Chapter XV.
Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter of myhost was the most considerate and thoughtful in her kindness. At hersuggestion I laid aside the habiliments in which I had descendedfrom the upper earth, and adopted the dress of the Vril-ya, with theexception of the artful wings which served them, when on foot, as agraceful mantle. But as many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urbanpursuits, did not wear these wings, this exception created no markeddifference between myself and the race among whom I sojourned, and I wasthus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant curiosity.Out of the household no one suspected that I had come from the upperworld, and I was but regarded as one of some inferior and barbaroustribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a guest.
The city was large in proportion to the territory round it, which was ofno greater extent than many an English or Hungarian nobleman's estate;but the whole if it, to the verge of the rocks which constituted itsboundary, was cultivated to the nicest degree, except where certainallotments of mountain and pasture were humanely left free to thesustenance of the harmless animals they had tamed, though not fordomestic use. So great is their kindness towards these humblercreatures, that a sum is devoted from the public treasury for thepurpose of deporting them to other Vril-ya communities willing toreceive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they become too numerousfor the pastures allotted to them in their native place. They do not,however, multiply to an extent comparable to the ratio at which, withus, animals bred for slaughter, increase. It seems a law of nature thatanimals not useful to man gradually recede from the domains he occupies,or even become extinct. It is an old custom of the various sovereignstates amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to leavebetween each state a neutral and uncultivated border-land. In theinstance of the community I speak of, this tract, being a ridge ofsavage rocks, was impassable by foot, but was easily surmounted, whetherby the wings of the inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speakhereafter. Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehiclesimpelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always keptlighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special tax, to which allthe communities comprehended in the denomination of Vril-ya contributein settled proportions. By these means a considerable commercial trafficwith other states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surpluswealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The communitywas also eminent for skill in constructing implements connected with thearts of husbandry. In exchange for such merchandise it obtained articlesmore of luxury than necessity. There were few things imported on whichthey set a higher price than birds taught to pipe artful tunes inconcert. These were brought from a great distance, and were marvellousfor beauty of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care wastaken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the specieshad wonderfully improved during the last few years. I saw no otherpet animals among this community except some very amusing and sportivecreatures of the Batrachian species, resembling frogs, but with veryintelligent countenances, which the children were fond of, and kept intheir private gardens. They appear to have no animals akin to our dogsor horses, though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that suchcreatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be found inregions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya. She said that theyhad gradually disappeared from the more civilised world since thediscovery of vril, and the results attending that discovery haddispensed with their uses. Machinery and the invention of wings hadsuperseded the horse as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longerwanted either for protection or the chase, as it had been when theancestors of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, orhunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as the horsewas concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse could have been,there, of little use either for pastime or burden. The only creaturethey use for the latter purpose is a kind of large goat which is muchemployed on farms. The nature of the surrounding soil in thesedistricts may be said to have first suggested the invention of wings andair-boats. The largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied bythe city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house with aseparate garden. The broad main street, in which Aph-Lin dwelt, expandedinto a vast square, in which were placed the College of Sages and allthe public offices; a magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which Icall naptha (I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All thesepublic edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and solidity.They reminded me of the architectural pictures of Martin. Along theupper stories of each ran a balcony, or rather a terraced garden,supported by columns, filled with flowering plants, and tenanted bymany kinds of tame birds.
From the square branched several streets, all broad and brilliantlylighted, and ascending up the eminence on either side. In my excursionsin the town I was never allowed to go alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter wasmy habitual companion. In this community the adult Gy is seen walkingwith any young An as familiarly as if there were no difference of sex.
The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attend on acustomer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly intelligentand courteous, but without the least touch of importunity or cringing.The shopkeeper himself might or might not be visible; when visible, heseemed rarely employed on any matter connected with his professionalbusiness; and yet he had taken to that business from special liking forit, and quite independently of his general sources of fortune.
The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beingsafter the active age of childhood. Whether by temperament or philosophy,they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when youtake away from a human being the incentives to action which are found incupidity or ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet.
In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet to thatof their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in a bold misuse ofterms) their public 'promenades,' they employ the latter, also for theaerial dances I have described, as well as for visiting their countryplaces, which are mostly placed on lofty heights; and, when still young,they prefer their wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, tovehicular conveyances.
Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if less rapidly thansome birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, and keep upthat rate for five or six hours at a stretch. But the Ana generally, onreaching middle age, are not fond of rapid movements requiring violentexercise. Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which ourown physicians will doubtless approve--viz., that regular transpirationthrough the pores of the skin is essential to health, they habituallyuse the sweating-baths to which we give the name Turkish or Roman,succeeded by douches of perfumed waters. They have great faith in thesalubrious virtue of certain perfumes.
It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four timesa-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril.*
* I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was very similar in itsinvigorating powers to that of the baths at Gastein, the virtuesof which are ascribed by many physicians to electricity; but thoughsimilar, the effect of the vril bath was more lasting.
They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer oflife; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rathertends to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases,however, they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwingoff their complaint.
In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but all theirluxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in an atmosphere ofmusic and fragrance. Every room has its mechanical contrivances formelodious sounds, usually tuned down to soft-murmured notes, which seemlike sweet whispers from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed tothese gentle sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor, whenalone, to reflection. But they have a notion that to breathe an airfilled with continuous melody and perfume has necessarily an effectat once soothing and e
levating upon the formation of character and thehabits of thought. Though so temperate, and with total abstinence fromother animal food than milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they aredelicate and dainty to an extreme in food and beverage; and in all theirsports even the old exhibit a childlike gaiety. Happiness is the end atwhich they aim, not as the excitement of a moment, but as the prevailingcondition of the entire existence; and regard for the happiness of eachother is evinced by the exquisite amenity of their manners.
Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of anyknown races in the upper world, though I cannot help thinking it adevelopment, in the course of countless ages of the Brachycephalic typeof the Age of Stone in Lyell's 'Elements of Geology,' C. X., p. 113, ascompared with the Dolichocephalic type of the beginning of the Age ofIron, correspondent with that now so prevalent amongst us, and calledthe Celtic type. It has the same comparative massiveness of forehead,not receding like the Celtic--the same even roundness in the frontalorgans; but it is far loftier in the apex, and far less pronouncedin the hinder cranial hemisphere where phrenologists place the animalorgans. To speak as a phrenologist, the cranium common to the Vril-yahas the organs of weight, number, tune, form, order, causality, verylargely developed; that of construction much more pronounced thanthat of ideality. Those which are called the moral organs, such asconscientiousness and benevolence, are amazingly full; amativenessand combativeness are both small; adhesiveness large; the organ ofdestructiveness (i.e., of determined clearance of interveningobstacles) immense, but less than that of benevolence; and theirphiloprogenitiveness takes rather the character of compassion andtenderness to things that need aid or protection than of the animal loveof offspring. I never met with one person deformed or misshapen. Thebeauty of their countenances is not only in symmetry of feature, but ina smoothness of surface, which continues without line or wrinkle to theextreme of old age, and a serene sweetness of expression, combined withthat majesty which seems to come from consciousness of power and thefreedom of all terror, physical or moral. It is that very sweetness,combined with that majesty, which inspired in a beholder like myself,accustomed to strive with the passions of mankind, a sentiment ofhumiliation, of awe, of dread. It is such an expression as a paintermight give to a demi-god, a genius, an angel. The males of the Vril-yaare entirely beardless; the Gy-ei sometimes, in old age, develop a smallmoustache.
I was surprised to find that the colour of their skin was not uniformlythat which I had remarked in those individuals whom I had firstencountered,--some being much fairer, and even with blue eyes, and hairof a deep golden auburn, though still of complexions warmer or richer intone than persons in the north of Europe.
I was told that this admixture of colouring arose from intermarriagewith other and more distant tribes of the Vril-ya, who, whether by theaccident of climate or early distinction of race, were of fairer huesthan the tribes of which this community formed one. It was consideredthat the dark-red skin showed the most ancient family of Ana; but theyattached no sentiment of pride to that antiquity, and, on the contrary,believed their present excellence of breed came from frequent crossingwith other families differing, yet akin; and they encourage suchintermarriages, always provided that it be with the Vril-ya nations.Nations which, not conforming their manners and institutions to thoseof the Vril-ya, nor indeed held capable of acquiring the powers overthe vril agencies which it had taken them generations to attain andtransmit, were regarded with more disdain than the citizens of New Yorkregard the negroes.
