Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to theexistence of regions extending below the surface of the earth, andhabitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material pointsof organism, akin to those in the upper world, than the contradictionthus presented to the doctrine in which, I believe, most geologistsand philosophers concur--viz., that though with us the sun is the greatsource of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, thegreater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the ratio ofa degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface.But though the domains of the tribe I speak of were, on the higherground, so comparatively near to the surface, that I could account for atemperature, therein, suitable to organic life, yet even the ravines andvalleys of that realm were much less hot than philosophers would deempossible at such a depth--certainly not warmer than the south of France,or at least of Italy. And according to all the accounts I received, vasttracts immeasurably deeper beneath the surface, and in which one mighthave thought only salamanders could exist, were inhabited by innumerableraces organised like ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to accountfor a fact which is so at variance with the recognised laws of science,nor could Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did butconjecture that sufficient allowance had not been made by ourphilosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior earth--thevastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served to create freecurrents of air and frequent winds--and for the various modes in whichheat is evaporated and thrown off. She allowed, however, that there wasa depth at which the heat was deemed to be intolerable to such organisedlife as was known to the experience of the Vril-ya, though theirphilosophers believed that even in such places life of some kind, lifesentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant and thriving, couldthe philosophers penetrate to it. "Wherever the All-Good builds,"said she, "there, be sure, He places inhabitants. He loves not emptydwellings." She added, however, that many changes in temperature andclimate had been effected by the skill of the Vril-ya, and that theagency of vril had been successfully employed in such changes. Shedescribed a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which I suspectto be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work allthe correlative forces united under the name of vril; and contended thatwherever this medium could be expanded, as it were, sufficiently for thevarious agencies of vril to have ample play, a temperature congenial tothe highest forms of life could be secured. She said also, that it wasthe belief of their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had beenproduced originally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surfaceof the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or imported bythe tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows) through theoperations of the light constantly brought to bear on them, and thegradual improvement in culture. She said also, that since the vril lighthad superseded all other light-giving bodies, the colours of flower andfoliage had become more brilliant, and vegetation had acquired largergrowth.
Leaving these matters to the consideration of those better competent todeal with them, I must now devote a few pages to the very interestingquestions connected with the language of the Vril-ya.