either

had been when

the ancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their

own

kind, or hunted the lesser animals for

THE COMING RACE.

Ill

Indeed, however, so far as the horse was

food.

concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse

could have been, there, of

pastime or burden.

is

use either for

The only creature they use

for the latter purpose

which

little

is

kind of large goat

a

much employed on

The nature

farms.

of the surrounding soil in these districts said to

have

wings and

first

air-boats.

may

be

suggested the invention of

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. street, in

The broad main

which Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded into a

vast square, in which were placed the College of

Sages and fountain

all

of

the public offices

luminous

the

am

;

fluid

a magnificent

which

I

call

naphtha

(I

centre.

All these public edifices have a uniform

ignorant of

its real

nature) in the

character of massiveness and solidity.

minded me of the Along the upper

many

re-

architectural pictures of Martin. stories of each

ran a balcony, or

rather a terraced garden, supported filled

They

by columns,

with flowering- plants, and tenanted by kinds of tame birds.

From

the square

THE COMING RACE.

112

branched several

In

my excursions

allowed to go alone

was

broad and brilliantly

and ascending up the eminence on

lighted, side.

streets, all

my

young An

town

Aph-Lin or

Gy

is

I

was never

his daughter

In

companion.

habitual

munity the adult

;

in the

either

this

com-

seen walking with

any

were no

dif-

as familiarly as if there

ference of sex.

The persons

shops are not very numerous

retail

who

attend on a customer are

of various ages,

and exceedingly

all

;

the

children

intelligent

and

courteous, but without the least touch of impor-

tunity

or

The shopkeeper himself

cringing.

might or misdit 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 to

it,

his general sources of

and quite independently of fortune.

Some

of the richest citizens in the

As

kept such shops. difference of all

An

rank

is

I

community

have before

recognisable,

said,

no

and therefore

occupations hold the same equal social status.

An, of

whom

I

bought

my

sandals,

was the

THE COMING RACE. brother of the Tur,

though

his

or

113

chief magistrate

;

and

shop was not larger than that of any

bootmaker in Bond Street or Broadway, he was said to be twice as rich as the

No

in a palace.

Tur who dwelt

doubt, however, he had some

country-seat.

The Ana

of the

community

are,

on the whole,

an indolent

set of beings after the active

childhood.

Whether by temperament

sophy, they rank repose of

life.

Indeed,

human being

among

when you

age of

or philo-

the chief blessings

take

away from a

the incentives to action which are

found in cupidity or ambition,

wonder that he

it

seems to

me no

rests quiet.

In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet to that of their wings.

But

for

their sports or (to indulge in a bold misuse of

terms) their public 'promenades, they employ the latter, also for

the aerial dances I have described,

as well as for visiting their country places, are mostly placed on lofty heights still

;

and,

which

when

young, they prefer their wings for travel

into the other regions of the Ana, to vehicular

conveyances. 11

THE COMING RACE.

114

Those if

fly,

who accustom

themselves to flight can

rapidly than some birds, yet from

less

twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, and keep up

But

that rate for five or six hours at a stretch.

Ana

the

generally, on reaching middle age, are

not fond of rapid movements requiring violent

Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a

exercise.

doctrine which our

approve the

—

viz.,

pores

own

physicians will doubtless

that regular transpiration through

skin

the

of

is

essential

to

health,

they habitually use the sweating-baths to which

we

give the

name

of Turkish or

Eoman,

ceeded by douches of perfumed waters.

have great faith

in

the

suc-

They

virtue

salubrious

of

certain perfumes. It

is

periods,

their

custom

perhaps

four

also,

stated

at

times

a

-

when

year

bath charged with

health, to use a

vril.*

consider that this fluid, sparingly used, sustainer of

normal

life

;

its

is

in

They a great

but used in excess, when in the

state of health, rather tends to reaction

* I once tried the effect of the vril hath. in

but rare

It

was very similar

invigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the

virtues of

which are ascribed hy many physicians

but though similar, the

effect of the vril

to electricity

hath was more

lasting.

;

THE COMING RACE. and exhausted

vitality.

diseases, however,

115

For nearly

they resort to

it

all

their

as the chief

assistant to nature in throwing off the complaint.

In their

own way they

are the

most luxurious

of people, but

all

They may be

said to dwell in an atmosphere

their luxuries are

and fragrance.

of music

innocent.

Every room has

its

mechanical contrivances for melodious sounds, usually tuned

which seem

like

They

spirits.

down

to

soft

-

murmured

notes,

sweet whispers from invisible

are too accustomed to these gentle

sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor,

when

But they have a

alone, to reflection.

notion that to breathe an air

filled

with continu-

ous melody and perfume has necessarily an effect at once soothing

tion

and elevating upon the forma-

of character

Though

and the habits of thought.

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

their

sports

gaiety.

;

and

in all

even the old exhibit a childlike

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

THE COMING RACE.

Il6

regard for the happiness of each other

by the

is

evinced

exquisite amenity of their manners.

Their conformation of skull has marked

dif-

ferences from that of

any known races in the

upper world, though

cannot help thinking

I

it

a

development, in the course of countless ages, of the Brachycephalic type of the Lyell's

'Elements of Geology/

Age

of Stone in

C. X., p.

113, as

compared with the Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age of Iron, correspondent with that

now

amongst

so prevalent

Celtic type.

It

us,

and

called the

has the same comparative mas-

siveness of forehead, not receding like the Celtic

— the same even roundness but

it is

in the frontal organs;

far loftier in the apex,

and

far less pro-

nounced in the hinder cranial hemisphere where

To speak

phrenologists place the animal organs.

common

as a phrenologist, the cranium

to the

Yril-ya has the organs of weight, number, tune,

form, that

causality,

order,

of

construction

than that of the

moral

ideality.

organs,

very largly developed

much more pronounced Those which are called

such

as

conscientiousness

and benevolence, are amazingly

full

;

amative-

THE COMING RACE.

117

ness and combativeness are both small siveness large

;

adhe-

the organ of destructiveness

;

(i.e.,

of determined clearance of intervening obstacles)

immense, but

less

than that of benevolence

;

and

their pliiloprogenitiveness takes rather the char-

acter of compassion

and tenderness

to things that

need aid or protection than of the animal love of offspring.

never met with one person deformed

I

The beauty of

or misshapen. is

their countenances

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 sciousness of

which seems to come from con-

power and the freedom of

physical or moral.

It

is

all terror,

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.

as a painter

such an expression

might give to a demi-god, a genius,

The males of the Vril-ya

an angel. beardless

It is

;

the

Gy-ei

sometimes,

develop a small moustache.

are entirely in

old

age,

THE COMING RACE.

Il8

I

was surprised

to find that the colour of their

skin was not uniformly that which I had re-

marked

in those individuals

encountered,

—some

being

whom

much

I

fairer,

had

first

and even

with blue eyes, and hair of a deep golden auburn,

though

still

of complexions

warmer

or richer in

tone than persons in the north of Europe. I

was

told that this admixture of colouring

arose from intermarriage with other

and more

distant tribes of the Vril-ya, who, whether

by the

accident of climate or early distinction of race,

were of

fairer

hues than the tribes of which this

community formed

one.

It

was considered that

the dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of

Ana

;

but they attached no sentiment of pride

to that antiquity, and,

on the contrary, believed

their present excellence of breed

came from

quent crossing with other families akin

;

fre-

differing, yet

and they encourage such intermarriages,

always provided that nations.

it

be with the Vril-ya

Nations which, not conforming their

manners and institutions to those of the

Vril-ya,

nor indeed held capable of acquiring the powers over the vril agencies which

it

had taken them

THE COMING RACE.

119

generations to attain and transmit, were regarded

with more disdain than citizens of

New York

regard the negroes. I learned

from Zee, who had more lore in

matters than any male with

whom

I

all

was brought

into familiar converse, that the superiority of the

Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of their earlier struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localities in first

settled.

which they had

" Wherever," said Zee, moralising,

"wherever goes on that early process in the history of civilisation, in

by which

life is

which the individual has

made a

struggle,

to put forth all his

powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find this result

vast

—

viz.,

number must

servation only the

since in the competition a

perish, nature selects for pre-

strongest

specimens.

With

our race, therefore, even before the discovery of vril,

only the

served

;

highest

and there

is

organisations were pre-

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

THE COMING RACE.

120

our species by the severity of the struggles our forefathers

cation

underwent

shall

become

;

and

when our edu-

that,

finally

completed,

we

are

destined to return to the upper world, and sup-

plant

all

the inferior races

now

existing therein."

Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me

upon the

private

political

and

in

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

They found

in

my

continued to do

all

I

the Yril-ya.

which

I

accounts,

—

in

could (without

launching into falsehoods so positive that they easily detected

by the shrewd-

listeners) to present

our powers and

would have been ness of

my

ourselves in the most nattering point of view,

perpetual subjects of

most

civilised

comparison between our

populations

and

the

meaner

subterranean races which they considered hopelessly

plunged

gradual

if

in

certain

barbarism, and extinction.

doomed

to

But they both

agreed in desiring to conceal from their com-

munity

all

lighted

by the sun;

premature opening into the regions both were

humane, and

THE COMING RACE. from

shrunk

many

millions of creatures

drew of our

life,

saddened them.

men

the

" Alas

" !

In vain

Vril-ya

and the pictures

I

I

boasted of our great

orators, generals

produce

to

said Zee, her

their

— and

equals.

grand face softening into

an angel-like compassion, " the few over the

;

so

highly coloured as they were,

—poets, philosophers,

defied

annihilating

thought of

the

121

many

this

predominance of

the surest and most

is

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,

nominal liberty of the

whatever

state,

may

be the

and annul that calm

of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained

the more

we can

assimilate

?

Our notion life

is,

that

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 and the more

easily

to a divine happiness here,

we

glide into the conditions

THE COMING RACE.

122

of being hereafter.

gine of the

life

we can ima-

For, surely, all

of gods, or of blessed immortals,

supposes the absence of self-made cares and contentious passions, such as avarice It

seems to us that

it

must be a

and ambition. of serene

life

tranquillity, not indeed without active occupa-

tions 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 untram-

melled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry. cal state to

which

all

Such

is

the politi-

the tribes and families of the

Vril-ya seek to attain, and towards that goal

all

You

see

our theories of government are shaped.

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

and

cares,

and more ward.

and warring

troubles,

passions, aggravated

as their progress storms its

The most powerful of

all

more

way

on-

the races in our

world, beyond the pale of the Vril-ya, esteems itself

the best governed of

all political

societies,

THE COMING RACE. and

23

1

have reached in that respect the extreme

to

end at which

wisdom can

political

arrive, so that

the other nations should tend more or less to

copy

It

it.

base, the

has

Koom-Posh-

ignorant upon

the

most numerous. bliss in the

on

established,

—

the It

viz.,

broadest

its

the government of

principle of being the

has

placed the supreme

vying with each other in

all

things,

so that the evil passions are never in repose

vying

for power, for wealth, for

kind

and

the

;

eminence of some

in this rivalry it is horrible to hear

vituperation, the

slanders,

and calumnies

which even the best and mildest among them heap on each other without remorse or " this

Some

shame.'"'

years ago," said Aph-Lin, "

people,

and

their misery

I visited

and degradation

were the more appalling because they were always boasting of their felicity and grandeur as com-

pared with the rest of their species. is

no hope that

this people,

And

which evidently

sembles your own, can improve, because notions tend to further deterioration. sire to

there

all

re-

their

They

de-

enlarge their dominion more and more,

in direct antagonism to the truth that,

beyond a

THE COMING RACE.

124

very limited range,

it

is

impossible to secure to

a community the happiness which belongs to a well-ordered family

;

and the more they mature

a system by which a few individuals are heated

and swollen

to a size

above the standard slender-

ness of the millions, the

and cry

exact,

out,

common

to the

'

more they chuckle and

See by what great exceptions our race

littleness of

the magnificent results of our system "

In

fact,"

human

life

resumed Zee, " be

to

if

the

approximate

to

equality of immortals, there

we prove

!

wisdom the

of

serene

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.

do

see

I

how, by any forms of religious

mortals, so acting, could

fit

Nor belief,

themselves even to

appreciate the joys of immortals to which they still

expect to be transferred by the mere act

dying.

On

the contrary, minds accustomed to

place happiness in things so

much

the reverse of

of godlike, would find the happiness of gods ex-

ceedingly dull, and would long to get back to a

world in which they could quarrel with each other."

125

CHAPTER I

have spoken

may

reader

much

so

me

expect

of the Vril Staff that

it

sioned

by

for fear of

doubt that

it

requires

the exercise of

and has springs fied,

stroys,

by which

one

it

terrible accident occa-

and

of its use ;

much

its force

—

by another

the rock,

to

skill

I

have no

and practice

in

It is hollow,

handle several stops, keys, or

in the

or directed

This I

it.

various powers.

its

my

was never allowed

I

some

my ignorance

describe

to

cannot do accurately, for handle

XVI.

so that it

by another

affects bodies,

heals

can be altered, modi-

by one process

—by one

it

it

can rend

disperse the vapour

by another

a certain influence over minds.

it

de-

— by

can exercise It

is

usually

carried in the convenient size of a walking-staff,

but

it

has slides by which

or shortened at will.

it

When

can be lengthened

used for special pur-

THE COMING RACE.

126

poses, the upper part rests in the hollow of the

palm with the I

and middle

fore

was assured, however, that

equal in

all,

fingers protruded.

power was not

its

but proportioned to the amount of

certain vril properties in the wearer in affinity, or

rapport with the purposes to be

Some

effected.

were more potent to destroy, others to &c.

;

much

also

depended on the calm and

exercise

by

—and

hereditarily

assert

power can only

of vril

be acquired by constitutional i. e.,

steadi-

They

ness of volition in the manipulator. that the full

heal,

temperament

transmitted

—

organisation

that a female infant of four years old

belonging to the Vril-ya races can accomplish feats

with the wand placed for the

her hand, which a

life

spent in

its

first

time in

practice

would

not enable the strongest and most skilled mechanician, born out of the pale of the Vril-ya, to

All these

achieve.

plicated

;

wands

are not equally

those intrusted to children are

com-

much

simpler than those borne by sages of either sex,

and constructed with a view to the in

special object

which the children are employed

have before

said, is

among

;

which, as

I

the youngest children

THE COMING RACE. the most destructive.

and mothers the usually charged. this

I

wish

machinery

its

the

is

destroying force

power

healing

is

fully

could say more in detail of

I

conductor of

singular

27

In the wands of wives

correlative

abstracted,

1

the

vril

fluid,

as exquisite as its

but

effects are

marvellous. I

should say, however, that this people have

invented certain tubes by which the

can be conducted towards the object to destroy,

to

600

put

it

modestly when

And

miles.

their

accurate, that air-boat,

meant

I

say from

mathematical

science as applied to such purpose

an

it is

fluid

throughout a distance almost indefi-

nite; at least I

500

vril

is

so nicely

on the report of some observer in

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

venture to specify

it,

me

to

a capital twice as vast as

London. Certainly these

Ana

are wonderful mechani-

THE COMING RACE.

128

ciana

—wonderful

for the adaptation of the inven-

tive 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, contrivances

on which we

recent achievements. lessly

thrown

tubes

for

an

and

ciple of still

aside

destroying

inflammable

pride

many

ourselves as

In one department, careas

lumber,

obsolete life

by

powder,

are

metallic

balls

on

prin-

the

our cannons and catapults, and even

more murderous than our

improve-

latest

ments.

My

host spoke of these with a smile of con-

tempt, such as an artillery

officer

might bestow

on the bows and arrows of the Chinese.

In an-

other department there were models of vehicles

and

vessels

worked by steam, and of an

balloon which might have been constructed Montgolfier.

" Such," said Zee, with

— "such meditative wisdom flings

an

air-

by

air of

were the feeble

tri-

with nature of our savage forefathers, ere

THE COMING RACE.

1

29

had even a glimmering perception of the

tliey

properties of vril

This young

" !

Gy was

a magnificent specimen of

the muscular force to which the females of her

Her

country attain. those of

have

I

all

her race

features were beautiful, like :

never in the upper world

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

somewhat

it

pose; and such sternness

when

stern

in re-

became formidable when

observed in connection with her ample shoulders

and

lofty stature.

and

I

could

saw her lift

tall

even for a Gy,

up a cannon

lift

a pocket-pistol.

a profound terror

we came

She was

—a

terror

as easily as I

Zee inspired

me

with

which increased when

into a department of the

museum

ap-

propriated to models of contrivances worked the agency of vril

play of her vril

;

for here,

staff,

merely by a certain

she herself standing at

a distance, she put into

weighty substances.

by

movement

large

and

She seemed to endow them

with intelligence, and to make them comprehend

and obey her command. 1

She

set

complicated

THE COMING RACE.

130

pieces of machinery into

movement

or continued

movement, arrested the

it,

until,

within an incre-

dibly short time, various kinds of

raw material

were reproduced as symmetrical works of complete and perfect.

merism or

Whatever

effect

produces

art,

mes-

over

the

objects,

this

young Gy produced by the motions of her

slen-

electro-biology

and muscles of animated

nerves

der rod over the springs and wheels of

lifeless

mechanism.

When

I

mentioned to

my

my

companions

astonishment at this influence over inanimate

matter

—while owning

had

that, in our world, I

witnessed phenomena which

showed that over

certain living organisations certain other living

organisations could establish an influence genuine in

itself,

craft

but often exaggerated by credulity or

— Zee, who was more interested in such sub-

jects than her father,

bade

me

hand, and then, placing beside called

my attention

and character. the

Gy

race,

stretch forth it

my

her own, she

to certain distinctions of type

In the

first

place, the

thumb

of

(and, as I afterwards noticed, of all that

male or female) was much

larger, at

once

THE COMING RACE. longer and more massive, than species above ground.

There

great a difference as there of a

man and

palm

is

is

is

is

131

found with our

almost, in this, as

between the thumb

that of a gorilla.

Secondly, the

proportionately thicker than ours

—the —

texture of the skin infinitely finer and softer

average warmth

than

all this, is

is

greater.

its

More remarkable

a visible nerve, perceptible under

the skin, which starts from the wrist skirting the ball of the

thumb, and branching,

fork-like, at

the roots of the fore and middle fingers.

"With

your slight formation of thumb," said the philosophical

young Gy,

"

and with the absence of

the nerve which you find more or less developed in the hands of our race,

you can never achieve

other than imperfect and feeble power over the

agency of

vril

cerned, that earliest

tribes

is

;

but so far as the nerve

is

con-

not found in the hands of our

progenitors, nor in those of the ruder

without the pale of the Vril-ya.

It

has

been slowly developed in the course of generations,

commencing

in the early achievements,

and

increasing with the continuous exercise, of the vril

power; therefore, in the course of one or

132

THE COMING RACE.

two thousand

years, such a nerve

may

possibly

be engendered in those higher beings of your race,

who devote themselves which

science through all vril.

attained

is

paramount

to that

command

over

by

the subtler forces of nature permeated

But when you talk of matter

as some-

thing in itself inert and motionless, your parents

you

or tutors surely cannot have left as not to less

and

know that no form inert

of matter

every particle

:

so ignorant

is

is

motion-

constantly in

motion and constantly acted upon by agencies, of which heat

but

vril

the

the most apparent and rapid,

is

most

subtle,

wielded, the most powerful.

current launched will does

by

So

when

skilfully

that, in fact, the

hand and guided by

my

but render quicker and more potent

the action which

is

particle of matter,

may

my

and,

seem.

If a

eternally at

however

work upon every

inert

and stubborn

it

heap of metal be not capable of

originating a thought of

its

internal susceptibility to

own,

yet,

movement,

through it

its

obtains

the power to receive the thought of the intellec-

and which, when con-

tual agent at

work on

veyed with a

sufficient force of the vril

it

;

power,

it

THE COMING RACE. is

as

much compelled

to obey as if

placed by a visible bodily force. for the it,

it

1

it

were

33

dis-

animated

It is

time being by the soul thus infused into

so that one

may

almost say that

Without

reasons.

this

we

could not

and

lives

it

make our

automata supply the place of servants." I

was too much

learning of the

in

awe

young Gy

arguing with her.

I

of the thews

and the

to hazard the risk of

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 question,

"Nay,

replied,

arguing against a reasoner

his

side of the is

no

who commands

ten

Csesar,

there

legions."

Though

I

had a

secret persuasion that,

what-

ever 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

no doubt that Zee could have brained

all

had the

Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the other,

with a blow of her

knows that

it

is

fist.

useless

Every to

sensible

man

argue with any

THE COMING RACE.

134

ordinary female upon matters he comprehends

but to argue with a mysteries of

vril,

—

Gy

seven feet high upon the

as well argue in a desert,

and

with a simoom

Amid

the various departments to which the

vast building of the College of Sages priated,

which

that

was appro-

me most was

interested

devoted to the archaeology of the Vril-ya, and comprised a very ancient collection of portraits.

