A Trip to the Moon

"F. N."

A Trip to the Moon

Item

Title of Story: A Trip to the Moon
Story Summary: The narrator doesn't go into detail about how he finds himself on the far side of the moon but discovers a city of tall beings, befriends a family, and is taken on trips including mountain climbing, skating and other unlikely adventures. While this could easily have been dismissed as children's fantasy, while the writer doesn't go into too much detail about the science, it is written rationally (no magic) and includes comparison to Earth society at the time which makes it compelling reading. Narrative changes abruptly in the final chapter where the narrator wakes up beside his wife (someone who is not mentioned at all in the entire story) and finds it is all a dream. However, the newspaper closed shortly after so this might have been the act of a caring publisher before the end.
Science Fiction Subgenres: planetary fiction; space opera; space fiction; alien first contact
Inventions: Long list. Coming soon!
How this Story was Identified: Identified by Professor Katherine Bode who advised Neil Hogan in February 2023.
Can be also found with a keycloud, below.
KeyClouds: electric scientific science engine earth world telescope current planet signal instrument
36 stories found, 8 identified as science fiction.
Date Details Added to IA: February 2023
Additional Information: "For the Clipper"
Attributed Author: "F. N."
Single or Serialised: Serialised
First Published Date of Last Installment: 1909-03-13
Year For Sorting: 1908
Date Range: 1908-12-26-1909-03-13
Number of Installments: 10 Chapters
Complete or Supplemented: Complete
Estimated Word Count: 12,000
Length: Short Story
Links in To Be Continued: https://readallaboutit.com.au/#/title/44772
Newspaper Name Location Years: The Clipper, Hobart, Tasmania, 1893-1909
Provincial or Metro: Metropolitan
First Republished on InfiniteAnthologies.com: YES
Edition Creator: Neil Hogan
OCR from TBC and Trove: A TRIP TO THE MOON. (By F.N.) [For the Clipper] My children, the story I am going to relate— which I must preface with a little science, as brief as maybe— is a true account of the most extraordinary journey I (or any other human being) ever made. It was a journey to the moon. You all know, it is called by our astronomers 'the dead planet.' It pre- sents to our view a surface, one and the same, ever turned towards us, the in- habitants of the earth ; so that no man has ever obtained a glimpse of the other, or further side, which is always turned away from us. The cause of this has been the powerful attraction of our earth, which has gradually made her lopsided, having, so to say, a deep depression on the side away from us. The same lopsidedness obtains also, on a smaller scale, on the earth. Cast your eyes over a terrestrial globe, and notice the highlands and mountains of Africa, Europe, and Asia, until you come to Thibet—'the roof of the world,' as it is called, because it is the highest tableland bounded by the highest mountains (the Himalayas) in the world. You will see the exact opposite side of the globe occupied by the vast and deep Pacific — as deep (seven miles) as the Himalayas are high. During my visit to the moon, which lasted a month, that is, to be exact, twenty-nine and a half of our days, equal to one lunar day, I was convoyed round to her farther side, and was astonished beyond expression to find it to be a mag- nificent country with a sea, or, rather, a a huge lake, rain and snow clouds, and enjoying a winter and summer within the bounds of 29½ days ; that is, the summer endured while the sun was up, and the winter lasted through the night — all within the space of one lunar day of 698 hours ! I will tell you more of this wonderful hemisphere later on. The side of the moon which is ever turned towards us presents the most ex- traordinary appearance imaginable. Its surface is, to a large extent, covered with extinct volcanoes, in comparison with which our earth ones are the merest pigmies, and vast ranges of high moun- tains. Some of the craters are forty miles across and over a mile deep. Vol- canic action on the earth has been a mere bagatelle compared with that which, millions of years ago, was raging on the moon. To all our implements of science — our telescopes, photoscopes, etc — she cer- tainly presents the appearance of a com- pletely dead planet, a scene of weird desolation, without water, without atmo- sphere, without life— plant or animal. Yet I found it to be a wonderful under- land world of high intellectual life, peopled by a magnificent race highly advanced— far beyond the sham and fraudulent civilisation of our planet ! A people who had converted the rude rocks of the interior into splendid residences — a temple, unique and more gorgeous by far than human eyes, except my own, had ever gazed upon. The waters which formerly were lodged on the surface as seas and oceans— the ancient beds of which are a striking feature of the present surface— have all gone down below as the result of the tremendous volcanic action, followed by the atmosphere vastly more rare than ours, but still capable of sup- porting life, and followed afterwards by the intellectual beings then existing. All other animals perished ; there's not one now remaining. These waters the people have, by infinite labor, turned into a water-way, which enables them to com- pletely circumnavigate their globe. On one occasion I made, under their escort, the round journey, crossing the sea on the far side. They have neither Government, army, nor police. For why ? Simply because no primal wrong, as a primeval curse, has been committed ou the community. Now, my children, I must tell you the story of my arrival, the appearance of the lunar under-world, and my intro- duction to, and kindly reception by, its people, the inhabitants of the moon — of whom our knowing scientific men assure us confidently there are none. How I journeyed there and back is another story, which I may tell you next Christmas. However, at the time of sunrise (lunar sunrise, you know) I found myself at the foot of the largest lunar crater— the king of lunar extinct voloanoes— fifty-six miles across from opposite extremes of its diameter, and over two miles deep ! Mount Copernicus we have named it. My first experience was somewhat startling. I essayed to walk, and I found that when I used the exertion to do so which I had been accustomed to on earth I rose considerably off the ground. This was awkward, and was my lesson in lunar physics : so that in walking I had to exercise care to regu- late the exertion to the resistance to be overcome, because, you see, while I weighed 140lbs on earth, my gross weight here was only a little more than 20lbs. Then I found the ground ex- ceedingly uneven, rocks rising six, ten, twenty feet from the surface, with scarce a flat space for the sole of my foot. Yet I could get along pretty well by vaulting (easily done) the biggest of them. In this manner I made my way gradually to the almost perpendicular side of the volcano, two miles high ! How did I breathe, there being no atmosphere ? It's not true there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon. Even our astronomers nave noted traces in sunset halos, and this, with frequent and deep inspirations, enabled me to get along. I moved along the foot of the crater wall to find a place where I might ascend, and presently I found one and soon was at the top, for you must know, my child- ren, the labor required to mount two miles up the side of a lunar mountain is not a fourth part of that required to achieve the same distance up the side of Mount Wellington ; so I was soon at the top of one of the highest elevations in the Moon. I have said it was the lunar sunrise. I looked around; on every side vast rough outlined craters, jagged rocks, a very wilderness of huge stones, and not a blade of grass nor any kind of plant— not even a lichen ; and then I gazed heavenward. What a sight ! The sky was not blue, it was black ! There was no transfusion of light, as on the earth, which extinguishes all the stars in the daytime. The sun shone, apparently exactly the same size as