The Lunarian Professor and His Remarkable Revelations Concerning the Earth, the Moon and Mars / Together with An Account of the Cruise of the Sally Ann

by James B. Alexander

While the Professor was making this explanation, the question arose in my mind whether this discovery, surprising as it was, was sufficient to rectify the ills that our race had encountered. Would there not be some unforeseen drawback as there had proved to be to the other schemes, that would neutralize the anticipated benefits, or work another disaster as great as the one it was intended to cure. Was the third sex in itself a desirable or happy kind of condition to have. The contemplation of this subject, at first repulsive; when viewed philosophically becomes exceedingly interesting as one of the curious flights of nature. It is true that the specimens of these people she has furnished us on earth, we have commonly regarded as unhappy monstrosities.—But that is no doubt due to ignorance and prejudice, and to the anomalous conditions into which they are born. I expressed myself somewhat in accordance with these reflections, after which the Professor with some hesitation proceeded.

“In your day the family was spoken of as the basis and the bond of society; and by the family was meant a father and mother and a brood of children, all living together and working and caring for each other. The family was the laboratory for the creation and preparation of the citizens of the state. As an instrument for the education and development of the young citizens it was discovered to be, in civil life, inefficient and costly very unequal in its results and entailing an unequal and unjust distribution of its burdens. The state gradually assumed one after another of these former family duties and burdens in the rearing and development of the young, and in doing so, gradually disintegrated the family until there was nothing left of it except a pair of people, a man and a woman. But in this the state only consummated a process that had been begun generations before by the invention of labor saving machinery. The family of your day was already a very much dwindled affair, compared with that of ancient times. Then the members of the family made for themselves their clothing and everything they required and they constituted a military body of which the father was the chief. But when machinery and gunpowder were invented, labor and employment, in both peace and war, became specialized, and in the division of labor that followed, families were gradually separated so as to use the labor of their individual components to greater advantage and new combinations were formed that crossed and obliterated family lines.

“When the families gave up their children to the state to be brought up, it was a continuation of the same process in accordance with the eternal law of economy, and because the machinery of the state for the care of the young was so much better and cheaper than that of the family, that the latter could no longer compete. When this was accomplished the family had lost every function that had ever made it a necessary or important subdivision of society.

“In former times the state of celibacy was regarded as censurable and blameworthy, because the unmarried by failing to raise and provide for a family of children were considered as shirking out of a duty they owed to society. But when it was no longer the business of individuals to provide for the growing citizens, it became a matter of total indifference to the general public whether one was married or not. It became unimportant to the public to know even of what sex any individual might be, and the ancient laws that required the sex to be advertised by their clothes, were repealed and everybody was allowed to dress according to the demands of their business or their fancy. All artificial distinctions of sex such as employment, civil rights and dress were abolished, and the personal pronouns and titles of address that recognized sex were of necessity dropped out of the languages. These things have already transpired in your country and in all the more advanced countries of the world and this has prepared the people to view the introduction of the third sex with philosophical interest and appreciation, instead of vulgar and unreasoning prejudice. You must make allowance for the advance people have made since your day in education and the comprehensiveness of their views. The third sex was looked upon in your day as a monstrosity, because it was rare. Did they regard a seedless orange or lemon or grape as a monstrosity? If you had ever seen a horse with three toes on each foot you would have called him a monstrosity, but the time was as you know, when the horse commonly had three toes and the monstrosity was the animal with only one, such as you regarded in your day as a perfect model of beauty and utility.

“Your race will not regard the third sex with aversion or depreciation when they understand its relations and experience its value.”

“Please tell me,” said I, “what the relations of this sex to the others will be. I suppose of course it will be subordinate to the others, especially the male.”

“Well,” he replied, “your experience in this matter will closely follow ours. As it is in Luna, so it is beginning to be on earth. You are greatly mistaken in supposing our sex to be subordinate to another.”

At the expression “our sex,” I involuntarily gave the Professor a surprised glance.

“Then your affiliations are with that sex?”

“I have indeed that honor.”