In these the pigments and groundwork employed

were of so tures

durable

retained

the earliest

much

this collection,

—

1st,

nature

that

even

pic-

be executed at dates as remote

said to

as those in

a

annals of the Chinese,

freshness of colour.

two things

In examining

especially struck

me

:

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; traits

within

the

resembled our

former period

me

much more

own upper world and European

types of countenance.

reminded

and, 2d, That the por-

Some

of them, indeed,

of the Italian heads which look out

from the canvas of Titian

—speaking

of ambi-

THE COMING RACE.

I35

of care or of grief, with furrows

tion or craft,

which the passions have passed with iron

in

These were the countenances of

ploughshare.

men who had

lived

in

and

struggle

conflict

before the discovery of the latent forces of vril

had changed the character of society had fought with each other

we

for

—men who

power or fame as

in the upper world fight.

The type

of face began to evince a

marked

change about a thousand years after the revolution,

more

men

becoming then, with each generation,

serene,

distinct ;

vril

and in that serenity more

terribly

from the faces of labouring and

sinful

while in proportion as the beauty and the

grandeur of the countenance fully developed, the

itself

became more

art of the painter

became

more tame and monotonous. But the greatest was that of three pre-historical tradition,

age,

curiosity in portraits

collection

belonging to

the

and, according to mythical

taken by the orders of a philosopher,

whose origin and attributes were

up with symbolical

Budh

the

or a

as

much mixed

fable as those of

Greek Prometheus.

an Indian

THE COMING RACE.

136

From

mysterious personage, at once a

this

sage and a hero,

all

the principal sections of the

Vril-ya race pretend to trace a

The

common

origin.

portraits are of the philosopher himself,

of his grandfather,

and great-grandfather.

The philosopher

are all at full length. in a long tunic

is

They attired

which seems to form a loose

suit

of scaly armour, borrowed, perhaps, from some fish or reptile,

the

in both

digits

webbed.

but the feet and hands are exposed

He

has

are

little

wonderfully long, and

or no perceptible throat,

and a low receding forehead, not of a sage's. eyes, a very

He

at all the ideal

has bright brown prominent

wide mouth and high cheek-bones,

and a muddy complexion. tion, this philosopher

age, extending over

membered

According to tradi-

had lived

many

to a patriarchal

centuries,

distinctly in middle

father as surviving,

life

and he

first

his great-

he had taken,

or caused to be taken, while yet alive

The

was taken from

his effigies in

portrait of the grandfather

re-

his grand-

and in childhood

grandfather; the portrait of the

the latter

:

—that of mummy.

had the features

and aspect of the philosopher, only much more

THE COMING RACE. exaggerated of his

:

body was singular

the breast and stomach

;

and

legs of a dull bronze

the great-grandfather

:

37

he was not dressed, and the colour

yellow, the shoulders

hue

1

was a magnificent

specimen of the Batrachian genus, a Giant Frog,

pur

et simple.

Among

the pithy sayings which, according to

tradition, the philosopher

and sententious

in rhythmical form is

notably recorded

descendants (tadpole) it

:

;

bequeathed to posterity

:

"Humble

brevity, this

yourselves,

my

the father of your race was a twat

exalt yourselves,

my

descendants, for

was the same Divine Thought which created

your

father

that

in

exalting

this fable while I

gazed on

develops itself

you."

Aph-Lin told me

the three Batrachian portraits. "

You make

credulity

a jest of

as an

my

reply

:

supposed ignorance and

uneducated Tish, but though

these horrible daubs

may

be of great antiquity,

and were intended, perhaps, cature, I

I said in

for

some rude

presume that none of your

race,

cari-

even in

the less enlightened ages, ever believed that the

great-grandson of a Frog became a sententious

THE COMING RACE.

138

philosopher

or that

;

any

section, I will not

say

of the lofty Vril-ya, but of the meanest varieties

human

of the "

we

race,

had

its

origin in a Tadpole."

Pardon me," answered Aph-Lin call

:

" in

what

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

numer-

ous disciples such analogical and anatomical agree-

ments in structure between an to

An

and a Frog, as

show that out of the one must have developed

They had some

the other.

diseases in

common

they were both subject to the same parasitical

worms

An

in the intestines

;

and, strange to say, the

has, in his structure, a

swimming-bladder, no

longer of any use to him, but which

ment that

Nor

is

clearly proves his descent

there

any argument against

is

from a Frog.

this theory to

be found in the relative difference of there are size

still

many thousand " I

still

size, for

existent in our world Frogs of a

and stature not

been

a rudi-

inferior

to

our own, and

years ago they appear to have

larger."

understand that," said

I,

" because

Frogs

THE COMING RACE.

I39

thus enormous are, according to our eminent geologists,

who perhaps saw them

in dreams, said

have been distinguished inhabitants of the

to

upper world before the Deluge

;

and such Frogs

are exactly the creatures likely to have flourished in the lakes

and morasses of your subterranean

But pray, proceed."

regions.

" In the

Wrangling Period of History, whatever

one sage asserted another sage was sure to contradict.

the

In

was a maxim in that

fact, it

human reason

age, that

could only be sustained aloft by

being tossed to and fro in the perpetual motion of contradiction

;

and therefore another

sect of

An

philosophers maintained the doctrine that the

was not the descendant of the Frog, but that the Frog was

clearly the

improved development of

The shape of the Frog, taken

the An.

generally,

was much more symmetrical than that of the beside the beautiful conformation of limbs, its flanks

the

Ana

in that

its

An

;

lower

and shoulders, the majority of

day were almost deformed, and

certainly ill-shaped.

Again, the Frog had the

power to

on land and in water

mighty

live

alike

—

privilege, partaking of a spiritual essence

THE COMING RACE.

140

denied to the An, since the disuse of his swim-

ming - bladder

clearly proves

from a higher development of the earlier races of the

degeneration

his

species.

Ana seem

Again,

have been

to

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,

But the

Tish, spread wild over yours.

the higher races of the

generations

Ana

has been to

my

poor

object of

through countless

erase

vestige

all

of

connection with hairy vertebrata, and they have

gradually

eliminated

that

debasing

capillary

excrement by the law of sexual selection; the Gy-ei naturally preferring youth or the beauty of smooth faces.

But the degree of the Frog in

the scale of the vertebrata

he has no hair at

was born

all,

is

shown

in this, that

not even on his head.

to that hairless perfection

He

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

shown by

and

arterial

this school to be

circulation

were

more susceptible of

THE COMING RACE. enjoyment than our

141

inferior, or at least simpler,

physical frame allows us to be.

may

The examination

of a Frog's hand,

if I

accounted for

keener susceptibility to love,

and

In

to social life in general.

and amatory so.

its

use that expression,

as are the

gregarious

fact,

Ana, Frogs are

still

more

In short, these two schools raged against

each other

;

one asserting the

fected type of the

Frog

;

An

to be the per-

the other that the Frog

was the highest development of the An.

The

moralists were divided in opinion with the naturalists,

but the bulk of them sided with the Frog-

preference school. bility,

They

said,

that in moral conduct

with (viz.,

much

plausi-

in the adher-

ence 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 im-

morality of the gard, even

of the

human

race, the

complete disre-

by the most renowned amongst them,

laws which they acknowledged to be

essential to their

and wellbcing.

own and But the

the general happiness severest critic of the

Frog race could not detect

in their

manners a

THE COMING RACE.

I42

from the moral law

aberration

single

And

by themselves.

recognised

can be the profit of civilisation

tacitly

what, after if

superiority in

moral

conduct be not the aim for which

strives,

and the

be judged

test

by which

its

all,

it

progress should

1

" In fine, the adherents to 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

ginal position in the scale of nature

Ana, though of

;

organisation,

inferior

their ori-

while the had,

by

dint less of their virtues than their vices, such as ferocity

ancy,

and cunning, gradually acquired ascend-

much

as

among

the

human

race itself tribes

by

superiority in similar

vices, utterly destroyed or

reduced into insigni-

utterly barbarous have,

them

in mental

Unhappily these

disputes

ficance tribes originally excelling gifts

and

culture.

became involved with the that age

;

and

as society

religious notions of

was then administered

under the government of the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of course the

THE COMING RACE. most inflammable

class

—the

143

multitude took the

whole question out of the hands of the philosophers

;

political chiefs

so taken

saw that the Frog

dispute,

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 philo-

sophers on both sides were butchered, and the

government of the Koom-Posh

itself

was happily

brought to an end by the ascendancy of a family that

clearly

established

aboriginal tadpole,

its

descent from

and furnished despotic

to the various nations of the Ana. finally disappeared, at least

the

rulers

These despots

from our communities,

as the discovery of vril led to the tranquil institutions

under which flourish

all

the races of

the Vril-ya."

"And

do no wranglers or philosophers now

exist to revive the dispute

nise the origin of

or do they all recog-

your race in the tadpole

" Nay, such disputes," smile, " belong to the

and now only serve

When we know

;

?

said Zee, with a lofty

Pah-bodh of the dark

for the

amusement

ages,

of infants.

the elements out of which our

THE COMING RACE.

144

common

bodies are composed, elements

humblest vegetable plants, can

it

to

the

signify whether

the All-Wise combined those elements out of one

form more than another, in order to create that in

which

He

has placed the capacity to receive

the idea of Himself, and

all

the varied grandeurs

of intellect to which that idea gives birth

An

in reality

commenced

to exist as

An

The

%

with the

donation of that capacity, and, with that capacity,

the sense

to

acknowledge

that,

through the countless ages his race in

wisdom,

it

command

its

enough

may

improve

can never combine the elements at into the form of a tadpole."

"You speak it is

however

well, Zee," said

for us

Aph-Lin

;

"

and

shortlived mortals to feel a

reasonable assurance that whether the origin of

the to

An was

a tadpole or not, he

is

no more likely

become a tadpole again than the

institutions

of the Vril-ya are likely to relapse into the heav-

ing quagmire and certain strife-rot of a Posh."

Koom-

145

CHAPTER The

XVII.

Vril-ya, being excluded

from

all

sight of the

heavenly bodies, and having no other difference

between night and day than that which they

deem

it

convenient to

make

for themselves,

—do

not, of course, arrive at their divisions of time

the same process that

by the

aid of

about me, to nicety.

and

my

we do

compute

their

all details

found

I

I

it

luckily

easy,

had

time with great

work on the

science

Vril-ya,

should

I

live to

as to the

manner

in

a future

literature of the it,

but

watch, which

I reserve for

complete

;

by

they arrive at their rotation of time

;

which

and con-

tent myself here with saying, that in point of duration, their ours,

year

very slightly from

but that the divisions of their year are by

no means the same.

we

differs

call

Their day (including what

night) consists of twenty hours of our

K

THE COMING RACE.

I46

and of course

time, instead of twenty-four,

their

year comprises the correspondent increase in the

number

of days

by which

summed

it is

up.

They

subdivide the twenty hours of their day thus eight hours,"" called the " Silent Hours," for re-

pose

;

eight hours, called the " Earnest Time," for

the pursuits and occupations of hours, called the " I

may term

ties, sport,

their

Easy Time

day

life

" (with

;

and four

which what

closes), allotted to festivi-

recreation, or family converse, accord-

ing to their several tastes and inclinations. in truth, out of doors there

is

no night.

But,

They

maintain, both in the streets and in the surround-

ing country, to the limits of their territory, the

same degree of

light at all hours.

doors, they lower

to a soft twilight during the

They have a

Silent Hours. fect darkness,

extinguished.

it

and

On

Only, within

great horror of per-

their lights are never wholly

occasions

continue the duration of

of festivity

full light,

they

but equally

keep note of the distinction between night and * For the sake of convenience, &c, in

among

the Vril-ya

ever,

I

adopt the words hours, days,

any general reference

years,

—those

to

subdivisions of time

terms but loosely corresponding, how-

with such subdivisions.

THE COMING RACE.

147

by mechanical contrivances which answer

day,

They

the purpose of our clocks and watches. are very fond of music

;

and

by music that

it is

these chronometers strike the principal division of time.

At every one

their day, the sounds

of their hours, during

coming from

pieces in their public buildings, as

it

all

and caught up,

were, by those of houses or hamlets scattered

amidst the landscapes without the

an

the time-

effect

solemn.

singularly sweet,

city,

have

and yet singularly

But during the Silent Hours these

sounds are so subdued as to be only faintly heard

by a waking

They have no change

ear.

sons, and, at least

seemed to

atmosphere

the

warm

as that of

rather than dry still,

on the territory of

me

of sea-

this tribe,

very equable,

an Italian summer, and humid ;

in the forenoon usually very

but at times invaded by strong blasts from

the rocks that

But time

is

made

the borders of their domain.

the same to them for sowing or reap-

ing as in the Golden Isles of the ancient poets.

At

the same

moment you

see the

younger plants

in blade or bud, the older in ear or fruit.

All

fruit-bearing plants, however, after fruitage, either

THE COMING RACE.

I48

But

shed or change the colour of their leaves.

me most

that which interested

their divisions of time

up

in reckoning

was the ascertainment

the average duration of

amongst them.

life

of I

found on minute inquiry that this very considerably exceeded the term allotted to us on the

upper earth.

"What seventy years are to

hundred years are

Nor

to them.

is

us,

one

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

of one hundred

and they enjoy a general degree

;

makes

of health and vigour which blessing even to the

bute to this result stimulants

;

last. :

die before the age

temperance in food

ious occupations

itself a

Various causes contri-

the absence of

perhaps, a serenity of

life

;

all alcoholic

more

especially,

mind undisturbed by anx-

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

but their love shows

itself in

ful complaisance, and, while ness,

seems rarely,

if ever,

affection,

a tender and cheer-

forming their happi-

to constitute their woe.

THE COMING RACE.

As

Gy

the

self fixes

marry where she her-

sure only to

is

I49

her choice, and as here, not less than

above ground,

it

female on

the

is

home depends

happiness of

;

chosen the mate she prefers to

so

whom

the Gy, having others, is len-

all

ient to his faults, consults his humours,

is

so

but not only

;

much more

becomes a

it

is

death with

rare before that age in

release,

survivor takes

of

of course with them, as with us,

a cause of sorrow

them

and does

The death

her best to secure his attachment. a beloved one

the

but

when

much more

afraid, the generality of

it

which

does occur the

consolation than, I

am

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

sation.

must be owing

to hereditary organi-

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 consider-

ably shorter, and their maladies more numerous

and grave. tion of

life,

They themselves say that the duratoo,

has increased, and

is still

on the

THE COMING RACE.

150

increase, since their discovery of the invigorating

and medicinal properties of

applied for reme-

vril,

They have few

dial purposes.

professional

and

regular practitioners of medicine,

and these are

Gy-ei, who, especially if

widowed and

chiefly

great delight in the healing

childless, find

art,

and even undertake surgical operations in those cases required

or,

more

diversions

and

by accident,

rarely,

by

disease.

They have

their

entertain-

ments, and, during the Easy Time of their day,

they are wont to assemble in great numbers for

those winged

have already described. halls for music,

in

sports

and even

the

air

They have

I

also public

theatres, at

performed pieces that appeared to

which

which are

me somewhat

to resemble the plays of the Chinese

— dramas

that are thrown back into distant times for their

events and personages, in which are outrageously violated,

and the

scene a child, in the next so forth. position,

all classic

is

unities

hero, in one

an old man, and

These plays are of very ancient com-

and

their stories cast in remote times.

They appeared

to

me

very

dull,

on the whole,

THE COMING RACE.

151

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 some-

what overcharged with metaphor and fine,

they seemed to

me

very

trope.

In

much what

the

plays of Shakespeare seemed to a Parisian in the

time of Louis XV., or perhaps to an Englishman in the reign of Charles II.

The

audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted

the chief portion, appeared to enjoy greatly the representation sedate

me,

of these

dramas, which, for so

and majestic a race of females, surprised observed that

till I

all

the performers were

under the age of adolescence, and conjectured truly that the mothers their children I

and

and

sisters

came

to please

brothers.

have said that these dramas are of great

antiquity.

works

No new

sufficiently

plays, indeed

no imaginative

important to survive their im-

mediate day, appear to have been composed for several generations.

lack of

new

what may be

In

fact,

publications,

though there

is

no

and they have even

called newspapers, these are chiefly

THE COMING RACE.

152

new

devoted to mechanical science, reports of

announcements respecting various de-

inventions,

business

tails of

—

in short, to practical matters.

Sometimes a child writes a

little tale

of adventure,

or a

young Gy vents her amorous hopes

in a

poem

merit,

;

or fears

but these effusions are of very

little

and are seldom read except by children

The most

and maiden Gy-ei.

interesting works

of a purely literary character are those of ex-

and

plorations

travels into other regions of this

by

nether world, which

are

young emigrants, and

are read with great avid-

and friends they have

left

could not help expressing to Aph-Lin

my

by the

ity

generally written

relations

behind. I

surprise that a

science in

community

had made

which

which mechanical

so marvellous a progress,

intellectual

itself in realising

in

civilisation

and

had exhibited

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 con-

temporaneous

literature, despite the excellence to

THE COMING RACE.

1

53

which culture had brought a language at once rich

and simple, vigorous and musical.

My

host replied

—

"

Do you

a literature such as you

not perceive that

mean would be wholly

incompatible with that perfection

social

or

which you do us the honour

political felicity at

to think

of

we have

arrived

We

\

have at

after centuries of struggle, settled into a

last,

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

individual ambition.

No

no stimulus given to one would read works

advocating theories that involved any political or social change,

them.

If

and therefore no one writes

now and then an An

dissatisfied

with our tranquil mode of

does not attack that

part

the

ancient

of

it;

he goes away.

literature

books

was once a very

in

(and

our

to

public

large part)

speculative theories on society extinct.

himself

feels

which is

life,

he

Thus

all

judge

by

libraries,

it

relates

to

become utterly

Again, formerly there was a vast deal

written respecting the attributes and essence of

THE COMING RACE.

154

tlie

All-Good, and the arguments for and against

a future state facts,

now we

but

;

all

recognise two

that there is a Divine Being, and there

future state, and

we

all

equally agree that

is

if

a

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

and essence of that Divine

of the

attributes

Being.

Thus

become

also extinct, happily for our race; for in

the times

another

when

so

part

much was

of

has

literature

written on subjects

which no one could determine, people seemed to live in a perpetual state of quarrel tion.

and conten-

So, too, a vast part of our ancient litera-

and

ture consists of historical records of wars

revolutions during the times in large

and turbulent

when

the

Ana

lived

each seeking

societies,

You

aggrandisement at the expense of the other. see our serene

mode

been

We

for ages.

What more were

born,

Coming next

of

life

now

;

such

were

happy,

they

to that part of literature

more under the

has

have no events to chronicle.

of us can be said than that

they

it

'

they

died

which

?

is

control of the imagination, such

THE COMING RACE. as

what we

and you

1

55

call Glaubsila, or colloquially 'Glaubs,'

call poetry,

the reasons for

decline

its

amongst us are abundantly obvious.

"We

find,

by

referring to the great masterpieces

which we

in that department of literature

all still

read with pleasure, but of which none would tolerate imitations, that they consist in the por-

which we no longer experi-

traiture of passions

ence

—ambition, vengeance, unhallowed

love, the

The

renown, and suchlike.

thirst for warlike

an atmosphere impregnated

old poets lived in

with these passions, and expressed glowingly.

vividly

felt

No

what they

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 dissection of those

complex mysteries of human

character which conduce to abnormal vices crimes, virtues.

or

lead

But our

its

to

signal

society,

and

and

extraordinary

having got

rid

of

temptations to any prominent vices and crimes,

has necessarily rendered the moral equal, that

Without

its

there are

no very

ancient food

of

average so

salient

virtues.

strong passions,

THE COMING RACE.

156

vast crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if

not actually starved to death, reduced to a

very meagre

There

is

—description of

the poetry of

still

rocks,

and

and common household

life;

description waters,

diet.

young Gy-ei weave much

trees,

and

and our

of this insipid kind of

composition into their love verses." "

Such poetry," said

very charming

who

consider

I,

"

might surely be made

and we have

;

it

critics

amongst us

a higher kind than that which

depicts the crimes, or analyses the passions, of

man.

At

all

you mention

is

events, poetry of the insipid kind

a poetry that nowadays

commands

more readers than any other among the people have

left

I

above ground."

" Possibly

;

but then

I

suppose the writers take

great pains with the language they employ, and

devote themselves to the culture and polish of

words and rhythms as an art " Certainly they do that.

Though the

:

all

gift of

\

great poets

poetry

may

must do

be inborn,

care to

make

it

able as a block of metal does to be

made

into one

the gift requires as

of your engines."

much

avail-

THE COMING RACE.

