At this stage, M. Hollydorf interrupted the Dosch, with the assurance
that he was fully convinced not only of the actual existence of
animalculan humanity, but of the tangible wisdom of Manatitlan
providence, shown in their inauguration of rational system for
educational discernment, necessary for the fulfillment in life of happy
intention. “But the difficulty of making the home society realize by
letter the multiplying wonders in the course of our discoveries, puzzles
my invention for a credible method of imparting the information without
subjecting my sanity and integrity to impeachment. If you can, in your
wisdom, resolve me how I may absolve myself with credit in my official
correspondence, I shall certainly feel grateful.”
The Dosch smilingly assured him that he had no occasion for fear, as the
sensational novelty of truthful record, with a little auramental aid
rendered by the Manatitlans in the substitution of thought, would
suffice for the ready adoption and belief of his report, as a marvelous
indication of the age, in evidence of rapid progression under German
lead. With this closing advisorial suggestion the Dosch and his
companions departed for Maniculæ.
The abstracted mood, fitful and irrelevant conversation, with the daily
convocations of the four conservators of the Manatitlan secret, in the
house under the northern temple’s eastern wall, did not fail to attract
the wondering curiosity of their associates. But as M. Hollydorf had
emancipated the members of the corps from field duty, they found no lack
of pleasing occupation in rendering useful aid to the Heracleans. Doctor
Baāhar had enlisted the padre, for a quid pro quo, in the pursuit of
butterflies; the two curators of sound engaged in herding and woodland
pursuits; Jack and Bill, under Heraclean and Kyronese instruction,
engaged in “navigating” a small garden plot in the latifundium, with
amusing success, while Viscouswitzs, the artist, wooed the Indian maids
of the Vermejo tribe.
The Dosch, in continuation of his historical sketch of the Manatitlans,
passed to the period noted as the Heraclean epoch.
* * * * *
The third century of your Christian era was well advanced before they
were aware that there was a race of white gigas occupying a city not far
remote from Maniculæ. At that period distance was measured by the time
occupied in conveyance by the insects then in use for transportation;
but as the vitality of their bodies was subject to deciduous tenure,
travelers were obliged to confine their researches within the limits of
populated districts, between which adventitious paths were well defined.
The defective means of communication with remote Manatitlan provinces
had ever been a source of sincere regret. Still the lack of advancement
in the art of locomotion had never interfered with the actual
realization of happiness. The wood roach and beetle were used as insects
of draught in the preparation of the soil for cultivation, and the flea
for equisaltation, it being the favorite mount for distant journeys and
pleasure excursions. The first innovation upon these time honored extra
locomotive adjuncts, was effected by the persevering ingenuity and
daring courage of a medium named Bussee. He had from an early age
devoted his thoughts to natural history with the practical intention of
improving the native stock which was too diminutive to be made available
for transportation. As a boy he had been noted for a quick practical
judgment, displayed in his ability to eke out from scant means the
fulfillment of a desired end. Many of his improved domestic utensils are
still in use, in evidence of an inventive genius in advance of his age.
His habits were erratic, showing an impatience that disdained restraint
within the bounds of precedental usage. Still his affectionate desire to
confer public benefits attracted a grateful solicitude whenever his
absence was unusually prolonged. But as he rarely returned without some
valuable acquisition, confidence in his ability for self-protection
waived anxiety. At length an absence of two months without communicating
with his family, aroused public sympathy to such a pitch that a search
was decided upon. In preparation the citizens of Maniculæ had collected
in the anthemique to consult upon the most feasible means of conducting
the search.
