Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance

ell, he still finds certain others, before whom he cannot possess himself, because they hav

I ought to have provided myself with a better equipment of knowledge relative to my own world, before taking my ambitious journey to Mars! They were exceedingly polite, but I fear they were much disappointed in many of my hazy responses to their eager questioni

the main, my ideas might be conservatively described as "general." You may imagine how unsatisfactory this was to people anxious to know about our progres

cied-in describing our social life, our educational and political institutions, and our various forms of religion. Our modes

t to tell the truth, there was not a moment's strangeness between us after we had once clasped hands and looked into each other's eyes. It might have been partly due to my own preparedness to meet them with confidence and tr

rful as the quality of merriment, take it on any plane of life; when it reaches the highest, and is subtilized by cultured and refined intellects, it creates an atmosphere in which the most frigid autocrat of society, and of learning, too, must thaw. The haughtiest da

were about the same height and figure. But Clytia's coloring was pure white and black, except

and how quickly adjusted! Here had I been in Elodia's house, enjoying her companionship-if not her friendship-for months; and yet, you see, I secretly did not wish any advantage to be on her side. It could not have been disloyalty, for the impulse was swift and involuntary. I would like to suppose that it sprang from my instantaneous recognition of the higher nature; but it did not. It was due, no doubt, to a fear for the more timid one-as I fancied it to be. I had a momentary sensa

was able to use each in its turn and to give to everything about her its due appreciation. She had, as Balzac says, the gift of admiration and of comprehension. That which her glance rested upon, that which her ear listened to, responded with all that was in them. I thought it a wonderfu

cism. She wore, just where they seemed to be needed,-as the keystone is needed in an arch,-a few fine gems. I could not conceive of her putting them on to arouse the envy of any other woman, or to enhance her personal charms in the eyes of a man. She dressed well, as another would sing well. Sight is the sense we value most, but how often is it offended! You can estimate the quality of a woman by the shade of green she chooses for her gown. And there is poetry in the fit of a gown, as there is in the color of i

tertained elsewhere. On each of the two evenings they were with us, Elodia invited a considerable company of people,-not so many as

stomed brain had taken too large a draught of intellectual champagne. And when I awoke in the morning, it was with a s

f a human being, in all his parts. We often see it exemplified in single faculties,-the voice of a singer, the legs of a runner, the brain of a lawyer, the spirit of a religionist. But, as I have said before, we are all out of pr

favorable-impression upon Elodia, too, was that their conduct and conversation never lacked t

e sincerity, that it would give him pleasure to put his purse at my disposal for the expenses of the journey,-I having brought up this point as a rather serious obstacle. As it would only add one more item to the great sum of my ind