"And

" Well,

upon such verbal

those pains

all

?

prettinesses

presume

I

their

would make them sing

song

of

instinct

as the bird does

song into verbal or

to cultivate the

but

;

artificial pret-

probably does need an inducement from

tiness,

without, and

fame

57

doubtless your poets have some incen-

bestow

tive to

1

our. poets find

—perhaps,

now and

it

in the love of

then, in the

want

of

money." " Precisely

fame

to nothing

his duration

We

wealth

we

attach

which man, in that moment of

which

the

is

if

felicitous

we

eminent praise pre

-

called

'life,'

can perform.

awake

;

:

any individual

commonfor pre-

pre-eminent praise would con-

evil passions,

other

praise, then

hate,

selected

essence of our

eminent power, and

were given,

Our

in our society

should soon lose that equality which con-

stitutes

fer

But

so.

the

moment

men would immediately

would

it

now dormant, would

arise envy,

covet

and with envy

and with hate calumny and persecution.

history tells us that most of the poets

and

most of the writers who, in the old time, were

THE COMING RACE.

I58

favoured with the assailed

greatest

were

praise,

also

by the greatest vituperation, and even, on

the whole, rendered very unhappy, partly by the

by the

attacks of jealous rivals, partly

diseased

mental constitution which an acquired sensitive-

and

ness to praise

to

blame tends

As

for the stimulus of

no

man

want

;

to engender.

in the first place,

community knows the goad

in our

poverty; and, secondly,

if

of

he did, almost every

occupation would be more lucrative than writing.

"

Our public

libraries contain all the

the past which time has preserved

;

books of

those books,

above stated, are infinitely better

for the reasons

than any can write nowadays, and they are

open to

all

read without cost.

to

We

are not

such fools as to pay for reading inferior books,

when we can read "

With

book,

if

good,

is

us,

bad,

superior books for nothing/'

novelty has an attraction is

read

when an

;

and a new

old book, though

neglected."

"Novelty,

to

barbarous

states

of

society

struggling in despair for something better, has

no doubt an attraction, denied

to us,

who

see

THE COMING RACE.

159

nothing to gain in novelties; but, after is

all,

it

observed by one of our great authors four

thousand years ago, that

who

'he

studies

old

books will always find in them something new, and he who reads new books will always find in

them something

you have

question

But

old.'

raised,

amongst us no stimulus whether

to

return

there

to

being

to painstaking

the

then

labour,

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 in desire of

j

for lack of elaborate culture it fails of

ence, and, failing of itself,

an audience, dies

out,

amidst the ordinary avocations of

"But how

is

it

against that of science

"Your

do not operate

?

to our social conservation

our daily life. is

all

No fame

is

given to him

;

to

con-

and science with us too

devoted almost solely to practical

and none

The motive

the love of truth apart from

sideration of fame,

life."

"

question amazes me.

is

of

that these discouragements

to the cultivation of literature

science

an audi-

is

uses, essential

and the comforts of asked by the inventor, he enjoys an occupa-

THE COMING RACE.

l6o

and needing no wear

tion congenial to his tastes,

and tear of the ercise

mind

for his

Man must

passions.

as well as

have ex-

body; and con-

tinuous exercise, rather than violent,

is

best for

both.

Our most ingenious

are, as

a general rule, the longest lived and the

most to

free

from

disease.

many, but the

times,

when

cultivators of science

Painting

is

an amusement

what

it

was

art is not

in our various

the great painters

communities vied with each other of a golden crown, which gave

for the prize

them a

equal to that of the kings under lived.

You

will thus doubtless

our archaeological department

in former

social

whom

rank they

have observed in

how

superior in

point of art the pictures were several thousand years ago. reality,

more

Perhaps

it

is

because music

allied to science

that, of all the pleasurable

than

it is

arts,

music

which nourishes the most amongst

is,

in

to poetry,

us.

is

that 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

THE COMING RACE.

l6l

use of the agency of water,* than in single per-

We

formers.

composer

for

have had scarcely any original

some

Our

ages.

favourite airs are

very ancient in substance, but have admitted

many

complicated variations by inferior, though

ingenious, musicians."

"Are

there no political

Ana which

by those

are animated

jected to those crimes,

societies

which the

state of

your

the Vril-ya generally, has gress to perfection

perhaps Poetry and her to be "

behind in

its

pro-

societies

sister arts still

continue

honoured and to improve

There are such

indeed of

among such

If so,

?

dis-

and in moral-

tribe, or

left

the

passions, sub-

and admitting those

parities in condition, in intellect, ity,

among

societies

1

in remote regions,

but we do not admit them within the pale of civilised

communities

them the name of Vril-ya.

* This

;

we

scarcely

even give

of Ana, and certainly not that

They

may remind

are savages, living chiefly in

the

student of Nero's invention of a

musical machine, by which water was made to perform the part of an orchestra, and on

spiracy against

which he was employed when the con-

him broke

out.

1

THE COMING RACE.

62

Koom -

that low stage of being, necessarily

to

own

its

hideous

Posh, tending dissolution

Their wretched existence

Glek-Nas.

in perpetual contest

in

is

passed

and perpetual change.

When

they do not fight with their neighbours, they fight

among

murder each

other,

and on the most

points of difference that

we

are divided into

which abuse, plunder, and sometimes

sections,

to us if

They

themselves.

we had

would be

frivolous

unintelligible

not read history, and seen that

too have passed through the same early state

of ignorance cient to set

and barbarism.

them together by the

pretend to be

all

equals,

have struggled to be

so,

and starting

tinctions

Any

trifle is suffi-

ears.

They

and the more they

by removing

afresh, the

old dis-

more glaring

and intolerable the disparity becomes, because nothing tions

in left

is

hereditary to

tion between the

the few

and

affections

soften the one

naked

many who have

who have much.

associadistinc-

nothing and

Of course the many

hate the few, but without the few they could

not

live.

the few

;

The

many

are

always

assailing

sometimes they exterminate the few

THE COMING RACE. but as soon as they have done starts out of the

many, and

so,

new few

a

harder to deal

For where

with than the old few.

and competition

are large,

is

163

societies

have something

to

the predominant fever, there must be

many

losers

and few

some gleam of

light,

way

in the dark towards

and would demand our com-

miseration for their infirmities,

and

cruelty.

that creatures of this kind,

miserable weapons as you

if,

like all savages,

own

they did not provoke their their arrogance

always

In short, they are

gainers.

savages groping their

is

destruction

by

Can you imagine

armed only with such

may see

in our

museum

of antiquities, clumsy iron tubes charged with saltpetre,

have more than once threatened with

destruction a tribe of the Vril-ya, which dwells nearest to

them, because they say they have

thirty millions

of population

may have

thousand

fifty

—

if

— and

that tribe

the latter do not

accept their notions of Soc-Sec (money-getting)

on some trading principles which they have the

impudence "

But

to call a

'

law of

civilisation

1

thirty millions of population are formid-

able odds against fifty thousand

" !

THE COMING RACE.

164

My

me

host stared at

said he, "

" Stranger,"

astonished.

you could not have heard me say that

this threatened tribe belongs to the Vril-ya it

;

and

only waits for these savages to declare war, in

order to commission some half - a children to sweep

At

away

-

dozen small

whole population."

their

these words I felt a thrill of horror, recog-

much more

nising

affinity

with "the savages"

did with the Vril-ya, and remembering

than

I

all I

had

said in praise of the glorious Ameri-

can institutions, which Aph-Lin stigmatised as

Koom-Posh. asked I

if

my

Kecovering

self-possession, I

modes of

there were

transit

by which

could safely visit this temerarious and remote

people. "

You can

either

along

throughout

all

which we are

vouch

for

by

travel with safety,

the

ground

amid

or

agency,

vril

the

the range of the communities with allied

and akin

;

but

I

cannot

your safety in barbarous nations gov-

erned by different laws from ours

;

nations, indeed,

so benighted, that there are

among them

numbers who actually

stealing

other,

air,

live

by

and one could not with safety

large

from each

in the Silent

THE COMING RACE. Hours even leave the doors of

l6$

one's

own house

open."

Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Tae,

who came

to inform us that he,

having been deputed to discover and destroy the

enormous arrival,

reptile

I

my

had seen on

had been on the watch

for it ever since

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

dred

race,

—when

it

gave evidences of

by a great devastation

abouts

bordering one of the lakes. "

first

me, and had begun to suspect that

his visit to

my

which

I feel

ing.

"

amuse you

it is

(turning to me) " I thought to

accompany me

at the face of the

young

child,

said Tae,

now

As

and

hid-

might

it

to see the

destroy such unpleasant visitors."

where-

herbage

of the

sure that within that lake

So

its

"And,"

kin-

its

way we I

looked

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,

him

in such a chase.

the destructive effects

if I

accompanied

my curiosity to witness of the boasted vril, and my

But

1

THE COMING RACE.

66

unwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant

by betraying apprehensions of personal

safety, prevailed over

ingly, I

my

first

Accord-

thanked Tae for his courteous consi-

deration for

my

amusement, and professed

willingness to set out with

an

impulse.

enterprise.

him on

my

so diverting

67

1

CHAPTER As Tae and

and

myself, on quitting the town,

leaving to the left the it,

XVIII.

struck into the

main road which

fields,

led to

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

inattentive listener to the talk of

some time an

my

companion.

Along our way various operations of ture were being carried

on by machinery, the

forms of which were

new

to me,

part very graceful

for

among

;

agricul-

and

for the

most

these people art

being so cultivated for the sake of mere

utility,

exhibits itself in adorning or refining the shapes

of useful objects. so profuse

Precious metals and gems are

among them,

that they are lavished

on things devoted to purposes the most commonplace

;

and

their love of utility leads

them

to

THE COMING RACE.

l68

beautify in a

way unknown

In

all service,

to themselves.

whether in or out of doors, they

and

so ingenious,

It

their imagination

great use of automaton figures, which are

make

vril,

and quickens

its tools,

so pliant to the operations of

that they actually seem gifted with reason.

was scarcely

possible to distinguish the figures

I beheld, apparently

the rapid

guiding or superintending

movements of vast

engines, from

human

forms endowed with thought.

By

degrees, as

attention

continued to walk on,

became roused by the

remarks of the

we

my

children

The

companion.

among

this

lively

race

is

my

and acute

intelligence of

marvellously

precocious, perhaps from the habit of having in-

trusted to them, at so early an age, the toils and responsibilities of

middle age.

versing with Tae,

I felt as if

superior

and observant man of

asked him

number

if

Indeed, in contalking with some

my own

years.

I

he could form any estimate of the

of communities into which the race of

the Vril-ya

is

subdivided.

" Not exactly," he said, " because they multiply, of course, every year as the surplus of each

THE COMING RACE. community

is

drafted

169

But

off.

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

An An

do.

cares less for things that do

not concern him than a

Gy

does

;

the Gy-ei are

inquisitive creatures."

"Does each community

restrict itself to the

same number of families or amount that "

you do

No

;

of population

" ?

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.

limit

Each community

according to

circumstances,

sets its

own

taking

care

always that there shall never arise any class of poor by the pressure of population upon the productive powers of the domain shall be too large for a

;

and that no

state

government resembling

that of a single well-ordered family.

I

imagine

THE COMING RACE.

170

that no Vril

community exceeds

households.

But, as a general rule, the smaller

thirty thousand

the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the capacities of the territory

occupies, the richer each individual

sum

larger the

ury, quil

—above

all,

the happier and the more tran-

the whole political body, and the more

is

which

of

tribes

all

be the highest

in

is

to four

civilisation,

;

every other its

tribe,

industry in

sought

for, at

its

It limits

its

machinery excels that of

and there

is

no product of

any department which

race.

itself

utmost perfection

extraordinary prices,

munity of our state their

;

develop-

but every inch of

territory is cultivated to the

of garden ground

state

and which

its fullest

perhaps the smallest.

thousand families

The

Vril-ya acknowledge

the

has brought the vril force to

ment,

and the

is,

contributed to the general treas-

perfect the products of its industry.

to

it

is

not

by each com-

All our tribes

model, considering that

make

this

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

THE COMING RACE. achievement

;

and

it is

171

clear that the smaller the

society the less difficult that will be. large for

Ours

is

too

it."

me

This reply set

thinking.

self of that little state of

thousand free

citizens,

I

reminded my-

Athens, with only twenty

and which

to this

day our

mightiest nations regard as the supreme guide

and model

then Athens permitted petual

But

in all departments of intellect.

change,

fierce

and was

rivalry

certainly

and

per-

not happy.

Housing myself from the reverie into which these reflections

had plunged me,

I

brought back our

talk to the subjects connected with emigration.

" But," said tain

I,

"

when,

I

suppose yearly, a cer-

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

luxuries in which they

"

You

mistake.

are in constant

and

settle

with the comforts and

had been reared."

All the tribes of the Vril-ya

communication with each

other,

amongst themselves each year what

THE COMING RACE.

172

proportion of one

community

with the

will unite

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 waters,

and construct houses

when

so that

;

embank the

emigrants at last go, they find a city already

made, and a country around cleared.

Our hardy

it

at least partially

makes us

as children

life

take cheerfully to travel and adventure. to emigrate myself

"Do

when

to

mean

of age."

the emigrants always select places hitherto

uninhabited and barren "

I

As yet

" \

generally, because

it is

our rule never

destroy except where necessary to our well-

being.

Of

course,

we cannot

already occupied by the Vril-ya

in

settle ;

and

if

lands

we

take

the cultivated lands of the other races of Ana,

must

utterly destroy the previous

Sometimes, as that

it is,

we

inhabitants.

take waste spots, and find

a troublesome, quarrelsome race

of Ana,

especially if under the administration of

;

Koom-

vicinity,

and picks

then, of course, as

menacing

Posh or Glek-Nas, resents our a quarrel with us

we

THE COMING RACE.

we

our welfare,

destroy

it

:

there

173

no coming to

is

terms of peace with a race so idiotic that

it

is

always changing the form of government which represents

Koom-Posh," said the

it.

"

phatically,

bad enough,

is

though at the back of a heart

;

its

still

head, and

child,

it

has brains,

is

not without

but in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of

the creatures disappear, and they become claws,

"

and

You

am " I

Allow

express yourself strongly. I myself,

and

am

I

no longer," answered Tae, so far

"

me

to

proud to say

became a Koom-Posh

community

before

the it

?

—

like those settle-

tribe sends forth

unlike your settlements, that

the state from which

to see

"

settlement of emigrants

ments which your

wonder

What was

from your home.

condition of your native

A

jaws,

the citizen of a Koom-Posh."

you here

"

all

belly."

inform you that it,

em-

it

came.

it

—but

so far

was dependent on It

shook

off that

yoke, and, crowned with eternal glory, became a

Koom-Posh." " Eternal

Posh lasted

glory ?

!

how long has

the

Koom-

THE COMING RACE.

174

"About 100

years."

"The length community. years your "

of an An's

much

In

Koom-Posh

Nay, the oldest

life

—a

very young

than another 100

less

will be a Glek-Nas."

states in the

from, have such faith in

its

world

I

come

duration, that they

are all gradually shaping their institutions so as to melt into ours, ticians say that,

and

most thoughtful

their

whether they

poli-

like it or not, the

inevitable tendency of these old states

towards

is

Koom-Posh-erie." "

The old

states

" ?

" Yes, the old states."

"

With populations very small

the area of productive land "

On

in proportion to

1

the contrary, with populations very large

in proportion to that area." " I see

!

old states indeed

drivelling if they don't

population as

very old

very old

!

we do ours

!

—

pack

off

that

—very old

states

Pray, Tish, do you think

men

become

so old as to

it

surplus !

—

very,

wise for

to try to turn head-over-heels as very

young children do

?

they attempted such

And

if

antics,,

you asked them why

should you not laugh

THE COMING RACE.

175

they answered that by imitating very young

if

children

they could become very young

dren themselves

Ancient history abounds with

\

instances of this

years

ago— and

a great

sort

many thousand

every instance

in

state that played at

into Glek-Nas.

a very old

Koom-Posh soon tumbled

Then, in horror of

its

cried out for a master, as an old

it

chil-

dotage cries out for a nurse sion of masters or nurses,

own

man

self,

in his

and

after a succes-

more or

less long, that

;

very old state died out of history.

A

state attempting

like a very

Koom-Posh- erie

is

very old

man who

pulls down the house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted

old

his vigour in pulling

the in '

way

down, that

of rebuilding

which himself and

How

the

"My

wind blows

to

is

all

he can do in

run up a crazy hut,

his successors !

How

whine

out,

the walls shake

!

" '

make all excuse for your unenlightened prejudices, which every schoolboy dear Tae,

I

educated in a Koom-Posh could easily controvert,

though he might not be so precociously learned in ancient history as

you appear

"I learned! not a

bit

of

it.

to be."

But would a

THE COMING

176

RACE.

schoolboy, educated in your Koom-Posh, ask his great

-

great - grandfather

mother

uppermost

—

say,

on

to stand

'

and

\

if

or great - great - grand-

his or her

head with the

feet

the poor old folks hesitated

What do you

fear

?

— see how

I

do

!

'

it

" Tae, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat, I

make allowances

culture which a "

I,

in

my

for

Koom-Posh

your want of that

alone can bestow."

turn," answered Tae, with an air of

the suave but lofty good breeding which characterises his race, "

you

not only

as not educated

entreat

you

make allowances

among

to vouchsafe

amiable a I

—Tish

the Vril-ya, but I

me your pardon

sufficient respect to the habits

and opinions of

commonly called Tish by nvy host and

so

;

I

was

his family,

and indeed a pet name,

signifying a small barbarian it

for in-

!

ou^ht before to have observed that

as being a polite

for

literally

the children apply

endearingly to the tame species of Frog which

they keep in their gardens.

We

had now reached the banks of a

Tae here paused

made

to point out to

in fields skirting

it.

"

me

lake,

and

the ravages

The enemy

certainly

THE COMING RACE.

177

" Observe

within these waters," said Tae.

lies

what

shoals of fish are

Even

margin. ones,

who

the great fishes with the small

are their habitual prey

shun them,

ally

crowded together at the

forget their instincts in the

all

common

presence of a

must belong

certainly

and who gener-

This reptile

destroyer.

to the class of Krek-a,

which are more devouring than any are said to be

among

other,

the few surviving species of

the world's dreadest inhabitants before the

The appetite of a Krek

were created. able life

—

;

feeds alike

it

is

Ana

insati-

upon vegetable and animal

but for the swift- footed creatures of the

elk species it

too slow in

is

favourite dainty

unawares lessly

and

;

is

an

movements.

its

An when

can catch him

it

and hence the Ana destroy

whenever

it

it

enters their dominion.

heard that when our forefathers

Its

first

relentI

have

cleared this

country, these monsters, and others like them,

abounded,

many

and, vril

being

then undiscovered,

of our race were devoured.

sible to

exterminate them wholly

It till

was imposthat discov-

ery which constitutes the power and sustains the

But

civilisation of our race.

M

after the

uses of

THE COMING RACE.

178

vril

became familiar to

us, all creatures inimical

to us were soon annihilated.

or so, one of these

enormous creatures wanders

from the unreclaimed and savage yond, and within

my memory

young Gy who was bathing

Had

once a-year

Still,

districts

be-

one seized upon a in this very lake.

she been on land and armed with her

would not have dared even

show

to

staff, it

itself;

for,

like all savage creatures, the reptile has a marvel-

lous instinct, which warns

How

the vril wand.

against the bearer of

it

they teach their young to

avoid him, though seen for the

the monster will not

So long as

but we must

now decoy

"Will not that be

"Not

at

stir it

is

one

you may ask Zee

of those mysteries which explain, for I cannot/''

time,

first

from

its

I

to

stand here,

lurking-place

forth."

difficult

V

Seat yourself yonder on that

all.

crag (about one hundred yards from the bank),

while

a distance.

In a short time the

reptile in this instinct does

but resemble our wild birds

I retire to

* The

and animals, which will not come in reach of a man armed with a gun.

AVhen the

electric wires

were

them

in their flight,

and

struck against

first

fell

put up, partridges

down wounded.

No

younger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident.

THE COMING RACE.

1

79

reptile will catch sight or scent of you, and, per-

ceiving that you are

no

forth to devour you.

As soon

of the water, "

it

becomes

Do you mean

vril-bearer, will

my me

to tell

as

come

fairly out

it is

prey."

that I

am

to be the

decoy to that horrible monster which could engulf

me within The

its

jaws in a second

child laughed.

beg

I

!

to decline."

" Fear nothing," said he

;

" only sit still."

