“ In the earlier ages, before the weariness of life had set in to any great extent, the occurrence of any grave bodily lesion, which, though not fatal, was sufficient to involve a serious mutilation, or the entire loss of organs of perception, was a calamity so great that the inhabitants of the earth, confined as they are to one short bodily life, would find it hard, even in imagination, to realize its severity. ”

“ He then proceeded to inform his audience that the inhabitants of the earth, not being included, as the Hesperians, in one vast empire, but being dispersed in a great number of independent nationalities, which varied very much in their degrees of civilization, had formed for themselves equally varying theological systems. That those who were in the lowest grades, either did not recognize the Maker at all, or, if they did recognize him, regarded him as a fiend who was only to be propitiated by offering him bloody sacrifices. ”

“ Their total exemption from the chronic paralysis of the human race which is involved in the incessant passage of the latter through the stages of infancy and childhood, would, by itself, be enough to give the Hesperians such a start in the race as to render competition useless. With us the intelligent man of matured wisdom departs, carrying with him to the grave the greater part of his accumulated stores of knowledge, and all his skill ”

“ If I could only get as far as Hesperos my chances of life would be much better, inasmuch as I was assured, by the same philosophers, that there is good reason for believing that planet to be very abundantly supplied with air. Moreover, it fortunately happened that she was just then approaching the position called by astronomers her inferior conjunction, so her distance from the earth was not much over twenty-five millions of miles. ”

“ When this period of the acquaintance of everyone with everyone else had been reached, very little time intervened before a completely socialistic system was established all over the world. In fact it soon became obvious to all that private property had now become a clumsy incumbrance. The substitution of socialism was greatly facilitated by the extreme ease with which all the necessaries, and most of the luxuries, of life were procurable. ”

“ The chemist, nothing daunted, proposed continuing his experiments; and the southern authorities, hearing the nature of them, and suspecting that a considerable series of sudden disintegrations and reintegrations of his body were likely to result, kindly assigned him a laboratory quite close to the pole—a fact which materially facilitated the memorable discovery which soon rewarded his labours.
At a distance of a few miles to the east there is a hill which is mainly composed of a singular-looking mineral which has not, as yet, been found anywhere else in the planet. ”

“ This is the reason why I described the northern and southern Hesperian hemispheres as mutually inaccessible. No ship constructed by mortal hands could approach this pandemonium and live. We shall see, farther on, that, after the lapse of many ages, counting from the first appearance of rational life, the transit was effected in a wholly unexpected manner. This transit led to a most awful discovery, and with this discovery we shall see that the Modern History of Hesperos begins. ”

“ I must here confine myself to setting out more in detail the extraordinary differences, as to their circumstances and conditions of life, which exist between the rational inhabitants of Hesperos and those of the earth.
The first fact which will strike the reader as a very extraordinary difference indeed is this—that, although there is the same distinction of sexes as is found on earth, and although there is just the same mutual attraction between them, there is no such thing as reproduction of the species. ”

“ Far from it: the Hesperian system was founded on the fair and rational doctrine of give and take, honestly carried out. No one was afflicted with an inscrutable desire of thrusting a ‘happiness’ on his neighbour which he, for himself, repudiated with scorn. The gifts of nature were so very liberal that a small amount of daily labour on the part of each person sufficed to discharge his debt to the society ”

“ The manifestation took place suddenly and simultaneously; but whether it was the result of a new creation, or of a translation from other regions of space, is wrapped in impenetrable mystery. For twenty thousand years the Unknown Power which called them into being has preserved a rigid and unbroken silence. All that is known is that at the above epoch one hundred millions of highly intelligent creatures, equally divided between the two sexes, male and female, simultaneously awoke into conscious life. ”

“ The South Pole being thus the most convenient centre for communication with the entire surface of the planet, had evidently strong claims for selection as the site of the universal metropolis. And before two years, dating from the return of the ship, were over, the whole planet was united in one vast empire, and the seat of government fixed at Australis, as we may style the city of the South Pole. ”

“ As for the institution of private property, the same permanence of individual life gives it quite a different form from that which it assumes under the conditions of death and succession. Personal property, indeed, in our strict sense of the term, can hardly be said to exist at all. There being no real family life—for the mere dwelling together of a childless man and woman can scarcely be called by such a name—a different social unit has been adopted. ”

“ After this, the notes show that the doctor had many interviews and discussions with people from all parts, but no memoranda of them are to be found. Clearly, the result of his communications was an intensifying of the gloom which prevailed in Hesperos. The hopes of the people, which had been strongly excited by his arrival, were as suddenly changed to despondency. And no wonder; for, certainly, tidings of such a Maker as the Being depicted by their visitor, were not calculated to raise any enthusiastic delight. ”

“ And, not only were they in this state of darkness respecting their Maker in consequence of the absence of any form of a direct revelation, but, being absolutely cut off from all knowledge of the remainder of the universe, by the physical structure of their atmosphere, they were also debarred from reaching Him through the medium of His works. The cloud-screen which shelters them from the fierce solar rays is impenetrable to vision, and thus, so far as any knowledge of the sun, and planets, and stars is concerned, they might as well have been a race of blind men. ”

