You express yourself strongly.
Allow me to inform you that I myself, and I am proud to say it, am the
citizen of a Koom-Posh."

"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so far from your
home. What was the condition of your native community before it became a
Koom-Posh?"

"A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribe
sends forth--but so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependent
on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crowned
with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh."

"Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?"

"About 100 years."

"The length of an An's life--a very young community. In much less than
another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas."

"Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have such faith in its
duration, that they are all gradually shaping their institutions so
as to melt into ours, and their most thoughtful politicians say that,
whether they like it or not, the inevitable tendency of these old states
is towards Koom-Posh-erie."

"The old states?"

"Yes, the old states."

"With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive
land?"

"On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion to that
area."

"I see! old states indeed!--so old as to become drivelling if they don't
pack off that surplus population as we do ours--very old states!--very,
very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wise for very old men to try to
turn head-over-heels as very young children do? And if you ask them why
they attempted such antics, should you not laugh if they answered that
by imitating very young children they could become very young children
themselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sort a great
many thousand years ago--and in every instance a very old state that
played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas. Then, in horror of its
own self, it cried out for a master, as an old man in his dotage cries
out for a nurse; and after a succession of masters or nurses, more or
less long, that very old state died out of history. A very old state
attempting Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the
house to which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted his
vigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is
to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and his successors whine out,
'How the wind blows! How the walls shake!'"

"My dear Taee, I make all excu