“And this,” said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed--“this, I
presume, is your usual form of burial?”
“Our invariable form,” answered Aph-Lin. “What is it amongst your
people?”
“We inter the body whole within the earth.”
“What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the wife on
whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of corruption?” “But
if 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 vril, into a pinch of dust?”
“You answer well,” said my host, “and there is no arguing on a matter
of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and repulsive, and would
serve to invest death with gloomy and hideous associations. It is
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 live. We thus
feel more sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But
our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by custom. Custom
is not to be changed by a wise An, any more than it is changed by a
wise Community, without the greatest deliberation, followed by the
most earnest conviction. It is only thus that change ceases to be
changeability, and once made is made for good.”
When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the children in his
service and sent them round to several of his friends, requesting their
attendance that day, during the Easy Hours, to a festival in honour of
his kinsman’s recall to the All-Good. This was the largest and gayest
assembly I ever witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was
prolonged far into the Silent Hours.
The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially for grand
occasions. This differed from our entertainments, and was not without
a certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the
Roman empire. There was not one great table set out, but numerous small
tables, each appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond
that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The Ana never
laugh loud, as I 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 tables sank
through the floor, and then came musical entertainments for those who
liked them. Many, however, wandered away:--some of the younger ascended
in their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances; others
strolled through the various 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 the
conversation by the constant companionship of one or the other of my
host’s sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The
guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown accustomed to
my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets, and I had ceased to
excite much curiosity.
To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to excite my
jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome young An, who (though,
as is the modest custom of the males when addressed by females, he
answered with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy
as young ladies new to the world are in most civilised countries, except
England and America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and
ready to falter a bashful “Yes” if she had actually proposed. Fervently
hoping that she would, 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 be
hurried into a pinch of dust, I amused myself by watching the manners of
the other young people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was
no singular assertor of a female’s most valued rights. Wherever I turned
my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy was the wooing
party, and the An the coy and reluctant one. The pretty innocent airs
which an An gave himself on being thus courted, the dexterity with which
he evaded direct answers to professions of attachment, or turned into
jest the flattering compliments addressed to him, would have done honour
to the most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were subjected
greatly to these seductive influences, and both acquitted themselves
with wonderful honour to their tact and self-control.
I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments to
the management of a great property, and who was of an eminently
philosophical temperament,--“I find it difficult to conceive how at your
age, and with all the intoxicating effects on the senses, of music and
lights and perfumes, you can be so cold to that impassioned young Gy who
has just left you with tears in her eyes at your cruelty.”
The young An replied with a sigh, “Gentle Tish, the greatest misfortune
in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with another.”
“Oh! You are in love with another?”
“Alas! Yes.”
“And she does not return your love?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but she has
never plainly told me that she loves me.”
“Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?”
“Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from? Could I so
betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly--so lost to shame,
as to own love to a Gy who has not first owned hers to me?”
“Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex
so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, ‘I love you,’ till she says it
first to him?”
“I can’t say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does, he is
disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised by the Gy-ei.
No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; 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,” continued the
An, “for she whom I love has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot
but think she likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me
because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as to the
surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really love me, for where
a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights.”
“Is this young Gy present?”
“Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother.”
I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided, and saw
a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this people is a sign
that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She wears gray, a neutral tint,
to indicate that she is looking about for a spouse; dark purple if she
wishes to intimate that she has made a choice; purple and orange when
she is betrothed or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow,
and would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen.
Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is
difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young friend’s
choice seemed to me to possess the average of good looks; but there was
an expression in her face that pleased me more than did the faces of the
young Gy-ei generally, because it looked less bold--less conscious of
female rights. I observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced,
from time to time, sidelong at my young friend.
“Courage,” said I, “that young Gy loves you.”
“Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?”
“Your mother is aware of your attachment?”
“Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to confide
such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he may have told it
again to his wife.”
“Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind your
mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about you. Do not
hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself to be questioned till I
rejoin you.”
The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly on the
head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole unobserved behind his
mother and his beloved. I overheard their talk. Bra was speaking;
said she, “There can be no doubt of this: either my son, who is of
marriageable age, will be decoyed into marriage with one of his many
suitors, or he will join those who emigrate to a distance and we shall
see him no more. If you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should
propose.”