Instead of obeying this command, I

bound, and was about to take fairly to

when Tae touched me

lightly

my heels,

on the shoulder,

and, fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I to the spot.

made a

All power of volition

was rooted

left

me.

missive to the infant's gesture, I followed

Sub-

him

to

the crag he had indicated, and seated myself there in silence.

Most readers have seen something of

the effects of electro-biology, whether genuine or spurious.

No

professor of that doubtful craft

had

ever been able to influence a thought or a move-

ment of mine, but

I

was a mere machine

of this terrible child.

at the will

Meanwhile he expanded

his wings, soared aloft,

and alighted amidst a

copse at the brow of a

hill at

some

distance.

1

THE COMING RACE.

80

I

was alone

;

my

and turning

eyes with an

indescribable sensation of horror towards the lake, I

kept them fixed on

might be ten or

its

water, spell-bound.

ages, before the still surface,

began to

lamplight,

At

centre.

me

fifteen minutes, to

it

It

seemed

gleaming under the

be agitated towards the

the same time the shoals of fish near

the margin evinced their sense of the enemy's

approach by splash and leap and bubbling I

could detect their hurried flight hither and

thither,

some even casting themselves

long, dark, undulous furrow

of the reptile emerged fangs,

and

its

mous

feet

dull

land, a

jaw

tail.

on

jaws bristling with

;

—now

And now its

enor-

either side as in armour,

corrugated skin of a

its

and now

hundred

Another

would have brought

sat.

the vast head

sat motionless.

showing

was on the

feet

I

venomous yellow

to the

till

were on the strand

breast, scaled

in the centre

its

A

dull eyes fixing themselves hungrily

on the spot where its fore

—

ashore.

came moving along

the waters, nearer and nearer,

I

circle.

its

feet or

whole length

more from the

stride of those ghastly it

to the spot

where

There was but a moment between

me

THE COMING RACE. and

l8l

grim form of death, when what seemed

this

a flash of lightning shot through the

air,

smote,

and, for a space in time briefer than that in

which a man can draw

his

breath, enveloped

and then, as the

the monster;

there lay before

me

flash vanished,

a blackened, charred, smoul-

dering mass, a something gigantic, but of which

even the outlines of form were burned away, and rapidly crumbling into dust and ashes.

I re-

mained

with

a

new

still

seated, still speechless, ice-cold

sensation of dread

:

what had been horror

was now awe. I

me

the child's

felt

—the

hand on

was broken

spell

—

my

I rose

head up.

— "

fear left

You

see

with what ease the Vril-ya destroy their enemies," said Tae

;

and then, moving towards the bank, he

contemplated the smouldering ster,

and

said quietly, " I

a Krek; what suffering

while

!

it

lived "

mon-

have destroyed larger

none with so much pleasure.

creatures, but it is

relics of the

it

must have

Yes,

inflicted

Then he took up the poor fishes

that had flung themselves ashore, and restored

them mercifully

to their native element.

182

CHAPTER As we walked back

XIX.

to the town,

Tae took a new

and circuitous way, in order to show to use a familiar term, I will call the

me '

what,

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,

former were of

all

one for aerial voyages: the sizes

and forms, some not

larger than an ordinary carriage,

some movable

houses of one story and containing several rooms, furnished according to the ideas of comfort or

luxury which are entertained by the Vril-ya. aerial vehicles

The

were of light substances, not the

least resembling our balloons,

but rather our boats

and pleasure- vessels, with helm and rudder, with large wings

as paddles,

and a central machine

THE COMING RACE. worked by

1

83

All the vehicles both for land

vril.

worked by that potent and

or air were indeed

mysterious agency. I

saw a convoy

on

set out

journey, but

its

had few passengers, containing

it

chiefly articles of

merchandise, and was bound to a neighbouring

community

Vril-ya there

change.

all

the

tribes

of

the

considerable commercial inter-

is

may

I

among

for

;

here observe, that their

money

currency does not consist of the precious metals,

which are too common among them

The smaller

purpose.

for

that

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, species has

an

flat as

become

oyster,

extinct.

It is minute,

and takes a jewel-like

This coinage circulates

among

all

and

polish.

the tribes of the

Their larger transactions are carried

Vril-ya.

on much

by which a

like ours,

metallic plates

by

bills

of exchange,

and thin

which answer the purpose of our

bank-notes.

Let

me

taxation

take this occasion of adding that the

amoug

the tribe I became acquainted

1

THE COMING RACE.

84

with was very considerable, compared with the

amount

But

of population.

any one grumbled

at

purposes of universal

it,

I

never heard that

was devoted

for it

utility,

to

and indeed neces-

The

sary to the civilisation of the tribe.

cost of

lighting so large a range of country, of providing for emigration, of maintaining the public build-

ings at which the various operations of national intellect

of an

were carried on, from the

first

education

infant to the departments in which the

College of Sages were perpetually trying

experiments in mechanical science

:

all

new

these in-

volved the necessity for considerable state funds.

To

these I

must add an item that struck me

very singular.

I

labour required

by the

have said that state

is

all

the

human

carried on

children up to the marriageable age.

as

For

by this

labour the state pays, and at a rate immeasur-

ably higher than our remuneration to labour even in the United States.

According to their theory,

every child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age, labour, should

and there terminating the period

of

have acquired enough for an inde-

pendent competence during

life.

As, no matter

THE COMING RACE. what the disparity of fortune children

must equally

1

85

in the parents, all the

serve, so all are equally

paid according to their several ages or the nature

Where

of their work.

the parents or

choose to retain a child in their

must pay into the public fund the state pays to the children

sum

is

own

in the

it

friends

service,

same

ratio as

employs; and this

handed over to the child when the period

of service expires.

This practice serves, no doubt,

to render the notion of social

and agreeable

and

;

if it

may

equality familiar

be said that

children form a democracy, no less truly

be said that

all

The exquisite ners

they

among

all it

the

may

the adults form an aristocracy.

and refinement of man-

politeness

the Vril-ya, the generosity of their

sentiments, the absolute leisure they enjoy for

following out their

own

private

pursuits,

the

amenities of their domestic intercourse, in which

they seem as members of one noble order that

can have no deed,

all

distrust

of each other's

word

or

combine to make the Vril-ya the most

perfect nobility

which a

political disciple of Plato

or Sidney could conceive for the ideal of an aristocratic republic.

1

86

CHAPTER From I

XX.

the date of the expedition with Tae which

have just narrated, the child paid

visits.

He had taken

me

frequent

a liking to me, which I cor-

Indeed, as he was not yet twelve

dially returned.

years old, and had not

commenced the

course

of scientific studies with which childhood closes in that country,

my

intellect

his than to that of the elder

especially of the Gy-ei,

was

less inferior to

members

and most

especially of the

The children

accomplished Zee.

of his race,

of the Vril-ya,

having upon their minds the weight of so active duties

and grave

generally mirthful

;

responsibilities, are not

but Tae, with

had much of the playful good

all his -

society

He

felt

that sort of pleasure

which a boy of a similar age

wisdom,

humour one

often finds the characteristic of elderly genius.

many

men in

of

my

in the upper

THE COMING RACE.

1

87

world has in the company of a pet dog or

monkey.

It

ways

the

mine

to

amused him

of his people, as

make

self to

and teach me

amuses a nephew of

it

walk on his hind legs

his poodle

jump through

or

to try

a hoop.

such experiments, but

the success of the poodle.

my-

I willingly lent

I

I

never achieved

was very much

terested at first in the attempt to ply the

in-

wings

which the youngest of the Vril-ya use as nimbly

and

my

easily as ours efforts

do their legs and arms

;

but

were attended with contusions serious

enough to make

me abandon them

These wings, as

I before

said,

in despair. 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.

lining

As the arms

are raised, a tubular

beneath the vest or tunic becomes, by

1

THE COMING RACE.

88

mechanical

contrivance,

inflated

and serving

to

balloon-like

apparatus are highly charged with vril the body

is

thus wafted upward,

come singularly lightened of it

in-

buoy the whole form

The wings and the

as on bladders.

air,

by the movement

creased or diminished at will of the arms,

with

its

it

;

and when

seems to be-

weight.

I

found

easy enough to soar from the ground; indeed,

when sible

the wings were spread

was scarcely pos-

not to soar, but then came the difficulty and

the danger.

I utterly failed in

though

direct the pinions,

my own

I

the power to use and

am

considered

among

race unusually alert and ready in bodily

exercises,

and

could only

am

a very practised swimmer.

I

make the most confused and blundering I

efforts at flight.

was the servant of the wings

the wings were not

yond

it

my control

;

my

servants

— they were be-

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

air is let

out of a balloon, and found

THE COMING RACE.

1

89

myself precipitated again to earth ; saved, indeed,

by some spasmodic

from the bruises and the

to pieces, but not saved

stun of a heavy fall. severed in

commands

my

I

ceived

of the scientific Zee,

last

my

would, however, have per-

attempts, but for the advice or the

my

olently accompanied

on the

from being dashed

flutterings,

who had benev-

flutterings,

occasion, flying just

form as

it

wings, and preserved

fell

me

and indeed,

under me,

re-

on her own expanded from breaking

my

head

on the roof of the pyramid from which we had ascended. " I see," she said, " that your trials are in vain,

not from the fault of the wings and their appur-

any imperfectness and mal-

tenances, nor from

formation of your

own

corpuscular system, but

from irremediable, because organic, defect in your

power of

volition.

Learn that the connection be-

tween the will and the agencies of that

fluid

which has been subjected to the control of the Vril-ya

was never

established

coverers, never achieved it

by a

by the

first

dis-

single generation

;

has gone on increasing, like other properties of

race, in proportion as

it

has been uniformly trans-

THE COMING RACE.

190

mitted from parent to child, so that, at has become an instinct

;

and an infant

race, wills to fly as intuitively

He

as he wills to walk.

with which

of our

and unconsciously

much

it

think sufficiently of this

An

thus plies his invented

or artificial wings with as plies those

last, it

safety as a bird

born.

is

when

I

I

did not

allowed you to

try an experiment which allured me, for I longed

have in you a companion.

to

the experiment now.

Herewith

me."

to

softened, I

and

had been in

Now

I felt

my

that I

Your

abandon

becoming dear

and face

seriously alarmed than

previous

am

life is

Gy's voice

the

more

I shall

flights.

on the subject of wings,

I

ought not to omit mention of a custom anions the Gy-ei which seems to

tender in the sentiment

it

me

very pretty and

implies.

A Gy

wears

—she

joins

wings habitually while yet a virgin 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

ments, she excels the opposite sex.

move-

But from the

day of marriage, she wears wings no more, she

THE COMING RACE.

own

suspends them with her

191

willing

hand over

the nuptial couch, never to be resumed unless

the marriage tie be severed

Now when Zee's voice and

by divorce

or death.

and eyes thus softened

at that softening I prophetically recoiled

shuddered

—Tae, who had accompanied us

but who, child-like, had been

flights,

and

in our

much more

my awkwardness than sympathising or aware of my danger, hovered over

amused with in

my

fears

us, poised

amidst the

still

radiant

air,

serene

and

motionless on his outspread wings, and hearing the endearing words of the aloud.

use of wings, you Zee, for

young Gy, laughed

Said he, " If the Tish cannot learn the

may

still

be his companion,

you can suspend your own."

192

CHAPTER I

had

for

XXI.

some time observed

in

my host's highly

informed and powerfully proportioned daughter kindly and

that

sentiment

protective

whether above the earth or below

which,

an all-wise

it,

Providence has bestowed upon the feminine division of the

human

had ascribed a

human

it

But

race.

until very lately I

to that affection for

'

pets

female at every age shares with a

now became

which

'

human

painfully aware that the

child.

I

feeling

with which Zee deigned to regard

was

different

Tae.

But

from that which

this conviction

had inspired in

I

gave

me

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, of

all

it

inspired

me

with

the Gy-ei in the community,

fear.

if

;

Yet

Zee were

THE COMING RACE.

1

93

perhaps the wisest and the strongest, she was, by

common

and she was

repute, the gentlest,

tainly the most popularly beloved.

The

cer-

desire

to aid, to succour, to protect, to comfort, to bless,

seemed

to

Though

pervade her whole being.

the complicated miseries that originate in penury

and

unknown

guilt are

Vril-ya,

to the social system of the

no sage had yet discovered in

still,

an agency which could banish sorrow from

vril life

and wherever amongst her people sorrow found its

way, there Zee followed in the mission of

Did some

comforter.

sister

the love she sighed for?

and brought

all

Gy

fail

to

secure

Zee sought her out,

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

childhood or youth, and the

cases,

less

upon 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 the nurse.

Her

favourite flights were towards the extreme boundaries of the

domain where children were stationed

N

THE COMING

194

RACE.

on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the invasions of devouring animals, so

that she might

warn them of any

knowledge detected or foresaw, or be

any harm had cise of

which her

peril

at

hand

if

Nay, even in the exer-

befallen.

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 it.

she hastened to communicate and explain

?

Was some

veteran sage of the College per-

plexed and wearied with the

study aid,

?

toil

of an abstruse

she would patiently devote herself to his

work out

details for him, sustain his spirits

with her hopeful smile, quicken his wit with her

luminous suggestion, be to him, as

own good and

genius

inspirer.

made

The same tenderness she exhibited

home some

and tend and cherish

sick it

which

I

mother would tend

child.

I sat in the balcony, or

my window

opened,

have often known

and wounded animal,

as a

and cherish her stricken

when

were, his

visible as the strengthener

to the inferior creatures.

her bring

it

I

Many

a time

hanging garden, on have watched her

THE COMING rising in the air

RACE.

1

95

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 delight.

When

seemed a very centre of innocent I

have walked with her amidst

the rocks and valleys without the city, the elk-

her from

come

deer would scent

or see

bounding up, eager

for the caress of her hand, or

follow her footsteps,

till

afar,

dismissed by some musical

whisper that the creature had learned to comprehend. to

It is the fashion

wear on

among

the virgin Gy-ei

their foreheads a circlet, or coronet,

with gems resembling opals, arranged in four points or rays like stars.

ordinary use, but

if

These are lustreless in

touched by the

vril

wand

they take a clear lambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. their festivities,

This serves as an ornament in

and

as a lamp,

if,

in their

wan-

derings beyond their artificial lights, they have to traverse the dark. I

There are times, when

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

THE COMING RACE.

196

birth,

and bent

among

of a being

my

once did

my

head before her as the vision

heart feel for this lofty type of the

womanhood

noblest

among

Is it that,

a sentiment of

the race I belong

so far influences his passions that

him her be in

But never

the celestial orders.

special

charm of woman

human

to,

man's pride

woman

if

he

of

loses to

feels

her to

things eminently superior to himself?

all

But by what strange infatuation could less

love.

this peer-

daughter of a race which, in the supremacy

powers and the

its

ranked ians,

all

felicity of its conditions,

other races in the category of barbar-

have deigned to honour

ference

%

In personal

me

with her pre-

though

qualifications,

I

passed for good-looking amongst the people I

my

came from, the handsomest

of

men

insignificant

mio-ht

seemed

have

country-

and

homely beside the grand and serene type of beauty which characterised the aspect of

the

Vril-ya.

That

novelty,

the

myself and those to

very difference

whom

between

Zee was accustomed,

might serve to bias her fancy was probable enough, and as the reader will see

later,

such

THE COMING RACE.

197

a cause might suffice to account for the predilection with which I

was distinguished by a young and very

infe-

But whoever

will

G-y scarcely out of her childhood, respects to Zee.

rior in all

those

consider

tender

which

characteristics

I

have just ascribed to the daughter of Aph-Lin,

may

readily conceive that the

attraction to her

was

main cause

of

my

in her instinctive desire to

cherish, to comfort, to protect, and, in protecting,

to sustain I

and

to exalt.

Thus,

when

I

look back,

account for the only weakness unworthy of her

which bowed the daughter of the

lofty nature,

Vril-ya to a woman's affection for one so inferior to herself as

cause what

was her

it

father's guest.

But be the

may, the consciousness that

inspired such affection thrilled

me

I

with awe

had

—

moral awe of her very perfections, of her mysterious

powers, of the inseparable

between her race and awe,

I

must confess

distinctions

my own and with that to my shame, there com;

bined the more material and ignoble dread of the perils to which her preference would expose

me.

Could

H it

be supposed for a

moment

that the

THE COMING RACE.

198

parents and friends of this exalted being could

view without indignation and disgust the possibility of

an alliance between herself and a Tish

1

Her they could not punish, her they could not confine nor restrain. political

force

do they acknowledge any law of

life

amongst themselves end

tually put an vril inflicted

Under

my

Neither in domestic nor in

but they could

;

to her infatuation

by

effec-

a flash of

upon me.

these anxious circumstances, fortunately,

conscience and sense of honour were free

from reproach.

became

my

duty,

if

Zee's preference continued manifest, to intimate

it

It

clearly

to

my

is

ever to be preserved by a well-bred

host, with, of course, all the delicacy

which

man

confiding to another any degree of favour

which one of the tinguish him.

fair

sex

Thus, at

may all

condescend to

in

by dis-

events, I should be

freed from responsibility or suspicion of volun-

tary participation in the sentiments of Zee the superior

wisdom of

my

In this resolve

I

and

host might probably

suggest some sage extrication from

dilemma.

;

my

perilous

obeyed the ordinary

THE COMING RACE. instinct of civilised

though he

be, still

generally prefers it is

his inclinations, his interests,

wrong

one.

99

and moral man, who, erring

course in those cases where

elect the

1

the right

obviously against

and

his safety to

200

CHAPTER As

Aph-Lin had not

the reader has seen,

my

voured

XXII. fa-

general and unrestricted intercourse

with his countrywoman.

Though

relying on

my

promise to abstain from giving any information as to the world I

had

promise of those to

left,

and

whom had

request, not to question me,

still

more on the

been put the same

which Zee had ex-

acted from Tae, yet he did not feel sure that, I

were allowed to mix with the strangers whose

curiosity the sight of sufficiently

When I

if

I

me had

guard myself against their

went

out, therefore, it

was always accompanied

host's

aroused, I could

family,

or

my

was never alone

either

child

-

inquiries.

by one

friend

Tae.

of

my Bra,

Aph-Lin's wife, seldom stirred beyond the gardens which surrounded the house, and was fond of reading the ancient literature,

which contained

THE COMING RACE.

201

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

a

life

;

pictures, indeed, of

more resembling that which we lead every

day above ground, coloured by our sorrows,

and

passions,

and much

to her

sins,

what the Tales of But

the Genii or the Arabian Nights are to us.

her love of reading did not prevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as mistress of the largest

household in the

She went daily the round

city.

of the chambers, and saw that the automata

and

other mechanical contrivances were in order, that

the numerous

whether in

children

his private or public capacity,

carefully tended.

were

Bra also inspected the accounts

of the whole estate,

and

it

was her great delight

husband

in the business connected

office as chief

administrator of the Light-

to assist her

with his

employed by Aph-Lin,

ing 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

THE COMING RACE.

202

connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, had decided in devoting himself to these

and was now occupied

pursuits,

structing a shop, or warehouse, at

ventions could

which

and

be exhibited

in conhis in-

The

sold.

younger son preferred farming and rural occupations

;

and when not attending the

which he

chiefly studied the theories of agricul-

was much absorbed by

ture,

College, at

his practical appli-

cation of that science to his father's lands. will be seen

ranks

is

by

how

this

established

It

completely equality of

among

this people

—a shop-

keeper being of exactly the same grade in

esti-

Aph-Lin

mation as the large landed proprietor.

was the wealthiest member of the community, and

his

eldest son preferred keeping a shop

any other avocation; nor was to

show any want This young

in

examining

were

new

when

I

my

of his

own

been

much

interested

watch, the works of which

him,

made him

he returned the

thought

of elevated notions on his part.

man had

to

this choice

to

and was

a present of

gift

with

construction,

greatly pleased it.

interest,

Shortly

by

after,

a watch

marking both the time

THE COMING RACE. as

my

in

watch and the time as kept among

the Vril-ya.

been

have that watch

I

still,

and

much admired by many among

eminent watchmakers It is of gold,

and

203

in ten months,

gone wrong since

I

when

I

and has never

it.

These young brothers

my

usual companions in

had

being thus occupied,

the Vril-ya

only requires to be

it

:

among

wound up once

that family,

Paris.

with diamond hands and figures,

the hours

in striking

has

the most

London and

of

plays a favourite tune

it

it

went abroad, were

my host or

Now, agreeably with the honourable

his daughter.

conclusions I had

come

to, I

began to excuse my-

self

from Zee's invitations to go out alone with

her,

and seized an occasion when that learned

was delivering a

lecture at the

College of Sages

me

his country-seat.

to

ask Aph-Lin to show

As

this

was

at

Gy

some

little

distance,

and

Lin was not fond of walking, while creetly relinquished all

I

as

Aph-

had

attempts at flying,

dis-

we

proceeded to our destination in one of the aerial boats belonging to

years old,

My

in

my

host.

his employ,

A

child of eight

was our conductor.

host and myself reclined on cushions, and

I

COMING RACE.

