Across the Zodiac

by Percy Greg

  CHAPTER XXII - PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS.

  A chief luxury and expense in which, when aware what my income was, Iindulged myself freely was the purchase of Martial literature. Onlyephemeral works are as a rule printed in the phonographic character,which alone I could read with ease. The Martialists have nonewspapers. It does not seem to them worth while to record daily theaccidents, the business incidents, the prices, the amusements, and thefollies of the day; and politics they have none. In no case would apeople so coldly wise, so thoroughly impressed by experience with asense of the extreme folly of political agitation, legislative change,and democratic violence, have cursed themselves with anything like thepress of Europe or America. But as it is, all they have to record isgathered each twelfth day at the telegraph offices, and from thesecommunicated on a single sheet about four inches square to all whocare to receive it. But each profession or occupation that boasts, asdo most, an organisation and a centre of discussion and council,issues at intervals books containing collected facts, essays, reportsof experiments, and lectures. Every man who cares to communicate hispassing ideas to the public does so by means of the phonograph. Whenhe has a graver work, which is, in his view at least, of permanentimportance to publish, it is written in the stylographic character,and sold at the telegraphic centres. The extreme complication andcompression employed in this character had, as I have already said,rendered it very difficult to me; and though I had learnt to decipherit as a child spells out the words which a few years later it willread unconsciously by the eye, the only manner in which I couldquickly gather the sense of such books was by desiring one or other ofthe ladies to read them aloud. Strangely enough, next to Eveena, Eivewas by far the best reader. Eunane understood infinitely better whatshe was perusing; but the art of reading aloud is useless, andtherefore never taught, in schools whose every pupil learns to readwith the usual facility a character which the practised eye caninterpret incomparably faster than the voice could possibly utter it.This reading might have afforded many opportunities of privateconverse with Eveena, but that Eive, whose knowledge was by no meansproportionate to her intelligence, entreated permission to listen tothe books I selected; and Eveena, though not partial to her childishcompanion and admirer, persuaded me not to refuse.

  The story of my voyage and reports of my first audience at Court were,of course, widely circulated and extensively canvassed. Thoughregarded with no favour, especially by the professed philosophers andscientists, my adventures and myself were naturally an object of greatcuriosity; and I was not surprised when a civil if cold request waspreferred, on behalf of what I may call the Martial Academy, that Iwould deliver in their hall a series of lectures, or rather aconnected oral account of the world from which I professed to havecome, and of the manner in which my voyage had been accomplished.After consulting Eveena and Davilo, I accepted the invitation, andintended to take the former with me. She objected, however, that whileshe had heard much in her father's house and during our travels ofwhat I had to tell, her companions, scarcely less interested, werecomparatively ignorant. Indiscreetly, because somewhat provoked bythese repeated sacrifices, as much of my inclination as her own, Imentioned my purpose at our evening meal, and bade her name those whoshould accompany me. I was a little surprised when, carefully evadingthe dictation to which she was invited, she suggested that Eunane andEive would probably most enjoy the opportunity. That she should bewilling to get rid of the most wilful and petulant of the party seemednatural. The other selection confirmed the impression I had formed,but dared not express to one whom I had never blamed without findingmyself in the wrong, that Eveena regarded Eive with a feeling morenearly approaching to jealousy than her nature seemed capable ofentertaining. I obeyed, however, without comment; and both thecompanions selected for me were delighted at the prospect.