When the direction was decided upon, and they were issuing forth for its
prosecution, they were startled by the gyrations of an apis isolata
(solitary bee) in close proximity to their heads. After a few eccentric
evolutions which excited a commensurate degree of alarm, their fears
were relieved by a shout of laughter in the jovial tones of the
absentee, who, by a skillful direction, caused the bee to alight in
their midst. When sufficiently assured of freedom from danger, his
parents and the Dosch approached near enough to obtain a view of his
mechanical appliances for guiding his prize. Between the wings of the
bee, upon his back, a net with latticed films, supported in dome shape
by stiff fibres, was attached. This turret was retained in place by
filaments, which passed beneath his body, in the articulation between
the body and thorax, so that his movements and winged action were not
impeded. To the antennæ, on either side, were attached filamental
guides, or reins, for directing his course, the proximal extremities
being coupled within the pilot cone. When assured of the strength and
security of the attachments, the Dosch and parents of Buzzee ventured on
a short experimental flight. As the insect circled, in company with his
mate, to gain a bee line, the daring volantaph caused him to execute a
variety of intricate evolutions, which at first alarmed his passengers,
who expostulated with him in reproof for his temerity. But when he
explained his wish to show them how completely the movements of the bee
were under his control, they no longer offered objections, their fears
being turned to admiration. When satisfied that air flights could be
conducted with more ease, safety, and swiftness, beyond the most
sanguine expectations of ancient or modern Manatitlan prognosticators,
his enterprise was highly commended. When landed the Dosch and advisors
expressed a desire, in behalf of the people, to listen to a relation of
his adventures in the anthemique, as it would be the means of avoiding
rehearsals from hearsay, with the defects that of necessity were
attendant upon individual versions. An hour before evening song the
anthemique was thronged with the citizens of Maniculæ anxious to hear
Buzzee’s relation of the expedients used for a capture so important in
its prospective bearings to the people of Manatitla. To enhance the
clearness of his demonstration, and at the same time show the dazed
docility of the bee, Buzzee directed his flight to the cantilor’s
rostrum, and after he had settled addressed the assemblage from the
pilot cone, in substance, as follows:—
“Although no stranger to your manifestations of affection, I am well
aware that in appearance I have been remiss in rendering you suitable
returns; but am certain that your confidence in the integrity of my
intentions will exculpate me from meditated indifference. I am now happy
in being able to bring you tangible proof that my wanderings were not
prompted from motives of selfishness or disdain. From my childhood I
have listened in silence to the oft repeated regrets that our extraneous
means of locomotion were limited to insects so lacking in the instincts
of intelligence necessary for successful direction. Those available for
locomotion were too ephemeral in their term of existence to be trusted
for conveyance far beyond the habitable limits of our country, which
from the illimitable firmament seemed to be but a mere speck upon the
earth’s surface. With a curious desire to learn the wonders of creation
overshadowed by the starry canopy, my earliest thoughts were directed to
the acquirement of the means necessary for safe transportation above the
earth’s surface. My thoughts were at first naturally directed to
artificial wings as the indicated means of progressive transposition
from earth to atmospheric space, without giving thought to the
consideration of ponderable adaptability. Human mortality, which
requires omnivorous support, declares itself ponderable in the vis
inertia of earth, in contrast with the airy attenuations that bespeak
adaptative intention in creating the tenants of space. In addition, with
the successful achievement of working wings, there would be inevitable
friction with the uncertainties of wear and derangement in flight, with
awkward position of ponderable suspension in space for repairs. So my
inventive genius was fain to hold itself convinced of the futility of
subverting the order of elementary adaptation, designed by the Creator
for the perfection of His intentions. Self convicted with the foolish
audacity of my labors to safely suspend with motion, and locomote with
facility ponderable humanity in space, I bethought myself of man’s
privilege of making subordinate organic vitality, with legitimate kindly
motive, subservient to his desired facilitations. For the elucidation of
my thought suggestions I directed my investigations to insects of
flight, to select from their varied species one suited to our
requirements. The primary qualifications necessary were sagacity,
supporting wing expanse, strength, longevity, and equal motion in
flight, with instinctive perception of individuality sufficient for
submission to our kindly direction. The efficient qualities indicated
for the selection of a winged conveyance, were first, size, with an
adaptation for control, in combination with a supporting buoyancy in
excess of its individual requirements. In the second degree
intelligence, with a longevity sufficient for compensative training, and
memory capable of retaining the imposed impressions, subject to the
recognition of personal direction foreign to their own volition. Added
to these essential qualifications, it was desirable that the insect
should be naturally inclined to sustain a long and swift flight. Bees
