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. [WARNUNG BY ANTARES SKORPIOS.—_Should this book, by any mischance, have fallen into the hands of any habitual consumer of the style of literature known as ‘Shilling Shockers,’ or ‘Penny Dreadfuls,’ the Shocked or Terrified is earnestly exhorted to waste none of his valuable time on the pages which follow. He may rely on it that, although up to this point he may have been able to comprehend the narrative, the remainder of the work is utterly beyond his tether. I now proceed with my translation._] I shall now proceed to give an account of the nature and origin of rational life in Hesperos; but, before doing so, I must venture to address a word of advice and exhortation to the reader. Should he, unhappily, be one of those narrow-minded persons who exalt the normal phenomena of this little globe of earth into the unique standard and pattern of what must needs prevail throughout the entire universe, he had better close the book at once. But should he be of larger mind, and allow the possibility of more than he has dreamed of in his philosophy existing in heaven, he may perhaps find in the following sketch of the ancient history of Hesperos, communicated to me by those who were themselves the eye-witnesses of what they related, abundant matter both for profitable reflection and delectable entertainment. I may here add that, for the convenience of these large-minded readers, I have in all cases reduced the measures of time and distance from the Hesperian terms in which they were given to me, to those which are best known in Europe. Thus, when I speak of years, I mean our own period of 365 days, and not the Hesperian of 224; and similarly I have expressed their measure of distance in English miles and feet; these being, perhaps, the best international standards. The whole surface of Hesperos contains a little over one hundred and eighty-two millions of square miles. Hence, as land and water occur in nearly equal proportions, we have as the total amount of land about ninety-one millions. This again, being nearly equally divided between the north and south hemispheres, gives forty-five and a-half millions for each. If we deduct from this the odd five and a-half millions, as an allowance for the immensely high mountain chains, and other districts not suited for supporting life, we shall have left forty millions of square miles in each hemisphere available for that purpose.