“ But the above account of evanescence as, in all cases, the result of mortal lesion, is not in absolute conformity with the facts of experience. Such lesions are unquestionably, in the vast majority of instances, the real causes of the phenomena. Still, occasionally, though comparatively rarely, cases occur which seem to be irreducible to any such rule, and these, for many ages, were regarded as inexplicable anomalies. However, the law which governs such mysterious cases of evanescence was at last found out, as I shall now proceed to explain. ”

“ Permanence of individual life again is the cause of a marked difference in Hesperos from anything we experience on Earth, with respect to the tenures of the various occupations, trades, or professions, by the persons who exercise them. With us life is so short, and art so long, that when a man has once acquired the skill which is needful for his calling, he has but small opportunity, after having exercised it for a time, of ever learning another. ”

“ In addition to these personal severities the child spent the greater part of his time locked up in an empty room, imperfectly clothed, more than half-starved, and with nothing whatever to do but reflect on the inscrutable problem of human life. ”

“ This organization of labour was not nearly so complicated a business as such a task would be if attempted on the earth, even if we were to assume that the average terrestrial character was as well-conditioned as that of the Hesperians. For it is plain that, under the Hesperian conditions of life, the number of separate callings and professions is comparatively small. A world where there are no children has no need for the vast machinery of education; the great army of schoolmasters, tutors, and professors is non-existent. ”

“ The abundance on earth of loathsome and noxious types of animal life; their portentous fecundity; the formation of entire species which can live only by destroying and devouring the weaker and more defenceless, were happily contrasted with the innocent fauna of Hesperos, confined to a small number of harmless, frugivorous animals, in which the power of reproduction no more than sufficed to keep up the breed. ”

“ The planet abounds, as might have been expected, in multiplied forms of vegetable life. There are many trees which closely resemble those of the earth; many also of very different types from any known here. The great preponderance in number of the fruit-bearing trees over the barren species is exceedingly noteworthy. As for the flowers, I have seen none on earth, tropical or non-tropical, which in any way approach the gorgeous splendour of the Hesperian colouring. ”

“ Owing to the absence of reproduction, it was quite plain that, unless this practice was discountenanced, the depopulation of the planet was inevitable; and, inasmuch as the question ‘Is Life worth living?’ had not yet been answered in the negative, it was resolved that the whole force of society should be brought to bear against all violent evanishers. ”

“ The enforced toleration of everyone by everyone else, worked, in the course of ages, as its inevitable result, a greatly increased kindliness of disposition and demeanour; and this was still further helped when progress of time, combined with the absolute fixity of the population, brought about the strange state of things, that each individual was personally acquainted with every other member of the Hesperian multitude. ”

“ That another system, the followers of which were, perhaps, the most numerous of any, taught that the Maker would ultimately grant the boon of cessation of existence to his creatures, but only after they have undergone a long series of transmigrations into other forms of life. ”

“ By far the most striking of the physical phenomena on the planet is the frightful chronic hurricane which rages round the equator. To this I must ask the reader’s special attention, inasmuch as some of the most astounding events in the Hesperian history are only to be understood with reference to this extraordinary and hitherto unexplained tornado. I have already mentioned the exceeding density of the air, and also the fortunate exemption of the greater part of the planet from storms. ”

“ When I said that the apparent ages of the new created or imported Hesperians varied between twenty and sixty years, I did not mean to intimate, and the reader is not to infer, that anything in the slightest degree resembling the horrible condition of the Struldbrugs of Luggnagg has place in Hesperos. Far from it; the dependence of the bodily organism on the age of the individual in that planet has no analogy with the progressive decay of the wretched Struldbrug; it follows a more complicated law. ”

“ They had 114learned the enormous extent of the universe, and, as a consequence, that the Hesperians, so far from exhausting its contents, were no more than insignificant specks in its unfathomed deeps. In the vast profusion of worlds they felt themselves lost. If their Maker had charge of that vast universe, he might well have forgotten them altogether. Why, then, should they not depart from life? The door of exit was always open. A fall down the nearest precipice was always easy, and the instantaneous dissolution of the body was an unfailing remedy for every ill. ”

“ The planet is divided into two regions, which in ancient times were supposed to be, and, in one respect, really were, mutually inaccessible. The division is made by an immense equatorial ocean which surrounds the entire globe. The extent of this ocean, measured from north to south, is nowhere less than four thousand miles. Each of the poles is the centre of a vast continent which extends on all sides till it meets the great central ocean. ”

“ So the Hesperian surgeons were skilful amputators of limbs, and they could, and often did, perform other serious operations for the purpose of preserving the patient from evanescence. Still their success was but small, for the wretched condition of the sufferer usually led to the extinction of his life under the metronomic law of Adverse Balance—evanescence, in fact, was only postponed.
But, as the world-weariness gained ground, few were found who were willing to purchase life at so heavy a price. ”

“ How could there be any science of anatomy in Hesperos? No corpses could be procured for dissection. An amputated arm or leg might be anatomised, but an examination of the structure of any of the vital organs is simply impossible. ”

“ I got up and looked around me. The country was similar to my former place of abode; the same abundance of fruit-trees; the same pure streams of water; but the hills and mountains were quite differently 130shaped and grouped together. I could see no signs of rational life; the silence was broken only by the sweet singing of the birds, of which, as before, there were many kinds.
‘While I was still lost in astonishment at what had occurred, there suddenly appeared on the exact spot of ground where I had, a few minutes before, awakened into new life, another man extended on the grass. ”