  The Academy is situated about half-way between Amacasfe and theResidence; the facilities of Martial travelling, and above all oftelegraphic and telephonic communication, dispensing with all reasonfor placing great institutions in or near important cities. Wetravelled by balloon, as I was anxious to improve myself in themanagement of these machines. After frightening my companions so faras to provoke some outcry from Eive, and from Eunane some saucyremarks on my clumsiness, on which no one else would have ventured, Idescended safely, if not very creditably, in front of the buildingwhich serves as a local centre of Martial philosophy. The residencesof some sixty of the most eminent professors of varioussciences--elected by their colleagues as seats fall vacant, with theapproval of the highest Court of Judicature and of the campta--clusteraround a huge building in the form of a hexagon made up of a multitudeof smaller hexagons, in the centre whereof is the great hall of thesame shape. In the smaller chambers which surround it are telephonesthrough which addresses delivered in a hundred different quarters aremechanically repeated; so that the residents or temporary visitors canhere gather at once all the knowledge that is communicated by any manof note to any audience throughout the planet. On this account numbersof young men just emancipated from the colleges come here to completetheir education; and above each of the auditory chambers is anotherdivided into six small rooms, wherein these visitors are accommodated.A small house belonging to one of the members who happened to beabsent was appropriated to me during my stay, and in its hall thephilosophers gathered in the morning to converse with or to questionme in detail respecting the world whose existence they would notformally admit, but whose life, physical, social, and political, andwhose scientific and human history, they regarded with as muchcuriosity as if its reality were ascertained. Courtesy forbids eveningvisits unless on distinct and pressing invitation, it being supposedthat the head of a household may care to spend that part of his time,and that alone, with his own family.

  The Academists are provided by the State with incomes, of an amountvery much larger than the modest allowances which the richest nationsof the Earth almost grudge to the men whose names in future historywill probably be remembered longer than those of eminent statesmen andwarriors. Some of them have made considerable fortunes by turning toaccount in practical invention this or that scientific discovery. Butas a rule, in Mars as on Earth, the gifts and the career of thediscoverer, and the inventor are distinct. It is, however, from thepurely theoretical labours of the men of science that the inventionsuseful in manufactures, in communication, in every department of lifeand business, are generally derived; and the prejudice or judgment ofthis strange people has laid it down that those who devote their livesto work in itself unremunerative, but indirectly most valuable to thepublic, should be at least as well off as the subordinate servants ofthe State. In society they are perhaps more honoured than any but thehighest public authorities; and my audience was the mostdistinguished, according to the ideas of that world, that it couldfurnish.

  At noon each day I entered the hall, which was crowded with benchesrising on five sides from the centre to the walls, the sixth beingoccupied by a platform where the lecturer and the members of theAcademy sat. After each lecture, which occupied some two hours,questions more or less perplexing were put by the latter. Only,however, on the first occasion, when I reserved, as before the Zintaand the Court, all information that could enable my hearers to divinethe nature of the apergic force, was incredulity so plainly insinuatedas to amount to absolute insult.

  "If," I said, "you choose to disbelieve what I tell you, you arewelcome to do so. But you are not at liberty to express your disbeliefto me. To do so is to charge me with lying; and to that charge,whatever may be the customs of this world, there is in mine but oneanswer," and I laid my hand on the hilt of the sword I wore indeference to Davilo's warnings, but which he and others considered aTerrestrial ornament rather than a weapon.

  The President of the Academy quietly replied--"Of all the strangethings we have heard, this seems the strangest. I waive theprobability of your statements, or the reasonableness of the doubtssuggested. But I fail to understand how, here or in any other world,if the imputation of falsehood be con
sidered so gross an offence--andhere it is too common to be so regarded--it can be repelled by provingyourself more skilled in the use of weapons, or stronger or moredaring than the person who has challenged your assertion."

  The moral courage and self-possession of the President were as markedas his logic was irrefragable; but my outbreak, however illogical,served its purpose. No one was disposed to give mortal offence to onewho showed himself so ready to resent it, though probably theapprehension related less to my swordsmanship than the favour I wassupposed to enjoy with the Suzerain.