had early attracted my attention, but there were many objections to
their adoption that seemed insurmountable. Multitudinous in association,
and individually aggressive, were primary defects in disposition; while
in industrious habits and vocation they were subject to routine
enactments, which together with the tenacious nature and method of
collecting and disposing of their food threatened to end my ambitious
projects, in trial with them, in death from suffocation, or waxed
adhesion to their bodies or cells. The fear of being stalled and borne
to their cells for living incorporation, raised an insuperable dread,
that prevented me from coveting an experimental acquaintance with the
working orders of their kind. Often in my wanderings I have passed
beyond the boundaries of Manatitla in search of a locomotive
desideratum, which I had supposed necessary for the welfare of our race,
as well as a gratuitous vehicle for the gratification of my covetous
desire to rise into the realms of space, to survey beneath our
terrestrial place of abode. A month since I was returning homeward sad
and dispirited with continued disappointments, when at the close of day,
while the glowing tints of the setting sun still lingered in the glory
of their parting adornment to foliage and flowers, I was attracted by
the swift whirr of strange insect wings. In a moment my attention was
drawn with intent desire toward a pair of insects bearing a hybrid
resemblance to the bee family. After a careful reconnoitering
inspection, seemingly directed, first, to the quality of the flowers of
a tropical honeysuckle, and secondly, to see if they contained insect
occupants, they alighted upon the petals of the fairest. Unlike the
hoarding selfish instincts of their congeners of the bee kind, they
premised their labors with playful dalliance, partly upon wing and with
sprightly pedal evolutions, while darting in chase and counter chase in
and out from the petaled cups of the flowers. In a few minutes their
playful antics and fondlings ceased, then the male with an autocratic
appearance of gallantry assisted his spouse to load herself with the
sweets and waxy exudations of the flowers, this accomplished he sent her
unescorted away, evidently to unload in their store house. During her
absence he devoted his time to a general inspection of the flowers, with
the evident intention of selecting the best. In one he found a belated
droniva (a tropical representative of the bumble-bee family) who was
ejected without ceremony, although double the size of the audacious
usurper. His activity, independence, and cleanly regard for his own
person, disposed me to excuse his cavalier exaction of service drudgery
from his mate, as the duty seemed to afford her pleasure. In fact the
pair impressed me so favorably, that I determined to avail myself of the
opportunity to secure a permanent attachment.
“Years anterior, as you are aware, I perfected a harness in anticipation
of the fulfillment of my hopes of being able to make a capture suited
for our locomotive requirements. This I had carried with me in all my
excursions, and while my coveted prize was engaged in his erratic
flights, I placed myself in ambush in the fairest flower of his
selection, and had the gratification of securing him in leash before the
return of his mate. He soon became aware of unusual restraint, and
curious to learn its cause made experimental flights which gave me an
opportunity to test the success of my invention, and I was delighted to
find that I could direct his course with ease. Seemingly puzzled at the
loss of his voluntary power of direction, he made every available effort
to learn the cause of his sudden bereavement, and was pursuing his
investigations when his spouse returned. With mandibulations he quickly
communicated to her the restraint that had been placed upon his
movements during her absence. With evident anxiety she commenced a
search for the impedimental cause. In a few moments she discovered the
filamental guides that I had attached to his antennæ beneath the
carapace, but failing in her attempts to remove them, after a short
consultation, they rose in flight from the flower to the bee line of
their home with a marked show of anxiety, which made me feel a glow of
regret that my selfishness had been the cause of their disquietude. Once
only, in homeward flight, did I attempt to subject him to a variation in
course, but it caused such a trepidation in his mate that it was with
difficulty that she recovered the balance movement of her wings.
Reaching their cell, which was in a fissured ledge of basaltic
formation, they held another consultation and investigation, during
which my turret cone was subjected to a close examination, but the tough
silicothed filaments were too strong for removal by her feeble efforts.
Finding his strange investment inevitable, and attended with but slight
inconvenience, he, at last, with cheerful philosophy, soothed the
anxiety of his spouse with endearments, abated of their autocratic
patronizing air of superiority. This show of appreciation for his mate’s
solicitude, at once bespoke a high degree of sympathetic intelligence
attained by a union of instinctive equality. In contrasted proof of the
evident assumption, I will adduce the ants, and our neighbors of the
human species, who live in a state of concubinage, to show that sexual
gregation begets a condition of brutal selfishness in the males, causing
them to use physical strength for the reduction of their females to
serve as bond slaves of passion and labor for multitudinous production
in kind. From their continued dalliance after nightfall, I was pleased
to learn that their habits were semi-nocturnal in perceptive activity.
