by a
madman who pretended he had seen the sun coming back to life and melting
the ice. At this news which had not been otherwise confirmed, quite a
considerable portion of the population became unsettled and gave itself
up to the pleasing task of forming plans for an early exodus. Such
unhealthy and revolutionary dreams evidently only serve to foment
artificial discontent.

Luckily a scholar in rummaging in a forgotten corner of the archives put
his hand on a big collection of phonographic and cinematographic records
which had been amassed by an ancient collector. Interpreted by the
phonograph and cinematograph together, these cylinders and films have
enabled us suddenly to hear all the former sounds in nature accompanied
by their corresponding sights, the thunder, the winds, the mountain
torrents, the murmurs that accompany the dawn, the monotonous cry of the
osprey and the long drawn out lament of the nightingale amid the
manifold whisperings of night. At this resurrection of another age to
the ear and eye, of extinct species and vanished phenomena, an immense
astonishment quickly followed by an immense disillusion arose among the
most ardent partisans of a return to the ancient regime. For that was
not what one had hitherto believed on the strength of what even the most
realist poets and novelists had told us. It was something infinitely
less ravishing and less worthy of our regret. The song of the
nightingale above all provoked a most unpleasant surprise. We were all
angry with it for showing itself so inferior to its reputation.
Assuredly the worst of our concerts is more musical than this so-called
symphony of nature with full orchestral accompaniment.

Thus has been quelled by an ingenious expedient entirely unknown to
former governments, this first and only attempt at rebellion. May it be
the last. A certain leaven of discord is beginning, alas, to contaminate
our ranks, and our moralists observe not without apprehension sundry
symptoms which indicate the relaxation of our morals. The growth in our
population is very disquieting, notably since certain chemical
discoveries, following upon which we have been too much in a hurry to
declare that bread might be made of stones, and that it was no longer
worth while to husband our food supplies or to trouble ourselves to
maintain at a certain limit the number of mouths to feed.

Simultaneously with the increase in the number of children, there is a
diminution in the