  Seriously impressed by the growing earnestness of Davilo's warnings,and feeling that I could no longer conceal the pressure of someanxiety on my mind, gradually, cautiously, and tenderly I broke toEveena what I had learned, with but two reserves. I would not renderher life miserable by the suggestion of possible treason in our ownhousehold. That she might not infer this for herself, I led her tobelieve that the existence and discovery of the conspiracy was of adate long subsequent to my acceptance of the Sovereign's unwelcomegift. She was deeply affected, and, as I had feared, exceedinglydisturbed. But, very characteristically, the keenest impression madeupon her mind concerned less the urgency of the peril than its origin,the fact that it was incurred through and for her. On this sheinsisted much more than seemed just or reasonable. It was for hersake, no doubt, that I had made the Regent of Elcavoo my bitter,irreconcilable foe. It was my marriage with her, the daughter of themost eminent among the chiefs of the Zinta, that had marked me out asone of the first and principal victims, and set on my head a value ashigh as on that of any of the Order save the Arch-Enlightener himself,whose personal character and social distinction would have indicatedhim as especially dangerous, even had his secret rank been altogetherunsuspected. It was impossible to soothe Eveena's first outbreak offeeling, or reason with her illogical self-reproach. Compelled at lastto admit that the peril had been unconsciously incurred when sheneither knew nor could have known it, she pleaded eagerly andearnestly for permission to repair by the sacrifice of herself theinjury she had brought upon me. It was useless to tell her that theacceptance of such a sacrifice would be a thousand-fold worse thandeath. Even the depth and devotion of her own love could not persuadeher to realise the passionate earnestness of mine. It was still morein vain to remind her that such a concession must entail the dishonourthat man fears above all perils; would brand me with that indeliblestain of abject personal cowardice which for ever degrades and ruinsnot only the fame but the nature of manhood, as the stain of wilfulunchastity debases and ruins woman.

  "Rescind our contract," she insisted, pleading, with the overpoweringvehemence of a love absolutely unselfish, against love's deepestinstincts and that egotism which is almost inseparable from it; givingpassionate utterance to an affection such as men rarely feel forwomen, women perhaps never for men. "Divorce me; force the enemy tobelieve that you have broken with my father and with his Order; and,favoured as you are by the Sovereign, you will be safe. Give whatreason you will; say that I have deserved it, that I have forced youto it. I know that contracts _are_ revoked with the full approval ofthe Courts and of the public, though I hardly know why. I will agree;and if we are agreed, you can give or withhold reasons as you please.Nay, there can be no wrong to me in doing what I entreat you to do. Ishall not suffer long--no, no, I _will_ live, I will be happy"--herface white to the lips, her streaming tears were not needed to beliethe words! "By your love for me, do not let me feel that you are todie--do not keep me in dread to hear that you have died--for me andthrough me."