When they finally retired for the night to the shelter within their
cell, I suffered retributive spasms from the powerful mellific odors
that pervaded the cell, which caused protracted coughing and general
relaxation, so that in my extremity I was prompted to make my escape
into the open air, but the intense darkness and my weakness prevented
me. As my air passages became accustomed to the acrid irritation, I in
sequence suffered from mellific narcotism, and fell into a stuporic
medium between waking impressions and fantastic visions of instinct that
precede the waking dawn from sleep. These variations continued until the
bees’ emergence into the open air, in the morning, revived me. After
their matutinal salutations they rose in flight circles to their bee
line, but winged their course in an opposite direction from the
honeysuckle plot so memorable in their previous day’s experience,
probably attributing the cause of restraint to some inherent property of
the flowers.
“My elevation and swift passage through the air, reminded me, with its
bracing effect, that I had not taken food for a donsenack, so feeling at
ease I unstrapped my script and made a hearty meal, with a zest that the
words of our language will fail to express. Shortly after I had closed
my morning meal, the bees commenced their circlings in downward descent,
and ere long I discovered below, on the rocky declivity of a hillside a
growth of honeysuckles, the goal of their attraction. In the circling
support of their buzzing wings they remained suspended over the flowers
for some time, until their safety had been tested by dronivas and
humming-birds, then with caution they ventured to settle upon the
petals, and after some hesitation, the female was loaded and dispatched
with her first cargo to the cell. The male, as on the previous day,
employed his time during her absence in an investigation of the floral
resources of the hillside, with an occasional essay of his belligerent
propensities directed against humming-birds and other collectors of
sweets. This disposition, which seemed to have received an aggravated
accession, in the vigorous temerity of daring assaults, from the
restraints I had imposed, was treated with a gentle admonition to test
their directing efficacy.
“The first essay provoked a display of resistance, but without avail in
thwarting the changes I meditated, except for the production of a marked
degree of discomfort, as the tension of the filamental bonds from
opposing obstinacy caused a spasmodic action of the wings from axillary
compression. Disconcerted, after frequent trials of his voluntary powers
in opposition to my guiding mechanical appliances, he settled upon a
petal for reflection. Then, seemingly, after mature consideration, an
instinctive impulse would cause him to dart away in flight as if to test
anew his strength in controlling volition, but only to be turned back
before reaching the object of his destination. When successful, after
frequent failures, he seemed to be quite as much disturbed as with the
contrary results of his trials. I soon found in these practical essays,
that my studied calculations for his direction fell far short of the
absolute requirements of necessity and safety. In his short flights I
discovered a power of resistance that baffled my attempts to direct his
rise and descent, which was evidently independent of head and wings.
Looking backward, when making a short tack, the resisting part was made
manifest by the movements of the cartilaginous rings of the body. In
studying the changing results in controlling direction, I found that the
body acted as a rudder in flight for upward and downward inclination,
and until I could obtain its concerted action with head and wings,
instinctive volition would oppose my usurpation of its natural rights.
With the view of effecting temporary control I rove a ring with a line
attached to the four terminal quarters of its circumference, to act,
when adjusted, as a tip to the body. This I confined in place without
much difficulty, and passing the lines through corresponding guides to
the carapace reflected them through pulleys back to the cone. These
additions to my managing devices, met with no decided opposition, but
the victim kept my movements under the watchful supervision of his eyes,
but more in curiosity than in fear or anger. On the return of his mate,
an antennæ inspection was improvised for tracing the new additions, but
as their labors were quickly resumed, I interpreted their quiet
resignation as an act of submission. After the departure of his spouse
on her second homeward trip, he engaged in a flight trial to learn the
extent of the new vetoes that I had placed upon his volition
correspondence with members of his body corporate. His diminished lack
of self-control begot a vengeful desire to retrieve compensation by
inflicting retributive discomfort and stings upon the innocent. After
his test trials had convinced him, that in movement he was no longer
capable of commanding himself, but subject to a mysterious power, he
fought two rounds with dronivas, the odds being four to one in favor of
his opponents, each exceeding his weight by two thirds; after sustaining
his preëmption right to the sole occupation of the flowers with them, he
matched his vengeful speed and tactics against a score of humming-birds,
proving himself equal to his undertaking. Besides these emprises of
valor and speed, I subjected him to a test of my guiding improvements to
which he not only submitted in freedom from irritability, but seemed to
recognize the new sensations and eccentric effects as a pleasing
supplement to his involuntary powers, superseding in part the necessity
of volition. Desiring that he might become accustomed to my guiding
presence, and familiar with my person, I exposed myself as often as
possible to his own and consort’s eyes, and on their return to the cell
at nightfall, I felt certain that they had accepted me as an attached
presage for good. As in oft repeated subjection to deleterious
influences, the narcotic effluvia of the cell was far less offensive
than on the previous night.