TI I E

204

found the movement very easy and

luxu-

rious.

" Aph-Lin," said

"

I,

displeased with me,

you I

if

travel for a short time,

communities of your

will not, I

trust,

be

ask your permission to

and

visit other tribes or

illustrious race.

also a strong desire to see those nations

I

have

which do

not adopt your institutions, and which you consider as savages.

to notice

I

" It

would

what are the

have is

interest

distinctions

whom we

and the races world

It

me

greatly

between them

consider civilised in the

left."

utterly impossible that

"

hence alone," said Aph-Lin.

you should go

Even among

the

Vril-ya you would be exposed to great dangers.

Certain peculiarities of formation and colour, and the extraordinary

phenomenon

upon your cheeks and species of

An

of hirsute bushes

chin, denoting in

distinct alike

from our race and

any known race of barbarians yet attract,

extant,

would

of course, the special attention of the

College of Sages in whatever

ya you

you a

visited,

and

it

community

of Vril-

would depend upon the

individual temper of some individual sage whether

THE COMING RACE.

205

you would be received, as you have been

you would not be

hospitably, or whether

dissected

when

for

the Tur

at once

Know

purposes.

scientific

here,

that

took you to his house, and

first

while you were there put to sleep by Tae in order to

recover

from your previous pain or

summoned by

the sages

fatigue,

the.

Tur were

divided in opinion whether you were a harmless or an obnoxious

were examined, and they

scious state your teeth clearly

showed that you were not only gramin-

ivorous, but carnivorous.

your

During your uncon-

animal.

size are

Carnivorous animals of

always destroyed, as being of dan-

gerous and savage nature.

Our

teeth,

as

you

have doubtless observed,* are not those of the creatures

who devour

flesh.

It

is,

indeed, main-

tained by Zee and other philosophers, that

remote ages, the

Ana

did prey upon living beings

of the brute species, their teeth fitted for that

as, in

must have been

But, even

purpose.

if

so,

they

have been modified by hereditary transmission,

and suited *

I

to the food

never had observed

enou"h

to

it

;

on which we now exist and,

if I

had,

have distinguished the difference.

am

not physiologist

THE COMING RACE.

206

nor arc even the barbarians,

who adopt

the tur-

bulent and ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh like beasts of prey. " In the course of this dispute it

to dissect

you

ments

but Tae begged you

;

Tur being, by

at variance with

the good of the

whose business

distance.

or not

admit.

it

is

is,

It

was

at

proved to be for

clearly

to take

I

it,

sent to me,

man

of the

strangers from a

option to decide whether

you were a stranger

Had

and the

novel experi-

as the richest

my

off,

our custom of sparing

community it

all

afford hospitality to

to

state,

averse to

office,

except where

life,

was proposed

whom

I

could safely

declined to receive you, you would

have been handed over to the College of Sages,

and what might there have befallen you like to conjecture.

Apart from

I

do not

this danger,

you

might chance to encounter some child of four years old, just put in possession of his vril staff;

and who, and

you so

in alarm

at

your strange appearance,

in the impulse of the to a cinder.

when he

first

checked his hand.

moment, might reduce

Tae himself was about

saw you, had Therefore

I

to

do

his father not

say you cannot

THE COMING RACE.

but with Zee you would be safe

travel alone,

and

I

207

have no doubt that she would accompany

you on a tour round the neighbouring communities of Vril-ya (to the

savage states,

No

!)

:

I will

ask her."

Now, was

to

my

as

main

from Zee,

escape

" Nay, pray do

You have

said

object in proposing to travel

not

I

!

enough

me from it and a young Gy of ;

I

I

hastily exclaimed,

relinquish

my

design.

as to its dangers to deter

can scarcely think

right that

it

the personal attractions of your

lovely daughter should travel into other regions

without a better protector than a Tish of insignificant strength

and

Aph-Lin emitted the

grown "

soft sibilant

sound which

the nearest approach to laughter that a

is

An

Pardon

my

stature."

full-

permits to himself, ere he replied

my

discourteous but

momentary

:

indul-

gence of mirth at any observation seriously made

by

my

guest.

idea of Zee,

I

who

could not but be amused at the is

so fond of protecting others

that children call her

'

the guardian,'

needino- a

protector herself against any dangers arising from

the audacious admiration of males.

Know

that

THE COMING RACE.

2o8

our Gy-ei, while unmarried, are accustomed to travel alone

there

some

among

An who may

Ana they

the

made

other tribes, to see please

find at home.

if

they find

them more than Zee has

already

three such journeys, but hitherto her heart

has been untouched."

Here the opportunity which afforded to me,

and

I

voice, "

with faltering

promise to pardon me, gives "

you

offence

Say only the

could I be

or,

you

looking down, and

said,

my

Will you, if

w hat T

I

am

kind host,

about to say

%

truth,

so, it

and

cannot be offended

I

would be not

for

;

me, but for

to pardon."

" Well, then, assist

me

to quit you, and,

wonders, and enjoy more of the

of the

felicity,

which

me return to my own." reasons why I cannot do that

belong to your people, I fear

there are

much

more

as I should have liked to witness

"

sought was

I

let

at all events, not without permission of the Tur,

and

he, probably,

would not grant

not destitute of intelligence I

do not think

destructive

so)

;

it.

You

are

you may (though

have concealed the degree of

powers possessed by your people

THE COMING RACE. you might, and

upon us some danger

in short, bring

the

if

Tur entertains that

clearly be his

2
idea,

duty either to put an end to you,

or enclose

you

existence.

But why should you wish

state of society

more "

would

it

felicitous

in

a cage for the

which you than your

Oh, Aph-Lin

!

my

rest of

your

to leave a

so politely allow to be

own ?

answer

"

is

plain.

Lest in

aught, and unwittingly, I should betray your hospitality

world

lest, in

;

that caprice of will which in our

proverbial

is

from which even a

among

Gy

is

the other sex, and

not

free,

your adorable

daughter should deign to regard me, though a Tish, as if I were a civilised

An, and

— and —

"

and

" Court

gravely,

you

as her spouse,"

and without any

put in Aph-Lin,

visible sign of surprise

or displeasure.

"You have "

said

it."

That would be a misfortune," resumed

host, after a pause, "

and

I

feel that

acted as you ought in warning me. imply, not

uncommon

for

It

my

you have is,

an un wedded

as

you

Gy

to

conceive tastes as to the object she covets which

o

THE COMING RACE.

210

but there

appear whimsical to others;

power

compel a young

to

Gy

to

no

is

any course op-

posed to that which she chooses to pursue.

we can do

is

to reason with her,

All

and experience

tells

us that the whole College of Sages would

find

it

Gy

vain to reason with a

that concerns her choice in love.

in a matter I

grieve for

you, because such a marriage would be against the A-glauran, or good of the community, for the of such a marriage

children

the race

with

they might even come into the world

:

the

teeth

of

carnivorous

could not be allowed controlled I

would adulterate

;

:

animals

;

this

Zee, as a Gy, cannot be

but you, as a Tish, can be destroyed.

advise you, then, to resist her addresses; to

her plainly that you can never return her

tell

love.

This happens constantly.

Many

however ardently wooed by one Gy,

an An,

rejects her,

and puts an end to her persecution by wedding another. "

No

;

The same course for I

cannot

is

open to you."

wed another Gy without

equally injuring the community, and exposing

it

to the chance of rearms; carnivorous children." "

That

is

true.

All I can say, and I say

it

THE COMING RACE.

211

with the tenderness due to a Tish, and the respect

due

to a guest, is frankly this

will

become a

cinder.

take the best

I

way you

Perhaps you had better

That assurance on the

are at

my

if

you

must leave

it

yield,

you

you

to

to

can to defend yourself. tell

Zee that she

lips of

erally suffices to chill the

we

—

is

him she woos gen-

most ardent Gy.

country-house.

ugly.

Here

212

CHAPTER I

confess that

my

XXIII.

conversation with Apli-Lin,

and the extreme coolness with which he stated his inability to control the his

daughter, and

dangerous caprice of

treated the idea of the re-

duction into a cinder to which her amorous flame

might expose

away

my

too

seductive

person, took

the pleasure I should otherwise have had

in the contemplation of

my

host's country-seat,

and the astonishing perfection of the machinery

by which

his

The house sive

farming operations were conducted.

differed in appearance

from the mas-

and sombre building which Apli-Lin

in-

habited in the city, and which seemed akin to the rocks out of which the city itself had been

hewn

into shape.

The walls

of the country-seat

were composed by trees placed a few

from each

other, the

feet apart

interstices being filled in

THE COMING RACE.

213

with the transparent metallic substance which the purpose

serves

These trees were

of

all

in

was very

pleasing,

if

We

received

at

were

automata, like to

glass

flower,

the

Ana.

and the

effect

not in the best taste.

porch by

the

who conducted

which

among

us into a chamber, the

never saw before, but have often

I

on summer days dreamily imagined.

bower

—half room, half garden.

one mass of climbing flowers.

which we

call

its

was a

It

The walls were

The open

spaces,

windows, and in which, here, the

metallic surfaces were slided back,

various views

lifelike

;

commanded

some, of the wide landscape with

lakes and rocks

;

some, of small limited ex-

panse answering to our conservatories,

Along the

tiers of flowers.

with

filled

sides of the

room

were flower-beds, interspersed with cushions for repose.

In the centre of the floor was a cistern

and a fountain of that liquid presumed to be naphtha. a roseate hue

;

it

It

sufficed

light

which

I

was luminous and of

without lamps to light

up the room with a subdued

radiance.

around the fountain was carpeted with a deep lichen, not green

(I

have

All soft

have never seen that

THE COMING RACE.

214

colour in the vegetation of this country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes with the

same sense of upper world

relief as that

reposes on green.

it

upon flowers (which

lets

with which in the

I

In the out-

have compared to

our conservatories) there were singing-birds in-

we remained

numerable, which, while

in

the

room, sang in those harmonies of tune to which

they

are, in these parts,

The roof was charms

so wonderfully trained.

The whole

open.

for every sense

—music

had

scene

from the

birds,

fragrance from the flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect.

What

voluptuous repose.

honeymoon,

for a less

of

a

a place, methought,

Gy

bride were a

woman, but with the powers

so stately, so

creature

had

it is

was a

all

little

formidably armed not only with the rights

when one thinks

I

if

About

we

felt

man

!

of a Gy, so learned, so

much above

call

of

woman

as

but tall,

the standard of the

was Zee, no

even

!

if

no fear of being reduced to a cinder,

not of her

I

should have dreamed in that

bower so constructed

for

dreams of poetic

The automata reappeared, serving one

love.

of those

THE COMING RACE. delicious liquids

21$

which form the innocent wines

of the Vril-ya. " Truly," said I, " this is a

and

I

charming residence,

w hy you do

not

T

can scarcely conceive

settle yourself here instead of

amid the gloomier

abodes of the city." "

As

responsible

to

administration of light, chiefly in the city,

community

the I

am

the

for

compelled to reside

and can only come hither

for

short intervals."

" But since

I

understand from you that no

honours are attached to your

some "

trouble,

Each

mand

why do you

office,

accept

and

it

it

involves

\

com-

of us obeys without question the

of the Tur.

He

said,

'Be

it

requested

that Aph-Lin shall be Commissioner of Light/ so I

had no choice

;

for a long time,

office

now

the cares, which were at

first

but having held the

unwelcome, have become, endurable.

We

are

all

if

not pleasing, at least

formed by custom

—even

the difference of our race from the savage

is

but

the transmitted continuance of custom, which be-

comes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature.

You

see there are

Ana who even

THE COMING RACE.

2l6

reconcile themselves to the responsibilities of chief

would do

magistrate, but no one

had not been rendered

so if his duties

so light, or if there

any questions as to compliance with "

Not even

wise or unjust "

We

were

his requests."

you thought the requests un-

if \

do not allow ourselves to think

so,

and,

and

indeed, everything goes on as if each

all

governed themselves according to immemorial custom." "

When

the chief magistrate dies

how do you "

provide for his successor

or retires,

1

The An who has discharged the

chief magistrate for

many

son to choose one by

years

whom

is

duties of

the best per-

those duties

may

be understood, and he generally names his successor."

" His son, perhaps "

Seldom that

desires or seeks,

to

;

" \

for it is not

make

office

and a father naturally

constrain his son.

decline to

an

But

if

the

a choice, for fear

any one hesitates

Tur himself it

might be

supposed that he owed some grudge to the person

on

whom

his choice

would

settle,

then there are

THE COMING RACE. three of the College of Sages

2\J

who draw lots among

themselves which shall have the power to elect the

We consider that

chief.

of ordinary capacity

the judgment of one

may

of three or more, however wise they

among

be

;

for

would probably be disputes

three there

and where there

judgment

better than the

is

An

clouds

disputes, passion

are

The worst choice made by one who

judgment.

has no motive in choosing wrong,

is

better than

made by many who have many

the best choice

motives for not choosing right."

You

"

reverse

adopted in

my

" Are you

" All please

!

maxims

country."

all,

your governors

your policy the

in

your country,

in

satisfied

with

?

certainly not

some are sure

the governors that most

;

to be those

most displeasing

to others." "

Then our system

"

For you

it

may

is

better than yours."

be

;

but according to our

system a Tish could not be reduced to a cinder a female compelled

Tish "

I sigh to

him

return to

Take courage,

to

my

marry her

;

if

and as a

native world."

my dear little

guest

;

Zee can't

THE COMING RACE.

2l8

compel you to

you

my

She can only entice

her.

;

for

bordered with

close,

though the Ana keep no stock

some animals which they rear

there are

look

domain."

"We went forth into a sheds

Come and

Don't be enticed.

to do so.

round

many

for food,

for milk-

The former have no

ing and others for shearing.

resemblance to our cows, nor the latter to our sheep, nor do I believe such species exist

They use the milk

them.

animal

of three varieties of

one resembles the antelope, but

:

larger, beino

as tall as a

1

camel

:

are smaller, and, though differing

each other, resemble no creature

They

earth.

portions

are very sleek

amongst

is

much

the other two

somewhat from I

ever saw on

and of rounded pro-

their colour that of the dappled deer,

;

with very mild countenances and beautiful dark eyes.

The milk

of these three creatures differs

and

in richness

in

taste.

It is usually diluted

with water, and flavoured with the juice of a peculiar

and perfumed

nutritious

and

fleece serves

purposes,

is

fruit,

palatable.

them more

and in

itself is

very

The animal whose

for clothing

and many other

like the Italian she-goat

than

THE COMING RACE. any other

2IQ

creature, but is considerably larger, has

no horns, and of our goats.

from the displeasing odour

free

is

Its fleece is

long and fine

;

it

not thick, but very

varies in colour, but is never

"white,

more generally of a

hue.

For clothing

it

worn dyed

usually

is

lavender

slate-like or

suit the taste of the wearer.

to

These animals were

exceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care and affection by the children (chiefly

who tended them.

female)

"We then went through vast storehouses with grains and the

main

sists

—

firstly,

may

here observe that

among

these people con-

I

fruits.

staple of food

of a kind of corn

ear than our wheat,

filled

much

larger in

and which by culture

new

is

per-

petually

being brought into

flavour

and, secondly, of a fruit of about the

;

which,

size of a small orange,

hard and

months

bitter.

in their warehouses,

red colour,

enters

when

into

of

is

many

and then becomes

Its juice,

They have many kinds

gathered,

stowed away for

It is

succulent and tender.

varieties

which

most of

is

their

of darksauces.

of fruit of the nature of

the olive, from which delicious oils are extracted.

THE COMING RACE.

220

They have a plant somewhat resembling the sugar-cane, but

its

sweet

insects,

gum

but they make

much

Their

soil

teems also

with esculent roots and vegetables, which

And

this people,

I

it is

never remember any meal

however

it

the

improve and vary to the

their culture to

utmost.

use of a

that oozes from a coniferous plant,

not unlike the araucaria.

aim of

and of a

They have no bees nor honey-

delicate perfume.

kneading

juices are less sweet

among

might be confined to the

family household, in which some delicate novelty in such articles of food

In

fine,

as I before observed,

exquisite, so diversified

cal forms suffice to is

their cookery

is

and nutritious that one

does not miss animal food

meat

was not introduced.

;

and

their

own

show that with them,

physi-

at least,

not required for superior production of

muscular

fibre.

They have no grapes

— the

drinks extracted from their fruits are innocent

and is

refreshing.

Their staple beverage, however,

water, in the choice of which they are very

fastidious,

distinguishing at

once the slightest

impurity. "

My younger

son takes great pleasure in aug-

THE COMING RACE.

221

menting our produce," said Aph-Lin as we passed "

through the storehouses,

of

my

would

my

To

wealth.

inheritance

will

which constitute the chief

inherit these lands,

part

and therefore

be

a

great

such

son

elder

and

trouble

affliction."

"

Are there many sons among you who think

the inheritance of vast wealth trouble

and

affliction'?"

" Certainly Vril-ya

would be a great

;

there are indeed very few of the

who do not

above the average

much

consider that a fortune is

We

a heavy burden.

are

rather a lazy people after the age of childhood,

and do not

undergoing more cares than we

like

can help, and great wealth does give

many public

For instance,

cares.

which none of us

offices,

can refuse.

It necessitates

interest in the affairs of

trymen, so that

and

see that

it

fall

marks us out like

"

is

our taking a continued

anticipate their wants

into poverty.

the rich man's

Pardon me,

if I

for

and none of us

old proverb amongst us which says,

man's need

owner

any of our poorer coun-

we may

none

its

There '

shame

interrupt

you

for a

is

an

The poor '

moment.

THE COMING RACE.

222

You

allow that some, even of the Vril-ya,

want, and need " If

us, unless cess,

relief."

by want you mean the Koom-Posh, that

prevails in a

an

An

got rid of

emigrate,

know

has,

all

and has

destitution that

is

impossible with

by some extraordinary pro-

his

means, cannot or will not

either tired out the affectionate

aid of his 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

;

1

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 miti-

But

gate his affliction are lavished upon him.

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 serted ruin,

and the

last

inmate of

is

it

now

a de-

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,

THE COMING RACE. I

meant such wants

An

an

as

223

with desires larger

than his means sometimes entertains

—

for expen-

sive singing-birds, or bigger houses, or country-

gardens

wants

and the obvious way

;

is

to

Hence Ana

buy of him something that he like

who

myself,

do not require, and

live

wife,

have

is

and even it

to myself

but

;

size of

much

a source of

I

scale

my

house

trouble to

am

my

compelled to

thus incommodiously large, because, as

the richest

An

of the community, I

to entertain the strangers nities

rich,

on a small

live

For instance, the great

town

very

are

on a very large

where they might prefer to

in the

sells.

buy a great many things they

are obliged to

one.

satisfy such

to

when they

visit us,

am

appointed

from the other commu-

which they do in great

crowds twice a-year, when certain periodical entertainments are held, and tered throughout

all

when

relations scat-

the realms of the Vril-ya

joyfully reunite for a time.

This hospitality, on

a scale so extensive,

my taste, and

fore I should rich.

is

not to

have been happier had

But we must

all

I

there-

been

less

bear the lot assigned to

us in this short passage through time that

we

THE COMING

224 call

After

life.

more or

less, to

pass hereafter

what

all,

It is a rare

own

I

we must

who

exception to the

cannot myself under-

it."

After this conversation the subject which

my

years,

Luckily, I have one son

?

general rule, and I

heart

hundred

are a

the ages through which

likes great wealth.

stand

RACE.

—

viz.,

I

sought to return to

continued to weigh on

the chances of escape from Zee.

my But

host politely declined to renew that topic,

and summoned our

we were met by

air-boat.

On

way back

our

Zee, who, having found us gone,

on her return from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings

and flown

Her grand, but

to

me

in search of us.

unalluring, countenance

brightened as she beheld me, and, poising herself beside the boat on her large outspread plumes,

she said reproachfully to

was

right in

it

you

Aph-Lin

—

fall

1

He

has no wings. !

"

is

your

so unaccus-

might, by an incautious movement,

over the side

Dear one

Oh, father,

to hazard the life of

guest in a vehicle to which he

tomed

"

;

and, alas

It

!

he

is

not like us, he

were death to him to

(she added, accosting

my

fall.

shrinking

THE COMING RACE. self in a softer voice), "

have you no thought of

me, that you should thus hazard a

become almost a part thus rash, unless I

mine

of

am

which has

What

thy companion.

glanced furtively at

at least, that he

life

Never again be

%

terror thou hast stricken into I

225

Aph

me!" -

Lin, expecting,

would indignantly reprove

his

daughter for expressions of anxiety and affection, which, under

all

the circumstances, would, in the

world above ground, be considered immodest in the lips of a young female, addressed to a male

not affianced to her, even

if

of the

same rank

as

herself.

