HISTORY OF A WORLD OF IMMORTALS WITHOUT A GOD: TRANSLATED FROM _AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT IN THE LIBRARY OF A CONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY_.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