I learned from Zee, who had more lore in all matters than any male withwhom I was brought into familiar converse, that the superiority ofthe Vril-ya was supposed to have originated in the intensity of theirearlier struggles against obstacles in nature amidst the localitiesin which they had first settled. "Wherever," said Zee, moralising,"wherever goes on that early process in the history of civilisation, bywhich life is made a struggle, in which the individual has to put forthall his powers to compete with his fellow, we invariably find thisresult--viz., since in the competition a vast number must perish, natureselects for preservation only the strongest specimens. With ourrace, therefore, even before the discovery of vril, only the highestorganisations were preserved; and there is among our ancient books alegend, once popularly believed, that we were driven from a regionthat seems to denote the world you come from, in order to perfect ourcondition and attain to the purest elimination of our species by theseverity of the struggles our forefathers underwent; and that, when oureducation shall become finally completed, we are destined to returnto the upper world, and supplant all the inferior races now existingtherein."
Aph-Lin and Zee often conversed with me in private upon thepolitical and social conditions of that upper world, in which Zee sophilosophically assumed that the inhabitants were to be exterminatedone day or other by the advent of the Vril-ya. They found in myaccounts,--in which I continued to do all I could (without launchinginto falsehoods so positive that they would have been easily detected bythe shrewdness of my listeners) to present our powers and ourselves inthe most flattering point of view,--perpetual subjects of comparisonbetween our most civilised populations and the meaner subterranean raceswhich they considered hopelessly plunged in barbarism, and doomed togradual if certain extinction. But they both agreed in desiring toconceal from their community all premature opening into the regionslighted by the sun; both were humane, and shrunk from the thought ofannihilating so many millions of creatures; and the pictures I drew ofour life, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain I boastedof our great men--poets, philosophers, orators, generals--and defied theVril-ya to produce their equals. "Alas," said Zee, "this predominanceof the few over the many is the surest and most fatal sign of a raceincorrigibly savage. See you not that the primary condition of mortalhappiness consists in the extinction of that strife and competitionbetween individuals, which, no matter what forms of government theyadopt, render the many subordinate to the few, destroy real liberty tothe individual, whatever may be the nominal liberty of the state, andannul that calm of existence, without which, felicity, mental or bodily,cannot be attained? Our notion is, that the more we can assimilate lifeto the existence which our noblest ideas can conceive to be that ofspirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more we approximateto a divine happiness here, and the more easily we glide into theconditions of being hereafter. For, surely, all we can imagine of thelife of gods, or of blessed immortals, supposes the absence of self-madecares and contentious passions, such as avarice and ambition. It seemsto us that it must be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed withoutactive occupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers,but occupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to theidiosyncrasies of each, not forced and repugnant--a life gladdened bythe untrammelled interchange of gentle affections, in which the moralatmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance, and strife and rivalry.Such is the political state to which all the tribes and families ofthe Vril-ya seek to attain, and towards that goal all our theories ofgovernment are shaped. You see how utterly opposed is such a progress tothat of the uncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim ata systematic perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warring passionsaggravated more and more as their progress storms its way onward. Themost powerful of all the races in our world, beyond the pale of theVril-ya, esteems itself the best governed of all political societies,and to have reached in that respect the extreme end at which politicalwisdom can arrive, so that the other nations should tend more or less tocopy it. It has established, on its broadest base, the Koom-Posh--viz.,the government of the ignorant upon the principle of being the mostnumerous. It has placed the supreme bliss in the vying with each otherin all things, so that the evil passions are never in repose--vying forpower, for wealth, for eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry itis horrible to hear the vituperation, the slanders, and calumnies whicheven the best and mildest among them heap on each other without remorseor shame."
"Some years ago," said Aph-Lin, "I visited this
people, and theirmisery and degradation were the more appalling because they were alwaysboasting of their felicity and grandeur as compared with the rest oftheir species. And there is no hope that this people, which evidentlyresembles your own, can improve, because all their notions tend tofurther deterioration. They desire to enlarge their dominion more andmore, in direct antagonism to the truth that, beyond a very limitedrange, it is impossible to secure to a community the happiness whichbelongs to a well-ordered family; and the more they mature a systemby which a few individuals are heated and swollen to a size above thestandard slenderness of the millions, the more they chuckle and exact,and cry out, 'See by what great exceptions to the common littleness ofour race we prove the magnificent results of our system!'"
"In fact," resumed Zee, "if the wisdom of human life be to approximateto the serene equality of immortals, there can be no more direct flyingoff into the opposite direction than a system which aims at carryingto the utmost the inequalities and turbulences of mortals. Nor do I seehow, by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fitthemselves even to appreciate the joys of immortals to which they stillexpect to be transferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary,minds accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse ofgodlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, and wouldlong to get back to a world in which they could quarrel with eachother."