But

so confirmed are the rights of females in

that region, and so absolutely foremost those rights do females claim the courtship, that

among

privilege

of

Aph-Lin would no more have

thought of reproving his virgin daughter, than

he would have thought of disobeying the Tur. In that country, custom, as he implied,

and

is

all

all.

He

answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish was in no

danger, and

it is

my

belief that he can take

good care of himself."

very

THE COMING RACE.

226 " I

would rather that he

with his

let

my

Oh, heart of

care.

me

heart,

the thought of thy danger that

much

loved thee

I

was

in

how

I first felt

feel in so false a position as I

These words were spoken loud in the hear-

did.

ing of Zee's father

who

steered. for her,

I

guest,

—

in the hearing of the child

blushed with shame for them,

and could not help replying angrily

" Zee, either you

mock me, which, as your father's

misbecomes you, or the words you utter

are improper for a

an

it

!

Never did man

and

charge myself

An

of her

own

maiden race, if

Gy to

address even to

he has not wooed her

with the consent of her parents.

more improper

to address

has never presumed to

who can never

them

solicit

How much who

to a Tish,

your

affections,

and

regard you with other sentiments

than those of reverence and awe

!

Aph-Lin made me a covert sign of approbation,

but said nothing.

"Be

not so cruel!"

sonorous accents.

where

maiden

it

is

Gy

"

truly felt

exclaimed Zee,

Can ?

love

still

command

Do you

in

itself

suppose that a

will conceal a sentiment that it ele-

THE COMING RACE. ?

What

Aph-Lin

gently

vates her to feel

have come from

Here "

Among

a country you must

!

interposed,

saying,

the Tish-a the rights of your sex do not

appear to be established, and at

may

guest

227

converse

all

events

my

with you more freely

if

unchecked by the presence of others."

To on

this

me

remark Zee made no

a tender reproachful glance, agitated her

wings and "I

fled

I,

own daughter O dict a

homeward.

had counted,

host," said

" I

reply, but, darting

at least,

bitterly, " in the perils to

purpose.

my

which his

exDoses me." J.

gave you the best aid

Gy

on some aid from

I could.

in her love affairs

is

She allows no counsel

her and her affections."

To

contra-

to confirm her to

come between

228

CHAPTER On

XXIV.

alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted

Aph-Lin

in the hall with a request that he

would

be present at the funeral obsequies of a relation

who had

recently

departed from that nether

world.

Now,

I

had never seen a burial-place or ceme-

tery amongst this people, and, glad to seize even so

melancholy an occasion to defer an encounter

with Zee,

I

asked Aph-Lin

if I

might be per-

mitted to witness with him the interment of his relation

;

unless, indeed, it

were regarded as one

of those sacred ceremonies to which a stranger to their race

"

might not be admitted.

The departure of an An

answered

my

host, "

to a happier world,"

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

THE COMING RACE.

229

quiet festival than a sacred ceremony, and

may accompany me

if

you

will."

Preceded by the child-messenger,

up the main

street to a

room on the

several

persons

which was

130th year.

One

assembled round a couch

was

on

was an old

It

beyond

his

To judge by the calm smile on

his

as I

of the sons,

the family, and life,

where we found

ground-floor,

told, lived

countenance, he had passed ing.

little dis-

were conducted to

laid the deceased.

man, who had,

we walked

house at some

tance, and, entering the hall,

a

you

away without

who was now

who seemed

suffer-

the head of

in vigorous middle

though he was considerably more than seventy,

stepped forward with a cheerful face and told " that the

Aph-Lin had seen

in a

day before he died

dream

his departed

his father

Gy, and was

eager to be reunited to her, and restored to youth

beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good."

While these two were

was drawn

to a dark

in

length,

my

attention

metallic substance at the

farther end of the room. feet

talking,

It

was about twenty

narrow in proportion, and

all

closed round, save, near the roof, there were small

THE COMING

230

RACE.

round holes through which might be seen a red the interior emanated a rich and

From

li^ht.

sweet perfume

what purpose

and while

;

machine was to

this

time-pieces in the their

serve, all the

town struck the hour with

solemn musical chime

ceased, music of a

was conjecturing

I

and

;

more joyous

sound

as that

character, but

still

of a joy subdued and tranquil, rang through-

out the chamber, and from the walls beyond, in

Symphonious with the melody,

a choral peal.

The

those present lifted their voices in chant.

words of no

this

regret,

hymn were

called

corpse, covered lifted

the deceased had preceded

Indeed, in their language, the funeral

the living. is

They expressed

no farewell, but rather a greeting to the

new world whither

hymn

simple.

up by

the

'

Birth Song.'

Then the

by a long cerement, was tenderly

six of the nearest kinsfolk

towards the dark thing

I

and borne

have described.

pressed forward to see what happened.

A

ing door or panel at one end was lifted up

body deposited within, on a closed

—a spring

ivhisliing,

at the side

I

slid-

—the

—the door touched — a sudden shelf

sighing sound heard from within

re-

;

and

THE COMING RACE. lo

at the other

!

23

end of the machine the

lid fell

down, and a small handful of smouldering dust dropped into a patera placed to receive son took up the patera and said

(in

The

it.

what

under-

I

stood afterwards was the usual form of words), " Behold

He

dust

how

little

and soul

Maker

the

is

gave form and

not this life

great

dust for

!

and

life

Him

to

To

this little

needs

It

soul.

renew form and

to the beloved one

we

shall soon

see again."

Each present bowed hand

head and pressed

his

Then a young female

to his heart.

opened a small door within the wall, and ceived, in the recess, shelves

many

his

child

I per-

on which were placed

paterce like that which the son held, save

that they

Gy now

all

had

With such

covers.

approached the son, and placed

the cup, on which

it

and these words "

:

—

"

it

closed with a spring.

the lid were engraven the

birth).

a cover a

Lent

Eecalled from

name

over

On

of the deceased,

to us " (here the date of

us " (here the

date of

death).

The closed door shut with a musical sound, and

all

was

over.

232

CHAPTER " I

Axd

this/' said I,

had witnessed —

form of burial % " Our "

What "

We

"

What

full of

what

your usual

" this, I presume, is

form," answered Aph-Lin.

amongst your people

inter the !

my mind

"

invariable

is it

with

XXV.

" ?

body whole within the

earth."

form you have loved

to degrade the

and honoured, the wife on whose breast you have

slept, to

"But

if

"

the loathsomeness of corruption

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 dust " is

vril,

into a pinch

of

\

You answer

well," said

my

host, "

no arguing on a matter of feeling

your custom

is

horrible

and

;

repulsive,

and there

but to

me

and would

THE COMING RACE. serve to invest death with associations.

It is

233

gloomy and hideous

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 still

live.

lives,

We

thus feel more sensibly that he

though not visibly so to

sentiments in

by custom.

this,

But our

us.

as in all things, are created

Custom

not to be changed by a

is

wise An, any more than

it is

changed by a wise

Community, without the gravest

deliberation,

followed by the most earnest conviction.

It is

only thus that change ceases to be changeability,

and once made

When we moned some sent

is

made

for good."

regained the house, Aph-Lin sumof the children in his service

them round

and

to several of his friends, request-

ing their attendance that day, during the Easy

Hours, to a festival in honour of his kinsman's recall to the All-Good.

gayest assembly

among

I

This was the largest and

my stay

ever witnessed during

the Ana, and was prolonged far into the

Silent Hours.

The banquet was spread

in

a vast

chamber

reserved especially for grand occasions.

This

THE COMING RACE.

234 differed

from our entertainments, and was not

without a certain resemblance to those in the luxurious age of the

was not one great

Roman

we read of There

empire.

table set out, but

numerous

small tables, each appropriated to eight guests. It

considered that beyond that

is

versation languishes

Ana never laugh

number con-

and friendship

loud, as I

cools.

The

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 for

floor,

those

The

and then came musical entertainments

who

wandered away

liked :

Many, however,

them.

—some of the younger ascended

in their wings, for the hall aerial

tables sank through

was

roofless,

forming

dances; others strolled through the vari-

ous 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 their conversation by the

THE COMING RACE.

235

constant companionship of one or the other of host's sons, appointed to

but slightly

;

had ceased

To

my

obtrusive

me

they had grown accustomed to

my

appearance, seeing I

me from

guests, however, noticed

The

questionings.

keep

my

me

to excite

so often in the streets,

much

and

curiosity.

great delight Zee avoided me, and evi-

dently sought to excite attentions to a very

(though, as

is

my

jealousy

by marked

handsome young An, who

the modest custom of the males

when addressed by

females, he answered with

downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was

demure and shy are in

most

as

young

ladies

new

to the world

civilised countries, except

England

and America) was evidently much charmed by the if

tall

Gy, and ready to

falter a bashful "

she had actually proposed.

that she would,

Yes

"

Fervently hoping

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

into a pinch of dust, I

be hurried

amused myself by watch-

ing the manners of the other young people.

had the

satisfaction of observing that Zee

I

was no

singular assertor of a female's most valued rights.

THE COMING RACE.

236

Wherever

I

seemed to

me

An

and the

my

turned

that the

eyes, or lent

Gy was

my

ears, it

the wooing party,

The

the coy and reluctant one.

pretty innocent airs which an

An

gave himself on

being thus courted, the dexterity with which he

evaded direct answer to professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering compliments

addressed to him, would have done honour to the

my

Both

most accomplished coquette.

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, ical

employments

property,

to the

preferred mechan-

management

of a great

and who was of an eminently philoso-

phical temperament, ceive

who

self-control.

how

—"

at your age,

I find it difficult to

and with

all

con-

the intoxicat-

ing effects on the senses, of music and lights and perfumes, you can be so cold to that impassioned

Gy who at

has

j List

left

you with

tears in her eyes

your cruelty."

The young

An

replied with a sigh,

Tish, the greatest misfortune in

one

Gy

if

you

life is

are in love with another."

"Gentle to

marry

THE COMING RACE. "

Oh

237

you are in love with another

!

" ?

"Alas! yes."

And

"

she does not return your love \

" I don't know.

makes me hope told

"

me

Sometimes a

look, a tone,

so; but she has never plainly

that she loves me."

Have you not whispered

you love her ? " Fie

in her

own

ear that

"

what are you thinking of 1 What world do you come from? Could I so betray the !

dignity of

sex

Could

1

shame, as to

lost to

not

my

first

owned

"Pardon:

own

hers to

me

I

be so

love to a

un-Anly— so

Gy who

has

" \

was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex so far. But does no says

An

it first

I

ever say to a Gy, I love you/ '

to

him

" I can't say that if

he ever does, he

till

she

so,

but

?

is

no

An

has ever done

disgraced in the eyes of the

Ana, and secretly despised by the Gy-ei. Gy, well brought up, would listen to him

No ;

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,"

THE COMING RACE.

^j<

continued the An, " for she

no one

certainly courted

I

and

cannot but

Sometimes

think she likes me. she does not court

else,

whom

me

I

I

love has

suspect that

because she fears I would

ask some unreasonable settlement as to the sur-

But

render of her rights.

Gy

love me, for where a

she cannot really

if so,

really loves she foregoes

all rights."

" Is this

"

Oh

young

Gy

She

yes.

present

sits

" ?

yonder talking to

my

mother." I

looked in the direction to which

were thus guided, and saw a of bright red, which that a

Gy

among

Gy

this people is a sign

tint, to

looking about for a spouse

;

She

;

indicate that she

dark purple

wishes to intimate that she has

purple and orange light blue

when

when

and would marry

she

she

again.

is

is

eyes

dressed in robes

as yet prefers a single state.

wears grey, a neutral

ried

my

made

if

is

she

a choice

betrothed or mar-

divorced or a

Light blue

is

widow

of course

seldom seen.

Among

a people where

type of beauty,

it is

all

are

of so high a

difficult to single

out one as

THE COMING RACE.

My

peculiarly handsome.

me

seemed to looks

young

of good

but there was an expression in her face

;

me more

young Gy-ei

generally, because

less

friend's choice

to possess the average

that pleased

—

239

than did the faces of the it

looked less bold

conscious of female rights.

observed

I

that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced,

time to time, sidelong at " Courage," said " Ay, but

if

Your mother

" Perhaps

told

it

I

friend.

young Gy

" that

loves you."

how am

I the

" ?

is

aware of your attachment

I

never owned

so.

would be un-Anly mother.

;

young

she will not say so,

better for her love

"

I

my

from

it

to confide such

have told

my

father

;

to her.

" %

It

weakness to a he

may have

again to his wife."

" Will

you permit

me to

quit

you

for a

momeut

and glide behind your mother and your beloved I

am

sure they are talking about you.

hesitate.

I

promise that

to be questioned

till

I rejoin

The young An pressed touched

me

me

lightly

to quit his side.

I will

Do

1

not

not allow myself

you."

his

hand on

his heart,

on the head, and allowed I stole

unobserved behind

THE COMING RACE.

240 his

mother and his beloved.

overheard their

I

talk.

Bra was speaking doubt of

this

either

:

said she, " There can be no

;

my son, who

of marriage-

is

able age, will be decoyed into marriage with one

many

of his

suitors, or

emigrate to a distance and more.

you

If

who

he will join those

we

shall see

my

really care for him,

him no

dear Lo,

you should propose." " I

do care for him, Bra

really ever

win

but

;

his affections.

inventions and timepieces

;

I

doubt

He and

is

I

if I

could

fond of his

am

not like

Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not enter into his favourite pursuits,

tired of

me, and at the end of three years divorce

me, and " It to

is

could never marry another

I

not necessary to

know how

of an An,

You

strength.

know about

timepieces

cares for timepieces that he

would

up the timepieces than divorce

see,

my

precisely because rule the

—never."

to be so necessary to the happiness

who

rather give

Gy.

and then he would get

other, If

his

dear Lo," continued Bra, " that

we

are the stronger sex,

provided

we

we never show our

you were superior

to

my

son in

THE COMING

RACE.

241

making timepieces and automata, you his wife,

always

let

him suppose you thought him The

superior in that art to yourself.

Gy

allows the pre-eminence of the his

own

him

But

special pursuit.

perhaps he

it,

may

if

An

tacitly

in all except

she either excels

admire him for his

in that, or affects not to

proficiency in

should, as

he will not love her very long

But where a

even divorce her.

Gy

really loves, she soon learns to love all that

the

An

does."

The young Gy made no answer

to this address.

She looked down musingly, then a smile crept over her

and she

lips,

through the crowd

An who discreetly

watched them. I recollected

at

and went

she paused by the young

till

loved her. stood

rose, still silent,

I

a

followed her steps, but little

Somewhat

the coy tactics

distance

to

my

among

while

surprise,

I

till

the Ana, the

lover seemed to receive her advances with an air

of indifference.

pursued his

He

even moved away, but she

steps, and, a little

time

after,

both

spread their wings and vanished amid the lumi-

nous space above. Just then

I

was accosted by the chief magisQ

THE COMING RACE.

242

trate,

by no

who mingled with

the crowd distinguished

signs of deference or homage.

pened that since the

I

had not seen

day

recalling Aph-Lin's

whether or not crept over

me

I

words

hap-

this great dignitary

had entered

I

It so

his dominions,

as to his terrible

and

doubt

should be dissected, a shudder

at the sight of his tranquil coun-

tenance.

"

I

hear

much

of you, stranger, from

Tae," said the Tur, laying his

my

"

bended head.

society,

and

I trust

He

is

hand

my

son

politely on

very fond of your

you are not displeased with

the customs of our people." I

muttered some unintelligible answer, which

intended to be an assurance of

my

I

gratitude for

the kindness I had received from the Tur, and

my admiration

of his countrymen, but the dissect-

ing-knife gleamed before

my

utterance.

friend

A

my mind's eye and choked

softer voice said, "

My brother's

And

looking up I

must be dear

to me."

saw a young Gy, who might be sixteen years

old,

standing beside the magistrate and gazing at

me

with a very benignant countenance. not come to her

full

She had

growth, and was scarcely

THE COMING RACE. taller

than myself

(viz.,

and, thanks to that stature,

thought

I

hitherto seen.

I

243

about 5 feet 10 inches),

comparatively diminutive

her the loveliest

Gy

suppose something in

revealed that impression, for her

I

had

my

eyes

countenance

grew yet more benignant, "

yet

Tae

tells

me," she

learned

said,

" that you have not

accustom

to

That grieves me,

yourself

for I should

to

wings.

have liked to

fly

with you." " Alas I" I replied, " I can never

that happiness.

I

of wings

safe use

am is

assured a

hope to enjoy

by Zee that the

hereditary

gift,

would take generations before one of

and

my

it

race

could poise himself in the air like a bird."

" Let not that thought vex you too much," replied this amiable Princess, " for, after

all,

there

must come a day when Zee and myself must resign our wings for ever.

Perhaps when that

day comes we might be glad

if

was

also

the

An we

chose

without wings."

The Tur had the crowd.

charming

I

left

us,

began to

sister,

and was

lost

feel at ease

and rather

amongst

with Tae's

startled her

by the

THE COMING RACE.

244 boldness of

my

compliment in replying " that no

An

she could choose would ever use his wings to

fly

away from

an

An

custom for

It is so against

her."

to say such civil things to a

Gy

till

she

has declared her passion for him, and been ac-

cepted as his betrothed, that the young maiden stood

dumfounded

quite

a few moments.

for

At

Nevertheless she did not seem displeased. last recovering

company her and

herself,

she invited

into one of the less

me

to

crowded rooms

listen to the songs of the birds.

I

followed

her steps as she glided before me, and she led into a

chamber almost

ac-

A

deserted.

me

fountain of

naphtha was playing in the centre of the room

round

it

of the

room were open on one

in

were ranged

soft divans,

and the walls

side to

an aviary

which the birds were chanting their

chorus. divans, tells

The Gy seated and

I

said, " that

artful

herself on one of the

placed myself at her side.

me," she

;

"

Tae

Aph-Lin has made

it

the law * of his house that you are not to be * Literally " has

said,

In this house he

synonymous with law, as implying by

this singular people.

it

requested."

Words

forcihle obligation, are avoided

Even had

it

been decreed by the Tur

THE COMING RACE.

245

questioned as to the country you come from or

why you

the reason " It "

visit us.

"

Is it so

?

is."

May

at least, without sinning against that

I,

law, ask at least if the Gy-ei in your country are of the

same pale colour

as yourself,

and no

taller %"

"I do not think, infringe

beautiful

law of Aph-Lin, which

the

binding on myself than any one, questions

much

fairer of

if

is

I

Gy -

ei

hue than

I

The

innocent.

so

country are

Gy, that

their average height is at least a

I

more

answer

my

in

am, and

head shorter

than mine."

"They cannot then be amongst you? vril

force

But

makes up

advantage of

size

"They do not

know

it.

But

so strong as the

Ana

I

suppose their superior

for

such extraordinary dis-

\

profess the vril force as

still

they are very powerful in

you

my

that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decree would have

ran blandly thus,

—" Be

it

requested that, for the good of the

community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to dissection."

to

submit himself

THE COMING RACE.

246

country, and an

An

lias

small chance of a happy-

he be not more or less governed by his Gy."

life if

"You

speak feelingly/' said Tae's

sister, in

"

tone of voice half sad, half petulant.

— certainly

"

No

"

Nor betrothed ?

"

Nor

you

"

not." "

betrothed." possible that

it

Gy

no

has proposed to

" ?

"In

An

are

%

married, of course

"Is

You

a

my

country the

speaks

first."

What

a

nature

!

in

your sex

ings,

of

reversal

!

posed, never loved one I felt

does not propose; the

said the maiden, "

"

modesty

strange

Gy

the laws

of

and what want of

But have you never pro-

Gy more

than another

?

embarrassed by these ingenuous question-

and

said, "

Pardon me, but

I

think

we

are

beginning to infringe upon Aph-Lin's injunction.

Thus much only I

will I say in answer,

implore you, ask no more.

I

and then,

did once feel the

preference you speak of ; I did propose, and the

Gy would

willingly have accepted me, but her

parents refused their consent."

" Parents

!

THE COMING RACE.

247

Do you mean

me

seriously to tell

that parents can interfere with the choice of their

daughters "

1

Indeed they can, and do very often."

"I should not

like to live in that country,"

said the Gy, simply; " but I hope

go back to I

into

my

my

head in

The Gy gently

silence.

face with her right hand,

"Stay with

tenderly.

it

will never

it."

bowed

raised

you

and looked

us,"

she

said;

" stay with us, and be loved."