“With the dawn of the third morning the bees rose to their line and
settled in descent upon the flowers in bloom on the vines subject to the
previous day’s levy. As if in anticipation of my intention, the usual
four cargoes were dispatched in less than an hour, then both circled
upward to the line for homeward flight, when, to their astonishment, I
turned the lead of the male to the westward. This deviation from
ancestral custom, and sequent habits, aroused the most obstinate
resistance, which after several pseudo starts succeeded in baffling my
intention, and but for the fortunate discovery of the cause, which was
the fouling of the sinister guiding line, I should have been obliged to
succumb to the instinctive obstinacy transmitted for the preservation of
formalistic routine. With hazardous determination I succeeded in
righting it, notwithstanding the increased velocity of their homeward
flight, accelerated by the instinctive impetus from the imparted zest of
their return to the line of old habits. When again subject to my
control, the course of the male was changed to a northwesterly
direction, but the female coaxingly endeavored to turn him back with the
voice of her wings, as she kept abreast in equal flight. Finding it
impossible, she reluctantly resumed her station in the rear, yielding
protestingly to his lead. At first a natural feeling deterred me from
casting a look below through fear of being surprised with giddiness, but
gradually this passed away under the exhilarating elasticity of the air,
which appeared to raise my spirits to an equality with my ambitious
aspirations. Presumptuous mortality even ventured to cast a scornful
glance upon things mundane; when lo! in advance, rising to the bee line
I discovered a meroptic bee-eater which dissolved in fear my
exultations.
“Luckily my naturalistic studies enabled me to disappoint him of his
premeditated tid-bit gratification, as I should have been included in
his bill of fare, with a vale for the improved means of locomotion I had
obtained for my people. Grateful for the presence of mind which in great
emergencies baffles instinct, I abruptly changed the course of the bee
northward. But the pursuing merop was not to be disappointed without an
extra effort to secure his prize, for he immediately tried his chances
in chase; but as he was soon distanced he gave up pursuit, still soaring
above the trees to intercept those which he expected in train, but for
once, at least, he was foiled in following the transmitted impressions
of ancestral instinct. The curved flight of the merop, even with the
advantage of superior swiftness, would have been quickly distanced by
the undeviating line of the bees’ air trail when once in advance of
their pursuer, unless retarded by the greed of an overload; of this fact
the instinct of the bird is apprised, but hunger sets at variance all
rules, and if he fails in intercepting, he often pursues. The apiaster,
after his first capture, if his prize proves to be a honey bee, builds
his nest beneath the line, for the purpose of surprising the homeward
flight of the workers when loaded with his coveted sweets. My escape
from sudden death, although easily avoided from seasonable discovery of
the danger, served as a timely warning, which kept me in careful watch
for unknown perils.
“Only a short space of time had elapsed from the start, when in advance
I discovered a beautiful and highly cultivated valley. The giga laborers
were Indians who were under white taskmasters. Passing over the valley,
which extended to the northwest as far as the eye could reach, I changed
our course to the northeast; rising to a line above the mountains two
cities opened to my view, both inclosed with walls for protection. The
largest city was built in the basin of an amphitheatre of surrounding
hills, with an opening, and corresponding gate of the city, looking out
upon the valley we had overflown. The second city was beautifully
located upon the summit of a hill, overshadowed by the spray of a large
waterfall that flowed over the brink of a precipice, which extended its
barrier for miles north and south, its perpendicular descent being only
broken by a zigzag roadway cut in its face for communication between the
two cities. The wall of circumvallation around the City of the Falls was
not fully completed, for thousands of workmen were still engaged upon
the portion inclosing the large plain that sloped from the summit in
broad expanse to the limits of the walled stream that flowed from the
basin of the falls, without the foundation of the walls, to unite again
without the cinctus gates. From the circling lash in the hands of the
taskmasters, it was easy to comprehend that the laborers were bondsmen,
their color indicating aboriginal birth.