he appears to us on the earth ; you could look him straight in the face, his reflected light shone brilliantly from every object in the path of his light ; all else was black shadow. You could see all the stars, now twinkling, small, stationary points and if you were acquainted with the constellations as they appear from earth, you would recognise every one of them they having precisely the same relative positions— Orion, Andromeda, the Great Bear, the Lyre, the Southern Cross, Sirius (the Pole star, but not the Pole star here), Arcturus, Canopus, all of them. The starry heavens are a perfect replica as that viewed from earth, but no moon, because I was standing upon it ; it was beneath my feet and appar- ently as boundless and extensive as the earth presents itself to her inhabitants. But, far away the most wonderful object ever eyes dwelt upon in the sky, near the zenith — the earth, as a moon, exceedingly brilliant ; a half-moon in her first quarter, sixteen times the apparent size of the sun ! This is unique, the most magnificent object in the lunar heavens, always stationary, the sun rises and sets at periods of fourteen and a quarter days apart — the earth as the moon's moon never rises or sets, but she passes through all the phases of our moon in the reverse order ; crescent, first quarter, full, last quarter, and new, and therefore then invisible. I shall have to tell you how the selenites— that is, the lunar inhabitants— regard it, in connection with their religious notions. And now, my children, I am afraid I have wearied you enough with bald science, and I will proceed with my story : How I found my way down to the gorgeous regions of the under-world, peopled, let me tell you, by real ladies and gentlemen, having not the remotest use for governments, legislatures, laws, taxes, armies, jails, asylums, work- houses, or police ! And this state or condition, in about another millenium or two, we on earth shall reach ; though our knowing ones of the Murky way say 'it's opposed to human nature.' (To be continued in our next). 'What can we do to improve the present method of dancing ?' thundered the parson. ' Dancing is merely hugging set to music' ? We might out out the musio,' softly suggested a bad young man at the rear of the auditorium.

A TRIP TO THE MOON. CHAPTER II. I left the base of the mountain for a distance of a few miles, turning round now and then to look again at that won- drous orb, half-phased and brilliant, sus- pended in the South-East sky. Suddenly there was borne in upon me on impres- sion of faint, scarcely audible sound. I started, stood still and listened, with all my attention concentrated in the en- deavor to catch a confirmatory note. I must have been deceived ! I need scarcely say that the silence and solitude in such a world as this are profound. There is absolutely nothing in or on the earth with which to make a comparison. I resumed my walk, examining carefully and critically the surface of the stones, looking for traces of the weather-wear of ages past. Again I caught that far-off murmur. There could be no mistake ; it was sound I like the faint murmur of breakers on a far-off sea beach. I stood intent, waiting and expectant. Again it came more distinct and now I began to make out tones and rhythm. It was music ! You cannot conceive, my children, my astonishment and wonder, as I began to interpret this ever increas- ing volume of sound into the cadences, crescendos and swellings of sacred music —an oratorio. Whence could this wonder of wonders proceed? Was I dreaming? I rubbed my eyes. No, surely ! For was I not actually walk- ing upon 'the great cinder,' as the French call it— the dead planet? Ex- amining its rocks, making notes of their volcanic origin and trying to solve sundry involved enigmas concerning their past, long past history ? Then turning my eyes skyward, was there not my own earth, staring me, as it were, out of countenance and giving the lie direct to any absurd assumption that I was not myself and was not fully conscious and wide awake. At length I succeeded in locating the sound and made my way in its direction. Meanwhile the music was increasing in volume and sweetness. Whence ? I rubbed my eyes again. I struck my breast with my fist to assure myself I was indeed awake. It seemed to be the music of a magni- ficent organ, but inexpressibly more dulcet and fuller-toned, and of immeas- urably more volume. I had never heard anything on earth comparable, I have on more than one occasion been an auditor at a Handel festival. It was tame in contrast. I have heard of the 'music of the spheres.' What that is, and where it is to be heard, I know not. But this transported me beyond all earthly experience. My mind was in a state of great perplexity. I could make nothing of this extraordinary phenom- enon. I was utterly unable to form any theory which would account for it, and had to give it up in sheer despair. The only thing I could do was that which I at once started out to do, and that was to examine the base of the mountain, a somewhat difficult — walk I could not call it— where I had to hop up the sides of huge blocks, and step from one to another, where level spots were few and far between ; yet was the fatigue not great. In this fashion I had scrambled, so to say, some few miles, when I noticed the ground became pretty level, in the direction from which the sounds had appeared to proceed. The path I was walking along became wider and more level ; presently, it widened out into a true roadway, as if it had been constructed by an engineer, all blocks and irregularities having been removed. I had not proceeded far when I came upon a huge gap in the perpen- dicular outside wall of a huge crater, and turning to examine it, I saw what might have been taken to be a huge staircase to a giant's cave, each step was three feet high and some four feet wide. I looked down ; it extended to a consider- able distance to what, as well as I could make out, was a landing dimly lighted. But whence the light? I was evidently on the track of clearing up the mystery. I must descend and reconnoitre. What immediately fixed my attention was a light at the distant end, contracted by perspective into quite a little circle. More light ! apparently from within. I at once determined to descend. At the landing I turned to the right and con- tinued uninterruptedly to the bottom, which was brilliantly lit up, from what source I could not see. I expect the best comparison that could be made with this gigantic staircase would be the out- side slope of the Great Pyramid. I passed under a lofty archway into— I was anticipating a cavern, a sub-lunar Tartarus ; by no means, but a most extraordinarily beautiful hexagonal hall of gigantic proportions, of im- mense height and most brilliantly lit up ! I instinctively gazed upwards to the source of the light. A semi-sphere or inverted dome occupied the centre of the roof— a dazzling photo-hemisphere comparable only to a miniature sun. And here, I may tell you, my children, the whole of the habitable portions— and they extend right round the moon— are heated and lighted by an inexhaustible and permanent electric current, which the Selenites have discovered and appro- priated. By means of it they cultivate gardens, orchards, and fields, grow nuts and fruits, on which they chiefly live. Four of the six sides of this huge chamber — its height I estimated to be more than 500 feet— their national Temple, where they conducted fortnightly religious services, for the most part an oratorio, and I was told subsequently constructed on scientific acoustic princi- ples— four sides were immense panels, with highly ornamented side mouldings ; the angles of the hexagon were filled up with clustered pillars, surmounted with richly carved overhanging entablatures. The roof was sculptured in bas-relief, so that the appearance presented to an ob- server looking upwards was something like that our own sky would have if one could imagine the figures of the Zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc, carved in relief upon it and lit up by the sun ! What was the material out of which this magnificent temple