_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. CHAPTER I. 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.