“In homeward flight the bees were allowed to take their own course,
which, from the accelerated rapidity in the motion of their wings,
declared a nostalgic haste to enjoy the hospitalities of their sweet
home. After the morning’s labor of the bees was completed on the
succeeding day, I directed their flight over Maniculæ to discover
whether you were over anxious on my account, but as my family appeared
to be free from disquiet I again turned my bees westward for new
explorations. Alighting at midday on an island in a lake, south of the
valley discoveries of the previous day, I found it unsettled with an
animalculan race of tits, whose sole occupation seemed to be devoted to
sociable potations of a fluid that excited amicable quarrels, in which
the families engaged with wild enthusiasm, without respect to age or
infirmities. The domestic amusements were varied with cockroach racings,
worshiping, drinking, dancing, fighting, and hunting pediculas, in the
latter sport the women and children engaged with peculiar zest. In
verification of our sages demonstrations of instinctive cause and
effect, when subject to gregarious association in folds, in freedom from
the directing intelligence of Creative endowment, their bodies gave sure
indication of reactive bestiality. Disgusted with the extremes they
exhibited of wailings and vociferous jabberings, as the product of
instinct bewrayed with madness, I was glad with grateful relief when my
cleanly transport bore me again into the pure atmosphere beyond the
sound reach of the reviling pretexts of these ape libels upon Creative
intention. Assuming the privilege of a sub-lunary discoverer, I named
the island Greenpat, from the emerald beauty of its tints, and the
inhabitants Mouthpats, from their unthinking volubility, bespeaking the
unkempt scragginess of their natures.
“Having tested the ready sagacity of my transport acquisition, and
applicability for quick conveyance, I now propose to make use of it to
obtain others of its kind, with a view to propagation, as I feel certain
that it can be domesticated for mutual advantage, as both male and
female evince an increasing confidence in the controlling influence of
my presence; and of the enduring longevity of the species I feel equally
certain.”
The assemblage, at the conclusion of the narration, enthusiastically
congratulated Buzzee upon the result of his successful perseverance,
saluting him as a public benefactor, with the title of apiamaster. In
the course of a century there was not a family in Manatitla without a
pair or more of the apis isolatas, which became known in common usage as
the bee phaeton. Their introduction as locomotive facilitations
contributed greatly to extended sociability, as they were able to bear
with ease twenty giantescoes, forty mediums, or their equivalents in
tits, and we have evident reason to believe that they instinctively
enjoy their domestication with us better than in a wild state, for in
our pleasure parties they harmonize the voice vibrations of their wings
with our songs. To Buzzee’s inventive skill we are also indebted for the
imperishable combination used in building, and the preparation of our
textile fabrics.
After the discovery of the Heraclean cities, with the increase of our
people’s means of communication, they were visited daily for the purpose
of influencing the citizens to bestow more kindly treatment upon their
aboriginal benefactors. Evoce (quick perception), a giantesco, had
gained the ear of a cruel taskmaster, for the purpose of using his voice
in expostulation, when to his surprise, he distinctly heard vengeful
denunciations without the utterance of words of speech from the mouth of
the brutal auramentee. Satisfied after frequent experimental repetitions
that the enunciations were vocalized impressions heralding audited words
of speech that could be suppressed or spoken, he made known the nature
of his discovery to the Dosch and his advisers. The coincident
impression of their own thought enunciations, confirmed Evoce’s
suggestion that thought enunciation, and also instinctive mental
impressions, were vocalized by an enunciator in proximity with the ear,
and in communication with the combined organs of sense. Upon these
suggestive conclusions was founded an experimental course of
investigation, which resulted, not only in the full verification of
their deductive anticipations, but with the development of the power of
substituting extraneous impressions for adoption by the giga auramentee,
through the modulated induction of the giantesco voice to an accord with
the mood of the subject. Great care was required in the ventriloquial
modulations of the auramentor’s voice for exact correspondence with the
characteristic peculiarities of the auramentee’s; for any remarkable
deviation was sure to alarm their superstitious fears. For the
acquirement of facility in the substitution of ideas and thoughts, it
was necessary to obtain humoristic ease in the detail expression of
idiomatic phrase peculiar to the auramentee’s use of language. With the
naturally good, we were soon able, with the mutual incitement of
novelty, to evoke and cultivate the germ of pity, while with the
instinctively bad our efforts served to arouse superstitious fears for
the negative advancement of our object, through retributive
apprehensions of vengeance in return for their cruelties. These, with
strange inconsistency, caused sacrificial oblations, with deputized
prayers, to be offered in commutation for the continued gratification of
their evil habits and passions. Yet, with all the perversity of ruling
instinct we have been able to accomplish much good through the means of
thought substitution with your race.