The Coming Race - Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton (free ereaders txt) 📗

prey of another- even
a plant suffers from disease till it perishes prematurely,
while the plant next to it rejoices in its vitality and lives
out its happy life free from a pang. That it is an erroneous
analogy from human infirmities to reply by saying that the
Supreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making his own
secondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of
the First Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorant
conception of the All-Good, to dismiss with a brief contempt
all consideration of justice for the myriad forms into which He
has infused life, and assume that justice is only due to the
single product of the An. There is no small and no great in
the eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant that
nothing, however humble, which feels that it lives and suffers,
can perish through the series of ages, that all its suffering
here, if continuous from the moment of its birth to that of its
transfer to another form of being, would be more brief compared
with eternity than the cry of the new-born is compared to the
whole life of a man; and once suppose that this living thing
retains its sense of identity when so transformed (for without
that sense it could be aware of no future being), and though,
indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed from the
scope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it to be
uniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it would
be if acting only upon general and secondary laws; because such
perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of
knowledge to conceive, perfectness of love to will, and
perfectness of power to complete it.
58
However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tends
perhaps to confirm politically the systems of government which,
admitting different degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfect
equality in rank, exquisite mildness in all relations and
intercourse, and tenderness to all created things which the good
of the community does not require them to destroy. And though
their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a cankered
flower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, at
least, is not a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter for
no unpleasing reflection to think that within the abysses of
earth, never lit by a ray from the material heavens, there
should have penetrated so luminous a conviction of the ineffable
goodness of the Creator- so fixed an idea that the general laws
by which He acts cannot admit of any partial injustice or evil,
and therefore cannot be comprehended without reference to their
action over all space and throughout all time. And since, as I
shall have occasion to observe later, the intellectual
conditions and social systems of this subterranean race comprise
and harmonise great, and apparently antagonistic, varieties in
philosophical doctrine and speculation which have from time to
time been started, discussed, dismissed, and have re-appeared
amongst thinkers or dreamers in the upper world,- so I may
perhaps appropriately conclude this reference to the belief of
the Vril-ya, that self-conscious or sentient life once given is
indestructible among inferior creatures as well as in man, by an
eloquent passage from the work of that eminent zoologist, Louis
Agassiz, which I have only just met with, many years after I had
committed to paper these recollections of the life of the
Vril-ya which I now reduce into something like arrangement and
form: "The relations which individual animals bear to one
another are of such a character that they ought long ago to have
been considered as sufficient proof that no organised being
could ever have been called into existence by other agency than
59by the direct intervention of a reflective mind. This argues
strongly in favour of the existence in every animal of an
immaterial principle similar to that which by its excellence and
superior endowments places man so much above the animals; yet
the principle unquestionably exists, and whether it be called
sense, reason, or instinct, it presents in the whole range of
organised beings a series of phenomena closely linked together,
and upon it are based not only the higher manifestations of the
mind, but the very permanence of the specific differences which
characterise every organism. Most of the arguments in favour of
the immortality of man apply equally to the permanency of this
principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future
life in which man would be deprived of that great source of
enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement which results
from the contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world
would involve a lamentable loss? And may we not look to a
spiritual concert of the combined worlds and ALL their
inhabitants in the presence of their Creator as the highest
conception of paradise?"- 'Essay on Classification,' sect.
xvii. p. 97-99.


Chapter XV.


Kind to me as I found all in this household, the young daughter
of my host was the most considerate and thoughtful in her
kindness. At her suggestion I laid aside the habiliments in
which I had descended from the upper earth, and adopted the
dress of the Vril-ya, with the exception of the artful wings
which served them, when on foot, as a graceful mantle. But as
many of the Vril-ya, when occupied in urban pursuits, did not
wear these wings, this exception created no marked difference
between myself and the race among whom I sojourned, and I was
thus enabled to visit the town without exciting unpleasant
60curiosity. Out of the household no one suspected that I had
come from the upper world, and I was but regarded as one of
some inferior and barbarous tribe whom Aph-Lin entertained as a
guest.

