“It sounds very interesting,” said Mavis laughing, “but I wonder whether it’s true.”
“If people are on Mars, or Saturn, or Jupiter, they would hardly be like us,” announced Desmond, grandiloquently. “They would either be like the Mechanical Martians that Wells wrote of, or just animal life of some gelatinous matter as favoured by Wolfius.”
“Oh you egotistical, egregious Englishman,” laughed Sir John.
“Can you beat him?” said Alan. “No one but a Britisher could have made that remark!”
There was a laugh at Desmond’s expense, and then Alan went on, “Personally, I feel convinced that ours was not the only inhabited planet. Even our feeble knowledge of the solar system, individually and in bulk, has proved the wonder of Jupiter, the symmetry and perfection of the system that circles round him, the glory of his own being, and he should rank as the world of worlds. I should be inclined to believe that Jupiter is not only capable of producing the highest forms of life, but that his humanity surpasses in intelligence the most cultured, most brilliant, most learned of our earth’s philosophers.”
“No, no, I won’t have that,” said Desmond. “Look at the brilliant men of letters Britain alone has given to the world. Think of her eminent scholars, dauntless pioneers—why no other country or world could compete with Britain.”
“As I remarked before, the egregious Englishman!” said Sir John. “I admire your courage, my boy, in sticking to your guns. I admire your loyalty to the country that gave you birth. But we are not in the world now, my boy. Our beautiful little planet has vanished, has disappeared into the void from which it came; yet here, before our eyes, we see Jupiter still existing, still a brilliant orb in the sky. Surely now, Desmond, you are convinced of the minuteness of the planet upon which you were bred and born?” Sir John put his hand on Desmond’s shoulder. “While you were upon it, it was everything. Now it is nothing—gone—while other planets still exist and shed their brightness over space.”
“I think,” said Mavis thoughtfully, “that if our own little world possessed such a high form of life, and we measure a planet by its bulk, then surely the Jovians must be the most highly favoured race in the Solar Kingdom?”
A tiny cry came from the cabin behind. “Baby,” she cried. “Oh, I’d forgotten him,” and she fled to her nursling who had missed his mother’s care.
“Such are the wonders of the heavens,” said Sir John, thoughtfully. “It’s so grand, so massive, so unbelievable, that it makes even a mother forget, in its contemplation, her first-born, her little son.”