Chapter I: Front Matter

HISTORY
OF
A WORLD OF IMMORTALS
WITHOUT A GOD:
TRANSLATED FROM
_AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT IN THE LIBRARY OF A CONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY_.

BY

ANTARES SKORPIOS.

_DUBLIN_:

WILLIAM M^CGEE, 18, NASSAU STREET.

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO.

1891.

_Printed at_ THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, _Dublin_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
_Concerning the Birth and Education of Dr. Gervaas Van Varken, and
his Loathing and Abhorrence of the whole Human Race—How he met
an Ancient Parsee merchant in Bombay, and got an introduction to
the Great Magician of Thibet—How he went to Thibet; what he
learned there, and how he departed from it_, 1

CHAPTER II.

HERE BEGINS THE HISTORY OF HESPEROS.

_Of the shining city of Lucetta—How Dr. Van Varken met an apparent
Yahoo—Of the great astonishment of the citizens at sight of the
Doctor, and how they gave him in charge to a committee of
three—How the committee learned the Dutch tongue, and showed the
Doctor sundry strange and wonderful maps_, 19

CHAPTER III.

_Concerning Physical Hesperography—Of the great Cloud-Screen, and
its effect on Terrestrial Astronomy—Of the Chronic Equatorial
Tornado, and of its extraordinary importance in the history of
Hesperos—Of the Giant Mountains; and of the Flora and Fauna_, 35

CHAPTER IV.

_Of the Origin of Rational Life in Hesperos—Of the Cyclical
Organic Life—Of the Law of Evanescence by Mortal Lesion—The
story of the Hesperian Cain—Of the Law of Evanescence by adverse
Metronomic Balance—How a Court of Justice sentenced a culprit to
Eternal Punishment; and how the culprit escaped_, 45

CHAPTER V.

_Of the causes of the high civilization of Hesperos—Of the
relations of the sexes—Of private personal property—Of property
in Land; and of the methods of Eviction—Of the Jacks and Masters
of all Trades_, 66

CHAPTER VI.

_Of the Universal Language—Of the Universal Empire and first
measures of the World-Parliament—Of the great progress of the
Hesperians in all Physical Science; and of their fruitless
craving after the Unknown God_, 74

CHAPTER VII.

_Of the first attempt to pass the Equatorial Tornado; and its
tragical issue—Of the attempt to pass the Cloud-Screen_, 85

CHAPTER VIII.

_Of the great courage of three Engineers—How they passed the
Screen and saw the Host of Heaven—How they further discovered a
Disk of Unknown Fire—Of the reception of the news throughout the
world—Of the construction of a mountain Observatory; and of the
rapid growth of Astronomical knowledge_, 98

CHAPTER IX.

_Of the development of World-Weariness in Hesperos; and of the
second attempt to cross the Equatorial Tornado—How the Forlorn
Hope succeeded, and discovered a City of the Dead—How the
terrible mystery of Evanescence was explained; and how the crew
set out on their return_, 113

CHAPTER X.

_The oldest inhabitant of the South relates its history—How the
awful intelligence was received in the North_, 128

CHAPTER XI.

HERE BEGINS THE MODERN HISTORY OF HESPEROS.

_How the two Hemispheres were amalgamated—concerning the
Sympathetic Telegraph; and how the great astonishment of the
Hesperians at the first sight of the Doctor was fully
explained_, 135

CHAPTER XII.

_Of the great social changes which resulted from the discovery of
the Indestructibility of Life_, 150

CHAPTER XIII.

_How the Doctor delivered a course of lectures on the History of
the Earth and its Inhabitants—Of the effects of his ghastly
description—Of the attempt of two Hesperians to reach the Earth;
and of its unsatisfactory result_, 159

CHAPTER XIV.

_Of the further wanderings of Dr. Van Varken—Of his visits to
Australis and the great Observatory—Of a strange physical Theory
concerning the Tornado—Supposed cause of the Doctor’s return to
the Earth_, 171

‘That we are to live hereafter, is just as reconcilable with the
scheme of atheism, and as well to be accounted for by it, as that we
are now alive is; and therefore nothing can be more absurd than to
argue from that scheme, that there can be no future state.’—BISHOP
BUTLER.