The city was large in proportion to the territory round it,
which was of no greater extent than many an English or
Hungarian nobleman's estate; but the whole if it, to the verge of the rocks which constituted its boundary, was cultivated to
the nicest degree, except where certain allotments of mountain
and pasture were humanely left free to the sustenance of the
harmless animals they had tamed, though not for domestic use.
So great is their kindness towards these humbler creatures,
that a sum is devoted from the public treasury for the purpose
of deporting them to other Vril-ya communities willing to
receive them (chiefly new colonies), whenever they become too
numerous for the pastures allotted to them in their native
place. They do not, however, multiply to an extent comparable
to the ratio at which, with us, animals bred for slaughter,
increase. It seems a law of nature that animals not useful to
man gradually recede from the domains he occupies, or even
become extinct. It is an old custom of the various sovereign
states amidst which the race of the Vril-ya are distributed, to
leave between each state a neutral and uncultivated
border-land. In the instance of the community I speak of, this
tract, being a ridge of savage rocks, was impassable by foot,
but was easily surmounted, whether by the wings of the
inhabitants or the air-boats, of which I shall speak hereafter.
Roads through it were also cut for the transit of vehicles
impelled by vril. These intercommunicating tracts were always
kept lighted, and the expense thereof defrayed by a special
tax, to which all the communities comprehended in the
denomination of Vril-ya contribute in settled proportions. By
these means a considerable commercial traffic with other
states, both near and distant, was carried on. The surplus
wealth on this special community was chiefly agricultural. The
61community was also eminent for skill in constructing implements
connected with the arts of husbandry. In exchange for such
merchandise it obtained articles more of luxury than necessity.
There were few things imported on which they set a higher price
than birds taught to pipe artful tunes in concert. These were
brought from a great distance, and were marvellous for beauty
of song and plumage. I understand that extraordinary care was
taken by their breeders and teachers in selection, and that the
species had wonderfully improved during the last few years. I
saw no other pet animals among this community except some very
amusing and sportive creatures of the Batrachian species,
resembling frogs, but with very intelligent countenances, which
the children were fond of, and kept in their private gardens.
They appear to have no animals akin to our dogs or horses,
though that learned naturalist, Zee, informed me that such
creatures had once existed in those parts, and might now be
found in regions inhabited by other races than the Vril-ya.
She said that they had gradually disappeared from the more
civilised world since the discovery of vril, and the results
attending that discovery had dispensed with their uses.
Machinery and the invention of wings had superseded the horse
as a beast of burden; and the dog was no longer wanted either
for protection or the chase, as it had been when the ancestors
of the Vril-ya feared the aggressions of their own kind, or
hunted the lesser animals for food. Indeed, however, so far as
the horse was concerned, this region was so rocky that a horse
could have been, there, of little use either for pastime or
burden. The only creature they use for the latter purpose is a
kind of large goat which is much employed on farms. The nature
of the surrounding soil in these districts may be said to have
first suggested the invention of wings and air-boats. The
largeness of space in proportion to the space occupied by the
city, was occasioned by the custom of surrounding every house
with a separate garden. The broad main street, in which
Aph-Lin dwelt, expanded into a vast square, in which were
62placed the College of Sages and all the public offices; a
magnificent fountain of the luminous fluid which I call naptha
(I am ignorant of its real nature) in the centre. All these
public edifices have a uniform character of massiveness and
solidity. They reminded me of the architectural pictures of
Martin. Along the upper stories of each ran a balcony, or
rather a terraced garden, supported by columns, filled with
flowering plants, and tenanted by many kinds of tame birds.
>From the square branched several streets, all broad and
brilliantly lighted, and ascending up the eminence on either
side. In my excursions in the town I was never allowed to go
alone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was my habitual companion. In
this community the adult Gy is seen walking with 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 a customer are all children of various ages, and exceedingly
intelligent and courteous, but without the least touch of
importunity or cringing. The shopkeeper himself might or might
not be visible; when visible, he seemed rarely employed on any
matter connected with his professional business; and yet he had
taken to that business from special liking for it, and quite
independently of his general sources of fortune.

The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of
beings after the active age of childhood. Whether by
temperament or philosophy, they rank repose among the chief
blessings of life. Indeed, when you take away from a human
63being the incentives to action which are found in cupidity or
ambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet.

In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feet
to that of their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge in
a bold misuse of terms) their public 'promenades,' they employ
the latter, also for the aerial dances I have described, as
well as for visiting their country places,