bove the standard of the creature
we call woman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of being
reduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed in that
bower so constructed for dreams of poetic love.

The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquids which
form the innocent wines of the Vril-ya.

"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I can scarcely
conceive why you do not settle yourself here instead of amid the
gloomier abodes of the city."

"As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am
compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can only come hither for
short intervals."

"But since I understand from you that no honours are attached to your
office, and it involves some trouble, why do you accept it?"

"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. He said, 'Be
it requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner of Light,' so I had
no choice; but having held the office now for a long time, the cares,
which were at first unwelcome, have become, if not pleasing, at least
endurable. We are all formed by custom--even the difference of our race
from the savage is but the transmitted continuance of custom, which
becomes, through hereditary descent, part and parcel of our nature. You
see there are Ana who even reconcile themselves to the responsibilities
of chief magistrate, but no one would do so if his duties had not been
rendered so light, or if there were any questions as to compliance with
his requests."

"Not even if you thought the requests unwise or unjust?"

"We do not allow ourselves to think so, and, indeed, everything goes on
as if each and all governed themselves according to immemorial custom."

"When the chief magistrate dies or retires, how do you provide for his
successor?"

"The An who has discharged the duties of chief magistrate for many years
is the best person to choose one by whom those duties may be understood,
and he generally names his successor."

"His son, perhaps?"

"Seldom that; for it is not an office any one desires or seeks, and a
father naturally hesitates to constrain his son. But if the Tur himself
decline to make a choice, for fear it might be supposed that he owed
some grudge to the person on whom his choice would settle, then there
are three of the College of Sages who draw lots among themselves which
shall have the power to elect the chief. We consider that the judgment
of one An of ordinary