  If it had been in her power to leave me, if one-half of the promisedperiod had not been yet to run, she might have enforced her purpose indespite of all that I could urge;--of reason, of entreaty, of thepleadings of a love in this at least as earnest as her own. Nay, shewould probably have left me, in the hope of exhibiting to the worldthe appearance of an open quarrel, but for a peculiarity of Martiallaw. That law enforces, on the plea of either party, "specificperformance" of the marriage contract. I could reclaim her, and callthe force of the State to recover her. When even this warning at firstfailed to enforce her submission, I swore by all I held sacred in myown world and all she revered in hers--by the symbols never lightlyinvoked, and never, in the course of ages that cover thrice the spanof Terrestrial history and tradition, invoked to sanction a lie;symbols more sacred in her eyes than, in those of mediaevalChristendom, the gathered relics that appalled the heroic soul ofHarold Godwinsson--that she should only defeat her own purpose; that Iwould reclaim my wife before the Order and before the law, thusasserting more clearly than ever the strength of the tie that bound meto her and to her house. The oath which it was impossible to break,perhaps yet more the cold and measured tone with which I spoke, instriving to control the white heat of a passion as much stronger as itwas more selfish than hers--a tone which sounded to myself unnaturaland alien--at last compelled her to yield; and silenced her in theonly moment in which the depths of that nature, so sweet and soft andgentle, were stirred by the violence of a moral tempest....A marvellously perfect example of Martial art and science is furnishedby the Observatory of the Astronomic Academy, on a mountain abouttwenty miles from the Residence. The hill selected stands about 4000feet above the sea-level, and almost half that height above anyneighbouring ground. It commands, therefore, a most perfect view ofthe horizon all around, even below the technical or theoretic horizonof its latitude. A volcano, like all Martial volcanoes very feeble,and never bursting into eruptions seriously dangerous to the dwellersin the neighbouring plains, existed at some miles' distance, andcaused earthquakes, or perhaps I should more properly say disturbancesof the surface, which threatened occasionally to perturb theobservations. But the Martialists grudge no cost to render theirscientific instruments, from the Observatory itself to the smallestlens or wheel it contains, as perfect as possible. Having decided thatEanelca was very superior to any other available site, they were notto be baffled or diverted by such a trifle as the opposition ofNature. Still less would they allow that the observers should be putout by a perceptible disturbance, or their observations falsified byone too slight to be realised by their senses. If Nature wereimpertinent enough to interfere with the arrangements of science,science must put down the mutiny of Nature. As seas had been bridgedand continents cut through, so a volcano might and must be suppressedor extinguished. A tunnel thirty miles in length was cut from a greatlake nearly a thousand feet higher than the base of the volcano; andthrough this for a quarter of a year, say some six Terrestrial months,water was steadily poured into the subterrene cavities wherein theeruptive forces were generated--the plutonic laboratory of therebellious agency. Of course previous to the adoption of this measure,the crust in the neighbourhood had been carefully explored and testedby various wonderfully elaborate and perfect boring instruments, and amap or rather model of the strata for a mile below the surface, andfor a distance around the volcano which I dare not state on the faithof my recollection alone, had been constructed on a scale, as weshould say, of twelve inches to the mile. Except for minor purposes,for convenience of pocket carriage and the like, Martialists disdainso poor a representation as a flat map can give of a broken surface.On the small scale, they employ globes of spherical sections torepresent extensive portions of their world; on the large scale (fromtwo to twenty-four inches per mile), models of wonderfully accurateconstruction. Consequently, children understand and enjoy thegeographical lesson which in European schools costs so many tears toso little purpose. A girl of six years knows more perfectly the wholearea of the Martial globe than a German Professor that of the ancientPeloponnesus. Eive, the dunce of our housed hold, won a Terrestrialpicture-book on which she had set her fancy by tracing on a forty-inchglobe, the first time she saw it, every detail of my journey fromEcasfe as she had heard me relate it; and Eunane, who had never lefther Nursery, could describe beforehand any route I wished to takebetween the northern and southern ice-belts. Under the guidanceafforded by the elaborate model abovementioned, all the
hollowswherein the materials of eruption were stored, and wherein thechemical forces of Nature had been at work for ages, were thoroughlyflooded. Of course convulsion after convulsion of the most violentnature followed. But in the course of about two hundred days, theinternal combustion was overmastered for lack of fuel; the chemicalcombinations, which might have gone on for ages causing weak butincessant outbreaks, were completed and their power exhausted.

  This source of disturbance extinguished in the reign of thetwenty-fifth predecessor of my royal patron, the construction of thegreat Observatory on Eanelca was commenced. A very elaborate road,winding round and round the mountain at such an incline as to beeasily ascended by the electric carriages, was built. But this wasintended only as a subsidiary means of ascent. Right into the bowelsof the mountain a vast tunnel fifty feet in height was driven. At itsinner extremity was excavated a chamber whose dimensions areimperfectly recorded in my notes, but which was certainly much largerthan the central cavern from which radiate the principal galleries ofthe Mammoth Cave. Around this were pierced a dozen shafts, emerging atdifferent heights, but all near the summit, and all so far outside thecentral plateau as to leave the solid foundation on which theObservatory was to rest, down to the very centre of the planet, whollyundisturbed. Through each of these, ascending and descendingalternately, pass two cars, or rather movable chambers, worked byelectricity, conveying passengers, instruments, or supplies to andfrom the most convenient points in the vast structure of theObservatory itself. The highest part of Ranelca was a rocky mass ofsome 1600 feet in circumference and about 200 in height. This wascarved into a perfect octagon, in the sides of which were arranged anumber of minor chambers--among them those wherein transit and othersecondary observations were to be taken, and in which minor magnifyinginstruments were placed to scan their several portions of the heavens.Within these was excavated a circular central chamber, the dome ofwhich was constructed of a crystal so clear that I verily believe themost exacting of Terrestrial astronomers would have been satisfied tomake his observations through it. But an opening was made in thisdome, as for the mounting of one of our equatorial telescopes, andmachinery was provided which caused the roof to revolve with a touch,bringing the opening to bear on any desired part of the celestialvault. In the centre of the solid floor, levelled to the utmostperfection, was left a circular pillar supporting the polar axis of aninstrument widely differing from our telescopes, especially in thefact that it had no opaque tube connecting the essential lenses whichwe call the eye-piece and the object-glass, names not applicable totheir Martial substitutes. On my visit to the Observatory, however, Ihad not leisure to examine minutely the means by which the images ofstars and planets were produced. I reserved this examination for asecond opportunity, which, as it happened, never occurred.