“I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win his
affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces; and I am not
like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not enter into his favourite
pursuits, and then he would get tired of me, and at the end of three
years divorce me, and I could never marry another--never.”
“It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be so
necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for timepieces, that he
would rather give up the timepieces than divorce his Gy. You see, my
dear Lo,” continued Bra, “that precisely because we are the stronger
sex, we rule the other provided we never show our strength. If you were
superior to my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as
his wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that art to
yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the Gy in all
except his own special pursuit. But if she either excels him in that,
or affects not to admire him for his proficiency in it, he will not love
her very long; perhaps he may even divorce her. But where a 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 lips, and she rose, still silent, and went
through the crowd till she paused by the young An who loved her. I
followed her steps, but discreetly stood at a little distance while
I watched them. Somewhat to my surprise, till I recollected the coy
tactics among the Ana, the lover seemed to receive her advances with an
air of indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps,
and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished amid the
luminous space above.
Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled with the
crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or homage. It so happened
that I had not seen this great dignitary since the day I had entered
his dominions, and recalling Aph-Lin’s words as to his terrible doubt
whether or not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the
sight of his tranquil countenance.
“I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee,” said the Tur, laying
his hand politely on my bended head. “He is very fond of your society,
and I trust you are not displeased with the customs of our people.”
I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be an
assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received from the Tur,
and my admiration of his countrymen, but the dissecting-knife gleamed
before my mind’s eye and choked my utterance. A softer voice said, “My
brother’s friend must be dear to me.” And looking up I saw a young
Gy, who might be sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and
gazing at me with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to her
full growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about feet 10
inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutive stature, I thought
her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I suppose something in my eyes
revealed that impression, for her countenance grew yet more benignant.
“Taee tells me,” she said, “that you have not yet learned to accustom
yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should have liked to fly with
you.”
“Alas!” I replied, “I can never hope to enjoy that happiness. I am
assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary gift, and it
would take generations before one of my 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 forever. Perhaps when that day comes we
might be glad if the An we chose was also without wings.”
The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began to feel
at ease with Taee’s charming sister, and rather startled her by the
boldness of my compliment in replying, “that no An she could choose
would ever use his wings to fly away from her.” It is so against custom
for an An to say such civil things to a Gy till she has declared her
passion for him, and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young
maiden stood quite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she
did not seem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me to
accompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen to the songs
of the birds. I followed her steps as she glided before me, and she led
me into a chamber almost deserted. A fountain of naphtha was playing in
the centre of the room; round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls
of the room were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds
were chanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of the
divans, and I placed myself at her side. “Taee tells me,” she said,
“that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house that you are not to be
questioned as to the country you come from or the reason why you visit
us. Is it so?”
* Literally “has said, In this house be it requested.” Words synonymous
with law, as implying forcible obligation, are avoided by this singular
people. Even had it been decreed by the Tur 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 submit himself to dissection.”
“It is.”
“May I, at least, without sinning against that 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, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of Aph-Lin,
which is more binding on myself than any one, if I answer questions so
innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are much fairer of hue than I am, and
their average height is at least a head shorter than mine.”
“They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I suppose
their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary disadvantage
of size?”
“They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still they are
very powerful in my country, and an An has small chance of a happy life
if he be not more or less governed by his Gy.”
“You speak feelingly,” said Taee’s sister, in a tone of voice half sad,
half petulant. “You are married, of course.”
“No--certainly not.”
“Nor betrothed?”
“Nor betrothed.”
“Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?”
“In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first.”
“What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!” said the maiden, “and
what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed, never
loved one Gy more than another?”
I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said, “Pardon
me, but I think we are beginning to infringe upon Aph-Lin’s injunction.
This much only will I answer, and then, I implore you, ask no more. I
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! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can interfere
with the choice of their daughters?”
“Indeed they can, and do very often.”
“I should not like to live in that country,” said the Gy simply; “but I
hope you will never go back to it.”
I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with her right
hand, and looked into it tenderly. “Stay with us,” she said; “stay with
us, and be loved.” What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming
a cinder I might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the
light of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and
Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside us. She said not a
word, but, taking my arm with her mighty hand, she drew me away, as a
mother draws a naughty child, and led me through the apartments to one
of the corridors, on which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to
stairs, we ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my
forehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantly plunged
into a profound sleep.