was constructed ; hewn out of the solid rock. It had the appearance and color of polished ivory. Not a scratch or flaw could be seen. Two of the six sides, opposite ones, were openings reaching up to the entablatures, one of them led into another chamber which I was about to inspect. The one towards which I now turned was ap- parently the entrance, and through it I could see a long vista of roadway or avenue, all brilliantly illuminated ! Bright as day ! (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for the Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER III. In the distance I now detected moving figures, and, acting on the first impulse, set out on what I intended to be a brisk walk in pursuit, but again I found my- self bounding upwards from the floor — like a rooster when he flaps his wings. I found I had to learn what I thought I had thoroughly learned before I was two years old, to walk ! I had to therefore suppress my ardor, and it required care to do so. To follow in rapid pursuit, therefore, of the retreating objects, was out of the question, so I made my way slowly and cautiously. Anyway, as I found out afterwards, I should have had little chance of overtaking them. At length I arrived at a point where the road branched off to right and left, but immediately in front of me was— the sheen of water ! A bright reflection of overhead electric light from the sur- face of water ! I advanced to the edge of what appeared to be a dock, and be- held moored at diflerent points, large, apparently rowing boats, but of huge dimensions, one hundred to one hun- dred and fifty feet long and over twenty broad, flat bottomed and provided with rowlocks and oars. Mighty oars indeed, at least thirty feet long, but no thwarts or rudder. Lifting my eyes, I could discern water as far ahead as I could see. It had every appearance of a river- way or canal. It was, as well as I could judge, at least a quarter of a mile wide and was flanked by a broad road on each side. Here, my children, was another moon-mystery solved ; the old surface seas had, as I had suspected, gone down into the interior ! Of this more anon. I turned to the left, walked round the end of the basin and continued along the left hand roadway, having the canal on my right. My attention had been so absorbed by the startling discovery of water— though I had long held to the theory of this cause for the disappear- ance of the surface seas — that I had not noticed what I could now perceive were dwellings which lined the roadway, nor had I taken note of what now made me start and pause in my walk— a group of three or four living figures, human to all appearance, standing, and apparently conversing, in a lofty archway. More over, I now perceived that I was the subject of their remarks, for, one of them pointed in my direction, as if drawing the attention of the others to some unwonted sight. Strange to say I had not not as yet been affected with fear, nor was I now. I resumed my walk and advanced towards them, and presently was impressed by their great stature and breadth of chest. I must, indeed, have appeared to them a Pigmy. As I approached they raised their hands in salutation, and though I could see they were very much affected by sur- prise and curiosity, as, indeed, they might well be, it was restrained, and I was greeted with what I afterwards knew as their common or ordinary salu- tation — 'Menie Tuhi.' They had saluted me in their language, I could do no Iess than return the compliment in my own. So, I said, taking off my hat and bowing low — which action, by the way, they deprecated by a wave of the hand—'I wish you, Messieurs, a very good day.' They easily understood, if not my speech, my obeisance as a re- sponse to their greeting. The gentle man who had spoken, then asked me, 'Ohi mahinu ?' to which, as I could not translate it into English, I could only reply, shaking my head, 'Sir, I do not understand you.' Upon this, they, stepping backward, politely signed to me to enter. I did so, and found myself within a hall or vestibule of noble pro- portions and lit up, like the Temple, by a photo hemisphere of electric light; the floor was as smooth as polished marble and quite free from dust. The chamber was hexagonal, apparently a favorite figure with them. In the centre of each side was an arched opening, of these, the one through which I had entered, leading to the street, the others prob- ably into inner chambers, draped with what, appeared to be silk hangings, form- ing a portiére. Each angle of the hexagon was slightly niched and was occupied with a sculptured figure. But there was no table, nor chair, nor rack, nor mat ! My friend, as I must now call him, for in all my subsequent ex- cursions he was my guide, led the way. Drawing aside the drapery, he signed me to enter, and I now found myself in the presence of three individuals, two of them young, as I judged from their sta- ture, the other nearly if not quite as tall as my guide. I rapidly formed the conjecture— the wife and children of my friend. They stood and saluted me, lifting a hand and exclaiming 'Menie Tuhi !' I bowed as before, saying as I did so, 'good morning to you!' My friend, whose name I afterwards knew was Tehanu, spoke to the lady, evidently explaining all he knew about me, which was, indeed, very little ; whereupon she politely conducted me to a dais, occupy- ing the whole of one side of the room, which was also hexagonal, upholstered and furnished with curtains, the ma- terial of which had the same silky ap- pearance and texture as the portière. She then proceeded to a draped recess in the wall, from which she took a plate of fruit, brought it over to me, and laying it on an otto- man—as I may call it — smilingly in- vited me to eat. I will take this op- portunity, my children, of giving a brief description of these people. They are at least twelve feet in stature. My friend Tehanu, on a subsequent occasion, placed me close in front of him, and putting his right hand on my head, lifted me with his left and set me upon his other hand, which he had kept stationary ; when I found myself just on a level with the top of his head. — I stand in stocking soles just six feet. They are more than four feet across the shoulders, deep-chested, with large lung development, small — comparatively — abdomen, long limbed, large hands and feet, large heads, notably the upper portion, from the line of the nostrils ; small mouth, and most superb, faultless, but small teeth. The head is well and firmly set, the eyes brilliant, intellectual, and looked you straight bravely and honestly in the face. The face was smooth, pale, and hairless, the head covered with a wealth of waving flaxen hair. There was little to distin- guish the sexes, at all events to me, ex- cept the dress, which was simple, yet exquisitely clean and rich in appearance ; no head gear, no ornament, just a tunic, which in the men extended to the knee, and in the women nearly to the ankle. Sandals were the footwear. These moonfolk never sit, nor lie abed, nor banquet, nor have set meals, nor cook. They were, during the latter fortnight of my stay, after I had learned their language (as simple as Esperanto) and could freely converse with them immensely amused when I described to them some of our habits and customs such as the daily life of a domestic matron or of an alderman, and laughed outright at a full-breadth picture por- trait I drew of the latter. They always stand or recline, sleep when inclined to —you remember, my children, their day of 708 hours. The 'synodic' as it is called, revolution of the moon round the earth is their summer and winter ; her revolution, in the company of the earth, round the sun produces no seasons, be- cause her axis is nearly perpendicular to the plane of her orbit round the sun, and of course in their present world, be low the surface, there is no night and nothing to produce a natural day, like ours, of alternating light and darkness. They eat when hungry, just as our own far-off ancestors did, and dine or sup off the raw products of their trees and shrubs, which I must tell you grow luxuriantly under the influence of