  On this occasion Eveena and Eunane were with me, and the astronomicpictures which were to be presented to us, and which they could enjoyand understand almost as fully as myself, sufficiently occupied ourtime. Warned to stand at such a distance from the central machinerythat in a whole revolution no part of it could by any possibilitytouch us, we were placed near an opening looking into a dark chamber,with our backs to the objects of observation. In this chamber, notupon a screen but suspended in the air, presently appeared an imageseveral thousand times larger than that of the crescent Moon as seenthrough a tube small enough to correct the exaggeration of visualinstinct. It appeared, however, not flat, as does the Moon to thenaked eye, but evidently as part of a sphere. At some distance wasshown another crescent, belonging to a sphere whose diameter was alittle more than one-fourth that of the former. The light reflectedfrom their surfaces was of silver radiance, rather than the golden hueof the Moon or of Venus as seen through a small telescope. The smallercrescent I could recognise at once as belonging to our own satellite;the larger was, of course, the world I had quitted. So exactly is theclockwork or its substitute adapted to counteract both the rotationand revolution of Mars, that the two images underwent no other changeof place than that caused by their own proper motion in space; amovement which, notwithstanding the immense magnifying power employed,was of course scarcely perceptible. But the rotation of the largersphere was visible as we watched it. It so happened that the partwhich was at once lighted by the rays of the Sun and exposed to ourobservation was but little clouded. The atmosphere, of course,prevented its presenting the clear, sharply-defined outlines of lunarlandscapes; but sea and land, ice and snow, were so clearly definedand easily distinguishable that my companions exclaimed witheagerness, as they observed features unmistakably resembling on thegrand scale those with which they were themselves familiar. The Arcticice was scarcely visible in the North. The vast steppes of Russia, theboundary line of the Ural mountains, the greyish-blue of the Euxine,Western Asia, Arabia, and the Red Sea joining the long water-line ofthe Southern Ocean, were defined by the slanting rays. The Antarcticice-continent was almost equally clear, with its stupendous glaciermasses radiating apparently from an elevated extensive land, chieflyconsisting of a deeply scooped and scored plateau of rock, around thePole itself. The terminator, or boundary between light and shade, wasnot, as in the Moon, pretty sharply defined, and broken only by themountainous masses, rings, and sea-beds, if such they are, socharacteristic of the latter. On the image of the Moon thereintervened between bright light and utter darkness but the narrow beltto which only part of the Sun was as yet visible, and which,therefore, received comparatively few rays. The twilight to north andsouth extended on the image of the Earth deep into that part on whichas yet the Sun was below the horizon, and consequently daylight fadedinto darkness all but imperceptibly, save between the tropics. Wewatched long and intently as league by league new portions of Europeand Africa, the Mediterranean, and even the Baltic, came into view;and I was able to point out to Eveena lands in which I had traveller,seas I had crossed, and even the isles of the Aegean, and bays inwhich my vessel had lain at anchor. This personal introduction to eachpart of the image, now presented to her for the first time, enabledher to realise more forcibly than a lengthened experience ofastronomical observation might have done the likeness to her own worldof that which was passing under her eyes; and at once intensified herwonder, heightened her pleasure, and sharpened her intellectualapprehension of the scene. When we had satiated our eyes with thisspectacle, or rather when I remembered that we could spare no moretime to this, the most interesting exhibition of the evening, a turnof the machinery brought Venus under view. Here, however, the cloudenvelope baffled us altogether, and her close approach to the horizonsoon obliged the director to turn his apparatus in another direction.Two or three of the Asteroids were in view. Pallas