I was greatly astonished at this avowal and was greatly mortified to reflect that I had unwittingly said things that must have hurt his feelings, although he gave no sign of being in the least offended. I began an embarrassed apology, but he silenced me by a deprecatory wave of his right joker. He appeared amused rather than offended and evidently excused my unlucky observations as due to the ignorance and inexperience of the human race; which indeed, they were. I am now in doubt about the propriety of these masculine personal pronouns that I have applied when speaking of him but I shall continue to use them for I do not know what sort to substitute for them; certainly none of less dignity would seem appropriate to so dignified and noble a personage.
“In the moon,” the Professor went on, “there is perfect equality between all individuals, regardless of the sex. But the third sex is numerically far the largest and in case of disagreement would easily dominate the other two. But there is and has been from time immemorial perfect harmony as between the sexes, their functions being of necessity complemental and in no way antagonistic. The most responsible places in the state, and the leadership in education, in religion, in public works, engineering and architecture as well as almost all the common occupations, such as manufacturing and storing goods, agriculture etc., are in the hands of the third sex. They are preeminently people of affairs, and for most occupations are decidedly superior to the other sexes, because they are less liable to be distracted from their chosen occupations.
“The males and females generally marry and then their first duties are to each other, otherwise they are employed like the third sex people.
“Married people are desired to conform to the policy of the State Bureau of Population in regard to the distinctions required by it. Otherwise they are under no restriction or obligation. The population is thus kept uniform or increased or diminished in an almost exact and scientific manner. As I have already informed you, all Lunarians are by nature industrious and they take the keenest sort of pleasure in their work. Nevertheless they also play and amuse themselves, and devote much time to intellectual occupations. They have numerous societies and clubs, and the third sex people in particular are organized into associations for said purposes. So are the others also, but their club life is more or less interrupted and broken up by their connubial relations and duties. The third sex people are distinguished for their personal friendships which are very close intimate and tender and of life long constancy. These friendships founded on compatibility of character, similarity of tastes and pursuits the subtile attractions of reciprocal intellectual and spiritual qualities, we regard as finer, more elevated, more noble, more exquisite and more absorbing than the unions formed on the basis of sexual attractions, and they are notably more permanent.”
“Then,” said I, “you have no jealousies of the other sexes—no envy?”
“Why should we have when it is plain we are as happy—we think happier—than they? We would not change places with them, any sooner than you would with a fish, because it can dive into depths you cannot penetrate, or a bird, because it can soar where you cannot. You know you would lose by the exchange. In a society where there are no artificial distinctions on account of sex it is not possible to find any one who would willingly exchange with another. Why should not a non-marrying sex be happy? Do you not remember that one of the great teachers of earth declared that in the kingdom of heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage? Certainly the third sex is in a better condition to comply with this celestial regulation than either of the others. The same great teacher was apparently so impressed with the superior conditions for happiness possessed by the third sex that he recommended to those of his followers who were able to receive it, to attach themselves to that sex by artificial means[3], and not a few of them have from time to time attempted to do so. But there is a vast difference between the artificial and the natural, the spurious and the genuine. Those who are of the third sex by natural development, are formed symmetrically; the brain and the mind depending on it, with its desires and aversions are formed in unison and harmony with the other bodily parts and organs.
“The same causes that suppress the formation of the latter also prevent the development of the corresponding pieces of brain and mind. There is therefore no clash between mind and body, no mental instincts that the body is physically disqualified from executing. The artificial imitation on the other hand is a mutilate. His symmetry and balance are destroyed because he retains a sexual brain and mind. He is out of harmony with himself, necessarily unhappy, and often a wretch.
“Intellectually the third sex is superior to the others. It is less emotional, more cool, dispassionate, patient and rational. It is more gentle and sympathetic, yet more firm in its conclusions and persistent in its purposes. In size it is between the other sexes the male being the largest—as with you—and from the same cause, polygamy, which as in your case, was practiced by our ancestors. But our sex is physically finer, stronger, more wiry and tough, more skillful in all the arts of life and twenty-five per cent longer lived than the others. In short we possess all the good qualities of the others in an increased degree, as if the material that nature saved by the suppression of sexual qualities, she used for the purpose of re-inforcing and augmenting the remaining ones.
“You are I think now enabled to judge what your third sex is like, that is just now being introduced as an active factor in human affairs. Your race is now for the first time in its history, able in a perfectly scientific manner, to defend itself against its own encroachments. Your long looked for millennium dates from this very moment—the practical introduction of this new factor. The disorders of the past half century that seemed to many to mark the beginning of a chaotic anarchy in reality mark its termination. From this time forward, law and liberty will gradually grow together until, at a period long before the end of this millennium, they will precisely coincide. Things will not be perfect at first. Men will learn better every day how to live and every day will subjugate more and more of the energies and materials of nature to their own ends. The millennium that begins now will be succeeded by ninety-nine more before your race will have passed its high tide and begun its final ebb.”