elec- tricity, also a very peculiar root they cultivate and eat raw as we eat an onion. Their life is, par excellence, the simple life, a tremendous contrast to earth-life among the well-to-do; and this affords them a lot of time to devote to less material pursuits than that of supplying cooked stuffs to run in an end- Iess stream through the alimentary canal during waking hours. Tehanu and his friends stood near one of the statues, which in their several niches adorned the apartment, giving to it, I could not but think, a far more elegant and sumptuous appearance than all the flimsy furniture of table, chair, chiffonier, what-not, musical instrument, carpet, vase, picture, and numberless nick-nacks does to our drawing-rooms. These statues, by the way, are the lares et penates, the sanctified household gods, so to say, of the Selenese ; not that they devote to them any kind of rite or wor- ship, but simple reverence. They are the statues of their ancestors, and in many of the houses I visited during my stay they pointed back to times so re- mote, and formed so high an ancestry, that I could not but smile as I thought of the pride and self-complacency— may I add the conceit— with which a Howard or a De Vere would dwell upon his noble line of the day before yesterday com- pared with the thousands of years these statues took you back, and each with a name and a history ! (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER IV. Tehanu, whose friends had previously left the house to organise with other friends an excursion to the far hemi- sphere of the moon, that I might view some wholly unexpected lunar scenery never before beheld by earthly human eyes, addressing his wife, whom he called Lillyu, he invited me by gesture to follow him ; we three left the room and the house, he preceding, took us to the edge of the canal and down some steps, where was moored one of the boats I have mentioned, on board of which were some ten or a dozen ladies and gentlemen. Here I may remark, never in my experience was the expres- sion less conventional and more appro- priate ! Tehanu introduced me to each one in succession, who saluted me in the customary manner. Though I must have been in their eyes a most extra- ordinary and unmoonly object, they never betrayed the least inquisitiveness or curiosity. Tehanu having noticed my habit of sitting, had provided for me a seat in the stern of the boat. They all stood erect, and when all was ready the boat was unmoored and we pushed off. One oar was placed in the hands of each lady and gentleman, and was placed in the rowlock at a signal from Tehanu, who I presumed acted as cox- swain and choirmaster. The oars were simultaneously dipped into the water, he for several strokes giving the time, and away we went, heading for mid- stream, and we were fairly on our way for the sub-lunar lakes, as I afterwards discovered. And now Tehanu raised his hand, and at the downstroke, as a band master uses his baton, the voices of all the rowers were raised, as that of a single voice, in song. I never witnessed anything in prac- tical life so near the exactitude of a mathematical equation in the perfect coincidence of time and rhythm as in the singing of the Selenese. It is impossible for me to describe the exquisite melody of their vocal music. As I subsequently learned, music is their chief art and study, and their chief training. They have no musical instruments, and I fancy would despise all ours as mere tinkling cymbals. It thrilled me; the pathos and sweetness of portions of the song, the sprightliness, the hilariousness of other portions, and all in perfect time with the beat of the oars. This, with the swift gliding motion of the boat, without the least oscillation, through the water, was an experience to me unique and never to be forgotten , I was intoxi- cated! We proceeded in this way at a very rapid rate for the space, as I guessed, of an hour, when the boat, leaving the canal cutting, entered the first of the natural lakes— in point of fact, a water filled extinct volcano — as was evident from its steep rocky sides ; the whole scene far and wide lit up by miniature suns of electric light, which adorn the roof at intervals all through the sub- lunar regions. There was nothing whatever to suggest a mere cavern, no mist, damp, or dripping roof and walls. All was bright and variously tinted. Moreover, the roof and walls were hewn and smooth, and perfectly dry ; the air, too, was balmy, the tem- perature agreeable and pleasant. There are no storms of wind, no cyclones, no blizzards. Nevertheless, there is always a gentle movement of the air, zephyr-like, which follows the sun, flows from the night side to the day side of the moon, like an atmospheric tide. I had been so much entranced by the delicious music that I had paid little attention to the changing scene, until we had well emerged from the artificial cutting into a great natural lake some fifty miles across, the roof supported at intervals by natural crater mountains, not unlike pillars. After having crossed the lake and proceeded some distance through a narrow waterway, we passed under what, in the dazzling light from overhead, had the appearanoe of a bur- nished, high-arched bridge of gold. It is constructed out of the only metal they possess, a description of which I shall give you when I tell you of their won- derful electrically-drlven motor-boats, in one of which we made the remainder of our journey of altogether no less than three thousand miles. (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER V. We then entered the city of 'Ypuisa' (on earth it would be esteemed as little more than a village), and drew up at one of the numerous landing places. There were many people abroad promen- ading the piazzas and squares. We all landed, Tehanu and his wife taking me in charge. From the numerous saluta- tions our party received, I might have concluded they were what in our phrase- ology are called 'prominent citizens,' but, as I soon found out, almost every one is known to everyone ; and, though like a paradox, 'away from home they are always at home.' And this is natural, for they live mostly out of doors, as we should say, and are con- tinually on the move over the length of their domain, some 6000 miles. I never saw anything in the least suggestive of stored-up wealth, except one might estimate as such, the work, the result of thousands of years of constant and dili- gent labor. And now, my children, to draw a moral from my narrative : 'How decep- tive are appearances ' ! notably astron- omical ones. We have always in this science to distinguish the true from the apparent, the real from the false presen- tation. Here is a world of beauty and plenty, where every being is rich in the true sense— the product of labor and art — nothing contributed by nature except the rifts and caverns, the natural rock, and the inundations of water and air ! Yet out of these very unpromising materials has been created, by the genius and persistent industry of these people, a wonderful world of beauty, music, art and science. Their dwellings are large, roomy, airy and elegant, beautifully wrought in the interior with noble facades, the most striking feature being the extreme minuteness of decoration and ornament, sculpture and carving. They, as well as their streets, highways and squares, or rather hexagons, are marvellously clean. Their clothes and drapery, apparently of the one material, and of that silky texture I have before mentioned. Not only is their outside in- tercourse of the free and easy character I have noted, but their closer intimacy of the home was equally free and sociable. They visited one another at their homes with the same liberal interchange of hospitality. Our party suffered not the slightest inconvenience from the clrcum- stance of being away from home, as any or every house was open to us. Tehanu, however, naturally preferred that of his intimate friend, Fulmenu, and to his house we made our way. I was in the usual way introduced to him, his wife and family, and after some little period of rest my friend proposed to show me round the 'city.' All their towns, vil- lages