especiallypresented a very interesting spectacle. Not that the difference ofdistance would have rendered the definition much more perfect thanfrom a Terrestrial standpoint, but that the marvellous perfection ofMartial instruments, and in some measure also the rarity of theatmosphere at such a height, rendered possible the use of far highermagnifying powers than our astronomers can employ. I am inclined toagree, from what I saw on this occasion, with those who imagine theAsteroids to be--if not fragments of a broken planet which onceexisted as a whole--yet in another sense fragmentary spheres, lessperfect and with surfaces of much greater proportionate irregularitythan those of the larger planets. Next was presented to our view on asomewhat smaller scale, because the area of the chamber employed wouldnot otherwise have given room for the system, the enormous disc andthe four satellites of Jupiter. The difference between 400 and 360millions of miles' distance is, of course, wholly unimportant; but thedefinition and enlargement were such that the image was perfect, andthe details minute and distinct, beyond anything that Earthlyobservation had led me to conceive as possible. The satellites were nolonger mere points or tiny discs, but distinct moons, with surfacesmarked like that of our own satellite, though far less mountainous andbroken, and, as it seemed to me, possessing a distinct atmosphere. Iam not sure that there is not a visible difference of brightness amongthem, not due to their
size but to some difference in the reflectingpower of their surfaces, since the distance of all from the Sun ispractically equal. That Jupiter gives out some light of his own, aportion of which they may possibly reflect in differing amountaccording to their varying distance, is believed by Martialastronomers; and I thought it not improbable. The brilliant andvarious colouring of the bands which, cross the face of the giantplanet was wonderfully brought out; the bluish-grey around the poles,the clear yellowish-white light of the light bands, probably belts ofwhite cloud, contrasted signally the hues--varying from deeporange-brown to what was almost crimson or rose-pink on the one handand bright yellow on the other--of different zones of the so-calleddark belts. On the latter, markings and streaks of strange varietysuggested, if they failed-to prove, the existence of frequent spiralstorms, disturbing, probably at an immense height above the surface,clouds which must be utterly unlike the clouds of Mars or the Earth inmaterial as well as in form and mass. These markings enabled us tofollow with clear ocular appreciation the rapid rotation of thisplanet. In the course of half-an-hour several distinct spots ondifferent belts had moved in a direct line across a tenth of the facepresented to us--a distance, upon the scale of the gigantic image, sogreat that the motion required no painstaking observation, but forceditself upon the notice of the least attentive spectator. The belief ofMartial astronomers is that Jupiter is not by any means so much lessdense than the minor planets as his proportionately lesser weightwould imply. They hold that his visible surface is that of anenormously deep atmosphere, within which lies, they suppose, a centralball, not merely hot but more than white hot, and probably, from itstemperature, not yet possessing a solid crust. One writer argues that,since all worlds must by analogy be supposed to be inhabited, andsince the satellites of Jupiter more resemble worlds than the planetitself, which may be regarded as a kind of secondary sun, it is notimprobable that the former are the scenes of life as varied as that ofMars itself; and that infinite ages hence, when these have become toocold for habitation, their giant primary may have gone through thoseprocesses which, according to the received theory, have fitted theinterior planets to be the home of plants, animals, and, in two casesat least, of human beings.

  It was near midnight before the manifest fatigue of the ladiesovercame my selfish desire to prolong as much as possible this mostinteresting visit. Meteorological science in Mars has been carried tohigh perfection; and the director warned me that but three or fourequally favourable opportunities might offer in the course of the nexthalf year.