lasted late into the morning of the next day. The
strain of taking it was somehow singularly intense upon me. I was taken
from the table the next morning unconscious. I had fainted at the close.
It began, as I received it, a few opening sentences having been lost:

"...was sent to you I was in the City of Light, and now I am in the City
of Scandor.

"The morning of that wonderful night in which I became a flesh and blood
Martian, strong and young and beautiful, dawned fair. My friend came for
me, and we went together to the great 'Commons' of the Patenta, a superb
hall where all the professors, investigators, and students in the great
Academy sit at many tables. This huge dining room is at the center of
the group of buildings which make up the Patenta. Corridors lead into it
from the four sections of the Patenta, and as we entered, from the
different sides there were many men and some women taking the ivory
chairs at the side's of the long tables of marble, on which rose in
beautiful confusion of color crowded vases of fruits.

"Surrounding the room are niches instead of windows, and in each niche
one noble symbolic figure in white or colored marble.

"Light fell in a torrent of glory through the faintly opalescent glass
compartments of the ceiling, from which, at the intersection of the
broad and long rafters of blue metal, hung chandeliers formed in
branching arms with cup-like extremities, and holding spheres of the
omnipresent _phosphori_.

"I stood a moment with my companion at the entrance of the great dining
room, and watched the groups and individual arrivals, as they assorted
themselves into companies or engaged in some short interchange of
greetings. It was a very beautiful scene. The faces of all were
wonderfully clear and strong, and in the commingling of forms, the bold,
intellectual features of some, the more rare, delicate outlines of other
faces, the flowing of the graceful tunics and robes, the pleasant,
musical confusion of voices, with the quick, glancing movements of
attendants, the heaped up chalices and baskets, vases and broad
spreading plates of fruit, the many carelessly arranged and profuse
bunches of radiant flowers in tall receptacles of glass or alabaster, in
all this, with the strong, simple architectural features of the Hall,
the eye and mind and senses seemed equally stimulated and satisfied.

"Amongst the glorious throng my companion pointed out to me many of
those great men and w