What

I

might have answered, what dangers of

becoming a cinder still

I

might have encountered,

tremble to think,

when

the

I

of the

light

naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and Zee, flying through the open alighted beside us.

taking

me

my arm

She said not a word, but,

with her mighty hand, she drew

away, as a mother draws a naughty

and led me through the apartments the corridors, on which,

room.

child,

to one of

by the mechanism they

generally prefer to stairs,

own

roof,

we ascended

to

This gained, Zee breathed on

forehead, touched

my

breast with her

staff,

my my and

THE COMING RACE.

248

I

was

plunged

instantly

a

profound

later,

and heard

into

sleep.

"When

I

awoke some hours

the song of the birds in the adjoining aviary, the

remembrance of Tae's

sister,

her gentle looks and

caressing words, vividly returned to

impossible

is it

for

me

and

;

so

one born and reared in our

upper world's state of society to divest himself

by vanity and ambition, that

of ideas dictated

found myself instinctively building proud in the

—

I

castles

air.

my

" Tish though I be," thus ran " Tish though I be,

it is

meditations

then clear that Zee

is

Gy whom my appearance can captiEvidently I am loved by a Princess, the

not the only vate. first

maiden of

absolute

this laud, the

daughter of the

Monarch whose autocracy they

by the republican

seek to disguise magistrate.

But

for the

horrible Zee, this

mally proposed to

me

nate minister, a mere

me

title of

chief

sudden swoop of that

Eoyal Lady would have ;

very well for Aph-Lin,

to threaten

so idly

and though

who

is

it

may

for-

be

only a subordi-

Commissioner of Light,

with destruction

if I

accept his

THE COMING RACE.

249

word

daughter's hand, yet a Sovereign, whose

community

law, could compel the

is

abrogate

to

any custom that

forbids intermarriage with one

of a strange race,

and which

in itself

is

a contra-

diction to their boasted equality of ranks. " It is not to be

who

supposed that his daughter,

spoke with such incredulous scorn of the

interference of parents,

would not have

influence with her Eoyal Father to save

an

if I

were exalted by such

who knows but what

alliance,

might

And

form.

me

elect

Few among

as

successor.

his

this indolent

Monarch

the

Why

not

1

race of philosophers

burden of such greatness.

like the

me from

Aph-Lin would con-

the combustion to which

demn my

sufficient

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 exist-

ence

;

and, once chosen, what reforms I would

institute

!

What

additions to the really pleasant

but too monotonous iarity

life

of this realm

my

famil-

with the civilised nations above ground

would

effect!

field.

Next

I

am

to war,

fond of the sports of the is

not the chase a king's

THE COMING RACE.

250

pastime

?

In what varieties of strange game

How interesting to strike down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge But how ? By that does this nether world abound

7

!

!

terrible vril, in

which, from want of hereditary

No,

transmission, I could never be a proficient.

but by a civilised handy breech-loader, which these

ingenious

mechanicians could

make, but no doubt improve one in the Museum. I

;

not

only

nay, surely I saw

Indeed, as absolute

king,

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.

striction a

mere philosophical

Is

not this re-

crotchet, at vari-

ance with the aspiring element in

human

nature,

such as has been partially, and with complete failure, tried in

Bobert Owen.

the upper world by the late

Of course one would not go

war with neighbouring nations one's

own

subjects

gions inhabited

Mr

by

;

as well

armed

to as

but then, what of those reraces unacquainted with vril,

and apparently resembling, in their democratic

THE COMING RACE.

my

institutions,

misjht invade

25

American countrymen

them without

I

One

\

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

As

set.)

for the

against conceding fame or

fantastical notion

renown

to an emi-

nent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal

of

honours insures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angry passions, of peace

—

it is

are

all,

ment

if

felicity

opposed to the very elements, not

human but

only of the

and mars the

the brute creation, which

tamable, participators in the senti-

What renown

of praise and emulation.

would be given to a king who thus extended his empire

!

Thinking of

I

should be deemed a demigod."

that,

of regulating this

the

other fanatical notion

by

reference to one which,

life

no doubt, we Christians firmly believe never take into consideration,

I

enlightened philosophy compelled

in,

but

resolved that

me

to abolish

a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance

COMING RACE.

TIIE

-3-

Mus-

with modern thought and practical action. I felt

how much

moment

to brighten

ing over these various projects, I

should have liked at that

my

by a good

wits

Not that

am

I

glass of whisky-and-water.

habitually a spirit-drinker, but

certainly there are times

when

a

little

stimulant

of alcoholic nature, taken with a cigar, enlivens

Yes; certainly among these

the imagination.

herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from

which one could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol;

and with a steak cut

what

off

one of those elks (ah

offence to science to reject the animal food

which our ing to

would

first

the

medical

Then,

when

I

quer,

find,

by

am

king, I

among

young females

them.

and not

mankind

)

one

!

antiquated

amateurs, cer-

childish will cle

introduce our

ballet, for

the nations

which

I shall

con-

of less formidable height

and thews than the Gy-ei vril,

recommend-

more exhilarating hour of

modern opera and a corps one might

of

in

too, instead of those

dramas performed tainly,

juices

gastric

certainly pass a

repast.

men agree

insisting

— not

upon

armed with

one's

marrying

THE COMING RACE. I

was

253

so completely rapt in these

reforms, political, social,

and similar

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

my

and, raising

my I

eyes,

I

heard a deep

sigh,

beheld her standing by

couch.

need not say

of this people, a

an

till

An

that, according to the

Gy

can, without indecorum, visit

in his chamber,

if

though an

An would

and immodest

considered forward

degree

manners

the

to

he entered the chamber of a

Gy

last

with-

out previously obtaining her permission to do

Fortunately

I

was

be

in the full habiliments I

so.

had

worn when Zee had deposited me on the couch. Nevertheless

I

shocked, by her

much

felt

visit,

irritated,

and asked

as

well as

in a rude tone

what she wanted.

"Speak

gently, beloved one, I entreat you,"

said she, " for I slept since

" as

A

we

am

very unhappy.

I

have not

parted."

due sense of your shameful conduct to

your

father's guest

might well

suffice to

me

banish

THE COMING RACE.

254

from your

sleep

tion

you pretend

Where was

eyelids.

the affec-

have for me, where was even

to

that politeness on which the Vril-ya pride them-

advantage alike of that

when, taking

selves,

physical strength

which your

in

extraordinary region,

excels

in

sex,

this

and of

our own,

those detestable and unhallowed powers which

the agencies of vril invest in your eyes and finger-

you exposed me

ends,

assembled I

visitors, before

Her Royal Highness

mean, the daughter of your own chief magis-

trate,

— carrying

asking "

me

off to

and plunging me

infant,

my

consent

Ungrateful

evidences of if

your

to humiliation before

!

my

bed into

a naughty

like

without

sleep,

" %

Do you love

reproach

me

Can you think

1

for the

that,

even

unstung by the jealousy which attends upon

love

till

know

it

fades

away

that the heart

in blissful trust

we have wooed

when we

is

won,

I

could be indifferent to the perils to which the

audacious overtures of that

expose you "

Hold

perils, it

!

silly little child

might

" ?

Since you introduce the subject of

perhaps does not misbecome

me

to say

THE COMING RACE. that

my

self,

or at

most imminent

perils

come from your-

would come

least

255

I

if

believed in

your love and accepted your addresses. father has told

me

Your

plainly that in that case I

should be consumed into a cinder with as

compunction as

if I

little

whom

were the reptile

Tae

blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand."

"

Do

not

exclaimed absorbing

that fear chill your heart to me/'

let

Zee,

my

ample palm.

dropping

hand

right

" It

is true,

on

her

in the

space of her

indeed, that

we two

cannot wed as those of the same race true that the love between us

and

knees

wed

must be pure

as

that which, in our belief, exists between lovers

who at

reunite in the

which the old

new life beyond

life

ends.

ness enough to be together, in heart

He

1

Listen

:

I

But

that boundary

is it

wedded

have just

in

left

consents to our union on those

have

sufficient

influence

with

the

not happi-

mind and

my

father.

terms.

I

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

THE COMING RACE.

256

love needs ignoble union

1

It is

?

not that

only to be by your side in this

to be part

life,

and parcel of your joys and sorrows here here for a

tie

which

yearn

I

I

:

and

will bind us for ever

Do you

ever in the world of immortals.

ask for

reject

met" she spoke, she knelt, and the whole charac-

As

ter of her face

ness left to of an

grandeur

its

immortal,

;

;

nothing of stern-

a divine light, as that

shining out from

But she rather awed me

beauty.

moved me pause,

was changed

as

woman, and forth

faltered

I

gratitude,

and sought,

point out

how

as angel than

an embarrassed

after

evasive

expressions

of

as delicately as I could, to

my

humiliating would be

amongst her race in the

light of a

position

husband who

might never be permitted the name of " But/' said Zee,

human

its

father.

" this community does not

constitute the whole world.

No

;

nor do

all

the

populations comprised in the league of the Vrilya.

and

For thy sake

my

people.

I

We

will renounce

to

country

will fly together to

region where thou shalt be safe.

enough

my

bear thee on

my

I

am

some

strong

wings across the

THE COMING RACE. deserts that intervene.

I

am

257

skilled

enough

to

which

to

cleave open, amidst the rocks, valleys in

build our home.

would be

to

me

Solitude and a hut with thee society

Or

and the universe.

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 con-

by thy description the

stitute

those savage regions I will force the

way

fickle character of

If so, speak the word,

and

thy return, so that

am

?

for

I

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 ten-

derness, 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.

ment

it

did occur to

me

myself of Zee's agency to return to the

And

that I might

effect a safe

upper world.

mo-

for a

avail

and speedy

But a very

space for reflection sufficed to show

me how

brief dis-

honourable and base a return for such devotion

R

THE COMING RACE.

258

it

would be

people and a

home

in

which

had been

I

whom

pitably treated, a creature to

would be spiritual

so abhorrent, love,

exalted above

and

for

so hos-

our world

whose barren,

if

could not reconcile myself to

I

renounce the more

ment

from her own

to allure thus away,

my

human erring

affection of

With

self.

of duty towards the

mates

less

this senti-

Gy combined

another

of duty towards the whole race I belonged

to.

into

the

upper

world a being so formidably gifted

—a

being

Could

venture

I

that with a

movement

than an hour reduce

Koom-Posh one

staff,

of her staff could in less

New York

and

its

glorious

Eob her

into a pinch of snuff?

of

with her science she could easily con-

struct another;

that

introduce

to

and with the deadly lightnings

armed the slender engine her whole frame

was charged.

If thus

dangerous to the

and populations of the whole upper

cities

earth, could

she be a safe companion to myself in case her affection should be subjected to

bittered

takes so

through

by

jealousy'?

many words

my

change or em-

These thoughts, which

it

to express, passed rapidly

brain and decided

my

answer.

THE COMING RACE.

259

" Zee," I said, in the softest tones I could

mand, and pressing respectful into

lips

on the hand

whose clasp mine had vanished

how

can find no words to say

how

touched, and

highly

am

I

com-

—

" Zee,

am

deeply I

honoured, by a

My

love so disinterested and self-immolating. best

return

nation has

to

its

it

is

perfect

customs.

not allow you to

frankness.

The customs

wed me

of yours do

the customs of mine

;

those of races so widely differing.

On

hand, though not deficient in courage

among

some dismal chaos, with

home

that at some

am

all

in the heart

the elements of

and water and mephitic

war with each

I

my

without a shudder of horror,

think of constructing a bridal

nature, fire

the other

amid dangers with which

people, or

familiar, I cannot,

of

Each

opposed to such a union between

are equally

own

I

other,

gases, at

and with the probability

moment, while you were busied

in cleaving rocks or conveying vril into lamps, I

should be devoured

operations a so

by a krek which your

disturbed from

its

hiding-place.

I,

mere Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, brilliant,

so

learned,

so

potent as yourself.

THE COMING RACE.

260

Yes, I do not deserve that love, for I cannot

return

it."

Zee released

my

hand, rose to her

feet,

turned her face away to hide her emotions

;

and then

she glided noiselessly along the room, and paused

Suddenly, impelled as by a

at the threshold.

new

thought, she returned to

my

side

and

said,

in a whispered tone, "

You

told

With

frankness.

me

me you would

perfect frankness, then, answer

this question.

you love another

speak with perfect

If

you cannot love me, do

" \

" Certainly, I do not."

"

You do

not love Tae's

sister

?

" I never saw her before last nio'ht." " That vril. is

is

You

no answer.

Love

hesitate to tell me.

only jealousy that prompts

me

is

Do

swifter than

not think

to caution you.

If the Tur's daughter should declare love to

—

if in

you

her ignorance she confides to her father

any preference that may justify his she will

it

woo you

to request

—he

will

belief that

have no option but

your immediate destruction, as he

specially charged

with the

is

duty of consulting

THE COMING RACE. the good of the

26l

community, which could not

allow a daughter of the Vril-ya to

wed a son

of

the Tish-a, in that sense of marriage which does

not confine there

itself to

would then be

union of the for

you no

Alas

souls.

escape.

!

She has

no strength of wing to uphold you through the air;

make

she has no science wherewith to

home

in the wilderness.

friendship speaks,

With

and that

my jealousy is

those words Zee left me.

those words, I thought no

the throne social,

Believe that here

of the

my

silent."

recalling

more of succeeding

to

or of the political,

Vril-ya,

and moral reforms

And

a

I

should institute in

the capacity of Absolute Sovereign.

262

CHAPTER After

the conversation with Zee just recorded,

I fell into a

interest life

XXVI.

with which

and habits of

at an end.

The curious

profound melancholy.

I

I

had hitherto examined the

this marvellous

community was

could not banish from

the consciousness that

I

my mind

was among a people who,

however kind and courteous, could destroy me at

any moment without scruple or compunction.

The virtuous and peaceful which, while

new

to

life

of the

people

me, had seemed so holy a

contrast to the contentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world,

now began to

oppress

a sense of dulness and monotony.

me

with

Even the

serene tranquillity of the lustrous air preyed on

my

spirits.

ter,

or storm, or darkness.

I

longed for a change, even to win-

whatever our dreams of

began to

feel that,

perfectibility,

our rest-

I

THE COMING RACE. less aspirations

263

towards a better, and higher, and

calmer sphere of being, we, the mortals of the

upper world, are not trained or

long the very happiness of which

which we

Now,

enjoy for

fitted to

we dream

or to

aspire.

in this social state of the Vril-ya, it

mark how

singular to

it

was

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

which war, with impossible,

—a

all

future. its

state in

and each was secured

It

was a

calamities,

state in

was deemed

which the freedom of

all

to the uttermost degree,

without one of those animosities which make

freedom

in

perpetual

the

strife

upper world depend on the of hostile

parties.

Here the

corruption which debases democracies was as un-

known

as the disconteuts

thrones of monarchies.

a

name

;

it

was a

which undermine the

Equality here was not

reality.

Kiches were not

persecuted, because they were not envied.

Here

those problems connected with the labours of a

working

class,

hitherto insoluble above ground,

THE COMING RACE.

264

ground

and above

conducing to such

by a process

ness between classes, were solved

the simplest, class

—a

distinct

was dispensed with

bitter-

and separate working Mechanical

altogether.

inventions, constructed on principles that baffled

my

research to ascertain,

infinitely

of

worked by an agency

more powerful and

more easy

infinitely

management than aught we have yet

from

electricity or steam,

extracted

with the aid of children

whose strength was never overtasked, but who loved their employment as sport and pastime, sufficed to create a Public-wealth

that not a grumbler was ever

the general use

heard

no

of.

The vices that

footing.

were

all

rot our cities, here

innocent.

and was ardent

was

No merry-makings

conduced

Love

existed,

in pursuit, but its object, once

faithful.

gate, the harlot, this

had

Amusements abounded, but they

to intoxication, to riot, to disease.

secured,

so devoted to

The

adulterer, the profli-

were phenomena so unknown in

commonwealth, that even

to find the

words

by which they were designated one would have had to search throughout an obsolete

composed thousands of years

before.

literature

They who

THE COMING RACE.

265

have been students of theoretical philosophies above ground,

know

that

partures from civilised

all

life

these strange de-

do but

realise ideas

which have been broached, canvassed, contested for

sometimes partially

;

ridiculed,

and

tried,

still

put forth in fantastic books, but have never come

Nor were

to practical result.

these

all

the steps

towards theoretical perfectibility which this com-

munity had made.

had been the sober

It

man

of Descartes that the

life

longed,

on this

indeed,

not,

duration, but to patriarchs,

to

what he

of

could be pro-

earth,

to

eternal

called the age of the

and modestly defined to be from 100

150 years average length.

dream of sages was here than

belief

fulfilled

;

Well, even this

— nay,

fulfilled

for the vigour of

middle

more

life

was

preserved even after the term of a century was

With

passed.

this

longevity was

greater blessing than itself

Such

health.

which

is

—

of continuous

diseases as befell the race

removed with ease by that agency

—that

combined a

inherent in

applications of

scientific

life-giving vril.

as

life

Even

unknown above ground, though

were

-destroying

—

this idea is not it

has gener-

THE COMING RACE.

266 ally

been confined to enthusiasts or charlatans,

and emanates from confused notions about mesPassing by such

merism, odic force, &c. contrivances

as

knows has been

wings, which tried

trivial

every schoolboy

and found wanting, from

the mythical or pre-historical period,

proceed

I

to that very delicate question, urged of late as essential to the perfect happiness of our

species

by the two most disturbing and

influences

on upper-ground

and Philosophy.

Now,

it is

I

society,

human

potential

— Womankind

mean, the Rights of Women.

allowed by jurisprudists that

idle to talk of rights

it

where there are not

responding powers to enforce them

;

is

cor-

and above

ground, for some reason or other, man, in his physical force, in the use of weapons offensive and

when

defensive,

contest, can,

as

master women.

it

comes

to

positive personal

a rule of general application,

But among

this people

there

can be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as I

speaking,

and her and

have before

is

will

said, the

Gy, physically

bigger and stronger than the

being also more resolute than

An his,

will being essential to the direction of the

THE COMING RACE. vril force, she

267

can bring to bear upon him, more

potently than he on herself, the mystical agency

which

art

can extract from the occult properties Therefore

of nature.

all

that our female philo-

sophers above ground contend for as to rights of

women,

this

conceded as a matter of course in

is

happy commonwealth.

sical

Besides such phy-

powers, the Gy-ei have (at least in youth)

a keen desire for accomplishments and learning

which exceeds that of the male are the scholars, the professors tion, in short, of the

Of

;

and thus they

—the learned por-

community.

course, in this state of society the female

establishes,

as I

have shown, her most valued

privilege, that of choosing

ding partner. despise

all

and courting her wed-

Without that privilege she would

the others.

Now, above ground, we

should not unreasonably apprehend that a female, thus potent and thus privileged, fairly

hunted us down and married

very imperious and tyrannical. Gy-ei

when

:

us,

Not

she had

would be

so with the

once married, the wings once suspended,

and more amiable, complacent,

docile mates,

more

sympathetic, more sinking their loftier capacities

THE COMING RACE.

268

into the study of their husbands' comparatively frivolous tastes

and whims, no poet could con-

ceive in his visions of conjugal bliss.

among

Lastly,

the more important characteristics of the

Vril-ya, as

from our mankind

distinguished

and most important on the bearings of

lastly,

their life

and the peace of their commonwealths,

their universal

is

agreement in the existence of a

merciful beneficent Deity, and of a future world

which a century or two are

to the duration of

moments

too brief to waste

and power and avarice

ment

is

;

upon thoughts of fame

while with that agree-

combined another

know nothing beyond the

—

viz.,

since they can

as to the nature of that Deity

fact of

His supreme goodness, nor of

that future world beyond the fact of

its felicitous

existence, so their reason forbids all

putes on insoluble questions. for that state in the

—

all

bowels of the earth what no light of the

the blessings and consolations of a

gion without any of the evils

which are engendered by gion and another.

dis-

Thus they secure

community ever secured under the stars

angry

strife

reli-

and calamities

between one

reli-

THE COMING RACE. It

would

269

be, then, utterly impossible

that the state of existence

among

thus, as a whole, immeasurably

more

deny

to

the Vril-ya felicitous

is

than

that of super-terrestrial races, and, realising the

dreams of our most sanguine philanthropists, almost approaches to a poet's conception of some angelical order.

And

yet, if

you would take a

thousand of the best and most philosophical of

human

beings you could find in London, Paris,

Berlin,

New York,

or even Boston,

as citizens in this beatified

and place them

community,

my

belief

that in less than a year they would either die

is,

of ennui, or attempt

some revolution by which

they would militate against the good of the com-

munity, and be burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur.

Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, throuoh

the

medium

of this narrative,

any ignorant

paragement of the race to which

I

belong

have, on the contrary, endeavoured to clear that the principles

dis-

make

which regulate the

I it

social

system of the Vril-ya forbid them to produce those individual examples of

human

greatness which

adorn the annals of the upper world.

"Where

THE COMING RACE.

270

there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, no

Washington, no Jackson, no Sheridan states are so

happy that they

fear

;

—where

no danger and

no change, they cannot give birth to a

desire

Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendel

Holmes, or a Butler to

a

;

and where a society

moral standard, in which there

attains

no

are

crimes and no sorrows from which tragedy can extract its aliment of pity vices or follies on

mirthful

satire, it

and sorrow, no

which comedy can lavish

But

if I

its

has lost the chance of produc-

ing a Shakespeare, or a Moliere, or a

Stowe.

salient

Mrs Beecher

my

have no desire to disparage

fellow-men above ground in showing

how much

the motives that impel the energies and ambition of individuals in a society of contest

struggle ciety

—become dormant

which aims

and

or annulled in a so-

at securing for

the aggregate

the calm and innocent felicity which

we presume

to be the lot of beatified immortals; neither,

the other hand, have

I

the wish to represent the

commonwealths of the Vril-ya political society, to the

own

efforts of

on

as

an ideal form of

attainment of which our

reform should be directed.

On

the

THE COMING RACE. contrary,

it

because

is

throughout the

we have

series of ages, the

human

compose

2J\

elements which

that

character,

combined,

so

it

would be

utterly impossible for us to adopt the

modes of

or to reconcile our passions to the

modes of

life,

thought among the Vril-ya, conviction that

this

not only of our

human

clear

by the

the

people

as

seems to

the great

civilisation

of

the world

myths and

me

Aryan

;

and

their his-

through phases of society familiar to

—had yet now developed

species with

originally

in varied streams has flowed

having, according to their

ourselves,

— though

race, but, as

ancestors

which

dominant

tory, passed

I arrived at the

roots of their language, descended

from the same family, from

—that

which

it

into a distinct

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, accord-

ing to their

own

traditional persuasions of their

ultimate destiny, destroy and replace our existent varieties of It

Gy

man.

may, indeed, be could

be found

said, since

to

more than one

conceive

a

partiality

THE COMING RACE.

272

ordinary a type of our super-terrestrial

for so

race as myself, that even

pear above ground,

the Vril-ya did ap-

if

we might be saved from

extermination by intermixture of race. is

too sanguine a belief.

liance

would be

But

this

Instances of such mesal-

as rare as those of intermarriage

between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the Red Indians.

Nor would time be allowed

for the

The

Vril-ya,

operation of familiar intercourse.

on emerging, induced by the charm of a sunlit

heaven to form their settlements above ground,

would commence. at once the work of seize

upon the

clear

off,

territories

without scruple,

resisted that invasion.

contempt

destruction,

already cultivated, and all

the inhabitants

And

who

considering their

for the institutions of

Koom-Posh

or

Popular Government, and the pugnacious valour of

my

beloved countrymen,

Vril-ya

first

I

believe that if the

appeared in free America

—

as,

being

the choicest portion of the habitable earth, they

would doubtless be induced " This quarter of the globe

a Koom-Posh,

make way

species in the Vril-ya,"

to

we

take

for the

my

do ;

— and

said,

Citizens of

development of

brave compatriots

THE COMING RACE. would show be

fight,

and not a soul of them would

left in this life, to rally

Stripes, at the I

273

round the Stars and

end of a week.

now saw but little

of Zee, save at meals,

when

the family assembled, and she was then reserved

and

silent.

affection I

My had

now

therefore,

apprehensions of danger from an

faded away,

continued to increase.

upper world, but

any means wander

encouraged or deserved,

so little

I

to effect

I

I

my

dejection

pined for escape to the

racked it.

but

my

brains in vain for

was never permitted

to

forth alone, so that I could not even visit

the spot on which I had alighted, and see

if it

were possible to re-ascend to the mine.

Nor even

in the Silent Hours, when the household

was locked

in sleep, could I lofty floor in I

have

which

knew not how

to

stood mockingly at

let

my

myself

the

apartment was placed.

command

my

down from

the automata

who

beck beside the wall, nor

could I ascertain the springs by which were set in

movement

place of

stairs.

the

platforms that supplied the

The knowledge how

to

avail

myself of these contrivances had been purposely withheld from me.

Oh, that s

I

could but have

THE COMING RACE.

274

learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every infant, then I

from

the

casement,

buoyed myself

aloft

might have escaped

regained

the

rocks,

through the chasm of which

the perpendicular sides forbade place for footing

and

human

275

CHAPTER One

as

da)*,

I sat

XXVII.

alone and brooding in

my

chamber, Tae flew in at the open window and alighted on the conch beside me.

was always

I

pleased with the visits of a child, in whose society, if

humbled,

was

I

Ana who had completed matured

than

less eclipsed

their

their understanding.

education and

And

I

and

my compan-

as I longed to revisit the spot in

had descended into the nether world,

to ask

him

yond the

if

he were at leisure for a

streets of the city.

seemed to

me

hastened

I

stroll be-

His countenance

to invite

soon found ourselves in the

not got far from the house five or six

which

graver than usual as he replied,

"I came hither on purpose

We

was per-

as I

mitted to wander forth with him for ion,

in that of

young

Gy-ei,

you

street,

forth."

and had

when we encountered

who were

returning from

THE COMING RACE.

2^6

the fields with baskets full of flowers, and chant-

A

ing a song in chorus as they walked.

Gy

sings

more often than she

ped on seeing

They

stop-

accosting Tae with familiar

us,

me

kindness, and

talks.

young

with the courteous gallantry

which distinguishes the Gy-ei towards our weaker

in their

manner

sex.

And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank in her courtship to the individual she favours, there that general

is

breadth and loudness of

which those young race, to is

whom

ladies

manner

of the Anglo-Saxon

the distinguished epithet of

accorded, exhibit

whom

nothing that approaches to

fast

'

towards young gentlemen

they do not profess to love.

No

:

the

bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary is

very

much that

societies of the

of high-bred

men

upper world towards ladies

they respect but do not woo

;

plimentary, exquisitely polished call

'

in the gallant

whom

deferential,

com-

—what we should

chivalrous.'

Certainly I was a

little

put out by the number

of civil things addressed to

which were said

to

me by

my amour propre,

these courteous

young

THE COMING RACE. In the world

Gy-ei.

have

I

2/7

came from, a man would

thought himself a£2rieved, treated with

irony,

'

chaffed

'

(if so

may

vulgar a slang word

be allowed on the authority of the popular novelists

who

use

plimented

it

so freely),

me on

when one

fair

Gy

the freshness of my complexion,

my

another on the choice of colours in

dress, a

third,

with a sly smile, on the conquests

made

at Aph-Lin's entertainment.

already that

French

all

com-

I

had

knew

was what the

such language

call banal,

But

I

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

transmission demonstrate male.

And

and hereditary

by the mouth

just as a high-bred

young

of the

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, Tae's

THE COMING RACE.

278

had seen us from the upper rooms

seems,

sister, it

of the Royal Palace at the entrance of the town,

and, precipitating herself on her wings, alighted in the

midst of the group.

Singling

me

out, she

though

said,

the inimitable deference of

manner which

not without

with

still

I

have

a

certain

abruptness of tone which, as addressed

to the

called

weaker

'chivalrous/ yet

sex, Sir Philip

'rustic/ "

While

Why I

Sidney might have termed

do you never come to see us

?

was deliberating on the right answer Tae said

to give to this unlooked-for question,

quickly and sternly, of

my

" Sister,

you

forget

— the

not for persons of

stranger

is

my

having due regard for reputation and

sex,

sex.

It is

modesty, to lower themselves by running after the society of yours."

This speech was received with evident approval

by the young Gy-ei

in general

;

Poor

looked greatly abashed.

but Tae's thing

!

sister

— and

a

Princess too Just at this

between I

moment

me and

a

shadow fell on the space

the group

;

and, turning round,

beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon

THE COMING RACE. us,

279

with the silent and stately pace peculiar to

At

the Vril-ya.

same

terror

held

it

the sight of his countenance, the

which had seized

On

returned.

me when

I first be-

that brow, in those eyes,

was that same indefinable something which

there

marked the being

of a race fatal to our

own

that strange expression of serene exemption from

our

common

cares

and

passions,

superior power, compassionate

that of a judge

of conscious

and

inflexible as

who pronounces doom.

ered, and, inclining low, pressed the

child -friend,

and drew him onward

Tur placed himself before our for a

moment without

I shiv-

arm of

silently.

path, regarded

my The

me

speaking, then turned his

eye quietly on his daughter's face, and, with a

grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went

through the midst of the group, a word.

—

still

without

280

CHAPTER AViien Tae' and

I

XXVIII.

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, said under

my

breath, " Child

and

I

friend, there

a look in your father's face which appals me.

is

I feel as

if,

in its awful tranquillity, I gazed

upon

death."

Tae did not immediately and

agitated,

reply.

as if debating with himself

words to soften some unwelcome

At

He seemed

last he said, "

None

by what

intelligence.

of the Vril-ya fear death:

do your' "

The dread of death

breasts of the race to

conquer

We

it

is

which

implanted in the I belong.

We

can

at the call of duty, of honour, of love.

can die for a truth, for a native land, for

THE COMING RACE.

who

those

are dearer to us than ourselves.

But

me now and

here,

death do really threaten

if

28

where are such counteractions to the natural stinct

which invests with awe and

in-

terror the con-

templation of severance between soul and body

looked surprised, but there was great ten-

Tae'

derness in his voice as he replied, " I will

what you

father

your

I will entreat

say.

him

tell

my

to spare

life."

"He

has, then, already decreed to destroy it

my

" Tis

sister's fault or folly," said

some petulance. to

V

my

father

;

summoned me,

V

Tae, with

" But she spoke this morning

and, after she had spoken, he as a chief

among the

children

who

are commissioned to destroy such lives as threaten

the community, and he said to me, 'Take thy vril staff,

and seek the stranger who has made

himself dear to thee.

Be

end painless and

his

prompt.' " "

And,"

and

it is,

I faltered, recoiling

then, for

my murder

erously thou hast invited believe

crime."

it.

I

from the child

me

—

that thus treach-

forth

\

No,

I

cannot

cannot think thee guilty of such a

THE COMING RACE.

282 " It is

no crime to slay those who threaten the

good of the community

would be a crime

it

;

slay the smallest insect that cannot " If

you mean that

I

harm

sister

Let

me

it

is

not necessary to

return to the people

and by the chasm through which

With

me with may feel for

honours

the sort of preference which a child

me.

us."

threaten the good of the

community because your

a strange plaything,

to

I

I

kill

have

left,

descended.

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

Do

you found, and have no doubt preserved. but that I

;

assist

alighted,

ever, "

and

and

me I

but to the spot from which

vanish from your world for

were among the dead."

as surely as if I

The chasm through which you descended

Look round where rock.

it

;

we stand now on

yawned.

What

The chasm was

see

closed,

!

the very place

you

by the

\

Only

solid

orders of Aph-

Lin, as soon as communication between him'

and

yourself was established in your trance, and he

learned from your

own

lips the

world from which you came.

nature of the

Do you

not re-

THE COMING RACE.

member when Zee bade me not to yourself or your race

On

%

question you as

quitting you that

Aph-Lin accosted me, and

day,

283

said,

'

No

path

between the stranger's home and ours should be left

unclosed, or the sorrow

may

and

evil of his

home

Take with thee the

descend to ours.

chil-

dren of thy band, smite the sides of the cavern

with your vril staves

the

till

fall

of their frag-

ments fills up every chink through which a gleam of our lamps could force

As the

child spoke,

its

way.'"

stared aghast

I

at

the

blind rocks before me.

Huge and

irregular, the

granite masses, showing

by charred

discoloration

where they had been shattered, rose from footing to roof-top

;

not a cranny

" All hope, then,

ing

down on

is

!

gone,"

my

murmured,

the craggy wayside, " and

nevermore see the sun." with

I

I

shall

my

face

Him whose

pre-

covered

I

hands, and prayed to

sink-

sence I had so often forgotten

when

the heavens

had declared His handiwork.

I felt

His presence

in the depths of the nether earth,

world of the grave.

and courage from

I

my

and amidst the

looked up, taking comfort prayers,

and gazing with a

THE COMING RACE.

2S4

quiet smile into the face of the child, said, " if

thou must slay me, strike."

Tae shook "

Now,

my

father's request is

me no choice. may prevail to

leave

to

and

I

" Nay," he said,

head gently.

his

not so formally made as I will

speak with him, Strange that

save thee.

thou shouldst have that fear of death which

we

thought was only the instinct of the inferior creatures, to

whom

the conviction of another

With

us,

not an in-

Tell me,

my

dear Tish,"

has not been vouchsafed. fant

knows such

a fear.

he continued, after a concile thee life

to that

the

moment

ney

%

more

little

called

'

me

lies

from

my

on the other side of

it,

to

world.

I

to go with thee.

when

of age

some regions unknown within would just

as soon emigrate

Good

than here.

"

no

less there

be

one of

another world.

not

it

am

I

regions unknown, in is

thy jour-

father whether

our generation destined to emigrate, for

re-

it

form of

this

death,' did I share

If so, I will ask

allowable for

pause, " would

to departure

form which

life

this

now

to

The All-

Where

is

He

V Child," said

I,

seeing

by Tae's countenance

THE COMING RACE.

285

that he spoke in serious earnest, " thee to slay to say,

'

me

;

it

were a crime not

Slay thyself.'

His own time to give us to take

it

away.

it is

that

me

life,

and His own time

Let us go back.

If,

on speak-

my

death,

me the longest warning in thy power, so I may pass the interval in self-preparation."

We by

less in

The All-Good chooses

ing with thy father, he decides on give

crime in

walked back to the

fits

and

starts.

We

city,

conversing but

could not understand

each other's reasonings, and

I

felt

for the fair

child,

with his soft voice and beautiful

face,

much

as a convict feels for the executioner

who

walks beside him to the place of doom.

286

CHAPTER

XXIX.

In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep

and constituting the night of the

Yril-ya, I

awakened from the disturbed slumber I

had not long

I started,

fallen,

by a hand on

Dost thou think that

us.

watch over thy safety because love

1

I

my

which

shoulder.

and beheld Zee standing beside me.

" Hush," she said, in a whisper

hear

into

was

I

He

have seen Tae.

I

;

"let no one

have ceased to

could not win thy has not prevailed

with his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages whom, in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he has ordained thee to perish to

life.

I will

when

the world re-awakens

Eise and dress."

save thee.

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 sub-

THE COMING RACE.

287

sequently for the more picturesque garments of

The young Gy then moved towards

the Vril-ya.

the casement and stepped into the balcony, while

and wonderingly

hastily

When

ments.

I

hand, she said

softly, " See

She drew

out waiting for

brightly the art

up the world

my

me

in

which

will be

dark

back into the room with-

answer, thence into the cor-

from which we descended into the

ridor,

We

how

To-morrow that world

they dwell.

habili-

Taking me by the

rigid.

of the Vril-ya has lighted

to me."

my own

donned

joined her on the balcony, her

was pale and

face

I

hall.

passed into the deserted streets and along the

broad upward road which wound beneath the rocks.

Here, where there

night, the Silent

is

neither

day nor

Hours are unutterably solemn,

—the vast space illumined by mortal wholly without the sight and

stir

skill is so

of mortal

life.

Soft as were our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as

I

out of

was aware

harmony with

in

my own

the universal repose.

mind, though Zee said

not, that she had decided to assist

the upper world, and that

the place from which

I

my

it

return to

we were bound towards had descended.

Her

THE COMING RACE.

288 silence infected

now we approached opened us

;

when

And

me, and commanded mine. the chasm.

had been

It

re-

not presenting, indeed, the same aspect I

had emerged from

closed

Avail

stood

Avith

and along

through that

but,

Tae, a

neAV cleft

had been

blackened sides

last

riven,

glimmered

still

My

smouldered embers.

sparks and

had

rock before which I

of

its

it,

upward

gaze could not, hoAvever, penetrate more than a feAV feet into the

I

darkness of the

and

IioIIoav void,

how

stood dismayed, and wondering

that grim

ascent was to be made.

my

Zee divined

with a faint smile besran this

Fear not," said

" your return

all else Avere

did not pause

We

;

"

work when the

menced, and

Avas clear.

doubt.

is

:

assured.

I

Hours com-

Silent

asleep

she,

believe that I

the path back into thy world

till

I shall

be with thee a

do not part until thou sayest,

little '

while yet.

Go, for

I

need

thee no more.'

My

heart smote

Ah

words.

"

Avert of

my

never say,

'

!

"

me

with remorse at these

I exclaimed, "

would that thou

race or I of thine, then I

need thee no more.'

I

should

THE COMING RACE. " I bless thee for those words,

member them when thou

289

and

I shall re-

answered the

art gone,"

Gy, tenderly.

During

Zee

this brief interchange of words,

had turned away from me, her form bent and her head bowed over her

Now, she

breast.

rose to

the full height of her grand stature, and stood

While she had been thus averted

fronting me.

from

my

gaze, she

had lighted up the

that she wore round her brow, so that as if it

were a crown of

it

circlet

blazed

Not only her

stars.

face

and her form, but the atmosphere around, were illumined by the effulgence of the diadem.

" Now," said she, " put thine arms around for the first

and cling

As

and

Nay, thus

last time.

;

me

courage,

firm."

she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings

expanded.

Clinging to her,

was borne

I

The

through the terrible chasm.

aloft

starry light

from her forehead shot around and before as through

tlic

Brightly,

darkness.

and swiftly as an angel with the soul

it

may

and

steadfastly,

soar heavenward

rescues from the grave, went the

flight of the Cry,

till

I

beard

T

in

the distance

th«'

THE COMING RACE.

29O

hum

We

human

of

sounds of

voices, the

human

toil.

halted on the flooring of one of the galleries

of the mine,

and beyond, in the

vista,

burned the

Then

dim, rare, feeble lamps of the miners.

my

released

forehead passionately, but as with passion,

and

said, as the tears

eyes, " Farewell for ever.

go into thy world

—thou

mother's

a

gushed from her

Thou

wilt not let

me

canst never return to

Ere our household shake

mine.

my

The Gy kissed me on

hold.

I

off slumber, the

rocks will have again closed over the chasm, not to be re-opened

by me, nor perhaps by

Think of me sometimes,

ages yet unguessed.

and with kindness. lies

beyond

for thee.

thyself

Even

there, the

my

it

life

voice ceased.

of her wings,

that

round

world consigned to

I

gulfs

rejoin

race that have gone before, and I

have cloven way to

dem

reach the

from that in which

be powerless to cleave

Her

I

and thy people may have rocks and

those of

I

When

this speck in time, I shall look

which divide

may

others, for

way to

regain thee as

lose." I

heard the swan-like sough

and saw the rays of her starry

dia-

receding far and farther through the gloom.

THE COMING RACE. I

sate myself

rowfully

;

then

down

I rose

some time, musing

for

my way with

and took

footsteps towards the place in

The miners

sounds of men.

29I

I

which

I

to look at

but finding that

encountered were

their

In

work and

fine, I

troubled

my

own

with some surprise,

language, they returned to

me to pass on unmolested.

suffered

regained the mouth of the mine,

by other interrogatories:

friendly official to

own.

could not answer their brief

I

questions in their

me

slow

heard the

strange to me, of another nation than

They turned

sor-

little

—save those

of a

whom I was known, and luckily

he was too busy to talk

much with me.

my

care not to return to

I

took

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

have been long peacefully in practical business,

country, in which I

settled,

I retired,

till

petent fortune, three years ago. little

invited

and

little

I

on a comhave been

tempted to talk of the

rovings and adventures of disappointed, as most

and engaged

my

men

youth.

are, in

Somewhat

matters con-

THE COMING RACE.

2Q2

nectcd with household love and domestic often think of the night,

young Gy

and wonder how

I

life, 1

as I sit alone at

could have rejected such

a love, no matter what dangers attended

by what conditions more

it

was

or

Only,, the

restricted.

think of a people calmly developing, in

I

regions excluded from our sight and inhabitable

by our

sages,

which our antagonistic

advances,

life,

in

—the

social

deemed un-

powers surpassing our

most disciplined modes of

may

it,

and

proportion

and virtues

force,

political,

our

as

more devoutly

to

becomes

civilisation

pray that ages

I

yet elapse before there emerge into sunlight

our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, frankly told

by

my

physician that I

complaint which, though

it

no perceptible notice of

its

at

any moment be

my

duty to

fatal, I

am

gives

afflicted

little

by a

pain and

encroachments,

have thought

it

may

my

fellow-men to place on record these

fore warnings of

The Coming Race.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.

c^l