I have already mentioned that, with the terrible exception noticed above, storms are unknown in Hesperos. The country is everywhere well watered. There are no sandy deserts. Extensive evaporation takes place over the central ocean; rain clouds at a much lower altitude than the screen are constantly formed, and, being wafted by very gentle breezes over the land, discharge their contents in fertilizing rain. There are no thunderstorms or electrical phenomena of any kind; no hesperoquakes, no volcanoes, nor indeed any of those vast natural instruments of death with which our earth is so copiously supplied.
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.
Animal life, on the other hand, is scanty, and confined to a small number of seemingly insignificant species. The bird tribe forms the only exception. Of these the forms are numerous and lovely, and, as they are never molested by the inhabitants, they are singularly tame. There are no large or carnivorous mammals; and it is worth notice that in the small-sized and graminivorous types of this class—the only quadrupeds in Hesperos—the reproductive power is, in comparison with the earth tribes, exceedingly small. Insects and reptiles are wholly unknown; the numerous birds live entirely on the abundant fruits. I greatly appreciated the comfort of being able to sit and rest on the grass without being immediately covered with a disgusting swarm of stinging ants, and, when in the house, I soon learned to submit with resignation to the absence of the loathsome cockroach and the both loathsome and dangerous centipede and scorpion.
CHAPTER IV
Of the Origin of Rational Life in Hesperos—Of the Cyclical Organic Life—Of the Law of Evanescence by Mortal Lesion—The story of the Hesperian Cain—Of the Law of Evanescence by adverse Metronomic Balance—How a Court of Justice sentenced a culprit to Eternal Punishment; and how the culprit escaped.
[Warnung by Antares Skorpios.—Should this book, by any mischance, have fallen into the hands of any habitual consumer of the style of literature known as ‘Shilling Shockers,’ or ‘Penny Dreadfuls,’ the Shocked or Terrified is earnestly exhorted to waste none of his valuable time on the pages which follow. He may rely on it that, although up to this point he may have been able to comprehend the narrative, the remainder of the work is utterly beyond his tether. I now proceed with my translation.]
I shall now proceed to give an account of the nature and origin of rational life in Hesperos; but, before doing so, I must venture to address a word of advice and exhortation to the reader. Should he, unhappily, be one of those narrow-minded persons who exalt the normal phenomena of this little globe of earth into the unique standard and pattern of what must needs prevail throughout the entire universe, he had better close the book at once. But should he be of larger mind, and allow the possibility of more than he has dreamed of in his philosophy existing in heaven, he may perhaps find in the following sketch of the ancient history of Hesperos, communicated to me by those who were themselves the eye-witnesses of what they related, abundant matter both for profitable reflection and delectable entertainment.
I may here add that, for the convenience of these large-minded readers, I have in all cases reduced the measures of time and distance from the Hesperian terms in which they were given to me, to those which are best known in Europe. Thus, when I speak of years, I mean our own period of 365 days, and not the Hesperian of 224; and similarly I have expressed their measure of distance in English miles and feet; these being, perhaps, the best international standards.
The whole surface of Hesperos contains a little over one hundred and eighty-two millions of square miles. Hence, as land and water occur in nearly equal proportions, we have as the total amount of land about ninety-one millions. This again, being nearly equally divided between the north and south hemispheres, gives forty-five and a-half millions for each. If we deduct from this the odd five and a-half millions, as an allowance for the immensely high mountain chains, and other districts not suited for supporting life, we shall have left forty millions of square miles in each hemisphere available for that purpose.
Such being the physical condition of the planet, it happened that, in the year B.C. 18,270, just twenty thousand years ago, there suddenly appeared, uniformly dispersed over the forty million square miles of the northern hemisphere, exactly one hundred millions of rational creatures in the likeness of the human race. This is an ultimate fact which has hitherto baffled all inquiry. 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.