When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds in the
adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee’s sister, her gentle looks and
caressing words, vividly returned to me; and so impossible is it for one
born and reared in our upper world’s state of society to divest
himself of ideas dictated by vanity and ambition, that I found myself
instinctively building proud castles in the air.
“Tish though I be,” thus ran my meditations--“Tish though I be, it is
then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance can captivate.
Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first maiden of this land, the
daughter of the absolute Monarch whose autocracy they so idly seek to
disguise by the republican title of chief magistrate. But for the sudden
swoop of that horrible Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed
to me; and though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a
subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten me with
destruction if I accept his daughter’s hand, yet a Sovereign, whose word
is law, could compel the community to abrogate any custom that forbids
intermarriage with one of a strange race, and which in itself is a
contradiction to their boasted equality of ranks.
“It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with such
incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would not have
sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me from the
combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form. And if I were exalted
by such an alliance, who knows but what the Monarch might elect me as
his successor? Why not? Few among this indolent race of philosophers
like the burden of such greatness. 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 existence; and once chosen,
what reforms I would institute! What additions to the really pleasant
but too monotonous life of this realm my familiarity with the civilised
nations above ground would effect! I am fond of the sports of the field.
Next to war, is not the chase a king’s pastime? In what varieties of
strange game does this nether world abound? How interesting to strike
down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge! But how?
By that terrible vril, in which, from want of hereditary transmission, I
could never be a proficient? No, but by a civilised handy breech-loader,
which these ingenious mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt
improve; nay, surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king,
I should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war. Apropos
of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so intelligent, so
rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for
10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this restriction a mere philosophical
crotchet, at variance with the aspiring element in human nature, such as
has been partially, and with complete failure, tried in the upper world
by the late Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the
neighbouring nations as well armed as one’s own subjects; but then,
what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted with vril, and
apparently resembling, in their democratic institutions, my American
countrymen? One might invade them without offence to the vril nations,
our allies, appropriate their territories, extending, perhaps, to the
most distant regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire
in which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that over
those regions there was no sun to set). As for the fantastical notion
against conceding fame or renown to an eminent individual, because,
forsooth, bestowal of honours insures contest in the pursuit of them,
stimulates angry passions, and mars the felicity of peace--it is opposed
to the very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute creation,
which are all, if tamable, participators in the sentiment of praise and
emulation. What renown would be given to a king who thus extended his
empire! I should be deemed a demigod.” Thinking of that, the other
fanatical notion of regulating this life by reference to one which,
no doubt, we Christians firmly believe in, but never take into
consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled me to
abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance with modern
thought and practical action. Musing over these various projects, I felt
how much I should have liked at that moment to brighten my wits by
a good glass of whiskey-and-water. Not that I am habitually a
spirit-drinker, but certainly there are times when a little stimulant
of alcoholic nature, taken with a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes;
certainly among these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from
which one could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cut
off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject the animal
food which our first medical men agree in recommending to the gastric
juices of mankind!) one would certainly pass a more exhilarating hour
of repast. Then, too, instead of those antiquated dramas performed
by childish amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our
modern opera and a ‘corps de ballet,’ for which one might find, among
the nations I shall conquer, young females of less formidable height and
thews than the Gy-ei--not armed with vril, and not insisting upon one’s
marrying them.
I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms, political,
social, 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 till I heard a
deep sigh, and, raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch.
I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a Gy can,
without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although an An would be
considered forward and immodest to the last degree if he entered the
chamber of a Gy without previously obtaining her permission to do
so. Fortunately I was in the full habiliments I had worn when Zee had
deposited me on the couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well
as shocked, by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted.
“Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you,” said she, “for I am very
unhappy. I have not slept since we parted.”
“A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father’s guest might
well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids. Where was the affection
you pretend to have for me, where was even that politeness on which the
Vril-ya pride themselves, when, taking advantage alike of that physical
strength in which your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our
own, and of those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of
vril invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to humiliation
before your assembled visitors, before Her Royal Highness--I mean, the
daughter of your own chief magistrate,--carrying me off to bed like a
naughty infant, and plunging me into sleep, without asking my consent?”
“Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love? Can you
think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends upon love
till it fades away in blissful trust when we know that the heart we
have wooed is won, I could be indifferent to the perils to which the
audacious overtures of that silly little child might expose you?” “Hold!
Since you introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps does not misbecome
me to say that my most imminent perils come from yourself, or at least
would come if I believed in your love and accepted your addresses. Your
father has told me plainly that in that case I should be consumed into
a cinder with as little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee
blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand.”
“Do not let that fear chill your heart to me,” exclaimed Zee, dropping
on her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space of her ample palm.
“It is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed as those of the same race
wed; true that the love between us must be pure as that which, in our
belief, exists between lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that
boundary at which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to
be together, wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left
my father. He consents to our union on those terms. I have sufficient
influence with the 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 love needs ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your
side in this life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows here:
I ask here for a tie which will bind us for ever and for ever in the
world of immortals. Do you reject me?”
As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face was
changed; nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a divine light, as
that of an immortal, shining out from its human beauty. But she rather
awed me as an angel than moved me as a woman, and after an embarrassed
pause, I faltered forth evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as
delicately as I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position
amongst her race in the light of a husband who might never be permitted
the name of father.
“But,” said Zee, “this community does not constitute the whole world.
No; nor do all the populations comprised in the league of the Vril-ya.
For thy sake I will renounce my country and my people. We will fly
together to some region where thou shalt be safe. I am strong enough to
bear thee on my wings across the deserts that intervene. I am skilled
enough to cleave open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build
our home. Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the
universe. Or 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 constitute by thy description the fickle character of those
savage regions? I so, speak the word, and I will force the way for thy
return, so that I am 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 tenderness, 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. And for a moment it did occur to me that I might avail myself of
Zee’s agency to effect a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But
a very brief space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable
and base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus away,
from her own people and a home in which I had been so hospitably
treated, a creature to whom our world would be so abhorrent, and
for whose barren, if spiritual love, I could not reconcile myself to
renounce the more human affection of mates less exalted above my erring
self. With this sentiment of duty towards the Gy combined another of
duty towards the whole race I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce
into the upper world a being so formidably gifted--a being that with a
movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New York and its
glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her of her staff, with
her science she could easily construct another; and with the deadly
lightnings that armed the slender engine her whole frame was charged. If
thus dangerous to the cities and populations of the whole upper earth,
could she be a safe companion to myself in case her affection should be
subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts, which
it takes so many words to express, passed rapidly through my brain and
decided my answer.
“Zee,” I said, in the softest tones I could command and pressing
respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine vanished--“Zee, I
can find no words to say how deeply I am touched, and how highly I am
honoured, by a love so disinterested and self-immolating. My best return
to it is perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs
of yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are equally
opposed to such a union between those of races so widely differing. On
the other hand, though not deficient in courage among my own people, or
amid dangers with which I am familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of
horror, think of constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal
chaos, with all the elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic
gases, at war with each other, and with the probability that at some
moment, while you were busied in cleaving rocks or conveying vril into
lamps, I should be devoured by a krek which your operations disturbed
from its hiding-place. I, a mere Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy,
so brilliant, so learned, so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve
that love, for I cannot return it.”
Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face away to hide
her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along the room, and paused at
the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as by a new thought, she returned to
my side and said, in a whispered tone,--
“You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With perfect
frankness, then, answer me this question. If you cannot love me, do you
love another?”
“Certainly, I do not.”
“You do not love Taee’s sister?”
“I never saw her before last night.” “That is no answer. Love is swifter
than vril. You hesitate to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy
that prompts me to caution you. If the Tur’s daughter should declare
love to you--if in her ignorance she confides to her father any
preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you, he will
have no option but to request your immediate destruction, as he is
specially charged with the duty of consulting the good of the community,
which could not allow the daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the
Tish-a, in that sense of marriage which does not confine itself to union
of the souls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She has
no strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has no science
wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believe that here my
friendship speaks, and that my jealousy is silent.”
With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I thought no
more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or of the political,
social, and moral reforms I should institute in the capacity of Absolute
Sovereign.