we should call them, are situate upon the canal routes, that is, the canal runs through their centres and a fine roadway margins the water on each side. These two roads, or quays, form a junc- tion both at the entrance to and exit from the 'city.' Crossing the canal, over what I always styled in my thoughts 'golden bridges,' you will see the appro- priateness of this designation when I describe to you their wonderful yellow pink metal out of which all their utensils, bridges, boats and motors are constructed. No vehicles are to be seen on their roads. Their means of locomo- tion are two, by the road on Shank's mare, the speed of which animal is, however, some 10 miles an hour, or by canal on board a rowing boat, or the wonderful 'alimalu' or electric motor boat, at the tremendous speed of seventy to a hundred miles an hour ! What surprised me most, and made the greatest contrast to our own towns, was the total absence of commercial 'marts.' Not a shop nor 'emporium' of any sort, not a sign of commercial or factory life— a condition of things totally inexplicable to a European, American, or Australian ! They were a people who seemed to have nothing whatever to do ! Yet I had to acknowledge afterwards that in this respect I had formed a hasty and incorrect opinion. The streets and 'squares' were thronged with a gay multitude, laughing, chatting, and very evidently enjoying themselves, to whom I must have appeared the most extra- ordinary living thing they had ever gazed upon ! There is no such thing existing in this world— nor has there been, I should imagine, since the inhabitants were com- pelled by the great 'Cataclysm,' of which they have many traditions, to migrate from the surface to the interior— as what we earthites designate as 'purse-pride ; ' i.e., a man sticking himself out, pluming himself, assuming a superiority over his neighbours, because his purse holds a few more tokens, or his house contains a few more carpets, or his bank account a few more figures ; for the simple reason that not one of these things is to be found there ! And, further, I noticed— for under the tuition of Tehanu and his wife, I was making rapid progress in their language— that higher learning or greater genius did not beget self-worship or a deprecation of his fellows ; rather his fuller knowledge promoted humility, as in all really great men it does here below. Tehanu then proposed to take me to the opera, frequently performed in this city— if I may use that word. The house was very lofty, beautifully adorned with sculpture and tracery, apparently carved out of white marble and polished, constructed on true acoustic principles — a science they are proficient in— fronting the great 'square' of water ; on each of these occaslons alive with boats and their occupants. The whole front of the 'house' facing on to the water was open, there being no facade ; the interior was occupied by the performers and a limited audience, the main audience was on the water. There was a play, a drama, more, I think, after the ancient Greek pattern than our modern, but the essential part of the entertainment was song. Special, highly-trained voices only sang in the solos, duets and company parts ; the refrains were taken up by the audience inside the house, and on the water ; the effect was delirious and in- toxicating. Here I pause an instant to remark that the one thing which is all in all to a Selenese, in which his whole being is wrapt up, into which he pours out his whole soul, that is the joy and delight of his life, the be-all and end-all of it — that one thing is music. And the perfection to which he has brought it, by thousands of years of study and practice, is— well, the most astonishing thing of this or any other world ! There was neither 'box,' nor 'pit,' nor 'gallery' to differentiate the people into 'grades,' nor pay-office to this 'opera house.' It was a public place free to all ! It was the most de- licious time I ever spent ! (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER VI. All the preparations had, by this time, been made for our expended journey to the 'other side' of the moon and for our complete circumnavigation of it, al- together over 6000 miles. The course runs pretty nearly parallel with her equator. The means of transit was by the most wonderful motor I ever be- held— aeroplane in combination with a motor boat, propelled by the force of two tremendous streams of water ejected from pipes, one on each side of the rudder, like our twin screws at a slightly inclined angle downwards, by a machine whose motive power was electric. The boat, as she lay alongside the margin of the canal, was an extraordinary object. The shell of the vessel was of that won- derful metal they use in the construc- tion of all their utensils, implements and boats, yellowish-pink in color, as ductile and easily wrought as copper, as brittle and as hard as steel when tem- pered. It can be joined in plates in the construction of boats, by soldering with the electric spark, when the whole skin of the boat becomes one uniform sheet, without flaw or trace of joining. The outside is polished, so that its appear- ance is something superb, and the fric- tion, both aerial and aqueous, is re- duced to a minimum. It is flat bottomed, and when going at full speed, it is for about three-fourths of its length above, or on the surface of the water. It becomes in fact, partly an aeroplane, partly a surface motor, and partly an ordinary boat, driven through the water, and its speed is from 120 to 180 miles an hour, as I had frequent op- portunities of judging by my watch and reducing their estimate of distance to my standard of miles. We were soon all on board, some 30 or 40 of us, if I may in- clude my insignificant pigmy self among these giants. We carried no provisions or stores, and there was abundance of fine clear water just outside; and at once we started on our (to me) wonder- ful journey. One of the passengers (any of them could have filled the post) was our temporary captain, who was from time to time changed. He had control of all that was necessary for her progress —the motor and steerlng gear. 'Grey- hounds of the Lochs,' I mentally chris- tened these wonderful boats. At this, (to me) tremendous rate of speed we passed through many wide expanses of water— the sites of old sub-lunar craters — and drew up in the central water 'square' of the terminal city of the east- ern branch of the 'Grand Lunar Canal,' a few miles from the famous 'exterior ' lunar sea, now completely frozen over, as here it was the time of sunrise after 14 of our days of a lunar night's frost. We were (i.e., Tehanu, his wife, and I) received and entertained at the house of one of our passengers, an intimate friend of Tehanu's, where we— well, speaking for myself, I was glad to rest and sleep for a while. Subsequently, we intended to go on by foot to the now frozen lake. Those who have lived in Canada will ap- preciate the description I reserve for my next chapter of the grandest and most extensive stretch of ice either here or on the surface of the earth, and the practi- cal use they make of it for their amuse- ment and pleasure. (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER VII. After some time of rest and refresh ment, we proceeded by the road along the edge of the canal to the point of its junctlon with the open sea or lake (fresh water). At this place the lit-up roof of the under-world terminates, and is re- placed (in the lunar day-time) by a blue sky, white fleecy clouds, a brilliant sun, such as we see from the earth, and a general transfusion of light. The sun was rising in the east, for you must know, my children, a fortnight of our time had passed since I alighted on the crater of Copernicus, where, at that time, he was rising ; but here, after a lunar day, i.e., of daylight, 850 hours, of course he was setting. But now I was at the other ex- treme point of the moon, her antipodes, as if on the earth I had transferred my- self from London to Melbourne, and you know when the sun is setting in the former place he is near to his rising in the latter. Here was, indeed, the wonder of wonders. For a