_Mercury_ and _Aurora
Borealis_, in acknowledgment of their great services to our cause. At
the same time I did not forget to give our friends a more solid proof
of my gratitude in the shape of a large bounty in gold.

CHAPTER LIX.

THE HISTORY CONCLUDED.

I think it is right that I should conclude the history of the conquest
of Atvatabar with my being crowned king of the realm.

I at once assumed my functions as ruler of Atvatabar. I was supreme
commander of the army and grand admiral of the fleet. In council with
the ministers of the government appointed by the Borodemy, I caused
the adoption of many beneficent laws, calculated to make my people
prosperous and happy.

Hushnoly soon departed, with his retinue of twin-souls, to found a new
Egyplosis on the sphere of Hilar, with Zooly-Soase as goddess. It was
with great grief that I parted with these beloved friends. Hushnoly
and his flock were not to be persuaded that nature herself was hostile
to their esoteric practices; so, to avoid antagonism, it was best that
we should part. I promised Hushnoly that, together with Lyone, I would
visit his globe some time in the future and see how his colony
progressed. He was an enthusiast who required a great many defeats
from fortune before he could see the fatal defects of his social and
religious system.

The grand sorcerer, as the pontiff of Remeliorism, or the ethics of
nature, achieved a triumph in restoring Egyplosis to the reign of
order, truth, justice, benevolence, and temperance. In time I hoped to
see the Christian faith rule the souls of those who had so recently
worshipped themselves under the guise of Harikar, the universal human
soul. I was anxious to see men and women possessing that serene poise
of passion that alone can sustain virile action. Lyone herself was the
first to be convinced that the human soul, with its limitations, its
narrowness, its impatience, its selfishness, its arrogance, its
cruelty, was a very inferior deity. It was true that rare ideal joys
might be purchased for a brief time under the old _regime_, but they
were only purchased at an immense price, out of all proportion to the
value received, and their possession produced a sickly sublimity
totally unfitting the soul for the practical duties of life.

Captain Adams and Sir John Forbes, excited at my good fortune,
declared themselves anxious, with my consent, to explore the further
hemisphere of the interior planet, in the i