moment until I cast a look around at my giant (12 feet high) companions, I thought myself back in Scotland on a frosty winter's morning, on the margin of one of her beautiful lochs, and looking at the sun just emerged above the eastern horizon ! The lake was covered as far as the eye could reach, with a magniflicent sheet of ice as smooth as plate-glass, finer than any I had ever seen or skated on in Canada, reminding me vividly of a Scotch scene on the banks of Loch Lo- mond or Katrine. (You must know, my children, that I passed many years of my life in Canada, where, from in- cessant practice every winter I became a most expert skater, few could keep abreast of me in a lone spurt over smooth ice.) Each of my companions were provided with a warm pelisse, at- tached to which was a hood ; each had also a pair of skates nearly as long as the slides of a Canadian sleigh. Tehanu muffled me up in a smaller mantle and hood, not too long but con- siderably too wide, which however he tucked in round my waist with a scarf. He proffered me— asking me at the same time could I use them — a diminutive (from their point of view) pair of skates, a pair, I presumed belonging to one of their children. Skating on this lake, I forget the name they give to it, is an exceedingly popular pastime with all the Selenese, who resort to it from all parts, journeying even 8000 miles to enjoy it. With them, however, a journey half round their world is no more than a journey to New Zealand is to us. They can accomplish it comfortably in less than thirty hours. And now, having fixed on my skates, we were ready, a company numbering about a score. As I have said, the sun had just risen and was a little more than his own diameter — that is, half a degree — above the horizon, and as you know it takes him fourteen and a half of our hours to cross the sky from east to west to his setting, he appears to move very slowly. Tehanu promised me a little surprise. We set out at a rapid rate — some 40 miles an hour I guessed — towards the west, and to their surprise and amused admiration, I kept well up to them. In half an hour we had travelled fully 20 miles, when Tehanu and the others stopped and invited me to turn round and look at the sun ; to my extreme astonishment, he was invisible, though the sky was clear. For a minute or two I was puzzled, until I remembered that 20 miles on the circumference of the moon represented more than a degree of a great olrcle, and that of course we had left the sun behind ; he had indeed set, his diameter representing only half a degree. We now started to journey back towards the east, and presently we could discern the upper edge of the sun appearing over the horizon gradually rising again. When we had accomplished some twenty miles of the return journey, he was well above the horizon, in much the same position as when we first started out. He was, in fact, just about his own diameter higher than when we set out, as it takes one hour for him to rise his own apparent diameter. We now started for a good long spurt over the ice, keeping the sun on our right. We put on top speed, and I again surprised my companions by the ease with whioh I could keep up with them— handicapped as I was, a David matched against Goliaths ! But alas ! as some- times happens in this world, as well as in ours, the fall from one's high estate is often 'short, sharp, and decisive.' At the very moment of my self-gratulatlon and general approval, one of my skates entered a slight crack or rift in the ice, the violence ot the twist it gave to my stroke broke the highly tempered metal of which the slide was composed and I became ilke a boat stranded on a rocky shore, a wreck unable to make the least further progress. What was I to do ? We had gone at least 100 miles from our starting place. Here was a dilemma. As soon as my companions were aware that something in the nature of an acci- dent had happened they came to a stop, and returning to my side they saw the broken skate and realised my helpless condition. Tehanu, however, only smiled at my apparent distress ; he knelt down and relieved me of their encumbrance, then stood up and lifted me on to his shoulder, which I found to be a right comfortable seat, and from which position, as they swiftly made the return journey, I had leisure, which I had not had before— my attention having been completely taken up with my skating— of observing and admiring the grandeur of the landsoape which en- vironed us on all sides. It was indeed magnificent ; it was gorgeous, and defies any attempt at de- scription. Here, all around, spread out veritable terrestrial scenery— a blue sky, a brilliant sun, and a few scattered white clouds ! In the far distance, on both sides, the loftier peaks of vast ranges of mountains, which towered at least seven miles above the ice, in tower over tower, peak above peak, range beyond range— the most awe-inspiring, indeed terrible, landscape the human eye ever dwelt upon or the mind of man could imagine. I was for a time transfixed, the while I was being floated along through space, with a swift gliding movement, at the rate of fifty miles an hour. My eye wandered from cliff to cliff, from pinnacle to pinnacle, all resplendently lit up by the morning sun. I involuntarily re- peated the words of Prospero— Alas ! 'The cloud-capped towers, The gorgeous palaces, the great globe itself, And all that it inherit, shall dissolve, And like the baseless fabric of this vision, Leave not a wrack behind !' For was it not a vision, a vision only? Surely I was in Dreamland. (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER VIII. We had several skating spurts after this in one of which I matched myself against Tehanu, with whom I managed to keep abreast though he did his best to outpace me and though I had to make two strokes to his one. I attributed my suc- cess to my greater activity and relatively greater muscular power. However, the skating for this season was fast coming to an end, for the sun was hourly gain- ing immense power and the ice was melt- ing fast. Long before the sun attained the zenith, it would all have disappeared and the lake, as the sun declined to the west, would become the scene of all sorts of boating contests and manœuvres in which the Selenese with their long pointed boats and powerful oars excel. We stayed here longer than we other- wise should have done in order that I might take part in and enjoy some of their contests and expeditions. They were novel, amusing, and highly enjoy- able. Altogether these regions of their world are the chief arena of their out- door exercise and life, and they cer- tainly make the very most of them. And now if we were to be in time for the great bi-monthly (twice a day with them) festival, their religious oratorio, occurring at sunrise and sunset alternately at the longitude of the Temple, when the earth is in his first and last quarters, exactly dichotomised, that is, exactly halved — they possess in- struments by which they can ascertain the exact instant of the half phase the earth, like our moon, passes through. At that moment the grand festival of music commences in a mighty thunder- burst of song. It was time we com- menced our return journey, and this we did in the great sea 'greyhound' we had travelled in before. On this occa- sion we had to cross the great loch or sea 500 miles, escorted by hundreds of boats, to whose pace that of our giant was regu- lated. On the far side, when we reached it, we passed into the great western arm of the canal and put on top speed, and, in something over twelve hours, we pulled up at one of their im- portant 'cities,' when all our pas- sengers landed, and Tehanu, hoisting me on to his shoulders took me along a path which landed us at the foot of an immense flight of steps, leading, like those I had descended at Mt. Copernicus, to the outside of the moon. Eventually we arrived at the surface, apparently a very extensive plain, one of those which astronomers have supposed are the beds of the ancient lunar seas. The sun was just over the horizon in the east, the earth was resplendently brilliant and in full phase just resting on the horizon in the west—the most magnificently glori- our, heavenly object in any sky of the solar syetem, except, possibly, the ap- pearance from one of his moons of mighty Saturn and his rings. I gazed on the earth— my earth— in rapturous silence, tracing its various continents in succession, whose outlines were indeed considerably blurred and obscured by clouds, brilliantly white. I could, how- ever, distinctly make out some of them which were less obscured, as Northern Africa, portions of S. America, and dis- tinctly our Commonwealth of Australia. I strained my vision to get a glimpse of my own well-beloved adopted Isle— it ought to be, but isn't— 'of the Blest,' and now and again fancied I had seized upon a point of light which from its position I felt sure was the favored island of Tasmania. I could have remained entranced for a week, and had indeed spent three or four hours tracing the outlines of various countries. Europe was mostly enveloped in clouds, except the northern shores of the Mediterranean and portion of Italy and Bpaln. And now, when I took note the earth while I had stood there, had revolved considerably on her axis, the eastern countries and seas were disappearing over the edge, while western lands and oceans were coming into view— more of South America and the Pacific along Central America and the southern por- tions of California. While the sun was rising the earth was stationary, apparently resting on, and rooted to, the moon's western hori- zon, and don't forget its apparent size is four times that of the moon's diameter as she appears to us, and, of course, it was gradually losing his full phase. But what a magnificent object, heavenly in aspect. It is no wonder, I reflected, the Selenese worship it ; yet is their worship no mere idolatry. They re- gard it as their future home — so peace ful, so celestial, so blessed, such a con- trast to the reality of things as I knew to exist and flourish there ! This, I told Tehanu, was the world I had come from, and tried to enlighten him as to the real characteristics of its inhabitants — immensely more of the devil than the saint. He turned upon me brusquely and would have none of it. 'You mistake,' he said ; 'your plan- etary abode is Mars or Venus, as you have named them.' 'We know,' he said, in the confident assurance of pro- found religious faith, 'the earth is the dwelling place of good and lofty spirits. You surely belie it.' I described the condition of the in- habitants of the world which was my home, without exaggeration as I thought, as one of chronic warfare back into the past some ten thousand years, as far as we could penetrate. I described it not as periods of peace intercalated with in- tervals of actual fighting, but a constant state of warfare, with alternating perlods devoted to recuperation and preparation for the next war ! Even now, I told him, there had been in Europe an interval of cessation from active war for 40 years, but that time had been actively spent in the training of millions of men for battle and the building of fighting ships, at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of the wealth laboriously produced. (To be continued).

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER IX. We were now really standing on the edge of the moon — the eastern edge as seen from the earth, for you must know, my children, as you look at the moon from our point of view, that is, from Australia, the upper extreme point of her disc is the South Pole, the lower point is the North Pole, the right-hand side is the west, the left-hand the east ; and a spot close to this, the left-hand edge near her equator, was where we stood and looked at the earth standing on the opposite or western edge. Also, I may mention here, that there is close to the South Pole a very lofty range of mountains, some of them over seven miles high, which we have named 'the Leibnitz.' On these the sun never sets ! Should they not therefore be incorpo- rated in the British Empire ? We now returned by the giant stair- case to the canal, boarded our motor- ship and cast off for a long journey, more than a quarter of the moon's cir- cumference, that is over 1500 miles, to our original starting place. Our home, shall I say ? Indeed Tehanu and his wife had made it a home to me. By this time I had become very pro- ficient in their language and could con- verse freely with my friend on almost any subject. We spent the remaining Interval to the festival mostly in philo- sophical and sociological discussions. His favorite plan was to mount me on his shoulders — a very convenient posi- tion for conversation— and promenade along the margin of the canal, a re- sumption of the Aristotelian method of old Greece. Thinking of the immense advantages of earth-conditions over those obtaining in the moon, its boundless tracts of fer- tile lands, its cloud-capped mountains, its joyous rivers, life giving, fructifying, its glimmering lakes and abounding seas, all stocked with food, its blue elysian skies, which we most appropriately oall 'Heaven ' ; its wealth of color and shade, and the crowning glory of all — the life-giving, life-preserving, peerless sun, my mind was irresistably impelled to recur to the account in the N.T. of the ill-use made by the young man of the talent entrusted to his care, who only buried it in the ground. By the way, there are still worse uses to put it to ; some of which humanity adopted. These people had not only used their 'talent' well, they had indeed converted Tartarus into Heaven. They had built cities, grand and magnificent, without the slums which pollute ours, and which we try to hide away but cannot bury underground. They had created a fertile land out of voloanio rook, turned a Sahara into an Eden of fruits and flowers ! What a contrast these Selenese presented to our terrestrial humanity ! The plea to be put forward on behalf of the latter is, of course, the older evolution of the former, for, though their world is younger born, it is in evolution our elder sister ; so there is hope that after the lapse of a century of centuries we may become, as they, contented and happy, industrious, just, moral, and religious. Lying and fighting, robbery and mur- der are as extinct among them as the Saurians. Of all things on this earth, under the high heavens, is anything more obvious and more melanoholy than the ill use mankind has made of its opportunities ? The utter-selfish uses to which it has devoted the 'talent' entrusted to its keeping and intended for its advance- ment? The judgment I was perforce, in the face of Tehanu's severe condemnation, to pass upon my own earth-race, the comparison I was obliged to make be- tween the two races, terrestrial and Selenese, brought with it bitter thoughts. Here was my own kindred race, en- trusted with a young world of infinite resources and possibilities, of transcen- dant beauty, of which we ought to have made 'a joy for ever,' and when the Master shall return, what have we to say to Him ? What have we to show him ? We can say nothing ! We can but hang our heads in shame, and point to a heap of broken idols at our feet ! We can, if we dared to, boast of our Dreadnoughts and our immense fighting armies. Then will He pass sentence upon us : 'You have neglected Duty ; you have corrupted Right ; you have rejoiced in Injustice ; you have revelled in Waste and Desolation. You have produced nothing whatsoever that is not blotched and disfigured. The things which in your eyes are most admirable and beau- tiful, are so only on the outside, rotten and corrupt within. 'Your great cities, blasted with poverty, crime, disease and slavery. Your coun- try lands turned into a mere preserve, their natural beauty blurred and dark- ened by those hideous structures, more foul within than without — your gaols, your mansions, asylums, workhouses. You have produced nothing but dead sea fruit ! Go ! I banish you from this world of beauty and of immense possibilities and will provide you with another — a disrupted fire-riven, barren and dead planet like unto the Moon. Try what you oan make of that, that you may avert the doom while there is yet time !' (To be concluded.)

A TRIP TO THE MOON. (Written for Clipper Young Folks by F.N.) CHAPTER X. For one of our philosophical talks, Tehanu, placing me in the convenient position for conversation on his shoulder, promenaded the mile-long avenue or vestibulum to the Temple, of which I must now attempt a short and meagre description. When I passed through it from the Temple on my first arrival, I was too pre-occupied to notice any of its enchanting beauties, but now I could catch every detail of it. Overhead, at what appeared to me an immense height, was a most extraordinary electrical phenomenon — a continuous cord or cylinder of light, a mile long, from the Temple to the edge of the canal — a great triumph of electrical engineering. The roof was Gothic and most intricately and exquisitely grained. At equal distances along both sides of the roadway were circular and richly moulded pedestals of pure white marble, without a stain or marking —detached, that is, from the walls — from which rose clustered fluted pillars, surmounted with rare capitals, from the summits of which, and also de- tached from the roof, to the central moulding bordering on both sides the electric cord of light, was a single curved column following the curviture of the Gothic arch. The most astonishing feature of all this magnificence was the growth of climbing plants, apparently from the rocky floor, and bearing in wonderful profusion a large handsome flower, tinted a sky blue ! These climbers started from the floor with a stout stem, hid by the pedestal, but emerging at its summit, and then were trained round and round the clusters of pillars, thence round the single detached column almost up to the very centre of the arch, and covered from top to bot- tom with a profusion of light blue blooms. It was not until Tehanu pointed it out to me that I realised they were actually living growing plants and not sculptured work. He also showed me the detached beds of soil in which the roots were embedded, and an adjacent stream of water fed from the canal. The side walls were perfectly smooth and highly polished. And all the spaces between the pedestals were oocupied with low growing and flowering shrubs. A noble entrance indeed to the Temple ! During these peripatetic discussions I gave Tehanu what I considered a fair and impartial description of the habits and customs of my people and race in the world I came from. I told him of our fighting propensities, and of the noble acts sometimes witnessed in our battle scenes, where soldiers carried their wounded enemies through a storm of bullets to a place of safety and tended them ; where men, battle-riven, treated their prisoners with the tenderness and consideration of friends and brothers ; and I told him also that some of our writers argued that such acts of chivalry were not only a palliation of war but its justification ! I told him that the his- tory of man, as far back as we could go, was one long record of chattel slavery. under which men were owned by their fellows as horses and cattle, but treated infinitely worse ; and that even at this day it was but a modified kind of sla- very, in which the descendants of the former slaves were granted the choice of two alternatives— the giving up to an employer the larger portion of his earn- ings, or starvation ! I told him that with us the very production and distri- bution of wealth— the necessaries of life —were carried on by internecine com- mercial war and robbery ! I told him that in spite of constant warfare, or preparation for war, at a fearful cost of wealth, the world was overflowing with it, there was a vast superabundance of it. And yet men, women and children, to be counted in millions, were un- sheltered, clothed in rags and a-hun- gered. And lastly, I gave him a synopsis of our religious beliefs. How out of a thousand different and antagonistic creeds, each one anathematised all the rest ; that the formula common to them all was, 'mine is the only Truth— yours is heretical and false.' I told him how men had been tortured and burnt for daring to hint a question as to the truths of the 'dominant religion' ; how men had been persecuted, hanged or burnt, for venturing to propound and disseminate a purely scientific fact, be- cause those in authority thought it tra- versed some important dogma or inter- pretatlon of their 'sacred writings,' which by a subtle irony they were even- tually compelled to accept as truth ! Tehanu summed up his verdict and con- demnation in one sentence. He said : 'Such an outcome of what you tell me your people blasphemously misname 'civilisation,' is a disgrace to any race of sentient beings in any world !' It was now close upon the time of the Morning Festival. People had flocked from all parts of the moon, and pre- sently Tehanu and hie friends and my- self joined them on their way to the Temple. Arriving at the vestibule, they invited me to follow them up the steps, or rather lifted me, to the exterior. The Principal of the religious ceremony— Priest we would call him— had taken his stand at the head of the inclined plane, leading from the exterior to the interior of the temple, to signal to an associate the moment of dichotomisation. The sun was risen, as was evident from the lit-up summit of the distant peak of the central mountain of Copernicus, from which I had, on my first advent, looked round upon the same land- scape at precisely the same period of the lunar day. Looking up at the earth as she appeared sus- pended, and in half phase as I had first beheld her, brought back to me not only the same image but the eame feeling; of wonder and awe, and I could therefore easily enter Into the spirit of the cere mony about to commence. The Priest, if I may use the term, stood at the head of the Foca, or inclined plane, leading to the interior, with an instrument in his right hand, and another, a small one, in his left. Tehanu explained to me that the first one was an 'afron,' which I translate by the word, if I may coin one, 'dichotometer.' The other instrument was an electric signal. Having given me the opportunity of noting these things, he requested me to accompany them down the steps to the Temple, where we were courteously invited to take up a position on the inner edge of a circular space left by the worshippers for the 'Associate' in front of the Foca, who, with a wand in his hand, stood awaiting the signal from above. The immense building at this time appeared to be full of Selenese men and women — 50,000 I was told were present— in silent expectation ; like a squadron of troops at attention awaiting the order of their commander. My friend drew my atten- tion to the choir master, who stood on a projecting ridge 30 feet above thefloor, and of course, visible from every part of the Temple. At length the signal came, a small flashed ring of light, whioh was repeated by the leader from his elevated position, when 50,000 human voices, as one, rent the roof with a volume and crash of sound like a single detonation of thunder following upon a flash of lightning just above one's head, which really lifted me off my feet and made me momentarily unconscious. I need not attempt a description of this magnificent oratoria. It oscillated from the start- ling thunder-clap to the tenderest pian- issimo, the softness of which was as wonderful as the grandest fortissimo ! I can but describe its effect upon my self. Under its heavenly influence I was translated from that world to some other; I presume one of the spheres. My soul was bathed in ecstasy. I was alone. But in a stale of blissfulness in- conceivable and beyond all experience. How long this continued I know not. The last reverberation of the music was as it had begun— a crash of overhead thunder ! I hear a voice mysterious Which says I must not stay ; I see a hand imperious Which beckons me away. The signal call is serious, And I must at once obey ! Something like half a minute had been drawn out to a month, crammed with incident ; and I found myself by the side of my wife, with whom I had been talking a minute ago on various house hold subjects, and to whom I now, on gaining complete consciousness, found myself relating the incidents of a won derful dream ! The End.

Item sets: Vintage Science Fiction from Australian Newspapers 1901-1939 (Australian)